Tex Wagner

Music:

Member Since: 4/10/2008
Band Website: You're on it!
Band Members: Stu Richards:
guitar, vocals, tea & sympathy.
Spontaneous:
Bass, vocals, sarcasm.
Dan Reich:
Drums, and, quite frankly, most of the good arrangement ideas! Occasional guest musicians include:
Devitt "Make Mine A Double" Elverson
on various stringed instruments which were custom-constructed for a small fortune, enriching several dodgy luthiers, craftsmen, and technicians in the process.
Joe "Are We Rolling Yet?" Albano
playing the keyboards, imbibing imported beer; and is also the individual who was soley responsible for rendering rather believable samples of exotic instruments we simply cannot play or afford to purchase.
Influences: We're under them right now, thank you very much, but for the record our individual heroes include Stu: Bowie, Ronson, The Stooges, Thomas Pynchon, Richard Wagner, Philip K. Dick, Clive Barker, Frank Zappa. The case has been presented that I like the stuff I do because I have burned out my receptors and only the very finest, most elegant material will register. This could, in fact, be so. Spontaneous : Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Nader, Dee Murray, Marcus Miller, Norman Watt-Roy, Fernando Saunders, Noam Chomsky, Overend Watts, Jaco, The Ox, Harvey Brooks, Amy Goodman, Timothy White, Gary Giddins, David Zirin, Groucho Marx, Howard Stern, Bill Hicks, Dennis Kucinich, Daryl Jones, Bill Wyman, Mike Watt, Hugh Hopper, Jack Bruce, Flea, Mel Schacter, Klaus Voorman, Carl Radle, Billy Cox, Chuck Rainey, James Jamerson, Bruce Thomas, Chalmers Johnson, Juan Gonzalez, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Patti Smith, among others Dan: The Fabulous Ringo, John Bonham, Jim Gordon, Don Brewer, Brian Wilson, Big Star, The Ventures, Richard Thompson, Neil Young, Dinosaur jr., Ken Kesey, Joe R. Lansdale, John Ford, Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese...now don't get me started!
Covers we do:The Bells of Rhymney
Pete Seeger/The Byrds
She Twists The Knife Again
Richard Thompson
Sin's A Good Man's Brother
Grand Funk Railroad
Closer To Home
Grand Funk Railroad
Tomorrow Never Knows
The Beatles
The End
The Doors
Black Country Rock
David Bowie
Wah Wah
George Harrison
Non-Alignment Pact
Pere Ubu
Hey Baby
Jimi Hendrix
Sounds Like: Crazy Horse by way of Detroit with a dash of Husker Du, Richard Thompson, The Spiders From Mars and of course Grand Funk Rail Road. But that's just the music...

TEX'S PICK O' THE WEEK:

