Me & Chuck

Well, I didn't actually meet Chuck Berry. I was on tour with Deke Dickerson in 1999 and we had a show in St. Louis. We were having dinner before the show when--all of the sudden--Chuck Berry strolls by on his way out of the restaurant. We all followed him outside to see if we could meet him. I rushed back to the van to grab my camera while Deke was getting Chuck's signature on a five dollar bill--which Chuck jokingly tried to pocket! When I came back, Deke told me "Chuck says we can take all the pictures we want but he's not going to pose with us!" So we went ahead and took a few quick snapshots and I didn't shake his hand or anything. Heck, I didn't even acknowledge him! We just took our pics and left him on the curb while he waited for them to bring his car around.

Louisiana Trip

My brother and I made a trip to Louisiana a few years ago to visit a couple of places we hadn't been to before. First up was a stop in Lake Charles, LA, to find Eddie Shuler's Goldband Records. Eddie was dead by this time and there was a "do not disturb the residence" sign so we were only able to take a picture of the outside of the place.


After that we continued on to Crowley to visit JD Miller's son, Mark. We stopped by his CD shop and started chatting with him. Once he figured out why we were there (and that we were musicians who appreciated his dad's recordings), he took us upstairs and let us look through a room full of records. There was a small room off to the side filled with the original master tapes of artists like Slim Harpo, Larry Brasso, Pee Wee Trahan, etc! The room wasn't air conditioned and the tapes weren't stored properly. But according to Mark, "a guy" from Europe already went through and made digital files of all the tapes to preserve them.

Fish, Teddy!

Back in 1998, we did a west coast Horton Brothers tour. I ended up taking my truck because we were splittin' the tour with the Hot Club of Cowtown. So it was myself, T Jarrod Bonta, and Derek Peterson crammed into my truck. Somewhere along the way we picked up a cassette (remember those?) of Ole Rasmussen and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. We wore that thing out. Sure, they were basically a rip of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys but they were top-notch. Their singer, Teddy Wilds, was a mighty fine singer and the band was pretty happenin' too. We were hooked (no pun intended) on songs like "We're Gonna Go Fishin'" ("fish, Teddy"!), "Ramblin' Blues", and "Did The Man In The Moon Come From Texas".

A couple of years later, I tracked down the group's steel player, Billy Tonnesen, and gave him a call. He was still residing in Southern California and was more than willing to chat with me. So I called up my pals--Dave "Pappy" Stuckey and Jeremy "JW" Wakefield--and we set up a visit with Mr. Tonnesen. We spent the better part of an afternoon listening to him tell stories from the time he spent with Ole Rasmussen.

A few months later--in April of 2000--JW and I decided to drop in on Billy again and check out his steel guitar.

This is me pickin' on this beautiful instrument. It's a custom made job that looks like a cross between an early Rickenbacker and a Bigsby steel guitar.

This is a picture of Billy Tonnesen (shoeless!) playing us a tune on his steel guitar.


And here's a clip of Rasmussen and band backing up Tommy Duncan. Billy's playing his custom steel guitar in this one.

Swamp Pop

If you're not hip to swamp pop...well, you should be! I grew up in Southeast Texas and--to me--it was another genre of music. It wasn't until I moved away from the area that I realized how regional the sound was.

A lot of people only think of Zydeco music when they think of Louisiana music that originates anywhere outside of New Orleans. But the truth is, there were a lot of French Acadian kids all over South Louisiana and Southeast Texas that were hugely influenced by R&B and guys like Fats Domino. But when they tried to emulate their idols it came out as something totally different.

The Europeans have been "in the know" for quite some time. Reissues by labels like Flyright and Ace have been around for years. So if you see a comp you should pick it up. You won't be sorry that you did.

(Above: Willie Tee, Warren Storm, and Me)

A lot of these guys are still around and they play on a fairly regular basis. I've gone back home a couple of times to catch Warren Storm at Larry's French Market in Port Arthur, Texas. It's always a good time and he still sounds fantastic. We chatted for quite awhile about his early days with Larry Brasso (a fantastic honky tonker from Lafayette) and his drumming influences. He told me that there was no bass player in Brasso's band. I, of course, asked "why not?" and Warren said "because we didn't know anyone with a bass". He also said that there are no recordings of this early version of Brasso's band because nobody had any recording equipment in that area at the time!

