Published: June 29, 2009 08:26 am      

Bob Pritchard and Texas Drifters in concert Tuesday

Layland Museum presents the last Light Up the Night Concert in Hulen Park at 8 p.m. Tuesday, with fiddling by Bob Pritchard and the Texas Drifters.

Friends of the Museum will sell bowls of homemade ice cream to help everyone stay cool. Proceeds will fund reproduction items to go with the tipi being constructed in the First Peoples Gallery, so children may touch and use them.

Born and raised in Cleburne, Bobby Pritchard was the youngest of nine children.

He remembers singing around the house at age 3.

When he was 8, he sang with his brother on KCLE radio and decided to learn to play the guitar. Soon he was performing at school talent shows and carnivals.

In his teen years, Pritchard played in several bands and then formed the Texas Drifters, a band that continues to perform country music around North Texas.

Having mastered lead guitar and vocals, he became interested in the fiddle in about 1975.

He taught himself to play by ear with his late father’s fiddle.

In the early 1980s the Texas Drifters recorded an album called “West Coast Country.”

Pritchard credits George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Faron Young as his musical influences.

Though he has never played in Nashville, he has played with such great country musicians as Joe Paul Nichols, Johnny Duncan, Sammi Smith, Boxcar Willie, Leon Rausch and Mel Tillis.

He has also been a part of the opening act for Asleep at the Wheel, Emmylou Harris and Gary Morris, to name a few.

“The older I get, the more I appreciate that the good Lord gave me this talent — what talent I have — that I can enjoy. I’m just thankful,” Pritchard said.