The Reel Alleyfest

It all began... over a beer in an alley

2009-07-20T05:59:00.000-07:00

I worked with the Longview Downtown Development Corporation and 100 Acres of Heritage for 25 years. This volunteer group created and oversaw both Alleyfest and the Alley Musicfest. The festival evolved from the Alley Art Show, a one day art show started in 1978. In 1988, Alley Art featured a few local Musicians in the beer garden as part of festival. While listening to the entertainment, Jerry Russell, Ken Kennedy and I talked about how well the crowd responded to the music and the possibility of adding a street dance to the organization's events. This was the genesis of Rigadoon/Alley Music Festival, the one night street dance featuring three bands, which ran as an independent event for three years.

In 1992, under the direction of Longview Downtown Development Corp. president, Jay Godfrey, Alleyfest began by combining AlleyArt, Hoop It Up - a 3 on 3 basketball tourney, and Rigadoon/Alley Music Fest. It was a three day festival in downtown Longview, Texas. I worked with the both musicfests from 1989 to 2002.

In 2003, Alleyfest took a new direction, both deleting one music stage and booking fewer national touring artists. This decision coincided with the end of my tenure as music director. In the fourteen years of coordinating the music and serving a year as Alleyfest chairman, the group strived to never compromise the original goal set from the festival's inception ~ to bring the best bands available to the people of Longview, Texas ~ because we knew this would be the only live musical/art event many festival attendees would see each year.

Here is the year by year list of the bands who played the festival from 1989 through 2002.

Rigadoon ,1989 - The Bluebirds played to a hasily moved crowd in the National Guard Armory when a down pour soaked Longview. Even with a shaky start, the first event was well received and LDDC ran out of food and beverage.

Rigadoon, 1990 - Gary Primich and the Midnight Creeps, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Trout Fishing in America provided a great evening of music from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

Alley Music Fest, 1991 - A New name was chosen because most folks didn't understand the meaning of Rigadoon. Christine Albert, know for her Blue Bell Ice Cream jingle, Dallas Brass and Electric and Trout Fishing In America provided a great evening of musical entertainment.

Alleyfest
1992: Dallas Brass and Electric, The Stratoblasters, The Carribean Connection, Warren Caesar Zydeco Band, The Old Fiddler's Contest, and The Original Dixie Chicks

1993: Brave Combo, Walter Hyatt, Joe Kubek and B'nois King, The Bluebird's with former A-Train vocalist, Micki Hunneycutt, Michael Johnson and the Killer Bees , and Joe King Carracso and the Crowns. (Joe and Michael teamed up together for a last set of Raggae meets Tex-Mex that blew away the whole crowd).

1994: Anson Funderburg and the Rockets with Sam Meyer, Toni Price, Grady Gaines and the Texas Upsetters, Wayne Toups and Zydecajun, Brian Black, Webb Wilder,and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

1995: Blues great Big Daddy Kinsey and the Kinsey Report, Chris Duarte, Doyle Bramhall, Tutu Jones, R. L. Griffin and the Holt House Review, and that kid from Shreveport, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jo-El Sonnier, Trout Fishing in America, Joe Ely, and the Back Seat Drivers.

1996: Elvin Bishop,Our first national headliner, Russell Jackson made his first appearance, Big Mike Griffin, Sue Foley, Tommy Castro, Mitch Woods and the Rocket 88s, Ronnie Dawson, Tiesco Del Ray and the Nut Rockers, The Naughty Ones, and Ponty Bone and the Squeezetones.

1997: Katie Webster and Vasti Jackson, Wet Willie vocalist, Jimmy Hall and his new band the Prisoners of Love, Russell Jackson, Mem Shannon and the Membership, Sean Costello and the Jivebombers, The Cate Brothers , Sam "Bluzman" Taylor, the Bluebirds, The Radio Kings ,and local bands Mr. Walker and Dr. Benjamin and Van Go.

1998: Eric Burdon's I Band featuring Ansley Dunbar, Long John Hunter, Sherman Robertson, Russell Jackson, Bryan Lee, The Bluebirds, Micheal Burks, Wes Jeans. Hash Brown's Band with 13 year old guitar prodigy Andrew Baxter, Jr., Sun Pie Barnes and the Zydeco Sunspots, and Hippie Gumbo.

1999: Canned Heat , Chris Thomas King and Rockin' Tabby Thomas and the Mighty House Rockers, Andrew "Jr. Boy" Jones, The Excello Allstars with Earl Gaines and Roscoe Shelton, Mark May and the Agitators, The Bluebird Review with guests Wes Jeans, Mikki Honeycutt, and the Moore Town Horns, Andrew Baxter, Jr., Mason Ruffner, chicano bluesman, Randy Garibay and Cats Don't Sleep, Billy Bacon and the Forbidden Pigs , Mr. Walker.

2000: Leon Russell, Savoy Brown featuring Kim Simmonds, Little Charlie and the Night Cats, Rick Moore and Mr. Lucky, Big Mike Griffin, Russell Jackson, Anthony Gomes, Brint Anderson, Sweet Miss Coffey and the Mississippi Burning Band, The Bluebirds and Mikki Honeycutt, The Headhunters,The Mofo Party Band.

2001: Kim Wilson and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Guitar Shorty, The Reba Russell Band, The Rockin' Highliners with Robert Tycholis, Theresa Andersson, Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns, Andrew and Morgan Baxter and Serious Business, and Voodoo Healin'.

2002: Koko Taylor and Her Blues Machine, W. C. Clark, The Silent Partners Reunion featuring Russell Jackson, Tony Coleman, and Andrew"Jr. Boy" Jones, Joe Louis Walker, Anders Osborne, The Reba Russell Band , The DeRailers, The Radio King's Brian Templeton, Joe "King " Carrasco and the Crowns, and Ponty Bone and the Squeezetones.

The purpose of this blog is to revisit many of these artists via "YouTube" the latest of science's modern miracles.
I hope you enjoy these posts. ~ The SR Mgt. Team

Celebrating Those Who Have Gone On

2009-07-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

These posts keep reminding me how important it is to see these great performers before they are gone. Looking back, many of the great artists who played Alleyfest through the years have passed into that "big jam session in the sky." Here is a list of those artists and the year they played Longview:

Gary Primich (blues) ~ 1990 Rigadoon
Warren Caesar (zydeco) ~ 1992
Walter Hyatt (folk) ~ 1993
Champ Hood (with Walter Hyatt)~ 1993
Michael Johnson of the Killer Bees (Raggae) ~ 1993
Sam Myers of Anson and the Rockets (blues) ~ 1994
Doyle Bramhall (blues)~ 1995
Big Daddy Kinsey (blues) ~ 1995
Ronnie Dawson (rock-a-billy) ~ 1996
Freddy Pharoh(drums Sue Foley Band) ~ 1996
Katie Webster (blues) ~ 1997
Sam "Bluzman" Taylor (blues) ~ 1997
Sean Costello (blues) ~ 1997
Randy Garibay (blues) ~ 1999
Earl Gaines of the Excello Allstars (soul/blues) ~ 1999
Roscoe Shelton of the Excello Allstars (soul/blues) ~ 1999
Robert Lucas of Canned Heat (60's boogie music) ~ 1999
Koko Taylor ( Queen of the Blues )~ 2002

Dolyle Bramhall ~ November 2011

Bramhall was born on Feb. 17, 1949, in west Dallas. He said his older brother was an early influence on his musical tastes. “In the early ‘60s he had four or five friends who’d come over and listen to these great old blues albums,” Bramhall told me in 2007. “I’d sit outside his bedroom door and listen to Muddy (Waters) and B.B. (King) and Lightnin’ Slim and Lightnin’ Hopkins.”

