Gordon’s first writing heroes were his cousin Peggy Goodin and
his late father, Wayne Payne. Peggy wrote, “My Darling
Clementine,” and “Take Care of My Little Girl,” both
bestsellers and adapted to successful Hollywood films. His
father wrote additional verses to gospel songs for the family
trio, and kept one very special diary.
As a boy, Gordon marveled at the success of
Peggy’s books and movies and often daydreamed about being an
author. “One day, Dad, my sister Sheila, and I were
practicing a new song for the trio, we all felt the lyric was
too short. Dad sat at the kitchen table and in ten or fifteen
minutes, wrote another verse to the song. It was the most
natural thing for him.”
His dad planted a seed that day that still
bears fruit.
Out of high school, Gordon took his musical
talent to the hot spots of Tulsa where he began
performing with local legends Don White and JJ Cale. Cale’s
bass player, Bill Raffensperger, introduced Gordon to J.I.
Allison of The Crickets. “I am so grateful to those guys.
They helped me get my foot in the door.” Over his career,
Gordon preformed in live recording bands with Cale and White,
Tanya Tucker, Waylon Jennings during the outlaw years, Okie--with
Don White and Waylon’s drummer-producer Richie Albright, and
spent ten years with The Crickets.
During those years he cultivated his word
craft as a songwriter. Artists to record his songs include;
Reba McEntire, Rosanne Cash, The Statler Brothers, Linda
Davis, Johnny Rodriguez, Joe Stampley and Moe Bandy, Gus
Hardin, John Schneider, The Crickets, The Whites, his buddy
Waylon Jennings, and others. His solo album of 1978 was
comprised of self-written R&B-Country-Rock-n-Roll styled
songs. The self-titled A&M Records project, produced by Audie
Ashworth and JJ Cale is widely considered ahead of its time.
Gordon spent his last ten years in music
from 1985 to 1994, as lead singer-guitarist with his pals J.I.
Allison and Joe B. Mauldin of The Crickets. With his wife Pat
and sons Jackson and Coleman at home, the road began to take
its toll. With twenty-five years in music, millions of road
miles, and a wall of gold records to his credit, he left music
and found a day gig. Several years later, with the boys grown
and gone, and having enjoyed success
in sales as a small business owner, he began to think
something was missing. Then came black February 2002.
Starting on the fifteenth with the death of his good friend
and mentor, Waylon Jennings, by the end of the month Gordon
had also buried his father, Wayne, on the twenty-second, and
his father-in-law, Jack Wolcott, on the twenty-eighth.
A month later, hidden away in a lock box,
the family found his dad’s World War II
dairy. “Dad would never talk about the war, and after we read
his account of it, we
knew why. That little book is the most inspirational piece
I’ve ever read, and I
haven’t stopped writing stories since.”
Gordon now follows in the footsteps of his
other wordsmith hero, Peggy Goodin. His first story
submission, “The Peppermint Tree,” was accepted for the
popular Barnes & Noble – WordWright.biz anthology, “Noble
Generation Volume II.” “Long Road to Texas,” the hair-raising
story of his move from Nashville, is featured in the
January-February 2005 issue of “Guidepost Magazine’s” “Angels
on Earth.”
Rice University Literary Professor
Jacqueline Simon said, “All those years of songwriting
gave Gordon a unique prospective on the sound of words and
dialog. His characters are real and they come alive on the
page.” He has recently finished his third book of fiction.
His first manuscript is in the final editing stages and
scheduled for publication later this year. Gordon is finally
writing again, and somewhere Wayne Payne and Peggy Goodin are
smiling.