We talked about his drumming idol--Charles "Hungry" Williams--as well. And (after a bit of badgering) I talked him into drumming during his next set. He said he's getting too old but he sounded fantastic to me. Afterwards, he said "Bobby, you're trying to kill me". But I appreciated him honoring my request to drum and sing at the same time 'cause I think he has a very distinct Louisiana drumming style.

Long live Warren Storm!

Patsy Cline

This picture appeared in a Johnny Horton Memorial Fan Club book. It was sent in by Mabel Samland. I don't really have a story to go along with this one. I just wanted to share this picture with you because I haven't seen it published anywhere else.

Johnny Horton--Live in Waco--75 Cents!

If you're like me, you dig Johnny Horton! We were playing in San Jose, California, several years ago when one of Johnny's distant relatives came up to us and introduced herself. She said that she had some memorabilia and told us she'd mail it to us. And--sure enough--she sent us a nice package of goodies. So I thought I'd share this newspaper clipping with you. (Note: that's actually Tomlinson on the left and Franks on the right.) Enjoy!

Roots Tuesday, January 2008

We play every Tuesday night at a place called Ginny's Little Longhorn here in Austin, TX. We back up different people that we've worked with over the years. This is a good month--Shaun Young made an appearance and later this month we'll be backing up Mike Barfield and T Jarrod Bonta. Oh, and the usual suspects--Bear and Miss Lauren Marie--will be takin' turns this month as well.

Bear and the Essentials "Two Time Fool"

We drove up to Green Bay, WI, to play at the Rockin' 50's Fest earlier this year. This was the first festival that Bear played and I think he did a fine job. That's me and Dave Biller on guitars, Buck Johnson on drums, Billy Horton on bass, and (of course) Bear singin' and playin' acoustic guitar.

Horton Brothers w/TK Smith

I've had the honor of playing with some great guitar players over the years including Dave Biller, Adrian Demain, and Deke Dickerson. So when I found out that TK Smith was going to be playing on the same festival as us in Las Vegas, I jumped at the chance to hire him to pick with us. We had played together one other time in Europe but it was a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am sorta scenario. This time we were able to send him the material and get in a couple of hotel room rehearsals before we played.

This is a clip of us playing "Boot Heel Drag" by Herb Remington.

New Les Paul

I recently got a gold Les Paul. It's not a gold top--the entire body is gold. It originally had humbuckers but I've replaced them with single coil blade pickups (with AlnicoVI magnets!) from Vintage Vibe Guitars. Peter Biltoft did a great job and I couldn't be happier with these pickups. I wanted something different and these definitely deliver. I plan on adding an arm rest in the near future so I'll post follow up pics when I have them.

Bear sings Johnny Horton

This is a clip of Bear singing Johnny Horton's "She Knows Why". It was filmed a few months back at a bar in downtown Austin. That's me on the Epiphone Wilshire guitar, Bear singin' and strummin' acoustic, and my brother Billy Horton on the upright bass.

Two Fenders

Here's a cool pic of my guitar next to Jimmie Vaughan's. That's a Fender Coronado Wildwood II from the late 60's. He actually uses flatwounds on this one and it sounds great. I also got to noodle around on his sunburst Strat during rehearsal and was surprised that the action is about as high as mine. I like mine high so I can "dig in" when I thumbpick.

Blast from the Past

Here's what happened after we had a run in with a certain musician out back of the Continental Club one night. I turned him into a cartoon...or was he a cartoon all along?

Biller & Horton

Here are a couple of "outtake" photos from the Biller & Horton CD.


This is the actual cover for the CD.


We're currently recording the follow up to "Texotica" and hope to have it "in the can" by the early part of 2008.

Jimmie Vaughan at Ginny's Little Longhorn

This is a pic of me and Jimmie Vaughan taken at Ginny's Little Longhorn in Austin, TX. It was an honor to pick with someone I've looked up to since I was a teenager. Jimmie's playing his Fender Coronado Wildwood II guitar and I'm playing my Japanese Telecaster.

Video shot on a cell phone by Scooterfox.