Today we’d like to introduce you to SHARON Perkins.
Hi SHARON, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I suppose you could say my story began as a teen, when I discovered a love for live music. My favorite place to be at time was around the corner at Johnny’s house where his brother and their friends gathered in the front yard and could often be found strumming on acoustic guitars & singing songs like “Highway to Heaven.” I found my way to my first rock concert soon after that, and that led my brother and some of our friends discovering heavy metal. We managed to go to many local and national shows at haunts like the Cameo Theater, Sunken Gardens, the Coliseum and more. My boyfriend’s brother was Karion’s guy and soon found himself fronting the now legendary Byfist. This led to me meeting many new musicians in the scene.
Fast forward a few years and being over 21, Sneakers – San Antonio’s best & favorite rock bar – had started a thing on Monday nights where the local original artists fought for their chance to perform on those nights. Bands were assigned a specific color on the nights they performed and given tickets in the assigned color. Those were my favorite nights to go, and bands like Pariah often hounded me in the parking, “Coming next week?” And then they’d give me a colored ticket or two. Sometimes, I ended up with colored tickets from multiple bands for the same night. I truly enjoyed experiencing the fresh, original tunes these acts performed.
Back then, San Antonio was hungry for it!! And San Antonio supported the bands, and bands supported each other. If you went to a show, you never saw any bands leave before the last band was done playing, and you always found the last band (along with all the others) in the house for the first one. This was everywhere you went. From the big night clubs like Sneakers to the smaller bars that housed live music. The support from the bands created support from those who came out to see the music. It was truly a beautiful thing!
Imagine my surprise, after being away from that part of the scene for some years & void of Sneakers and their Monday originals, when I discovered some amazing fresh artists and no one was supporting them. Not even the other bands seemed to be. I was speaking to my friend Norma, and she agreed people weren’t giving original artist a chance anymore – it was all about cover bands and tribute bands. She helped me that night come up with a name for my new Facebook page I decided to create for the soul purpose of spreading the word: we still had some really good original artist in this town & you need to hear them!! The name created that fateful night was “San Antonio All Original Musical Talents.”
Me and some of my best friends had recently had a fundraiser for our friend who passed, and my one bestie said she would love to see both of the bands who performed again, so I set out to make that happen. I’d became friends with Kassie Green around that time and offered to assist with her fundraiser since I had things I’d purchased for our friend’s benefit that may help her. So, I asked her how I could get a show at Fitzgerald’s and she gave me a date (to the dismay of the owner who wondered who the heck gave this Sharon Perkins a date!). Even In Death, Year of the Snake, and PARALLAX made up the bill. We worked tirelessly together. Bands sold hard-copy tickets – just like the Sneakers days but minus the color coding. We brought in over 80 people.
Soon (it started the night of my first show actually) I found myself with bands hitting me up, wanting me to put them in shows. AND so, it began. My journey supporting original artists in San Antonio and abroad. Booking them in shows, sharing their music on my page. Jesse, the previous owner of Fitzgerald’s obviously decided Kassie made a smart move because before long I had my own night, “Wednesday Originals,” was assisting in booking acoustic acts and bands in the yard out back (sadly the yard is gone now but we have a new smaller space with a really nice acoustic stage) and working the door for his shows. I also assisted the owner of Jack’s Patio with suggesting like-minded bands for some of his shows and had many of my own shows there as well. I booked where my artist wanted me to place them and found myself easily getting gigs around town. I still feel honored that I became the official booker for the mighty Seance and Byfist, working along Nacho Vara’s beautiful wife Bonnie.
One day in 2017, Jesse decided to sell Fitzgerald’s. My sister, who never really hung out at bars and rarely went to local shows, had gone to one of my shows after I mentioned our cousin was coming. I remember her commenting that night that the bands seemed to really love you. I don’t know if that influenced her decision, but when I told my sister Jesse was going to sell Fitzgerald’s, and she should help me get the venue, she actually agreed to do it, saying I needed to hurry up and pay her off because she never wanted a bar. Apparently, she decided she likes it after all because she stuck with me thru the years.
