Deniz Tek Plays Texas

I got off the airplane at Bush Intercontinental Airport in 100 degree heat
like a hammer from the Sun's mind. It felt like George Bush Airport had
relocated itself to Iraq. The guitar made it ... United seems to be
getting better (touch wood!) Mort (my longtime friend and ex road manager
from Birdman days) picked me up curbside in his new Kia car with excellent
AC and we headed off across the vast concrete plains of Houston, high
tension wires crisscrossing the cityscape, holding everything down so that
it doesn't all blow away in the next hurricane. We went over to Morts
house, which is in Cypress Texas. His stepson Cole Rivoire cooked
excellent BBQ and the other stepson Spike brought over some boudin from a
little store that has the best local stuff. Boudin is a cajun staple which
is like a sausage filled up with rice, pork shoulder, liver, chilis,
spices. You eat it dipped in cane sugar syrup. Oh my! Fantastic...

Mark Andes

Practice next morning (yes ... we started at 10 am which has to be a first
in rock and roll) at historic Sugar Hill Recording Studios. My band for
this visit are local session guys. I worked with some of them before on a
re-recording of the 13th Floor Elevators "Youre Gonna Miss Me". Tyson
Sheth, young aggressive session drummer; Kenny Cordray, master guitarist
and leader of the band Love Street; Paul English, keyboardist and master
arranger who's working with Willie Nelson and Johnnie Bush on a new
recording; and world famous Mark Andes who was the original bass player in
Spirit, and who spent many years in Jo Jo Gunne, Heart, Firefall and

others.  Some of the guys had done homework and others hadn't, but Mark
brough charts he'd made of the set. All it took was a couple of runs of
each song and we were ready to go.

That night we played at the Continental Club. It started in Austin several
decades ago ... then they opened one up in Houston. It used to be a swing
jazz club, then it was a burlesque house, and now it is home to
alternative and interesting bands, allied with a local independent vinyl
record store. It's a cool joint. They have an old dude selling hot dogs.
The only down side I saw was that the drinx were pretty light. When
getting a gin and tonic there, it is important to let the bar staff know
that you need a double.

A Beatles cover band kicked things off. The were wildly appreciated by a
big crowd, and when they finished up most people in the place cleared out.

The set went great. Love street opened it up with an original instrumental
"Under The Rainbow", then the Peter Green classic "Green Manalishi". Then
Tomas Escalante came on, with me, and I plugged my Rick 620 into a great
little Mesa Boogie Mark III loaned to me by Dan Workman. We played the
Spirit classic "Got A Line On You" (high energy version) and I sang the
backups with Mark Andes. A good moment ... Mark and I developed an instant
connection, that fired up the event, and added high octane fuel to the
rest of the set. Then we did San Francisco Girls, the 1968 Texas-Psych hit

Band with Tomas Escalante

from Fever Tree. Tomas left the stage to wild applause. Then I did my set
... opened with Breaks My Heart, then did a few DTG songs. Finished with
Hand Of Law. After the set had drinx, and met some nice people, including
soul singer Gianna Hill. I was very happy and we drove home at 3am and I
fell asleep in the car.

The Band On Stage

The next day we filmed a set for the "Live At Sugar Hill" series. This
went fine except the band blew the ending of Hand Of Law, and my
headphones kept falling off so halfway through I got the engineer to gaff
tape them to my head. I haven't seen the film but I am told that the black
gaff tape looked like Elvis sideburns ....

Next day did an album signing at Cactus Records for the new vinyl reissue
of Radios Appear on "4 Men With Beards" label. Met some more good people
and reconnected with old friends from the My-Dolls who I recorded with
back in 1981.

After a productive weekend in Texas, I felt great. It was good to find out
for sure that my recent medical problems and surgeries did not, in the
long run, affect my ability to play the guitar.