BackBeat--A new Austin, Texas Band

BackBeat: "Today's post is from another Austin based band (by way of London), these guys and a girl are a cool pop band. The band leader Sally Crewe has been said to have the work ethic of James Brown. That is to say she is a task master, but I think it shows in the quality of their music. The new Sudden Moves lineup is touring in support of their new CD �Shortly After Take-Off� throughout 2005.

I think of their music as being pop backbeats for the backseats, but you may have a completely different take on it. Go check out their web site 12xu.net where you will find not only mp3s but also videos, photos, news, and other information.

mp3s are in Red.

Pane Of Glass
'Pane Of Glass' mp3 from the forthcoming album, 'Shortly After Take-Off'

Good Morning, Aston Martin
'Good Morning, Aston Martin' mp3 from the forthcoming album, 'Shortly After Take-Off'

Drive It Like You Stole It
'Drive It Like You Stole It' mp3 from the debut album, 'Drive It Like You Stole It'"

Asleep at the Wheel--Miles and Miles of Texas & Texas, Me and You

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL: FACT SHEET/TIMELINE



A Few of the Notable Milestones for Asleep at the Wheel

1970
Band starts in Paw Paw, West Virginia
Play first "big show" opening for Alice Cooper and Hot Tuna in D.C.

1971
Band moves to California at the invitation of Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen
Van Morrison helps the band to get first record deal by mentioning them in an interview in Rolling Stone Magazine

1973
Debut album Comin’ Right At Ya released by United Artists
At invitation of Willie Nelson and Doug Sahm, moves to Austin, Texas

1974
“ Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” from their second album Asleep at the Wheel is their first chart single

1975
The release of Texas Gold on Capitol Records elevates the band to one of the most popular country acts of the decade, with “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” becoming a top-ten Country hit.
Band appears on the first regularly scheduled “Austin City Limits” (and have appeared a record ten times since)

1977
Voted Best Country & Western Band by Rolling Stone
Awarded “Touring Band of the Year” by Academy of Country Music
Band tours Europe with Emmylou Harris

1978
Their sixth Grammy™ nomination, for the country instrumental “One O’Clock Jump,” wins, setting in motion seven more Grammy™ wins since.
Band appears in the film Roadie with Meatloaf, Blondie and Art Carney

1979
Their first live album Served Live is recorded at the Austin Opera House

1987
In the first of several comebacks, the album 10 scores big with the Grammy™-winning single “String of Pars”

1991
Ray directs the music and co-stars in the film Wild Texas Wind with Dolly Parton and Gary Busey

1992
Route 66 Tour (66th Anniversary of Route 66)

1993
Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills for Liberty Records, including guest artists Garth Brooks, George Strait and Vince Gill amongst many others, is an instant hit, earning two Grammys™ and a live performance on the Country Music Awards telecast with Lyle Lovett

1995
25th Anniversary Celebration

1997
Old Silver Eagle tour bus with over 3 million miles is retired. Ray and crew begin racking up miles on “Brownie” a somewhat newer Silver Eagle tour coach

1999
Ride With Bob is released by Dreamworks and includes guest performances by the Dixie Chicks, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Manhattan Transfer and others. The ensuing long form documentary The Making of Ride with Bob directed by Dan Karlok, earns a regional Emmy Award. The album wins two Grammy™ Awards, including one for best package design.

2000
Tour with Bob Dylan
George Strait Stadium Tours (2000-2001)

2001
Band’s September 11 performance at the White House is postponed

2002
Ray hosts the CMT special Stars Over Texas in Austin, going toe to toe with Dolly Parton & Vince Gill

2003
Ray releases his first solo record Beyond Time while at the same time managing to make 2 records with the band (Live at Billy Bob’s Texas and Remembers the Alamo) and producing releases by Pam Tillis and Suzy Bogguss

2004
Ray is named the official 2004 Texas State Musician
A Ride with Bob debuts in Austin as part of the celebration of Bob Wills' 100th birthday

2005
2005 Female vocals are reintroduced to the Wheel's repertoire as Elizabeth McQueen joins the band

from The Official Website


Asleep At The Wheel - Miles And Miles Of Texas

Asleep At The Wheel - Texas, Me And You

Womenfolk--Shea Seger--4 MP3s

Womenfolk: "exas-born Shea Seger was originally intending on a career in theatre, but gravitated toward songwriting in her late teens.

