{{Short description|American singer-songwriter (1943-2018)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}} {{For|the Australian banker|Donald Neil Sanders}} '''Don Sanders''' (October 1, 1943 – July 21, 2018<ref name=Dansby>{{cite news |author= Dansby, Andrew|title=Houston loses Don Sanders, its musical 'Mayor of Montrose' |url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/music/article/Houston-loses-Don-Sanders-its-musical-Mayor-13098078.php |accessdate=July 25, 2018 |work=Houston Chronicle |date=July 23, 2018}}</ref>) was an American singer-songwriter from Houston, Texas. Due to his unique blend of storytelling and songwriting he was sometimes called a "folk humorist."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://blog.chron.com/40yearsafter/2010/09/don-sanders-said-farewell-but-not-goodbye/|title=Don Sanders said farewell but not goodbye|last=Campbell|first=Rick|date=September 14, 2010|work=Houston Chronicle|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref> Throughout the years he shared the stage with Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Lightnin' Hopkins, Vince Bell and Janis Joplin.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://donsanders.net/about.html|title=Don Sanders: Storytelling and Song|work=Don Sanders|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref> Sanders was an educator, a musician, a one-time founder of an independent record label, a founding member of KPFT radio, and a writer.
He had the nickname "Mayor of Montrose".<ref name=Dansby/>
== Early music and career == At the start of his career in the mid-1960s, Sanders' style of whimsical, individualistic songs made him a celebrated fixture on the Houston folk music scene.
Sanders began composing music around 1963, when he was a student at the University of Houston. When he graduated in 1965, Sanders decided to pursue music full-time.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|title=Don Sanders: Leprechaun Folkie|date=April 13, 1975|work=The Houston Post}}</ref> Soon, he was working and performing at Anderson Fair Retail Restaurant, Liberty Hall, Sand Mountain Coffee House, The Old Quarter, and a number of other venues around town. It was in these places Sanders began to associate with peers such as Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, and the legendary Townes Van Zandt. In the 1970s–1980s, Sanders took to the road, playing music at college campuses across the country.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.rice.edu/resources/doc/nb/image/v2:14DB39C1C40322B4@EANX-163B9895AAC42C19@2443608-163B467EE20F2185@64-163B467EE20F2185@?p=AMNEWS&hlterms=don%3B%20sanders|title=They teach creativity|last=Reed|first=Pat|date=April 9, 1978|work=The Houston Chronicle|access-date=April 4, 2018}}</ref>
Sanders started his own label, Mean N' Low Records, in 1972 so that he could release his own albums, a self-titled 12", "Extended Play," and "Limited Edition."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://digitalprojects.rice.edu/houston-folk-music-archive/exhibits/show/don-sanders/biography|title=Don Sanders Biography|last=Guthrie|first=Sharon|year=2017|work=Houston Folk Music Archive|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref> Around this time he also assumed the role of "Zany Donny Jo Deejay" on the Houston radio station KPFT, where he put on a weekly radio show that featured 'musical comedy songs', his own music, and songs produced by his peers.<ref name=":2" />
In the spring of 1977 Sanders participated in an artist-in-residence program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Sanders at A&M|last=Lovett|first=Lyle|date=September 13, 1978|work=The Battalion}}</ref> Through this program Sanders taught at the Gatesville School for Boys and a Houston area high school, teaching the creative concepts of music and songwriting to schoolkids. This shift in his career was rooted in a desire to make a more stable income, to benefit children as an educator, and to explore a new style of his own music that was "more musical and poetic."<ref name=":3" />
== Later music and career == Sander's later albums include "El Mosquito in My Kitchen" (2006) and "Limelight" (2015). In 2010, Rock Romano aka Dr. Rockit, owner of Red Shack Studios, helped Sanders digitize many of his works recorded on vinyl into versions now available on large-scale streaming sites such as Spotify.<ref name=":0" />
For a long time, Sanders was a recognizable face onstage at the Kerrville Folk Festival, another influential hub for exchange between musicians in and outside of Texas. There was an intricate network of influence that existed between the work of artists such as Sanders, who stayed fairly local for most of his performing life, and those such as Lovett, who went onto stardom. An interview with Sanders and one of his songs, "On the Southern Coast of France" are featured in a documentary about Anderson Fair Retail Restaurant, ''For The Sake of the Song''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-film-song/song-pays-warm-tribute-to-texas-troubadours-idUSTRE62M0BB20100323|title="Song" pays warm tribute to Texas troubadors|last=DeFore|first=John|date=March 22, 2010|work=Reuters|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref>
In the 2000s, Don returned to the world of education as a storyteller-performer. He is known for his story and song performances in hundreds of schools, theaters, and festivals throughout the Southwest.<ref name=":1" /> His performances combine bilingual education (Spanish and English), social and historical connections, and language arts curriculum (folklore, story, rhyme).
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/97795/wrc08557.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y Don Sanders Oral History Transcript] (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University) * [http://digitalprojects.rice.edu/houston-folk-music-archive/exhibits/show/don-sanders/biography Don Sanders Biography in Houston Folk Music Archive] (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University) * [http://digitalprojects.rice.edu/houston-folk-music-archive/ Houston Folk Music Archive] (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University) * [https://woodsononline.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/don-sanders-collection/ Don Sanders Collection Post] (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University) * [http://archives.library.rice.edu/repositories/2/resources/1037 Guide to the Don Sanders Collection] (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University) * [http://donsanders.net/about.html Don Sanders Website] * [http://donsanders.net/donsblog.html Thinking Out Loud: Don's Blog] * [https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/donsanders El Mosquito in My Kitchen]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Don}} Category:1943 births Category:2018 deaths Category:Songwriters from Texas Category:American folk singers Category:Singers from Houston