I Fought the Law

Performed by Avalanche
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & lead guitar
Wynn Pinkham: pedal steel guitar
Mike Bennett: bass
Bill Wilson: drums
Beverly Roberts: harmony vocal

recorded 9 December 1978
Whiskey River East, Horizon City, Texas

I had second thoughts about posting this beer-soaked track, which teeters precariously on the brink of bar band bedlam, but drummer Bill Wilson died last night, and when one of us dies, it redefines everything for those who are left behind. This recording has, to me, become as beautiful as burnished bronze -- a portrait of a time, and a place, and an aggregation that are no more. A moment frozen in amber. The drummer throws his sticks into the air, and there they remain suspended forever, never to return to their owner's hands...

My Blue Heaven

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Zoomer Roberts: vocal, guitar
Tony Custer: piano
Bill Owen: bass
recorded 1973

Working Man Blues

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Zoomer Roberts: vocal, guitar
Tony Custer: piano
Bill Owen: bass
recorded 1973

The Great Titanic

Frank Dove and The Sundowners
Recorded at the Melody Ranch, circa 1984
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar, lead vocal
Frank Dove: rhythm guitar, harmony vocal
Bill Radcliff: pedal steel
Bobby Napier: fiddle
Manny Flores: bass
Rick Lasino: drums

Another Sad and Lonely Night

Recorded July, 1996
KTEP broadcast

Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal
Gene Keller: guitar & vocal
Ophelia Botham: mandolin & vocal

Never To Be Forgotten

Recorded July, 1996
KTEP broadcast

Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal
Gene Keller: guitar & vocal
Ophelia Botham: mandolin & vocal

Love's Made A Fool of You

Recorded July, 1996
KTEP broadcast

Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal
Gene Keller: guitar & vocal
Ophelia Botham: mandolin & vocal

Deep Elem Blues

Recorded 1997 at the Chamizal National Memorial
Zoomer Roberts: vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar
Steve Smith: mandolin
Glenn Leffler: bass
Eric Hutson: drums

Deep Elem (Elm) was a disreputable area in South Dallas. To my knowledge, this catchy song about the thrills and woes to be found there was first sung by the Shelton Brothers in the 1930s. The inspiration for this version was a Sun record by Jerry Lee Lewis. The last verse was borrowed from "Texas Hambone Blues":

Well I'm goin' down to Cowtown just to get my hambone boiled
Because them New York City women, they done let my hambone spoil!

I once knew an old warehouse hand who recalled walking through Deep Elem during the Depression. He heard a voice call out from a second-story window: "Hey, white boy! Fo' a dollah, I takes you on!" He kept walking -- or at least that's what he told me, thirty five years after the fact.

If you go down in Deep Elem, put your money in your socks
Them redheads in Deep Elem'll blow a man out on the rocks!

Somewhere between the original VHS tape and this link, the MP3 file got reduced to a really crummy bitrate. I'll upgrade it one of these days, but for now, this will have to do.

Look here, pretty baby, I said you sure look good to me
But when you go down in Deep Elem lit up like a Christmas tree
Lawdy, Mama! Your Daddy's got them Deep Elem Blues!
Why don't you listen to me, Sugar? Your Daddy's got them Deep Elem Blues!

We Could

The Lariat Cowboys
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal
Jimmy Smith: fiddle
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

I always associate this song with Little Jimmy Dickens. Although he is primarily known for his novelty songs, Dickens was (and is) a fine ballad singer. "We Could" is somewhat of an oddity: it has the construction of a "weeper," but the lyrics are about love gone right. I used to sing this for couples who were celebrating their anniversary with a night of dancing.

Every Fool Has A Rainbow

The Lariat Cowboys
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal
Jimmy Smith: fiddle
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

How High The Moon

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"
Jerry Boyer: vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar
Zoomer Roberts: mandolin & bass

When I Stop Dreaming

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar, harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: mandolin, bass, harmony vocal

I'm An Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande)

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"
Buddy Winston: guitar, lead vocal
Zoomer Roberts: guitar, bass, steel guitar, harmony vocal
Jerry Boyer: harmony vocal

Love Me Tender

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"
Jerry Boyer: vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & bass
arranged by Zoomer Roberts

Take Him In

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"
Buddy Winston: guitars, banjo, lead vocal
Zoomer Roberts: mandolin, dobro, standup bass, harmony vocal
Jerry Boyer: harmony vocal

When we recorded this at Scott Martin's studio, we couldn't nail the acapella part at the end. The meter was running and it was our dime. Finally, we just did a slow fade from the start of the banjo solo to the end of the last verse. I've reversed the fade-out and grafted the intended ending from a rehearsal tape. This involved some speed and pitch adjustments, among other things. It's not seamless, but at least the original concept has been realized -- 26 years after the fact.

I'm Not That Good At Goodbye

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar, harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: steel guitar, bass, harmony vocal

Mississippi Mud

From the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer, Volume 1" (1982)


Zoomer Roberts:
vocal, mandolin, bass
Jerry Boyer: vocal, kazoo
Buddy Winston: guitar



When Bing Crosby described "Mississippi Mud" as "an earthy anthem," and he knew whereof he spoke. He helped popularize it in the 1920s when he was a member of Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys. Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer delighted in digging up derelict ditties such as this and -- for whatever reason -- playing them as fast as we could. The version heard here is a studio recording from 1982. The above photograph shows us performing it live at the El Paso Civic Center, probably at the "4 Centuries '81" festival.

