(upbeat jazz music) - [Announcer] You're watching the season premiere of Mainstreet Unplugged featuring Billboard hit charting saxophonist, Tom Braxton, presented by Basin PBS, sponsored by the Arts Council of Midland.

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Here we go!

(music continues) (playing saxophone) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (continues playing saxophone) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Thank you!

Thank you!

Wow!

(laughing) Thank you so much.

Well, I am so excited to be here at the Basin PBS and for Family Studio in Midland, Texas.

I'm near home.

'Cause you know I grew up in Lubbock, you know.

I'm Tom Braxton, and I wanted to say thank you to the Arts Council of Midland for sponsoring this fantastic program.

That first composition you heard was the first single from our Lookin' Up CD, our newest CD, that was called "Lookin' Up".

Well, next I'd like to do something else fun for you.

It's interesting how you're inspired at different times, and I needed one more song for The Next Chapter CD.

And I woke up on a Tuesday morning, and sometimes when I get an idea, I can't talk to anybody, so my wife was like, "Good morning", I'm like, "Mm.

"Mm.

"Don't talk to me.

"I gotta write this down."

So I ran to the piano, started writing everything down, and the song became "Tuesday Morning".

Now, ladies, you're probably going oh yeah, I shop there.

But that wasn't my inspiration for this song.

It was because it was Tuesday morning.

Here we go.

(soft music playing) Here's the sun rising.

(soft jazzy music) (playing saxophone) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) All right, you ready?

You ready?

Watch this.

(clapping rhythmically) Yeah!

We got it over here already!

(plays saxophone) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (playing saxophone) (continues playing saxophone) (continues playing saxophone) (continues playing saxophone) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Thank you!

You all are so kind.

Great!

This is awesome, being here, and that was called, of course, "Tuesday Morning".

Those of you who know me, know that I've been married, let's see, carry the one, I'm doing calculus here.

Wait just a minute.

32 years.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) She's been putting up with, I mean, she's been there through thick and thin with me, and been amazing, but here's the problem, folks.

I had never written a song for her.

Ooh!

I wrote a song for son number one, that was "Ian's Song".

I wrote a song for son number two, and that was "Julien's Smile".

But I hadn't written a song for Sharon.

So this record has two songs for her.

So little backstory.

She was singing this little melody around the house, so I did like a lot of musicians do.

I stole the idea.

So I said sing that into my phone, please.

And she did.

Now, because I knew I wouldn't have to pay her royalties, you see.

So she sang this melody, and I took it, and did a few things with it, and guess what?

We got to the studio, and worked it out great, and I wanted to come up with some fancy name, and the working title was "Sharon's Groove".

So guess what?

We left it alone.

So here's "Sharon's Groove", finally.

(audience applauding) Here we go.

(upbeat jazz music playing) (playing saxophone) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music fades) (continues playing saxophone) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) And you notice I had to concentrate on that one.

I can't mess up her song.

Okay.

I'd be in trouble.

No, she's not like that at all.

She wished she could have been here tonight.

We just, I'll tell you where we've been so you'll understand when I introduce another song.

You'll know why she couldn't make it, because it was a busy week last week.

That was her song, "Sharon's Song".

I wrote another one for her called "As Long As I'm With You".

So we can go through a lot of it, there's a lot of stuff going on in the world, but as long as I'm with you, we'll be okay.

All right.

You agree with that?

You guys all agree?

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) These couples are looking at each other like yeah, that's right.

Well.

We're gonna move forward.

Now, I may not be saying this title right.

I wrote the song, but I'm from Texas, so it's a Polynesian word called "Kaanapali Beach".

And we went to our honeymoon in Maui, on Kaanapali Beach, and it was beautiful, and when I got back, I wrote this song, and I kind of forgot about it, put it in the piano bench, and my wife said, "You need to record that."

Guys, listen to your wives.

So I did.

And so this ended up on our Imagine This CD, so if I had the money to take you all to Hawaii on a charter, we would do that, but I don't.

So we're gonna have to go musically.

So I want you to imagine the waves crashing on the shore, imagine me up here in a grass skirt, no.

