“When Charles (Bradley) came to that (first) rehearsal and Gabe (Roth) introduced us to each other 8 or 9 years ago, I think that it was a really small group, it was like a 4-piece group. And I think we all kinda got the chills when Charles grabbed the mic and started singing. It’s pretty […]
Read More
Huey Meaux loved to say that he came up with the idea for the Sir Douglas Quintet while holed up in a San Antonio motel armed with nothing but Beatles records, Thunderbird wine, and underage Mexican hookers. His drunkpiphany was that The Beatles were basically playing a variation on the Cajun two-step, with a similar […]
Read More
Merle Haggard is certainly one of America’s greatest singers and songwriters, but the secret weapon throughout his career has been an army of guitar badasses. Roy Nichols, James Burton, Glen Campbell, Roy Buchanan, Eldon Shamblin, Ronnie Reno, Bobby Wayne, Redd Volkaert, Ralph Mooney, Norman Hamlet, let alone Merle himself. It’s a veritable roll call of […]
Read More
Ralph Mooney died last Sunday and calling him a pedal steel pioneer seems woefully inadequate. He was the crucial link between Bakersfield country and Texas outlaw country, the two most significant reactions to the Nashville Sound between 1955-80. Think about this. Moon played for Wynn Stewart at Wynn’s peak (1950s-’60s), played for Waylon Jennings […]
Read More
Sam’s Town Point in Austin launched SXSTP … get it??? … 3-4 years ago as an alternative to SXSW. And while that is certainly true, Sam’s is an alternative to pretty much everything, including reality. I’ve written about Sam’s before (both here and here) and trust me, the legends probably understate STP’s many charms. Wally […]
Read More