Reviews of the "Courtyard Cafe" CD

"This CD, Like ANYTHING George writes, produces, plays, sings, or otherwise has his hands in, is wonderful. I've known George as an artist, musician, comedian, and a good friend for many years. His talent is beyond description.....GO GEORGE!!!!!" submitted by Roseann Krannich, Ohio

"I just wanted to jot an e-mail and thank you once again for the performance tonight. I really enjoyed meeting you and listening to you perform. You have a great sound, and an incredible talent with the guitar, unfortunately in the music world today that isn't too widespread. You seem to have to have a radio friendly dance sound to be popular other than actually being talented and having music with substance like you and Steve Earle do. Best of luck to you in your career and please let me know when you are coming back through! Thanks for all you do! Curtis" sent by Curtis Crandall, Huntsville, Texas resident and music afficionado

"COURTYARD CAFÉ" is the 2005 release from Galvestonian George Douglas Lee. This live recording features Lee in a solo acoustic performance recorded at the Courtyard Café in Galveston. Twelve tracks containing fourteen songs comprise this project that has Lee telling stories of life in his poignant style. Blues undertones with rock, pop, folk, and country influences make this a diverse project. Lee pens all the cuts on this album and is the sole performer on cuts like "Street Corner Blues" and arguably the best cut, "Maybe Someday." Many of you may have seen Lee perform around the Island, and here's your chance to take home some of the music you're used to hearing. I can almost taste the salt air of the Gulf as I listen to Lee's songs. They remind me so much of Galveston, where I spent so many years. In addition to Lee's new solo career, after many years fronting a rock band, he has other accolades. An accomplished playwright, an author, and an actor, Lee keeps busy since moving back to the Island where he was born. George joins other Lee's of Galveston music fame, like my old friends Gary Lee, Grady Lee, and Mark Lee (no relation). I know a guy named Terry Lee who is an Elvis impersonator, but I don't think that matters right now. Just buy the George Douglas Lee disc and experience a "nuevo-renaissance" heretofore only dreamed of." MYTEXASMUSIC.COM

Next to be released is "Rock And Roll Singer" a retrospective compilation of singles and album tracks recorded in the mid '70's and early '80's. An album of all new studio songs entitled "A Simple Time And Place" is currently in production.

Profile: George Lee is a Galveston BOI (Born on Island 1951), now RTI (Returned To Island 2003). He was musically inclined as a child but grew up anyway and no one could stop him. In college at Sam Houston State University, he began writing songs to pass time while cutting class. Then he learned a fourth chord on guitar and wrote some more. He joined a rock and roll band called “Uncle Jack” and became lead singer. They were one of the few regional bands at the time that could actually get bookings playing original music. In the mid-seventies, Lee recorded three single records as a solo artist. In 1982, he released a record album entitled “Made To Be Played” which was a moderate hit at resale shops, though it did get airplay in Houston and the single “Elaine” did moderately well. Following this, he began writing plays and had 12 of them produced in Southwest Texas. For several years, he owned “The Electric Theatre” in Houston and began getting back into music again. In 2002, a film was produced from one of his screenplays, “Laughing Boy” and he moved back to the Island, but not because of this film. Last year, Lee began learning his material and started performing locally, playing original and classic songs on acoustic guitar, liberally lacing his act with comedy. He writes a humor column “One Day In A Row” for the Island's Parrot newspaper. He is also a Playwright, Screenwriter, Artist, Actor, Teacher and Graphic designer. George went to a party one night and wrote a story about it. The story became a play. It was too short for a feature and too long for a skit. The play became a screenplay which Joe Grisaffi made the screenplay into a movie and he became “Laughing Boy” which gave George a rest. “Laughing Boy” was the first play George wrote. Since then, he has written and produced many more plays but has not been invited to many parties. He holds the distinction of being the world’s most prominent has-been who never was and is unique like everybody else. George is a graduate of Sam Houston State University with a BFA degree (1974) in Commercial Art and Graphic Design with a minor in Communications. He began his own graphic design and advertising business in 1987 and continues to work as a writer, illustrator and indigent. He owned The Electric Theatre in Sugar Land where he inflicted his talents on hundreds of unsuspecting theatre-goers for two years.

Mr. Lee has written over 20 plays and screenplays in the last five years. “Frankenstein - The Monster Musical”, “Wolfbane”, Hotel Desolado”, “The Kid from Jupiter”, “The Wolf Who Cried Boy” and “There’s One In Every Show” have been produced on stage to enthusiastic responses and sell-out crowds. Screenplays by Lee include “Sugar Land”, “Empty Suits”, “Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em”, “Bishop’s Gamble” and “Five Miles to Fifth Street”. Lee is truly a renaissance man at war with the 21st century. As of this writing, “For The Good Of The Family”, his second first play is being considered for production by ETC (East End Theatre Company, Galveston). He would like a wider audience to see his crimes against culture and hopes to be invited to a party. He promises he will not write a play about it.

George is eternally indebted (read his credit report) to Joe Grisaffi for the fine work he did in breathing life into “Laughing Boy” and especially for the perseverance, optimism and follow-through he has displayed in not only making the film, but believing in it and getting it the widest possible exposure. It is a thoroughly professional effort in all respects and he deserves success. Most important, it makes people laugh, which is all that some people have. Comedy is serious business.

If there is a time period longer than eternity, George reserves that frame of lengthy honor in gratitude for his producer, mentor and closest friend Brenda Donaloio, who has made all of this possible, with much more to come!