“Smokestack Lightning,” Jesse Sublett & the Big 3 Trio at the 4th Annual Howlin’ Wolf Birthday Show at the Continental Club in Austin, TX, June 9, 2012. Denny Freeman stage right, Eve Monsees stage left, Jesse Sublett bass & vocals, with, plus Claude McCan on piano, Joe Doerr on harp, Mark Evans on drums.
Posts tagged austin music
“Goin’ Down Slow,” Jesse Sublett & the Big 3 Trio at the 4th Annual Howlin’ Wolf Birthday Show at the Continental Club in Austin, TX, June 9, 2012. Denny Freeman stage right, Eve Monsees stage left, Jesse Sublett vocals (and bass, but only vocals on this one), a duet with Sonny James, plus Claude McCan on piano, Mark Evans on drums. Denny Freeman, one of the giants of blues guitar, has played with Bob Dylan, the Cobras, Bonnie Raitt, many others. Sonny James, the inscrutable legend, Gil T on bass, whom I must have co-billed with many times when I was living in LA, but never actually met until a week ago.
My ‘63 P-bass in 1978, which I picked up for $225 in a pawn shop called Snoopers Paradise on Red River in Austin, stolen about a year later in NYC after a gig at CBGB’s. I still miss that axe, man!
B. B. King, relaxing before a performance at the late, lamented Club Foot in Austin, Texas, having chosen a seat according to his preference in Austin legendary rock bands, the Skunks, apparently agreeing with the sentiment that “The Skunks helped put Austin on the rock n’ roll map.” Or maybe that’s just where he felt like sitting.
The Genie of 2012 is out of the Bottle, art pens on paper, 4x6”, from my first blog of the year, a new series of Little Black Book Drawings…. and the blog also has a new Soundcloud link, the song titled “If There Was,” another noirish, dreamlike ballad of unrequited love and grief, featuring solo upright bass and some squeaky guitar by my terrible self, made by running my little A&L Amie acoustic guitar through GarageBand distortion, vocals sung into a Blue Yeti THX Pro USB mic. Happy new year.
RIP Joe Gracey, deejay, producer, songwriter, musician. This is a photo layout from the Daily Texan coverage of a benefit for Joe at the Armadillo World Headquarters in 1978. Joe started recording my band, The Skunks, when the band had been together a mere four months. But we were hot shit. Also shown, Asleep at the Wheel and Alvin Crow.
One of the funnest gigs in a long while, performing at the Harry Ransom Center at UT, combining sea shanties (originated by African American sailors) with old ballads, blues and my own songs, getting the audience to sing along on “Haul Away Joe” and “A Drop of Nelson’s Blood” to celebrate the new Bohemian exhibition at the HRC.
I did this one for Eddie Wilson, former owner of Armadillo World Headquarters back in the day. He loaned me this thesis about the evolution of the cosmic cowboy in the progressive music scene in Austin, Texas, and it seemed way too academic for such a topic, IMHO. Anyway, I thought Eddie would get a kick out of it, and he did.
