I was at a Christmas party tonight and was talking up Texas Swing. A guy told me to look into Texas Blues - told me that Texas Swing was fine but that Texas Blues was better.
He gave me three names.
Joe Ely.
Albert King.
Texas Troubadours.
I grew up in Pennsylvania.
You tell me.
Regards,
Tom Watson
with him on three different occasions two years apart.. a giant.
And I have had the pleasure of carrying Mr. King's flying V's guitar case.
There is a truly legendary anecdote I can tell about something I witnessed first hand. Something that happened between Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughn... in the studio in Hamilton, Ontario. Early 80's. A bit long for here, now, and I must put it to paper one day. The two of them got into a gunfight, Crossroads style.... Neither finished with a diminished fifth..
...hard to imagine *anyone* hangin' with Stevie Ray...I can see Albert King doing it, though...kinda like a Clark Terry riffin' with Doc...never bought a BB King album...bought a couple of Albert's...
cg
Stevie Ray Vaughn. (RIP) Jimmy LaFave (he's more Okie but was in the Austin scene; more country/Dylan than blues, but DAMN fine music)
And for the best acoustic blues/folk/country:
Guy Clark. Butch Hancock. Townes Van Zant (RIP).
with him on three different occasions two years apart.. a giant.
And I have had the pleasure of carrying Mr. King's flying V's guitar case.
There is a truly legendary anecdote I can tell about something I witnessed first hand. Something that happened between Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughn... in the studio in Hamilton, Ontario. Early 80's. A bit long for here, now, and I must put it to paper one day. The two of them got into a gunfight, Crossroads style.... Neither finished with a diminished fifth..
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Would that be the In Session recordings? Fantastic. Of course, everything he did was fantastic. I have both audio and video on that. Everyone should get the SRV box set, 3 CDs and a DVD. The DVD alone is worth the price of the set, absolutely incredible. And let's not leave out big bro Jimmie Lee Vaughan, who's no slouch either.
And we're going to hold you to your promise to put it to paper (or at least pixels), the sooner the better.
B.
Don't leave out Albert (The Master of the Telecaster) Collins, and Clarence Gatemouth Brown. I think it's gonna be blues day in the workshop today!
I was paid to 'hang' with him. My job was to do PR for CBC and handling the paperwork at the airport, chauffeur, dinner company and basic tour guide and '*ahem* physical protection. The paperwork in Stevie's case was rather plentiful and we had to get permission from the Prime Minister's office to get him into the country. Pretty hefty criminal record. One day I will publish a list of all the biggies for whom I have done that honour. I even made some friends along the way, people I still communicate with on a regular basis.
r
To those add Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, T-Bone Walker, Joe Kubek, Jimmie Vaughan, Lightnin' Hopkins, Gatemouth Brown, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Billy Gibbons, SRV and so on, it's rich soil to plow.
That'd be the series. The first year we did the In Session series I was involved with all of them. If you have the broadcast versions, my name is in the credits. Some pretty strange match-ups. All good. But Rick Emmett and Bruce Cockburn?
Stevie and Albert... This is one of my favourite moments though... (PS and by-the-way...I hand-cut those In Session letters from solid brass and had them chrome plated. They were mounted on a black back-ground and shot in one take...life is so much easier now..not so in 1981.
My little anecdote was when they were warming up for this session... a magic moment.
I feel like I "shook the hand that shook the hand". That's a favorite album of mine, and Stormy Monday's a favorite track.
I lived in Austin around 1978-84. We used to go see SRV all around town in little joints like soap creek saloon, Liberty lunch and Antones (which also had great barbeque for lunch). Joe Ely and Albert Collins (was he the ice picker?) also come to mind. Anyway, Austin was an unbelievably great town for music. I'll also add Omar and the howlers, Roomful of blues and Marcia Ball to the list of blues musicians from Austin (or at least they all played in town a lot). Janis Joplin also got her start in Austin playing at Threadgills.
So, I'd say the guy at the party was right about Austin blues. I don't know if Austin blues was a genre unto itself, but the town and the blues have a long history together.
Mitch
"MB" wrote
Bingo ... I still have an original single LP "reference cut" of "Border Girl", cut extra hot for bass 'til the needle almost jumps out of the grooves ... AWESOME ... thanks, Bruce!
