The conclusion of the A&M Records 50th anniversary with my interviews and music from the Eighties and Nineties, including Bryan Adams and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell. Part 3 of 3. -Redbeard
Blog
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Billy Bob Thornton- Southern by the Grace of God
Arkansas-via-Hollywood renaissance man Billy Bob Thornton can create the story, assume the role, direct the whole rodeo, and then sing and play the theme song before you can say “Boy howdy!”. With the passing of the American actor icon Andy Griffith, there is a sweet anecdote about Griffith from my interview with Academy Award-winning actor/screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton, who appeared on an episode of Matlock early in Thornton’s career, then directed Mr. Griffith years later. – Redbeard
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Progressive Rock’s 1972 Peak
For Christmas 1971, my 11 year old brother received a present from me of a record album. While on the surface this would appear not the least remarkable … except that it was Meddle by Pink Floyd, containing the 18 minute long opus “Echoes”. Not your standard fare for fifth grade “show and tell “. I mention this only to illustrate how seriously many of the post-British Invasion bands were approaching the rock idiom, and by 1972 this “progressive“ rock movement had matured with spectacular results, both artistically and commercially.
As early as the Moody Blues’ 1968 Days of Future Passed, which was the result of a combination of new technology ( the Mellotron, which crudely emulated choral and orchestral sounds ) and desperation, an increasing number of British and European bands expanded rock’s canvas musically and lyrically without the slightest consideration to the pop hit mainstream. King Crimson’s stunning debut in 1969 , In the Court of the Crimson King , inspired others such as fellow Londoners YES to release Close to the Edge less than a year after their breakthrough album Fragile . While not necessarily considered a prog-rock band, Traffic nevertheless had their biggest seller in 1972, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys , built around the 11 minute hypnotic title song which featured electronically synthesized saxophone, while Trilogy. from Emerson , Lake , and Palmer and Foxtrot from the Peter Gabriel-led Genesis had critics raving and cash registers ringing. Of course all of this would culminate in Spring 1973 with the incomparable Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon , an iconic masterpiece which long ago threw off any binds imparted by categorization as progressive rock, but not before both Jethro Tull’s Thick As a Brick and the Moody Blues’ Seventh Sojourn would each rack up #1 international sales in 1972. To recognize that year of Progressive Rock’s high watermark, you will find exclusive interviews about these albums, by these bands here by clicking entering any band name or album title in the “Artist Search” box at the top right-hand of each page and clicking “Search”. – Redbeard
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Texxas Jam ’78 Dallas Cotton Bowl 7-4-78
On July 4th weekend in 1978, almost 100,000 people crammed into the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on the hottest day of the decade for the first Texxas Jam ’78 to watch Van Halen, Heart, Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Journey, Eddie Money, Walter Egan, Head East, & Frank Marino. It was one of the first stadium rock shows of this magnitude ever held in the South, and more importantly, it was the first of more than a decade of Texxas Jams to follow. To tell the story in an independent film documentary has been the long odyssey of producer/ actor Brian Hedenberg . Against all odds in the worst economy since the Great Depression, Hedenberg completed his dream and unveiled this thorough telling of the tale by the promoters who imagined it, bankrolleded it, and organized it; the bands who played the first Texxas Jam that day in 1978; and the fans who made rock history. Check out the video from Texxas Jam ’78 , truly a labor of love from Hedenberg. – Redbeard
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Doyle Bramhall- Legendary Texas Singer/Songwriter
Texas music legend Doyle Bramhall sr, singer/songwriter/drummer and my beloved friend, died at his Alpine Texas home in the Big Bend region in November 2011. He was only 62. “Big Doyle” (so-called because his son Doyle II is an accomplished singersongwriter/guitarist with the Arcangels and Eric Clapton) came to international acclaim when his songs “Change It”,”The House Is Rockin’ “,”Tightrope”,”Wall of Denial”, and “Life By the Drop” were recorded by fellow Dallas native Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, as well as “Telephone Song” and “Long Way from Home” on Stevie ‘s last album Family Style with his brother Jimmie Vaughan. In tribute to this wonderful sweet man, here’s my October 2007 interview with Big Doyle Bramhall. –Redbeard -
Sonny Landreth- Back to Bayou Teche- Dallas 1995
