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Crossing the Red River into Texas, where the Black Cowboys lived free and made their home.
Rising High Water Blues
1927 — Blind Lemon Jefferson
((( Lonestars )))
—.!
Blind Lemon Jefferson — Henry Jefferson was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and is often called the “Father of the Texas Blues.“
Blind Lemon Jefferson’s music was popular, but had far less influence on the young blues/rock guitar players, than the more commercially successful Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and the three “Kings,” Albert, B.B., and Freddie.
The lack of his being imitated, was because most rock players found his guitar playing too complicated to follow, and then there was his distinctive, high-pitched voice … impossible to copy.
“Stormy Monday”
T-Bone Walker
1948 — Single (Black & White Records)
((( Jimi’s Inspiration )))
— Vg
T-Bone Walker — When B.B. King heard T-Bone Walker, he “thought Jesus Himself had returned to Earth playing electric guitar.” Walker invented the guitar solo as we know it, building a new style on fluid phrasing, bluesy bends and vibrato. It was the clear tone and melodic invention of his 1942 single “Mean Old World” that blew everyone’s mind, and Walker refined his approach through hits like “Call It Stormy Monday.” “I came into this world a little too soon,” Walker said. “I’d say that I was about 30 years before my time.”
“Call It Stormy Monday” / “T-Bone Shuffle” / “Mean Old World”
Blind Lemon Reminiscence
1959 — Lightnin’ Hopkins
(Roots of) Lightnin’ Hopkins
((( Looking Back )))
— Vg
Lightnin’ Hopkins
Samuel John Hopkins — An American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010 Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
The musicologist Robert “Mack” McCormick opined that Hopkins is “the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act”. He was a notable influence on Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams, Jr., and a generation of blues musicians like Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose Grammy winning song “Rude Mood” was directly inspired by the Texan’s song “Hopkins’ Sky Hop.”
“Dollar Got The Blues”
1973 — Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
Gate’s On The Heat
((( An Ornery Man )))
— Vg
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown — An American singer and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana known for his work as a blues musician. He spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing traditional blues and country, jazz, Cajun music and R&B. His work also encompasses rock and roll, rock, folk and Texas blues. He was famously a resident of Texas.
Brown was acclaimed for his skills on multiple instruments, including the guitar, mandolin, viola, violin, harmonica and drums. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!. He is regarded as one of the most influential exponents of the blues fiddle and has had enormous influence in American fiddle circles.
Brown’s biggest musical influences were Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker, and Count Basie. His highly original electric guitar style influenced many blues and rock guitarists, including Guitar Slim, Albert Collins, and Johnny “Guitar” Watson.
Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, and raised near Orange, Texas. His father was a railroad worker and local musician who taught him several musical instruments, including fiddle by age 5; as well as piano and guitar. He had at least one brother.
@ Tobacco Road — When someone at the bar yelled out “The Thrill Is Gone” at Gatemouth Brown as he played on the small riser at the end of Tobacco Road’s infamous red room, upstairs, where so much of Blues Royalty had played, Brown stopped abruptly and yelled back loudly, “If I hear another word about B.B. King, I’ll leave right fucking now.”
@ Musician’s Exchange — “Orange Blossom Special,” playing a fiddle , Bugs Bunny style, teetering on the edge of a cartoon cliff. Young bass and drum, saying Brown was fun to play with, but he did get ornery at times, since a mediator, between his wife and him, insisted he stop smoking pot in an effort to reconcile their differences.
“Rocket 88”
1977 — Muddy Waters / Johnny Winter
Live at The Tower Theater (Philadelphia)
((( Hard Again )))
— Vg
Color Blindness
Muddy Waters and Johnny Winter … Much more than meets the eye.
1977 — Hard Again is a studio album by American blues singer Muddy Waters. Released on January 10, 1977, it was the first of his albums produced by Johnny Winter. Hard Again was Waters’s first album on Blue Sky Records after leaving Chess Records and was well received by critics.
Johnny Copeland
Johnny Winter
Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top)
Eric Johnson
Ty Tabor
Darrell “Dimebag” Lance Abbott (Pantera)
John Hiatt
“Alberts Shuffle”
1984 — Albert Collins / Stevie Ray Vaughan
Solos, Sessions & Encores
SRV And Friends
((( LISTEN )))
— Vg
Albert Collins
1968 — “There’s one cat I’m still trying to get across to people. He is really good, one of the best guitarists in the world.” — Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix talking about his love and respect for Albert Collins, the blues guitarist who was barely known outside of Houston, Texas.
