Freddie King

The 10 Texas Blues Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Watching the Devil tune his guitar in the middle of the night isn't how Robert (or Tommy) Johnson imagined he'd be spending his Saturday night. When that ol' demon started playing songs, fire flew from his fingertips as an otherworldly sound reverberated into the night. According to legend, despite ... More >>

The Search for the Perfect Guitar, Part III

"Vintage Silvertone Acoustic guitar," "1977 Dobro Duolian," "Martin 00X1 Auditorium Acoustic Guitar (14 Fret)" are just some of the headlines advertising guitars on Craigslist, but how are you supposed to play them, hear them, feel them? When you order a guitar online, you're missing an important p ... More >>

Freddie King's Birthday Tribute on KNON This Friday

See also: The 100 best Texas songs of all time See also: KNON's Don O. knows the Dallas blues Freddie King made it on our recent top 100 Texas songs list a couple times, a testament to just how important and influential the Dallas-born blues guitarist still is some 30 years after his death. This ... More >>

Waltz Around Our 100 Best Texas Songs

The 100 Best Texas Songs: The Complete List

100. Tripping Daisy, "Sonic Bloom" Before this album, the band had a grunge-pop affectation, but this song, from 1998's Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb, was more heartfelt than anything they'd done before. - Daniel Hopkins 99. Pleasant Grove, "The Plaque at 16ft" Bret Egner wrote "The Plaque at 16ft, ... More >>

KNON's Don O. Knows The Dallas Blues

Don O. has been spinning blues records on KNON since 1983, literally about a month after they went on the air. See, he was a listener of the pre-KNON station at that frequency, KCHU, from '75 until they were switched off in '77. Heartbroken at the station's demise and subsequent absence of blues on ... More >>

Best Texas Songs of All Time: #19-1

Songs #100-80 Songs #79-60 Songs #59-40 Songs #39-20 The Spotify playlist for songs #19-1 19. Billy Preston, "Nothing From Nothing" Houston pianist Billy Preston got to hang around some decent talent (The Beatles, The Stones), but his solo material went in another direction altogether. This is ... More >>

The Best Texas Songs of All Time: #59-40

Best Texas songs, #100-80 Best Texas songs, #79-60 The Spotify playlist for songs #59-40 59. Tum Tum, "Caprice Music" For years, the Dallas hip-hop community's had a love affair with the Chevy Caprice Classic. Tum Tum's "Caprice Music" was an ode to that car culture, illustrating the unique trend ... More >>

To Prep You For the Weekend: Freddie King in Dallas, 1973

A friend recently lent me his DVD of Freddie King live in Dallas, 1973, and I was blown away. I knew King's name, but had never actively ventured into his catalog. I came across this bit today. Absolutely astounding. Now I want everything.

Bugs Benefit at the Palladium

Dallas Blues and Jazz Historian Tim Schuller, Once an Observer Contributor, Has Died

​This morning, Pat Boyack asked if I'd heard, if it's true: Had Tim Schuller died? Then, later, came the confirmation, via Buddy Magazine's Facebook page: "Sad news as long time friend and Buddy music writer, Tim Schuller has passed on. We want to wish his family and close friends our sincere cond ... More >>

For 26 Episodes in 1966, WFAA Played Host to the Funkiest, Most Soulful TV Show in America

​Last night, I got a text from Peter Schmidt, who could not believe I've never written about a short-lived 1966 TV show called The !!!! Beat, hosted by iconic Nashville deejay Bill "Hoss" Allen. Wrote Peter, who'd come across it yesterday after a lunchtime discussion about Etta James turned up an ... More >>

Erykah Badu Is Sold Out, But There's Loretta Lynn, The Boom Boom Box and More

​Ah yes, it feels like we're finding our footing, 2012. You started off slow, but this weekend's concert list proves you're finally on track. Erykah Badu & The Cannabinoids at the Granada Theater tonight probably tops the list of shows to see, but we already talked about that show in this week ... More >>

The K-Ticket Christmas Eve Music Playlist, With a Few Leftovers For the Morning

​If I'm allowed on K-Ticket airwaves for a fourth annual Christmas dance party, I will ask management to carve space enough for a 17-hour set. The list of songs I wanted to play but didn't is much longer than those that actually made the air. Then again, if you really want a copy of Anya Marina's ... More >>

Finally, Freddie King's in Rock Hall of Fame

98kzew.comKing at KZEW's Armadillo Festival at Fair Park on April 27, 1975​I hear jingle bells: Freddie King's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Per this morning's heads-up from Cleveland, the Gilmer-born guitarist, singer and songwriter is this year's entry in the Early Influence category; damn ... More >>

Influential Blues Guitarist Bugs Henderson Diagnosed With Cancer, Benefit Concert Scheduled

Bugs Henderson​Many music fans in Dallas know guitarist Bugs Henderson for his influence on the international blues community. In this week's paper edition of DC9 at Night, local blues musician and historian Jim Suhler talked about how Eric Clapton and the late Freddie King would go see Bugs Hende ... More >>

Hidden Away: Uncovering Dallas' Faded Blues

Blues veteran Jim Suhler takes us on a tour of the city's musical past.

