There was a long stretch during the early '90s when I wrote what felt like piece after piece after piece about Dallas's estimable, almost entirely forgotten but ultimately influential garage-rock scene of the 1960s. I was obsessed with the likes of The Chessmen (featuring a young Jimmie Vaughan and Doyle Bramhall), The Nightcaps ("Thunderbird"), the Floyd Dakil Combo ("Dance, Franny, Dance") and Kenny & the Kasuals, whose "Journey to Tyme" remains perhaps the greatest locally crafted fuzz-soaked psychedelic freak-out of the era. That song was on the second record, 1966's Teen Dreams; it's the '65 debut Impact, recorded at the old Studio Club in Preston Center, that occasionally sells for upwards of a thou on eBay. Or get 'em all for $15 each on frontman Kenny Daniels' website.
Daniel's still around, playing the Balcony Club. And last night I got an email outta New Mexico from Richard Parker, who alerts me to yet another addition to our summer reading list:
"There is a new book out called STOMP AND SHOUT: The All-Too-Real Story of Kenny and the Kasuals and the Garage Band Revolution of the 60s, written by Kenny Daniel (of The Kasuals) and myself. It covers not just this one band but the entire Dallas music scene of the era in great detail, including a massive discography of virtually every pop/rock performer who recorded in the Dallas area in the '60s -- hundreds of artists. The book is 344 pages long and is selling well on Amazon. If you would like more info just let me know."I would, Richard, and I will. Just let me read the sucker first. Here's the Amazon link. Just ordered mine.
