There is a restless, magnetic pull to the city of Memphis that has always held sway over me. My history there is written in chapters—first bound to the steady rhythm of a corporate day job, and later reborn in the wake of tragedy, when I returned to play the Ponderosa Stomp after Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans underwater. This song is a walk through those heavy, historic streets. From the neon hum of Beale Street and the hallowed grounds of Sun Records and Graceland, to the somber, storytelling walls of the Lorraine Motel, every corner holds a ghost. Marked by the rattle of the streetcar and the smoky scent of Memphis BBQ, it’s a tribute to a city that keeps time by the steady pulse of the mighty Mississippi River flowing down to the sea.
Garage Beat captures the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of being a teenager in the 1960s, watching your local band explode into popularity, and carrying that indelible rush with you for the rest of your life. It’s a tribute to youth, music, and those fleeting moments when the universe aligns. The song draws direct inspiration from Texas garage-rock legends Kenny and the Kasuals, who captured the nation's attention in 1966 with their pioneering fuzz-drenched sound. After scoring a major national distribution deal with United Artists Records, their meteoric rise suddenly faded when the draft called up band members and the major label grew hesitant to push a wild, psychedelic track across a conservative America. Garage Beat is an anthem for anyone who caught a glimpse of the magic—even if only for a moment.
Speed of Night is a sonic time capsule from the era when rock-and-roll collided head-on with the 1980s. It’s an anthem dedicated to the coming-of-age of big rock—a world of over-produced, over-hyped, stadium-sized sounds that burned incredibly bright, even if they ultimately went nowhere. Driven by a pulsing, evolving rhythm, the song takes listeners on a reckless ride into a musical Neverland, capturing the exact moment rock broke free from gritty clubs and exploded onto the screens of MTV. It’s a tribute to the excess, the neon glare, and the larger-than-life magic of an era that changed music forever.
Help Us Keep A Texas Rock Music Archive of the 60s Alive
🎸 Don’t Let the Texas Psych-Rock Flame Burn Out! Before Austin was "weird," Dallas was loud. We’re talking about the era of floor-shaking fuzz tones, big amps, and the legendary Kenny & the Kasuals. The Texas 60s rock scene wasn't just a footnote in music history; it was a cosmic explosion of garage rock, and blues-drenched soul