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Classic Rock, Covered in King Biscuit Flower Hour

​George Gimarc confirms what I thought I remembered: Early on the King Biscuit Flower Hour aired on KZEW, before, some time in the early '80s, it jumped over to Q102. Makes sense: Blondie's 1979 KBFH appearance, recorded at the original Palladium, and mid-'70s Clapton, with Freddie King at the Dal ... More >>

Don O.'s Gift to You on Freddie King's 77th

​Hope you read this week's piece on the indestructible KNON. Strange, though. Must be something in the air. I just got through re-re-re-re-reading David Sealey's May '85 piece about Nancy Moore -- Shaggy, that is, my old friend who threw one hell of a midnight Pajama Party every Saturday. And I ra ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Frampton Comes Alive on KZEW on July 4, 1975

​It's perhaps the most common request among the Friends of Unfair Park: Where oh where is Peter Frampton's January Sound Studios sessions, which aired on KZEW back in February of '75? The complete show too -- not just "Do You Feel Like I Do," the version of which hopped to the top of the local pop ... More >>

Some Trower Power, As We Dig Up Yet Another Komplete KZEW Koncert From Early 1975

​Hell of a time to get (re)obsessed with KZEW concerts -- only, what, 35 years after the fact? But when a Friend of Unfair Park sent me chasing after the Peter Frampton show, look what I found instead last night -- Robin Trower at the Travis Street Electric Company on March 20, 1975.This, like the ... More >>

If You Didn't Save Your Old LaBella & Rody Cassettes, Well, Today's Your Lucky Day

Via.LaBella and Rody and Rhyner​Into the wee small hours of Christmas Morning I cued up some Freddie King from January Sound in March '75 -- "Hideaway," to be specific. At which point a caller rang up The Ticket request line with some (rather slurred but very happy) news: The Zewkeeper in charge o ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: The Texas International Pop Festival "Box Set"

​Richard Hayner, keeper of the Texas International Pop Festival website, maintains he's still -- still -- writing a book about that Labor Day Weekend when Angus Wynne brought Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, B.B. King, Ten Years After, Santana, Johnny Winter, Sly and the Family Stone and on and on and ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Eric Clapton Was God at Dallas Convention Center in November '76, But Freddie Was Still King

​Of all the weekend-listening suggestions I've posted since whenever this started, that Freddie King KZEW revue ranks high on the list -- I've listened to it start-to-finish a dozen times since posting two weeks ago. Hard to see how it gets much better than that, but after sitting through back-to- ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: The Texas Cannonball Takes Over The Zoo in '75

​When we took a long, deep hit of Foghat at January Sound Studio back in April, a Friend of Unfair Park was kind to remind: Freddie King also recorded a set there in '75 for KZEW. March 31, 1975, to be exact -- about a year and a half before the Gilmer-born guitar-slinger died of heart failure at ... More >>

Staff Trax: Jasper TX, Randy Rogers Band, Freddie King and The Walker Brothers

Welcome to Staff Trax, the weekly feature here on DC9 where we shed some light on the music we've been enjoying of late, regardless of the touring or album release schedules that tend to bear the focus of most of our coverage. Consider it a chance for you readers to get some more insight into our o ... More >>

Dude Food: Jesse's Year In Review

Merritt MartinBaby Back Shak's pork is smokin'!​After a year of pizza, Tex-Mex and deep-fried everything, it's time to take a look back at my year in Dude Food. While they might not have all ranked a 10 on the Dude Factor scale, the following five Dude Food meals were my favorites of the year. Loo ... More >>

Axe Men

Playback: The Week (5/23/08 - 5/30/08) In Review

Freddie King Live Tracks From France In 1974

Get Into The Innocent Blues

Dan Aykroyd Came to Town, Poured Some Concrete, Left. But He'll Be Back With...Jim Belushi.

Doyle Bramhall, Bugs Henderson

Friday, August 11, at the Granada Theater

Of Lost Legends and Found Heroes

Walker, Texas Ranger

From Dallas came the man who first plugged blues into an amp--and into popular culture

Soul to sell

Epic keeps raiding Stevie Ray Vaughan's vault, but when is enough enough?

Blues for Freddie

The family of a Dallas guitar legend fights to protect his legacy

The mind's ear

Jimmie Vaughan is two albums into a solo career he didn't necessarily want

Little boy blues

Andrew Baxter Jr. may be a mere child, but the 11-year-old guitarist is no novelty

The King's man

"Jr. Boy" Jones played with them all--now, he plays for himself

The glory of Bugs

Texas guitar hero Bugs Henderson wouldn't swap family for fame

Roadshows

Keeping up with the Joneses

Dallas blues history according to two who lived it

All a-flutter

Another local songwriter has a cut on a major-label release

Answer this door

DTC's Thunder is a sensual roof-raiser

Roadshows

Out Here

Out Here

To be or not to bop

Texan Jazz unveils the Lone Star contribution to jazz

Ghosts in the machine

When the vinyl jukebox dies, so will a little piece of the music it played