Jump for joy Before the term “guitar hero” existed, Guitar Shorty was one. His ear-reaming tones were a known influence on Jimi Hendrix, who may have lent an eye to Shorty’s showmanship as well. Born in Houston, Shorty took up music in Florida; in Louisiana he opened shows for Guitar…
Entrepreneur Mark Begelman–the man who answered the question “I wonder what a 75-foot-high stack of calculators looks like?” when he was in charge of Office Depot–has taken his pallet-intensive retail philosophy and applied it to MARS, which is now to be known as the Musicians’ Planet. Planets are usually quite…
Look upon my works King of the World Horseshoe Hiccup Records In this age of calculated maneuver, it’s nice to occasionally see something like creativity unhinged, like Tom Hulce’s Mozart in Amadeus. Houstonians Scott Daniels, Greg Wood, and Eddie Hawkins are vets of late and largely unlamented bayou city bands…
“Dedicated to all people who feel obliged to space,” reads the note on the original sleeve of Tangerine Dream’s Alpha Centauri, made in 1971. A quarter of a century later, four young metroplex musicians have taken this statement to heart, creating an album steeped in the spirit of German cosmic…
American Gothic Mirador Tarnation Reprise Records You can picture Tarnation singer Paula Frazer’s living room: a tattered Patsy Cline biography on the coffee table next to a Faulkner novel, a Johnny Guitar movie poster on the wall, a video of For a Few Dollars More playing with the sound turned…
That’s w-o-m-a-n Maria Muldaur is one of the music industry’s most frustrating phenomena: the artist who never really lived up to her early potential, who had one quick period of pop dominance surrounded by early struggle and later popular decline. In this she reminds you most sharply of Nicolette Larson,…
The Man From Mars Smokey Wilson Bullseye Blues Records The old saw about not playing catch-up with the times, but relaxing and allowing the times to eventually catch up with you, has worked well for Smokey Wilson. Once too strident for the blues mainstream, his guitar sound now finds itself…
After the heart-rending breakup of Killbilly–not long after a wildly successful tour of mainland China, no less–many folk pinned their homegrown alt-country hopes on the Cartwrights, a group that included ex-‘billy Alan Wooley, longtime local light Barry Kooda (Nervebreakers, Yeah Yeah Yeah), and Donny Ray Ford, one of the purest…
“It’s an experiment in the works,” Will Johnson says with a warm laugh. Although he is supposed to be shedding some light on Centro-matic, his solo musical guise, and Redo the Stacks, the band’s “warts-and-all” debut out on steve records, he may well be referring to the coagulating queso dip…
More than a bunch of ‘toons Songs in the Key of Springfield Original music from the TV series Rhino Records Back in 1990 there were two shows on the Fox network that turned the sitcom on its ear. Married: With Children and the brand-new The Simpsons presented the American family…
The Moon Festival churns out an impressive brand of vintage pop music, but, apparently, they can’t dance. At least not the delicately timed ballet required by the Dallas musical community, where their efforts to fit in resemble nothing so much as Shawn Bradley stumbling through a two-step on Thorazine. Despite…
The way of rights Animal Rights Moby Elektra Records Some of the hype regarding techno guru Moby’s new release Animal Rights is a bit misleading. A series of shockwaves followed a report that Moby had suddenly ditched dance music in favor of hard rock. Well, first off, Animal Rights is…
A red warning light is glowing above the doorway at Last Beat studios, indicating that recording is under way. If you were to ease the door open, you’d find the Toadies camped around an ice chest full of Budweiser, and immediately feel a sense of ease and relaxation. If it…
The grungy guy in the practice room talking to Sharon Brown, publicist for the Dallas gospel group Greg O’Quin and Joyful Noyze, is quite a contrast to the rest of the folks gathered for rehearsal. He’s tall, lanky, and white; the sides of his head are shaved, while on top…
Good for what ails ya UFOFU UFOFU The Medicine Label When UFOFU started out, lead singer Joe Butcher was living in his van, pawning his guitar every other week, battling a serious problem with heroin, and giving guys blow-jobs in public parks to support himself. And yet to talk to…
Vast stretches of miles between Jimmy LaFave is the kind of artist a category like “folk-rock” was invented for: a clever, empathetic artist who knows that if you lean into it, tried and true need not mean dusty. LaFave may be the master of existing forms–cliches, if you’re feeling less…
Charon’s song The Boatman’s Call Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Mute Records When Nick Cave spoke to the Dallas Observer a year ago, he made it clear that he doesn’t wish to be a part of pop culture. Describing most contemporary recordings as “music for kids,” he disassociated himself…
If you live in Austin, it’s easy to grow weary of that town’s annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference: Downtown becomes impassable, restaurants and clubs are clogged, and the myriad ways in which the shindig makes clear the differences between those with wristbands (for common folk and other peons…
The rain and cold don’t stop Solomon Burke. He’s an hour late for the rendezvous, in the parking lot of the red-ribboned church at the intersection of Franklin and Highland in Los Angeles in the heart of Hollywood, and he hastily apologizes for the tardiness. But Solomon Burke has been…
Son of Blind Joe Death Few career arcs break the way Leo Kottke’s did–starting out as a so-folk-he’s-jazz prodigy on 6 and 12 String Guitar, his definitive (and once ubiquitous, though now out of print) 1970 Takoma release. Kottke was at first an instrumentalist, his fingers seemingly doing eight things…
Though many were surprised by the unexpected break-up of Tablet last week–including some band members–it did not come as a surprise to Tablet frontman Steven Holt. “It was something I’d been thinking about for a long time,” Holt says. “It wasn’t an emotional, sudden decision.” Holt, who formed the band…
Action-packed There are artists who carry with them a sense (and sensibility) of time and place, like a living time capsule. In Muddy Waters, you can hear the great migration from the Deep South to the factories and mills of Chicago; in Dick Dale, the boundless electricity of the California…