After a move to London, Seger partnered up with Nick Whitecross and started writing would become her debut album, The May Street Project.

Enlisting the talents of Pharrel Williams of the Neptunes, Ron Sexsmith (with whom she duets on 'Always') and even Lauryn Hill (who is peculiarly credited under the pseuodonym Commissioner Gordon) as the album's mixer, May Street saw release in October of 2000 when Seger was only twenty years old (it was released in America the following year).

Shea Seger - The May Street Project (2001)The May Street Project is one of those rare records where every single song is top-notch. There is virtually something for everybody here: hip-hop, rap, rock, blues, folk; Seger nails just about every genre she's up against. And her voice is remarkably mature and comfortable on these songs. Sometimes, subtle similarities to artists like Shelby Lynne or Sheryl Crow are very evident."

Last Time
I Love You Too Much
Shatterwall (acoustic)
Clutch (The Neptunes Mix)

Blind Willie Johnson--If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down & Cold is the Ground, Dark is the Night--2 MP3s

Blind Willie Johnson 1902(?) - 1947(?)



"Blind Willie" Johnson was born in Texas about 1902. Some reports say it was in Marlin, others say near Temple and the family then moved to Marlin. At age 5, Johnson announced to his father that he was going to become a preacher and fashioned his first guitar out of a cigar box.

Johnson's father remarried following the death of young Johnson's mother. He caught Johnson's stepmother cheating and beat her her up. Her response was to throw lye into 7 year old Willie Johnson's face to deliberately blind him.

Willie taught himself to play the guitar and accompanied himself using a pocketknife for a slide to mimic his voice. Johnson's father would take him into the town of Hearne and leave him to play on the corner every Saturday with a tin cup tied around his neck.

At age twenty-five he married a young singer named Angelina, sister of blues guitarist L. C. "Good Rockin'" Robinson (1915-76). Angelina accompanied Johnson on some of his recordings for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1930.

Although some blues singers tussled with the pull between the blues and religious music, Blind Willie came down firmly on the side of the religious -- in a way. He had the power to make a religious song sound like the blues and a blues song sound holy.

He sang in a "rasping false bass," and played bottleneck guitar with "uncanny left-handed strength, accuracy and agility." So forceful was his voice that legend has it he was once arrested for inciting a riot simply by standing in front of the New Orleans Customs House singing "If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down."

Ry Cooder once called Johnson's "Dark Was The Night Cold Was the Ground" the most "transcendent piece in all American music." Additionally, his "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" is another masterpiece of slide work.

Ironically, Johnson died of pneumonia following a fire that burned down his home. He slept on wet bedding his wife had prepared for him, got sick and passed on to blues heaven.

from Big Road Blues

Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground--Blind Willie Johnson

If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down--Blind Willie Johnson

Texas Tornados--Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone & Rueda de Fuego (Ring of Fire)

The Texas Tornados



Since 1955, Doug Sahm has released records under his own name, as well as fronting several bands including the Knights, the Pharaohs, the Dell-Kings, the Markays, the Sir Douglas Quintet, and the Doug Sahm Band. Generally speaking, these groups consisted of Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, and whoever they happened to be making music with at the time. The Texas Tornados include Sahm and Meyers plus Flaco Jimenez and Freddy Fender, both long-time stars of the Tex-Mex music scene.

