SE 6, EP 6 A Game of Connectiions with Beaver Nelson

As long-time listener's know, as a part of all of our discussions, we have a segment called Connections, where we connect the artist and album we are currently talking about to artists and albums we have discussed on previous episodes. For our interview with singer-songwriter Beaver Nelson, we played an extended version of Connections with him.  Beaver has worked with a ton of people in the music industry, and as a result, he came prepared to show us what a real game of Connections is all about. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

That's the wrong song. I'm playing a beaver Nelson song.

SPEAKER_06 0:07

Ladies and gentlemen, Beaver Nelson. I'm spinning them faster now. Open the straight skull. Wanna fly to climb on a little bit. All the faces that I'm at tonight were hit the ground before daylight.

SPEAKER_12 0:49

Oh that's Yeah, this is the thing we got called connections.

unknown 0:55

Oh yeah, it's over.

SPEAKER_12 0:59

Alright.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Anyway, uh you're supposed to say baby.

SPEAKER_12 1:03

Baby, baby. The um I think Beaver's listened to our show before. He has on his horse. The uh connections is a game we play where we try to connect our current artist and album, but we don't have a current album. We have to do it. So we're gonna try to connect Beaver to other bands we've talked about before, other singers.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

So uh T, you want to go first? Uh yeah, I'm gonna throw I'm gonna throw a wrench in it. I'm gonna connect him to JM.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

So uh the one of the uh one of the songs we picked tonight, Sleep No Rest, is on an album that JM actually provides vocals on.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

Yeah. Um engineered it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Did JM ask before he put his vocals on? You know, some of that got worked on when I wasn't there, but but well, that was that was one of the one of the one of the more interesting uh recordings. Uh oh and we well we can we can double back, but yes, that that fourth record was made at at JM's at JM's house.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Okay, well, so that was uh that's my uh I appreciate it. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_12 2:22

That's a good one. Just in JM Road, you have a connection.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

He and I just do want to say that JM is is is absolutely huge and Amsterdam and horrible Holland. Yeah, yeah, absolutely huge.

SPEAKER_12 2:36

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

Yeah, that's that's a really story.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

It's a really funny story.

SPEAKER_12 2:40

Go ahead and tell it so we won't forget.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Yeah, I want to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

It's Cargo Holland. Which is uh that's uh an onomatopoeia for the the town is so small, yeah. Um but when when we made that record, we made that uh we made that a record called Legends of the Superheroes at Jams. We worked on it once a week for like nine months. And um and when it came out Scrappy and I went and and toured and we were playing in we were playing in in uh all over all over Holland. And one of the first nights uh we were playing in in this in this little this little town. It was like a uh uh community center. Yeah. It's like a community center in the a very tiny town. And uh which I played before, and that those people, they're just fantastic people. And um uh as it turns out, I mean completely by I'm not gonna say chance or coincidence, but but the odds on this pretty slim are are enough to make you start start wondering about that there's someone who's changing the odds that that he um he was at a uh something for work in in Germany just south of the border, uh just south of Master. And and so he shows up at our big like European premiere for you know for this record in this tiny town, and he comes walking in, and we're like, you know, like John and I are just in complete disbelief. And all these like teenagers or like college age kids are are like who you know, who is this guy? We're like, that's that's that's the producer, you know. That's the and I mean they treated it like a cage. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

I mean they were buying me beers, and I I had driven there. I was like, man, I don't know if I could drink something. That's really funny. Seriously, I was like 20, I guess I was like 20 miles away. Literally, I just crossed the border into Holland and there I was.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

So you didn't tell him you were going. I you just showed up.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

I think I showed up.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

I think yeah, it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

I knew you were going to be there and I knew details.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Yeah, he'd asked, like, where is this? And I don't told him. And that was like two months early or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

That's hilarious. That's really funny. Well, I didn't when he did because yeah, even put a little bit more backstory on it. I didn't know where this place was. So I and I was in if you didn't live there, you didn't know where it was. Yeah, you didn't know where it was. And so I and this was back before GPS and all that, so I had to look on a map. I had to ask a guy. There was a luckily I had a uh guy, one of the guys I was working with was actually familiar with that venue. So he told me how to get there. And uh yeah, so I just it was like a 20-minute drive, and I was frightened, it was right there. So the place that I was working with was Aachen, and if it jets out into Holland and Belgium. So it's just like seriously, just right up the street. So we're you were destined at some point to be Jonathan J. M. Ross. So yeah.

SPEAKER_12 6:10

I'm surprised he still hung out with us after that.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Yeah, I bet. But that was that was a fun night. That's one of my favorite stories.

SPEAKER_12 6:16

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_12 6:18

Well, who was on the connection? Whose turn was it?