Where No One Stands Alone

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar, harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: guitar, bass, harmony vocal

If I Had A Hammer

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar & harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: standup bass & harmony vocal

The name "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer" wasn't patterned after "Peter, Paul & Mary." After initially billing ourselves as Jerry Boyer & the Zoom-Bud Band (Zoom-Bud was a take-off on Sho-Bud steel guitars), we decided to just use our names: two 5-letter names with double consonants and ending with the letter "y," followed by a 6-letter name with a double vowel. We could never have invented anything that good!

We worked up three Peter, Paul & Mary songs for a concert at the Chamizal Theatre. At the actual performance -- which was later shown on television -- the bridge on the standup bass I was playing worked loose and collapsed with a loud crash in the middle of "If I Had A Hammer." We continued singing, with me leaning on the bass from which the strings uselessly dangled. We later recorded it for our album, and that is the version heard here.

When Sunny Gets Blue

from the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer Volume 1"
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar
Zoomer Roberts: bass
arranged by Buddy Winston

The Prisoner's Song

From the album "Roadhouse"
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & bass
Buddy Winston: guitars
Eric Hutson: drums

In the waning years of the 20th century, Buddy and I casually recorded 14 of my favorite songs in his home studio. We did this piecemeal, often using "click tracks." Some of these bled and wound up in the final mix. The vocals were recorded in a closet. Due to the worsening condition of my fingers, I played the bass lines on a Yamaha keyboard or abandoned them altogether. On some songs -- such as this Vernon Dalhart warhorse from 1924 -- I dictated the instrumental breaks note-for-note. I also sang all the harmonies, with varying degrees of success. Finally, Eric Hutson brought over his snare drum and brushes and played exactly what was needed where it was needed. The final result was called "Roadhouse," and it is presented here in its entirety. The songs deal with pain, suffering, ostracism, hopelessness, exposure to the elements, lost love, alcoholism and death. My mother said it was the most depressing thing she ever heard in her life.

Waiting For a Train

From the album "Roadhouse"
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & bass
Buddy Winston: guitars
Eric Hutson: drums

Cool Water

From the album "Roadhouse"
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & bass
Buddy Winston: guitar
Eric Hutson: drums

I Shall Be Released

From the album "Roadhouse"
Zoomer Roberts: vocals & electric bass
Buddy Winston: guitars
Eric Hutson: drums

As far as I'm concerned, the definitive version of any Bob Dylan song is the Bob Dylan version. And with dozens of other people's recordings of this "Basement Tapes" classic floating around, the world probably didn't need mine. Nonetheless, when Buddy and I started working on what would become the "Roadhouse" album, this was the first song out of the chute. It has a hopeful, hymn-like quality to it that makes it seem like much more than it is: the musings of a prisoner awaiting parole.

Dark As A Dungeon

From the album "Roadhouse"
Zoomer Roberts: vocals, keyboard bass
Buddy Winston: guitars
Eric Hutson: drums

This Merle Travis classic has such a solemn, hymn-like quality to it that one almost forgets the earthiness of the subject matter: coal mining. Travis preferred singing about mining to actually doing it. John R. Cash, who preferred selling vacuum cleaners to mining, put this out as a single in the 1960s. I've been singing it for forty years and haven't been "way down in the mine" yet. West Texas isn't coal country.

I Can't Escape From You

From the album "Roadhouse"
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & bass
Buddy Winston: guitars

If anybody ever gets around to writing about Hank Williams' musical antecedents instead of his alcohol consumption, we might find out why so many of his songs don't have a bridge. This lesser-known waltz doesn't have one. Neither does "Cold, Cold Heart" or "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." One suspects he was exposed to some ancient ballad styles in his formative years. I met his band, the Drifting Cowboys, in Kerrville in 1979, but I mostly asked them questions about playing gigs in 1949 with no drums and low wattage. It was fascinating.

This recording is from the "Roadhouse" sessions of the late 1990s. I altered the melody slightly and replaced the VI minor chord with a diminished. That sort of thing will get you fired from some jobs.

When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again

From the album "Roadhouse"
Zoomer Roberts: vocals
Buddy Winston: guitars
Eric Hutson: Drums

Buddy Winston and I spent the latter half of the 1990s recording some of my favorite songs in his home studio. The eventual result was an album I named "Roadhouse" because Eric's drum rolls on some of the songs reminded me of Saturday nights in a honky-tonk. One of the songs I wanted to do was this old Wiley & Gene classic. We did it without a bass because it sounded good the way it was. The ending is a nod to Elvis Presley's 1956 version: I multi-tracked myself going from IV to I on the final "stay" a la the Jordanaires. It's like an "Amen" with different lyrics. The guitar intro was lifted from "Little Lover" by Gene Vincent. The rest of it is just us being ourselves.

