SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/482077
2 6 S X S W o r l d | M U S I C M A R C H 2 0 1 5 | S X S W. C O M 've been telling stories in print for more than 40 years. The one story I haven't told, and have wanted to tell most, is Doug Sahm's story. He was a big reason I came to Austin in the first place, and he remains one of the most significant, definitive characters I have ever known. Doug had already made an indelible impression with his 1960s hit records with the Sir Douglas Quintet, beginning with "She's About A Mover" and peaking with "Mendocino." Witnessing him live in person was a whole other deal. It was on a hot August night in 1973 at Soap Creek Saloon out in the hills west of Austin (now the middle of Westlake). The joint was packed, the floor in front of the stage was jammed with bouncing bodies and the entire atmosphere was charged like a high-pressure cooker—all because of the music. I'd never heard anyone who could play so many different styles of indigenous Texas sounds—from rhythm and blues, country and western, western swing, jump blues, and jazz, to rock and roll, cajun, swamp pop, conjunto, and Tex-Mex—and play each sound authentically. Doug in performance was the real deal; you never knew what kind of hand he was going to deal to the audience. You just knew it would be pretty great because he was the walking, talking, crooning and twanging encyclopedia of Texas music. The wiry figure drenched with sweat whom I met after the show was no less engaging, speed-rapping a mile a minute, gesturing with a fat marijuana joint in hand, jive-talking and drawling in hipster- speak. He was part-hippie, part-cowboy, and pure-D Texas. You couldn't help but dig his vibe and the way he grooved. Doug has been gone 15 years now, and as memories of him have begun to fade, his legacy risks being forgotten. That's how I realized the only way to tell Doug's story was with film. In order to fully "get" Doug, you need to see him and hear him, and most of all, hear his music. The film's title, Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove, pretty much sums up the music hepcat from San Antone that I got to know: He's Sir Doug because he was leader of the faux-British group the Sir Douglas Quintet when "She's About A Mover" rocketed up the charts in 1965. He's Genuine Texas. Between the way he walks, talks, sings and plays, he couldn't have come from any where else. The Cosmic Groove part acknowledges Doug's full-on embrace of the hippie lifestyle when he went into exile in northern California in 1966, just in time for the Summer of Love in San Francisco, and his understanding of the organic essence of great music: it's all about the groove, a sentiment he expounded upon in 1974 when he desig- nated his adopted hometown of Austin as a "Groover's Paradise." By virtue of his mere presence as a successful hitmaker who voluntarily returned from San Francisco, and his ability to ferret out talent from various musical tribes, Sahm poured the foundation of the Austin music scene. In other words, what is now known as Americana music began in Austin in the early 1970s with Doug Sahm as ringleader. Roots mat- tered. Where music came from became as important as the music itself. So having someone who truly sat on the lap of Hank Williams, the greatest country music star ever, someone who watched T-Bone Walker play electric blues guitar and was able to ask, "How'd you do that?," and someone who ignored racial and cultural boundaries to pull the San Antonio accordionist Flaco Jimenez into the main- stream, made all the difference in the world. That ability to jump fences in the pursuit of the groove resonates here and now. Doug Sahm's music remains as vital and compelling as ever. Doug Sahm may not be a household name today, mainly because he had too much talent, and he was too creatively restless to stay in one musical bag or around one musical scene for very long without getting bored. So he was constantly changing the kind of music he played, and the places where he made his music. He was making records at the age of 12 before Elvis Presley ever stood in front of a microphone. He had number one hits in San Antonio while he was still in high school. He capitalized on the phe- nomenon of the Beatles by suggesting his band was from England, and he discovered San Francisco, then Austin, before the rest of the world did. He wrote his first goodbye letter to Austin in 1977, and remained on the search for the next cool scene until the end of his life, no matter if it was in New York City, Amsterdam, Stockholm, British Columbia, Alberta or Springfield, Missouri. But he never really left. He couldn't ever stay away from Texas too long, because he needed his enchiladas and barbecue, his music and his music friends. For the last three years of his life, Doug and I were announcers calling the championship game of the softball tournament that closes out every South By Southwest. "I'm Dizzy. You be Pee Wee," he told me before the first game we called, invoking the names of sto- ried baseball stars and broadcasters Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese. Doug loved baseball almost as much as he loved music, and it showed whenever he good-naturedly razzed players, mic in hand. Doug left way too soon, dying unexpectedly in November 1999 from a heart attack at the age of 58. This film marks his return. As Doug himself said, introducing "Mendocino," his biggest hit record, in 1969: "The Sir Douglas Quintet is back and would like to thank all our beautiful friends all over the country for all your beau- tiful vibrations. We love you." Th e wo rld p re m ie re of Sir D oug a nd the G e nu ine Texas Cos mic G ro ove (d i - re c te d b y J o e N ick Pa tos k i ) i s to nig h t ( Thu r s d ay , M a rch 1 9) a t 7: 3 0 p m a t t h e Pa r a m ou n t Th e a t re ( 7 13 C o n g res s Ave). A co n ce r t s a l u t in g S a h m w il l ta ke p la ce o n S a tu rd ay nig h t ( M a rch 2 1 ) a t t h e Pa r a m ou n t Th e a t re. Doug Sahm: Celebrating the Consummate Texas Groover by Joe Nick Patoski I D ou g S a h m (ce n te r) a n d b a n d d urin g t h e 1 970 s VA N B R O O K S