Cletis Carr

Cletis Carr (born August 4, 1959) is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Carr was a founder of the Pacific Northwest 1970s new wave music band Sneakers before embarking on a solo career between forming other bands such as Big Whiskey and Hillbilly Moon.

Carr was born into a family of professional country music players, including his father Bob Carr who once toured with Ray Price’s Cherokee Cowboys. His uncles Joe Carr and Raleigh “Curly” Cletis Carr also played during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1961 Carr’s cousin Tom Blair with his band the West Coasters had a Top 40 hit with Dollar Bills. Carr’s family would hold annual reunion weekends where musical instruments were set up and family members performed. Carr was born in Portland Oregon, but grew up in Eugene Oregon, after his family moved there when he was eight years old.

After kicking around with various school bands around Oregon, Carr joined a local band called Shaniko, named after a ghost town[1] in Eastern Oregon. A few years, name and personnel changes later, they became The News until they learned that ex-Clover frontman Huey Lewis had just formed a band in San Francisco called The News. They changed their name again, settling on Sneakers.