Bayou Brew on KPFT

06/27/2024

Kinky Friedman, the proudly eccentric Texas singer-songwriter and folk hero, has died at age 79

06/01/2024

04/19/2024

04/12/2024

I recently came across this map listing the highest grossing bands/artists from each state. We are happy to represent Nebraska! (from Reddit)

06/18/2023

HAND OUT CI**RS AND DON’T FORGET TO TUNE IN to this week’s special Father’s Day edition of ‘Blues In Hi-Fi’! This guy is my Dad, Glenn Broussard. My radio show wouldn’t exist without what my brother and I learned from his record collection growing up!

This week is going to be a jam packed show and you won’t want to miss it! We will be visiting with my good friend, Allen Hill, as well. Allen will be talking about his new Gulf Coast soaked single, ‘Heartbreaks’.

The expected Hi-Jinx will ensue, as well as music from Percy Mayfield, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Robert Parker, The Olympics, Elton Anderson, Henry Butler, Johnnie Morrissette, Joel Tex, James Brown & The J.B.’s, Buffalo Nichols, and much more! Catch ‘Blues In Hi-Fi’ Sundays 5-7:00 PM CT at 90.1 FM KPFT Houston or when we re-air on our HD2 Channel on Fridays 2-4:00 PM! We also archive our 2 most recent shows at kpft.org where you can stream live, as well. Thanks for continued support! Happy Father’s Day to you all. Hope to see you at 5:00!

06/10/2023

Grifters and Shills are live on 90.1 KPFT now!

06/06/2023

Grifters & Shills will be live in the studio Saturday morning on Bayou Brew! Join us on 90.1 KPFT from nine to noon or listen in on the website.

A huge thank you to everyone who pledged this past drive! It's thanks to you that KPFT is going strong!

05/27/2023

Jesse Dayton was born on May 27, in Beaumont, Texas.

Growing up just west of the Texas/Louisiana border in Beaumont, Texas, singer, songwriter and guitarist Jesse Dayton was introduced to a variety of sounds at an early age, an awareness encompassing everything from rock and country to Cajun zydeco.

He was raised on the music of George Jones, Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell, all the while harboring an affinity for the spirit of punk with bands like the Clash.

After touring with two rockabilly bands, the Road Kings and the Alamo Jets, Dayton ventured off into solo territory, recording his Americana-chart-topping record Raisin' Cain.

Jesse Dayton is best known in Austin, Texas for his guitar contributions to albums by country musicians including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. He is also notable for his collaborations with horror film director Rob Zombie, who has commissioned Dayton on multiple occasions to record music to accompany his films.

Now a successful independent act, in the last handful of years Dayton has played guitar on Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan’s latest solo album, launched his own weekly radio show, Dayton’s “Badass Country Show,” on Gimme Country and licensed more than 50 songs for film and television…not to mention touring his arse off playing over 150 live dates per year throughout Europe and North America while also releasing five albums for Blue Élan Records.

Dayton’s life story reads like a “who’s who” of American music. In his debut memoir Beaumonster, Dayton reveals the stranger-than-fiction encounters and outlandish experiences that have ensued across his wide-ranging career. After sneaking into nightclubs to play gigs in his youth, 18-year-old Dayton and his trio began packing clubs and theaters across Houston, Dallas, and Austin. His first solo record—featuring great luminaries like Doug Sahm, Flaco Jimenez, and Johnny Gimble—hit #1 on the Americana Radio Charts, and then he was off to the races, touring the world as an opener for punk legends Social Distortion, The Supersuckers, and X, and helping with arrangements and guitar on The Supersuckers’ biggest selling record, “Must’ve Been High.” While doing press in Nashville, he caught the attention of Waylon Jennings and was whisked off to Woodland Studios, where he was greeted by none other than Johnny Cash, who tells Dayton: “We’ve been waiting for you.

An embrace of the storytelling that defines both the country and gospel music traditions informs the narrative voice at the heart of his first book Beaumonster, a memoir paired alongside an album of the same name which traces his musical history via a collection of ten carefully curated covers.

