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Country musician awaits moment of fame
By Mary Brase
The Telegraph
September 27, 1990
After surviving two wives named Sara and writing 753 songs, Les Reader thinks he knows something about country music.
"Life inspires the songs, and I've had quite a life," said the 39-year-old Roxana man who began studying music theory only after he came back from Vietnam.
"I'm a little radical, out of the '60s," he admits, preferring his hair long and loose and his view through an ever-present pair of dark sunglasses.
"I always wrote songs. I wrote them down and sang them. I never played guitar in the beginning."
Reader said he wrote so many songs since he was a kid, he has a drawer full. Some of the have been published through his own company, Sara Publishing. Five are on records.
"With two wives named Sara, it just seemed an appropriate name. I haven't found the third Sara. She may be the charm," he joked.
Reader said he threw the songs in a drawer as he wrote and only took them out to play one in a while so he wouldn't forget.
The music is the easy part, more of a gift or a talent. Trying to turn the songs into hits has been tougher, he said.
Reader tried a band first - four of them. He and friends played his music on weekends in local bars trying to be heard.
He played with the Zigzags, Tequila Sunrise and the Cost of Living.
"We played out of the Edwardsville circuit," he remembered.
He's part of the Hometown Few now - three musicians who have played together so long they are lasting friends. Don Mitchell of Wood River does steel, bass, banjo or anything with strings. Gary Will of Jersey County is lead guitar and bass. Reader adds guitar and vocals.
"Bars are fine training ground, but you can't get buried in it. There's no future there. You're not going to make the money," he said.
In the last few years, Reader has gone straight to the big country names, hoping to be heard directly.
"Willie (Nelson) has eight of my songs. He asked me for them," said Reader, who met the Nelsons and immediately wrote a song for their new baby born in May.
"Willie'll end up recording one of my songs. He's that kind of guy," Reader said.
Reader also has hopes Brian Wilson will come back and the Beach Boys can record a song he wrote with Wilson in 1981.
"Lovin' You is Heaven" has never been published, but negotiations with attorneys began last year, he said.
"The Beach Boys have the song now," he said.
Reader says he writes about country soul with a rock beat.
"I write about street people. The blood runs free in the hard times of people's lives. The blind can't see the game, but the screams are loud and they feel the pain."
At one time, all Reader needed to live was his music. "I used to take off in the car, play songs in a club and be invited to people's houses. I've met a lot of people and a lot of musicians."
After the playing ended, the musicians would sit around and talk.
Now, he's back home, sucure, and concentrating on the sale.
"I would like to have a hit myself, but I'll try the other avenue. I'd be proud to have people do my songs, but that comes anyway if you're successful," he said.
After years of living and trying, Reader hopes he has what it takes.
"I think I've got more empathy with life and with people. It makes a difference. My music pertains to what people have lived."
Some of his best will be part of a special show on radio station WLCA (89.9 FM) in Godfrey at 9 to 10 a.m. Friday.
The last time his music was broadcast on a call-in show, listeners preferred it 18-to-1 to Bon Jovi, he said.
His latest effort, a tribute to the giants of country music, has been added to the Willie Nelson Hall of Fame. "Country's Living Legends" is about Willie and Johnny and Waylon and Dolly and Chet and all they have given.
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