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Singer, songwriter and guitarist Jay Boy Adams refutes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s maxim that there are no second acts in American lives by having not just one but two notable musical careers. A pioneering roots-rock recording and touring artist from 1976 to 1982, he bowed out of music to raise a family and found one of the top tour bus transportation companies in the music business, and later help guide country star Pat Green to fame as his manager. And then returned to making music a quarter century later with his acclaimed Top 5 Americana chart album The Shoe Box in 2007.

Native Texan Adams released two albums on Atlantic Records in 1977 and 1978, and throughout the 1970s into the early ‘80s spent some 200 to 250 days a year on the road. But the grind of touring and pursuing his musical ambitions eventually took their toll, and he was also intent on being a good father and husband. So he put his guitar down, left the road and quit music. “When I walked away, I walked away,” says Adams.

But then country star Lee Roy Parnell invited Jay Boy to join him onstage at a show in 1997, and his songwriting muse and love for playing guitar and performing returned with a vengeance. He has since toured on George Strait’s 1999 Country Music Festival, headlined the Kerrville Folk Festival and also toured Europe as a special guest star with The Texas Tornados. Following the release of The Shoe Box, he hit the road again as a special guest opening for Stephen Stills. Adams has also joined the Southern rock supergroup Brothers of the Southland alongside such notables as Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie, Henry Paul of The Outlaws and Blackhawk, “Dangerous” Dan Toler of the Allman Brothers, Steve Gorman of The Black Crowes, Bo Bice of “American Idol” fame and other top players. And he’s readying material for another album of his own and enjoying music more than ever before.

Adams grew up in Colorado City, Texas, the son of music loving parents. His future was sealed as a youth at his father’s Chevrolet dealership, where he learned business and auto mechanics and was tutored in the blues and R&B by the dealership’s African-American porter, Dewitt Bender. By his early teens Adam had taken up guitar and played in bands throughout his high school years. His college studies were soon interrupted by music.

Adams spent a number of years honing his craft playing in bands in Houston and then in Midland, Texas with noted bluesman Johnny Heartsman. He also began writing songs, and in 1972 landed an opening slot in Lubbock for ZZ Top, whose manager Bill Ham was impressed enough to recruit Adams as the group’s regular opening act. After four years on the road with ZZ Top, Adams won a deal with Atlantic Records, and hit the touring circuit in earnest again for the next six years, sharing concert bills with such artists as ZZ Top, The Allman Brothers Band, Joe Cocker, Jackson Browne, Marshall Tucker Band, Bonnie Raitt, The Kinks and many others.

By the time he quit music in ‘82, his next career was already percolating thanks to the tour busses he had bought for his own tours and then leased out to other acts when he took breaks from the road. The business he started, Roadhouse Transportation, now boasts a fleet of some 25 custom touring coaches that it leases to such musical acts as Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Sting, George Strait, Santana, Dave Matthews and many others. Adams also met and befriended a young Texas music artist named Pat Green who came to Roadhouse to lease a bus. Impressed by Green and the success he had forged in the Lone Star State, Adams signed on to manage him and guide Green to the next level of his career.

His return to recording, The Shoe Box, was co-produced by Monty Byrom and hit 3 on the Americana Music chart, where it enjoyed a 30-week run and was ranked 7 of all 2007 releases. The Shoe Box also spent nearly two years on the Texas Music chart, where it yielded three Top 10 singles. Adams was hailed by critics for creating “music [that’s] its own genre, mixing folk, blues, rock, and country into an astonishing twelve tracks” (Texas Music Times) as well as for the album’s “damn tasty guitar, simple but brilliant, and… some catchy-as-hell tunes” (Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange).

Stephen Stills also loved the album and invited Adams to open his national tour as a solo performer and join him onstage every night to play some songs together. His return to making music “has exceeded all my wildest expectations,” says Adams. “It is more about the music than ever for me now, and I’m doing it for the fun of it. Musically and creatively, I still have a lot left in me. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. And I’m really having a great time.”

TOP 50 AMERICANA CHART/RADIO CDs OF 2007:

1 - Lucinda Williams WEST -- Lost Highway
2 - Ryan Adams EASY TIGER -- Lost Highway
3 - Kelly Willis TRANSLATED FROM LOVE -- Rykodisc
4 - Son Volt THE SEARCH -- Transmit Sound
5 - Patty Griffin CHILDREN RUNNING THROUGH -- ATO
6 - Marty Stuart COMPADRES -- Superlatone
7 - Jay Boy Adams THE SHOE BOX -- Smith
8 - Joe Ely HAPPY SONGS FROM RATTLESNAKE GULCH -- Rack 'Em
9 - Subdudes STREET SYMPHONY -- Back Porch
10 - Gurf Morlix DIAMONDS TO DUST -- Blue Corn

JAY BOY ADAMS VIDEOS:

Pictorial tribute to friend George McCorkle (Marshall Tucker Band)

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Publicity Contacts:

Mark Pucci or Jill Kettles - Mark Pucci Media (770) 804-9555 / mpmedia@bellsouth.net

Marsha Milam - Milam & Co. (512) 477-0036 / marsha@milamandcompany.com

Label Contact:

Bob Mitchell – Rockin’ Heart/Smith Entertainment Records (817) 946-2108 / bob.mitchell@smithmusic.com