Stevie Ray and the Deacon to play Music City

Music City Texas Theater lines up a solid set of entertainers throughout the year including home grown acts such as Stevie Ray and the Deacon who will perform at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18.

The band consists of Deacon Kenneth Fannin on vocals, Stevie Ray Blakely II on electric guitar, John Young on drums, Rodney Beal on bass and Tony Weaver on harmonica.

Stevie Ray was a classmate of mine back in the late 80s to early 90s at Linden-Kildare Elementary.

I met up with him years later in our teens and he was knee deep into music then.

As his bio says, he hangs his hat in Northeast Texas in the small town of Atlanta. His style of music derives from a mixture of his influences which include BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Tab Benoit, Dimebag Darrell and Kirk Hammett. He grew up in the small town of Linden, also known as Music City Texas or the home of Don Henley. His music takes traditional blues and adds a twist of rock, making it be considered Rock- ing Rhythm and Blues.

The Deacon was born in Oak Cliff, Texas but moved to Malta, Texas at the age of seven where he was raised on a small family farm. His musical interest started at a young age singing in a small Baptist church in Malta. Music came back to him after he got out of the service and was living in Nashville, Tennessee where he joined a small rock band.

He then dropped music to raise a family and didn’t start singing again until he was brought back to the church and to Christ in a long revealing story and leaving his faults at the altar.

It wasn’t until he was ordained into ministry that his musical career began to flourish, beginning with gospel then moving on to Blues. His musical influences are; Joe Crocker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Santana, BB King and Albert King.