paul harris

Paul comes from Arkansas, and a very musical background. Bluegrass is where his roots lie and you can hear it in nearly every tune he writes and plays. His grandfather started teaching him when he was 6 years old, and put him on stage the very first time and on a small stage in Little Rock, Paul sang his first song to a public crowd. To this day, he can still remember singing "Rocky Top" to the best of his ability and how that song and the stage made him feel like he had found a calling in life.Somewhere along the way he discovered cows and horses, and that started a love affair with the cowboy way of life that to this day is his whole reason for living. He is most happy when he is horseback in open country.“Lookin at the south end of a north bound cow,” as he likes to say it. He tells folks, “I like to think I did it like they did in the old days, I wasn’t ranch raised, but I felt the calling of the west and followed it. Just like the old sayin' about goin' west young man, I did.” Now when you ask him where he is from he will tell you, “I'm from out west somewhere, where the wind meets the wire.”In the early 1990s, Paul "saddled up" and moved to Nashville, but it didn't take long to figure out that a guy with horses and cattle on the brain and in his songs wasn't going to go very far in that town, so he followed his heart.Paul never let his guitar go idle, he took his love of music and fused it with his love of “cowboy’n” and started down a path that has led him to where he is today. Paul is a member of the Western Music Association, and regularly performs around the country at poetry gatherings and "any place that’ll let me get up and play.”He has started writing cowboy poetry as well. “It is a new and exciting thing for me. I am really enjoying writing poetry and I am always trying to improve my writing.”To listen to Paul sing and perform, there is no doubt about his bluegrass roots. His music is also very heartfelt. If you listen with your eyes closed, you can see and hear about the places he has been and the things he has done and seen. He is a storyteller, and can put you right there with him, riding along some canyon, chasing an old maverick steer, waiting for that good shot to rope.I made this myspace background atfrom Rick Huffs Best of the West Reviews:Singer/songwriter and Salisaw, Oklahoma bootmaker Paul Harris is obviously out to show that coming from a Country and Bluegrass background doesn't have to be a hindrance in Western!!All kidding aside, creative big production values add an additional exciting dimension to these tracks that clearly reflect his musical influences. Several songs on this CD also nicely show that you can be acoustic and "commercial!" Harris' "Rancher's Daughter" is a fine uptempo romance novel of a song, his "Molly" is an uptempo Cowboy and Bluegrass romp and his more Country tracks still bear the Western brand. Ranging from Contemporary to electrified "frontier" in feeling, it's a happy new entry into the Cowboy and the Country catalogs.Harris has included some earnestly delivered Cowboy Poetry as well ("Forever," "Begin Again," "Grey Shandy" and "I Have Lived"). So, here you have footstompers, ballads, verse and an artist stylistically going home with what brung him to the dance. A word, though...if you want to read the liner note lyrics, bring your best magnifying glass. -------------------------THIS IS MY WORLD