Having Fitzgerald’s has changed things a bit for me. I can’t jaunt off to other venues around town to do shows; I have a venue to manage. Lots of folks still don’t seem to completely open to experiencing fresh tunes by unfamiliar, non-mainstream bands. The bands themselves seem to have gotten worse at supporting the other bands in their shows. And sadly, we can’t sustain the business off originals alone – there just are not enough with a decent fanbase. Many of our best drawing shows are comprised of very talented tribute bands. EMO has become all the rage. I can’t lie; I truly enjoy these acts. Who doesn’t enjoy hearing some of their old favorites they grew up on? And therefore, I book cover bands and tributes alongside original artists.
That said, I still have a dream to get a lot more San Antonians out there experiencing our local original artists. I still want to get bands to find their way back to supporting their fellow artists. I realize now that in the beginning when I discovered I was building my own fan base and not one for a particular band, that was actually a good thing. Why? Because those people were coming to my shows and discovering the bands I booked. Many of those people then started supporting at least one or more of the bands I booked outside of my events – online, at other shows they were in, etc.. It was a beautiful thing! I am working hard now to get back at it.
Not long before taking over Fitzgerald’s, my sister from another genre, Terri Galvan, invited me to add artists to her ERMC Fan fair. After that I asked her permission to host one of my own with the original rock and heavy metal artists I supported. It was a huge success. I decided to bring it back, and thanks to my friend Kory of Nikoli fame, I have a good name: “Rock-A-Con, a Rock and Roll Fain Fair.” It happened July 11th at Fitzgerald’s and was comprised of seven bands. It was a huge success & dream come true!! I plan to have another like-minded one for a different genre (info to come soon) and repeat this yearly. I feel strongly it’s important that bands network with each other, music lovers can discover fresh tunes, and we can all work together to grow the scene back. I realize times have a change a lot since I started my journey, but it’s never too late to start again. What we need today is to get the younger generation off their phones and interested in LIVE & LOCAL music.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There are always struggles but you just have to do move past them. My mom had the serenity prayer hanging on the kitchen wall, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” As the saying goes, sometimes, you just have to live off a wing and a prayer.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
They say you are never too old to set another goal or dream another dream. Recently, I started practicing a comedy routine. I’ve had some friends telling me I am funny for years, and one day I just decided to get some help from the uber talented and wonderful Jade Esteban Estrada in exploring my funny bone. He added me to a show I hosted at Fitzgerald’s, and I received good feedback. One of the comedians that night even reached out, stating he’d happily put me in a show. I’m a little nervous to move out of my comfort zone (currently Fitz, of course) but you never know what will happen. I feel I have a long way to go before I am half the comedian Jade is – I’m going to be a special guest for a while. Of course, Jade is multi-talented as he is also an amazing actor, singer and all-around entertainer. Did I mention he has also dabbled in writing?
Speaking of writing, one of my passions from a young age has been to write. I self-published a short story, followed that up with a compilation of some shorts I wrote, and have a number of unfinished and/or unedited manuscripts. My hope is that one day in the not-t0-distant future, I actually finish a full fledge novel or two. It would be a hoot to become well-known for that. And really lovely to be able to sustain a living of royalties from my craft.
I always wanted to learn how to play the acoustic guitar, and I suppose that goes back to my teen years, hanging in Johnny’s yard, listening to the guys strum the guitar and sing songs. It just never happened. However, I won a bass guitar a while back, and the awesome gentleman who donated it, Johnny (Juan) said he’d teach me how to play it. I had a lesson with him, and since then gone to a friend Kimmy’s twice now, where I learned a little more. Maybe one day I will actually master the bass and move on to the acoustic guitar. I won one of those, too, but many years prior.
For now, my professional life is in large part the music biz – specifically Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music Venue. They say do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life. I always wanted my own bar, and later that dream turned into a music venue. Thanks to my sister’s help, I am there, and most days it doesn’t feel like work. Whether i am there for eight hours or fourteen, its fulfilling and I get to hear some really great music.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Well, as luck would have it, I already knew a lot of musicians from back in the day and that has really helped me along the way. From booking Sneaker Reunion Shows, to becoming the home for the Psychoholics before frontman Tim Mrack’s untimely passing (R.I.P. Timmy!), to being the booker for the mighty Seance, to a million little things in between, I’d call that some really good fortune.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://fitzrockssa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitzrockssa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saoriginalmusic