Texas Tornados--Rueda de Fuego (Ring of Fire)
Texas Tornados--Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone

Jazz Divas

Jazz Divas: "Abbe Lane--Lady in Red & Ain't Misbehavin'--Two MP3s"

Check out my new MP3 Blog--Jazz Divas

Jimmie Dale Gilmore--Dallas and White Freight Liner Blues--2 MP3s

Jimmie Dale Gilmore



Gilmore was born in Amarillo, Texas and raised in the West Texas town of Lubbock, Texas. His earliest musical influence was the honky tonk brand of country music that his father played as a bar-band guitarist. In the 1950s, he was exposed to the emerging rock and roll of other West Texans such as Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. He was profoundly influenced in the 1960s by the likes of The Beatles and Bob Dylan and the folk music and blues revival in that decade.

With Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, Gilmore founded The Flatlanders. The group has been performing on and off since 1972. The band's first recording project, from the early 1970s, was barely distributed. It has since been acknowledged, through Rounder's 1991 reissue, (More a Legend Than a Band) as a milestone of progressive, alternative country. The three friends continued to reunite for occasional Flatlanders performances, and in May of 2002 released a long-awaited follow-up album, Now Again, on New West records.

Gilmore spent much of the 1970s in an ashram in Denver, Colorado, studying metaphysics. In the 1980s, he moved to Austin. His first solo album, Fair and Square, was released in 1988.

Gilmore's fans admire his fine tenor voice, which delivers expressive, pure, country singing.

Gilmore also had a minor role in the 1998 movie The Big Lebowski as a bowler named Smokey.

The two cuts posted here are from the albums Fair and Square and The Best of alt.country Expo

Dallas
White Freight Liner Blues

Lightnin' Hopkins--Come Back Baby and Katie Mae

Lightnin' Hopkins



"Once he was playing, he would almost slip into a trance and a blues stream of consciousness would come pouring out, making him nearly oblivious to what was going on around him. Sometimes he would stop altogether and start talking the song instead of singing it. At best the rhythms would pick up speed or slow down; the musicians would desperately try and readjust by which time, Hopkins would have changed it again."
Harry Shapiro



Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins (March 15, 1912-January 30, 1982) was a country blues guitar legend, from Houston, Texas.

Born in Centerville, Texas, he learned the blues when young in Buffalo, Texas from Blind Lemon Jefferson and his older cousin, country-blues singer Alger 'Texas' Alexander. When Hopkins and Alexander were playing in Houston in 1946, he was discovered by Lola Anne Cullum of Los Angeles' Aladdin Records (although Alexander would not make it out to LA). Hopkins' fast finger style is very distinct. He settled in Houston in 1952 and gained much attention. Solid recordings followed including his masterpiece song Mojo Hand in 1960. He was an influence on Jimmie Vaughan's work, and, more significantly, on the vocals and blues style of Pigpen, the keyboardist of the of the Grateful Dead until 1972.

In 1968 he recorded an album backed by psychedelic rock band, the 13th Floor Elevators.

From wikipedia.org

These two cuts are from the 1961 album Lightnin'.

Lightnin' Hopkins--Come Back Baby
Lightnin' Hopkins--Katie Mae

Keep The Coffee Coming: Blue Skies: Willie Nelson

Keep The Coffee Coming: Blue Skies: Willie Nelson: "Blue Skies: Willie Nelson"

Jerry Jeff Walker--Standing at the Big Hotel

"Jerry Jeff has bounced in and out of my life like the Mad Hatter on the way to the tea party."

--Jimmy Buffett

"Mesmerizing on stage, with just him and his guitar."

--Guy Clark

"In the years that I've known Jerry Jeff, every single time I've been to his house he's had a guitar in his hand…What I learned from him is the love of music and the craft."

--Pat Green

"I used to follow Jerry Jeff around like a Deadhead…When I first saw Jerry Jeff, I thought, 'That's me. Just a total gypsy'."