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Oh, it's my turn to do connection, I believe. Uh I'm gonna say Rod Stewart. Ian McLaughlin. Ian McLaughlin.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

I'm sorry. You're you're supposed to.

SPEAKER_12 6:31

I'm sorry. No, you the pregnant pause. I started to tell some. I think I think we do that all the time.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

We do that quite often. Yeah, I'm glad you got it.

unknown 6:39

I'm glad you got it.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

What's the connect? What's the connection now?

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Uh he played on uh every picture tells a story.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Yeah, he was in the faces, and those albums, those early Rod Stewart albums, were essentially faces albums. Yeah, they were just marketed differently.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

And he played on uh he played on a couple songs on um on uh uh Undisturbed.

SPEAKER_12 7:02

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Uh and uh so describe Nelson album, I think. Yeah, the Beaver Nelson album from 2001 called Undisturbed.

SPEAKER_06 7:10

So here I am, and there are you. And there is what we've done and what we've got. And what will hoist and what will hide?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Just mark it over to and he played on uh he played on a couple songs on um on uh uh Undisturbed.

SPEAKER_12 8:52

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Uh and uh so Scrappy Nelson album, I guess. The Beaver Nelson album from 2001 called Undisturbed, uh and uh Scrappy, the guitar player on almost everything I've done, um, he was in uh Ian McLaughlin's. So Austin lived in I mean Ian lived in Austin for a long stretch, and uh Scrappy was was basically yeah, played the Ron Wood parts. You know, he was uh that that was the deal. And Don Harvey, that drummer I mentioned from way back. Uh he he was a drummer in that band for a long time. And anyway, so cool. Um it was an absolute uh treat to have him to have him play on that record.

SPEAKER_12 9:37

All right. T you got another one?

SPEAKER_02 9:39

You're not gonna do one?

SPEAKER_12 9:40

Well, I've got to ask a question before I do it.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Uh I've got a uh I've got one I don't know if uh uh television.

unknown 10:11

I can act this.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

I was thinking Tom Verlaine. Yeah, Verlane, you and Verlaine were on the same compilation album together.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Oh, the was that the Christofferson album? The Christopherson one, yeah. All right, yeah. So that's why I did it. That's fantastic. I did some recording. In fact, I recorded a demo version. That's that's funny. I recorded a demo version of the song that we ended up using on the Christofferson record. I did that demo version of that song at Ron Flint's house. Oh, cool. And that song, I picked that song for that. It was a it was a record put out by an album or uh a label called Jack Pine Social Club. Um a friend of mine, Nick Tangborn, lived up in uh San Francisco and had that, and he made that record, and we knew each other through music, and um he asked me if I would want to do a song on that, and I said, sure. Um uh I'd like to do uh Jody and the Kid.

SPEAKER_06 11:15

Meet me every morning on the way down to the river, impatient by the China Berry tree with the feet already dusty on the pathway to the levee, the little blue deeper. I felt back along the side, I have to be everything I did, but I couldn't keep from smiling when I heard somebody saying under there goes Jody and the kids.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Which oh yeah, which which uh Silver Tongue Devils I had learned uh I had learned that song uh from Doug.

SPEAKER_12 12:11

Okay, I've got another one. Chris Christopherson, we did an album up here. That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Uh that by the way, that uh don't let the bastards get you down, that looks like a really great, like the lineup on that looks really good.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

It's a good record. And I and I I I did find out he Christofferson did hear that record and liked the record. So I I don't know if he liked my particular take on that song, but I know he heard it uh because he called my friend Nick uh like driving around in Hawaii. He called Nick and like told him how much he liked the record. Cool. That had Steven Bellins on drums, by the way. Oh scrap, he was on guitar and great Stephen Bellins, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 12:51

Aby had another connection. Uh did you ever call your mom by her first name?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

You know what we could actually tie him to that?

SPEAKER_12 13:00

How's it?

SPEAKER_02 13:00

To Beefheart in a way.

SPEAKER_12 13:03

I'm I'm game, let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

So uh we just got through talking about Captain Beefheart, and one of the things Captain Beefheart did uh early on was he kept little snippets of lyrics in a box that he would pull out, and I know that you've had you I mean it's not probably not the same because his lyrics are probably you know whatever. But you um you when you write, you've got like file file file folders and you have like little snippets of lyrics and something, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

So different periods on uh different types of discipline, but yes, yeah, multiple records were were were made that way.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I mean beef art, I'm sure, like I said, it was I'm surprised I'm surprised they just didn't throw them up in the air and didn't piece them together in some weird way, but uh I'm sure you put a little bit more thought into what you're doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

I'm gonna make this quick. Uh I opened for uh Dave Alvin at Sons of Herman Hall.

