We are so glad you stopped by! We appreciate your interest in the music of Wayne Gathright! Here’s some more info about Wayne and his musical journey
Wayne is a talented musician and songwriter from Austin Texas. He is the winner of the Austin TX Songwriter’s Competition and 2019 Songwriter of the Year. Also, Wayne was awarded the 2023 Dallas TX Songwriters’ Association Songwriter of the Year. Showing a wide variety of stylistic inspirations, 14 different songs written by Wayne have won first place in the Country, Pop, Rock, General, Blues, Jazz, Inspirational, Novelty and Lyrics Categories. In 2023, he won 2nd Place Grand Prize Winner in the Broadjam/DSA International Song Competition, and 1st Place in the Country Category. He was also one of only two songwriters from Texas to place in the Singer/Songwriter category in the 2022 Dallas Songwriters Competition, won 2nd place in the Country Category in the Austin Songwriting Competition, 3rd place in the Love Songs Category in the Dallas Songwriting Competition, and 4 ‘Publisher Picks’ at the Texas Music Symposiums.
Wayne started playing guitar with one month of guitar lessons at Lou Parsley’s Music Store in Victoria Texas. He didn’t like the lessons but self taught himself by listening to records at slow speed then transposing to the right key. A few years later, he went back to Lou Parsley as a guitar instructor and became a close friend of Lou. Also a close friend of Lou was Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who would stop by and play old blues records or play guitar with Wayne and Lou. (Wayne later invented and sold a double-guitar stand to ZZ Top, which they used on stage)
Wayne played in college jazz bands, a rock band (Stonewood), a swing band (Canterbury), and a pop/country band (the Drifters) which became a very popular dance band that played venues throughout South Texas. Later, Wayne and his brother Lynn joined two Austinites to form an all original band (Lucky Stripes). The ‘Stripes’ won the ‘Best Band in Austin’ contest and was one of only two bands from Texas asked to compete in the nationals in Daytona Beach Florida.
When Wayne moved to Austin, he started Music Lane Recording with his brother. Later, Lynn when on to become a concert sound engineer in Nashville, and Wayne moved the studio to a 3,000 square foot facility, still called Music Lane. Music Lane recorded hundreds of the top bands in Austin TX, and was voted the top studio in Austin by the Austin Chronicle Poll for 3 years.
Wayne is retired from the music business but still writes and records his own music at his private home studio. He performs at selected venues as a solo performer or with his brother Lynn.