Texas Tornado

by Reid, Jan

• ISBN13: 9780292721968
• ISBN10: 029272196X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-15
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

Doug Sahm was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist of legendary range and reputation. The first American musician to capitalize on the 1960s British invasion, Sahm vaulted to international fame leading a faux-British band called the Sir Douglas Quintet, whose hits included "She's About a Mover," "The Rains Came," and "Mendocino." He made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in 1968 and 1971 and performed with the Grateful Dead, Dr. John, Willie Nelson, Boz Scaggs, and Bob Dylan. Texas Tornado is the first biography of this national music legend. Jan Reid traces the whole arc of Sahm's incredibly versatile musical career, as well as the manic energy that drove his sometimes turbulent personal life and loves. Reid follows Sahm from his youth in San Antonio as a prodigy steel guitar player through his breakout success with the Sir Douglas Quintet and his move to California, where, with an inventive take on blues, rock, country, and jazz, he became a star in San Francisco and invented the "cosmic cowboy" vogue. Reid also chronicles Sahm's later return to Texas and to chart success with the Grammy Award-winning Texas Tornados, a rowdy "conjunto rock and roll band" that he modeled on the Beatles and which included Sir Douglas alum Augie Meyers and Tejano icons Freddy Fender and Flaco Jimenez. With his exceptional talent and a career that bridged five decades, Doug Sahm was a rock and roll innovator whose influence can only be matched among his fellow Texas musicians by Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Janis Joplin, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Texas Tornado vividly captures the energy and intensity of this musician whose life burned out too soon, but whose music continues to rock.

Table of Contents

Prologue: A Real American Joe	p. 1
A Cajun Two-Step Tex-Mex Polka	p. 19
Song and Dance Men	p. 31
Summers of Love	p. 41
The Real Old Texas Me	p. 55
Crossroads	p. 69
Austin after Dark	p. 83
The Coast-to-Coast All-Star Bands	p. 91
Are We a Group?	p. 105
Soap Creek	p. 111
Groovers Paradise	p. 123
Country Boogie	p. 131
Sometimes I Cry	p. 139
Wanderlust	p. 147
Borderlands	p. 159
Epilogue: Guitar Slim	p. 171
Selected Discography	p. 187
Index	p. 191
Index of Song Titles	p. 199
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