SPEAKER_12 14:02

That's a great venue.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Cool. I opened up for Robbie Fulkes in New York City about six weeks after 9-11.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Oh wow, where?

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Uh it was it was a um it was downstairs. It was a great listening room, big stage, but it was a basement, and I'm I'm not certain Bowery? No.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

That would have been a good show. That would have been a good show.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

It it was it was something else. Knitting Factory?

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Knitting Factory was there.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

No, it wasn't knitting factory. But um we played we it was not long after 9-11 at all. You could still still smell burning plastic. Wow, and uh he had absolutely killed the last time he was there, and so he took like a door deal for his next show there, which was this one. And so um we we we made we got paid more than Robbie did.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Uh because he was he was counting on a big crowd showing up, and because it was around 9-11, there wasn't, or yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

It was a it was a shame. And he was he was remarkable. I think he played like you know, two and a half hours without without a break.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

And I knew his bass players. Bass players on that tour, and for many tours, was a guy named Lauren Rawl, who used to live in Austin, um, who was a really good friend of mine, who I played at he like he we played a bunch of shows. Uh, he played with us in Oklahoma a few times when we went up there, early, early 90s. Um, anyway, so that's uh I remember that night. Um uh Billy Joe Shaver, um uh after a period of time, I I'm not gonna be solid on these years, but there was a period of time when I stopped touring that much, and uh uh my rhythm section just ended up his rhythm section. Oh, okay, cool. So they toured with him for a whole for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Left a long string of friends, some seats in a wind, and some satisfied women behind. Say Lord, ride me long down. We were in it because we are late. Say I'll measure me to go and ease it alone stay.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

My drummer many times throughout uh my career uh including this coming Saturday, a guy named Mark Patterson. Um uh played with Robert O. King and For sure. And yeah, he he uh is a member of Sunvault. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

I forgot about that. I did know that.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

He's a drummer for Sun Vault. Yeah, I completely forgot about that. And uh Andrew Duplantis is the bass player. Right, I know he's from here and is an old old friend. Yeah, he's a good guy. The clash. Um the the the guy who we'll get to it, but the guy who produced my record for Light Storm uh Joe Blaney, uh New York guy who uh produced my first well produced my record for Lightstorm, but it it never came out. But um he um his first credit as an engineer was Combat Rock.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

Wow, really?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, and he went on to work with like with with Keith Richards, and he he he's done a million things, he's he's fantastic, but um he produced my record, a record that actually I'm I moved, I know y'all y'all haven't talked about them, but I'll just throw this in there at one point for for that record for Lightstorm, so now we're talking like 92, 3, somewhere in there. Um I I moved uh I threw my ARG as assistant out in Los Angeles, uh met a guy named Tony Scalzo, who lived in uh Southern California, and I think he was in Tuston at the time. Anyway, um moved him and a drummer uh to Austin to be in my band for for that recording. Uh the drummer it didn't work out here. He went back home, and Joey Sheffield joined, and Paul Minor was a guitar player in that band. And um we made that record, uh, and then uh, you know, but I'm sure the fault was was all mine, but it it it wasn't going well. Um, I didn't think, and uh not not because of their playing or anything. Um, and uh as it turns out, my instincts were correct. That record ended up never coming out. They went on to form Fastfall.

SPEAKER_09 18:59

Anyone can see the world making gold.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Never get cold, never get angry, never get old angry uh with Miles with Miles Zunica, who was like one of Paul's oldest friends, and so anyway, I couldn't have been any happier for this.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

With what the Neptunes?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Yeah, you played the games for the Neptunes, yeah, absolutely. So uh they're all they're they're they're all friends and uh and um and all that.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

So this was in Memphis, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Well, that's where we recorded, yeah. Yes, yeah, we went to Ardent. Yeah. So here's Big Star.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Yeah, there's another there's another connection, as far as and and then the replacements, yeah. Uh so Alex Chilton and Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Because that's where they recorded um uh Please do Please to Meet Me. Uh a studio in Memphis called Ardent, uh which was owned and operated by uh the the producer of that stuff, and then also Jody Stevens. He's still he's still there, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I got sick, and Blaney was, you know, he was the guy. He was the producer on that. And when he uh I got sick during that recording and uh like an ear infection or something, and Jody Jody Stevens took me to the doctor. Oh, that's amazing. It's just as sweet as he could possibly be. Oh, that's nice. So I'll I'll leave I'll uh no, we'll we'll we'll leave that uh unless there's questions. No, we worked on that record there, and then we went and worked on it more in in Los Angeles and and then delivered it, and then it it just sat there and we got informed like nine months later, six months later, something like that. Like, I'm not putting the record on. There's a it was a bunch of there's a long story to it, but in the really there's it's not interesting to me. Um uh so Rosh, uh maybe Picture. I have not I've not worked with Rush, although um uh but I did take uh my son Jack, who is is now my current drummer. Uh By the way, except not this coming Saturday, but mainly. Um, I took him to see Russ, the the the Time Machine Tour when he was when he was 10 and they played moving pictures in its entirety. In its entirety, and that was uh that was a heck of a night. Yep. Um I opened up for uh the so the birds, I opened up for Roger McGwynn at the cactus. Really? Wow. Yep. I took my father-in-law, wow, and we were we were back in Griff's little office, and kind of I think my father-in-law wanted to shake uh McGwynn's hand, and he's not into that. That doesn't surprise me.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

