Randall Fort

I was born in West Texas and raised in southeastern New Mexico by parents who both played piano on a limited, non-professional basis. My father also played guitar some and my first experience with that instrument was breaking it into pieces while playing with it in the barn where it was stored. When I was 13 years old in 1964 the Beatles had hit the scene and we all wanted to play guitar and be in a band and grow our hair. Me and my buddy started taking guitar lessons and immediately formed a band with friends of ours who played keyboard and drums. This first group, The Vidors, played school assemblies and local dances at the youth center and for parties. Thereafter, we began renting u-haul trailers and traveling and playing for dances all over West and North Texas and Southeast New Mexico. When we were juniors in high school one of our members had a brother in the radio business in Odessa, Texas that ended up getting us booked as the opening act for several groups that came through Odessa, including Eric Burden and the Animals, Jay and the Five Americans and Doctor John. We continued playing into our college years for college fraternity and sorority parties and various other gigs and once again, as the opening act at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, NM, for the likes of Helen Reddy, having her and her husband and entire band over to our apartment for a party after the show and for Lee Michaels. We also ran sound on our PA system for BB King and his band and got to rub shoulders and visit with ZZ Top at their first gig there in Portales, just as they were beginning their career. Being located close to Clovis, NM gave me and my band members several opportunities to record in the Norman Petty studios. After college I continued playing and had a country-rock band called Mesquite that played in Albuquerque, NM and later moved to Denver, Colorado to play local clubs and the many ski resorts located in the mountains west of Denver. After getting married and moving to Dallas, Texas then to Roswell, NM, I formed several rock bands and even played in a country band, playing the only nightly, live-entertainment venue in Roswell. Upon moving to Albuquerque in 2000, I formed a band with Bill Royal playing mainly blues music that was called Blue Royale.