The Walls at Record Town - Links with Leon Bridges
Record Town Honors Leon Bridges as One of Fort Worth's Musical Greats
We honor our hometown mega-star Leon Bridges with his picture on The Walls at Record Town. Leon has amazed the world with his talent as a soul singer, songwriter and record producer. We are super happy for to see such a nice guy finish first! Former employee, Gerard Daily recalls in this blog post about some interactions with Leon before he became the household name he is today. Here's more from Gerard...
Gerard Daily recalls links with Leon Bridges from his early days to current times
The early days and The Sam Cooke CD
When Record Town was still at the TCU location, this gentleman would come in the store on occasion and take a guitar down and sing to himself. This would happen every now and then and once he even brought in his mother. Sumter and I told them that he had a great voice and should keep it up. One time, I was restocking records and I overheard him sing a song entitled "I Love You For Sentimental Reasons". I remarked to him that he must be a Sam Cooke fan. He replied that he loved Sam Cooke but how did I know that? I answered that the song was from 1945 and the only person who had recorded a version that he might have heard on record was Sam Cooke. I then told Leon that there was a live recording entitled “The Great Shrine Concert” on CD from Specialty Records. It had three tracks recorded live by the Soul Stirrers, a gospel group that Sam Cooke was a member of at that time. This was the only live recording of the Soul Stirrers with Sam Cooke available. The CD had been at Record Town for a long time so I offered sell it to him at a discount. He bought it.
A picture of Record Town's old location across from TCU where Leon Bridges would visit.
Guitars on the wall of Record Town's former location on University where Leon Bridges would pull some down and play.
Leon Gets His first big break
Leon started being publicized in the newspapers. My friend, Tom Reynolds had invested in a property which had been a golf club factory at one time. The building was being refurbished and a recording studio was being installed in one of the rooms. In order to test the equipment, the owners of the studio were going to record Leon Bridges. Austin Jenkins of the band White Denim was going to produce the proceedings.
Tom would come into the store and I would ask him how the recording was going. He told me that Leon’s material and the recordings were so good that the manager was going to stage a showcase concert and invite several major labels to view Leon.
After the showcase, Tom was once again in the store and he told me that there were several major labels bidding for Leon’s services and that CBS had been the major label that had signed Leon. Once the major label album came out, Leon Bridge's career exploded. Later I discovered that my wife Lois knew Leon’s father, Wallace and that she had actually met Leon, whose real name is Todd Michael Bridges, when he was a child.
Leon Supports Charity and Comes Home
Dr. Paul Bowman, a long-time customer of Record Town, was a member of a charitable organization that was putting on a fund-raising raffle. One of the prizes was several items connected with Leon Bridges. I got my wife Lois to take the albums with her when she went to visit Wallace Bridges and Wallace got his son Leon to autograph the albums for Dr. Bowman. Dr. Bowman gave one of the autographed copies to Record Town and that is how Record Town got that autographed copy of Coming Home that hangs on the wall.
On January 10, 2020 Leon visited Record Town at its new location. He spent about an hour here and we got his assistant to take some pictures of Leon with Cadillac and myself. Leon bought an album of African music before he left.
Leon Bridges supported a local charity fundraiser with a signed copy of his first hit. Record Town has a copy of that signed album framed on the wall by the register.
Cadillac Johnson, Leon Bridges and Gerard Daily at the current Record Town location in 2020
Leon Bridges and Sam Cooke Products Available At Record Town
