I'm a veteran native Texan singer/songwriter/guitarist who writes story-songs that are dripping with sweat, tears and human emotions that pull you in...and never let you go.
I was born and raised in Shamrock,Texas in the Texas panhandle (pop. 2,000 and dwindling).....where the land is flat and you can see forever....but there ain't nothin' to see. My Mother was one of five sisters...all raised on their family farm.....who went to college and became school teachers. My Dad was chief sound engineer at radio station KPAN in Hereford,Texas in the early and mid 50's until taking a sharp right turn....going to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth,Texas and becoming a Baptist Minister.
Music has always been a part of my heritage on both sides of my family....and I was exposed to all kinds of music as a very young child......in fact......my mother read all the Fairy Tales to me even before I was born and for many years......until my first sister came along. Those poetic brain connections have served me well.....since I was the blessed with the gift of 'thinking in rhyme' continuously.....with musical melodies constantly running through my head.........a songwriter's dream.
I've lived in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, California and Tennessee.......always involved with music and pursuing higher education....but when I first came to Nashville in 1981 as a member of the award-winning band called TEXAS......competing in the Seagram's International Battle of the Bands Contest.....I knew that sooner or later this was the place I truly belonged.
In 1989 I moved with my little family to Nashville.....but it wasn't until 2003 that I met my producer Chip Martin when we played some shows together at THE FACTORY in Franklin,TN. that I realized that he would be the one who could help me record songs that sounded the way I'd always heard them in my head. I had begun writing songs in 1979 and joined ASCAP that same year as a songwriter/music publisher and had over 2,000 songs already written and was ready to share them. In July 2005 Chip and I started recording what we call THE SURBER PROJECT at his studio in Nashville,TN. and as of 2009 we've recorded fifty (50) of my songs with Chip as my producer. That's three...16 song... CD's completed with many more to come.
HEY---GUITAR released in November 2006
WRANGLER released in December 2007
NEIGHBORHOOD released in February 2009
Chip has also become my co-writer and is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist..
a 'true' musical genius/prodigy.....and well as being a really nice guy.......as his Mother says "anyone who has ever met Chip...loves him immediately".......ever since he was born. He's a good friend as well as being my producer.
After spending five weeks in a coma at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville in Jan/Feb. 2000 and being allowed to return to this life...I've been re-born and re-focused on my true life's purpose. Sharing my songs with the known Universe is that purpose and with my implanted
pacemaker/defibrillator as a 'backup' guarantee of my continued survival......I will continue to write and record my songs "until they throw dirt over me"....as my hero and fellow native Texan Kris Kristofferson likes to say. My songs come into this world through me and I am eternally grateful to be that portal to the 'unmanifested'.
Here I am and here are my songs. Listen to my life's story contained in them.
All songs are Surber-Martin productions
Copyright 2005,2006,2007,2008,2009