Gary Myrick

Dallas-born singer, guitarist, and songwriter Gary Myrick fused the grounded drive of roots-oriented rock & roll with new wave’s kinetic edge across multiple albums throughout the 1980s before staging an unexpected return in the late 1990s. Straight after high school he was already leading his own groups in clubs throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth region; by his early twenties he had relocated to Austin and joined Kracker Jack, a band that included two former members of Johnny Winter’s lineup and had just lost its guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughan. A couple of years later Myrick headed to California and assembled his own unit, the Figures. The group secured a contract with Epic and released the debut album Gary Myrick & the Figures in 1980, which yielded the minor cult favorite “She Talks in Stereo.” Its 1981 successor, Living in a Movie, was followed by a North American tour after which Myrick dissolved the Figures to explore a fresh direction.

The solo EP Language surfaced in 1983, after which he collaborated with John Waite on the latter’s 1984 breakthrough No Brakes. One further album, 1985’s Stand for Love, preceded a period devoted primarily to session work. In 1991 Myrick formed Havana 3AM alongside former Clash bassist Paul Simonon and Nigel Dixon, the drummer from the British rockabilly-revival outfit Whirlwind. The trio merged Texas roots rock with punk attitude, issued a self-titled debut, and toured Europe, North America, and Japan. Simonon soon departed to focus on art, and Dixon later succumbed to cancer. Myrick rebuilt the band with bassist Tom Felicetta and drummer Jamie Chez; that configuration delivered the well-received Texas Glitter and Tombstone Tales in 1996. Five years afterward he issued the reflective Waltz of the Scarecrow King, produced by Tchad Blake.