In high school Bramhall started a band, the Chessmen, with Jimmie Vaughan on guitar; they once opened for Jimi Hendrix when he played Dallas. “I looked over and the three of them were were moving their feet and snapping their fingers,” he said.

By the ‘70s Bramhall was keeping the beat in Texas Storm, which featured both Vaughan brothers. The period was one of great creative growth for all three players, as they found eager audiences in Austin for their fiery update of the blues. The sound they created would end up making Stevie Ray an international star in the ‘80s. “We were both aware of wanting to show our influences, but stretching it out a bit,” Bramhall said.

An early song they collaborated on, Dirty Pool, ended up on Stevie Ray’s 1983 debut album Texas Flood. Stevie Ray would record numerous other songs that Bramhall wrote or co-wrote with him, including Wall of Denial, Scratch-N-Sniff, Tightrope and The House Is Rockin’. One of Bramhall’s finest compositions, Life by the Drop, documented the different directions their careers took.

Anders Osborne ~ 2002

2002-07-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

Anders was born in 1966 in Uddevalla, Sweden, left home at age sixteen, and hitchhiked and played music throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the U.S. He settled in New Orleans in 1985 and still calls Louisiana his home.

During his first decade in New Orleans, Anders lived in the French Quarter and played regularly in local clubs. After gaining a following, Anders received an independent record deal with Rabadash Records out of New Orleans, and released "Doin’ Fine" in 1989.

Anders and his band toured the U.S. during these years and in 1995, he was signed to Okeh Records. He released "Which Way to Here", and album that dealt with spirituality and tolerance. The record became Osborne’s first commercial break with two top-five singles “Favorite Son” and “Pleasin’ You.” Both were featured in several Hollywood movies, and the latter was later recorded by Jonny Lang.

Koko Taylor ~ 2002

2002-07-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

Born Cora Walton in Shelby County, Tennessee in 1928, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper. She left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois in 1952 and in the late 1950s she began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to wider performances and her first recording contract.

In 1965, Taylor was signed by Chess Records, for which her single "Wang Dang Doodle" and featured Little Walter on guitar. National touring in the late 1960s and early 1970s improved her fan base, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed with Alligator Records in 1975. She recorded nine albums for Alligator.

Taylor influenced musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi. In the years prior to her death, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago in Country Club Hills, Illinois. Taylor died on June 3, 2009. Her final performance was at the Blues Music Awards, on May 7, 2009.

Guitar Shorty ~ 2001

2001-07-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

Guitar Shorty,David William Kearney, was born on September 8, 1934, in Houston, Texas, but grew up mainly in Kissimmee, Florida where be began playing the guitar at an early age and began heading a band not long after. During his time in Tampa Bay, Florida, he received his nickname, Guitar Shorty, when it mysteriously showed up on the marquee of the club he was playing as 'The Walter Johnson Band featuring Guitar Shorty.'

He steadily began to garner accloades from his peers and, at the age of 16, he joined the Ray Charles Band for a year. He then recorded his first single in 1957, "You Don't Treat Me Right", under the direction of Willie Dixon when Dixon saw him playing with the Walter Johnson orchestra. Eventually, he would join Guitar Slim's band and move to New Orleans, Louisiana. While in New Orleans, Shorty also fronted his own band which played regularly at the Dew Drop Inn where he was joined by special guests such as T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner and Little Richard.

Shorty next moved to the West Coast at 19 in order to play with Sam Cooke. He played up and down the west coast and Canada until he met his future wife, Marcia, in Seattle, Washington. His new wife turned out to be the half-sister of Jimi Hendrix, who attended several of Shorty's gigs and possibly being influenced by Shorty.

The following years were both good and bad; to get by at one point even, Shorty made an appearance on Chuck Barris' Gong Show, winning first prize for performing the song "They Call Me Guitar Shorty" while balanced on his head. He and his wife eventually settled in Los Angeles, California. Appearances at major festivals like The Monterey Bay Blues Festival, The San Francisco Blues Festival, The Chicago Blues Festival,The King Biscuit Blues Festival, and Alleyfest 2001 brought him to larger and larger audiences.

Get The Long and Short(y) of it here.

The Official Alley Quiz.

2001-07-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Test your knowledge of the golden years of Longview's Alleyfest with "The Official Alleyfest Challenge" :

1. This Southern rocker isn't all wet, he has a full time job working as Hank Williams, Jr.'s saxophonist and harp player.

2. You'd never mistake the two, this performer signed left handed autographs for a nervous John Lee Hooker.

3. This silver haired headliner began his professional career at the age of 14 and appeared on Bobby Boris Pickett's ";Monster Mash" and The Beach Boys "California Girls".

4. Unable to join Otis Redding on tour in 1967 because she was pregnant, this Alleyfest artist was not on the plane that took Otis Redding's life.

5. This Alleyfest performer portrayed Delta bluesman Tommy Johnson in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" with George Clooney and also appeared in "Ray".

6. Orphaned at age 11, this performer was named Chicagoan of the Year in 1999 and performed at both the Clinton and Bush inauguration parties.

7. This Alleyfest performer was band leader for both Little Richard and Sam Cooke, leading the band on rock classics, "Bring It On Home" & "Twisting The Night Away" , "Long Tall Sally" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On."

8. He joined the Dell-Kings, the house band at the Sahara Hotel, and worked with legends such as Jackie Wilson, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis, Jr. -ole' baby.

9. While working in the house band at Clifford Antone's famous Austin blues club, he played with virtually all the stars in the blues world - Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Eddy Taylor, Big Walter Horton, and Buddy Guy.

10. This band's music has been featured in commercials for Tide Detergent, Target, General Motors, Miller Beer, McDonalds, Amtrak, and Smokey The Bear.

11. Belying his "good ol' country boy" persona, which Alleyfest performer was actually a 1959 National Merit Scholar in physics ~ he's a gentleman hog farmer.

12. This Alleyfest artist launched the careers of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, John McVie , Mick Fleetwood, Andy Fraser, and Mick Taylor - Eric Clapton has stated, "He has actually run an incredibly great school for musicians."

13. This six time Alleyfest performer was a member of the great B.B. King Orchestra for 7 years.

14. A great guitar player in his own right, the Alleyest performer was also Jimi Hendrix's brother-in-law.

15. This member of the Rock-a-Billy Hall of fame toured with the Lightcrust Doughboys and played drums Paul and Paula's "HEY PAULA" and Bruce Channel's" HEY BABY".

Bonus Round: This Alleyfest performer was an NFL lineman and IS a full time National Park Ranger.

Super Bonus: This ex-boxer hired a driver and picked up a band so he could come to Alleyfest.

Super trivia: These guys know how to Party! Legend around here is,after flying in from California to play Alleyfest these fun loving brothers rented a car proceeded to invest most of their money at Harrah's Casino in Shreveport.

Answers in the comments section!

Scoring: 0-4,You must have been out of town a lot the first weekend of June!
5-9,You were there, but maybe you had too much to drink!
10-14, Hey, I remember you, you were on the front row every year!
15+ Wait a minute, you're me!

