Blakely making local appearances
Familiar name headlines Plaza & book review club
Mike Blakely will headline at the Plaza live concert series on May 10 at the Plaza Theatre on the Square in Wharton. Tickets are $15 and are on sale now at the Plaza box office, 112B North Richmond Road, or online at www.whartonplazatheatre. org (a small fee applies for online purchases, which must be made at least eight hours before show time). Doors open at 7 p.m.; the show starts at 8.

Mike Blakely, a musician and writer, will be the star of the show at the Wharton Plaza's live concert May 10. He and his dad, Doc," will also present a program for the Wharton Book Review Club on Monday, May 12. His latest accomplishment is an opportunity to work with Willie Nelson in presenting their cowritten Western novel for the big screen.

Blakely, along with his dad Doc, will be the featured program of the Wharton Book Review Club Monday, May 12 at the fellowship hall of First United Methodist Church. (See book review story, Page 5-B)

Recently, when a major publishing company began looking for a novelist to team up with international entertainment icon Willie Nelson, they came straight to Wharton native Mike Blakely. Blakely and Nelson are currently working on their co-written western novel, designed to adapt to the big screen, with Willie himself playing the lead role. The book is scheduled for release this year.

Blakely is leaving large creative footprints across the landscapes of Texas, the U.S., and the world as the author of 15 books and a performing songwriter with six CDs to his credit. Most of his books are credit. Most of his books are historical novels set in the American West and released by major New York City publishing houses. His CDs, showcasing his songwriting and musical abilities, have all been released on his own record label, Swing Rider Records.

As a performing singer/songwriter, Blakely is often accompanied by band members and has enjoyed his greatest successes in Texas and Switzerland, but his talents have taken him many other places as well. He's performed coast-to-coast and border-to-border in the United States and has entertained audiences in Australia, Austria, Holland, Germany, Italy and Mexico.

As a novelist, he has enjoyed national distribution with his books selling in Barnes & Nobles, Hastings, Borders, Wal-Mart and many other outlets, including independent bookstores everywhere. He is winner of the Spur Award for Best Western Novel, given annually by Western Writers of America, a national organization of professional writers.

Blakely, the son of "Doc" and Pat Blakely, grew up in Wharton County, cowboying on family ranches by the time he was six. He learned to play the guitar at age eight, taught by his musically-inclined father. He started training horses as a teenager, about the same time he began writing songs and dreaming of writing novels. He performed in two dance hall bands in high school and caught a chronic case of honkytonk fever.

After high school and a hitch in the United States Air Force as a helicopter mechanic, he attended the University of Texas at Austin, and graduated with a degree in journalism. Setting aside his career as a performing musician for a while, he concentrated on writing freelance magazine and newspaper articles, racking up hundreds of by-line credits. His writing career shifted from journalism to fiction after the publication of his first novel

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With his career as a novelist established, Blakely again turned his attention to musical endeavors, deciding to concentrate on performing and recording his own compositions. He bought a horse ranch near Marble Falls, Texas, and had the good fortune of meeting songwriter John Arthur Martinez. Blakely and Martinez began a songwriting partnership, composed numerous songs together, and landed cuts on major record labels such Arista and Dualtone.

Though he made a few trips to Nashville to pitch songs, he became quickly disenchanted with the major-label country music business, and decided to focus on recording and performing his own songs for his own fans through the establishment of his independent record label, Swing Rider Records. In 2002, Luckenbach, Texas, Inc. contacted Mike about establishing an annual music and book festival. Working with Luckenbach manager Neal Brown, a veteran promoter on the Texas music scene, Blakely put together a unique gathering of Texas authors and musicians - Mike Blakely's TexAmericana Fandango. Now in its fifth year, the Fandango has proven a success from the very first year and has attracted thousands of fans to the legendary Texas venue.

Blakely has served as president of Western Writers of America (WWA) and for many years sat on the board of the Ozark Creative Writers, Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Three of his novels have been finalists for the WWA Spur Award, and one, Summer of Pearls, won the award in 2001 and was also a finalist for the Violet Crown Award given by the Texas Writers League.

His dual career as novelist and performing songwriter doesn't leave him much spare time, but he enjoys his ranch near Marble Falls and likes to ride and train horses, hunt and fish and travel.

Wharton County Born & Raised

Blakely, the son of "Doc" and Pat Blakely, grew up in Wharton County, cowboying on family ranches by the time he was six. He learned to play the guitar at age eight, taught by his musically-inclined father.