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impressed, because he went through to the final, and eventually won the $100 dollar
first prize.

He continued to play weekly in the club where he won the contest, and was surprised
to be given a card, when he came off stage one night, by a woman from Capitol

Records, who asked him to send her a demo.

Back in Fort Worth, he managed to buy himself his own Martin guitar, and put
together his first band, The Mellow

Fellows. The band played some
Skyliner Ball Room, Jacksboro High Way, Ft
restaurants and parties, and
Worth, TX, 1966
eventually found themselves

opening for Jerry Lee Lewis, who
was on his first visit to Dallas.
Although he said they were pretty
terrible, and the sound was equally

bad, “the crowd didn’t know any
better. We loved them and they loved
us”.

They made a demo of “Mean Woman
Blues” and sent it to Capitol, and
although the band didn’t hear from

them, the fire had been lit.

The band changed personnel a few
times, eventually renaming
themselves The Straitjackets, and by

1958 were playing twice weekly shows at the Red Devil Lounge, in Fort Worth.
Delbert was often advertised as the star vocalist in the band, although he was also
playing rhythm guitar, and beginning to pick up the harmonica (especially after
hearing Jimmy Reed).

Their local popularity grew, and soon they were backing the big R&B stars who came
through town - Buster Brown, Memphis Slim, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, and many
others. Delbert learned a great deal from working with these great black artistes.

By this time Delbert had the responsibility of a wife, who he married in 1959, but
later admitted that it was a mistake getting hitched when neither of them knew much
about life. His wife worked as a bookkeeper for a natural gas company, and was the

main breadwinner. Indeed, Delbert later said “hell, I didn’t make any real money
until the late 1980s”. There isn’t much money to be made as a road warrior!

In August 1961 a baby appeared, so Delbert was forced to take a manual labour day
job at Stratoflex (they made high pressure hoses for jet airliners) in addition to his

music. The job did not last long, nor did those working in a department store, driving
a truck or chasing up people who defaulted on their loans.