That does not surprise me.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

That's right. Um then I guess for Dylan, I'll say um Charlie Sexton, he played guitar. Yeah, for him for uh 20 years or whatever. He's um uh he's he's a friend. Um that's great.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Well, and he also played with Elvis, he also plays with Elvis Costello. That's true. Uh Charlie Sexton. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Another connection.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Yeah, and I saw him do two uh Nickelode songs two nights ago.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Really?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Nice guy. I've met him a couple of times.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Really sweet, really sweet. They were they were uh he and his brother Will and and their mother, uh, they were they were so nice uh to me when I when I just showed up in town. Wow, and and was and was a youngster. Blondie, uh was good. Blondie, I I sat next to their the bass player in a diner one time in LA. I didn't know it. I didn't know it. But when he left, my A and R guest assistant, a guy named Scott Parker, uh, who had a little label called Aces and Aights for a while. Um, he um he uh he goes, you know who that was, right? That's as close as I get to Blondie. Uh uh Van Morrison, the last Liberty Launch show, which was the 24-hour Glory a thon.

SPEAKER_12 23:58

Uh-huh. Uh you mean last before they closed it?

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Yeah, it was the the last show that they did. It was a 24-hour performance of Gloria. Yeah. Van Morrison's Gloria, put on by uh a guy named Mike Hall, uh who it was a songwriter and works for Texas Month.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Wildseeds, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

But then also wrote for Texas Monthly for 30 years or something. Uh he um yeah, he put on, and uh it was 24 hours. There were two drum kits, two bass rigs, a bunch of guitar amps, a whole lot of microphones across the front, some keys, and musicians just took that in shifts and played Gloria for 24 hours. I did one section where I read I read from a uh irritable bowel syndrome pamphlet and then would and then would just burst into you know Gloria. That made Michael nervous because he was worried that we were getting if we got too far away from the song that it wouldn't count for the because he had the Guinness World Records people there. Um that's hilarious. But at one point, um they piped in so Van Morrison and they'd gotten a hold of like the guy who does uh did uh not front of house, but the monitor, the monitors for for Van Morrison, and so they found out when uh he was gonna be playing that night, where he was, and they held up the the guy doing the board mixes, held up um a phone uh and then threw that uh across the phone. Then in Austin, someone held up a phone to the mic, and then the band synced to Van Morrison, and so you're hearing Van Morrison singing uh at Liberty Lodge for a short period of time.

SPEAKER_10 26:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Wow, so that's as close as I got to Van Morrison.

SPEAKER_12 26:21

That's very cool, though. That's a very cool and the band was playing uh in Austin, but it was Van's voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He never changes his songs once he does.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Uh Springsteen, uh, I've got a ticket. Uh I've got a I've got a Bob Dylan ticket uh signed by Bruce Springsteen to me that Scrappy got me on a night he and Troy had invited me to go with them to New Orleans and hang out, and I didn't go.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

You could have met Springsteen.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

And they hung out with him for hours. Oh man. He called me. I was in 19, maybe 20, and he called me the next morning, and I immediately I just I got up and I went to the bathroom and I just dry heaved for three or four minutes, and then went back and called him. Um other Springsteen connections, but that's that's my favorite. Well, McCoggan played with him. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, big star. We've already done that. Uh Emmy Lou, um Emily Harris. Uh, so a guy named David Olney, she did a bunch of his songs, and he's a songwriter. I met um I met him at the Ash Grove in Santa Monica um at a Towns Van Zant um uh uh tribute show uh the the year that he died. I went out there and uh I got to meet um they gave me like three or four shows so to make it to where I could get out there. Wow. Um so it was really nice. I got to open up for Victoria Williams one night. Oh, cool, wow. Which was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

So there's a there's a uh a Jayhawk sketch. Yeah, she's on that album we talked about.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

