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Walt Breeland appeared on the Houston
scene from seemingly out of nowhere at
the end of the 1950s, too, first showing up
as co-composer with Paul Buskirk and
Claude Gray on Gray’s earliest recordings
for D in the spring of ’59. By the beginning
of 1960, his name was showing up
regularly in ‘Billboard’ as head of Country
Music Promotions, pushing country
records and performers in the Houston area
and beyond. Walter Marvin Breeland was
born in Mississippi in 1931 and fell in love
with Texas after passing through the state
while in the Navy in the early ’50s. In fact,
while stationed in San Diego, he won a trip
to Madisonville, just north of Houston in
Southeast Texas, after entering a contest
citing the reasons he’d like to live in Lone
Star State. Just when he moved to Houston,
and how he became involved in the local
country music scene is uncertain. His
daughter Laura recalls that he had a Sunday
night gospel record show on a Houston
radio station while he was attending The
University of Houston. His association
with Gray and the versatile veteran
musician Paul Buskirk led to his landing a
1/3 share in
Family Bible
and
Nite Life
when Willie Nelson offered to sell them to
Buskirk and Gray in the Fall of ’59. In early
1960, the Teamster Breeland also penned
a song with Gray about the notorious and
beleaguered national head of the
Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa. Gray couldn’t cut
it for Mercury, but local singer and deejay
Smokey Stover waxed a rousing version
in his stead. Over the next few years,
Breeland continued to promote, book and
manage regional country artists, notably
Burns and Willie Nelson. When Nelson
signed to RCA and joined the Grand Ole
Opry in 1964, Breeland was mentioned in
‘Billboard’ as Nelson’s
“publicity and
promotions director”
but he faded from the
scene soon after. Breeland was only 48 and
living north of Houston in Willis when he
died in 1980.
Just when Breeland began working
with Sonny Burns is uncertain, but he was
still actively promoting Claude Gray until
shortly before Burns’ first session with
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