The first stage Dale Mayfield played in Fredericksburg was at Oma Koocks. Years later, he is back on the same stage - now Hondo's - trying to get "Back In the Normal." Photo by Phil Houseal

Details:
Dale Mayfield plays in clubs around the area. On Tuesdays he hosts the Lone Star Pickers jam at Luckenbach. His CD "Back In the Normal" is available at Hondo's, Hill Country Music, and Tejas Smoke Depot. Phone 214-681-5275.

webmaster: phil@fullhouseproductions.net

Dale Mayfield: Back In The Normal

by Phil Houseal
January 10, 2007

Wonder if I’ll ever be back in the normal,
Where I have total control over my destiny,
Back in the normal,
Before I cross over and lose all my sanity
            Words and music by Dale Mayfield

My wife - who has better taste in music than I do - makes it a point to hear Dale Mayfield when he comes to town. So one evening I tagged along with her to catch his act at Hondo's.

It turned out to be the appropriate venue.

"The first stage I ever played on here was the old Oma Koocks," Mayfield told me as he took a break at what is now Hondo's. "Maggie Montgomery was playing, and my brother C.R. boisterously yelled, 'Maggie I want my brother to sing!' So I got up and did some Dan Fogelberg songs." He chuckled, remembering, "No one could play along!"

Mayfield now performs at Hondo's once a month. "This is the gig I treasure; I love this building and that stage."

The Brownwood native first came to Fredericksburg in 1978. He struck a chord (literally) with Maggie's 12-year-old son - a kid named Monte Montgomery.

"His ma lived in a house not far from here," he said. "Monte and I used to hibernate in the attic. We'd go up there for the weekend and learn songs. He and I got an act together. Of course, he was too young to get into the bars then."

Mayfield left the area in 1981.

"I had learned how to play music here and sing in front of people, so I took it out and plied my wares," he said. "It actually got so demanding, I put my guitar down in 1997 and didn’t touch it again until 2003."

It was a personal trauma that caused him to pick it up.

"I got a call from my brother who told me he had six months to live," Mayfield recalled. "I got here in August and he died in January. When I got the news, I went to a buddy's house and said I want to sit here and write a song."

That song turned out to be "Back In the Normal."

"It is about getting away from Dallas, from the bad scene, and getting back to normal, back to where I used to be."

Mayfield's strength is the quality of his voice. He describes his vocal range as going "from Don Henley to Barry White," a style he honed as a reluctant choir kid.

"I was forced to take choir," Mayfield remembered. "I sang a part in a 6th grade play, so in 7th grade the choir teacher got me out of one of my classes, and said I want you to come out for choir. I said, no I can’t sing, but she insisted, so... OK. I started as a tenor, but by the time I was a senior, I was a baritone."

While he has a CD's worth of original songs (featuring a very special boyhood friend on guitar), his real passion is to write old western ballads.

"I have one called The Drifter," said Mayfield, who admits he has started writing a western book - twice. "It's long, but it gets you back in that setting of being a cowboy going across the prairie. I plan on doing a concept CD of that stuff."

For now, his "normal" is playing solo in clubs around the area.

"I don’t want to be in a band," he said, then smiled, remembering his musical buddy. "I want Monte to make it really big, and I’ll go be his guitar tech!"

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