That's right. It was on it was on uh me and my wife's I believe that was that was May, so it was it was our anniversary. And so I had the the within an hour of meeting her, uh I had Vic call Stephanie, who didn't go to that show. I mean she stayed in Austin and I wish her a happy anniversary. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Because we she had a she had a record that we really loved at that at that time. Um uh I also met Peter Case that night. Um, and I met um uh the guy from Lone Justice, um Marvin Ezioni. But we were in a song swap, okay, all of us and a couple other people, so that was nice. Um uh also I met one time when I was on tour in a couple days off in Nashville. This was like '94, maybe. So this is Matt Giles is on guitar, John Nodal's on bass, Joel Freed, who has El Dorado, that restaurant. Uh great restaurant. Yeah. Uh he was on drums. Anyway, we had some time off. I had a friend who was in school there. So we were just broke, broke. So we went as one does. We went to a bar. I think it was at iguana. Does that sound right? Iguana barana bar in Nashville. And uh and uh a guy uh there was a table kind of in the back, a big round table, uh, and uh at which sat uh um a guy named uh uh Malcolm uh Malcolm Burns, who um played with Daniel Lanois, yes, he was like Lanois' assistant kind of guy, and then he started began and played with him, and then he began producing records. He produced Amy Lou Harris is he yes, uh yeah, and then also Chris Whitley's Living with the Law, and which y'all done, and um and uh he um so sitting at that table was Malcolm and the rhythm section from U2 and like all these people who are working on that Emilou record. Uh-huh. And they asked me if I'm willing to sit down, and I had just like, you know, my my friend from like junior high in high school, who's letting us stay at his house. I just kind of like kind of look over my shoulder and look at them, look over my shoulder. I'm like, man, I'm here with a friend I haven't seen in a long time. Um I'm I'm thank you for the kind, kind offer. That's the kind of thing you do when you think opportunities like that are never gonna run out. But um I think my I think my friend would have understood. Yeah. But anyway. And if he doesn't, he's not your butt anyway. So that that was a funny little night in Nashville. Um Badfinger, all I can say is that y'all think that there's a song, uh uh a song that they did on Yell's record that y'all thought I wrote. It sounds like, yeah. Yeah. There was a particular uh uh we gotta get out of here. Yeah. Yeah. Two of y'all were like, yes, that sounds like a those two. Yeah. So um well, Towns Van's Ant. Yeah, that's uh again, I I started like trying to reach out to him when I was in high school.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

Um so you wrote him letters, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:03

I did. I I I'll clear the record here. I'm going to keep saying I started writing letters in high school. Okay. Um because it's easy to say. It's not it was actually right after high school is when I actually wrote him, but I had reached out to him through a couple people that knew him uh in in other ways. Um my very first two shows, uh my very first two shows at the cactus in Austin uh 19 where I opened for Towns and I opened for Lucinda. Wow. Those were my first two gigs. How'd you get those gigs? Well, playing pool at the hole in the wall with Griff. Okay. He would come down to the hole in the wall when the cactus closed because cactus is like done at midnight, yeah, and hole in the walls open until two. Uh-huh. So he would go over there and I would be shooting pool and I'd play him for gigs. Wow. And uh, you know, that's how I got those two.

SPEAKER_12 33:08

So if you're out there struggling, uh get your pool game. Yeah, get your pool game going.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

That's amazing that's an amazing story.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

And yeah, the towns story, I could I could tell those for a long time and I won't.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Um but but did he did he ever respond to your letters?

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you kind of became chummy, didn't you? Well, I mean, okay, I if you're 19 yeah, and the towns is towns, I I don't think it's possible to become chummy close. Right. You know, yeah. I mean, it just his he's operating on to be charitable, many, many levels. You know, some are higher, some are lower.

SPEAKER_12 33:58

And you know, and well, that's the libs the fly, both low and high.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Both low and high, yeah. And and um, but he was never anything but but really kind to me. Always remembering my name. You know, he he showed up, he showed up at a uh one show I I was playing at Stubbs. Uh um that he wasn't on, he just he came out, he came out one day, did this crazy dancing right in front of the stage, and and then you know, then was off. Um you know, um, but I I you know I went up and uh me and my my wife uh went up when when he died and uh went up to to Nashville for that memorial service there, um which was that was something else. Um I got a shirt of his. Um yeah, and I got to open for him multiple times. That's very cool. Once either on my birthday or the day after, or the day before. I can't remember how we got the poster, but it's like either 14th and 15th. He's doing a two-night stand. I don't think I did my birthday, it was either the 14th or the 16th. Anyway, um so that's that. Uh I got a necklace uh that Stevie that K secton that Charlie and Will's mom um uh gave me that she said uh had was had been Stevie's that he gave to her and she gave to me. Oh wow who knows? Um and I just saw her for like the first time in 30 years, two nights ago. Wow. And uh which was which was really sweet. Wow. Um uh Joe Ely, Adam Carroll, Butch Hancock, Jimmy Dell Gilmore, these are they're all people I've played many, many shows with.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