The companion album finds Dayton performing songs written by the many talented musicians and songwriters featured throughout his memoir. The album zigs and zags from Waylon Jennings to Social Distortion and Townes Van Zandt to Willie Nelson — all who shared a connection with the storied Beaumont guitar slinger. Jesse Dayton’s Beaumonster is quintessentially outlaw country badass.

Happy birthday, Jesse. Keep ‘em comin’!

05/27/2023

Bruce Douglas Cockburn was born on May 27, 1945 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Cockburn's guitar work and songwriting won him an enthusiastic following. His early work featured rural and nautical imagery and Biblical metaphors. Raised as an agnostic, early in his career he became a Christian.

He is best known for music blending folk, rock, pop, and jazz and for lyrics that typically addressed spiritual themes and global issues from a politically charged perspective.

Cockburn has written more than 350 songs on 34 albums over a career spanning 50 years, of which 22 have received a Canadian gold or platinum certification as of 2018, and he has sold over one million albums in Canada alone. In 2014, Cockburn released his memoirs, Rumours of Glory. In 2016, his album Christmas was certified 6 times platinum in Canada for sales of over 600,000.

Cockburn attended Berklee School of Music in Boston, where his studies included jazz composition, for three semesters between 1964 and 1966. That year he dropped out and joined an Ottawa band called The Children, which lasted for about a year.

Cockburn's songwriting is often political, expressing concern for the environment and the welfare of indigenous peoples. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians writes, "Cockburn always risked an outspoken stand in his work, taking on issues and morality to the detriment of his popular appeal.

No artist since Phil Ochs has taken such strong political stands. He has worked with relief agency Oxfam, travelling to Central America in 1983, and with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The song "Mines of Mozambique" (The Charity of Night) reflects his observations of that country during a visit in 1995.

Cockburn is affiliated with the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada, twice visiting Nepal with the charity, in 1987 and 2007.

Songs on these themes include "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" (Stealing Fire), an angry response to the plight of refugees in Central America; "Stolen Land" (Waiting for a Miracle), about the land claims of British Columbia's Haida people; and "If a Tree Falls" (Big Circumstance)—one of Cockburn's best-known songs—decrying the deforestation of the Amazon.

Happy 78th Birthday, Bruce, congratulations for all you have accomplished.

05/27/2023

Randall Hank Williams was born on May 26, 1949 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. His father called him Bocephus after Grand Ole Opry comedian Rod Brasfield's ventriloquist dummy. His musical style has been described as a blend of southern rock, blues, and country.

Hank Williams, Jr. spent his early career in the long shadows of his late father, the most legendary figure in the history of country music. Pressured to imitate his father’s sound, the young Hank Jr. found himself personally and artistically frustrated. It took intense personal struggles and a nearly fatal accident to set him on a new course in which he boldly expressed his own musical vision.
Williams' style evolved slowly as he struggled to find his own voice and place within country music.

Combining traditional country with Southern rock and blues, he has crafted a highly original sound that has garnered him 10 number-one singles, 20 gold albums, 6 platinum albums, 4 Emmy awards, and 5 Entertainer of the Year awards.

Hank Jr’s life and career was interrupted by a near-fatal fall while climbing Ajax Peak in Montana on August 8, 1975.

After an extended recovery, he challenged the country music establishment with a blend of country, rock and blues. As a multi-instrumentalist, Williams' repertoire of skills includes guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, steel guitar, banjo, dobro, piano, keyboards, saxophone, harmonica, fiddle, and drums. In 2020, Williams Jr. was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In the early hours of New Year’s Day 1953, Hank Sr. died in the back seat of a Cadillac on his way to a show. His death was most likely caused by a combination of alcohol and painkillers, which he took for back pain. The deeply troubled but truly brilliant singer and songwriter was only 29. His son was not yet 4.

Audrey decided to try to turn her son into a little version of his dad. He began performing his dad’s songs in shows when he was eight years old. He signed his first record deal at age 14 in 1963, earning a number-five hit the next year with a remake of his father’s “Long Gone Lonesome Blues.”

