{"id":3690,"date":"2019-07-19T16:14:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T22:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theboisebeat.com\/?p=3690"},"modified":"2019-07-20T09:56:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-20T15:56:06","slug":"lyle-sinclair-band-brings-homegrown-traditional-country-music-and-more-to-the-treasure-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theboisebeat.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/19\/lyle-sinclair-band-brings-homegrown-traditional-country-music-and-more-to-the-treasure-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyle Sinclair Band Brings Homegrown Traditional Country Music And More To The Treasure Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LyleThe Lyle Sinclair Band gives Boise and the Treasure Valley a homegrown, live country band. With Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton coming to town for just a few days, it is nice to have someone here who brings traditional country music to Boise on a regular basis. And not just covers—Lyle has several albums out featuring some wonderful original country music songs. The Boise Beat sat down with Lyle Sinclair recently to discuss country music, growing up in Idaho and of course the Lyle Sinclair Band.<\/p>\n

Q: Lyle, how did you start playing music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> I got started in the business when I was in the Navy. I bought a guitar for twelve dollars and wore my fingers out and started playing music. It was mostly country—-we do all kinds of different stuff though. With the Lyle Sinclair Band, we play most of the different local venues. We play the Sandbar<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/span>, the Sa-wa-dee Thai Restaurant<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/span>, Rice here in Eagle, the Eagle Lodges in Boise and Nampa and we play the Lakeview Golf Course one Friday a month in Meridian.<\/p>\n

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I have a great little band, either a duo or a four-piece; and we enjoy playing music. We love to have a good time!<\/p>\n

\"JerryQ: You have a mix of both original and cover songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> Yes we do and it seems to work great. What we’ll do some times is that I’ll do an original sometimes in our show and nobody will know it’s not a cover. They’ll say, \u201cWho did that song?\u201d. It’s just amazing to love to watch people, young people. The live music scene has somewhat dissipated—when you listen to the radio and iPods and things like that and young people don’t know that it’s caused by real people. When we play restaurants and these types of venues, it’s the children than are just totally fascinated that human beings really do this and it’s not just on TV or an iPod or some kind of recording.<\/p>\n

Q: Who were your musical inspirations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> When I first started playing, Johnny Cash was big. Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens—Tony Orlando and Dawn, the Who, Blood Sweat and Tears—I mean there was just an enormous amount, the Beatles had just taken the nation by storm—it was just a whole variety of music and I miss that today because when you played country music like when I was on the road you played everybody that was Number 1. It didn’t matter if it was Motown or if it was Willie Nelson, it was just whoever came up. You were inspired by every one of the writers and singers of that time; and even today i’ll perform a show and I’ll do Johnny Horton and i’ll do Johnny Rivers and I’ll do Rawhide. Young people; and I’m talking about grandchildren to me, know all the words to every song we do, from\u00a0Margaritaville\u00a0<\/i>to Mama Tried<\/i>. It doesn’t make any difference! They just love music. It’s something I’ve known ever since.<\/p>\n

One of the most inspirational things that ever happened to me was that I went out elk hunting one time. It was cold and miserable, but I had to come and do something from McCall, which was where we were at in that area and I stopped in a little restaurant. It was in Old Meadows, right at the foot of Goose Creek Hill and the lady there had a guitar and I started playing music. I wound up with a full meal, a full tank of gas in my truck and twenty dollars cash. This was back in 1973 or ’74. That was a lot of money back then! But they love music. People, no matter where you go, love music.<\/p>\n

Q: When you were growing up, did you live in an area that was big in Country Music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> I was raised in Weiser and the biggest thing was the Fiddler’s Festival<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/span>\u00a0once a year. But as far as country, no, it was more of a farm community. We worked at moving spreader pipes and bucking hay—the simple kind of life. We didn’t know anything other than….we had the radio. Now and then we’d see an advertisement and we’d put $3.98 for an album and received it in the mail and that’s the way it worked.<\/p>\n

Q: Tell me about two of your original songs that you particularly like.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> I don’t do a bad song. Every one of the songs that i’ve written are very much a personal thing with me. The first song I wrote was Lovin’ The Night Away. <\/i>That was in the time of Knock Tree Times<\/i>and Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree <\/i>and it was just a love song. It was feelings about emotions you go through as a young person; your first date and all that other stuff. As I grew in the music industry, I find that we are losing that closeness of reality and the stories. We don’t get those any more.<\/p>\n

Every one of my songs that I have written has either been something that’s happened to me—for instance, I wrote a song called Big Wheels<\/i>. It’s an upbeat, rockabilly-type song. I had a friend of mine named Leroy Jenkins, who has passed now from cancer from Vietnam. I asked him one time, \u201cHow did you become a truck driver?\u201d because he was a professional truck driver and owned a travel busy company here in Boise. He said, \u201cLyle, when I was a little boy, my mom bought me a Big Wheels<\/i>. That’s what started the whole thing up. I’d stand on my tiptoes and look out the window and see all these big trucks go by. I wanted one of those!\u201d<\/i>And he eventually grew into that.<\/p>\n

\"\"Another song I wrote was Simple Country Song<\/i>, which is the title of one of my albums. That was for a friend of mine who said he never liked country music until he was stranded in Casper, Wyoming in a Holiday Inn. He said, \u201cI walked into their lounge and there was a country song on the jukebox. I sat down by myself to have a drink by myself, reminiscing; and all of the sudden this person in that jukebox, he said—I swear—lived in my house and went though the same thing\u201d. So I wrote the song around that.<\/p>\n

Every song that I do that I’ve written; and some of my Gospel songs, are either prayers or things that people have inspired me to do. It’s real fun to try to spread that out with everybody. When I play the places I play regularly , when I do those songs I look out and I watch the audience singing the song word by word that I’ve written. They know the songs better than I do! It’s amazing! It makes no difference to me if it’s country, blues, jazz or whatever it is. There’s a story there and it touches the heart of everybody.<\/p>\n