--Todd Snider

"In high school, I started seeing Willie and Jerry Jeff…That kind of stuff changed my life you know. It was so exciting and so good that I figured I wanted to do something like that."

--Jack Ingram



There's a photo on the back of a long-out-of-print Jerry Jeff Walker album that kind of sums it all up. In the picture, Jerry Jeff is outside an old roadhouse on a lonesome highway. It's night, and his collar is turned up against the chill breeze as he hunches over to light a cigarette. His guitar is slung around his back. It's hard to tell if he's entering or leaving the roadhouse, but either way you figure he's got many miles to go before he sleeps.
from Jerry Jeff Walker's official website-- Click here


Standin' At The Big Hotel (Butch Hancock)
from the album--

1976 It's A Good Night For Singin' (Out of print)--LP, MCA - MCA2022

Jerry Jeff Walker--Standing at the Big Hotel

Popsheep: Skinny Legs and All--Joe Tex

Popsheep: Skinny Legs and All: "Did someone say Joe Tex? I can't resist. Here is a great Joe Tex song Skinny Legs And All, which is great on so many levels. The most amazing part is that it sounds like there is a party in the studio. And talk about bass lines."

Western Wednesday Episode 6....Tales of the Texas Rangers

New Page 1: "Joel McCrea stars as Texas Ranger Jace Pearson in this thirty-minute western adventure series. The shows are all re-enactments of incidents from Texas Ranger history. The Texas lawman and his trusty steed, Charcoal, would be tracking a criminal, often a killer, throughout the vast 260,000 square miles of Texas. Episode Blood Trail, 01/20/1952"

Fields on Fire: And, here, with their two Stamps' worth....2 "White" Gospel MP3s

Fields on Fire: And, here, with their two Stamps' worth....: "Thanks to the terrific article by Rebecca L. Folsom at http://www.american-music.org/publications/bullarchive/Folsom.html, we know that The Stamps Quartet/All-Star Quartet was created in 1927 to promote gospel songs published by the Stamps-Baxter Music Company of Dallas, Texas (originally the Stamps Music Company of Jacksonville, Texas). They replaced an earlier quartet formed for the exact same purpose.

The group was popular but broke, reports Folsom, and they were ready to quit. Luckily for us, the Victor Recording Company convinced them to make some records. Our first mp3, Give the World a Smile, is from the group's first session (in Atlanta), and it deservedly enjoyed huge sales. As for the second--He's a Wonderful Savior to Me--your guess is as good as mine. But both are equally marvelous, with Revelers-level haço as pazes lembrando

Fields on Fire: And, here, with their two Stamps' worth....2 "White" Gospel MP3s

Fields on Fire: And, here, with their two Stamps' worth....: "Thanks to the terrific article by Rebecca L. Folsom at http://www.american-music.org/publications/bullarchive/Folsom.html, we know that The Stamps Quartet/All-Star Quartet was created in 1927 to promote gospel songs published by the Stamps-Baxter Music Company of Dallas, Texas (originally the Stamps Music Company of Jacksonville, Texas). They replaced an earlier quartet formed for the exact same purpose.

The group was popular but broke, reports Folsom, and they were ready to quit. Luckily for us, the Victor Recording Company convinced them to make some records. Our first mp3, Give the World a Smile, is from the group's first session (in Atlanta), and it deservedly enjoyed huge sales. As for the second--He's a Wonderful Savior to Me--your guess is as good as mine. But both are equally marvelous, with Revelers-level harmonizing (and Revelers-style s"

Home of the Groove: Gulf Coast Soul--"I'm A One Man Woman"--Barbara Lynn MP3

Home of the Groove: Gulf Coast Soul: "This month’s Swamp Side features a cut from Barbara Lynn (Ozen), who grew up on the Gulf Coast in Beaumont, TX, although her people were originally from the Opelousas, LA area. Not only a talented vocalist, Lynn, who is still an active performer, plays guitar left-handed and has written some great songs. Discovered in the early 1960’s by producer Huey Meaux, who got her signed to nationally distributed Jamie Records, Lynn scored a big R&B hit in 1962 with her first single for the label, “You’ll Lose A Good Thing”."