We've talked about adding all of those people before.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Well, that's why I'm bringing them up. Yep. This is connections. Remember, we're still on connections. I forgot we're still in connections. I'm trying, I'm going as fast as I can. Young cut all this out, but I have but uh Tom Petty's drummer, Stan Lynch, when I had when I had a record deal, uh he was my AR guy put me in touch with him, potentially to write songs together or something. Really? And it just didn't work out. I instead I went up to uh Woodstock and I wrote a couple songs with Jules Shear. And um and then we didn't I didn't write with Stan. Then when I lost the deal, and but we talked and he was like super complimentary. Uh, and then I lost that deal, and then I called Stan, and um for some reason he never called back. Travel with cheese. Uh I met little Stephen uh in the back of Liberty Launch. Did you know that? And I told him about the uh well, he was with Charlie. It was when he was it was when he was working on that Archangels Record. Yeah. He produced that Ar Archangels Record. Yeah. Yeah, he was producing that. Sounds right.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

And um and uh Yeah, that's why he plays them all the time on Little Stephen in Underground Garage.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Yeah, I mentioned and I mentioned this, I mentioned this this thing from from Summer Camp where there's uh Oh with Men Without Women. That's hilarious. The men without women activities.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

They still do that to this day.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

Yes, they do. Yes, they do. And they don't know why. Yeah, yeah, he's still and just so that there's also a tradition at that camp that like every dance uh ends with uh Sheikh Russell's and Dana Cooper doing um Deep in the West. Uh Deep in the West. And if anyone walks up to Shake Russell now and mentions if they start in on those, he's heard that story so many times that if anyone even starts like, hey, I used to go to he'll just go summer camp and deep in the west, and they're like, uh but I like to imagine uh I like to imagine that there are people who meet little Steven who start telling him about the men without wedding activities and tying their panda on the side of their head and not being able to talk to girls. Uh the Who I've seen them play before. And um my son Jack won tickets one time.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

How many uh reunion reunion tours have you seen? Uh every one of them? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Uh I went with with my sister one time in Houston, and then um, and then I I saw him then uh Austin. Jack won tickets, uh, and we went and and saw him. That would have been that would have been out 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_03 38:58

I saw him on the the first goodbye tour in 1989. Yeah, is that right? Yeah. I did know uh Stevie and uh the baby the Thunderbirds opened for him.

SPEAKER_01 39:10

Oh wow, yeah. Um uh but uh Pete Townsend and Scrappy played guitar together. Uh he sat in with Ian McCoggan at Austin Music Awards and uh and yeah, and Scrappy was playing uh Scrappy was playing with McCoggan and Pete Townsend came out and did a couple songs. Um I was not there, uh, but it happened. Um I opened up for Steve Forbert at the cactus. Oh, cool. Um I mean my band uh we opened up for Matthew Sweet in Dallas at the Gypsy Gypsy Tea Room.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

For what year would that have been?

SPEAKER_01 39:49

That would have been so it was I think it was Altered Beast.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

I think it was it was the record after girlfriend.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

Yeah, so like 93, 94, something like that. So um it was the one before 100% fun. Yeah, yeah. That's altered beast.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

92? Well it would have been 92, is it altered beast, I think.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Anyway, okay, somewhere in there. Okay. Um, he was sweet as he could be. Said my name from the mic. Thank me from the mic. What's her name? And I got to meet him. That's cool. Um good dude. Lucinda, we've covered. I recorded multiple songs with her as a teenager. We used to just go to her house.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

I mean, she would have like these little Sunday, you know, like potlucks in the afternoon, and yeah, and we would go over and she sang my favorite song, favorite version of the song that you got or sang with you on my favorite version of the song that you and Doug wrote together. Don't bend, don't break.

SPEAKER_06 40:48

Don't tell me promises. I've heard them all before, and I know a promise is a young life. Waiting to grow. Don't teach me.

SPEAKER_03 42:11

Yeah, it's just her voice on that is just it beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

It's it's remarkable, and that was a connection made through I think through Don and Rich and that in that recording I discussed doing in like late um June of 91. So there's another connection. Yeah, so I I will just say it it is it it was probably uh my I wouldn't say it's my most known song, but it was probably the the most important song in getting me uh a uh a publishing deal and the those those first record deals.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

Was the one you co-wrote with Doug?

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Yeah, so when I was uh How about that, Doug?

