Minister of music: Banks resonates passion

Jacqui Streety, editor-in-chief

 

From high school garage bands to jamming with the Maines Brothers, Cary Banks has done it all.

The chairperson of the Creative Arts Department and assistant professor of music has been teaching music almost as long as he has been making it. That adds up to about 40 years.  His life as a musician began when he was 15 years old. He started a rock band first and then a pop/jazz band in Big Spring. In 1968, he moved to Lubbock to study at Lubbock Christian University.

Inspired by songwriter Jim Webb and looking for his big break, Banks moved several times to Nashville, where he says he was kicked around a lot.

After playing in Nashville, Banks returned to Texas, where he played professionally in Dallas. He later moved back to Lubbock, where he played professionally and taught lessons at Jent’s House of Music.

During this time, he traveled with a gospel music/comedy group led by Jerry Jordan, who many remember for his album, “The Phone Call from God.”

After his stint with Jordan, he established his own group, The Free Whiskey Band, and a few songs were recorded and published. During this time, Banks also won first prize in the L.A. Song Writer’s Showcase.

Most notably, Banks joined up with the Maines Brothers in the ‘80s and recorded a number of hits on Mercury Records, including “Amarillo Highway” and “Everybody Needs Love on a Saturday Night,” which peaked in the Top 25 in 1985. He stayed with the band until he came to teach at SPC in the spring semester of 1993.

In serving as an instructor of music and the chairperson of the department, Banks finds that most of his time is spent on his involvement with “Thursday Night Live” (TNL), which he directs. TNL began in Feb. 1995, after the Country Caravan (a touring ensemble) disbanded, in an effort to bring people to the campus.

He feels that it is “absolutely” important to have musical events that can be delivered by the students to the community. In the eyes of Banks, the SPC music programs are greatly distinguished from other schools that have programs like it.

“From day one, it’s been hands on for the students, and that is what separates us from others,” said Banks.

Music is obviously a large part of the life that Banks leads.

“Music is my life,” he said. “Everything I’ve learned about music, I have applied to every aspect of my life.”

And he has found that the groundwork for his music and his life is his relationship with Jesus Christ.

He says, “My life revolves around my faith in God, which is the foundation that everything in my life is built on.”

It is understood that music is a universal form of communication, and Banks believes that “it is the best way that we communicate.”

He also seems to believe that music brings many different classes of people together. When asked about how he felt music affects society, he replied, “In the early ‘70s you would see hippies, cowboys, rednecks, intellectuals and charasmatics of all colors at a Willie Nelson concert.”

While music has the ability to slash societal boundaries, it also seems to enrich life. If, one day, music were to cease to exist, Banks says, “My life would be colorless, tasteless and devoid of feeling.”

You see, Banks is a lover of music and always has been.

“I’ve always loved music,” he said. “I can only count on one hand, the gigs that I didn’t enjoy.”

From touring with the Maines Brothers to playing with the TNL crew, Banks’ blatant display of passion for song is what many recording artists seem to lack. But that is just what Banks and his fellow instructors in the Commercial Music Department strive to teach.

“We try to harness and direct passion,” Banks said. “What our students lack in knowledge, they definitely make up for in passion.”

Aside from the fervor of music that lives deep inside Banks, it is his attitude, more than anything, that makes him the enjoyable person that he is.

Banks says, “We are all sociologists, and being a musician is about being a people person.”

It is a bit complicated to describe the man that Banks is outside of instruction. When he isn’t teaching music or guiding a student to become a better artist, it can be said, simply, that he is a nice guy. And niceness is such a rare quality these days.

It isn’t every day that one can find someone who says “hello” to strangers and smiles at passersby, but that is a feature that one can always find in the Commercial Music Building.

There is something quite striking about Banks that is almost inexplicable. When asked what he would want others to know about him, he replied an honest and heartfelt answer that probably couldn’t be found most places outside the SPC campus.

“I want people to see Christ living in me,” Banks said. “My sole purpose in life is to do the will of God.”

Spirituality, compassion and a love for music that reaches far beyond any boundaries is what makes Banks the great man that he is.