Sir John Mayall ~ 2001

2001-06-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

John Mayall, OBE, is a pioneering English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His musical career spans over fifty years. Mayall's father was Murray Mayall, a guitarist and jazz music enthusiast. From an early age, he was drawn to the sounds of American blues players such as Leadbelly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith, and Eddie Lang, and taught himself to play the piano, guitars, and harmonica. Mayall served three years of national service in Korea and, during a period of leave, he bought his first electric guitar.

John Mayall has been influential in the careers of many instrumentalists, including Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Harvey Mandel, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar, Hughie Flint, Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser, Johnny Almond, Jon Mark, Walter Trout, Coco Montoya, and Buddy Whittington.

In 1984, Mayall restored the name Bluesbreakers for a lineup comprising the two lead guitars of Walter Trout and Coco Montoya, bassist Bobby Haynes and drummer Joe Yuele. The mythic name did perhaps something to enhance the interest in a band which by all standards was already remarkable. A successful world tour and live recordings achieved the rest. In the early 1990s Buddy Whittington became the sole lead guitarist in a formation which included then organist Tom Canning.

Of the Order Of British Excellence Sir John said, "It's the only major award I've ever received. I've never had a hit record or a Grammy or been in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." ~ Wikipedia

Little Charlie and the Nightcats ~ 2000

2000-08-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

Charlie Baty was attending University of California Berkeley and studying mathematics when he formed Little Charlie & the Nightcats with Rick Estrin in 1976. The band's music relies chiefy on electric urban blues of the Chicago variety, but mixed in with other compatible styles, including early rock and roll, soul, surf music, swing, jump blues, and western swing.[3] The Nightcats issued their debut album, All the Way Crazy, in 1987, including the songs "Poor Tarzan", "Suicide Blues" and "When Girls Do It". The following album Disturbing the Peace (1988), included "That's My Girl", "My Money's Green", "She's Talking" and "Nervous". The records help established them on the blues festival and club circuits, and they began touring the country extensively, playing a number of international venues. They have played at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1980 and 1982, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the San Diego, California Street Scene and Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival plus the Juneau Jazz & Classics Festival in 2002.

In early 2008 Baty announced he was entering "soft" retirement, no longer tours with the band. Estrin continued with the band re-billed as Rick Estrin and the Nightcats. Baty was replaced on guitar by Chris 'Kid' Andersen (born 1980), originally from Telemark, Norway. Andersen had played backing Charlie Musselwhite as well as fronting his own band.

Baty's most recent blues recording was as a guest on JW-Jones, Bluelisted (2008), an album which marked the first time in his career that he documented his harmonica playing on a recording, and the first time he and another west-coast blues musician, Junior Watson, had recorded together on the same tracks.

Kim simmonds and Savoy Brown ~ 2000

2000-08-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

Kim Maiden Simmonds born December 5, 1947, in Newbridge, Monmouthshire, Wales and now residing in New York, New York is a Welsh guitarist.

In the 1960s, he became one of the founding members of the British blues band Savoy Brown (then called the Savoy Brown Blues Band) in Soho, London with John O'Leary and is the only founding member still in the band.

In 1997 Simmonds released his first solo acoustic blues album, entitled "Solitaire".
He has continued to record solo and full band albums and tours worldwide with Savoy Brown and also as a solo act. He is also a painter and the cover of his 2008 solo release "Out Of The Blue" features his original art.

In Dallas with Jim Schuler...

Leon Russell ~ 2000

2000-08-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

Claude Russell Bridges was born April 2, 1942, in Lawton, Oklahoma. Known professionally as Leon Russell, he is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and guitarist.

Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and began his musical career as a session musician, quickly gaining experience and becoming a high-end keyboardist in demand to notable artists from the 1960s to the present. Russell has played with artists as varied as Jerry Lee Lewis, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Delaney Bramlett, Ringo Starr, Elton John, BB King, Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, Badfinger, Tijuana Brass, J.J. Cale, David Gates, Frank Sinatra, The Band, Marc Benno, Edgar and Johnny Winter, Glen Campbell, Gary Busey, Jesse Ed Davis, and The Rolling Stones. With a solo career spanning the genres of rock, blues, and gospel.

His first songwriting hit was Joe Cocker's 1969 version of "Delta Lady", and Russell went on to organise Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour as well as play in Cocker's backing band at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. The Russell-written "Superstar", sung by Rita Coolidge on that tour, would go on to be a big hit by The Carpenters, Luther Vandross, and others. Shortly thereafter, Russell released a solo album, Leon Russell, which included the original version of the popular "A Song for You".

For several years, Russell stayed largely out of the music spotlight, releasing Anything Can Happen with Bruce Hornsby in 1992, then two more albums in 1998 and 1999. He continues to tour at the age of 66. His bassist, Jack Wessel, has been with Russell close to 25 years, his son , Teddy Jack(named after Gary Busey's character on Sartain's show), and Sugaree Noel -born Oct 29, 1982.

Brint Anderson ~ 2000

2000-07-09T18:30:00.000-07:00

Mississippi-born guitarist Brint Anderson traveled several continents for three decades as he pursued a career as a professional musician, only to end up putting down roots in New Orleans, a neighbor of his Natchez hometown along the Mississippi River.

A stint as a guitar player for Dr. John led to Anderson's settling down in the Big Easy, a move that led him to membership in Porter's Runnin' Pardners in the summer of 1992. The following year he took top prize in the Abita Beer Blues Competition. In 1997, Offbeat magazine bestowed on Anderson and Porter's Runnin' Pardners a Best of the Beat Award. To raise funds for a local hospital, Anderson competed in the New Orleans Musicians' Barbecue Cook-Off, where he triumphed with the top prize.

He has contributed guitar work to performances by such artists as John Lee Hooker, Dr. John, Levon Helm, Art Neville, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Snooks Eaglin, Cassandra Wilson, Earl King, and Johnny Adams, among others. He has also performed with Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Meters, Johnny Winter, Gregg Allman, Billy Preston, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, the Neville Brothers, and Leon Russell.

Let's All Boogie with Canned Heat ~ 1999

1999-09-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

From the beginning Canned Heat was not your typical rock band, Canned Heat was founded by blues historians and record collectors Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson and Bob “The Bear” Hite. Drawing from their large collection of 78 rpm records, the group specialized in updating obscure old blues recordings. Applying this bold approach, the band attained two worldwide hits, “On The Road Again” in 1968 and “Going Up The Country” in 1969, an update of Mineola, Texas bluesman, Henry Thomas', version complete with penny whistle.

They gained international attention with their performances at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival and the headlining at the original Woodstock Festival in 1969. Through the years Cannned Heat's personnel have evolved to the band which still carries on in the style of founders. Led by Fito De la Parra, a member from the earliest days, he had played drums professionally since he was 16 years old. He was born in Mexico City on February 8, 1946, and as he grew older, had become a member of a series of Mexican rock bands and drumming for the Coasters, T-Bone Walker, Ben E. King, Mary Wells, Etta James, and the Platters.

Because of their iconic sound and memorable songs, the band has been heard television commercials including “On The Road Again” for Miller Beer, “Goin’ Up The Country” for Pepsi, Chevrolet and McDonalds, “Let’s Work Together” for Lloyd’s Bank, England’s Electric Company and for Target Stores and other songs for 7-Up, Levi’s and Heineken Beer.

The band line up when playing Alleyfest included Fito, Robert Lucas, Greg Kage, and the one and only, Harvey "The Snake" Mandell. And while the band may have changed over the years, one thing that never changes is the fact that this band can "boogie!"

