Can You Help This Man Find His Long Lost Friend?
I guess some background is necessary here. When efforts started to put Jesse Taylor on the Lubbock Walk Of Fame (or whatever it was), I mentioned that as long as Larry Williams (Junior Medlow) wasn't on there, that the honor meant nothing. From there, a Facebook group was created to keep the idea afloat. I can't begin to tell you how influential he was and I would be doing a disservice to try to write his resume here. I can tell you that he once got out of his "death bed" to go out and play a show. That's dedication.
YouTube
Anyways, from the Junior Medlow Facebook page, I received this note:
I grew up in Lubbock and came of age in the late 60s-early 70s. I saw your piece on Larry Williams/Junior Medlow. I used to play baseball against him up to high school – he had a helluva fastball! Though a year behind him, we went to the same high school (Coronado). I used to hang out with Larry (never knew him as Junior) and a guy named Robert Shaw (aka Bird) who played lead guitar. They had a band that played frat parties and the like through HS – I even filled in for the bass player a couple of times. I can’t remember the name, but they were kinds like rival with “Street Theater”. I knew that Larry would be a good one and thought Bird would make it too.
Bird and Larry graduated in 72 and got out of town for the most part, I graduated in 73. I last saw Larry in Amarillo in late 73 or early 74. When the internet got pretty good a few years back, I tried to find these guys. I found Larry too late, but I checked out all I could on him. I could never find anything on Bird. Last I saw of him, he was playing that Gibson 335 plugged to his Marshall in 74, the last I heard (before 1975), he was in Dallas or Austin in a band called “Sweet Leaf”. You ever heard of him of know of him from his association with Larry, before Larry got on with the Cobras. I tried to find out similar info from Chris Duarte, but he never replied.
It’s a shame that Larry/Junior Medlow died so young, had he stuck around there may have been no keeping him off “Wall of Shame”. I guess some things about Lubbock may never change!
If you know anything about Bird (Robert Shaw), I’d love to hear it – hope it’s not too late on him too. Thanks.
So there you go. If you can help find this guy that would be awesome. In the meantime, take a look at some REAL Lubbock music history, Junior Medlow & The Bad Boys (featuring Chris Duarte on guitar).
http://youtu.be/nDJKo4ebc6g
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