About Wayne

Captivating songs, full rich harmonies, thoughtful lyrics, excellent musicianship. Those are the trademarks of the music of Wayne Gathright, from Austin Texas.

Wayne began his musical journey in Victoria Texas. As a self-taught guitarist, he learned lead guitar parts by playing records at slow speed then transposing every note into the correct key. In Victoria, his influences were classical music, the Beatles (of course), and the British bands coming on the new wave happening at the time. His influences included Steely Dan, The Cars, Harry Chapin, The Who, Aerosmith, Van Halen, ELO, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, The Band, and others. The playing in the college jazz band, a retro swing band, and rock bands. Then he tried out for a country band called the ‘Country Drifters’. They love his guitar playing, so he became a big part of their sound. Later renamed the Drifters, that band became the #1 band in South Texas drawing thousands of people to their gigs.

Later, Wayne moved to Austin to play in an all-original band called the Stripes, which became a fixture in Austin and winner of the ‘Best Band’ competition. He also co-founded a recording studio ‘Music Lane Recording’ with his brother that quickly became popular, recording hundreds of Austin bands. A self-taught sound engineer, he also taught himself to program computers and went on to start a software company with a nationwide customer base.

After selling the recording studio, he starting writing and recording songs for himself. Within 10 years, he had written and recorded over 200 songs and is still creating new songs today, becoming Austin Songwriters Group ‘Songwriter of the Year’ in 2019. In 2023, Wayne won Dallas Songwriters Association ‘Songwriter of the Year’, and followed up by winning the 2024 ‘Songwriter of the Year’ again in Dallas. At the same time he also won ‘Song of the Year’ for his song ‘Anything But This’. Additionally, Wayne has won 1st place with 14 different songs in multiple categories in Austin and Dallas songwriting competitions, several ‘Publisher Picks’ in the Texas Songwriter’s Symposiums, and honorable mention in the USA Songwriting Competition.

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