Jerry Donald Fisher is an American R&B singer - Texas-born and Oklahoma-reared - known internationally for being the lead vocal with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1971 to 1975, known to Dallas music fans for his R&B gigs from 1964 to 1972, and known on the coast of Mississippi in Bay Saint Louis as one-half of the husband–wife proprietorship of "Dock of the Bay," a restaurant and nightclub owned and operated by the two from 1976 to the spring of 2005, when they sold it a few months before Hurricane Katrina blew it away.
Pre-BS&T groups
1964–1970: "Jerry Fisher and the Night Beats" 1970–1971: The Jerry Fisher Group, "Cherokee" 1971–1972: Recording in New York
Transition from solo performer to BS&T
Fisher had a sizable following and was considered by one Texas music critic as "probably the greatest white blues singer in the business." When Fisher joined BS&T, he didn’t want to sing all the old material sung by David Clayton-Thomas. He wanted to join the band as a new singer singing new songs. The other members were pleased about that, wanting to move on with new material. But audiences wanted to hear the big hits, so BS&T picked the most requested ones and performed them in concert along with their current tunes. After Fisher joined BS&T, he was offered the opportunity to record a solo album for New Design; but he decided instead to focus on the BS&T. Yet, for him, for everyone, all these changes meant time spent rehearsing and reorganizing instead of recording. In 1971 The band, through Columbia Records, released New Blood, from which two songs climbed to the top 20.
Post BS&T
After leaving BS&T, Jerry and his wife, Melva, spent the next couple of years biking and backpacking their way across the country. Planning on staying on the Mississippi Coast for about six weeks to produce an album, Jerry and Melva never left. On September 30, 1976, they bought the "Dock of the Bay" Restaurant and Nightclub in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. He performed there with his band "Jerry Fisher and The Music Company." Jerry and Melva sold the restaurant to a San Francisco entrepreneur in the Spring of 2005. Hurricane Katrina hit August 29, 2005, and there now is no visible sign of the restaurant. Jerry and Melva were in Colorado at the time of the hurricane.
In an' Outta Da Blues Jerry Fisher and The Music Company, Ramblin' Records
Family
Jerry was born to Virgil A. Fisher and Fay Lucas. He was married to Barbara Ross in 1962. They divorced and he later married Melva Lee Luke who had graduated in 1965 from Bay High School, Bay Saint Louis. Barbara and Jerry had a son, Anthony J. Fisher. Melva and Jerry had no children. They currently spend their summers in Colorado hiking and exploring the high country near their summer place on the western slope of the Rockies. When winter comes, they are back enjoying the islands and the excellent saltwater fishing on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