Don't do that.

(audience laughing) And we're gonna take you to the beaches of Hawaii.

This is "Kaanapali Beach".

(soft jazz music playing) (playing saxophone) (singing in foreign language) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (singers vocalize) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (singer vocalizing) (singers vocalizing) (singers vocalizing) (music continues) (singer vocalizing) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (singer vocalizing) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music fading) (continues playing saxophone) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) (Tom laughs) All right, did you feel that?

Did you feel those waves?

Ah, lots of fun.

Well, next up I'd like to do a song that I wrote, and there's a duet.

Now, Kirk Whalum could not be here.

I don't know if you're familiar with Kirk Whalum.

Very good friend of mine.

But I sent him this idea for a song, a duet, I wrote it, I said, "But I just hear you on it."

And so he just, "Yeah, I'll play it."

So you're gonna hear his saxophone on here, and this is a song I wrote called "Imagine This", which is the title track from the Imagine This CD.

And I told y'all I would explain why Sharon is not here.

Part of it is just a few days ago, we were in Spain.

(laughing) That's right.

(audience applauding) And amazingly, we went to Mallorca, Spain for a week, and had a marvelous time with the Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival.

And it reminded me of why I wrote this song, which is "Imagine This".

The promoter of the concert got up and said, "We have 20 countries represented here."

And we were all together enjoying music in one room having a blast.

People from the UK, from Germany, from Russia, from Italy, everywhere.

The US, the band from the UK, as a matter of fact, UK and Germany.

By the end of the rehearsal, I was saying lovely, and li-ul, just like them.

(audience laughing) So it just reminded me, imagine this, imagine if we could just work through some of these problems, find out what we have in common, love each other, and work together.

And that's what we did.

I looked out in the audience, and there was an experience of all of us, 20 different countries, being represented, enjoying music.

"Imagine this".

(gentle jazz music playing) (music continues) (playing saxophone) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music fading) (continues playing saxophone) (audience applauding) Thank you.

Thank you.

Kirk Whalum on saxophone, wow.

(audience applauding) Thank you so much.

Well, as I said, I grew up right down the road in Lubbock, Texas, and grew up in a little United Methodist church there called Mount Vernon.

As a matter of fact, that's where I met the Fullers.

And Robert and James Fuller have been bringing me to Midland since the 1990s.

(audience applauding) Now, there are various organizations, and they brought me in to do different events.

Now, I was just a toddler then, in the 90s.

If you were doing the math, I'm just yeah, (clears throat) So anyway.

(laughing) Anyway, in that little United Methodist church, it was my first exposure to hymns, and I love hymns, and so a gospel artist from here, named Pervis Evans, actually approached me about doing an arrangement of "It Is Well" for him.

And if you don't know the story behind "It Is Well", you need to read that.

It's amazing.

Horatio Spafford lost everything.

He was in the Chicago Fire, he was a wealthy attorney, lost his business, lost his daughters crossing the Atlantic, a merchant ship accident.

And when he came to the place where their ship had gone under the waves, he penned these word, "It is well."

And I'd like to do the arrangement.

I started off doing kind of a mellow arrangement, unplugged, and it kind of evolved into this, and that's the whole purpose.

I'm sorry, but this is what happened.

And he said, "I love it!"

And so we both recorded it.

So this is my version of "It Is Well".

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I love that song.

Beautiful sentiment, and reminds you, life may deal you a tough hand, but you can make it.

And we will.

We've been through some things just the last couple years, and it's great to be back playing and performing, and doing what we do.

Well, as I mentioned before, I'm from Lubbock, and I've been between Lubbock and Dallas many times.

And there's a lot of open road out there.

Lots of dust, as a matter of fact, I remember the first time I brought my wife here in a car, she fell asleep, and it was ginning season.

(audience laughing) She woke up, and she said, "Oh, it's foggy."

I said, my dear, that's not fog.

That's dirt in the air.

Then another time we flew in, and she said, "Where are all the trees?"

And I said, "No, the trees, everything's close "to the ground here for a reason, okay?"