last night an mp3 saved my wife--Tex Ritter - Rye Whiskey.mp3

last night an mp3 saved my wife: "The most well-versed western singer of any of Hollywood's singing cowboys was Tex Ritter. Born Woodward Maurice Ritter in Panola County, Texas (the same county where Jim Reeves was born), Ritter was raised with a deep love of western music. When he entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1922 he met J. Frank Dobie, Oscar J. Fox, and John Lomax--three of the most noted authorities on cowboy songs, who added further to his knowledge of western music. While studying law in college Ritter had his own weekly radio program, singing cowboy songs. on KPRC in Houston.

In 1933 he released Rye Whiskey, I don't know why but it seems that from the begining of time that drinking whiskey and singing songs go hand in hand, when I try to drink whiskey and sing songs I just get pissed throw up and pass out. Ritter's' Rye Whiskey is a classic boozed up binge of a song that combines his unique dry humour and poignant wit. First he gets you laughing at the old drunk who seems to be getting along merrily with his life and enjoying his love hate relationship he has with the bottle, then you slowly realise that he has lost control of his life and starts slipping further and further in to the clutches of that damn whiskey and then song finishes with the lyrics: Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, you're no friend to me. You killed my poor daddy, God damn you, try me.
You can feel the bitterness and agonising pain that is trapped deep inside as he almost wills himself to suffer the same fate as he fails to break the chain. Try buying an introduction to Tex from here."

Terry Allen

Jimmie Dale Gilmore calls Terry Allen, whom he first saw perform when both were high-schoolers in Lubbock, "the impetus for me to become a songwriter . . . It wasn't his style that affected me, just the pure fact that he was so brazenly creative."
Of Allen the visual artist, director Ron Gleason of the Tyler Museum of Art says, "He's one of the two or three most important contemporary artists in the country."
When drummer Davis McLarty of Joe Ely's band recently had the chance to accompany Allen, he said he felt like bowing down and admitting, "We're not worthy." McLarty calls Allen a "chicken-fried renaissance man . . . the world's best-kept secret."

From a fan website.

Terry Allen--Helena Montana--YouSendIt
Terry Allen--Texas Tears--YouSendIt
Terry Allen--Helena Montana--RapidShare
Terry Allen--Texas Tears--RapidShare

Hank Thompson - living country music legend--6 MP3s plus bonus

Lil Mike's Last Known Thoughts & Random Revelations: Hank Thompson - living country music legend: "Born in 1925, Hank grew up in Waco Tx, he grew up in the depression, fascinated with a neighbor lady's Victrola, emanating sounds of Dalhart's Texas Panhandlers, The Carter Family & Jimmie Rodgers, at the movies Gene Autry was singing on the big screen, and Earnest Tubb was broadcasting out of Fort Worth, and The Grand Ol' Opry on WLS every Saturday night out of Nashville."

I like the look of Lil Mike's Blog.

Waylon Jennings' Birthday--Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line

Jennings was born and raised in Littlefield, TX, on June 15, 1937,where he learned how to play guitar by the time he was eight. When he was 12 years old, he was a DJ for a local radio station and, shortly afterward, formed his first band. Two years later he left school and spent the next few years picking cotton, eventually moving to Lubbock, TX, in 1954. Once he was in Lubbock, he got a job at the radio station KLLL, where he befriended Buddy Holly during one of the station's shows. Holly became Waylon's mentor, teaching him guitar licks, collaborating on songs, and producing Jennings' first single, "Jole Blon," which was released on Brunswick in 1958. Later that year, Waylon became the temporary bass player for Holly's band the Crickets, playing with the rock & roller on his final tour. Jennings was also scheduled to fly on the plane ride that ended in Holly's tragic death in early 1959, but he gave up his seat at the last minute to the Big Bopper, who was suffering from a cold. From the official website.

