Country-music singer Dean Strickland wakes up every morning in a different location. His backpack is his pillow, and the earth was last night's bed. His two feet serve as his only mode of transportation, and the guitar case slung over his back is the stuff dreams are made of.
His hands are worn but not bruised, and the radio station bumper stickers that plaster his bags and guitar case document his brush with the media spotlight. His pockets are his bank account, and his cell phone with pre-paid minutes is his connection to friends and family.
He has been walking the Lone Star State since September, booking gigs as he goes and his latest stop is the Hub City. The first time he traveled to Lubbock - late November - it took him three days to make it from Dallas. This time he made it in a single day with the help of a few generous truck drivers.
"You see, I'm in it for the long haul," he said. "It's going to work out for me.
Strickland, a graduate of the University of North Texas, studied at the Musician Institute in California. He has his own independent record label, two Web sites and an e-mail account he checks when he can via the public library of whatever town he is currently in.
The road always has been Strickland's inspiration. His newest song is titled "I Love Texas; It's my Home," and his time on the back roads and side streets of the Lone Star State has given him a catalogue of muses.
"I met a girl outside the library in San Antonio," he said with a smile. "I was waiting for it to open and I think she was, too. We got acquainted, and I wrote her a song that I played at my gig that night. Her name was Cathy."
Strickland does not remember every story with a smile and a shrug. While hitchhiking through Dallas at 1:30 a.m., a silver car pulled onto the shoulder and a man asked if Strickland wanted a ride. Having a gig in the near future down the road, he wanted any help he could get, so he climbed in and put his guitar and duffle bag in the trunk.
When the man told Strickland to get out because he wouldn't take him if he could not pay for gas, Strickland would not budge from the backseat. He said he wanted to make sure he would be able to get his guitar before the man took off, so he waited until the man popped the trunk. As soon as Strickland stepped out of the car, the man hit the accelerator.
Strickland was able to grab hold of the back of the trunk as the car whipped by. With the trunk lid slamming down repeatedly on his hands and head, he held on as the car sped up. Strickland was able to pull himself into the trunk, holding his guitar case close at heart. He finally got away when the car pulled into a gas station.
"I was willing to risk it all for my guitar," he said. "It's my whole life. I told him, 'He couldn't do this to me; it's my life.'"
Later on that month, on another trip to Dallas, Strickland was hitchhiking out of Deep Ellum when another silver car pulled off the road. This time the driver pulled a gun and demanded Strickland's guitar or duffle bag. The 38-year-old refused and jumped from the car when the driver pulled off to the shoulder. He escaped with a broken strap on his backpack, which he shows off like a battle scar, but he escaped with his life.
"I have a lot of people out there who are worried about me," he said. "They say it's dangerous what I do, and I guess it sort of is."
Right now, Strickland is content with traveling Texas on his feet, bumming a ride when he can and finding a bed behind the closest building after Dark Thirty. For the future, he plans on getting together with his old band members from California and doing a tour of the East Coast like they did years ago.
"A music career is a long career, and it's a tough career," Strickland said.
He will be in Lubbock today playing from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at La Diosa Cellars. He plays for tips and whatever money the bar or club owners want to give him. Part of being a musician, he said, is networking and getting in good with club owners, and that means playing some gigs for free.
Cat Traxler, owner La Diosa Cellars, said she had never heard of Strickland before he walked through the front doors.
"He just came in and asked to play here," Traxler said.
Strickland knows the world of music, and he knows that not every bar owner will be willing to put him on stage.
"It's a tough business, but I just have to keep on going," he said. "Sometimes I might get caught where people don't offer me a ride for a while, and I have to walk a little more. But, I have to keep going."
Be the first to comment on this article!