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.

Australia

We just got back from our trip to Australia. We were over there for 10 days and we played 4 shows--two in Adelaide and two near Melbourne. We had a hoot at all of the shows but our best show was at the St. Kilda's Bowling Club. That was a good time and there were a ton of people at the show.

Here's a pic of us playing at the Grace Emily.


Adelaide was a cool town. We had a chance to ride around in the back of Michael's old Ford and check it out. Here are a few of the pics we snapped.