Last Will: Will T.

Back in 1990, my friend Matt and I were discussing music, which to be honest, is what we’d do constantly. Matt had told me that he was listening to Chicago’s Steve and Gary show, broadcast on WLUP FM. They had a musician on that he thought I would find interesting. He told me the singer/songwriter seemed like a country/rock type artist who had somehow named Minneapolis’ The Replacements as an influence. The Replacements were not Matt’s cup of tea, but they were definitely among my favorite artists at the time and still are. Kudos to Matt for going above and beyond and thinking of me.

The artist was Will T. Massey.

So I tucked away that for the future and moved onward. Somewhere along the line, Matt and I were at a record store, and I was digging through a cut out bin of cassettes. It was there that I found a promo copy of Will‘s 1990 self-titled debut album. As a preface to a lot of possible musical stories, "I popped that into my tape deck…"

I was fucking gobsmacked from the opening track.

From Send Up the Smoke to A Summertime Graveyard, I was just blown away. During the summer of 1990, I was listening to this tape constantly; so much so, that I would see my nephews, Joe and Adam, playing in the other room while I babysat, and Adam would be lip syncing to Send Up the Smoke as he pushed his Tonkas around. Over the next few years I lost track of that tape and Will T.

In the late 2000s, I had stumbled across an article about Mr. Massey stating that as the 90s crumbled, Will did along with them. He fell off the map. Turns out he suffered from schizophrenia; this rode him into the ground. After years of being gone, in 2008 or so, he found treatment of a sort. He then popped back on the music scene in the south in 2009. His return included a couple of CDs and an Austin songwriter of the year award in 2012.

I contacted him directly on Facebook and thanked him for his songs. I told him that Smoke and You Take the Town had been there for me in multiple situations over many years. That the songs had nurtured me through some difficult times more than once. Will thanked me for loving his art and was glad those songs were there for me. He always closed out his correspondence with:

Peace,

Will T.

It wasn’t a penpal relationship. I wasn’t a babbling fan trying to coat him with unwanted attention. It was just a couple of back-and-forth expressions of appreciation, if you will. A friend once told me that the internet shrunk the world.

and he was right.

I was able to thank Will, as I have been able to do with a few other musical artists as well. But then Will vanished again as quickly as he had popped back up, Leaving a couple of albums and a bevy of songs in his wake.

I recently found a blog from one of his cousins, one that had spent much time with him over the years and misses him deeply to this day. He hasn’t spoken to Will in over eight years. He hopes Will is still out there and does his damndest to keep Will and his musical legacy alive on his little corner of the internet. You can find the narrative here. Buller's Back Porch

He definitely misses Will and there’s some touching stuff here to be taken in. And in my own way, I want to preserve Will‘s music too. Will touched more than a few lives in his time with his art, and it seems from the comments on the blog he still is .

Here is Will T.Massey in his 1991 prime on Austin City Limits.