October 2010
12 posts
Houston, Texas and Galveston, Texas
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...
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.
A Boom Town Ghost Town →
May 2010
6 posts
Mountain Home, Texas
Mountain Home, at the intersection of State Highway 27 (which runs here along the Old Spanish Trail) and State Highway 41 in north central Kerr County, was settled about 1856.
The post office was established and named by H. Louis Nelson in 1879. The previous year four children of the Dowdy family, early settlers, had been killed here in the last Indian raid in Kerr County.
The town was called...
`I am not afraid of the devil'/Elderly mom of... →
From the Houston Chronicle, published April 30, 1986
April 2010
5 posts
Uvalde County, Texas
Uvalde County is in southwest Texas, about 70 miles from Mexico.
Johnny Rodriguez grew up in Sabinal, Texas, a small town in Uvalde County.
Sometimes crime pays. How Johnny got his break in the music business:
1. Stole a goat
2. Barbecued it
3. Got arrested
4. Sang in jail
5. Texas Ranger who overheard him sing in jail, told music promoter about him
6. Promoter books a gig for him at...
“Sam Houston: Where’s Jim Bowie?
Solider: He’s...”
February 2010
8 posts
Spiro, Oklahoma & Sledge, Mississippi
Albert E. Burmley wrote, “I’ll Fly Away,” the most recorded gospel music song, in 1929. He wrote more than 800 songs as a shape note gospel music composer and publisher.
He spent most of his early life chopping and picking cotton on his family’s farm in Spiro, Oklahoma.
Charley Pride of Sledge, Mississippi and his ten siblings also grew up picking cotton in their...
Dallas, Texas
Aaron Thibeaux (T-Bone) Walker was a pioneer of the electric guitar who honed his craft in street-strolling stringbands of Dallas, Texas.
His 1929 recording debut (as Oak Cliff T-Bone) was a song called “Trinity River Blues” and later, in 1947, his biggest hit was “Call It Stormy Monday”. In this first recording, his distinctive solo style is played on acoustic guitar.
...
January 2010
11 posts
Centerville, Texas
Born in Centerville, Texas, Lightnin’ Hopkins’ childhood was immersed in the sounds of the blues and he developed a deeper appreciation at the age of 8 when he met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in Buffalo, Texas.
A story and a song (with some background on John Lee Hooker too)
Lightnin' Hopkins on Wikipedia →
Corsicana, Texas
Billy Joe Shaver celebrated his 70th birthday in August.
He says of Corsicana, “my family worked the fields. You either owned land- and we sure as hell didn’t- or you sharecropped and got by one sack at a time.”
Honky Tonk Hero →
Billy Joe Shaver’s Autobiography- published in 2005
December 2009
4 posts
Beverly Hills, California
In an exerpt from an hour long 1994 interview that is a master class in absurdity, Marlon Brando and Larry King sing a duet of a song written by Vernon Duke with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
Marlon Brando is originally from Omaha, Nebraska and Larry King is originally from Brooklyn, New York.
Brando Interview Poetry
Brando quotes from the full interview are poetry:
You’re sweating Why are you sweating The lights aren’t hot
I think that you have misunderstood something Anybody who shows his face in public is an ass Fate has brought me to this moment
Yes, Larry has cut you off
The Academy Award It was put together by some very cogent uh businessmen Who thought that...
Larry King & Marlon Brando - Part 1 of Full... →
November 2009
8 posts
Somewhere in California
Check out these two tracks and the years they were released.
Same chord progression, same organ and bass guitar phrasing and instrumentation, very similar verse melodies, same topic, that is, having a rough time in California.
Seems to me like the Eagles were Leon Russell fans.
Hotel California, Eagles, 1976
Home Sweet Oklahoma, Leon Russell, 1971
