This Week in Dallas Music History: The Blonde Bomber Rebounds

Names like Gene Summers and Kim Lenz & her Jaguars are decades apart, but these artists follow a unique style of rockabilly that can only come from the Dallas area.The April 16, 1992 edition of the Observer profiled local rockabilly favorite Ronnie Dawson, who benefited from the genre's revival alongside...

By Shahryar Rizvi

April 12, 2010

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Names like Gene Summers and Kim Lenz & her Jaguars are decades apart, but these artists follow a unique style of rockabilly that can only come from the Dallas area.

The April 16, 1992 edition of the Observer profiled local rockabilly favorite Ronnie Dawson, who benefited from the genre's revival alongside with Reverend Horton Heat.

Yeah, I know. This is the second time in a row we've covered a 1992 Gilbert Garcia article. Guess he was on a roll at the time.

Anyway: Ronnie Dawson's early career in the 1950s was expected to thrive after the release of a few singles "Action Packed" and "Rockin' Bones" on the Backbeat and Rockin' labels. However, his national success halted soon after because of the payola crisis that dogged all of rock 'n' roll in the '50s.

But the late '80s/early '90s rockabilly revival gave the Blonde Bomber another lease in the scene. He appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1995 and was inducted on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1998.

Dawson was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2002. He continued to sing until he succumbed to the illness in September 2003.

After the jump, check Garcia's piece on Dawson, which finds the performer relishing in his second chance.

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