From hard country to soft rock

Now that Jim Seals thinks about it, growing up in Iraan, McCamey and Rankin could have contributed to the biggest hit for Seals and Croft.

After all, that summer breeze there can blow pretty hard through the jasmine in your mind.

"I could have thought about that subconsciously, probably," Seals said in a phone interview.

Seals, 66, was born in Sidney, Texas, but moved to Iraan when he was 3. He also spent time growing up in Rankin and McCamey, where his brother Dan Seals was born in 1948.

Jim Seals went on to hook up with Dash Crofts to join The Champs, who had a hit with "Tequila." As the soft-rock duo Seals and Crofts, hits included "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl."

Dan Seals joined a hit soft-rock duo of his own. England Dan and John Ford Coley are best remembered for their 1978 song "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight," which hit No. 2 on the pop charts.

Dan Seals also had several country hits as a solo act including "Bop," "Everything That Glitters" and "Meet Me in Montana" with Marie Osmond.

Jim Seals said he has fond memories of the area, where he lived until 1958 when he left to pursue a music career.

"There's a certain beauty to that country," he said. "They have different kinds of plants you don't find often."

Seals learned about music from his father, Wayland Seals, a Shell Oil pipeliner and guitar player. In Iraan, the family lived in a bunkhouse as part of a camp of 100 people.

He moved to McCamey to start first grade, before going back to Iraan a year later. In the sixth grade, Seals moved to Rankin.
Growing up, Seals said he became quite fond of playing the fiddle.

 
He performed on shows in Odessa, where he met another young musician named Roy Orbison.

"He was touring around a lot of the high schools and festivals," Seals said. "We got a chance to meet him, but musically, we were very different."

Like now, the area was supported by the oil business. Seals said he remembers Highway 67 heading toward San Angelo looking like a forest because of all the drilling rigs.

And while most of his musical influences in the area came from his family, Seals said growing up in the area did help him.
"I think what it did creatively, it was like having a blank canvas," he said.

Today, the Seals brothers live in Nashville and tour and record together as Seals and Seals.

Tony Gottlieb, the duo's manager, said Dan Seals couldn't be reached because he was going in for surgery related to non-Hodgkin's related lymphoma.

But the family's musical tradition continues. Jim Seals' sons, Joshua and Sutherland Seals, are also musicians, who tour regularly with Seals and Seals.

Although he hasn't been back to the area since the early 1990s, Jim Seals said he still carries West Texas with him.

"When you get back on those mountains you get a feeling," he said. "You kind of imagine how it must have been hundreds of years ago."