[Music] <<Announcer>> You're watching Main Street Unplugged with Tom Braxton presented by Basin PBS sponsored by the Monahans Chamber of Commerce [Jazz Music] [Applause] <<Tom>> Thank you.

Thank you so much Basin PBS I am back, my name is Tom Braxton.

It's a pleasure to be here with you.

That first song that you heard is from our flashback release and it is called Hub City Jam Anybody know where the Hub City is?

Yeah that's right it's Lubbock, Texas my hometown and uh Rick Braun played with me on that and Blake Aaron and I wrote it together and um produced it together.

So Hub City Jam got more music coming but first I'm thrilled to be back at Basin PBS I'd like to thank Monahans Chamber of Commerce for sponsoring this music series.

Can we give them a big hand?

[Applause] And by the way I know that you're watching this by video TV or whatever but there's a splendid TV audience here and they look great.

Preciate you all coming and spending some time with us.

Well I'm going to get back to the music and by the way this is going to be just kind of intimate just unplugged I'm going to play some but then I'm also going to share some behind the scenes about some of the songs and tell you a little bit how I created them and and who helped me along the way with this new release Flashback.

So uh my parents lived a long time in West Texas.

My father passed away at 101 and he played his tenor sax up until his mid 90s and so um when he passed away it was kind of the end of an era and my wife said you know it might be a good idea to do a kind of a summation of your formative years in West Texas.

So consequently we came up with the idea of Flashback.

So a lot of the CDs wrapped around my growing up out on the Great Plains, and so this next song is something I wrote for my sister because she was actually the first person that inspired me to play music and she started playing the piano and then I wanted to join her so I started playing.

So this is a duet between the sax and the piano and she's the piano player.

She didn't play the piano but it kind of exemplifies her And so uh this is called Ruby J.

[Jazz Music] [Jazz Music] [Applause] [Jazz Music] [Applause] Thank you.

Well I think the secret tonight for me is the pregame meal we had some Popeye's chicken upstairs and something about the spices and the red beans and rice I'm ready to play I might need to do that more often Sharon how about and speaking of Sharon those of you who know me know that for many years I hadn't written a song for Sharon [sniffs] and I needed to and I'm behind and I hadn't done that Usually that's when all the women boo and say what took you so long.

But anyway she's an awesome wife, and on the Looking Up project which we do have some of those two Looking Up uh was our first uh project on innovation and now Flashback is our second one I gave her two songs so we've got, Yeah yeah can we [Applause] so she has a song called Sharon's Groove and one called As Long as I'm With You you know because we all go through things.

But I used to tell as long as I'm with you we can work it out we can work it out.

So uh she was singing this little song around the house and I decided hey you know maybe I should record that.

So I took that melody because I don't have to pay her royalties and um added the rest of it together and we had some fancy names in the studio and I just decided let's just call it [Drum beat] Sharons Groove [Music] [Applause] [Sniffs] [Laughter] Well in case you didn't recognize it that's an old standard.

That's our song it's called when I Fall in Love It'll be forever or I'll never Fall in Love so I'm very thankful that I was able to fall in love and she is amazing.

So once again another hand for Sharon.

[Applause] She has been putting up I mean she's been uh married to me for 36 years I tell you so amazing.

So uh I'd like to move on That was Sharon's Groove was that okay?

Can I [Woohoo] well Id like to uh change horns and do something uh my parents we grew up in an amazing community and I'll talk about that later in Lubbock but on our back porch they built there was a canal back there and they built some small lakes they dammed it up and just became this beautiful area and uh it was a canyon behind our house so you could sit on that back porch and just muse and reflect and it was just beautiful very peaceful.

And so um I got ready to write a song and I said I want to write something about that growing up there and so this one is called Canyon Dreams.

So I'd like to do that one for you.

This was our second single from the flashback project Canyon Dreams [Music] [Applause] [Woohoo, cheering] Thank you.

Thank you.

I uh just a little note about that song I enjoy playing with uh live musicians but technology is amazing and I do like to take advantage of it sometimes.

That particular song uh I did it all at home pretty much except for the guitar I recorded everything uh all the keyboards all the drums everything at the house uh my keyboard with the laptop.

So it's a pretty amazing what you can do you know as you understand the software.

And I'm still getting there because a whole dog new tricks.

You know what I'm talking about.

All right well uh that was um Canyon Dreams.

Next I'd like to do something else reflective before we start kicking it up before we run out of time.

Once again I want to thank you all for being here because I know how busy everyone is I appreciate you coming by and being a part of this special uh taping, and as I said again it's great to be back West Texas.

Well this next song was written by a buddy of mine uh Alex Bailey who plays drums.

He's drums, bass, guitars I said don't start playing saxophone too and keyboards and so he did all the instruments on this except for the saxophone.

So you can listen to that very talented young man in a a Southern California.

So this to me was the idea of [Sigh] back porch front porch whatever got your lemonade out there you're just reflecting on your life.

It's called Yesterdays and you know we want to be making great memories and uh so when times change and different things happen you can hold on to those.

So this is called Yesterday's [Music] [Breath] [Applause] Now if you didn't hear those last few notes you might want to go check with your ear nose and throat person.

[Laughter] Just kidding.

That was of course Yesterday's.

Next up we're going to have some fun by the way everybody doing okay?

We're okay?

All right okay.

All right.

[Applause] Having fun.

[Woohoo] So my you've heard a lot of talk to me about my my father.

