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Mistynmusic webpate
IT'S BEEN A GREAT 55 YEARS!!
My life came full circle that day in the year 2000 when Pat Whitefield called me from Austin about singing again.  "Me?" I thought,  "Could I even dare to think...  Why, I was too old...I hadn't sung on stage in more than 17 years. I sang for my students, in church ... Why, I was a teacher now who would live and die with chalk dust on my hands.  
Could I?...   Should I?...    Would I?...      
No, it's not real fur.
Caution Readers:  The GREEN text tells the story.
London, being the center of the music industry in Great Britain, meant that meeting and/or singing with some of the great names of that time was common:  Doris Troy, P. P. Arnold (former Ikette), Calvin (Fuzzy) Samuels, bassist for CSN&Y, Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens, Freddie King, Trapeze, Bill Withers, Stevie Winwood, The Yes Band, Bryan Adams, Tony Bennett, Fontella Bass, Hot Chocolate, Osibisa, Jimmy Thomas, the Average White Band hung out at a nearby pub.... to many to name or remember right now.  I joined Quiet Fire and continued traveling throughout the world.
Misty the Teacher
Hardworking and dedicated
My Father, Bishop L. C. Browning, was a great  gospel preacher, a visionary  who had a wonderful voice and presence; he never met a stranger.  His voice was filled with the spirit and people would shout and weep.   My Mother, Ann Browning (I don't dare call her by her first name), was his loving partner and accomplished  classical pianist, violinist, dancer, and singer who played the ukelele and taught us harmonies and all forms of music.  Together, they created a partnership that people still talk about to this day.  I was five when my mother stood me on a chair in front of a microphone.  
Dark skin was "in".   Beneath "The Flirtation(s)" banner reads, "...THEIR OWN ALL COLOURED BAND".  Below are photos of our band members.  Too cool.
My father, paternal grandfather (also a preacher), my mother, me, and Calvalita.
My sister and I sang in the church choirs, but would also spend summer nights under nearby street lights singing the popular songs with our cousins until Momma called us home.
Calvalita and I.  Her 7th birthday party.
Momma made our dresses, Temple, Texas
In Germany with Quiet Fire, and yep! a REAL German Shepherd.
Daddy loved the bowler hat I had sent him from London.  He wore it with his cutaway coat.
In England-
same smiles!
I took piano lessons, voice lessons, dance lessons and played the trumpet in the I. M. Terrell high school band.  Mr. Charles Watts selected me to be our band's Drum Major in my senior year.
Please click on the horse and see my other passion.
After high school, I didn't want to go to college right away, but joined a band and began singing.
Dancing on field as the band plays, "Soulful Strut".
Nineteen years old.
I came home leaving some great friends and better for the experience.  My Momma made sure I stayed by buying me a horse.  I was graduated with honors from Texas Wesleyan, (sang in the college choir,  of course), worked for a law office, a newspaper, a local TV station, a number of community organizations, a health food restaurant,  did TV production at a medical school, was a photographer, a journalist, did a little theater,  owned a video production company, but found my heart as a school teacher (13 years).
In Austin, Tx., I joined Fast Cotton composed of Ernie Gammage(vocalist, guitar), Dwight Dow(drums), Tom Van Zant(keyboard), Cato Walker(sax and vocals, B.B. King's nephew), Danny Galindo(bass), Johnny Richardson(lead guitar) . Jammed  with Jimmy Vaughn, Eric Johnson  and Doyle Bramhall.
In "Purlie", I acted and sang my heart out as Luttiebelle Gussiemae Jenkins from Dothan, Alabama.  This country girl found herself in that role!  Thanks Bob Ray Sanders and Deborah Peoples for believing in me.  
I worked with "The Sparkles".  Texas' best known party and conscert band.
Won 1st in State Collegiate journalism competition for feature story on the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Needless to say, I have tried to live my 55 years with as much energy and passion as I could muster.  Sometimes, it's brought me joy, sometimes sorrow, but as my friend, Pix, found out about me, "There's never a dull moment".
Later, Ernie and his family moved to England.   I received a post card from him telling me how wonderful it was and to get over there right away.  Well, of course, Momma said no, but I was determined.  I sold a litter of Weimaraner  puppies and a black saddle,  got my plane ticket and I was on my way to England.  FYI: Student fare less than $200 - ROUND TRIP!
SmokeHouse bandmates-Tom Van Zant, Nathan Hanners, and I at The Austin Record Convention, 2002.
Doris and I in Dallas.  I am now a teacher.  She is starring in her musical, "Mama, I Want To Sing."
And then - that PHONE CALL from Austin.  
I had buried these memories in tattered books.  Thanks, PW, for that call because for better or worse music is again in my life and heart and has become a greater passion than before.  
The unidentified photos that frame the Quiet Fire picture are from the left: Quiet Fire rehearsal, England; on job at the medical school, Texas; my friend Pete Filleul, keyboard player with the O Band and later Climax Blues Band, England.  On the right: band members and I with a horse seen by the roadway, England; singing, "Hallelujah Freedom"; my long time friend, Linda Crear, at the airport with my family. Note: this lady knows more about me than my Mother did.  Please don't ask her about the time back in 1969 when this club owner was rude to us and I picked up a...; a piece in Fort Worth paper of my homecoming; my friend, Jonathan (Pix) Pickford, England.  I sang on their first album. It is so beautiful; on the job when I did videography, Texas.

The new page is called "BlueNotes".  You will find news and updates on musicians that send me their info, and some of the things that I am doing.

Ernie and family returned to the U.S., but I remained.  Doris Troy ("Just One Look") told me of an opening in an American female singing group.   I auditioned and joined  "The Flirtations".  We traveled Europe and would have made So. Africa, but there was a race quota.  Our manager, Dick Katz ( who also managed Dusty Springfield and Englebert Humperdink)  called me "The Real Flirtation".  I've always wondered why!  I was a country girl and the "diamonds and big car image" just didn't fit.

 

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