Also in 1964, he recorded the soundtrack for the movie biography about his father titled Your Cheatin’ Heart, starring George Hamilton.

His daughter Katherine Williams-Dunning, the only one of Williams's five children not to pursue a career in music, died on June 13, 2020, in a car crash at the age of 27. His son Shelton performs as Hank Williams III; his other children Holly Williams, Hilary Williams and Sam Williams are also musicians, as is his grandson Coleman Williams (Hank III's son), who performs under the sobriquet "IV." His wife, Mary Jane died on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 Mary Jane was 58.

His 1975 album Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends was his first honest effort to express his own musical creativity. This is where he first mixed Southern rock and blues with country, inspired by such groups as the Allman Brothers Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

After recording this milestone album, he went hiking and mountain climbing in the Montana wilderness. On August 8, 1975, while climbing Ajax Mountain, he fell about 500 feet. He sustained multiple skull and facial fractures but managed to survive—though he required a series of reconstructive surgeries, which substantially altered his appearance. The accident reinforced his determination to live life on his own terms.

Hank Jr. got back into the studio two years later to record The New South, produced by Waylon Jennings and Richie Albright in 1977. The album was a good representation of what would become Hank Jr.’s characteristic style—autobiographical songs like “Feelin’ Better” and “New South”; rockin’ reworkings of his dad’s songs like “You’re Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave)”; and other hard-driving material like “Long Way to Hollywood.”

The year 1987 was the first of five times that Hank was honored with Entertainer of the Year awards by either the Academy of Country Music or the Country.
Father and son singing “There’s a Tear In My Beer” together, thanks to the miracle of video technology combining 1951 with 1989.

In 1989, Hank began appearing in the intro to Monday Night Football singing a reworked version of “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” titled “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night.”

Hank stayed in that role until 2011, when ESPN officials expressed displeasure at his outspoken political views.

He was removed from the broadcast in 2011 after he compared President Barack Obama to Hi**er, and described Vice President Joe Biden as “the enemy.”

ESPN brought Hank back for Monday Night Football in 2017 with a new version of the theme song, which also included Florida Georgia Line and Jason Derulo.

In addition to performing music, Hank Jr. continues to speak out on political issues he cares about, often involving Southern pride or the rights of gun owners. He is a frequent performer at National Rifle Association meetings.

Although he started out in the shadow of his great father, Hank Jr. has himself become one of the most admired and influential figures in country music. He was honored in 2008 as a “BMI Icon” at the BMI Country Awards for his “unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers.”

Singer- songwriter and genre defying artist Hank Williams Jr. announced his 2023 tour featuring special guests. Old Crow Medicine Show and Kendell Marvel.
Happy Birthday, Hank. Thanks And keep ‘em comin’, please.

05/26/2023

Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm was born on May 26, 1940 in Elaine, Arkansas.

He achieved fame as the drummer and one of the lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and creative drumming style, highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

Helm also had a successful career as a film actor, appearing as Loretta Lynn's father in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), as Chuck Yeager's friend and colleague Captain Jack Ridley in The Right Stuff (1983), as a Tennessee fi****ms expert in Shooter (2007), and as General John Bell Hood in In the Electric Mist (2009).

He was the second of Nell and Diamond Helm's four children. His father was a cotton farmer but also a music lover, and the Grand Ole Opry and King Biscuit Time radio shows were favourites in the Helm household. His father bought him a guitar when he was nine, and he struck up his first musical partnership with his bass-playing sister Linda. The duo regularly won talent contests in local clubs.
Levon, as he would become known, formed his own high school rock'n'roll band, the Jungle Bush Beaters, and at 17 he was invited to perform onstage with Conway Twitty and his Rock Housers band. By now Levon had taken up the drums, having been inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis's sticksman Jimmy Van Eaton, and it was for his percussion skills that he was hired by Hawkins in 1957, to play with his band, the Hawks.

Helm met singer-songwriter Libby Titus in April 1969, while the Band was recording its second album. They began a lengthy relationship which produced daughter Amy Helm, born December 3, 1970.
Helm met Sandra Dodd in 1975 in California, while he was still involved with Titus. Helm and Dodd were married on September 7, 1981. They had no children together.