Just Like A Woman

From the album "Roadhouse"
Zoomer Roberts: vocals, keyboard bass
Buddy Winston: guitar
Eric Hutson: drums

Sweet Memories

OSR Demo -- 1980
Zoomer Roberts: vocal, guitars
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

(Get Up, Shut Up) Put Your Clothes On and Go Home

OSR Demo -- 1980
Zoomer Roberts: vocal, guitars
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

I spent most of the 1970s playing honky-tonk music in C&W bars. Keeping up with the latest songs was part of the job. Conway Twitty was hugely popular in those days, and his records kept getting raunchier and racier, until he wasn't just suggestive about the sex act, he was vividly describing it. I thought it would be fun to write such a song, and my brother and I put this together one afternoon over a few beers. I started singing it at the gig, and it was surprisingly well received. For the next several years I got requests for this song nearly every night -- usually from the ladies. That was an eye opener!

Playin' In A Cowboy Band

OSR Demo -- 1980
Zoomer Roberts: vocal, guitar
Chuck Telehany: lead guitar
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

You're Hard to Get Over (When I'm Sober)

OSR Demo -- 1980
Zoomer Roberts: vocal, guitars
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

Nothing Matters (If I Can't Have You)

OSR Demo -- 1980
Zoomer Roberts: vocal, guitars, mandolin, synthesizer
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

Copper Kettle

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Buddy Winston: lead vocal, guitar
Zoomer Roberts: harmony vocal, mandolin
Jerry Boyer: harmony vocal
Recorded September 1981

Theme from "The Rifleman"

Zoomer Roberts: mandolin
Buddy Winston: guitar
recorded 3 July 1981

Stewball

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Buddy Winston: guitar & lead vocal
Jerry Boyer: harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: standup bass & harmony vocal

The Cruel War

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar & harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: standup bass & harmony vocal

I'll Remember You Love In My Prayers

Recorded 1997 at the Chamizal National Memorial
Zoomer Roberts: vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar
Steve Smith: mandolin
Glenn Leffler: bass
Eric Hutson: drums

Several artists were doing a modal, "Appalachian" version of this song in the 1990s. When I found a recording of Hank Snow singing it as originally written -- as a sentimental parlor waltz -- I was eager to present it in that form. This was a one-off performance at the Border Folk Festival. It was recorded outdoors on a camcorder by the late Johnny Ware, and Gene Graham later converted the audio to MP3. I've compressed it and adjusted the EQ. It's still a sow's ear, but you can probably listen to it without getting a nosebleed.

Here Comes the Sun

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Buddy Winston: guitar & lead vocal
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & harmony vocal
Jerry Boyer: harmony vocal
1984 World Tour Rehearsal

I Don't Want to Hurt You

Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal
Recorded 19 October 1983

Good Ole Boys Like Me

The Lariat Cowboys
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar
Mark Kays: drums
Tony Quero: bass
Recorded 13 July 1980 at the Lariat Lounge

In the Mood

The Lariat Cowboys
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar & announcement
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums
Recorded 13 July 1980

Zoomer's Guitar Boogie

The Lariat Cowboys
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums
Don Walser: voice
Recorded 13 July 1980

This was an ideal break song: you could make it as long (or as short) as necessary, and get your rockabilly on in the process. Best of all, it needed no rehearsal. I had a small arsenal of such pieces that could be easily executed in any given situation.

Remington Ride / Cattle Call

Don Walser with the Lariat Cowboys
Don Walser: vocal, rhythm guitar
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums
Recorded 13 July 1980

Before he became known as the Pavarotti of the Plains, Don Walser was stationed in El Paso with the National Guard and played the honky tonks by night. On this particular night, he was filling in for the Lariat Cowboys' vacationing front man, Joe Leaver. Don was a gregarious soul who loved to sing the older country songs -- such as this Eddy Arnold chestnut -- and I was in my element playing behind him. A few years later I turned on my TV and there he was -- singing and yodeling on the Grand Ole Opry. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. There are some anomalies at the beginning of 'Cattle Call' that I can't correct. If a better recording surfaces, I'll upgrade this post.

The brief opening instrumental, "Remington Ride," was written by steel guitarist Herb Remington, who recorded it during his stint with Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys. I decided to play it on the guitar after hearing Don Reno play it on the 5-string banjo. It has some cool chord inversions in it.

To find out more about Don Walser, check out his official website at http://www.donwalser.com/

Chime Bells

Don Walser with the Lariat Cowboys
Don Walser: vocal, rhythm guitar
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums
Recorded 13 July 1980

Whether Don's version of this piece is based on that of Slim Whitman or Elton Britt is a matter of conjecture, but it doesn't really matter. The song is a framework in which to yodel, and Don inhabits it completely.

To find out more about Don Walser, check out his official website at http://www.donwalser.com/

I'm Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky

Don Walser with the Lariat Cowboys
Don Walser: vocal, rhythm guitar
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums
Recorded 13 July 1980

Don might have known every Slim Whitman song of any consequence. This one was a hit for Slim in 1949.

To find out more about Don Walser, check out his official website at http://www.donwalser.com/

China Doll

Don Walser with the Lariat Cowboys
Don Walser: vocal, rhythm guitar
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums
Recorded 13 July 1980

This was a hit for Slim Whitman back in 1952. Don was doing Slim's songs long before they became the stuff of "not sold in stores" TV albums. At the time of this performance, I didn't know where Don got his material. I just paid attention to what chords he was playing and followed along.

