Bill Myrick

Splendor in the bluegrass

Meet a unique voice behind the microphone

His face may be ordinary, but his voice is legendary.

For years, Bill Myrick's slow, amiable drawl, homespun humor and stories have reached out to the masses via radio airwaves like that of a preacher during a revival. Only, instead of preaching to lost souls, Myrick's addressing the converted ' fans of bluegrass music.

And most every Sunday night Myrick takes his pulpit during his bluegrass show, which airs from 7 to 9 on KOCV-FM (91.3) and is simulcast on the Odessa American Web site at www.oaoa.com. On Saturday mornings, Myrick hosts another bluegrass show from 9 a.m. to noon on KJBC-AM (1150) in Midland.

It's a task for which he's well suited.

For the nearly 73 years Myrick has walked the earth, he's been a part of bluegrass ' singing, playing in bands and spinning records on various West Texas radio shows. This hasn't always been easy, particularly the latter.

"When I first came here, (the radio stations) didn't play bluegrass music in Odessa," Myrick said. "They'd laugh at you. Now it's become very popular."

Maybe the popularity of bluegrass has been more gradual than Myrick would've liked, but it's because he grew up such a fan of the music.

Born in Mississippi, Myrick moved with his family to Louisiana where his parents worked as sharecroppers. It was there he got his first taste of bluegrass. On Saturday nights, the owner of the farm would invite Myrick and his family to his home to listen to the Grand Ol' Opry. Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys band also started about this time, and became Myrick's father's favorite bluegrass group.

Little did Myrick know that he would end up working with Monroe years later.

But shortly after returning from service at the end of World War II, Myrick took a job driving one of Monroe's trucks. A few months later, while Myrick was singing and playing guitar, Monroe heard him and asked him to sit in with the band.

Several years and bands later, Myrick found himself in Odessa working as a police officer. A local businessman recognized Myrick from a radio show he had hosted in Lubbock and asked him to do one in Odessa. Myrick agreed. So, in 1952, he debuted an hour show on KOSA in which he played records and did very little else. His now trademark style wasn't there; there was no banter before or after the songs, and he even had an engineer who played the records for him.

Myrick knew this wasn't what he wanted.

"I've always known I don't have an announcer voice, but a personality voice," he said.

And he wanted a chance to use it. So, when the opportunity came to host a show at another radio station in town, he told station personnel up front he wanted to do the show his way, which meant to be himself.

When they agreed, he left his job with KOSA to work for the rival station. A year later, Myrick quit his job with OPD, working full time as a disc jockey. He was rewarded with several more time slots on the station, as well as performing with a band on a TV show four times a week.

In 1964, however, he gave up the music business and found something a little more stable ' working as a deliveryman for Big 3 Industries.

"When you're in the music business it's an uncertain future. ' I told my wife by the time I was 35 years old if it didn't mean more to me than just a living, I was going to go to work with a company with a good future to it."

For more than 28 years that's just what Myrick did, until he retired from Big 3 as a distribution manager.

During that time, though, Myrick didn't abandon bluegrass. He played with various bands, and organized and served as master of ceremonies for bluegrass festivals throughout Texas and New Mexico.

It wasn't until after he left Big 3, however, that he decided to DJ again. So, he went to KOCV and began a bluegrass show, "Silver Grass and Purple Sage," six years ago. And now Myrick's developed what station manager Doug Cole said is a "rabid following" among listeners.

As proof, Cole said that the public-supported station gets more pledges from Myrick's show than any other. Not to mention the calls and letters he receives. Or the recognition he finds around town ' rarely by face, but through his unique voice and laid-back style.

Such was the case in the operating room at Medical Center Hospital in November. Myrick had suffered a heart attack and was about to undergo triple-bypass surgery when his surgeon casually mentioned he had heard Myrick was a bluegrass fan. The two talked for a bit and the surgeon said that he enjoyed listening to a bluegrass show on a local radio station every Sunday night. In particular he was a fan of the host. Then it dawned on him.

"He said, 'Wait a minute. That can't be you?' Myrick said. "I said, 'Doc, I'm afraid it is.' "

"(The surgeon) looked at everyone in the operating room and said, 'Y'all got to listen to that man,' " Myrick said.

After recovering from the heart attack and surgery, something Myrick attributes to taking an aspirin and calling 911 as soon as he felt ill, he went back to work at the station. Myrick knew there were a lot of listeners who missed his downhome style and show; he knew he was depriving them, as well as himself. So, with the blessing of his wife and his doctor, he went back into the studio almost two months later.

He said it felt good to be back on the air; good to be playing the music and telling the tales he knew so well.

And when he's asked about when he'll retire from the show he simply smiles.

"There was a granddaddy in Crane who was blind. His wife had died and he couldn't drive," Myrick said. "He called me one night in the middle of my show and cried. He said you're all I've got.

"I told him that I hoped he wasn't in that bad of shape. I invited him to a Chuck Wagon Gang function and told him if he came I'd serve him a plate myself."

At the next function, some Chuck Wagon Gang members told Myrick there was someone who wanted to see him ' an older man they said they had tried to serve, but who was insistent on waiting for Myrick.

"That's the reason I do the radio shows," Myrick said quietly.

And the reason so many tune in every week.