Duane Propes: A part of personal history

Published 10:02 am Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Little Texas Bassist Duane Propes still remember listening to a radio station in Longview, Texas, as a child when he heard “Carry on My Wayward Son” for the first time.

Duane Propes

Duane Propes

“It just blew my mind,” he said.

Propes was recently watching a documentary on The Eagles and the members started talking about the connection fans have to their music. Many can remember the first time they heard a song or associate music with events in their life.

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Now, Propes is proud to see many fans have a similar connection to Little Texas songs, especially to the song “What Might Have Been” of the band’s album “Big Time.”

“That song impacted so many people on such a personal level,” Propes said.

The song focuses on a former lover and not being able to change the past and know what the relationship could have become. A popular music video features a man and his son visiting the boy’s grandfather in a nursing home, with flashbacks to the grandfather’s lost love during World War II. Toward the end of the video, the man is walking through the nursing home when he sees a woman he recognizes as his lost love.

Many fans have told Propes and the band how that song is tied to memories of loved ones, failed relationships and other experiences.

“Somehow that song connected in a way that we never thought it could,” he said.

Propes recently asked fans to share their memories of hearing the song for the first time on the band’s Facebook page and received dozens of responses. Many people replied saying they listened to it while getting over a break-up. One said she was “working in a nursing home, during lunchtime, crying my eyes out over the coincidence of the video to my location.”

That song, Propes said, meant many different things to different fans and had an effect beyond what the band could have ever imagined.

“In that case, the timing was perfect,” Propes said. “It just worked.”

Little Texas and Propes are particularly proud of their connection to fans.

“It’s mind blowing,” he said. “It’s exactly what we wanted it to do.”

Propes said the song came from a very personal place, but means something different to each fan. But, all bands hope their music will connect with people.

Many of their other songs have stuck around, too.

“You want those songs to sit around and be a part of somebody’s personal history,” he said.