Jhan Beaupre

I love music!

As long as it’s good music I’m not particular about the style, but most of all I love guitar driven music. At age 10 my first guitar was a cheap Sears and Roebuck, a less than desirable instrument as guitars go. But by the age of 16 I had a Les Paul JR and a Health Kit Amp that I had put together with the help my dad. His dream was I would enjoy the project of assembling the amp and become an electronic tech. My dream was to be a rock star. Beatles, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Clapton were some of my early influences.

At the age of 16 we’d put together a little band, Sound Illusions. My cousin Terry Gann was an amazing drummer. Marshall Tidwell was the rhythm guitar player, while he looked a lot like Spanky from the Little Rascal, he had an remarkable ear form music. That left me to take the lead guitar and vocals.

We played and grew up in the same area as great Texas guitar players like Jimmy Vaughn, Stevie Ray and Billy Gibbons. The Cellar in Fort Worth was one of my favorite weekend hangouts and listening to the local groups like the America Blues, which later evolved into ZZ Top.

But life happens. A marriage, then a baby came along, it became harder and harder to work with the guys to keep a band going. Some twenty years passed when my brother in law came by trying to sell a guitar… an electric Silver Tone… how ironic! Another Sears and Roebuck guitar. Only this one was their top of the line, not as desirable as a Gibson or a Fender but still a nice Rock-A-Billy style guitar. I hadn’t owned a guitar in years. Right away I began playing the old tunes of my youth and making up a few songs just for fun.

About that time, on a weekend vacation, I heard about a song contest sponsored by the Austin Songwriter’s Group in Austin, Texas. Entering the contest got me an honorable mention for a blues tune, I was hooked after being introduced to the Austin music scene. The songwriting was on! I couldn’t stop. Not having the time to play with a band, this was the next best thing.

As luck would have it, I meet a young guy who owned a studio called Sounds Great on the west side of Fort Worth. Darren Brown had more talent in his little finger than I could ever of hope to acquire in a life time. With his help, I was able to produce dozens of demos. This lead to a string of awards in various songwriting contest. As a songwriter it was a great learning experience. I started pitching songs right away. The forth song demo made it to a made for TV movie (NBC), Gotta-A-Keep A Rockin’ was used in a flick called Reckless Nights.

There were several small cuts, a country song sighed with Judy Weldon and a gospel song with URL Productions. Amy Lee, while under the management of Raymond and Mary Lee Jacobs, recorded a demo with a couple of my songs with Tim McGraw’s band backing her. As things happen in the music business, often by chance rather than design, Amy is now a rising star on the Rock music scene.

Again, life happens. it’s so difficult to get a song place with a publisher. I felt that I was wasting a lot of time and energy, not to mention the money, used to write, produce a demo and then pitch my material. So I decided that I’d become my own publisher. This gave the birth to Listen Loud Publishing BMI. Sadly, due to “stuff happening”, this pursuit had to be put on hold until now. It’s nice to have a full catalogue of tunes, rather than just pitching my own material and that’s where you come in. We’d love to give yours a listen and perhaps add it to our catalogue for pitching.

I should mention and give thanks to folks who have brought us this far. Co-writers like Olivia Horn, Darren Brown, Ken Lawyer, Fuzzy Faulkner, Roger Stanley and I’m sure there are more that deserve credit. Co-writer and song doctor Ray Sanders. Raymond and Mary Lee Jacobs. DSM Producers. The Austin Songwriters Group, The Texas Music Association, The Songwriters of Wisconsin, and again, Judy Weldon and URL Productions just to mention a few.

Jhan Beaupre
Publilsher
Listen Loud Publisher BMI