Though an Arkansas native like Helm, Hawkins found steady success in Canada, and in the early 60’s Helm and Hawkins recruited a new batch of Canadian musicians who would later become the Band – the guitarist Robbie Robertson, the bass player Rick Danko, the pianist Richard Manuel and the organist Garth Hudson.

Tiring of Hawkins's dictatorial leadership, the group broke away in 1963 to become Levon and the Hawks. They recorded a couple of singles and made a living playing regular gigs in Canada and the US, but their career suddenly surged into overdrive when they were hired by Dylan as his backing band (by now called simply the Hawks) in 1965. But Dylan's move into amplified rock proved controversial, and Helm was so disturbed by the negative crowd reactions at some concerts that he quit and returned to Arkansas.

Dylan himself now retreated from the spotlight, and when he moved to the seclusion of upstate New York with the other Hawks, Helm rejoined them.

During 1967, the group recorded the fabled Basement Tapes with Dylan, before commencing work on their own first album. The musicians shared a pink-painted house in West Saugerties, New York, dubbed Big Pink, whence came the title of their 1968 debut, Music from Big Pink. They called themselves the Band since they were known casually as "the band" to friends and neighbours.

In 1969 they released The Band, often regarded as their pièce de résistance, for its masterly musicianship and songwriting, which seemed to reach back into the myths of American folklore and civil war history. The group's rustic, groaning harmonies lent huge emotional resonance to such pieces as The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Rockin' Chair and King Harvest (Has Surely Come). Subsequent releases never recaptured the same magic, though Rock of Ages (1972) was an excellent live set and Northern Lights – Southern Cross (1975) was a belated return to something like peak form. In 1974 they recorded Planet Waves with Dylan before backing him on a wildly acclaimed American tour.

In 1976, the Band staged a grandiose farewell concert in San Francisco, the Last Waltz, to mark what many felt was a premature end to their performing career. Internal politics, not least friction between Helm and the increasingly dominant Robertson, had hastened the group's demise.

The concert featured a superstar guest list including Dylan, Clapton, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and many more, and was memorialised as a triple LP and a film directed by Martin Scorsese.

In 1983 he reunited with Danko for an acoustic tour, and the following year Hudson and Manuel came on board for an acclaimed Band reunion, with only Robertson missing.

In 1998, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer which caused him to lose his singing voice. After treatment, his cancer eventually went into remission, and he gradually regained the use of his voice. His 2007 comeback album Dirt Farmer earned the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February 2008, and in November of that year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 91 in its list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2010, Electric Dirt, his 2009 follow-up to Dirt Farmer, won the first Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, a category inaugurated in 2010. In 2011, his live album Ramble at the Ryman won the Grammy in the same category. In 2016, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 22 in its list of 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time.

In April 2012, during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Cleveland, Robbie Robertson sent "love and prayers" to Helm, fueling speculation about Helm's health. Helm had previously cancelled a number of performances, citing health issues or a slipped disk in his back; his final performances took place in Tarrytown, New York at Tarrytown Music Hall on March 24, and a final Midnight Ramble (with Los Lobos as the opening act) in Woodstock on March 31.

On April 17, 2012, Helm's wife Sandy and daughter Amy revealed that he had end-stage throat cancer. They posted the following message on Helm's website:
Dear Friends,
Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey.
Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration ... he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage ...
We appreciate all the love and support and concern.
From his daughter Amy, and wife Sandy

Levon Helm, who helped to forge a deep-rooted American music as the drummer and singer for the Band, died on Thursday April 19, 2012 in Manhattan. He was 71 and lived in Woodstock, N.Y.

Fans were invited to a public wake at Helm's Barn studio complex on April 26. Approximately 2,000 fans came to pay their respects to the rock icon. The following day, after a private funeral service and a procession through the streets of Woodstock, Helm was interred in the Woodstock Cemetery, within sight of the grave of his longtime bandmaster

Levon Helm would have been 80 today.