TEXAS' THE BAND OF HEATHENS TAKES ON EUROPE THIS WEEK

THE ROCKIN' BAND FROM AUSTIN HAS GIGS IN EUROPA THIS WEEK THAT INCLUDE LONDON, AMSTERDAM, AT THE PARADISO, WHERE THE ROLLING STONES HAVE PLAYED, AND GERMANY, THIS SATURDAY, JUNE 6, IN HAMBURG; UPCOMING GIGS IN THE STATES INCLUDE PERFORMANCES AT WHITEWATER AMPHITHEATER, NEAR NEW BRAUNFELS. CHECK www.bandofheathens.com for details. PHOTO BY (C) PAUL HEIDELBERG, GRUENE HALL, 12/31/07.

BON JOUR TEXAS FROM PARIS: FRANCE, NOT TEJAS -- CHARLIE PARKER PARIS STORY HERE IN THIS YEAR 2009

This is a real, on the run, blog.

So I am getting off the flight from Dulles in DC to CDG in Paris on March 26, 2009, and I am talking to a brother from Chicago about the blues and jazz. I started by telling him I am working on a fiction project, "The Bluesmen."

He says, "Yeah, well I'm from Chicago, home of the blues."

"Yeah," I said, "after the blues greats moved up from the Mississippi Delta -- John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, all those great guys. I was in Clarksdale, Mississippi a year ago this month. The heart of the Delta Blues country. And when you see how big those cotton fields are, you get an idea of how the blues was born there."

Then I thought very quickly of alto sax great, Charlie Parker, The Bird. I got very emotional.

"You know," I said, "Charlie Parker flies into Paris and he's getting off the plane. All these people are applauding and cheering. The Bird looks around, and then realizes: They're cheering for me, man. They're cheering for me."

BUDDY HOLLY/LEON PAYNE

TWO TEXAS GREATS LIVE ON THROUGH THEIR MUSIC

BUDDY HOLLY:

This musician of the XX Century, born in Lubbock of course, lives on in this XXI Century, and beyond.

After listening to my recently-received CD "The Buddy Holly Story" (this re-issue was not available a few years back -- get it), I write:

Listening to tunes such as "Maybe Baby," "That'll Be The Day," "Peggy Sue" and "Rave On," I had this lucid thought: Presley could not play the guitar like this. (Perhaps Crickets band memeber Waylon Jennings is getting some licks in, too).

Holly "ushered in" the whole Sixties Rock Guitar Thing: The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, etc.

Holly, and such great Black guitarists as Elmore James and Muddy Waters, that is, did the ushering.

Get "The Buddy Holly Story" in any format you choose, and when you listen to it, get to the volume control on whatever you are using to hear this great work, and TURN IT UP.

LEON PAYNE:

If you are not familiar with this great Texas-born musician and composer, "Google"

Leon Payne Things Have Gone To Pieces

I had heard George Jones' version of this song years ago, but Van Morrison's great handling of the tune on his recent "Pay The Devil" album is what got me searching the Internet for Payne.

As I read at www.allmusic.com, Payne was born blind in Alba, Texas in 1917. He played for many years with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. His songs were performed by many early Country & Western greats, including Hank Williams, who had a big hit with Payne's "Lost Highway."

Listening to Van wailing out on "Things Have Gone To Pieces" is music as its best. (And, no, Van is not just trying to get in on the "Country and Western bandwagon;" he listened to his father's C&W records while growing up in Ireland, just as he got into his father's Blues, and Rhythm & Blues sides.)

So do yourself a favor, and check out Leon Payne, and get Van's haunting cover of "Things Have Gone To Pieces."

I'll state it simply: You will not find a better example of "White Man's Blues."