SPEAKER_12 42:52

It's true enough to nice to say we co-wrote it. Well, so that's what it was is he finished my homework for me. He had he had six lines.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Uh-huh. He had six lines, and I heard them one summer, uh Corporation during the verse. So it ends up being the first verse and then the second half of the second verse. And uh I came and I I I was at camp and I I saw him play them and I memorized it. And then uh a year later, I came back to camp and I said, Have you written this yet? And he goes, Written what? And I played it back for him, and he's like, Oh, that's pretty good. No, I haven't I haven't worked on that. I'm like, oh, okay. That's great. Another year goes by and I come back and I asked him if he goes, No, I haven't. Play it for me again. I played it for him. He's like, Yeah, yeah, that's pretty good. I go, Okay, can I can I write it now? And he said, sure. And a couple months later, when I was back in Austin, um, I wrote it. Uh that would have been that. Yeah, spring of 91. Okay. I wrote it because I remember I was in the dorm and I got in the stairwell and went up to the top top floor of the stairwell and wrote wrote that one.

SPEAKER_12 44:11

I would have finished it, but I didn't have a stairwell. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 44:16

That'll do it.

SPEAKER_12 44:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

If you have a stairwell, you're not gonna get it.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

Um but I do not know, and I'm I'm I'm not I'm not too proud to say that many times uh I have been told that the best line I ever wrote was uh uh a promise as a young lie waiting to grow old. And uh I just have to I just have to say thank you. But but Doug Cooper wrote that line. I did not tell my publishing company that. How old were you got married?

SPEAKER_12 44:51

21. So if you get married real early and you're happy, it's hard to write a line like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

Uh I met Doug Som uh at the uh in the Anton's office on a night that I played, uh It's all over now, baby blue, um there with like the house band, um, which uh he did that song as well.

SPEAKER_12 45:21

Uh everybody.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 45:23

So anyway, it was uh Van Morrison.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

And then Jody and the Kid, we talked about Chris Jofferson, uh the Beach Boys. My very first concert was at the Beach Boys when I was about 10 at the Houston uh Expo Center and your friend uh Astro Hall Your friend Barry Floyd played with them, I mean worked with them forever. That's right. And he and he and his friend Mark Newman got me in to see them um at uh the at ACL one time. Yeah, we got to hang out with the Beach Boys, yeah. Uh uh Steve Wynwood, uh I met in um in Nashville at uh oh that's right. I met him there because he uh the gal he was marrying her had a father who was really high and has Craver and BMI or something. I don't know. Um, but I just re I just remember meeting Steve Winwood and um explaining to him uh that uh what deep in the west was? No, uh how how much better the songwriters in Austin were than the songwriters in Nashville. And uh and he he was just really gracious and he just kind of looked at me and he said, like, well, who? Like it wasn't like you're wrong. It was like he was curious, like, well, who do you mean? Uh-huh. And then I realized, like, I'm just listing people that he would have never ever heard of. And he's going like, okay, so sounds like they're a lot better. Yeah. Anyway, um, Guy Clark, I met at um multiple times, but at a at a a town's, a town's show and a town's uh a town's tribute while Towns was still alive at La Zona Rosa, uh, ended up ended up hanging out in a very tiny room with Towns and Guy and uh uh Towns' son JT, like the four of us in there. And I was just in the corner. I could not have I could not have pressed myself further up into the corner. I couldn't leave, but I also did not want anyone to notice me. Um wow. Uh I think JT had a broken leg. I think. I'm not certain. Uh and then the stones, we've we've we've we've covered it with Joe Blaney, working with with Keith, but um in the in the in the last story of um of near misses and uh and all that uh a missed connection. Um when I when I'm we recorded that record for lights from in Memphis, and then we went to went to LA to to finish it up, and we're gonna mix it there. And Joe, Joe was there, and I had gone to uh a wedding and I'd gone to a wedding in uh like Del Mar or something, and I I my parents were there, and I I had taken my wife Stephanie, who from from summer camp, yeah, um I'd taken her down to uh um San Diego to fly home and I was going back to LA and I could either go all the way back up to LA that night because we were gonna start working the the next day, or or in two days, or I could go up the next day, and so I went down to San Diego, I dropped her off, I decided on the way back, oh, I gotta stop in Delmar for my stuff, and I got there and I was kind of tired, so I just decided to stay. So then I got up the next morning, I slept on their floor, their hotel room. I remember there was an episode of uh Lois and Clark on um The Adventures of Superman. I watched that uh and I I got up the next day in like midday, drove to the hotel that I was staying at in LA and I in Santa Monica, and I I got in and I checked the the messages on my phone, uh and it was it's one of the most excruciating experiences in my life. It was probably 10 phone calls, all from Joe Blaney. Um, and it starts off like, hey Beaver, um, yeah, give me a call when you get in. Uh message number two, hey Beaver, um yeah, I hope you get this message. Uh um give me a call. Don't hesitate. You know, third message. Like, wondering if you're coming in today. Uh we, you know, got something cooking you might want to be at. It turns into like like by the end, it's uh the second to last one is like, yeah, um, yeah, uh Keith is invited us over to uh listen to the rough mixes for the the new record. Uh it's just gonna be you, me, and Keith. Oh uh uh these are the Rush for Voodoo Lounge. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that hurts. That hurts. And then the last one, the last one was just like, yeah, I I gotta go. Wow. Oh, yeah. Wow. So anyway, th those are my connections. I'm sure there's but uh yeah, didn't have one then.