To find out more about Don Walser, check out his official website at http://www.donwalser.com/

Sweet Thing

Recorded 12 May 1982
Byron Berline: fiddle
Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal, electric bass
Buddy Winston: lead guitar, harmony vocal
Mike Baron: banjo
Charles Harding: rhythm guitar

The El Paso Friends of Folk Music brought Byron Berline to town for their Fourth Annual Fiddle Fest at the Chamizal Theatre, and some of us locals banded together to accompany him. Byron had worked with everybody from Bill Monroe to the Rolling Stones (he didn't add our names to that list) and the gig was a treat for us. I got to sing a couple of songs, too, one of which was this little-known Cowboy Copas number. Henry Beebe used to sing this with the Shade Tree Boys, and we used his version. It teeters on the brink of collapse in places, but we got through it and the audience applauded. Fete accompli!

To learn more about Byron Berline, check out his website at http://www.doublestop.com/aboutus.php

The Old Home Place

Recorded 12 May 1982
Byron Berline: fiddle
Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal, electric bass
Buddy Winston: lead guitar
Mike Baron: banjo
Charles Harding: rhythm guitar

This song is one of my favorites. It was originally done by the Dillards, with whom Byron cut his first album. I still perform it on occasion. This concert was videotaped and shown later on the public access cable channel. I recorded the audio from the television set on a generic cassette. The felt pad had to be glued back in before it could be uploaded, and I've corrected the pitch and applied some EQ. That the show survives at all amazes me.

To learn more about Byron Berline, check out his website at http://www.doublestop.com/aboutus.php

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The Countrymen:
Dub Purvis: fiddle
Carlis Vannatter: steel guitar
Hank Telford: rhythm guitar
Zoomer Roberts: electric bass
Gordon Young: drums
recorded 1978 at Hines Lumber Co.

O Come, Angel Band

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar & vocal
Buddy Winston: rhythm guitar & vocal
Jerry Boyer: vocal
recorded 3 July 1981

Theme from "Father Knows Best"

Zoomer Roberts: mandolin
Buddy Winston: guitar
recorded September 1981

As part of our show, Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer used to play old TV themes and award a modest prize to the first person who could correctly identify them. I don't recall anybody not knowing this one! The only time we ever really stumped 'em was with the theme from the "Gillette Cavalcade of Sports." It was fun, and enabled me to get some melodies I loved out of my system.

It's Hank Snow on Country Music Time!

Country Music Time was a series of 15-minute radio shows distributed by the United States Air Force. Each show featured a "name" country artist, who would perform three songs, and a guest artist, who would perform a fourth song. About halfway through, a recruiter would talk about the opportunities to be had in "today's Air Force." The shows were sent out to radio stations on transcription discs, which often found their way into private collections after being broadcast. Along about 1963, a boy who was dating my sister handed me a half-dozen of these records (possibly to make me go away), including this one by Hank Snow. I was mesmerized. Snow's commercial records at that time featured background singers and Floyd Cramer's piano work, so it was a revelation that he still performed "live" with his Rainbow Ranch Boys: fiddle, steel, "sock rhythm" guitar and bass. Then there were the songs. "My Two-Timin' Woman" was one of Snow's older Canadian recordings. It had made a big impression on Johnny Cash (who recorded it for Sun) and Buddy Holly, who made a home recording of the piece -- including the guitar break -- when he was 13. "Little Buddy" is a heart-breaking recitation about a little boy whose dog is beaten to death by a drunkard, and "These Things Shall Pass" is a solemn-but-optimistic inspirational number. I learned all three of these songs and sang them often, but no usable recordings have surfaced. No matter -- these are the versions to hear. They still sound as good as they did 45 years ago, which was, as Mr. Snow would say, "so fur back I hate to think it was a matter of fact."

Marie

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Jerry Boyer: vocal
Buddy Winston: vocal & guitar
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & mandolin
recorded 26 March 1983

Written by Irving Berlin, this song was a hit in 1937 for Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra. The vocalist on the record was the band's "boy singer" (yes, there really was such a term), Jack Leonard. When Frank Sinatra replaced Leonard, he inherited the song. A broadcast recording of Sinatra singing "Marie" with Dorsey's band has been in my collection for many years. However, it was an Original Texas Playboys record -- with a vocal by Joe Frank Ferguson -- that inspired Jerry, Buddy and me to try our luck with it. We threw in four bars of Charleston during the second instrumental break, and the ending is from the theme to the old Paramount newsreels. Eternally unable to devise a "hot" solo, I pretty much stick to the melody. I don't know what Irving Berlin -- or Dorsey, or Sinatra -- would have thought of this, but we loved it.

Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: vocal & guitar
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & mandolin
recorded 26 March 1983

We learned this from a 1952 recording by the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle. Songs with similar themes and titles have been around for centuries. Typically, "maidens" is used instead of "ladies." The moral is always the same: marriage will enslave you to a loveless life of drudgery.

Clinch Mountain Backstep

Buddy Winston: banjo
Zoomer Roberts: guitar
rehearsal for 1984 World Tour

This Ralph Stanley piece is just this side of being modal, which means the usual A, D and E7 chords don't work well as accompaniment. After approaching it unsatisfactorily from several different directions, we devised the arrangement heard here: using A, Em and -- in the second section -- C. The rest of the time I double the melody on the bass strings. The result is both ancient and modern.