Canned Heat still Boogie at www.CannedHeat.boogie

Chris Thomas King - 1999

1999-07-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

King was born on October 14, 1964, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is the son of blues musician Tabby Thomas. King is known as the pioneer of rap/blues. He conceived the first sample based blues concept album in the early 1990s by writing and producing the first all-rap/blues album for RCA Records titled 21st Century Blues… From Da Hood.

As an entrepreneur King took control of his master recordings in the early 1990s, forming 21st Century Blues Records. He also established a publishing company, Young Blues Rebel, LLC. 21st Century Records signed the New Orleans Ninth Ward rap/blues duo the 21C-B-Boyz and the London, England based NuBlues, to 21st Century Blues Records in 2002.

As an actor King has co-starred in two musical films, Ray and O Brother Where Art Thou?. He also starred in the Wim Wenders art house film The Soul of a Man, as Blind Willie Johnson.

Chris brought his dad with him to Alleyfest, here's a sample of Baton Rouge blues legend, Rockin' Tabby Thomas...

Billy Bacon and The Forbidden Pigs ~ 1999

1999-07-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

Billy Bacon likes to call the kind of music he makes "Texmex-blues-abilly." With his band, the Forbidden Pigs — or the "swingin' swine" from San Diego — he has put out albums that shake it up with a combination of rock and Latin music. Among his recordings are Una Mas Cerveza, the group's debut put out by Triple X in 1991; the follow-up album The Other White Meat, issued by Triple X in 1992; a CD of live material titled Thirteen Years of Bad Road, in 1999; and Pork Que?, from Swine Song Records in 2000. Bacon has taken the pig — er, bull — by the horns and taken charge of several important aspects that have contributed to his trio's rise.

In addition to acting as the Forbidden Pigs' leader and frontman, Bacon writes the songs, handles publicity, manages the group's tours, and takes care of its website. At one time, he even had to be the bouncer during a couple of shows. In later years, he took on the job of record company executive, establishing and running Swine Song Records. Hepcat acts as distributor for U.S. and international sales. His cohorts in the Forbidden Pigs are drummer Randy "The Hammer" Willert and guitarist Jerry "Hot Rod" DeMink, who previously worked with blues saxophonist A.C. Reed.

Bacon and his band have attracted some diverse fans. A few who appeared on The Other White Meat are guitarist and former Eagle Joe Walsh, blues vocalist Candye Kane, and accordion player Chris Gaffney. Dave Alvin, a noted producer of roots rock music, also put his talents to use on the album. Gaffney also contributed to Thirteen Years of Bad Road, as did Tim "Steelbone" Cook. And now Billy and His Band of Baco's have relocated to the Austin area where Texans of all ages can become totally fried.

If you really want to get "fried" check out the whole Slab o'Bacon

Randy Garibay ~ 1999

1999-07-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

Getting called the "godfather" of this or that in music is almost as bad of a cliché as being dubbed a "new Bob Dylan." In the case of Randy Garibay, he has certainly paid the dues and bent the strings enough to be something of a Texas blues godfather, but more interesting is the man's extreme versatility. Blues musicians are most often known for their strict adherence to this deep yet narrow musical form; Garibay, on the other hand, splatters salsa on the mode by proving to be adept in everything from jazz to country to doo wop to a Mexican bolero. Put it all together and you have a unique style he calls his own "puro pinche blues."

His family were immigrants and he was brought up in the barrios of San Antonio and the migrant fields of the Midwest. He learned to play guitar at the age of 18 when his brother gave him a Sears and Roebuck model for his birthday, putting him in a group of many great guitarists that started out on these cheap but hardy axes. But he was a professional singer even before he was playing guitar, beginning as a teenage lead singer for two teen dream doo wop groups, the Velvets and the Pharaohs in the '50s. The latter band performed in Texas and Mexico and sang back up for Sonny Ace and Doug Sahm on some of his earliest recordings. Garibay was also a regular attraction at one of the hot San Antonio blues venues of the '50s, the Eastwood Country Club. This was one of the renowned blues clubs for touring performers. In the '60s he joined the Dell-Kings, which took him on the road, first to Los Angeles and then for an extended stay in the gambling Mecca of Las Vegas. The band became the house group at the Sahara Hotel, allowing Garibay the opportunity to work behind a variety of headline touring artists such as Jackie Wilson, Judy Garland, and Sammy Davis Jr. As the times changed the band became weary of its own name and the doo wop connotations it might have. The group was renamed los Blues as it embarked on a road trip that lasted off and on until the '70s. Garibay backed up rhythm and blues greats Curtis Mayfield and the O'Jays hitting the stage in top drawer venues as Madison Square Garden and the Waldorf Astoria hotels in New York City, Vancouver, and Honolulu.

But as the Doug Sahm song goes, "Texas calls me..." Garibary wound up back in his home state holding forth with his new band, Cats Don't Sleep, a nerve-wracking band name for any cat owner who also needs their rest. The group's 1997 album "Barbacoa Blues," named after a particularly tasty style of Mexican shredded barbecued beef, was praised by critics as if they were smacking over their lips on a mouthful of it. He has been a touring artist with the Texas Commission on the Arts since l999 and a featured performer at the 1998 Chicano Music Awards. He is also winner of the l996 West Side Rhythm and Blues Award and the Pura Vida Hispanic Music Award in l994 and l995. In 2001, pioneering Chicano filmmaker Efrain Gutierrez released Lowrider Spring Break en San Quilmas, which features eight original songs by Garibay on the soundtrack.

Sherman Robertson ~ 1998

1998-07-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Sherman Robinson is part zydeco, part swamp blues, part electric blues and part classic rhythm & blues. His guitar playing style is extremely rhythm-based, but at the same time, he plays some extraordinary slide guitar and in the course of one of his typical three hour shows, he'll play a lot of great solos. Robertson's rhythmic playing is no doubt an outgrowth of his several years on the road in the 1980s with the king of zydeco, Clifton Chenier. He also served tenures with Rockin' Dopsie and Terrance Simien & the Mallet Playboys before deciding he wanted to venture out with his own high energy blues style several years ago.

Robertson drew his first inspiration from a TV performance by Hank Williams, the country singer known in bayou country for his composition, "Jambalaya.'' He was 13 when he first saw Williams perform and that experience changed his life. Robertson heard the blues coming out of the country legend, and his interest in playing guitar was piqued. Robertson's father bought him an old Stella guitar for $12 and the younger Robertson began playing the songs of Freddie King and Floyd London, often playing until his hands bled and often falling asleep with the instrument nestled beside him.

Growing up in Houston, just down the street from Don Robey's famed Duke/Peacock Records studios, Robertson had the chance to befriend many of the great musicians who stopped in there to make records. By 17, he was honing his craft with a local blues band and playing in the bars in his Fifth Ward neighborhood in Houston. In 1982, when Robertson's band was playing at the Crosstown Blues Festival, zydeco legend Chenier heard him play. Chenier told his bus driver to "get that guitar player," and a long alliance with Chenier's band was forged.

Robertson moved to Louisiana with Chenier's band and learned a lot from the accordionist about how to read an audience. Later, Robertson worked with singer-songwriter Paul Simon during recording sessions for his Graceland album, and also had the chance to sit in with all of his heroes, Albert Collins and B.B. King and Lightnin' Hopkins among them. In 1987 and 1988, after Chenier's passing, Robertson hooked up with accordionist Terrance Simien, and furthered his musical education, particularly with the overseas dates that band performed in Egypt and Africa. After all those years of playing zydeco, Robertson yearned to get back to more basic forms of blues, and in the early '90s, after two and a half years with the Mallet Playboys, he assembled his own band that would later take much of the blues festival circuit by storm. A few years and hundreds of shows later, critics were saying Robertson would inherit the seats left open by people like Albert King and Albert Collins. ~ Allmusic

Long John Hunter ~ 1998

1998-07-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

The Louisiana native got a late start on his musical career. When he was 22 and toiling away in a Beaumont, TX box factory, he attended a B.B. King show and was instantly transfixed. The next day, he bought a guitar. A year later, he was starring at the same bar that B.B. had headlined.

