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.