Jerry Williams and the Epics were friends and/or rivals of the Motovators.

Terry Hungerford’s scrapbook contains an ad for Jerry Williams at the Bayou Club, another venue that has disappeared to history. It was located at 5828 Calmont Ave in Fort Worth, now covered by I-30.

When the Motovators split up on September 1, 1965, Terry Hungerford joined the Epics on bass.

Jerry played lead guitar, for the other members I only have first names: James on drums, Mike on rhythm guitar, and Don was their manager. Sam Coplin handled bookings at some point.

They played five consecutive nights from September 7-11 at a spot called Suite 225.

In 1966 the Epics cut their only single: “Whatever You Do” written by Jerry Williams and Don Gilmore, backed with “Tell Me What You See” (the Beatles song despite credit on the labels to Williams and Gilmore). Georgia Lapping and Jerry Conditt produced the record on Brownfield BF-140, and Phil York engineered the session.

Jerry Lynn Williams was born on October 30, 1948 in either Dallas or Grand Prairie, and raised in Fort Worth. Around 1970 he moved to Los Angeles and joined High Mountain. Jerry composed the majority of songs for High Mountain’s album Canyon on Columbia Records, and also the High Mountain Hoedown album on Atco.

Jerry became well-known as a songwriter. Artists including Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded his songs. He died in St. Martin on November 25, 2005.

Thank you to Wm. Lewis Wms. and Andellyn Purvis-Hungerford for sharing this material.