Aggie and musician, Clayton Gardner sits down with Anchor Lindsay Liepman to talk about new music he's working on in Nashville.
“What does it mean to you to be a part of the Aggie community? It’s very special here I think," said Liepman.
“It is. The Aggie community embraces its own kind and it definitely did that for me, musically, from right down the street here on Northgate to Harry’s and the Chicken. All these places, it’s really special. I can go to Fort Worth, to Austin, anywhere and there’s still Aggies that come to see me play. It’s a huge family as you know," said Gardner.
You could say Clayton was born to bleed maroon. He first came to Aggieland in 2004, found music and got a guitar.
“I grew up in Montgomery. Not too far from here. My mom was a superintendent of schools. My dad was in landscape. They’re all Aggies. My oldest sister is class of 2000. My middle sister went to Texas State. She’s the black sheep of the family. And I went to A&M. My mom taught at A&M for a while so it was bred into me at a young age, you have one choice and that’s to be an Aggie," said Gardner.
“But you embraced it, you weren’t fighting that," said Liepman.
“I did," said Gardner.
“Did you always know you wanted to be a songwriter and musician or is that something that happened later?” asked Liepman.
“Much later, I loved sports, I was an athlete growing up my whole life. Didn’t sing, was not a great singer. Didn’t own a guitar. And I liked it a lot more than going to school. It was fun to go drink beer with your friends. It was a cool lifestyle," said Gardner.
“You can not convince me you weren’t good at singing," said Liepman.
“I was not. We’re not going to air anything. There’s probably some old videos on YouTube and stuff. But I was not. I loved it. It was the first thing in my life that I really stuck to. And just put my nose to the grindstone and got after it," said Gardner.
"I have two favorite places in all the world to drink a beer and play music. The Dixie Chicken and Luckenbach Texas, they’ve both been second homes to me. I’ve known everybody affiliated with those venues for years and they’ll always be my favorite place to drink a beer and listen to music," said Gardner.
You can hear much more and special performances by Clayton Gardner on the season premiere of "Texas Voices" on 25 ABC, Saturday, January 16th at 6:30 pm. Go to texasvoicesshow.com for more information.