A weekly discourse in which the assorted members of Tex Wagner get to wax ecstatic about any record they feel like writing about.
This week Spontaneous (bass, vocals, sarcasm) holds forth on one of his favorite discs of all time. We welcome all comments.
CLAUDIA LENNEAR
PHEW!
Oh what a tangled rock ‘n’ roll web she weaved….Can you name the most soulful, decidedly enigmatic, ravishingly sexy, largely underrated (and unknown) female vocalist who recorded what could be considered as the greatest “lost” album of the 1970s?That singer would be Claudia Lennear – an indelibly rapturous voice heard on classic rock radio every day, worldwide, for nearly thirty five years after she mysteriously disappeared.First, a little history….When Mick bellowed “how come you taste so good!” he was wailing for Claudia a.k.a. “Brown Sugar.” *When David Bowie cooed “skin sweet with musky oil” he too was pining for Claudia, his muse, a.k.a. “The Lady Grinning Soul.” **Hands down Claudia was the sassiest and most talented of Ike & Tina’s infamous Ikettes. She first cavorted with Sir Jagger when the provocative Ike & Tina Turner Review opened for the Stones’ debauched ’69 Altamont tour.***Soon after, Leon Russell built his revered Shelter People studio band around her. Claudia’s vocals bestowed ebony oomph to Stephen Stills (“Love The One You’re With”), Ry Cooder, Nils Lofgren (“Cry Tough”), Al Kooper, Humble Pie (“Stone Cold Fever”), and Dave Mason (“Only You Know and I Know”) among many, many others.A gentlemanly Joe Cocker granted Claudia a solo segment (“Let It Be”) on his celebrated 1970 Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour (not bad, considering the chorus also included Rita Coolidge, who rendered the equally brilliant “Superstar”). Be advised to check out the expanded CD/DVD edition of the aforementioned Cocker concert masterpiece to hear Claudia and Rita together in full tilt boogie mode.In August 1971 Claudia’s throaty, gospel drenched Delta blues yowl bolstered George Harrison’s entire Concert For Bangladesh repertoire, as well as Billy Preston’s majestic “That’s The Way God Planned It,” Leon Russell’s incendiary (and career defining) “Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Young Blood” medley, and, of course, loveable Ringo’s “It Don’t Come Easy” as witnessed in the recent CD/DVD re-master of the aforementioned historic shows. ****Phew! was Claudia Lennear’s lone solo album and it often fetches a hefty price on the rarities market – it was never available in CD format– though bargain hunters can get it cheaper if they are resourceful. Recorded and released in 1973, Claudia’s session band of peers was comprised of the crème de la crème of studio heavies including Ry Cooder, Chuck Rainey, the Dixie Flyers rhythm section of Tommy McClure and Jim Dickenson, Allen Toussaint, Jim Keltner, and Spooner Oldham to name a distinguished few.Akin to the singer, every track is raw, spicy, funky, dangerous, and beautiful. The perennial cover of the day, Ron Davies’ “It Ain’t Easy” **** is recast as a raunchy Stones-like cut worthy of Exile. Cooder (who was nearly chosen to replace Mick Taylor in the Stones) lays down razor sharp staccato guitar lines that slash and burn beneath Lennear and her hyper rhythm section. I’m convinced the Vuitton toting Keith heard Ry’s writhing licks and felt threatened, thereby opting for the kinder, gentler Ronnie Wood - safe move Captain Jack Sparrow Sr.! “Sister Angela:” a druggy, reverb laden paean to the celebrated civil rights activist / feminist – emerges as the somnambulant stuff of the Grateful Dead circa Aoxamoxa. The erotic, spaced-out vibe of “Everything I Do Is Gonna Be Funky” harkens Riot era Sly. And Tousssaint’s “Goin’ Down” froths akin to a funky gumbo stew worthy of The Night Tripper Dr. John.After Phew! sank without a trace of commercial or critical notice Claudia virtually disappeared from the music scene, save for a non-descript club gig in Chicago wherein a Playboy magazine editor’s jaw dropped. He convinced her to pose in the August 1974 issue (I got mine on eBay for 5 bucks – very good condition). As a result Claudia landed a bit part in the Clint Eastwood flick Thunderbolt and Lightfoot portraying a secretary who requests the former Mayor of Monterey’s social security number in her only scene.As was the fate of many studio players, her contributions are often undocumented in books / films / TV shows detailing the era; remain illegible or omitted in the tiny edited print of old compact discs, and most definitely are lost in the cold anonymous world of the MP3. Surf the web and you’ll find scattered fans and historians searching for the present day whereabouts of Ms. Lennear. One credible online source claims she was spotted working as a bank teller in Memphis in the early 1980s.And that’s the last anyone has seen (but not heard) of Claudia Lennear…Spontaneous*Editor’s Note 1: Confirmed by Bill Wyman.**Editor’s Note 2: In a recent Telegraph UK feature, the Thin White Duke coyly avoids naming names – perhaps not to upstage Iman?**Editor’s Note 3: In the early 70s Bowie was in stiff competition with the elder Glimmer Twin as evidenced by his Ziggy-fied remake of “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” Did this circumstance prompt his affair with Ms. Lennear? Questions persist.***Editor’s Note 4: Claudia was not credited in the original release of Bangladesh. Sacrilege! Blasphemy!****Editor’s Note 5: Was Lennear sending a message to her former paramour Bowie, blowing him away on a tune that was clearly out of place on Ziggy? Bowie’s version of “It Ain’t Easy” was indeed a clunker on an otherwise perfect album. Questions, questions, questions…
Record Label: We are signed to MySpace.Com like everyone else!
Type of Label: Indie