Will Tommy Jones
Gary Joe Mitchell
Gary was born and raised in Olney, a small northwest Texas town. At age 7 he watched "Your Cheatin' Heart", a movie based on the life of Hank Williams Sr. From that day forward his mind was set on becoming a recording artist. Classically trained on piano from age 9, upon his high school graduation, he moved to Denton, Texas and enrolled in the music program at UNT (University of North Texas), leaving the university after 4 semesters. He hooked up w/ a Dallas booking agent, spending more than two decades touring the United States, Mexico and Canada. Burned out from motel rooms, various substances and playing everyone's music but his own, he called it quits, moved to the country and started writing.
Fusing Hank & Mozart
Extremely fond of Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven and Bach, Gary could be found sitting at his piano most any day of the week for 6 to 8 hours during his formative years, leaving little time for much of anything else. Rarely did he listen to the radio. Although a contrast, as he grew into his teens he began to frequent rodeo dances to hear local and area bands play old school country music, feeding what now had become an addiction to music by artists such as Hank Williams Sr., Lefty Frizzell and Jimmy Rogers. His love for both country and classical music eventually led him to finding his niche. He began to write and his music soon evolved into a fusion of sounds that include country & classical w/ hints of Latin, mellow rock, Dixieland and bluegrass.
Mark Hartman Anderson
Mark plays drums, percussion and is a songwriter for Will Tommy Jones. He was born in Seguin, Texas. At a very young age he was influenced by Pete Fountain and Buddy Rich, among others. All thanks go to Mark's father who turned him on to a record collection that led him to wanting to learn to play drums. A couple weeks after his 6th birthday, Christmas rolled around and he woke up to a new set of drums. The summer before he went into the 7th grade, his family moved to Austin at which time he joined his first band. After graduating high school, he enrolled at Texas A&M, majoring in Biology. One semester away from getting his degree, he transferred to UNT to get involved in the Denton music scene, which he did, blowing off college all together. By this time, he was heavily into Little Feat, Frank Zappa, and The Beatles. He stumbled into Crossroads, a known hotspot for live music, at the corner of Fry and Hickory, and that was when he met Gary who was playing keyboards w/ a local blues band. The impact the movie, "Urban Cowboy" made on the music scene, landed Gary and Mark in a country band together. Now, some 30+ years later, they are still working together. They know each other better than they know themselves. What they have created is a unique sound that is a fusion of country music and classical music w/ hints of bluegrass, rock, Dixieland and Latin. It has been labeled, Classical Cow.
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