Texas songwriter's music targets people 'who live on gravel roads'
Although self-described as not a real cowboy, he plays one on guitar

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

After spending 15 years in Nashville, Donnie Blanz says he is glad to be back in Texas. He is concentrating on writing and singing his Western music to Texans; especially, the real cowboys and cowgirls who appreciate the "Cowboy Spirit," as he calls it. - Courtesy photo

August 21, 2003 -- "It's music for people who live on gravel roads ... based heavily on Western and cowboy music ... people who make a living off the land," said Donnie Blanz describing the music he writes and sings.

Although Blanz doesn't consider himself a "real" cowboy, he owns property in Industry in South Central Texas where he has several horses and dogs.

During the past 15 years in Nashville, Blanz met a number of "real cowboys" and western singers such as Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, and a number of other "cowboy" singers have recorded his music. For the past few years, Blanz has been a featured performer at the Festival of the West in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Since moving back to Texas, Blanz said he is amazed at the number of "wanna-be" cowboys; and the quickest way to really "tick" Blanz off is to call someone dressed in jeans and boots a 'cowboy!'"

"A cowboy is somebody who works with cows all day, every day," he explained.

Born in Memphis, Tenn., Blanz said that as he was growing up, he lived in Texas' Coastal Bend region (Houston area) and Florida, before moving to Nashville for about 15 years to write music for a publishing house on "Music Row." Now that he's back in Texas, he doesn't plan to leave anytime soon.

"The next time I move, it's going to take six friends and one long box," he laughed.

Although his parents were not ag producers, Blanz said both sets of his grandparents farmed in the Tennessee Valley area, and he, apparently, got some of their genes. He recalls photos of himself taken when he was around 1-year-old, complete with jeans, boots and a cowboy hat.

"All along, I've been very interested in that cowboy thing," he added.

Living and working in Nashville gave Blanz the opportunity to meet and work with a great number of professionals in the music world, but he said times have changed, greatly, since he first arrived there in 1986.

Blanz said when he first arrived in Nashville, Music Row was like a little college campus where everybody knew everybody, and you could go up and down the streets, to all the publishing companies, and talk to people. It was very normal to sit in local cafes and work on music over a cup of coffee, he described.

"Now, Nashville doesn't want anything to do with what I do (Western music). They don't do what I do there, anymore," explained Blanz.

He claims that real Western music seems to have moved from the "Brazos River west.

"I'm a grassroots entrepreneur ... I'm a 'mom-and-pop' organization," he noted.

Along with the Western music he loves, Blanz is a former Black Belt Martial Arts instructor and fitness trainer for the American Tae Kwon Do Association. He has appeared in six independent and student films, along with being featured in Brad Paisley's Country Music Awards and American Country Music Award-nominated video, "He Didn't Have to Be."

Today, Blanz is concentrating on writing and singing his Western music to Texans; especially, the real cowboys and cowgirls who appreciate the "Cowboy Spirit," as he calls it.

"The word 'spirit' is defined as a sense of significance ... strong loyalty or dedication ... an emotional state characterized by vigor," explained Blanz.

Along with his music, he conducts team-building seminars with corporations who have nothing to do with Western music, but he calls it "team-building in 4/4 time." It is his belief the same types of teamwork used by co-authors to write western music can be used in the corporate world ... just with a different "fling" to it.

Blanz said while he loves performing for producers, his team-building exercises are more like "preaching to the choir," for that group of people. He said they are the people who still "eat fried foods, red meat and eggs every morning," but they are always moving, burning off the food with hard work.

The author of "You Just Can't See Him from the Road," Blanz enjoys working with the Western Music Association and the friends he's made, especially, in the last five years.

For now, he said he feels like the guy who used to perform on the old Ed Sullivan Show; he has so many "plates spinning on poles" that he needs to keep on going; he barely has time to look up.

He looks forward to a future in rural Texas, and said he's glad to be back "home."