SPEAKER_12 51:17

Okay, so Fever wins this round of connections. Next time, next time we uh we play with an uh artist other than you, so it will be fair.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

I uh I'm surprised none of us mentioned towns before you did. Yeah, yeah. But that's bad.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

So I've put every every towns tribute I can, and you know, and uh there's one coming up, isn't there?

SPEAKER_02 51:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

It'll be March 7th. It'll be at March 7th on the the 04 this year. They've had at the log center the last few years, and it's at 04. Um I'm not certain why to switch, but it's a great venue. It's a fantastic venue. I was just there on Friday. I think maybe someone who used to be at the log center isn't there anymore or something like that. I'm not certain, but um it's great folks that put it on and and uh Butch and Graham, and I'm really uh always happy to be.

SPEAKER_12 52:07

Not a single Willie Nelson mention.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_12 52:12

That's a weird thing for Austin guy.

SPEAKER_10 52:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

Well, I'm sure there's a million connections to him, actually. I mean a million, but I I'm you know, I never I never had the pleasure of meeting him.

SPEAKER_12 52:22

Um I'm at him at Parton Alice, what is that, Pellface Park? Yeah. Uh at the um he was a real gentleman. He was uh in that little convenience store at Pellface Park. Really? Yeah. I mean, when I was a little kid, when I was real little, my I mean like 11 or something, my dad introduced me to him. He said, I want you to meet Willie Nelson. He's gonna you need to know him and know that you shook his head once you feel like that. So did you tell him that I don't think Willie Nelson remembers. We ought to call him in here and see if he remembers.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

Yeah, he'll say, Well, I've got a connection.

SPEAKER_12 52:58

I met Doug when he was uh that guy uh that jerk that has that podcast.

SPEAKER_01 53:03

So and now I'm gonna I'm going to uh I'm gonna flip the tables here just for a minute and I'm gonna I'm gonna beg your indulgence. Uh-huh. Uh y'all remember when I was even more showing even more and and say that uh I I've got a a new You got a new feature called Correction. I got a new segment called Corrections. And uh I wonder how many of you. As you can tell, I have uh I've I listened intently to this podcast, which we appreciate. I love it, I speak highly on it. And uh so I I took a couple categories out uh mispronunciations, I I mean Mike, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:56

I just I I we would have been here all night.

SPEAKER_01 53:59

Yeah. So well, sometimes five different ways.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

Yeah. I think when we did the Pogues episode in a paragraph. Yeah, I think when we did the Pogues episode, poor uh Kata Reardon, we mispronounced her name at least 17 different ways.

SPEAKER_01 54:17

So uh getting rid of mispronunciation. Uh I've got this. This is this is uh uh Doug uh from the the Youngbloods episode. Uh-huh. Uh-oh. Great episode. Uh one of our favorite.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

You're curious to see what this is gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

Uh Doug said uh that David Freeberg looked like the hippie aliens from the Star Trek, the original series episode, Back to Eden. Right. The episode was actually entitled The Way to Eden. I don't feel that bad about that. That's your correction. That's that's all I've got.

SPEAKER_12 55:02

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_07 55:04

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_12 55:05

That's hilarious. The more important thing is, am I right? Okay. I I pronounced the episode wrong, but the guy looks like the guy and have never been able to divide those Star Trek hippies from Jefferson Airplane. I guess I can't divide them from uh Quicksilver Messenger either.

SPEAKER_06 55:28

Yeah. All the faces are down there. What is the ground before they die? They will come, they were under, but I will never be bad. I was down.

SPEAKER_12 56:00

Well you you you hear about well, you you weren't there when Shea Russell went to camp. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. It was it was amazing. It was hilarious because this guy's heard this a thousand times. Finally, he goes to the camp to play. And it was like you. It's like he's the Beatles. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and he's uh I don't I don't think he's ever had a crowd that was so in nuts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:28

Oh no.

SPEAKER_12 56:29

It was no his face was something to behold.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

Ranging from like age like 15 to like 80. Just hanging on every word. He was he was so gassed. He opened, didn't he opened and closed deep in the west.

SPEAKER_04 56:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:45

It was really something. It was quite a night.