“So Long Texas - Hello, Mexico” written by ex-Mexiaite Rita Jones, hitting the top!

10/11/2006
Mexia Daily News

As a young child born and raised in Mexia, Rita Blackmon was mostly known to people in town as, “that little girl who plays the piano.” At age 2, her father, Willie, took her to town with him when he went to Goodyear to make a payment on a bill. Rita promptly walked up and started playing the child’s piano that Goodyear had on display. Somewhat amazed, Willie added the little piano onto the bill, and upon taking it home, he and his wife, Loretta, soon learned that their daughter could play anything she heard.

They were not surprised when, at age 6, she wrote her first song. Her mother’s younger brothers, Chuck and Jody Beldin, took Rita to Mexia’s local radio station, KBUS, where she sang and played the song for a local disc jockey. The deejay was very impressed that a child of this age could play so well, much less write such a grown-up sounding song. Rita attributes the deejay with providing her with her first piece of songwriting advice. He advised her to listen to the songs on the radio and learn how to incorporate a bridge into some of her songs. She played her first nightclub before she started school when her uncles Chuck, Jody, and Willie’s brothers Baldy and Pot (Thomas and Fred) Blackmon took her to the old Circle “R” Club, where she played Down Yonder on club-owner Carey Jones’ old upright piano. She was a hit!

Except for her family’s moving a couple of times, she attended Mexia Public Schools through her junior year, then moved to West in 1967, where she met Mike Jones, who was to become her husband.

Years have passed and Rita, 57, who now lives in Axtell, Texas, has written many songs, some with bridges - some without. She has been in a number of bands in her lifetime, both before and since her marriage in 1968 to her husband, Mike Jones, also a musician. The couple met their senior year of high school in West, where the Blackmons moved when The Mexia Textile Mill closed. Mike knew that he had to have this piano player the first time he heard her play, and Rita liked this cute guitar player’s style, too! Since then, Rita and Mike have formed and played in numerous bands in clubs all over Central Texas, as well as at a well-known supper club in Waco, Surf ‘N’ Sirloin.

Among her successes in music, Rita was asked by Reba McEntire to write for Reba McEntire Music in 1982; however, McEntire’s catalog was bought out by Welk Music before Rita could be signed. Twelve year-old Mary Jo Pierce from Copperas Cove won 1987 Teen Vocalist of the Year on “Ed McMahon’s Star Search” performing four of Rita’s songs. The straight-country fast-paced song “Countin” went to number 19 on the independent charts on Cherry Records, and was held by George Jones until the last cut on one of his albums. Before being signed to his record deal, Trace Adkins performed Countin’ all over the country in his shows.

In December, Sherry Petta, a jazz singer from Scottsdale, Arizona, flew the Joneses to the party celebrating the release of her debut CD, “this is why,” which showcases her recording of Rita’s song, “Blue Ain’t Just A Color It’s a Feelin’, which Petta had heard and fell in love with 20 years ago when it was performed on Star Search. “Blue” can be heard at www.sherrypetta.com. Until Rita told her, Petta was not aware that the song right before Rita’s on her CD, “You Don’t Know Me,” was also written by someone from Mexia - the late, great Cindy Walker.

Rita has been offered a number of contracts, including two from Erv Woolsey, George Strait’s manager. However, she declined them, for various reasons, feeling that they were not right for her. She has been told by many in the business that she has what it takes to be a major writer, but she would be required to move to Nashville, which did not interest her, since she and Mike chose not to uproot their daughter, Kelley, who they wanted to raise near their families in Central Texas.

After getting back into music, after having been out of it for quite a few years, Rita recently joined the Music Association of Central Texas, founded by long-time Central Texas musician, Johnnie Bradshaw. She was recently voted 2006 MACT Central Texas Songwriter of the year by her fellow Central Texas musicians. Several Central Texas area bands, such as 35-South, are performing her songs in their shows. Bradshaw, who deejays the Bryan’s Barn Show on Sunday nights at KBCT 94.5 FM in Waco, and has the country band, The Bradshaw Gang, asked Rita to bring him any of her songs that she thought he might like. She told Mike to run off a copy of her western-swing song, “Life’s Too Short Not to Live in Texas” for Bradshaw. Mike did, but he also put another song on the end of the CD, of which Rita was unaware.

“So Long, Texas - Hello, Mexico,” captivated Bradshaw, who credits himself with being able to recognize a good song. The light-hearted song is a humorous take on the illegal immigration situation, which is a very serious situation facing our country today. In “So Long, Texas,” an ol’ Texas cowboy is so tired of all of the illegals in Texas that he decides to swim the Rio Grande the opposite direction and become an illegal immigrant in Mexico. He figures turnabout is fair play, and he plans to demand the same rights as an American illegal in Mexico that the Mexican illegals are demanding in America. Bradshaw, along with Mike, who also believed in the song, convinced Rita that this song was extremely timely, and that they should go into the studio and do it themselves, since none of the younger artists they pitched it to seemed interested. They went to Awesome Works Recording Studio in Holland, Texas, owned and operated by one of the best steel guitar players in the business, Steve Palousek. With Palousek’s steel and lead guitar added to Rita’s keyboards, Mike’s bass, and Bradshaw’s vocals and drums, the song, and the group “Johnny Tex and the Texicans,” were born.

“So Long, Texas” has been an instant success nationally, and is being aired on CNN talk show personality Lou Dobbs’ website at www.loudobbs.com. It has garnered the support of ALIPAC (Americans for Legal Immigration) and the Texas Minutemen, a citizens border patrol organization, as well as The Arizona Minutemen. The song was debuted on Bryan’s Barn on 94.5, and Waco lOOs Zack and Jim’s morning show on 99.9 FM, have endorsed the song and put it into regular rotation on their show. It is enjoying airplay on AM and FM stations, as well as internet stations all over the nation such as www.radiofreetexas.org and texasreddirtmusic.com, as well as in several foreign countries.

It has been featured in The Waco Tribune-Herald, The Waco Citizen, The Recumbent, and was featured last week on the front page of the San Antonio Express newspaper. It has been featured in segments on Channels 6, 10 and 25, and several out-of-town radio stations have requested on-the-air interviews. The song has been the topic of discussion on numerous internet websites. The group has been contacted about a possible video, and one Washington DC group has expressed interest in using it in a documentary film based on immigration. In just over a week, since it’s national release to over 9,000 television and radio stations, almost 30,000 hits have been made to the group’s website, wwwjohnnytex.com, where the song can be downloaded or ordered by mail; sales have been brisk. The group knows that you can’t please everyone, but feedback on the song has been 95% positive, so far. Hopefully, numbers will increase with the upcoming elections, since illegal immigration it the # 1 topic.

On a personal note, Rita says that she has many Mexican friends whom she dearly loves, and that she is not against a better way of life for anyone. She doesn’t disapprove of immigration, itself, only illegal immigration. While she is not particularly a political person, she says that you don’t have to be politically inclined to look around and see that our country is bursting at the seams with people who are here only to take what America has to offer, with no plans to become legalized. She feels that the legal Mexicans are being stereotyped by the illegals, who don’t seem to think that rules apply to them. And, she feels that anyone who disagrees with her song is part of the problem.

If you agree, go to www johnnytex.com and buy a copy - or TWO!

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