Come in, grab an instrument, sit down and talk music. It’s what every musician wants to do with their day and DeWayne Kinnett made that possible for years in Wichita Falls. Dewayne Kinnett was the owner of a small instrument store in an alley off of Kemp in Wichita Falls called Music Express. Whatever you were fiddling with Dwayne had a story about the piece, the history and a summary of the guy who was trying to sell it. You weren’t just buying something unwanted and used… you were buying a slice of Wichita Falls musical history. The walls of Music Express read like a personal diary of North Texas’ tuneful past with pictures of bands like Zeke and The Shadows, AA Bottom, Bigloo, Obscene Jester, Pantera and Bowling for Soup. When you came to his store you felt the musical presence from more than the guitars on the walls.
DeWayne grew up and attended school in Burkburnett, TX. In the late 70’s he started his own record store on Ave H and Kemp. DeWayne also worked at McCartey’s and Great Neck Guitars, along with owning his own music store. His son, Dee Kinnett, let me know his love for all bands, including Dio. Dio? ” He loved all types of music country, metal, blues, R&B…. I go in a room and he’d be listening to (Iron) Maiden,” Dee rehashed.
Dewayne Kinnett left us around 8PM on Saturday, July 2, 2016 at his home with his family there “holding his hand… it was about as peaceful as you could hope for,” Dee wrote when he broke the news to us.
There was a memorial at the Cowboy Church and, of course… we had to throw one last jam for him. Musicians that knew him from 15 to 75 years old gathered at Texas Night Life to pay their respect through music. Musicians of all genres respected him. Mike O’Neill, Shasta Shaw and the Rockers, Larry Lange and the Texas Troubadours, Ben Shaw and many other veterans to the music scene gave their all for an afternoon of fun music in Dewayne’s honor. Dee stated that everyone there basically said the same thing about his father. “Every single person says he was one of a kind, the most genuine person they ever met. He never met a stranger,” Dee reiterate.
There were no strangers at Texas Night Life Sunday July 10th. Just a group of people gathering to pay respect to one the finest music lovers around this part of Texas.
by: James Cook
