Gary Gene Bolton

“Whatever Happened To Main Street?” That’s the kind of question that stops people cold, unlocking the door to any number of profound memories and contemplations. For Kansas-born singer/songwriter Gary Gene Bolton, the question is a highly conscientious thread that runs like a crystal winding stream through the eleven original compositions of his Domain Records debut, Whatever Happened to Main Street. It’s an album brimming with top shelf material that gets to the blood and marrow of life, and the heart and soul of love. And when one considers the rocky road that’s led to Gary finally fulfilling his life’s dreams of music, you understand precisely why there’s a bedrock solid core at the center of every song. Through this dreamer’s eyes—no matter what—there is always a chance for little things like faith, integrity and romance to never merely survive…but thrive.

“This album is the result of a lot of writing and rewriting I’ve done over the years,” Gary shares. “Whenever I start a song, I always ask myself one simple question: ‘Will anyone care?’ I take a long time with a song…I only write from ideas and feelings I feel strongly about.”

As one journalist so sharply noted, “Gary’s paramount songwriting and vocals derive from an introspective, occasionally shadowy nature.” Gary’s is a deeply personal yet painstakingly finessed artistry suggesting a developmental curve far removed from most common genres of music. The much welcomed high watermarks of passion and honesty are there, yet it’s the intimacy and simplicity that make listening to Whatever Happened To Main Street such a soul stirring experience. When he sings a song about a mother looking down on her children from Heaven, or about assuring his lady she’s the only beautiful woman in the world, you believe him. And believability in these too-often-counterfeit times is a rare and precious commodity.

Reflecting on the thoughts behind one gem from his debut, Gary says, “‘Does A Mother Cry’ is about a boy who's adopted. He had a sense of this, so he goes to find her but it's too late. He does meet his sister, though... Now, this song isn't just about adoption. It's about mothers, women who devote themselves and sacrifice. Children have a strong sense of this kind of love.” Given that summation, it’s no surprise that Gary would also have a heart-tugging song on this album about a couple who tried to stay together through the good and the bad times…“For The Children.”

Like most albums in pop music, there are plenty of songs about the ups and downs of love on Whatever Happened To Main Street. From a man and a woman reminiscing on a missed opportunity for love in their youth (the sweet “Innocent Night”) and new lovers maximizing every minute of a three-day-weekend (the salty “Me and My Baby”) to sadder tales such as a buddy telling you what your wife is really doing on girls’ night out (the roadhouse cheatin’ fable “With A Perfect Stranger”) or another about a fellow who leaves his greedy wife to find true love in a patch of well hidden paradise (the vivid daydream “Pretty Red Haired Girl”), Gary always engages the listener with even handed strokes of down home insight.

The two songs most likely to catapult him into the realm of Lionel Richie’s and Kenny Rogers’ successes are the heart-on-sleeve love songs “Love Of My Life” and the Willie Nelson-esque “You’re The Only Beautiful Woman In The World,” the kinds of sentiments anyone in love longs to hear. And in Gary, they get them with a voice and a poetry they can feel and believe.
“On the love songs,” Gary shares, “I tried to go beyond what most songs you hear about love have to say these days. I tried to go a lil' bit deeper. These songs are about being really loving, deeply caring…and real. That's a Main Street state of mind.”

Deepest of all are the songs where Gary speaks to hope (“With A Little Bit of Love”), fortitude (“Beyond The Darkness,” with its soulful gospel-tinged orchestration that recalls the majesty of The Love Unlimited Orchestra) and the higher ideals of living. These are the songs that open and close Whatever Happened To Main Street on soaring eagle’s wings. And there is truly no justice if the title track doesn’t become an instant classic.

Discussing that song’s inspiration, Gary recalls, “A girl was telling me about her father possibly losing his business during the recession in the early `90s. I stepped outside and the words ‘Whatever Happened to Main Street’ just popped into my head...with that melody. I thought about what I wanted to say about that…idea…then honed it down to verses and choruses. The first thing most people think when they hear ‘Whatever Happened To Main Street’ is that it's about the past. Some people may even say we were a better society twenty years ago. I don't know about all that. In my mind that song is asking, ‘Where are we going? Whatever happened to our ideals and goals?' To me, it's a song about the future. Let's not forget how important dign