Broken Heart Store is a catalog of music written and recorded by H.R. Axtell.
H.R. Axtell was born in Seattle, WA on April 28, 1951. His family moved to Mill Valley, CA and so began the path that stimulated his intense infatuation with music, the arts and a love of life in general.
His parents travelled the West Coast, between his grandparents redwood lumberyard in Santa Cruz, CA, to his other grandparents in Seattle, WA. His father decided to try his hand in Alaska. Delivered by seaplane, they found themselves in the middle of the wilds of Alaska. This beautiful, wild and uninhibited upbringing gave birth to a wealth in natural living and a wonderfully healthy childhood that stills carries on throughout the Axtell family today.
H.R. began playing music at the age of 6. He wanted a banjo, but got a guitar instead. He began studying Burl Ives and such. HIs parents, also being of a theatric and operatic nature, exposed him to a large and very diverse selection of listening and he followed Carlos Montoya, Segovia, Dave Brubeck, Eartha Kitt, old R&B, Barbara Streisand, etc., just to mention a few. He developed a taste in music from a very wide range of styles.
In high school, He taught guitar and was noticed by a local TV station and was given 30 minute weekly program he named “Flamenco Fire”. As a high school student, he was still quite young. Speaking of “YOUNG”! Then came the Beatles, Dave Clark, Jimi, Grace, Eric, Jagger, Morrison and his lifetime admiration… Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Using his classical background, he started rewriting present day hits classically. A thousand small bands and then after returning from Vietnam, came his first recording project.
H.R.’s grandmother took a major interest in his music and began paying for these projects as fast as he could write them. It was her passion until she was 93. She was a beautiful woman and his best friend. By this time he was well traveled and got hooked up with the Strawberry Alarm Clock in their studio along with one of Tom Petty’s engineers and bass player, and myself… Perry Hartman. We kicked out project after project. We went from the “Runaway Band”, “Thursday Night Offenders”, to “Paul Axtell & the Clock”, to “The Hopeless Romantics”, “Paul Axtell, Almost Live”, to “The Broken Heart Store Project”. Howard said: “After riding all night on a oily leaky Honda, I arrived for my appointment with Polygram Records; guitar on my back, bio in a folder and a cassette tape. They liked the music, listened to the live version of my latest, studied it for a week or two and got back with me. They said they really like it BUT, I had this rough, almost country sound, that wasn’t the direction they were heading, such as the Skid Row and Guns & Roses sound that they had just signed. So, it was back to the studio again. We restyled a couple of projects to country and sent them to Nashville. got a publishing deal and flew out to redo 5 songs next door to Tom T Hall’s “Toybox” with Pigg Robbins, Jimmy Capps, you name it great players! The next thing I knew, there are 3 major hits with uncanny similarity to the tape I sent to Stella Parton, playing on the radio. I just kept on recording new projects.”
“I created a CD Mfg. Co. and a TV show for independent artists in Nashville. I pressed CDs for Cinderella, Seal & Crofts, Badfinger, Steppenwolf, Ike Turner, and a large number of Country legends. I recorded 4 new projects in Nashville, but “back burnered” my published music to make a living. After years of audio manufacturing, Y2K and China all but wiped us out. Had a cable television show “Music, Music, Music”, which Gaylord stepped in and graciously demanded controlling interest. This was due to us filming our music videos on location at the Wild Horse Saloon and Gaylord wanting to control our airwaves. I folded the program and chalked it up to a very fun and expensive experience.”
“Broken Heart Store” now fast forwards to 2014 and beyond!!
Today, 7/1/2014…. Perry Hartman (Painter’s Dream Productions and our old drummer) and I, have rearranged and remastered all the Broken Heart Store projects. Perry has created a superb, top shelf, entertaining and interactive website for personal and professional purposes!! Entertainment at its finest! The website contains all the songs we were able to salvage from the 70’s through today. Some of the earlier tunes are pretty rough, but the flavor and the memory remains the same!
As a publisher, this site provides ironclad ownership, by copyright and BMI affiliation, so there is no question as to ownership whatsoever. Airtight! So… on with the show we say!!!
Enjoy, friends, family and associates…. Peace