Beat It

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar & harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: mandolin & harmony vocal
rehearsal for 1984 World Tour

Robin & Linda Williams did this Michael Jackson send-up on A Prairie Home Companion, and we lifted it -- when we finally stopped laughing.

This Heart of Mine

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Buddy Winston: banjo & lead vocal
Zoomer Roberts: rhythm guitar & harmony vocal
Jerry Boyer: harmony vocal
rehearsal for 1984 World Tour

It was Buddy's idea to do this New Grass Revival number. He kept up with the newer acoustic groups while I plumbed the deep well of early country recordings. It was -- and is -- a good fit.

She

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: rhythm guitar & harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar & harmony vocal
recorded March 1985

Jerry Boyer was a great singer, with her own distinct sound and delivery. She also had unerring good taste in selecting material, and in this case she was ahead of the curve: Jerry was singing this Gram Parsons number twenty years before Norah Jones recorded it.

Faithless Love

Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Tana Ladner: harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: guitar

I found this on a practice tape, dated 1984. Tana was a member of Applejack at the time. I don't remember why we learned it, or whether we ever performed it in public, but it's lovely. Call this a "previously unissued bonus track."

Some of Shelley's Blues

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & lead vocal
Tony Custer: piano & harmony vocal
Bill Owen: bass
recorded June 1973 at the King's X

We learned this from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's then-current "Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy" LP. I don't think we knew -- or cared -- that it was written by Michael Nesmith, although it seems obvious now. These songs were recorded on Bill's Hitachi portable stereo cassette machine. What they lack in sound quality is made up for in crowd noise.

I Fought the Law

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal
Tony Custer: piano & vocal
Bill Owen: bass
recorded June 1973 at the King's X

"I Fought the Law" is deeply ingrained in El Paso's collective consciousness, and all of us have tried our hand at it at one time or another. Singing it is one thing, but the lead guitar part is another: it's all in the wrist, and I never had a light enough touch to pull it off. We got around that by having Tony do the lead work on the piano. He could, and would, play anything. The tape ran out during the second chorus, so I copied sections from earlier in the song and grafted them to the end to make a complete performance. It's not revisionist history. It's "post-production."

Hello Mary Lou

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal
Tony Custer: piano & vocal
Bill Owen: bass
recorded June 1973 at the King's X

When "Rick Nelson In Concert" came out in 1970, jaws dropped. Here was the kid from "Ozzie & Harriet" fronting a great band and singing Dylan. He also included new arrangements of some of his earlier material. Bill and I did a lot of informal playing in those days, and we got the album and worked up some of the songs "for our own amazement." "Hello Mary Lou" was a special favorite, and we brought it with us when we joined forces with Tony. I suppose I thought the word substitution in the second verse was funny, but it's a little embarrassing now.

Crocodile Rock (upgrade)

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Tony Custer: piano & vocal
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal
Bill Owen: bass
recorded June 1973 at the King's X
















The single most significant outside contribution to this project has come from Bill Owen, who mailed me his first-generation tapes of Bent Fender & the Moonglows. This has not only enabled me to upgrade previous posts, but it has brought to light a series of forgotten events. In the autumn of 1972, I rejoined the Shade Tree Boys, Hal and Henry, who were now playing at the Black Garter. Henry had a job selling tires at Sears & Roebuck, and often showed up late or not at all. He finally quit the group, and Hal moved me from bass to electric guitar, hired Ross Swall to play bass, and returned to a quasi-country repertoire. Always quick with a quip, Hal off-handedly dubbed this aggregation "the Shade Trio." Long-time followers of the band missed the comedy routine, but I knew it by heart (having heard it a hundred times) and soon Hal had me doing Henry's x-rated "village idiot" shtick. Meanwhile, the club hired a new waitress named Cleo Bell Thompson. When Hal discovered she was a singer of some merit, he began showcasing her as "Foxy Thompson." Besides the Black Garter gig, we also played at the Red Rose Lounge and at service clubs at Fort Bliss and White Sands. In 1973, Hal chucked it all and went to California to re-connect with one of the loves of his life. Ross also left the group, and Cleo and I teamed up with Bill Owen to play the army jobs Hal had booked before he left. Cleo named us "Peaches 'n' Cream," which I hated, but it was a transitional situation: she soon joined forces with Charlie McDonald to form Applejack, and Bill and Tony Custer and I started Bent Fender & the Moonglows. Soon we were playing six nights a week: three at the Jade Club and three at the King's X (where we played on Long John Hunter's nights off). We were an identity crisis band -- for the audience. We did Fats Domino and Ernest Tubb, John Denver and Rolling Stones, Elton John and Barbershop, Eagles and Elvis. We drank -- for free -- as though our lives didn't depend on it, and after months of doing filthy comedy, I was one smart-ass front man. One night after we got through playing at the King's X, I discovered somebody had slashed all four of my tires. I never found out who or why. BF & the MG's were history by the end of the year -- Bill and Tony had careers to prepare for, and I went back to playing sideman for local country singers. The three of us are in contact, and once in awhile some of us see each other. Listening to these tapes 35 years after the fact, I take quiet pride in having been involved in this unique, eclectic little band. Perhaps not many people know who we were or what we did, but we do.

