Gary Patrick’s journey has taken him from Alba-Golden to California and back to Wood County.

Though he went to the West Coast with his parents soon after earning his diploma from AGHS in 1989 to pursue his love of flying, he wound up staying and pursuing a musical career instead  that eventually brought him home.

The property where he lives between Golden and Quitman has been in the family for more than a century and has been home at various stages since moving here from Tyler in the 5th grade.

His father, also named Gary, headed west when the construction business hit a slump in the late 1980s, right after graduation.

The senior Patrick stayed gone three years before returning, but the younger Gary stayed for 15 years to pursue a music career that still sustains him today, singing, playing guitar and writing.

After a year in college to study aeronautical engineering, a talk with his father set him on a different path.

He tried a course in music production which showed him that he wanted to perform and write songs, not learn the technical aspects of the business.

There were plenty of gigs and opportunities along the Southern California coast, including a stint helping promote the Wilson sisters’ recording (including singing the parts that their Dad, Beach Boy founder Brian Wilson, had recorded).

Patrick still numbers many friends in California from those days.

The club circuit is a hard life, he said, so he put together a band to have a more stable operating base, playing corporate and upscale events in Las Vegas.

They spent 3-4 years as the house band at the Mirage and then moved to the Belaggio.

He said he was grateful for the opportunity but also began looking for a way out.

It came when the housing bubble burst in 2006 and the casinos had to make cuts that included Patrick’s band.

He came home to recoup, which lasted about two years, then headed to Nashville.

“I was ready to do something more for my art,” he explained.

He began co-writing songs with Ken Orsow and found that having another view point helped strengthen his music.

“It made me tap into my heart,” he said.

He also met several amazing musicians and connected with other songwriters who held daily sessions.

He spent two and a half years immersed in songwriting as well as learning how the music business was changing from vinyl records and CDs to digital downloads.

But Nashville is expensive, and Patrick decided he could do everything he needed in Texas.

So he came home.

Texas is also its own entity in the music business, with venues, radio outlets, recoding studios, musicians and more, Patrick explained.

He moved into the house he built behind his parents’ and helps with their caregiving.

His gigs are mostly within a 100-mile radius of Wood County, although every few weeks he heads to the Texas Hill Country to perform. He performs weekly at the Grove in Tyler.

His latest offering, High to Ride,” is one of which he is most proud. It feels more like a debut album, he said, than his sixth effort.

One song melts into another, he said, and all seven of them “belong.”

He said this album is one he wrote for himself, and it is true and honest.

Gary says that with the explosion of various genres of music in recent years – there are around 200 – his tunes best fit into the category of Americana.

Influences range from country to rock and pop – an amalgamation of his favorite genres.

He says his music is not purposefully targeting any genre, and he is unapologetic about that.

And getting his stuff heard is another ballgame entirely. It’s no longer just about touring radio stations, though he does that gladly. It’s also about the algorithms that digital music sites use to determine what people hear.

“You have to cast a wide net,” he said.

His musical love came from his family, starting with his mother as well as influences from his older siblings who introduced him to a variety of music and to the guitar.

To catch him live visit the website garypatrick.love.