Growing up amid Dallas’s rhythm and blues community, Bobby Patterson sang and played several instruments while carrying forward the intense soul lineage traced by Otis Redding, Joe Tex, and Wilson Pickett. In contrast to many peers, he also handled every facet of the music industry, functioning as songwriter, producer, promoter, and label chief. He first stepped onstage at age ten, handling guitar and drums, and soon assembled the Royal Rockers, a group that captured local talent shows throughout the Dallas area. A 1957 contest victory earned the band a session at Liberty Records in California, yet the resulting single remained unreleased. Patterson later enrolled at Arlington College, where a classmate’s father owned a nearby record company. In 1962 he cut “You Just Got to Understand” for Abnak Records; although the release achieved only modest returns, it prompted owner John Abnak to launch a dedicated soul imprint, Jetstar Records. Patterson remained with Jetstar for the next six years, sharpening his skills as a writer, producer, and promoter while scoring regional successes—all self-written—including “Let Them Talk,” later taken up by Little Willie John; the Joe Tex answer record “I’m Leroy, I’ll Take Her”; “Broadway Ain’t Funky No More”; “T.C.B. or T.Y.A.”; “My Thing Is Your Thing”; “The Good Old Days”; and “I’m in Love With You.”
When Abnak ceased operations in 1969 after a series of regional hits, Patterson issued a self-produced album under his own name, then stepped away from front-line recording to concentrate on producing and promoting other artists. In that capacity he guided sessions for Fontella Bass, Chuck Jackson, Ted Taylor, Shay Holiday, Roscoe Robinson, the Montclairs, Tommie Young, and Little Johnny Taylor. His compositions also found homes with Albert King, who recorded “That’s What the Blues Is All About,” and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, who reached the charts with “How Do You Spell Love?”
Visibility increased in 1995 when Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy included Patterson’s “She Don’t Have to See You (To See Through You)” on Golden Smog’s Down by the Old Mainstream. Patterson resumed his own recording career the following year with the Ichiban album Second Coming. Big Bidness Records issued a second collection, I’d Rather Eat Soup, in 1998; both projects displayed undiminished vocal and writing ability yet sold modestly. Festival appearances, including repeated turns at the Ponderosa Stomp, gradually expanded his audience, leading him in 2013 to collaborate with producer Zach Ernst on a new set rooted in classic soul arrangements. The pair placed the finished album with Omnivore Recordings, and I Got More Soul! appeared in July 2014.
