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Country singer Doug Supernaw was born in Bryan and raised in Inwood Forest in Houston. The breadth of his recording career fell between 1993 and 1999, a short span of time speaking of an unrealized country music traditionalist’s great promise.
Supernaw arrived in the early ’90s with a rich, tired tenor who broke perfectly into songs full of wrestling. He had a No.1 single in “I Don’t Call Him Daddy” and sales of over half a million for his debut album, “Red and Rio Grande”. But struggles with mental illness, drug addiction and the law drained his career, leaving him down but ready for a possible return.
This return never came. Supernaw died on Friday, nine months after being diagnosed with lung and bladder cancer. He was 60 years old.
Richard Landis, who produced Supernaw’s debut album, called him “a truly colorful free spirit”.
Supernaw’s songs on streaming services such as Spotify offer limited evidence that he was a shining light of a 1990s neo-traditional country music movement. “Red and Rio Grande” can be streamed, and the record still sounds as comfortable today as well-worn boots: its low-rise but expressive voice, telling tales of characters doing their best with violin and music. steel pedal at a time when traditional country music has remained connected to the genre’s historic past. Her third album, “You Still Got Me”, can be released. But “Deep Thoughts of a Shallow Mind” is not available. These three albums represented the promising start of Supernaw’s career.
He released “Fadin ‘Renegade” in 1999, an album title that seems prescient and tragic two decades later.
Supernaw came of age in the 1970s, where he clearly absorbed the sound of country hitmakers like Gene Watson. At Eisenhower High School his interests ranged from golf to music, and he was the first to earn a college scholarship, although the school was not for him and he dropped out of St. Thomas University.
He worked in the oilfields to earn money while writing songs in his spare time and playing shows on weekends. Supernaw bet on himself in 1987 and moved from Houston to Nashville, taking a job as a writer. Music City didn’t offer much traction, so he returned to Texas and started a honky tonk band, which garnered enough attention to sign him to an RCA affiliate that released “Red and Rio Grande.” “.
The album was a collection of earthy, rooted songs that blend a coarse Texan sensibility with top Nashville instrumentalists. Supernaw wrote or co-wrote four of the 10 songs. His rendition of Aaron Barker’s “Honky Tonkin ‘Fool” scratched the bottom of the country singles chart in 1993. Later that year, one of his co-writings, “Reno,” rose to No. 4 and fame was assured.
Kenny Rogers cut “I Don’t Call Him Daddy” in the late ’80s, but Supernaw found a painful resonance in the song of a divorced father talking to his son, who doesn’t care about his new boyfriend. his mother. And he took the song to the top of the country charts.
Landis oversaw Supernaw’s early successes. He met the singer at a country music seminar in the early 90s and was struck by the musician’s confidence.
“Out of nowhere this tall, tall guy wearing a cowboy hat walked up to me and said, ‘Are you Richard Landis?’ He said, “I just came from. . “. – he mentioned how little fluff he was – “just to meet you.” And I thought, ‘Here is a bull again.’ But I asked what I could do for him.
Supernaw gave him a demo tape. “I was impressed,” says Landis. “Not just with her voice, but with her handwriting.”
Landis had connected Rogers with “I Don’t Call Him Daddy” and thought the song would suit Supernaw. They tried to make the song sound right but failed, but with an hour of recording remaining they tried the song again. “I knew Doug was at his best with great lyrics and a bit of Crown Royal,” he says.
At a label party celebrating the song’s success, Landis said, “Doug put his arm around me and said, ‘Good call.'”
Supernaw’s next two albums would yield several more hits, although only “Not Enough Hours in the Night” in 1995 came close to the top of the charts, reaching No. 3. His 1995 album, “You Still Got Me Included “She Never Looks Back,” written by Nashville songwriting legend Jim Lauderdale with Frank Dycus.
“Doug was a strong presence on and off the stage,” Lauderdale said Friday. “I loved his voice. (We) were elated when he cut “She never looks back,” and he really did it.
In 1999, Supernaw was alone, recording “Fadin ‘Renegade” for an independent label. By this point, Supernaw’s personal life had started to fall apart, a long and tormented process documented in detail by writer John Nova Lomax, who tracked down the singer for a story that appeared in the Houston Press.
Supernaw’s erratic behavior has led him to jail and court far more often than a recording studio. Public intoxication, possession of marijuana, non-payment of child support and assaulting a police officer are just a few of the charges against him.
But some in the industry remembered Supernaw more gently.
After Supernaw recorded the Lauderdale song, “he found us and sent us both gifts, which is very rare for an artist,” Lauderdale said. “I was touched by his kindness and thoughtfulness. He had a warmth and an openness that was real.
In the 13 years since the Houston Press story was published, Supernaw has performed a few shows, suggesting he was putting his career back in order. An anthology of his music was released in 2017, offering hope for new music. But earlier this year, he announced he had cancer. A month ago, his wife said on Facebook that he had entered hospice care.
Supernaw’s passing comes a day after the Country Music Awards, often labeled as “Country Music’s Biggest Night”. But the traditionalism that has run through his music would have made Supernaw an outsider to modern country music, which stands at a crossroads like he does every few years. The accusations that country music has gone pop are almost as old as country music itself. But Supernaw’s short and successful career is a reminder of the value one finds in embracing aspects of a decades-old tradition.
“The road of a country singer has a lot of twists and turns,” said Lauderdale, “but Doug came home with inner strength and the good love of his family, friends and fans. He shared this big heart until the end.
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