Oct
11th
Mon
11th
Rex’s Blues from Townes Van Zandt’s Live at the Old Quarter double album. Recorded in July 1973 at the Old Quarter when it was located in downtown Houston at the corner of Congress and Austin.
The song is written for Rex “Wrecks” Bell, Townes’ friend, frequent sideman on bass, and owner of the the Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe, then in Houston and now in Galveston.
Rex "Wrecks" Bell is Just Playing
A great piece from Houston, Texas writer John Nova Lomax on Wrecks, from around the time of Hurricane Ike, on Wrecks, his relationship with Townes, and the song.
From the article on the song Rex’s Blues:
“Townes wrote that song about me, and it could have been about anybody,” Bell said. “It could have been about Blaze Foley, it could have been ‘Blaze’s Blues,’ it could have been ‘Townes’s Blues,’ it could have been a lot of people’s blues. And I hated that song. Hated it.
“It’s really not flattering at all,” he continued. “But it’s so true. It really does depict Townes and I when we were doin’ our drugs and drinkin’ and all these dangerous things. He would always ask me to leave the stage when he would play it. I never did ask him why — I saw it as a good chance to go back to the green room and get a shot of vodka — but he never would let me play it with him.”
The Old Quarter in Galveston, Texas, October 2011
Wrecks Bell introduces and plays the song that Townes wrote about him.
Oct
7th
Thu
7th
Desdemona, Texas
The second track from a new album we’re working on is Desdemona.
Wrote this song after spending some time in a few of the old oilfield boomtowns of West and Southeast Texas.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Desdemona
Gabriel Rhodes - Acoustic Guitar
Charlie Sexton - Bass
Rick Richards - Drums, Percussion
Tommy Spurlock - Pedal Steel Guitar
The discovery well that started the whole boom and bust cycle…
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Mountain Home
Preview of the title track from the new album
Gabriel Rhodes - Acoustic Guitar
Charlie Sexton - Bass
Rick Richards - Drums, Percussion
Tommy Spurlock - Pedal Steel Guitar
Gordy Quist - Harmony Vocals
Jamie Wilson - Harmony Vocals