It's designed that way.

Because she's from the piney woods of Grambling.

Louisiana, northern Louisiana.

So anyway, I said, "Let me write a song "that you can just put it on, roll up your windows, "and just enjoy the road."

So this is from the Endless Highway project, and it's called "Open Road".

So imagine your favorite automobile, and we're pulling out of the driveway right now.

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All right.

Let's see.

Oh, this is so fun.

I had the opportunity to work with Earl Klugh.

Amazing acoustic guitarist.

Iconic guitarist.

I toured with him for about six or seven years, and I had never been to Africa before.

But he was well-known in Africa, so the first show I played with him, I substituted for the sax player, and I hugged Earl's wife manager.

And I said, "I really enjoyed myself at this show."

And I said, "If you ever need me, just let me know."

And she said, "Well actually.

(audience laughing) "If you're free, we're going to South Africa next month."

I said, "I'm free."

(audience laughing) So that began, so we went to South Africa, we went to Mozambique, we went to Malawi, we went to Botswana, we went to Ghana.

I mean, I probably went about 12 times, and it was a wonderful experience.

Well, one of those experiences was in Malawi, and it was in a place literally called, everybody say this, Lilongwe.

- [All] Lilongwe.

- Malawi.

- [All] Malawi.

- And it was a long way.

(audience laughing) Now, it was a beautiful place.

We stayed out at this old dairy farm that had been converted, and it had beautiful grounds and everything.

Now, it wasn't too far, it was out from the city, and it was kind of close to where the wild animals were down the hill, you know, like down the hill.

(audience laughing) So strangely enough, we had mosquito netting, because they have serious mosquitoes there.

The ones that'll carry your briefcase for you.

I mean.

(audience laughing) They don't play.

And they told us, "Every once in a while, "you may have a gecko in your room."

And I said, "Okay, well Texas has geckos."

(audience laughing) So one day, I'm in there brushing my teeth, and I look over the mirror, and there's a gecko on the wall.

A gecko.

A gecko.

(audience laughing) And he's kinda looking at me, and I said, "Look, if you don't start any trouble, "I won't start any trouble either.

"You just do what you do, and all that."

And so one morning, I woke up and the frogs and the lizards and the birds, and everybody was just having a good time, and I was inspired to write a song.

So this became "Sunrise in Malawi".

("Sunrise in Malawi" playing) (animals chirping) (playing saxophone) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) That's Mr. Earl Klugh on guitar.

(music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music fading) (continues playing saxophone) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) Thank you.

Thank you, wow.

All right.

Well.

Wow, we're having so much fun that our time is at hand, as a matter of fact.

This last song may take us out, so let me go ahead and thank our sponsors.

So I'd like to thank, oh by the way, my website, tombraxton.com.

Very simple.

(audience laughing) And let me offer a disclaimer, I don't know if I'm related to Toni Braxton.

People always ask me that.

The other thing is, believe it or not, there's a jazz group called The Braxton Brothers, and people think I'm one of them.

(audience laughing) I don't have any brothers.

I have one sister.

So I'm just letting everybody know that.

So tombraxton.com.

Tom Braxton Music is our Facebook.

Okay.

And before I play my last song, I'd just like to thank the Arts Council of Midland for their generous support.

Can we give them a big hand?

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) And a big shout out to Basin BPS.

Please, yes that's right.

Give them a big hand now.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) Please support your local public television programming by becoming a member of BasinPBS.org.

Can you remember that?

BasinPBS.org.

Join up, support the great things that they're doing around here.

Yes.

(audience applauding) And I would like to personally thank the staff, because they've been amazing.

Laura, thank you so much.

Carmeline, you've been amazing.

And everybody who I've worked with.

Sharpe, just amazing people.

Thank you so much.

So I'd like to do one more song, which I wrote during the pandemic, and is a duet with the great Bob James, we did it together, and it's called "Hope for Tomorrow".

So I've really enjoyed you all so much.

Thank you, and I look forward to doing this again.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) ("Hope for Tomorrow") (playing saxophone) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you, thank you!

Thank you!

You all!