Hunter's 1954 debut single for Don Robey's Houston-based Duke label, "She Used to Be My Woman"/"Crazy Baby," preceded his move to El Paso in 1957. Along the way, Phillip Walker and Lonnie Brooks both picked up on his licks. But Hunter's recording output was slim -- a few hot but obscure singles waxed from 1961 to 1963 for the tiny Yucca logo out of Alamogordo, NM (standouts include "El Paso Rock," "Midnight Stroll," and "Border Town Blues"). Perhaps he was just too busy, he held court at the Lobby Bar in Juarez, MX seven nights a week from sundown to sunup. Its riotous, often brawling clientele included locals, cowboys, soldiers from nearby Fort Bliss, frat boys, and every sort of troublemaking tourist in between. Hunter kept 'em all entertained with his outrageous showmanship and slashing guitar riffs.

For much too long, the legend of Long John Hunter was largely been a local one, limited to the bordertown region between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. Fortunately, Hunter's reputation is finally outgrowing the Lone Star state. His 1992 set for the now-shuttered Spindletop imprint, Ride With Me, got the ball rolling. Now, his 1996 disc for Alligator, Border Town Legend, should expose this Texas blues great to a far wider (if not wilder) audience than ever before.

Long John Hunter's here!

Bryan Lee ~ 1998

1998-07-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

Bryan Lee was born in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and completely lost his eyesight by the age of eight. His avid interest in early rock and blues was fostered through the 1950s by late night listening sessions via the Nashville-based radio station WLAC AM, while listening to "Big John R" and "Hoss Allen". This is where he first encountered Elmore James, Albert King and Albert Collins.

He moved to New Orleans in 1982 and eventually found a steady gig at the Old Absinthe House in the French Quarter. For fourteen years, Lee and his Jump Street Five played five nights a week at the popular bar, developing a huge following and a solid reputation until the bar closed to become a "frozen drink emporium".

Today, Lee continues to perform in New Orleans. He also tours several times a year in the Midwest, Eastern Seaboard, Rocky Mountain States and recently Europe. Lee appeared with Kenny Wayne Shepherd as the musical guest on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on February 14, 2007.

Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes & Zydeco Sunspots ~ 1998

1998-05-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

Musical expression grew out of Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes’ early immersion in the blues tradition carried on by his father and the community around him. “Blues is central of all my music,” he declares. “The music I write, perform, and record comes to me in dreams. It was my grandmother who explained this direct way of receiving information to me.”

Sunpie also credits his grandmother, Louvina Norris, for putting him in direct touch with the spiritual and practical lore of his ancestry. He says she showed him plants in nature that heal and prepared him to understand direct ways of knowing that have served him well in his original music, his schooling, and in his encounters with elders in his travels throughout the African Diaspora.

Albums available of Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots include: “Loupe Garou”, “Lick a Hot Skillet,” “Sunpie,” “Legends of the Swamp,” and his new release “Zydeco’s Got Soul.” While they may on the surface seem diverse and unconnected, all evoke the music of the African motherland and African music traditions which are alive in the Caribbean as well as here in Louisiana.

Katie Webster ~ 1997

1997-06-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

Katie Webster, the Swamp Boogie Queen, was born January 1936. She is acknowledged as one of the most important blues artists of her generation.
Katie had to deal with deeply religious parents who did everything in their power to stop their daughter from playing R&B. But the rocking sounds of Fats Domino and Little Richard were simply too persuasive. Local guitarist, Ashton Savoy, took her under his wing, sharing her 1958 debut 45 for the Kry logo.
In 1964, she guested with Otis Redding's band at the Bamboo Club in Lake Charles and so impressed the charismatic Redding that he absconded with her. For the next three years, Webster served as his opening act, but after his death went into semi-retirement. Until the 1980s this boisterous singer and pianist was known only to record collectors, but beginning in the 1980s she was booked for European tours and recorded albums for the German record label, Ornament Records.
To balance these solo efforts, she cut You Know That's Right with the band Hot Links, and the album that established her in the United States; The Swamp Boogie Queen with "Silent Partner" Russell Jackson, Tony Coleman, and Andrew "Jr. Boy" Jones and with guest spots by Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray. The lovably extroverted boogie pianist encored with Two-Fisted Mama! and No Foolin' before suffering the stroke. She died on September 5, 1999 at the age of 63. ~ Wikipedia

Sam "Bluzman" Tayor ~ 1997

1997-06-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

"Sam "Bluzman" Taylor was born in Mobile, Alabama, and cut his teeth early in music, beginning singing gospel at age 3.His first major professional gig was as Maxine Brown's band leader at the Apollo Theater. Sam recorded for various labels including Capitol Records and authored hundreds of songs, many of them hits and some even gold records like "Do It 'Til You're Satisfied" by the BT Express. His songs can be heard rendered by Freddie King, Son Seals, Jimmy Witherspoon, Jay and the Americans, Joey Dee, Maxine Brown and Joe Tex. Taylor also was bandleader/guitarist for the likes of Big Joe Turner, The Isley Brothers, Tracy Nelson, Otis Redding and more notably Sam and Dave.

Taylor was also original member/guitarist of Joey Dee and the Starliters, one of the first integrated rock and roll band that contributed to the twist-dance craze with the "Peppermint Twist". He was also a mentor to, and wrote some of the first songs for The Vagrants which included innovative rock guitarist, Leslie West,of Mountain.
At the start of the 1970s, Sam & Bennie were hired as staff writers for The Beach Boys new record label, Brother Records.

In the early 1970s, Taylor released his opus Tunnels Of My Mind on the GRT record label and in the late 70s, he moved to Santa Monica, California, where he created a scene of his own at Venice Beach that attracted fellow artists like Rickie Lee Jones and good friend Albert Collins. He later moved to Tucson, Arizona where a supportive blues community helped him become a celebrity of the town. He was living in Tucson when we invited him to play Alleyfest, but it was during this time his band moved to New York, so Sam hired a car and driver to bring him to Longview for the weekend.

Sam later rejoined his band in New York, and lived theruntil his death in January 5, 2009 at his home in Islandia, New York. He was 74". ~Wikipedia

Ponty Bone and the Squeezetones ~ 1996 & 2002

1996-08-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

Ponty Bone is a Texan accordionist who has led his 1980s band, the Squeezetones to international popularity over a twenty year period.

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Bone began studying accordion when he was only 5 years old. Later, he learned to play trumpet also. Ponty attended Texas Tech in Lubbock. Early in his career Bone became a member of the Joe Ely Band.

By the mid 1980s Ponty Bone had formed his own band, Ponty Bone & the Squeezetones. The group's early style ranged through Russian gypsy dances, reggae-blues, Tex-Mex polkas, and Cajun boogie. In 1987, early in their career, the group made their singular appearance on the PBS music television program Austin City Limits, as part of a "Squeezebox Special" episode with Queen Ida and Santiago Jimenez, Jr.

