The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 15

4 I had hoped for bigger things by now like national exposure and a record But it worked out so far By Lorry Coyne ff Jason Williams plays tha harp at Chsx Phillip in Tho Peabodyt Searching for a style of his own il'A By John Branston Staff Reporter not been many solo rockers Belz points out Even Memphis Slim played with a drummer It gives you more sound And more structure Williams has always had a broad often pulling streak of independence He was hurt by the Nashville breakdown and promptly rushed out and i band He says he could made a tape with his own VMMH klMJ UW W1I1U didn't do anything for Jason ego that The Peabody ducks beat him to The Tonight Show 1 While the famous mallards and their keeper were doing their thing on national television a few months ago Williams was playing piano at Mallards The i A lot of musicians would gladly trade the father of Kerrie baby? No way Williamstold him The scoop is at your neighborhood grocery store this week Jason has been seen out on the toWn with The Peabody scene is pleasant enough The ladies lean over his piano and smile The crowds laugh at his jokes accepted there so I can say and do says Williams The out-of-town performers and record people drop in and nod their heads great promise great energy great showman Kris Kristofferson was impressed Johnny agent might book him on a tour A record or video with Jerry Lee is a possibility The Tonigh Show supposedly still is interested The big break is right around the next corner Just like it was a year ago Several months ago Williams did a recording session with Chips Moman in Nashville They spent 12 hours in the studio It was a flop as first-time sessions often are said I keep time with the says Williams asked him who he was producing me or the play original material all day long if he wanted to but he popular enough yet to sell it He driven by money the rest of a big game he invited himself into and going to stay in the rules get too rough or successful" Maybe so but how then to account for his curious statement that wont ever give anybody my best because my best is reserved for Part of him wants to be the next Jerry Lee with a lifestyle to match He jokes about his divorce: my wife left me now got some good material to write Says Belz great fear I have always had of Jason is that he is going to try to outdo Jerry The flip side of Jason however is not Wild Man II but a gentle sensitive sort who lives alone in his neatly furnished apartment with his record collection the pictures of his baby daughter and his bird books The refrigerator contains nothing stronger than cranberry juice There is a saxophone hanging on the wall but Williams play much jazz Who would guess that the other instrument he does play is the harp? Not the harmonica but the nightclub places with him but Williams had hoped for bigger things by now like national exposure and a record But it hasn't worked out so far Eighteen months after he arrived in Memphis he remains a dynamic club performer an entertaining local act and for the most part an imitation of Jerry Lee Lewis Williams even added a footnote to that chapter In the best Jerry Lee tradition Williams and his wife Tammy split up She went back to Atlanta with their baby girl He moved into a downtown loft Last month Williams said their status was but we plan to get Two weeks later he was in the company of a different young woman he introduced as his fiancee They were going house hunting in Hein Park Something else was on his mind too A reporter from a scandal sheet had been in town shooting pictures at Mallards During a break the reporter started asking questions The "story" was you guessed it could it be that Jason not Jerry Lee is Gary Belz Williams' manager and the president of America Records saw it differently says Belz The producers wanted more structure At least play 1 Willi Williams or do it Belz bought him a synthesizer Williams touch it Williams added a drummer at Mallards There have Please see JASON Page C2 By Deborah Young Real Texans eat quiche wash it down with wine CHANNEL CHANGES Below is the new channel lineup including additional channels in effect for Memphis Cablevision beginning today By Mike Royko Tho Chicago Tribune 13 This color denotes new or changed channel white wine with a mere touch of blush from Ste Genevieve Vineyards A special tasting by celebrities of the first bottles of Texas First Blush will be be held at events in Austin Houston and Dallas the second week of I am taking it upon myself to declare the macho image of Texas as being stone-cold dead Let Billy Bob and Bubba keep their snakes kin on wearing their snakes kin September wanted Texans to have a refreshing early Henri Beraabe a partner in Ste Genevieve vineyards said during the warm months of 1 1 late summer when USA MIKI ROYKO MNEY I CHANNEL CNNHEADUNE NEWS WON iNEWVONK home sox OFFICE boots and Stetson hats cooking whole steers on spits bellowing for blood at football games singing about Willie and Waylon ana the boys and remembering the Alamo But all over I have conclusive evidence before me of the wimping of Texas a breathless announcement about a new -wine called get this partners First The wine is a product of a Texas vineyard called Ste Genevieve 4JW kkpmg CNN it would be appreciated the the French have their nouveau wines we felt that Texans should have a nouveau of their own Genevieve is helping establish a new Texas tradition: a thirst-quenching wine made in ISC WMAV MEWEW ESN PLAYBOY MEAN rnxinoftj The announcment out of Fort Stockton Texas says: refreshing crisp and just a little bit effervescent That describes Texas First Blush an yxriting and delicious new j- '71 agipft Please see ROYKO Page C2 -V 5.