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Nikki Laoye performing with Kirk Franklin at the Experience concert, Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos Island, Lagos. Photo by Pastorflex. .

Top 10 Iconic Singers from Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth has always had a wide variety of musical talent in many genres. From many early singers’ influence in country music, and then gospel music, the two genres have thrived ever since. Mentioned earlier, Ornette Coleman had a significant impact on the production of jazz music – creating it, and helping others do the same. Rock bands such as Toadies and Bloodrock helped begin a craze of rock-loving fans.

1. Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman. Photo by Nomo michael.

Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Coleman began his musical career playing in local R&B and bebop groups, and eventually formed his own group in Los Angeles featuring members such as Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. In 1959, he released the controversial album The Shape of Jazz to Come and began a long residency at the Five Spot jazz club in New York City. His 1960 album Free Jazz would profoundly influence the direction of jazz in that decade.

2. Townes Van Zandt

John Townes Van Zandt  was an American singer-songwriter. He wrote numerous songs, such as “Pancho and Lefty”, “For the Sake of the Song”, “If I Needed You”, “Tecumseh Valley”, “Tower Song”, “Rex’s Blues”, and “To Live Is to Fly”, that are widely considered masterpieces of American songwriting.

His musical style has often been described as melancholy and features rich, poetic lyrics. During his early years, Van Zandt was respected for his guitar playing and fingerpicking ability.

3. John Carter

John Wallace Carter was an American jazz clarinet, saxophone, and flute player. He is noted for the acclaimed Roots and Folklore series, a five-album concept album set inspired by African American life and experiences. In the 1970s Carter became well known on the basis of his solo concerts. At New Jazz Festival Moers in 1979, he and the German clarinet player Theo Jörgensmann performed on three days.

Afterwards Carter received complimentary reviews and wide recognition from around the world. He and Jörgensmann met again in 1984. The program of the Berlin JazzFest was built around the clarinet. After Carter’s solo performance, he and Jörgensmann also played together.

4. Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson. Photo by vagueonthehow from Tadcaster. .

Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American singer, songwriter, author, and television personality. She rose to fame after winning the first season of American Idol in 2002, which earned her a record deal with RCA. Her debut single, “A Moment Like This”, topped the US Billboard Hot 100, and became the country’s best selling single of 2002.  She shifted to pop rock for her second studio album, Breakaway (2004).

Supported by four US top-ten singles – the title track, “Since U Been Gone”, “Behind These Hazel Eyes”, and “Because of You” – Breakaway sold over 12 million copies worldwide and won two Grammy Awards.

5. Kirk Franklin

Kirk Dewayne Franklin is an American choir director, gospel singer, and songwriter. He is best known for leading urban contemporary gospel choirs such as The Family, God’s Property, and One Nation Crew (1NC) among many others.

He has won numerous awards, including 16 Grammy Awards. Variety dubbed Franklin as a “Reigning King of Urban Gospel”, and is one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

6. Ray Sharpe

Edward Ray Sharpe is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His best-known single was “Linda Lu”. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Sharpe grew up influenced by country as well as blues music.

He learned guitar, influenced by Chuck Berry records, and in 1956 formed his own trio, Ray Sharpe and the Blues Whalers, with Raydell Reese (piano) and Cornelius Bell (drums), and they became popular playing rock and roll in Fort Worth clubs. His recording career started in Phoenix, Arizona in April 1958, when Lee Hazlewood produced his single, “That’s the Way I Feel” / “Oh, My Baby’s Gone”.

7. Katy Moffatt

Photo by Unknown. .

Katherine Louella “Katy” Moffatt is an American musician, lyricist, composer, vocalist. She is the sister of country singer-songwriter Hugh Moffatt. Moffatt became impassioned by music as a child growing up in Fort Worth, Texas.

She was captivated by Broadway show tunes, the Beatles, and the Motown sound. Like many American singer-songwriters, Katy Moffatt is honored both abroad and in her own country. She regularly tours Europe and the U.K.

8. Daniele Alexander

Daniele Alexander is an American country music singer. She began her career as a teenager, performing jazz initially before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada to sing in casinos.

She also charted in the Top 20 on the Billboard charts with the single “She’s There”, a single from her 1989 Mercury Records album First Move. A second album, I Dream in Color, produced a duet with labelmate Butch Baker in “It Wasn’t You, It Wasn’t Me,” the last chart single for either artist.

9. Johnny Dowwd

Johnny Dowd is an American alternative country musician from Ithaca, New York. Typical of his style are experimental, noisy breaks in his songs and strong gothic (in the sense of dark and gloomy) elements in the lyrics as well as in the music.

Although his early albums were most celebrated in the alternative country community, he has never quite fit into any particular genre. ,As a singer-songwriter, his music is most often compared to that of Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Captain Beefheart.

10. Bobby Day

Photo by Todd Van Hoosear.

Robert James Byrd known by the stage name Bobby Day, was an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and songwriter. He is best known for his hit record “Rockin’ Robin”, written by Leon René under the pseudonym Jimmie Thomas. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, Day moved to Los Angeles, California, at the age of 15.

His first recording was “Young Girl” in 1949 im the R&B group The Hollywood Flames, released in 1950 on the Selective Label. In 2012–2013, his uncharted recording, “Beep-Beep-Beep”, was the musical soundtrack for a Kia Sorento television commercial shown nationwide in the U.S.