#156 in the Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumental Series, Texas, features a native son and incredibly tasty guitarist, Johnny Moeller. I know I've said it before, there's gotta be somethin' in the water down there, Ornette Coleman, King Curtis, Cornell Dupree, Roger Miller, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Mason Ruffner, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Wills, and Johnny Moeller are all from Fort Worth, Texas. There's way more if you're skeptical. By his late teens, Johnny was being championed by the late great club owner Clifford Antone. Clifford had championed another young Texas guitarist you may have heard of, Stevie Ray Vaughan. By the late 2000's, after several years of dues-paying, Johnny landed the gig with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, formerly Jimmy Vaughan's gig. See what I mean? Texas. An amusing aside, Johnny is rumored to be the inspiration for one of the characters in Beavis and Butt-Head, I'm not sure which one but the other one is supposedly inspired by Johnny's friend and sometimes bandmate, guitarist, Paul Size (we have a track with Paul on it coming in the future). Here's a great interview with Johnny if you'd like to go further down the rabbit hole. There's connections to Mick Jagger, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and more. I hope you appreciate this meditation on the musically fertile ground of the Lone Star State. Enjoy!
The backing band on this track is Rich Kirch (John Lee Hooker 1984-2001) and new to the crew, Les Izmore on the stereophonic rhythm guitars, Alvino Bennett (Dave Mason, Stevie Wonder) on drums, and myself on bass. The basics were recorded at Skunkworks in Capitola CA. Mellifluously mixed and mastered by the infamous F-Bomb.
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