PUNTA GORDA — When Robert Gomes founded Clearwater Records in 2021, the stars were aligned for him to cultivate musicians.
He already had successful careers in music and business. He had contacts in the music industry. He had strong family support.
His interest in music began as a child. The business interest came after he had a family of his own.
Gomes was born in Los Angeles, but his family moved to Fort Myers when he and his twin brother Jack were about 5. They moved to Punta Gorda when the boys were in sixth grade.
Their father, William, taught Robert and Jack chords on a Gibson acoustic guitar.
Gomes said Jack was a natural lead guitar player. “He was amazing at it.”
Even though he also wanted to be a lead guitar player, Gomes said, he “just didn’t have that talent.”
Gomes started playing drums and became a drummer in his brother’s band, originally known as The Wranglers, in middle school. The band stayed together until after high school. Robert Gomes was a member until he was 21.
“That’s primarily how I made my money for a really long time, as a musician,” said Gomes, 63, now CEO of Punta Gorda- and Nashville-based Clearwater Records.
Gomes frequently got calls to play with various bands, including a five-year stint with local band Country Gold, led by Bobby Legg and Ann Wells. Many of the bands that were around when he was young are not around today.
In those days, they played at the Moose Lodge off Kings Highway in Port Charlotte on the last Sunday of each month and at the old Charlotte Auditorium (demolished because of Hurricane Charley damage in 2004). Gomes and his bandmates also played in Wauchula, Arcadia and Fort Myers venues.
“You would get a following out of it, and we did,” he said.
FINDING TIME FOR FAMILY
But somewhere between his base drum and his home base, Gomes realized time devoted to his music was costing him time with his family.
“One day, I don’t know why, I kind of lifted my head up and said, ‘Man, I’ve got three daughters, two dogs, a wife, a house,’” Gomes said. “‘I’ve got to figure out something that was a little bit more stable.’”
Gomes decided to pursue something in business. But he had no formal business education. So for about 18 months, while he was still a musician, he studied what he needed to do to make the transition.
“Once you overcome all of the obstacles,” he said, “you still have to make money. How are you going to create this business plan with the growth expectations? And by the way, I need to do X amount of business just to make a salary.”
“Life changes for people. You’ve got to change with it.”
FIRST COMPANIES
With a Ford F150 he borrowed from his mother and a rented cement mixer, Gomes quit music and started a small construction company in 1988.
R&G Plastering was a successful Southwest Florida subcontracting business. At one point Gomes said he had 300 employees. One of them was Jack.
“That business grew, man,” Gomes said. “It really did.”
But Gomes wasn’t done creating jobs.
He started a payroll services company called Time Management, a professional employee service organization called Pinnacle Employee Leasing and Time Insurance, a full line insurance company.
Gomes said he was successful because he worked hard.
“Anybody going into business who doesn’t think they have to put their all into it, you are not going to do real well with it,” he said.
But working 14- to 18-hour days was taking a toll and pushing him further away from his original goal to spend more time with family.
So in 2017, starting with R&G Plastering, Gomes sold each of his businesses.
BACK TO MUSIC
Back in 2008 Gomes met Tony Conway in Nashville. They became good friends right away, including their wives on visits in Nashville and Punta Gorda.
Gomes said Conway had been either a manager or talent agent for many major artists in Nashville, including Garth Brooks, The Dixie Chicks, Johnny Paycheck, George Strait, Willie Nelson and Jason Aldean.
Around 2017, Gomes sought advice from Conway about starting a record label. According to Gomes, Conway said, “‘No man, I’d wait on that. The labels are having a really hard time.’” They were losing a lot of money because much of their music was being pirated through the internet.
So Gomes decided to wait.
About five years ago when the two were spending time together — fishing probably, Gomes said— Conway inquired about Gomes’ record label idea. Gomes said he hadn’t pursued it yet, per Conway’s advice.
Gomes said Conway told him laws and rules had been changed so that record labels could make money again. Eight months after that conversation and due diligence, Gomes incorporated Clearwater Records and registered with companies and organizations central to having a successful record label.
Clearwater signs artists and then ushers them through the songwriting, recording, distribution and promotion processes.
One morning, Conway called him and pitched having Clearwater Records produce a Christmas album by Exile, the now-60-year-old band that charted 10 number one singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts between late 1983 and early 1988, including “Kiss You All Over”.
Gomes’ remembered hearing Exile’s other big hit “Woke Up In Love” while listening to his car radio.
That Christmas album, Gomes said, was a baptism by fire because their conversation happened in mid-October and the Christmas season for record labels was quickly approaching.
“I had to get all this stuff done and get it out and get the song on the radio in virtually no time at all. I learned a lot of things doing that, which I needed to.”
In addition to Exile, artists in the Clearwater Records stable include Countywide, a band from Kentucky, E.J. Vickers of Indiana and Jason Brownie of North Port.
The Brassfield Trio of Nashville, featuring Jessie Penington, the daughter of Exile co-founder J.P. Pennington, signed with Clearwater on July 17, the Gomes’ 42nd anniversary. The couple celebrated by attending an Alabama concert in Nashville with “dear friends.”
Gomes brought in producer Josh Leo, who has worked with the Eagles, Alabama and Jimmy Buffett.
He also hired Teddy Gentry, bass player for Alabama, to produce young artists. Gentry is now working with Vickers.
“These young people — and their songs — inspire me,” Gomes said. “It’s just something that I love. I finally got back to my core, I guess, with the record label and my music beginnings.”
There’s a thin line between being an artist with Clearwater Records and being part of the Gomes “family.”
“I will forever be grateful for Robert for believing in me and giving me a chance,” Brownie said. “He has been one of my biggest supporters throughout this journey and is always encouraging me to do better and evolve, both as a songwriter and as a performer. More importantly, he has become one of my best friends. I love that man and his entire family.”
Sadly, Jack Gomes passed away in 2006 at age 45, succumbing to the excesses that come with life as a musician.
“That lifestyle will lend itself to drinking and onto other things,” Gomes said. Another early band member, bass player Bill Tuck, passed away in his mid-30s.
“It was just a lifestyle that did not click with me,” he said.
In addition to their three daughters — Ashley, Megan and Lauren — Gomes and wife Tamra have six grandchildren.
“I was addicted to two things, playing music and my family,” he said.
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