Art Greenhaw

Art Greenhaw (born 1954)^[1] is an American musician, record producer and audio engineer, who was awarded the Grammy Award in 2003 for the Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album for We Called Him Mr. Gospel Music: The James Blackwood Tribute Album.^[2] He founded the independent record label, Greenhaw Records.^[3][4][5]

Greenhaw is bassist, multi-instrumentalist and manager for The Light Crust Doughboys. He officially joined The Light Crust Doughboys as band member in 1993 under the direction of Marvin "Smokey" Montgomery, one of Greenhaw's musical mentors. The symphony performances and the other enterprises of The Light Crust Doughboys in the 1990s and in the new millennium, are largely the product of Greenhaw's imagination and promotional skill.^[6]

Life and career

Greenhaw was born in Dallas, Texas, United States.^[7] Like most of the other Doughboys down through the years, Greenhaw started in music at an early age. At the age of eight, he picked up the guitar, and by the fourth grade, he had his own band, "The Doodlebugs". Later, during the psychedelic era, came a rock band named "The Inner Soul". With The Inner Soul, Greenhaw met physician George Miller, the father of rock musician Steve Miller. The elder Miller hired Greenhaw's groups to play at various parties. Greenhaw's interest in guitar led him to country music. At the same time, Greenhaw studied classical music as a child at the SMU Piano Preparatory Department. Years later, Greenhaw received his college degree from SMU.

Starting in 1983, Greenhaw served as the musical director and band leader of a weekly country music revue, the Mesquite Opry. He first worked with The Light Crust Doughboys when he booked them to play at the Mesquite Folk Festival in 1983, which Greenhaw had founded. Greenhaw became excited about the prospects for the band, which had been working only sporadically for several years. Walter Hailey, the Doughboys' master of ceremonies in the 1950s, was born in Mesquite and a friend of Greenhaw's family.

Greenhaw has been bassist of The Light Crust Doughboys since 1993. His experience as a rock guitarist has affected his bass playing. He usually plays with a pick, a feature more common to rock bassists than to jazz, country or western swing players. Greenhaw brings great variety to the Doughboys' bass position. His approach changed the bass sound of the Doughboys' rhythm section; the bass, before always supportive, now is more melodic and noticeable, as in rock music.

When Greenhaw joined the Doughboys as bass player and co-producer in 1993, he set into motion a plan through which the Doughboys would create for themselves a new golden age. That plan has resulted in the Doughboys making frequent appearances in theaters throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

Greenhaw has also organized unusual performance and recording opportunities for the Doughboys. In 1997, Greenhaw took the lead in composing and arranging the music and recording the soundtrack for a documentary film about actor Bela Lugosi, Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula.^[8] He worked on the project with then University of Oklahoma instructor Gary Rhodes.^[9] The project received a rave review in Filmfax magazine.^[10] Also during 1997, the Doughboys participated in a cooperative recording effort entitled The High Road on the Hilltop, this time joining up with the Southern Methodist University Mustang Band.^[11] This collaboration came through Greenhaw, who studied as a child in SMU's piano preparatory division and later earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the institution. Greenhaw's father, Frank, also earned a degree from SMU and from 1941 to 1945 was student director of the Southern Methodist University Mustang Band. Greenhaw wrote three of the songs recorded: "The High Road", "Texas Women" and "Hangin' 'Round Deep Ellum".

In 2003, Greenhaw produced and arranged the Engelbert Humperdinck album, Always Hear the Harmony: The Gospel Sessions.^[12]

In 2005, Greenhaw, The Jordanaires, Nokie Edwards, and the Light Crust Doughboys joined to record, 20th Century Gospel: From Hymns to Blackwood Brothers Tribute to Christian Country,^[13] which was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album.^[14]

Greenhaw was inducted into the Texas Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2015 at the Dallas Baptist University, in Dallas, Texas.^[15]

Beginning in 2016, Greenhaw has begun creating-editing-writing faith-based visual novels and comic books beginning with book series title God's Silver Soldiers, also known as Silver Soldiers: The Comic and followed by Tales of Nazareth: The Boyhood of Jeses. The comic books, under the imprint of Truthmonger Comics Group Publishing, have achieved acclaim for their action-oriented innovation in illustration by comic book artist Ben Dunn as well as their storylines, and they have been covered in the media by TV channels, newspapers, and faith-based, nationally syndicated radio.^[16]

References

Bibliography

• The Light Crust Doughboys Are on The Air, John Mark Dempsey, University of North Texas Press: 2002, pps. 201, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 214, 219. ISBN 978-1574411515
• We're The Light Crust Doughboys from Buruus Mill, Jean A. Boyd, University of Texas Press: 2003, pps. 108, 111, 113, 114, 115, 119, 121. ISBN 9780292709256

External links

• Official website