With his band, Ponty has shared the stage with such artists as The Clash, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, King Flaco Jiménez, Linda Ronstadt and Ronnie Lane.
Bone's album, "Fantasize" has been described as drawing from Tex-Mex, rock, blues, R & B, zydeco, and even Caribbean music to create a whole new style.

Big Mike Griffin ~ 1996 & 2000

1996-08-06T19:43:00.000-07:00

Nashville's aptly named Big Mike Griffin (6'10", 350 lbs.) is a no-holds-barred blues guitarist new to the 1990s blues scene. Griffin grew up in Lawton, Oklahoma, and regularly traveled 125 miles as a teen to hear blues in Dallas and Fort Worth clubs. Griffin was influenced by the second generation of blues artists, like Albert King, Mike Bloomfield, Albert Collins and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. After the local economy turned sour, he left for Nashville. Initially, he did session guitar work for country artists and played anywhere he could, eventually building his own Unknown Blues Band. After releasing a self-produced album that sold well in Nashville, the band signed with Malaco/Waldoxy Records in 1992. They had already earned a reputation beyond Nashville's city limits, playing at such prestigious festivals as the W.C. Handy Blues Festival in Memphis and the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Arkansas. The band toured incessantly and developed East and West Coast followings before recording Gimme What I Got Comin' in 1993, which was a hit among blues fans and DJs. Griffin played a month-long tour of Europe that year with labelmates Denise LaSalle, Little Milton, and Artie "Blues Boy" White. Griffin's unique, economical guitar style can also be heard on White's Different Shades of Blue album and James Peterson's Don't Let the Devil Ride. His three albums for Malaco include Back on the Streets Again (1992), Gimme What I Got Comin' (1993), and Sittin' Here With Nothing (1995). All are outstanding efforts that incorporate Griffin's gift for humorous storytelling and blend elements of jazz, funk, and swamp rock into his arrangements. ~ Richard Skelly, All Music Guide

Elvin Bishop, Gentleman Hog Farmer ~ 1996

1996-07-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

Elvin Bishop was born in Glendale, California and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma when he was ten. There he attended Will Rogers High School and moved to Chicago in 1960 after he won a National Merit Scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he studied physics. He met harmonica player Paul Butterfield in 1963 in the neighborhood of Hyde Park and joined his blues band, with whom he remained for five years. Their third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, takes its name from Bishop's nickname. In 1968 he went solo and formed the Elvin Bishop Group, also standing in for Mike Bloomfield on The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper.

Over the years, Bishop has recorded with many blues artists including Clifton Chenier, Little Smokey Smothers, John Lee Hooker,Bo Diddley and toured with B. B. King.

In 1976 Bishop released his most memorable single, "Fooled Around and Fell In Love", which peaked at #3 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, about his love affair with the late Jenny Villarin, the mother of his late daughter Selina Bishop.

In 2000, Bishop's daughter Selina and ex-wife Jennifer Villarin were murdered in California. In 2005, Bishop released his first new CD in five years, Gettin' My Groove Back on Alligator records.

Ed Early is Elvin's "main man" on slide trombone, here's a Trick's Alleyfest Revue bonus featuring Ed and his own band.

Ronnie Dawson ~ 1996

1996-06-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

Ronnie Dawson,"The Blond Bomber," was an ace Rock-a-billy artist. Born in Dallas, 1939,he grew up in Waxahachie, a typical small Texas town. He played the bass fiddle and guitar in the Assembly of God church in Waxahachie and later formed his own group called Ronnie Dee & the D Men.He won the Big D Jamboree Talent Program several times and was offered a regular spot on the show.

He was offered a contract with Dick Clark's Swan Records just as the payola scandal broke. As a studio musician, he can be heard playing drums on the hit records "Hey! Baby" by Bruce Channel and "Hey Paula" by Paul and Paula. Although he never made it big in the 50's, he made a comfortable living writing and playing in commercials for Aunt Jamima, Hungary Jack, Jaxx Beer and CiCi's Pizza.

Although he remained little-known in his native country, Dawson was hailed as a rock pioneer in England. His mid-'80s rediscovery led to Dawson's name and songs winding up in a variety of places. In 1995, Dawson made a triumphant appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In 2002, Dawson was diagnosed with throat cancer and fans in the U.S. and abroad held benefit concerts to help him pay for medical costs. The Blonde Bomber finally succumbed on September 30, 2003. He was 64.

Here Ronnie Talks about his background and rocks out!

The Kinsey Report with Big Daddy Kinsey ~ 1995

1995-07-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

Big Daddy Kinsey (March 18, 1927 — April 3, 2001) was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. Lester "Big Daddy" Kinsey was born in Pleasant Grove, Minnesota. He was a slide guitarist and harp blower with roots in both the Mississippi Delta and post-war Chicago Blues styles.

He worked with local bands only long enough for his sons to mature into top-flight musicians, and in 1984, the family act, The Kinsey Report, became one of the hottest attractions in contemporary blues. Big Daddy Kinsey's material ranged from deep blues in the Muddy Waters vein to hard-rocking blues with touches of funk and reggae, courtesy of sons Donald and Ralph. In the early 1990s Kinsey released one of the most successful albums of his career, I Am the Blues which featured contributions from Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Sugar Blue and Pinetop Perkins. The family group recorded and toured until April 2001, when Big Daddy succumbed to cancer, at the age of 74.

The Kinsey Report consists of Donald Kinsey (b.May 12, 1953, Gary, IN), (vocal, guitar); Ralph "Woody" Kinsey, (drums); Kenneth Kinsey, (bass); Ronald Prince, (guitar). Solidly based in the blues as a result of lifelong training in The Big Daddy Kinsey household, The Kinsey scions are also versed in a broad range of music.

The older brothers Donald and Ralph had an early blues-rock trio (White Lightnin') in the mid-'70s, long before they regrouped as The Kinsey Report in 1984 and began to launch new excursions into rock. Donald also recorded and toured with Albert King and with Bob Marley, and the influence of those giants (as well as that of Big Daddy Kinsey, naturally) show through in the music of The Kinsey Report.

The band expertly covers all the bases from Chicago blues through reggae, rock, funk, and soul, and their recordings are also distinguished by the songwriting talents and self-contained production approach of The Kinseys.

Sadly, I could not find any video of Big Daddy Kinsey.

Anson and the Rockets with Sam Myers ~ 1994

1994-07-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

Anson Funderburgh,born November 15, 1954 in Plano, Texas,is a blues guitar player and bandleader of Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets. Formed in 1978 their style incorporates both Chicago blues and Texas blues. During this time the band payed their dues by playing venues including the original Alley Club and Carlito's in downtown Longview, Texas. Over the years the band has evolved with personnel changes.

Sam was born in Laurel, Mississippi on February 19, 1936. He appeared as an accompanist on dozens of recordings for blues artists over five decades. He began his career as a drummer for Elmore James and in 1956, he wrote and recorded his most famous single, "Sleeping In The Ground", a song covered by Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and many other blues artists.

From the early 1960s until 1986, Myers worked the clubs in and around Jackson as well as across the South in the Chitlin' Circuit. He even found himself touring the world with Sylvia Embry and the Mississippi All-Stars Blues Band. In 1986 Sam joined the Rockets as harp player and lead singer.

The first Rockets' recording featuring Myers was My Love Is Here To Stay which came out in 1986. He stayed with the band until his death on July 17, 2006, appearing on eight albums with them. Today the band continues to evolve and is one of the premier blues bands fron Texas.