Albert Collins played with his thumb and forefinger instead of a pick to put a muscular snap into his piercing, trebly solos. His fluid, inventive playing influenced Hendrix, sometimes overtly: Jimi liked Collins’ sustain in the song “Collins Shuffle” so much that he used it on “Voodoo Chile.”
“Frosty” / “Sno-Cone (Part 1)”
1987 — Albert Collins
Adventures in Baby Sitting ((( WATCH )))
“Miami Strut”
1983 — Stevie Ray Vaughan
w/A.C. Reed
“Everybody’s Got A Cousin In Miami” (Jimmy Buffett)
Brothers In Texas Arms
((( >>> )))
— Vg
Stevie Ray Vaughan
In the early eighties, MTV was on the rise, and blues guitar was far away from music’s mainstream. But Texas’ Stevie Ray Vaughan demanded your attention. He had absorbed the styles of just about every great blues guitarist – plus Jimi Hendrix and a lot of jazz and rockabilly – and his monster tone, casual virtuosity and impeccable sense of swing could make a blues shuffle like “Pride and Joy” hit as hard as metal. Vaughan was recognized as a peer by the likes of B.B. King and Eric Clapton, and despite his 1990 death in a helicopter crash, he’s still inspiring multiple generations of guitarists, from Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready to John Mayer and rising young star Gary Clark Jr. “Stevie was one of the reasons I wanted a Stratocaster – his tone, which I’ve never been able to get down, was just so big and bold and bright at the same time,” says Clark. “If you listen to his records and watch his videos, you can tell he’s just giving you everything he had. His passion is overwhelming.”
“Love Struck Baby” / “Cold Shot” / “Look at Little Sister”
Rare Find
2007 — SRV’s studio vaults were nearly empty when he died August 27, 1990 in a helicopter crash, so the discovery of this collection of Solos, Sessions, & Encores was a rare find, especially a 1978 session track, “You Can Have My Husband,” Vaughan did with his then girlfriend, singer Lou Ann Barton.
The song was rare, but undistinguished when compared to the previously unreleased live performances that make up most of the album.
Bonnie Raitt’s distinctively keening slide adds elegance to a “Texas Flood” from Bumbershoot 1985 in Seattle, and when Stevie’s older sibling Jimmie Vaughan stops by Saturday Night Live to play rhythm on a 1985 “Change It,” li’l bro’ squeezes out screaming fireworks. Vaughan contributes teeth-baring pentatonic solos to Lonnie Mack’s “Oreo Cookie Blues” at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre in 1986 and brings his bullish tone to the late blues piano stomper Katie Webster’s “On the Run” at the 1988 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. But the best cut’s a breathtaking ’88 Jazz Fest slugfest with Texas Telecaster blaster Albert Collins that’s jammed with howling, shaken notes and machine-gun riffing. Both are in top form. The rest is culled from Vaughan’s guest appearances on others’ releases or previous retrospectives and include matches with blues godfathers B.B. King and Albert King, as well as Johnny Copeland and A.C. Reed, Jeff Beck, Austin barrelhouser Marcia Ball, surf guitar king Dick Dale, and David Bowie, whose “Let’s Dance” introduced Vaughan to the mainstream in 1983.
— Ted Drozdowski
Whiter than White
—.!
Johnny Winter
Out of all the hopped-up Caucasians who turbocharged the blues in the late Sixties, Texas albino Johnny Winter was both the whitest and the fastest. Songs like his 1969 cover of “Highway 61 Revisited” are astonishing showpieces of his lightningfast thumb-picked electric slide playing. Jimi Hendrix sought him out as a sideman, and Muddy Waters recognized his talent at first glance, becoming a friend and collaborator: “That guy up there onstage – I got to see him up close,” Waters later said. “He plays eight notes to my one!”
“I’m Yours and I’m Hers” / “Fast Life Rider”
“Frankenstein”
1972 — Edgar Winter
They Only Come Out At Night
((( Original Monster )))
— Yz.
1972 — The Edgar Winter Group‘s debut, The Only Come Out At Night, was a commercial success, reaching #3 on the US Billboard 200 chart. The record notably includes two of Edgar Winter’s most popular songs, “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride.“
Recording for the first time as The Edgar Winter Group, Winter assembled an all-star lineup which featured himself, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dan Hartman, San Francisco guitarist Ronnie Montrose, and producer/guitarist Rick Derringer, with Eagles‘ producer Bill Szymczyk serving as technical director.
