| |
| |
|
|
R E S O L U T I O N
|
|
|
WHEREAS, Pianist Bobbie Nelson has been playing music for |
|
|
virtually her entire life, and today, after nearly eight decades as |
|
|
a performer, she is continuing to enrich the proud musical legacy of |
|
|
Texas; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Bobbie Nelson was born on New Year's Day 1931 in |
|
|
Abbott; her parents divorced early in her childhood, and she and her |
|
|
younger brother, Willie, were raised by their grandparents, William |
|
|
and Nancy Nelson, who instilled in both children a deep love of |
|
|
music; at the age of five, she learned to play keyboards from her |
|
|
grandmother, first on the family pump organ and later on a piano her |
|
|
grandfather bought for $35; after her brother learned the guitar, |
|
|
the siblings began performing gospel songs together at school |
|
|
events and at the local Methodist church; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, In her early teens, Ms. Nelson got her start as a |
|
|
touring musician, playing piano on the revival circuit with a |
|
|
traveling preacher; at 16, she married Bud Fletcher, who organized |
|
|
and managed the Nelson siblings' first band, Bud Fletcher and the |
|
|
Texans; she and her husband became the parents of three sons, but |
|
|
after their marriage ended, she lost custody of her children for a |
|
|
time because the courts disapproved of her occupation of playing |
|
|
music in honky-tonks; her career was put on hold as she fought to |
|
|
reunite her family, though she was able to put her talents to use |
|
|
after being hired as a demonstrator for the Hammond Organ Company; |
|
|
following stints in Fort Worth and Austin, she relocated to |
|
|
Nashville to be near her brother, who had begun building a |
|
|
reputation as one of country music's best songwriters; both Bobbie |
|
|
and Willie returned to Texas in the early 1970s and have considered |
|
|
themselves Austinites ever since; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Ms. Nelson started performing on her brother's |
|
|
recordings, including his 1975 breakthrough album Red Headed |
|
|
Stranger; through the decades, "Sister Bobbie," as Willie |
|
|
affectionately calls her, has also been a key member of his touring |
|
|
band, Family, delighting audiences with her skill in a variety of |
|
|
musical idioms; in 2007, she released her first solo album, a |
|
|
collection of pop and country standards called Audiobiography, and |
|
|
in 2014, she and her brother released December Day, an album |
|
|
inspired by their informal jam sessions on the tour bus; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, From her early days of playing the pump organ in her |
|
|
grandparents' parlor to her performances in recording studios and |
|
|
on concert stages around the world, Bobbie Nelson has built a |
|
|
sterling reputation as a skilled and intuitive keyboard player, and |
|
|
her role as an integral member of Willie Nelson and Family has |
|
|
earned her an honored place among the beloved musicians of the Lone |
|
|
Star State; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 85th Texas |
|
|
Legislature hereby commend Bobbie Nelson for her long and |
|
|
illustrious career and for her contributions to Texas music; and, |
|
|
be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be |
|
|
prepared for Ms. Nelson as an expression of high regard by the Texas |
|
|
House of Representatives. |