Waylon Jennings has won two Grammys:
Best Country Performance By A Duo or Group for MacArthur Park (1969)
Best Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group for Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys with Willie Nelson (1978)

Jennings won election to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001 and died on February 13, 2002.



The song I've chosen here was a top 10 hit for Jennings in 1969.

Waylon Jennings--Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line--YouSendIt
Waylon Jennings--Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line--RapidShare

berkeleyplace--Waylon Jennings Birthday

berkeleyplace: "Happy Birthday, Waylon Jennings -

Born June 15 1937. Click title for MP3 of “Luckenback, Texas.” Even if you don’t like country, you should like this song. Because I said so."

ear fuzz: The Shape of Jazz to Come

ear fuzz: The Shape of Jazz to Come:

Ornette Coleman was born in Fort Worth in 1930.

"Ornette Coleman: Lonely Woman and Free
From The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic, 1959)"

A Couple of Texas Tunes from Fire of Love

Fire Of lovE: "Really like Don Varners recordings and if you are new to Soul this is a good place to start as any. Eddie Hinton was not quite satisfied with what hade come out on this one. He thought there was something missing out of it so he took it to Memphis and he had the Memphis Strings on that particular session. Every time I listen , it makes me realise how much I miss Dough Sahm. So I dusted of my vinylcopy of the Renner Sides.


Don Varner - Down in Texas (1967)

Dough Sahm - Cry (1963)"

Blind Lemon Jefferson

Blind Lemon Jefferson was born in Wortham, Texas, about 60 miles south of Dallas, in 1897 but it is possible that the year could be a decade or so earlier. Nothing is known about his youth, how he became blind.

He was taught to play guitar in the early 1900's by William Moore the stepfather of John Lee Hooker.

His history seams to begin in 1926 when 'Got The Blues' and 'Long Lonesome Blues', his second blues release, was the first best selling blues record by a black male singer. Soon he had a new car, a bank account and a billing as one of the stars of the Paramount label, the leading producer of "race" records, for whom he made almost a hundred sides in less than four years.

His death is as much of a mysterious as most of his life: he is supposed to have died in Chicago in the winter of 1929, frozen on the streets in a blizzard, but his producer Mayo Williams' account, that he collapsed in his car and was abandoned by his chauffeur, seems more plausable.

From: http://www.john-meekings.co.uk/bljefferson.html



Blind Lemon Jefferson--Broke and Hungry Blues--RapidShare
Blind Lemon Jefferson--Match Box Blues--RapidShare
Blind Lemon Jefferson--Broke and Hungry Blues--You SendIt
Blind Lemon Jefferson--Match Box Blues--You SendIt

Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies

Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies are not exactly household names, except perhaps among a few old-timers in Texas and Oklahoma who remember dancing to their music in the 1930's.

Although the Brownies enjoyed unprecedented regional popularity in their day and virtually invented the wonderful hybrid known as western swing, their legacy has not fared well in subsequent years. Their music has proved too jazzy and swinging to win them a prominent place in the annals of country music, too "hillbilly" to be taken seriously by jazz scholars, too full of regional quirks to be accepted as mainstream pop. Where does that leave them?

Well, among other things, it would be no exaggeration to call the Brownies one of the most important, and most unjustly obscure, of the predecessors and forefathers of rock and roll. (Robert Palmer) for the complete article Click Here




A comprehensive site on Milton Brownie and His Musical Brownies



Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies--The Eyes of Texas--You SendIt
Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies--The Yellow Rose of Texas--You SendIt
Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies--The Eyes of Texas--RapidShare
Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies--The Yellow Rose of Texas--RapidShare



Milton Brown's Gravesite--Note the two radio towers and the microphone.