|
About Us |
Claxton Welch is an Anericana/folk/rock band comprised of Bill Claxton, Paul Welch, Dustin Hull, Ricky Turner, and Crutch Williams. While they do some covers of rock, blues and folk/rock, they primarily play original music composed by Bill Claxton. Bill plays both acoustic and electric rhythm guitar and harmonica. Paul, a very accomplished guitarist, plays both acoustic and electric lead guitar. Bill is the lead vocalist and Paul provides harmony vocals. Their first album entitled Claxton Welch has 10 original songs written by Bill Claxton.
In 2008, Bill and Paul formed Claxton Welch and began playing Bill's original music. They can either perform electric or acoustic sets of their music. Their most notable engagement this year was the 2010 Richardson Wildflower! Festival. They have also performed a few times at Poor David's Pub in Dallas, Texas.
Dustin Hull plays bass guitar in the band. Sutin started playing guitar when he was about 13; just picked it up and taught himself. The first band wasWillie-Ford, Dustin played the bass and some acustic. It was a country band out of Denton. They played most of the venues down there. The second band he joined was called, Phydeaux, out of Killeen. It was a two piece acoustic. The last band was JOLE. Dustin was with this band for about 4 years, also played the bass and some acoustic. They played the curtain club, club DADA, Galaxy club, and lots of the bars here in Greenville. They also played several benefit concerts including Cancer walk for life, and school fund raisers. He has taken about a 4yr break from the music scene to start a family and now he's back and ready for action. Music is his passion and he is looking forward to being apart of Claxton-Welch.
Ricky Turner has been drumming in the Dallas-Fort Worth arena since 1967. He grew up in East Dallas and graduated from Bryan Adams High School. Savoir- Faire was his first endeavor and they played all the “happening” clubs in Dallas of that era. Ricky was also the drummer for Bedrock, the first band formed by Bill Claxton and Paul Welch. Ricky has also played with many local Dallas musicians, most notably Kenny & the Kasuals, Voodoo Lounge, a Rolling Stones cover band and The James Ferris Group. He enjoys playing all music genres. Ricky is a member of the Big D 60’s Yahoo Group which is dedicated to archiving the history of 60’s and 70’s bands from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He is an avid collector of vinyl and currently has over 10,000 lp’s , 45’s and 78’s in his eclectic collection.
Crutch Williams grew up in Galveston County near NASA and has been playing in bands since 1965. He played bass in several Memphis bands from 1967 through 1974 when he returned to Clear Lake. In 1983-84 Crutch returned to Tennessee to record and release two country singles. The second had limited success making Billboard charts in several regions across the Country. Crutch left Country Music to play ethnic Creole Music in 1989 when he joined Pierre and the Zydeco Dots as their bassist. The Dots became popular along the Texas Gulf Coast and in West Louisiana shortly after the Republican National Convention held in New Orleans in 1988. The Dots were in the right place at the right time and played many private political functions for the Texas Republican Party and their benefactors over the next several years. Crutch eventually became the accordion player in the Dots and performed onstage as "Pierre" after the original Pierre, who was from France, married and moved away. After a short time as front man for the Dots Crutch decided it was time to form his own band. He named his band Mock Duck Zydeco which he described as Texas flavored Zydeco. He was happiest playing his own music and most important becoming known again by his own name. It all came to a sudden end in 1997 when Crutch broke his left arm and wasn't able to play any of his instruments for several years. Fourteen years went by until 2011 when he got to know Doc Claxton as more than his family veterinarian, His wife Marty had told Bill that her husband used to play music (guitar, bass & accordion) and Bill invited Crutch to sit in on a job at Fish Camp and later Bill invited him to join his band. Crutch accepted the offer as a welcome change of pace and now plays a number of different accordion styles on most of Bill's original songs and rhythm instruments on a few others.