Spotlight: Bobby Patterson

Headlining SXSW's Ponderosa Stomp is just the latest angle for Dallas soul mainstay Bobby Patterson. Besides his own list of memorable singles ("T.C.B. or T.Y.A.," "How Do You Spell Love?" and "She Don't Have to See You"), Patterson has been equally adept promoting, producing, and writing for other artists. He worked promotion at Malaco Records for 28 years and currently does weekday mornings on Dallas' KKDA-AM. Raised in East Dallas, Patterson discovered music after rejecting his family's chosen profession, caddying.

"I carried that heavy-ass bag one hole," he recalls. "Then I turned around, went back to the clubhouse, and said, 'This ain't for me.'"

One night Patterson's dad took him to Dallas' Empire Room, and up drives T-Bone Walker.

"He got out of a white Cadillac with a white guitar and a white hat on," marvels Patterson. "I said, 'Whatever he's doing, that's what I want to do!'"

He did, recording for the Dallas-based Jetstar label in the Sixties and Shreveport's Jewel/Paula in the Seventies. Like departed compatriots Joe Tex and Johnnie Taylor, Patterson often used humor to advance his soulful philosophy.

"Most Southern soul records have a little touch of comedy in there, like 'Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman),'" he says. "Joe Tex was one of my friends, and I just loved his writing style."

Patterson spent several years on the business' nonmusical side and returned to performance in 1996. A gospel album will follow 2002's Back out Here Again, then a straight-up blues disc, but he wants to get one thing straight.

"They label me as a blues artist, but really I'm a soul artist."