SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET
She's About a Mover
They called it the "West Side Sound." In the 1950s, while rock and roll was on the rise nationwide, the youth of San Antonio, Texas had their own diverse musical preferences including pop, country, blues, polka and conjunto (the latter a combination of Latin styles that featured instruments like the 12-string "bajo sexto" guitar and button accordion), resulting in a rocking hybrid of the norteño and related tejano music of the northern Mexico and southern Texas region. Most people would call it, simply, Tex-Mex. Local kids like Douglas Wayne Sahm (of German descent) and his black and mostly Latino companions were just doing what came natural to them. Older family members long accustomed to the challenges of living on the city's poverty-stricken, socially tenuous west side struggled to place any significance on their childrens' bonding, but allowed it as the young musicians' common interest kept them out of trouble.
By the start of his teens, Sahm had already spent several years as a locally-known singer. He performed on AM 630 KMAC as early as age five and within a few years his expertise on stringed instruments (mandolin, steel guitar and fiddle) gained him a spot on radio's Louisana Hayride show - that is, whenever one or both of his parents could drive him 400 miles to Shreveport, where the show originated. Closer to home, at age eleven, he appeared onstage with Hank Williams in Austin in December 1952, just a couple of weeks before the great country singer's death. Doug met Augie Meyers in 1953; a victim of polio, Augie dealt with his affliction while becoming proficient at guitar and piano. They began practicing together, which led to a lifetime of collaboration.
Charlie Fitch, owner of the Sarg label, released a song in 1955 that Sahm had recorded several years earlier; "A Real American Joe" was credited to Little Doug, the name the youngster had used since entering the music business as a preschooler. During high school and continuing through his mid-twenties, Sahm (often joined by friends including Meyers, who led his own band The Goldens) had more than a dozen singles issued on local and regional labels. "If I Ever Need You," a doo woppish tune credited to Doug Sahm with the Pharoahs, appeared in the summer of '59 on Warrior (with an image on the label of an Indian in full headdress, which would be familiar to fans several years later). A solo-billed version of Lloyd Price's "Can't Believe You Wanna Leave" appeared in '60 on hometown label Satin. Another single, slow-burner "Why, Why, Why" by Doug Sahm and the Markays on the Harlem label, received considerable airplay in the spring of '60 on San Antonio stations KMAC and KONO.
The next few releases were south Texas radio hits heavily influenced by R&B and the various regional Tex-Mex styles. "Baby Tell Me," another Markays track, was followed by three in '61: "More and More" by Doug Sahm and the Dell-Kings and two solo shots by Doug, "Makes No Difference" and "Crazy, Crazy Feelin'" on Renner Records. Several others, mostly originals, appeared on small labels through '64 and were credited to Doug Sahm and the Spirits or as solo projects under his given name and in one case as The Devons (a remake - with false starts! - of The Nightcaps' rocker "Wine, Wine, Wine").
On December 8, 1964, The Dave Clark Five performed at San Antonio's Municipal Auditorium; Augie and the Goldens opened the show, followed by Doug and the Markays. Local producer Huey P. Meaux (who'd already scored national hits with Jivin' Gene, Barbara Lynn and Sunny and the Sunglows) was in attendance and, noticing the group's long-haired look, approached Doug and Augie about combining forces as a British-influenced act to capitalize on America's latest musical obsession. Meaux, known to everyone in the area as "The Crazy Cajun," had noticed what to him sounded like a Cajun two-step beat used by the Brit bands. The plan was simple: masquerade as a U.K group, utilize the two-step, and have a hit record! Their faux-Brit name was the Sir Douglas Quintet and the song about '...love and conversation' (with more than a passing resemblance to The Beatles' recent hit "She's a Woman") was "She's About a Mover"...a top 20 hit in the spring of 1965 on Meaux's Tribe label, adorned with an Indian (wearing a headband and single feather this time).
The Quintet included Jack Barber on bass, Frank Morin on saxophone, flute and harmonica, Johnny Perez supplying the beat, Augie Meyers on guitar, keyboards and accordion and, of course, lead singer "Sir Douglas," playing guitar while keeping other instruments in his bag of tricks close at hand. Guest spots on network television shows Shindig! and Hullabaloo made them familiar to viewers for a short time; successive singles "The Tracker" and "In Time" tanked, but the fourth Tribe single was a winner. "The Rains Came," a wet-weather-and-teardrops ballad, was written by Huey Meaux; the original version by Big Sambo (born James Young in Beaumont, Texas) and his band The House Wreckers reached the charts in 1962. Sir Doug's less-bluesy remake spent all of March 1966 in the top 40. The cover of their debut album, The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet, depicted all five members in silhouette, perpetuating the previous year's British Invasion smokescreen.
The band toured extensively, making the most of their "two-hit wonder" status (while two more singles, "Quarter to Three" and Sahm's psych production, "She Digs My Love," barely registered in "Bubbling Under" territory). Sahm moved to San Francisco soon afterwards to check out the developing psychedelic scene. He started a new SD Quintet with Bay Area musicians, but eventually convinced Meyers and Perez to join him on the California coast. They were signed to Mercury's Smash label subsidiary and under the unusual name Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 = Honkey Blues issued a single, "Are Inlaws Really Outlaws?," a track more funk-leaning than any previous work.
After reverting to their more famous moniker, "Mendocino" came in late '68 with a spoken-word introduction that most stations played as-is: "Sir Douglas Quintet is back, we'd like to thank all our beautiful friends all over the country and all the beautiful vibrations...we love you." With more of a pop feel than earlier efforts, the infectious, uptempo track returned them to the top ten on many stations, headed towards a top 30 Billboard ranking in March and April 1969. Airplay was scattered around the country that year for Sahm originals "It Didn't Even Bring Me Down," "Dynamite Woman" and "At The Crossroads," as the San Antonio sound they'd begun with seeped back into their output. They continued with Smash Records, later getting releases on the Philips and parent company Mercury labels (one solo single, "Be Real," was credited to Wayne Douglas, a different twist on his birth name). The group went on hiatus in late '71 when Sahm returned to Texas; he headed an all-star lineup called Doug Sahm and Band, an album he recorded for Atlantic with Bob Dylan, Dr. John, hometown pal Flaco Jiménez and a large, well-seasoned lineup.
Throughout the remainder of the '70s, Sahm performed and made records with the core group and other projects billed solo or with Doug Sahm and the Tex Mex Trip. In 1973, he released what turned out to be a prophetic song: "Texas Tornado" by The Sir Douglas Band. 16 years later he formed The Texas Tornados with Meyers, Jiménez and Freddy Fender (born Baldemar Huerta, he hailed from San Benito, a southern Texas town near the border of Tamaulipas, and had recorded under the Fender name since the late 1950s, enjoying huge success in the mid-'70s with several hits including the number one pop and country single "Before the Next Teardrop Falls"). The group's self-titled debut album was an instant success and won them a Grammy in 1991 for "Soy de San Luis" in the category Best Mexican-American Performance.
Doug Sahm's life was filled with music; it became his passion before he could even walk or talk. He took his career through a "child prodigy" phase, a hitmaking '60s period with The Sir Douglas Quintet and numerous later projects under many names. He made great connections along the way and frequently collaborated with his childhood friends from San Antonio. The last decade of Doug's life, as a Texas Tornado, was filled with good times. A heart attack took his life at age 58 in 1999, leaving a winding trail of creative, compelling and downright fun recordings for exploration and enjoyment.
