Success surprises Fender

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34105, 18 March 1976, Page 10

Success surprises Fender

After 20 luckless xears on the club and beer hall circuit. Freddy Fender hun« up his guitar and. in despair, became a motor mechanic.

But it only took one country song. "Before the Next ’leardrop Falls.” to change all that.

Fender is to tour New Zealand next month and will appear at the Christchurch Town Hall on Thursday, April 8. "I felt there’s no great American dream for this exChicano emigrant farm worker.” said Fender. “I’d picked too many crops and too many strings.” Fender. 37. had had his chances. Like in early 1960. w hen he cut a hard rock single, “Crazy, Crazy, Baby.” It went to the top of

the pop charts in Texas and was looking good elsewhere. ’ Everything went beautifully until May 13. 1960. a Friday.” said Fender. He

was busted for grass m Baton Rouge. “I’m not bitter, but if friends ask, I still say the three years 1 had to spend in Angola State Prison was a long time for a little mistake.’’ Fender is from Corpus Christi and is a MexicanAmerican whose real name is Baldemar Huerta. Throughout the bad times, music was his only comfort. No stranger to a recording studio, a friend introduced him to producer HueyMeaux in Houston late in 1974. Meaux, something of a maverick in the music business and the man responsible for B. J. Thomas and Joe Berry, put Freddy through his paces. “He liked my material, what I had written and my singing,” said Fender. “Then he suggested I do a country- number, “Before the Next Teardrop Falls’.”

The improbable happened. "Before the Next Teardrop Fall” was released on Meaux’s Crazy Cajun label in September. It climbed to

the top of the Texas charts — and has been climbing, ever since. "Teardrop” stayed two w-eeks at No. 1 on the national country charts, sold more than half a million copies and crossed over to the more lucrative pop market. “The Old Man upstairs rolled a seven on me,” said Fender. “I hope he keeps it up.” Fender, still in a state of disbelief, has been the fortunate witness of a success story — his own. “1 was working as a mechanic, doing dates on week-ends and taking college credits at night. I’d hung up my gloves so to speak. “I figured I knew a lot about life, so I wanted to become a sociologist. I wanted something steady for myself and my family. “Teardrop.” a mellow

country song with a verse that Freddie sings in Spanish. has made him the instant success 20 hard years failed to do.

“My first appearance after the song came out was at Las Vegas with Leroy Van Dyke. I couldn’t believe 1 was there. Just before 1 went on stage the first time, somebody said a lot of celebrities were in the audience. I was trembling with fright.” That was early in February. His next date was at Disney World opposite Tammy Winette. A recent appearance was at Oklahoma City with Roy Clark. In between, Fender was a guest — “it felt like a command performance.” While “Teardrop” has raised him from near poverty to near-star status, he hasn’t become a materialist. Fender still lives in the same $15,000 house and drives the same family car, a ’62 Chevy Impala. His favourite recreation remains surf fishing with his wife Evangeline, and their three children.

“I guess I feel like Lee Trevino when he won his first golf tournament after so many years of hacking aw’ay,” Fender said.