Gary Joe Mitchell, was born in a rural north Texas community. After seeing a movie @ age 7 about the life of Hank Williams Sr, although tragic, he became obsessed w/ Hank's story and lifestyle, deciding right then that he was going to follow in his footsteps…
Classically trained on the piano from age 9, Gary spent 6 to 8 hours a day practicing Chopin, Mozart, Bach & Hyden, among others. From age 10 you could find him on Sunday's & Wednesdays, playing piano at local churches. Both as a child & as an adult, he listened to very little radio or other artist's music, resulting in piano & vocal styles that are totally unique and recognizable to the listener. Although a classical musician as a child, small town life led him to frequenting rodeos in the rural north Texas area where he grew up, thus leading him to discover country & western music at dances that followed the nightly rodeo events. As he grew into his teens, most weekend nights, he would seek out rodeo dances in area towns to feed his growing addiction to the hick sounding vocals of artists such as Hank Williams Sr , Merle Haggard, Lefty Frizell, Jimmy Rodgers & Bob Wills. Although quite a contrast, it did not interfere w/ his love for classical piano. With a strong desire to get involved in the arts & music scene in Denton, Texas, he enrolled in the music program at The University of North Texas upon graduation from high school, leaving the university after 4 semesters and began a 20+ year stint touring w/ various cover bands across the U.S., Canada & Mexico. In 2008, burned out from constant touring, motel rooms & substance abuse, he called it quits, hooked up w/ long-time friend & drummer, Mark Anderson, and they spent the next 4 years away from the club scene & touring, began collabourating and by 2012, they had 250+ original songs to their credit. Much to their surprise, in May of 2012 they received a call from an A & R rep from a mainstream label, offering them a record deal. The debut album came somewhat late in their careers, but this roller coaster ride, in total darkness that spanned for 30 long years for both Mark & Gary as professional musicians, led to them finding their niche. Between Mark being influenced heavily by the likes of Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa, Little Feat & The Beatles & his fondness for making homemade percussion instruments out of anything that he can find that sounds good, and Gary's classical piano background and him not listening to the radio or other artist's music, being pretty much oblivious to reality, & the fact that they neither one had ever written a song for all those years, is why the Hick-Rock sounds of "Will Tommy Jones" stands alone. The music produced fits into no existing genre, crossing over into 3 different areas of music that includes pop, alternative country & rock.