Heart of My Heart

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Tony Custer: piano & vocal
Zoomer Roberts: guitar
Bill Owen: bass
recorded 1973 at Kallman Service Club, Ft. Bliss TX

Tony was playing piano at Shakey's Pizza Parlor when we first met him. The place had an early 20th century motif, with vintage signage, silent movies, and Tony doing old Nora Bayes songs. One of their promotions was awarding a pitcher of beer to the customer bold enough to get up and sing some old chestnut, and Bill would tell me to "go win us that beer!" I was happy to oblige. "Heart of My Heart" was my favorite of Tony's barber shop numbers, and we kept it in our repertoire for the duration.

Break-Up

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal
Tony Custer: piano
Bill Owen: bass
recorded June 1973 at the King's X

When you're working with a good pianist, it's only natural to start thinking of Jerry Lee Lewis songs you can do. We learned this one from one of the many reissues of the Killer's Sun recordings that flooded the market in those days. We were probably the only people in the bar that night who were interested in it.

It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry

Bent Fender & the Moonglows
Zoomer Roberts: vocal, harmonica, guitar
Tony Custer: piano
Bill Owen: bass
recorded June 1973 at the King's X

This arrangement was lifted directly from the Concert for Bangla Desh album. Bob Dylan rarely performed live in the years between his 1966 and 1974 tours (he was at home raising kids), so it was revelatory when he emerged for a day and performed six of his classic songs with a fresh voice, accompanied by his own acoustic guitar, Leon Russell and two members of the Beatles. I committed every nuance of that set to memory. Today, it's not unusual for Bob to be playing in your town, and everybody knows he doesn't sound like his old records -- and doesn't want to. But in those long ago days, it was a bolt from the blue.

Men With Broken Hearts

Zoomer Roberts: recitation
Buddy Winston: guitar

I wanted to include a "Luke the Drifter" recitation in the 2003 Hank Williams tribute show. There are more than a dozen such items to choose from, and I was pretty sure that none of the other participants in the program would be doing one. Recitations are easy to do badly, and difficult to do well enough to not elicit derisive jeers. They tend to be preachy -- and depressing -- but I love them. "Men With Broken Hearts" is a masterpiece of the genre, and its message is as relevant now as it was when Hank recorded it in 1950.

Whiskey and the Wheel

The Applejack Band
Charlie McDonald: lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Buddy Winston: lead guitar, vocal
Zoomer Roberts: bass, vocal

recorded c. October, 1989 at KTEP Studio B, Cotton Memorial Building, University of Texas at El Paso

Charlie McDonald wrote this song, and it is -- literally -- "a medley of our hit." It was recorded circa 1977 in Las Cruces and issued on Emmett Brooks' Gold Dust label. Although neither Buddy nor I were officially members of Applejack when it was recorded, we both played on the session, along with core members John Ruddock and Cleo Bell and studio drummer Jake Brooks. The record did sufficient business to be leased and re-issued on the Teardrop label out of San Antonio, which resulted in wider distribution. Ultimately, the song hit #1 in Billings, Montana. Not bad!

Gold Watch and Chain

The Applejack Band
Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal, bass
Charlie McDonald: rhythm guitar, vocal
Buddy Winston: lead guitar, vocal

recorded c. October, 1989 at KTEP Studio B, Cotton Memorial Building, University of Texas at El Paso

I first became aware of this Carter Family song when I saw Alisa Jones sing it on a Grand Ole Opry telecast in 1979. It was the most pitiful, heart-wrenching thing I'd ever heard. It haunted me for some time, and I searched high and low for a copy of it (a task in the days before the Internet). Finally, it appeared on an Emmylou Harris album, and I've been singing it ever since. Over the years it has become something quite different from Alisa Jones' sad-eyed plea for reconciliation. In the early 1980s, June Carter sang it on the Nashville Network and included a verse that went more or less like this:

There's a white rose that grows in my garden
It has been blooming there for a while
It broke through on the day that I lost you
It will die if I ever should smile

Your Sweet and Shining Eyes

The Applejack Band
Buddy Winston: lead vocal, lead guitar
Zoomer Roberts: bass, vocal
Charlie McDonald: rhythm guitar, vocal

recorded c. October, 1989 at KTEP Studio B, Cotton Memorial Building, University of Texas at El Paso

I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound

The Applejack Band
Charlie McDonald: lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Buddy Winston: lead guitar, vocal
Zoomer Roberts: bass, vocal

recorded c. October, 1989 at KTEP Studio B, Cotton Memorial Building, University of Texas at El Paso

Early Morning Rain

The Applejack Band
Charlie McDonald: lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Buddy Winston: lead guitar, vocal
Zoomer Roberts: bass, vocal

recorded c. October, 1989 at KTEP Studio B, Cotton Memorial Building, University of Texas at El Paso

Titanic (Fare Thee Well)

The Applejack Band
Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal, bass
Buddy Winston: lead guitar, vocal
Charlie McDonald: rhythm guitar, vocal
recorded c. October, 1989 at KTEP Studio B, Cotton Memorial Building, University of Texas at El Paso

I learned this from Tim Green, who just might sing folk songs better than anybody. He learned it from the "Mud Acres" album, which featured Happy & Artie Traum, Maria Muldaur and John Sebastian, among others. They learned it from Leadbelly. The reference to Jack Johnson doing the "Eagle Rock" attests to its antiquity. I had forgotten all about this song until this tape surfaced. That's the way of it sometimes, as one of the hands said to Captain Smith on that long-ago night.

