Greg Cartwright - Early Years

Early Years

Born in 1970, Cartwright was raised in Frayser, Memphis - a neighborhood located on the north side of Memphis. His last two years of high school were spent in the suburbs after his family relocated outside of the city. His father was a factory worker, employed by the Firestone tire company in Memphis.

With his parent's busy work schedule, Cartwright spent his summer vacations and weekends at his grandmother's Memphis home. This is where he was first introduced to musical instruments.

At six years old, Cartwright already owned a portable record player, and was introduced to rock and roll music by his father's record collection, which included a huge catalog of British Invasion albums and other '50s and '60s rock bands. Around this time he also inherited his aunt and uncle's 45rpm collections, which according to Cartwright, included a lot of "oddball Memphis stuff you wouldn't hear on the radio." After becoming exposed to music, Cartwright began writing songs and forming bands as early as seventh grade.

By his teens, Cartwright was becoming drawn to other, more abrasive and on-the-fringe genres of music. He also began going to punk rock shows at the Antenna Club, a now defunct Memphis music venue. At the Antenna is where he first saw a Tav Falco's Panther Burns show when he was 16 years old. Panther Burns is fronted by Tav Falco, a '50s-style Memphis rocker who blends blues with rockabilly and soul music - a mix that most touring punk bands were not playing in the 1980s. That show nudged him in the direction that would ultimately lead him toward the garage-punk, soul and country sound he is known for.

Cartwright recalled that Tav Falco show in a 2009 interview with Turn it Down Interviews.

"It instantly clicked with me," Cartwright said. "Although it was chaotic, there was definitely a wild, almost punk element about Tav Falco & Panther Burns. Tav was into all the kind of stuff that really turned me on. That was Tav’s thing - blues, rockabilly, country, odd R&B. Suddenly I thought I’ve been wasting my time trying to like hardcore punk and here’s this thing that was in my own backyard that I was totally unaware of. From there on I started looking for more bands like that. Then you get into The Cramps and all of these other things that kind of ride that line, that are really good, gritty rock‘n’roll, but are also on the outside of culture, like punk. So that was a real eye opener. I continued to hunt records in thrift stores and junk shops."

After that show, Cartwright would begin heavily collecting rare garage, country, soul and doo-wop records - and also formed a few high school bands. It was at that point his style began to take shape. Shortly after finishing high school he would meet Jack Yarber and form his first notable band, The Compulsive Gamblers. Cartwright and Yarber would also form The Oblivians in 1993, along with another Memphis musician, Eric Friedl, who now owns Goner Records.