Ronnie Montrose had recently left Van Morrison‘s band and didn’t view himself as a rock guitarist when he joined The Edgar Winter Group. “(Winter) so much wanted to do that whole rock thing that he encouraged me,” said the guitarist. “I was in the Edgar Winter Group, and I had better start delivering this heavy guitar music. Now. Because I hadn’t done that before.”
1975 — Chess Records is sold to All Platinum Records and becomes a reissue label only. Waters left sometime after this, and did not record any new studio material until he signed with Johnny Winter’s Blue Sky label in October 1976.
“Frankenstein”
1974 — Edgar & Johnny Winter
((( It’s Alive )))
— Yz.
Odd Couple
1977 — Hard Again was recorded in three days. Producing the session was Johnny Winter and engineering the sessions was Dave Still – who previously engineered Johnny’s brother Edgar, Foghat, and Alan Merrill. Waters used his touring band of the time, Bob Margolin (guitar), Pinetop Perkins (piano) and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith (drums) Also, James Cotton (harmonica), and Charles Calmese (bass).
2022 — Brother Johnny is Edgar Winter’s tribute to his older brother, Johnny, who died the year before. The album is a powerful sonic journey, traveling the course of Johnny’s musical life, impeccably directed, as only his brother Edgar could. Joining Edgar on the inclusive project is an impressive array of renowned musicians who knew, or were inspired by Johnny, including Joe Bonamassa, Doyle Bramhall II, John McFee, Robben Ford, Billy Gibbons, David Grissom, Taylor Hawkins, Warren Haynes, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, Keb Mo, Doug Rappoport, Bobby Rush, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Ringo Starr, Derek Trucks, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Walsh, Phil X, and Gregg Bissonette. The guitar-driven album celebrates the expansive styles Johnny was known for, 17 tracks, carefully curated by Edgar and producer Ross Hogarth to represent Johnny’s evolution as an artist, and honoring his legacy, brother to brother.
Singles: “JOHNNY B. GOODE” / “MEAN TOWN BLUES” / “LONE STAR BLUES”
— Vg
The Winters and the Vaughans are two of the best names in a long, Texas tradition of musical brothers.
Brothers In Arms
Allman Brothers
Everly Brothers
Isley Brothers
Bee Gees
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Beach Boys
The Kinks
Jackson 5
Gino Vannelli
Doobie Brothers
Bachman Turner Overdrive
Van Halen
The Brothers Johnson
The BusBoys
Oasis
Dire Straits
—30—
1855 — Allan Harris is Blue
—In the years preceding the Civl War (before Juneteenth), there was a community of black (mostly) men who were already living free. Called “Black Cowboys,” they had earned pay and privileges, equal to any of the white men they worked alongside, driving cattle from Texas, into Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
“Blue Was Angry”
2016 — Cross That River (Miami)
((( WATCH )))
— dave.
2003 — Allan Harris Cross That River
Since releasing Cross That River, Allan Harris has never stopped telling the often overlooked, African American story of slavery, war, peace, repression, and freedom, WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
Running Free — Allan Harris is best known as a Nat King Cole-style crooner, one of New York City’s best, and a favorite of Tony Bennett. He still is, but Allan is quick to say that as a kid growing up in Bed-Sty quickly say that he started as a Jimi Hendrix inspired guitar player, who is comfortable in any genre of music. In 2003, he wrote, played, and released Cross That River, a story about a cotton-picking slave named Blue who lived in 1851 Louisiana. The record could be described as a Country/Roots record about the group of runaway/escaped slaves known as “Black Cowboys.” Their’s is an often overlooked group, in the telling of the African-American story.
Black Cowboys
1865 — Juneteenth (Galveston, Texas)
After the Civil War was “won,” Freedom finally (actually) came June 19, 1865, when 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas.
The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in Texas were free by executing decree. The day came to be known as “Juneteenth” by the newly freed people in Texas.
King’s X
Not your father’s Christian Band
((( “Mississippi Moon” )))
Doug Pinnick, drummer Jerry Gaskill and guitarist Ty Tabor. Their music combines progressive metal, funk and soul with vocal arrangements influenced by gospel, blues, and British Invasion rock.
Eric Johnson
Texas Contribution
1990 — Ah Via Musicom (Best Inst. Grammy)
((( “Cliffs of Dover” )))
Eric Johnson
Grammy Award “Best Instrumental Performance”
Steve Vai
Joe Satriani
G3
Pantera
Texas Contribution
1989 — Cowboys from Hell
((( “Cliffs of Dover” )))
1981 —
Pantera
Arlington, Texas
Abbott brothers
Dimebag Darrell (guitar)d drummer
Vinnie Paul (drums)