Toni Price ~ 1994

1994-07-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

This one's for Dr. Lucky...

Toni Price's first exposure to blues was through second-generation blueswoman Bonnie Raitt. After studying her recordings, Price began to study the recordings Raitt learned from, women blues singers like Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey and others.

She began singing in high school, but after graduating she sat in with country bands around Nashville, where she was for the most part born and raised, after moving from southern New Jersey.While living in Nashville, she listened to local blues radio programs on college stations there.

Price moved to Austin in 1989, and learned from Derek O' Brian and Cliff Antone.In her blues singing career, Toni Price cites vocalists Aretha Franklin, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Patsy Cline and Ray Charles as influences.

Critics have heaped praise on her gifted phrasing and delivery at her live shows and on her albums. In an interview in Austin, Price said she's never had the inspiration or desire to write songs, and figures she wasn't given that talent.

Price's albums on the Antone's/Discovery label include Swim Away (1993), Hey (1995) and Lowdown and Up (1999). Midnight Pumpkin appeared in summer 2001. Although she's relatively little-known outside of Austin's tight-knit blues community, she could be in line for a career on a par with Raitt's, if she's willing to do a lot more touring in the future. ~ by Richard Skelly for www.allmusic.com

Webb Wilder, Last Of The Full Grown Men ~ 1994

1994-07-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

Born John Webb McMurray, May 19, 1954,in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Webb Wilder is a musician who famously mixes the sounds of country, surf guitar and rock & roll known as "swampedelic". He currently resides in Nashville, TN. His first album, Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks "It Came From Nashville", was released in 1986.

The Webb Wilder character was created for a short film under the title of Corn Flicks. Wilder's Corn Flicks consists of three stories: Private Eye, Horror Hayride and Aunt Hallie and is about a backwoods private detective who fell out of the '50s and happened to also be a musician. With his group, Wilder combines the surf guitar of the Ventures with the rock roots of Duane Eddy, drawing on the feel of both country music and film noir. Though sometimes bordering on the gimmicky, the band is quite humorous yet plays serious music.

Probably the only musician with his very own "Credo":
Work Hard
Rock Hard
Eat Hard
Sleep Hard
Grow Big...and
Wear Glasses If You Need'Em!

Walter Hyatt with Champ Hood ~ 1993

1993-07-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Born in 1950 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Walter Hyatt was a songwriter and guitarist whose music could not be corralled into any one pen. This was always an aspect of his musical life, dating from his early listening as a child — digging into R&B and rock & roll, the latter style transforming into a maelstrom of styles all in itself in the '60s. Scholars on the subject of what makes for a good career tend to agree that Hyatt was just too eclectic to make a mark on the roots rock audience at large.

Hyatt projects had a huge influence on other musicians, and on a regional level the wonderful music of Uncle Walt's Band, with Champ Hood and David Ball, was a favorite of many a college music lover, in the days before the under-21 crowd were locked out of the honky tonks.

Although claimed as an Austin phenomenon, Uncle Walt's Band actually formed in Spartanburg, while they were still in high school. The band bounced worked between Nashville and Austin. The band appeared on Austin City Limits in 1980 (Walter appeared again as a solo artist in the 1990's) Uncle Walt called it quits to pursue solo careers in 1983.

Lyle Lovett was a fan of Uncle Walt's Band and in 1993, Lyle reach out to Hyatt and offered him opening-act slots for his tour. This was the same year Walter signed to do Alleyfest and rather than cancel, he flew in on a Sunday to appear on our stage.
Three years later Walter met an early and tragic death, however, in the crash of ValuJet flight 592 into the Florida Everglades swamp in 1996.

After Uncle Walt's Band broke up, Champ Hood had a new partnership with Austin's Jimmie Dale Gilmore and followed by some nine years working with songstress Toni Price (another Alleyfest Alumni). Lyle Lovett hired Hood for his own Large Band. The Threadgill's Troubadours was Hood's pet project in the '90s—finally, his own band after so many years as a collaborator and sideman. His son Warren Hood took up the fiddle and was himself performing on Austin City Limits in the latter part of that decade. Sadly like Walter, Champ died while still in his forties, sucumming to cancer at an early age.

Brave Combo, Nuclear Polka Band ~ 1993

1993-07-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

Brave Combo are a polka/rock band based in Denton, Texas. Founded in 1979 by guitarist/keyboardist/accordionist Carl Finch, they have been a prominent fixture in the Texas music scene for more than twenty-five years. Their music, both originals and covers, incorporates a number of dance styles, mostly polka, but also rumba, cha-cha-cha, choro, samba, two-step, cumbia, charanga, merengue, etc.

As part of their perceived artistic mission to expand the musical tastes of their listeners, they have often played and recorded covers of well-known songs in a style radically different from the original versions. Examples include polka versions of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and The Doors' "People are Strange", The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as a cha-cha, and "Sixteen Tons" as a cumbia. While their records may have a sense of humor, they are played straight and not usually considered joke or novelty records.

Joe "King" Carrasco ~ 1993 & 2002

1993-06-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

One of the real "characters" to play at Alleyfest, Joe Carrasco was born in Dumas, Texas. His name Joe Teusch doesn't quite has the proper Tex-Mex ring so enter Joe "King" Carrasco. He founded the band "Joe 'King' Carrasco and El Molino" in Texas in the late 70s. The band appeared at the now-infamous Raul's club,a live music nightclub in Austin near the UT campus which specialized in punk rock music.

By 1979 he had formed the Crowns and was calling his music "nuevo wavo," playing especially in New York, where he appeared on stage in a cape and crown. He was signed to the U.K. Stiff label and Joe Boyd's Hannibal label in the U.S., and released Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns in 1980. By 1982 he had moved up to major label MCA for Synapse Gap, followed by Party Weekend (1983). ~ Wikipedia / Allmusic Guide

A true self promoter, get the full scoop on Joe's current goings on at his website: www.joekingcarrasco.com

Here's Joe on Joe:

Bonus: Here's Joe and El Moleno!

From the beginning...The Stratoblasters ~ 1992

1992-06-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

In 1986, when opening for Delbert McClinton at Redux in Dallas, the back-stage banter again turned to this artistic fantasy. At the very moment that it dawned on guitarist Jimmy Wallace and bassist Bobby Chitwood that they would indeed require a lead vocalist if this ethereal concept was ever to actually take shape an old friend (and vocalist extraordinaire) named John O'Daniel bounded back-stage and approached the two. After the usual greeting rituals, Jimmy and Bobby looked at each other, nodded, and the nucleus of the Stratoblasters was solid.

Jimmy's old friends and guitarists Jerry Don Branch and Matt Tapp were offered the opportunity to join the party, and without hesitation signed on. The idea was a three guitar band that anteed up the energy necessary to blast out vintage R&B, soul and any other genre of interest - to the point of extreme personal satisfaction of the band members. This, as it worked out, was very easy to achieve. The question was, would anyone else care?

On September 6th , 1986 the Stratoblasters played to a small audience of friends and family. For the band members it was simply electrifying. The audience was small but contagiously receptive. Through that September and October the band played at Redux sharing with Bugs Henderson his bass player Bobby Chitwood and drummer, Mike Gage.

The group had an absolute blast (no pun intended) being allowed to perform on stage in the very manner that they had dreamed of for so long. Working for the door on a weeknight, they consistently made enough nightly proceeds to cover the cost of Mexican food for all, at the close-by Guadalajara restaurant after the gig.

