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Born and bred in Fort Worth, ArvEL Jr.
Stricklin was and is a multi-talented guitarist
and song writer who made his initial splash performing with Carroll and
numerous stars-to-be at Pat Kirkwood’s famous Cellar club in downtown Fort
Worth.
Along with Delbert McClinton, Charlie Carey and Guy Parnell, Stricklin is
among the most significant living figures in Fort Worth rhythm & blues and
rock & roll annals. He was there when it all began. And he’s still playing,
albeit only occasionally, at the age of 56.
But he’s a good bit more – writer, historian and spell-binding story-teller.
He was on stage at the Cellar in 1963 when John F. Kennedy’s Secret Service
bodyguards partied late into the night, hours before the president was
gunned down in Dallas.
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“Johnny (Carroll) told us to be on our best behavior
because the Secret
Service agents were there,” Stricklin said. “I knew they were there, but I
didn’t know who they were. They didn’t want anybody to know who they were.
They blended into the crowd. ”
He was on the scene in 1963 when two of Jack Ruby’s exotic dancers, Karen
Carlin and Tammy True, appeared after-hours.
“Tammy and Karen were around the Cellar for several months, as I recall, and
they even worked some nights as waitresses there. I remember Karen as a
small, slim, blonde girl, slightly standoffish and very white-on-white, in
the Marilyn Monroe sense. Tammy was outgoing and friendly, a very
down-to-earth person. She and I were friends, but I didn’t know Karen well
at all.”
Stricklin is also humble, reluctant to feather his nest. According to Fort
Worth music lore, Stricklin taught an Arlington Heights High School student
named John Deutschendorf to play guitar. Not so, Stricklin said.
“Johnny Deutschendorf was in an early band of mine, the Knightbeats. There’s
even a newspaper photo, so faded you can’t really recognize us without help.
He attended rehearsals at my mother’s house. But I didn’t teach him to play
guitar. He already played as well as I did, and he wrote his own songs, even
then.
“A few years later, he began calling himself John Denver and got a record
deal. He was a superstar for years before I saw his picture on a record and
realized who he was.”
Stricklin describes himself and his career in simple terms. “I’ve played the
blues primarily but have also been in rock and country bands through the
years. To make ends meet between gigs, I’ve done day labor and construction,
I’ve been employed as a recording technician, as advertising manager for a
mail order corporation, manager of a silk screen printing shop, and I've
operated my own business furnishing camera-ready copy to printers. I’m
currently in the web design and hosting business.”
He’s unnecessarily modest, Fort Worth musician Sumter Bruton said.
“The Cellar was an influential place, and Arvel was there during the
transition of jazz, rhythm & blues and rock & roll. He’s one of the few left
who’s still doing it. He can do jazz, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, country.
He’s done it all.
“He was very good at what he did, very laid-back and a very reliable
musician. He was a good player on a good team, and he was a musician you
always wanted to have on your team.”
Stricklin preceded Bruton, a blues and jazz guitar wizard, into music. Sumter says
“I saw Arvel play at the Cellar in ’59 or ’60 when I was going down there
to
watch my dad (Sumter Bruton II) play drums,” Bruton said. “The Cellar was a
beatnik place with girls running around in their underwear.
“Arvel was one of the earliest white guys playing that rhythm & blues style
in Fort Worth. Arvel, Charlie Carey and Delbert McClinton were ahead of me,
but I was watching them play. I was influenced by them. Of that crew, those
are about the only three left of the ones 55 to 60 years old. Guy Parnell
(now a Cleburne resident) is another one, and he was before Arvel, Charlie
and Delbert.”
Bruton hopes Stricklin expands “Ladies and Gentlemen, Johnny Carroll!” into
a book on the Fort Worth music scene of the ’50s and ’60s. “He should do
it.
He’d be the person to do it. He was part of it.”
Stricklin’s website features original music from Texas
artists. One example is Stricklin’s own CD, “All Night Worker.” Another is
“The Cellar Tapes, Vol. 1,” a CD compiled from live recordings of Cellar
bands and musicians, including “Gimme Some” by Carroll. The recordings were
taped by various individuals on reel-to-reel recorders.
Stricklin recorded the “Naked Letus” segments himself in 1970 on an Ampex
stereo deck he still owns. On the Cellar CD, he plays guitar with Naked
Letus and with TX Wildlife (an endangered species) and sings two of his
songs, “Worry, Worry, Yeah” and “Fair Weather Woman.”
"The Cellar Tapes, Vol. 1" and “All Night Worker” are for sale through
Stricklin’s website.
EZStreet says check it out.
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