I Would Like To See You Again

The Applejack Band
Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal, bass
Buddy Winston: banjo, vocal
Charlie McDonald: rhythm guitar, vocal

recorded c. October, 1989 at KTEP Studio B, Cotton Memorial Building, University of Texas at El Paso

"Picker of the Year" Award ~ 1982

The El Paso Friends of Folk Music was formed by Charlie McDonald, who ran it as an autocracy until he took to the road with Applejack in 1980. When he gave up the reins, it became a full-blown organization, with officers, committee meetings and politics. Before it collapsed under the weight of its seriousness, it provided El Paso with a fruitful acoustic music scene. "Name" artists were booked for the Border Folk Festival and concerts at the Chamizal Theater. Funds were raised through t-shirt sales, beer concessions, and concerts featuring local performers, who donated their services. These shows had such names as "West Texas Opry" and "Picker's Night," and I played in many of them. At one such event in 1982, I was mingling in the lobby during intermission when Jerry Boyer told me I was needed backstage. I couldn't imagine why. When I saw the "Picker of the Year" award was about to be presented, I assumed Buddy Winston was going to receive it and she wanted me there to congratulate him. I certainly had no expectation of winning it myself: I wasn't the best "picker" in town, and I was openly critical of the bureaucratic way in which the Friends of Folk was run. So, when Charles Harding announced my name, something akin to rigor mortis set in. I had to be pushed onto the stage like a stalled car to accept the honor. The concert was videotaped and shown later on the public access channel, at which time I captured the audio of the presentation.


(left to right)
Lee Gaston
Zoomer Roberts
Charles Harding

Party Doll

performed by Backtrac'n
recorded May 1984 at the Mesa Inn







Bud Sanders: leader
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & lead guitar
"Johnny O." - guitar
Ron Duncan: harmony vocal & electric bass
Bobby Porter: drums

I always liked this Buddy Knox song, as much for the instrumental break as anything else. The subject matter is about as basic as it gets, and if the lyrics were any simpler they'd be a series of grunts. But it's fun to do, and it's got a beat, and you can dance to it, so I give it a "7".

Dixie Fried

performed by Backtrac'n
recorded May 1984 at the Mesa Inn
Bud Sanders: leader
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & lead guitar
"Johnny O." - guitar
Ron Duncan: bass
Bobby Porter: drums




Dueling Elvises:
with Bud Sanders






Backtrac'n was a band that Bud Sanders put together to perform the pre-British Invasion rock 'n' roll music he loved. The primary focus was on his renditions of Elvis Presley songs, but he generously shared the spotlight with the rest of the group. I had wanted to do this old Carl Perkins hell-raiser for a long time, and this was the band to do it. My principle memory of this gig was that we were playing for the gate, and nobody thought to station anybody at the door to collect the cover charge until the night was half gone. We each went home that night with $2.00. I left shortly thereafter to permanently rejoin Applejack. I used to kid Bud that he'd have to quit doing Elvis at the age of 42, because that's how old Elvis was when he left the building for the final time. Bud is still around, and still rockin'.

Fool

The Lariat Cowboys
recorded May 2, 1981
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar
Jimmy Smith: fiddle
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

I might have fared better in the bar band business if I hadn't insisted on doing numbers like this. It had been a modest hit for John Wesley Ryles four years earlier, but nobody recognized it now. It was difficult to sing, too. Within many of us, there is a desire to wail like Ray Charles or Jerry Lee Lewis. This performance makes a good case for suppressing that desire.

Dixie

The Lariat Cowboys
recorded May 2, 1981
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar
Jimmy Smith: fiddle
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

Southern Rock was loud and exciting, and fired-up patrons often shouted requests for "Dixie" after being sonically sandblasted by the latest Charlie Daniels opus, so we worked it up. I only used the first verse of the song -- subsequent verses deal with such antebellum esoterica as "buckwheat cakes and injun batter," and are best left to students of minstrelsy.

Blown Up On KLAQ Radio

November 17. 1982

A thousand copies of the "Little Darlin' " single were shipped from the pressing plant to Scott Martin's studio. When I went over there to pick them up, a KLAQ disc jockey who was visiting Scott listened to the record and asked me if he could "blow it up" on his morning show. Feeling sure this was a euphemism for spotlighting or showcasing, I readily agreed. I got up early the next morning and taped the show. The excerpt heard here contains the actual blowing up (not at all what I expected) book-ended by some period ambiance.

The World Is Waiting For the Sunrise

The Shade Tree Boys
recorded 1969 at the Jade Club
Hal Smith: guitar & vocal
Henry Beebe: banjo & vocal
Zoomer Roberts: bass

I never thought to ask Hal and Henry where they got the idea of doing this as a bluegrass song, but it's a safe bet they took Don Gibson's 1960 version and simply sped it up.