Then a puzzling thing happened. The fun and excitement that each and every band member felt, each and every song - leapt off the stage and permeated the audience thus beginning a reciprocal relationship that honestly exists to this very day.

Dallas Brass and Electric ~ 1991 & 1992

1991-07-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

Dallas Brass & Electric consists of a four piece rhythm section (drums, bass, guitar, keyboards), a three piece horn section (trumpet, sax, trombone) and is fronted by both male and female singers. The male vocalist is none other than Derrick "D-Mac" McCampbell. In 1990 D-Mac sang lead on the MAC Band's Roses Are Red which reached #1 on the both the US and UK charts.

Dallas Brass & Electric's repertoire covers a wide range of styles including Top 40, Rock, Swing and Commercial Jazz with particular emphasis on R&B and 70's dance favorites.Dallas Brass & Electric's stylistic range extends even to jazz standards and big band titles making the band the complete musical solution for those functions beginning with dinner music or a cocktail reception and ending with high energy dancing.

Ray Wylie Hubbard ~ The Original Redneck Mother

1989-11-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

Born on November 13, 1946, in Soper, OK. In the early-to-mid-1970s, Ray Wylie Hubbard joined country music "outlaws" Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson as part of the progressive country vanguard on the Texas music scene. Unlike the clean-cut crooners from Nashville, these Austin and Dallas cowboys grew their hair long and added a healthy dose of rock 'n' roll to their music. "You could say," wrote Mario Tarradell in the Dallas Morning News, "Ray Wylie Hubbard was a product of a turbulent time." While Hubbard had little luck with the major recording studios, he nonetheless rose to cult status as a songwriter after Jerry Jeff Walker recorded his "Up against the Wall, Redneck Mother" in 1973. "And while that song certainly helped launch his career," noted David Goodman in Modern Twang, "its immense popularity has tended to obscure the depth and complexity of Hubbard as a songwriter and musician."

Although Hubbard will always be associated with the Texas outlaw movement, he was born in Soper, Oklahoma, on November 13, 1946. His father, Royce Hubbard, was a teacher and principal, and a job opportunity brought the Hubbard family to Dallas in the mid-1950s. "I had a dog and a BB gun. I used to eat poke salad, the whole trip," Hubbard told Anita Creamer of the Dallas Morning News."We lived on a little bitty farm that had chickens and roosters and pigs and fishing holes. Coming to Dallas was quite a shock." Hubbard attended Adamson High School with a number of budding musicians who would later be active on the Texas music scene, including Michael Martin Murphey, B. W. Stevenson, and Larry Croce. Hubbard graduated in 1965 and enrolled as an English major at the University of Texas and North Texas State University. During the summers he played folk music with Rick Fowler and Wayne Kidd in Red River, New Mexico, as the Three Faces West. "For the next seven years," Tarradell wrote, "Mr. Hubbard's life was consumed by all-night gigs."

Although Hubbard recorded little during this time, he soon became well known when his self-penned "Up against the Wall, Redneck Mother," was recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker in 1973 and became a hit. Intending the work as a meaningless ditty, Hubbard had not even written a second verse when Walker phoned him from the studio. "I made up a second verse on the phone," he recalled to Irwin Stambler and Grelun Landon in The Encyclopedia of Folk, "so the song makes no sense to me whatever." While the song was responsible for a number of royalty checks over the years, Hubbard grew tired of singing it. "For a long time," Hubbard explained to Bill Craig of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "'Up against the Wall' was just a throwaway piece. Then Jerry Jeff cut it and it became a honky-tonk anthem. I've made peace with it, but it was kind of difficult for a while."

In the early 1970s Hubbard formed the Cowboy Twinkies, a band that combined a potent mixture of country and hard rock and which some have described as the first cowpunk group. The band disregarded country music etiquette and upset traditionalists by adding songs like Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" to their sets. After a contract with Atlantic produced no recordings, the group completed its only album, Ray Wylie Hubbard & the Cowboys Twinkies, for Warner Bros. in 1975. Hubbard was so dissatisfied with Warner Bros.' production of the album, however, that he refused to tour to support it. "It was really heartbreaking, because we really had a good band," he told Alan Sculley of the Allentown Morning Call."But the record was not representative of what we were doing."

Hubbard recorded Off the Wall for Willie Nelson's Lone Star label in 1978 and then regrouped by hiring several members from Jerry Jeff Walker's Lost Gonzo Band. Although two live albums followed, the end of the Austin/Dallas progressive country scene relegated Hubbard and many of his colleagues to the small barroom circuit. The progressive country lifestyle began to fade away, as adherents grew up, concentrating on careers and family matters rather than drugs and the outlaw counterculture.

In 1989 Hubbard slowly began to rebuild his career. He started taking guitar lessons to learn more intricate fingerpicking. "See," Hubbard told Corcoran, "I was hearing these songs in my head, but I couldn't get my guitar to play 'em." He regained his musical direction in 1992 when he finished the self-released Lost Train of Thought after an eight-year absence from the recording studio. His second wife, Judy Hubbard, began managing his career, winning him contracts with Dejadisc and later, Philo. Next Hubbard recorded Loco Gringo's Lament, an album Jack Leaver of All Music Guide called "deeply introspective and honest." "[B]eginning with Loco Gringo's Lament," noted John T. Davis in the Austin American-Statesman, "Hubbard's writing became deeply spiritual, dense with allegory and allusion, his musical landscape stalked by preachers with a pistol in one hand and a Bible in the other."

Commenting on the 1990s, Jim Caligiuri noted in the Austin Chronicle that "Hubbard has become one of the best singer-songwriters of our time. Since 1992, he's released a series of albums, each more impressive than the last." His 1997 album Dangerous Spirits was followed by Crusades of the Restless Nights in 1999 and Eternal & Lowdown in 2001. "I feel like each time I go in," Hubbard told Sculley, "I'm trying to make a better record with better songs. It's still a learning process." His most recent recordings also triggered a renaissance in Hubbard's career, resulting in prestigious jobs at venues like the Philadelphia Folk Festival. While he knows that folk festivals and renewed critical attention will not necessarily make him a star, he remains satisfied with his cult status. "The ... idea of success is to ... have these songs written that I feel good about...," Hubbard told Tarradell, "and have these players ... make the record be as good as we can. I can go up to somebody and go, 'Here's my record.' I don't have to say, 'Here's my record' and wince. That's success for me."

by Ronald D. Lankford Jr at Musicianguide.com

The Bluebirds ~ 1989, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999 2000

1989-07-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

The Brothers Flett, that's Bruce and Buddy, along with Kerry Hunter are old veterans of Alleyfest playing five times beginning with "The Big Rain Out" at L.D.D.C.'s first street dance in 1989. That first "Rigadoon" was almost rained out and moved to the local armory in a matter of minutes. Power outage aside, the event was a big success and started a great tradition of music in downtown Longview.

The Bluebirds were raised out of the ashes of Shreveport's legendary A-Train, by bassist/vocalist Bruce Flett, drummer/vocalist Kerry Hunter and guitar master Buddy Flett. The band has seen a flux during the last few years with Buddy having some serious health problems and Kerry traveling with his other job, but the Bluebirds are stll a favorite in the region. Every performance through the years brought different sides of the band. They played as a three piece blues/rock power group, with A Train allumni Miki Honeycutt and as the Bluebird Revue with Miki, The Moretown Horns, and Marshall guitarist Wes Jeans.

Here's Bruce (with stand-in guitar and drums)

Here's Buddy

Keep up with the band at The Bluebirds Net!