It's "TEXAS" blues, dude ... don't give that now commercial, no longer like it was, genY burg more credit than it deserves.
Mid - late seventies was (to me) the best days of Austin music. Real Texas music, from the roadhouse bars. Musicians that were and weren't from Texas set up at every bar in Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio.
Personally, I really liked the old guys. I loved Freddy King (The Texas Tornado) and some of his traveling buddies. Then of course, as he is known here, Sir Doug with his West Side horns. (Man, was that a treat - Remember his version of "Papa Ain't Salty No More"?) I really liked Doug Sahm until he and Kinky Friedman would get hammered and continue to play. As a sidebar, Doug and Kinky remained good friends until Doug passed and on occasion would play together at small venues around the San Antonio.
The whole corridor between San Antonio was alive with good music then. Boy do I feel like I took that for granted now...
For as little as nothing, and as much as $5, you could see Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Leon Russel (masquerading as Hank Wilson), The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Johnny Rodrigues, etc., all with that distinctive Texas twang. There were so many great guitar slingers, I can't even remember their names. Real talented folks, too.
I remember that Asleep At the Wheel and Willie Nelson were headquartered there in Austin, and I couldn't figure out why I had to pay $5 to see them. So I never did.
Boy does that bring back memories...
A quart of whiskey, a pack of Kool filter kings (box) and a couple of cheroots... more music than you could handle... what a way to spend a day/night/morning.
I never got the hang of SRV, even though he became royalty around here. I saw him in the mid 70s twice, both times in tiny little dumps and never saw him sober. I thought he was weird; he had a soul patch and wore a beret. At that time he was still searching for his own sound and image. No tight leather pants, no leather vest or silver concho hat in those days.
He started well, but at one show threw up on stage, and then another time he could barely stay on the stool and left after a short second set and never came back. We waited in that stinky, hot crap hole for a couple of hours before they had the bartenders start telling us that he was already gone.
Hard to believe that was 30 + years ago.
Robert
I'd add Kenny Wayne Shepherd to the list. His Live Alive album is one of the best examples of Texas Blues out there. He went out on the road and recorded sessions with many of the greats from earlier eras and just let them play while he did backup. And Kenny Wayne is pretty incredible himself.
Gary in KC
He's not from Texas, but I really like Joe Bonnamassa.
RE: Subject
A question.
Since Austin is home to so many musicians, is that where "Austin City Limits" got it's start?
Lew
Absolutely. There was a huge void when this joint closed, and they did the best they could to fill it.
Go to the bottom of the page and look under the Legacy heading. ACL was simply the taping (and heavy editing) of the shows that were held here and there, reminiscent of the old Armadillo.
Check out the partial list of luminaries that were there in its ten short years at the bottom of the page. Pretty damn impressive, and quite a legacy for old Austin.
Robert
short years at the bottom of the page. Pretty damn impressive, and quite a legacy for old Austin.
Quite a list.
Unfortunately for me, when Austin is mentioned, I'm reminded of the Sunday afternoon in '66 when I flew over the tower in Austin in a small airplane headed for San Angelo.
(The major airlines were on strike and private planes were about it).
The following day, some idiot crawled up into that tower and started killing people with a high powered rifle.
Lew
New Orleans Jazz Fest. I have family and friends who have made it to the NOLA Jazzfest many times and are always looking to get back there again. I finally went with them this past year. Now I understand. If you're a jazz or blues fan, don't go to your grave without getting there. The non-stop great music, the food, the fun-loving and appreciative crowd, - it's all good. Grab some lawn chairs and a cooler and get to the plane on time.
Just look at the list of names for the weekends.
Yep.
Local Cleveland radio station that played jazz/blues 24/7 ran a contest to attend NOJF, which I won.
Severe weather the day before had knocked down many of the tents, but things got sorted out.
The music was good, but oh the food, it was to die for.
Still have a picture someplace of a guy sitting in a chair, bowl between his knees, shucking and eating mud bugs like they were peanuts in the shell, listening to the live music.
He was a happy man.
Lew
"Lew Hodgett" wrote
Thou sucketh big time. I never won anything like that.
Sounds like a good time to be had by all.
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