Dallas-based guitarist Andy Timmons, one of America’s finest guitarists, reminded me of when Louisiana slide guitarist & singer Sonny Landreth brought his guitar & a little tweed amp about the size of a small suitcase into the Mexican restaurant where I was broadcasting my weekly Friday afternoon Q102 Dallas radio show back in 1995 . Sonny proceeded to play “Back to Bayou Teche” from his album South of I-10 with no band, no monitors, no stage, no lights, two microphones, & fajitas sizzling in the background. “Hot plate ,” the waiters & waitresses always warn when serving up the regional favorite. Hot player indeed ! Years later, Timmons and I witnessed two of America’s greatest guitarists sharing one stage in Dallas September 2011, Landreth (who is featured in Eric Clapton’s Crossroads 2013 dvd, and performed recently on the 2019 extravaganza in Dallas ) and Eric Johnson, and we visited backstage with each after a blizzard of guitar that was, at times, intoxicating. – Redbeard
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Steve Miller In the Studio 2011
Steve Miller: Well, at this point, I’ve always loved to play music, and from the time I was five years old to now it’s always been exciting to me to play. And to entertain people and to have a band and I was just yesterday afternoon I was thinking about oooh, it won’t be long now just another few weeks and we’ll be back out on the road and I’ll be all excited and I’ll be walking from the bus to the stage to play my music. And for me, it’s been the blessing of my life. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do all my life. I’ve done it all my life and I’ve been able to entertain people and maintain a really good band and continue to be creative, and continue to enjoy what I do. And to me that’s about as successful of a life as I can have, to be able to do all these things that I do.RedBeard: To what do you attribute that ability after four (now five+) decades of entertaining us?
SM: Well, I really love to play. And I think all musicians do, really. I mean it’s a spontaneous thing that happens. Ya know, it’s like playing basketball or playing a game, or, or doing something that’s really fun. It never feels like work even when you’re spending months and months grinding away and wood-shedding and practicing and trying to get better. Ya know there’s always this payoff where you get into a room with an audience and you start playing music and people start getting joyous and very happy and this wonderful thing happens and then all this spontaneity starts up that’s what the excitement is and I never get tired of it. I mean I’ve never been on stage where I’ve been going “Boy, ya know, I’ve had enough of this.” Or, “This isn’t any fun.” I’ve never felt like I’m sick of playing a tune. Or tired of being on the road. Ya know, I’ve just always enjoyed it.
RB: What is is it about rhythm and blues music that keeps you vital and actively engaged at a point where most people are using their AARP cards for the early bird specials down at Denny’s ?
SM: Well, ya know, I don’t know, it’s, it’s just something great about picking up a guitar and, and playing something that really moves you. Ya know that makes you feel good. It changes your attitude. Ya know you pick up an instrument, you start playing, it’s like an attitude adjustment. Ya know, things just feel better and I have all my life been really moved by rhythm and blues and country music too, and I mean ya know I’m a big fan of the Marty Stewart show on RFD and I tune up the Wilburn Brothers and tune up Porter Wagoner and… I just love all kinds of music, it has always made me feel good. And I really don’t have the answer why, but music tends to be ethereal and it sorta takes people back and forth between the past and the future, you’re sort of like remembering stuff and you’re thinking about the future and you’re feeling good and it’s pretty amazing art. And to be involved in it or to be drawn to it as I was just naturally, just immediately as soon as I was on the planet, music was just the most interesting thing to me. There was never any question about it. When I was two years old I was making mother play Bob Crosby and the Bobcats version of “Big Noise from Winetka”! Over and over and over, ya know? So some people are just wide open and susceptible to music and I was definitely one of ‘em I guess. -Redbeard
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James Taylor “Carolina in My Mind” Dallas 3-92
Congratulations to Kennedy Center Honors recipient James Taylor! The news that he was coming to perform live on my Dallas/Ft.Worth Q102 radio show vibrated through our staff like a tuning fork. For me, James Taylor’s music was the soundtrack of my life, the music that ushered me from a teen into manhood with honesty, gentility, and hope. JT favored us with a song from his 1968 debut James Taylor on the Beatles‘ Apple label (now remastered and reissued ). And even though on this live solo performance you’ll hear three guitar parts, trust me, it’s all James live, no overdubs. Drink in the purity and clarity of his voice and be 19 forever.- Redbeard