My mother was a very special lady as well.

I mean she was, people look at me and go where did you come from because I'm six three, my father was about five eight and a half and my mother was about five feet.

So I was always would you reach up and grab yeah, you know in the pantry or whatever and she was just the sweetest thing, but she had a little feisty streak to her too and so uh this next song is call Like Mama Said, because my mother had these sayings you know she would you'd be doing something And she said well that won't matter in 100 years that she'd just look at you and say that okay you were all worried about something and maybe it's not that big a deal.

She'd also when we were getting to be teenagers she'd say you want to be grown one day the letters are going to come to your house with your name on them.

She was talking about bills and she was right, ha ha ha.

And then she would always look at when something would happen a lot she said That happens every trip on a train Tommy.

She called me Tommy she's the only one that could get away with that because my wife goes Tommy but hey your mother can call you anything.

So she was a very special lady and um that old saying still um you know echo in my head so, decided to do a fun song on this project that um Alex and I did together and this is just called simply Like Mama Said [Music] [Applause] [Woohoo, Cheering] Thank you, Like Mama Said, Like Mama Said and it's still true today many years later.

But I was a great child so she didn't have to talk to me too much.

Well, one of my great experiences in school was I didn't play football because by every bone in my body would have probably been broken.

But I was in the marching band so I was at Lubbock Dunbar High School.

[Woohoo, cheering, clapping] That's right Dont want to show to end early because I hurt myself up here.

But uh ha, our band was kind of small, we had about 64 people and then when I got to Texas Tech there were 400 of us And uh it was a great experience.

Now I don't I don't want to brag dont want to brag but I was the freshman marcher of the year I just want to say that you know I was [Cheering and clapping] I took it seriously I'm telling you and we had a great time out there I and and you know some of the people in our high school band they were okay but some of them were kind of goofing off and different things out there at Tech I was like everybody's playing everybody's marching together this is awesome.

So I had a great time.

Well when we come through the tunnel and then when we came down out of the uh and we'd do the pregame but then we would come down and do the show at halftime we always did something called Crank It and the bass drum would go Boom boom boom boom and then we'd run out there on the field shup, shup, pssh, pssh I was 20 then.

[Clears throat] So, uh I decided to write something that kind of had a four on the floor groove, and uh JJ Severino played some guitar on this for me, we're label mates at Innovation and this is called Crank It [Music] I still got it!

[Music] [Applause] Crank It.

Great experiences out on the field there uh at Texas Tech and uh it's great to see young people coming to see live music and uh coming to experience some live jazz because we have to pass this along to the next generation.

Not that I'm getting old or anything but uh we and you know what's interesting is when you say jazz sometimes young people think oh yeah that's old people music, that's that elevator music yeah yeah.

You know and then they come to a concert and I'll go I purposely go ask them so what did you think?

The interaction the conversation between the instruments and it was great I didn't think I was going to like it this much.

They really do tell me that so sometimes it's just about exposure.

They need to to to know this music is does exist.

Here's a big secret there's more music than than what you hear on the radio.

[Laughter, clapping] Trust me, and the radio is okay you know I get it.

But there's some great music that you might need to explore and you have more ability to hear music than we ever did streaming, YouTube and by the way let me get on my soapbox for one second.

Streaming is awesome but unless you're Taylor Swift the musicians don't make a lot of money from it Just telling you okay and I like Taylor's.

Anyway we're going to move on uh before I get in trouble.

I grew up on the east side of Lubbock, Texas and uh great community I mean you get a knock on the door, thump, thump, thump it'd be a sack of green sitting there or some fresh baked rolls or some oh you never knew what your neighbors were going to do.

And so it was a great great experience so we did a video to this song called Eastside Hang and Sharon produced and directed it and we did a great job with had fun.

So it's like a neighborhood block party in music form here it is Eastside Hang.

[Music] [Music] [Clapping] [Music] [Clapping, Cheering] Oh Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you E is in house.

Can we have a hand for E who's the stage manager here.

[Clapping] The awesome staff here at uh Payson Payson Basin PBS I can't even talk after that oxygen deficiency, yeah let's give them a hand [Applause] Sharpie, Carma-Lynn, Laura ,everybody they are amazing and you need to support this this is this is awesome.

So uh I'm going to go ahead and uh close us out.

I'm going to talk first and then my finger might accidentally hit the button and another song may come out is that okay while we're closing it out?

Uh, so uh audience we'd like to thank you of course you can donate or become a member please go to BasinPBS dot org Basin PBS dot dot org every little bit helps.

As Laura would say big or small we take it all I like that I like that, ha ha ha ha and by the way Monahans Chamber of Commerce is our sponsor for tonight One more big time for them.

[Clapping] So with just a minute or so to spare do you know what my definition of old school is?

That means you were there when the song came out the first time.

It wasn't in a rap or a sample.

You had the 45 you had the eight track you had that where they would sit up there and drop one at a time.

You know what I'm talking about.

You had the cassette adapter in your car and you would probably play a song that went something like this.

[Music] Oh no We're going back to the 70s [Music] ♪ Whenever you call me Whenever you want me♪ ♪Whenever you need me♪ [Music] ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you need me Ill be around♪ ♪Ill be around♪ [Music] ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you need me Ill be there♪ ♪Ill be around♪ ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you need me Ill be there♪ ♪Ill be around♪ ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you call me Ill be there♪ ♪Whenever you need me Ill be there♪ [Music Fades]