Sittin' On Top of the World

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & harmonica
Buddy Winston: guitar

from the 2007 KTEP pledge drive

Buddy and I took aspects of every version of this song we ever heard -- Howlin' Wolf, Bob Wills, Bob Dylan and a number of bluegrass bands have done variants of it -- and put together the arrangement heard here. We originally recorded it about twenty years ago for a self-produced Applejack album. It's loosened up quite a bit since then: I typically sing whatever floating blues verses come to mind, and on this occasion I even threw in a verse of "Your Cheatin' Heart. Why not?

There's No Hiding Place Down Here

The Shade Tree Boys
recorded 1970 at the Jade Club
Hal Smith: lead vocal & rhythm guitar
Henry Beebe: banjo & harmony vocal
Zoomer Roberts: bass & harmony vocal
Perry Harrison: dobro

There was nothing bluegrass-y about the way Hal Smith did anything. He originally emerged in the late 1950s in the wake of Johnny Cash, Don Gibson and Bob Luman, belting out songs in a rangey baritone voice while beating an incessant boom-chicka-chicka-chicka rhythm on his acoustic guitar. When he teamed up with banjoist Henry Beebe in 1962 to form the Shade Tree Boys, Hal saw no reason to change anything: there would be no "G" runs, no "high lonesome," no "howdy friends and neighbors" and no concern for the way Bill Monroe did things in 1947. He correctly figured that his way of doing things was compatible with the commercial folk and bluegrass sounds of the day, and his vocals grew more unorthodox as his repertoire spread all over the map. He and Henry developed a filthy comedy routine that relied heavily on alcohol consumption and resulted in packed houses, but the first set was usually played straight. It is from those sets that this and subsequent recordings of the band are derived.

My Mother's Piano

Willie Virginia Purcell Roberts: piano
Standing on the Promises
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
The Royal Telephone
Blessed Jesus Hold My Hand
If We Never Meet Again This Side of Heaven


There was an elderly widow named Mrs. Ruth Anderson who lived a couple of houses up the street from my parents. She boldly fought the ravages of the years, but finally capitulated and moved to a nursing home. She gave her ornate upright piano to my mother. My mother had learned the rudiments of old style church piano from her own mother, and although she hadn't played in decades, she acquired a shape-note hymn book and began to play regularly. On an unknown date in the early 1980s, I bade her play a few songs into a tape recorder, and they are presented here. Arthritis, osteoporosis and cataracts eventually brought Mother's playing days to an end, and she gave the piano to my wife in 1991. It reposes in our dining room, and on top of it, smiling sweetly, is Mother's picture.

Alone and Forsaken

Zoomer Roberts: vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar

This is one of the few songs Hank Williams did in a minor key. (Others include Kaw-Liga and Ramblin' Man.) He made a recording of it at KWKH in Shreveport in 1949. It was issued by MGM after his death, but to this day it has received little attention, so I seized the opportunity to include it in the 2003 KTEP tribute show. My feeling about tribute shows is that everybody already knows the artist's most popular songs. It's more enlightening to go spelunking through their catalogue and see what else they did.

Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar
recorded 19 October 1983

This is more of a genre than a song. This is the sort of thing that exists so bawdy old rhymes will have a home. Ideally, there would be 16 bars of hokum played after each verse. This version misses the mark on bawdiness and hokum, but I play some pretty good sock rhythm. An interesting variant is "They're Red Hot!" by Robert Johnson.

Frank's Wild Years

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Zoomer Roberts: recitation
Jerry Boyer: scat vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer were preparing for their "1984 World Tour" (which, if memory serves, consisted of about three gigs), when Buddy suggested we work up this Tom Waits number. We did learn it -- after we stopped laughing -- but I don't remember actually performing it anywhere. This recording is from a rehearsal tape. It's horrifying and bizarre, but it has a nice groove to it.

Truck Drivin' Man

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & lead guitar
Wynn Pinkham: pedal steel guitar
Mike Bennett: bass
Bill Wilson: drums
Beverly Roberts: harmony vocal

recorded 9 December 1978

This was recorded at Whiskey River East in Horizon City, which was originally the Showboat. The new name didn't change the motif any (it was a long, narrow building with a faux paddlewheel and a smokestack to match). The acoustics of the room were such that the sound careened, ricocheted, echoed and died. The band was called Avalanche, but we often referred to it as the Mudslide Blues Band. We were all side-men. Somebody had to front it, so I did. None of the other guys sang, so we hired Beverly. The management had an overstock of Billy Beer, and they happily sold it to us for 25 cents per can, which enabled us to tie on a good one without running up a big tab. An older couple used to come out and record us, and on this night they gave me the tape. They were in the habit of pausing the tape between songs -- hence the fade-in on the introductions and the clipped ending. No matter. It was a short-lived gig. At the end of the year we all went on to other things.

Jesus Christ

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Zoomer Roberts: lead vocal & guitar
Buddy Winston: banjo & harmony vocal
Jerry Boyer: harmony vocal
recorded 1985 at the Chamizal Theatre

Woody Guthrie took an old song about Jesse James, changed a few names, and had himself a "new" outlaw ballad: "Jesus Christ". I know people who don't like it because rather than proclaiming the divinity of Jesus, it deals with the opposition He encountered regularly throughout His travels and ministry, culminating in His death and burial. It's a ballad, not a hymn. The first time I ever heard Woody sing this song, I thought the line "they laid Jesus Christ in His grave" was "the late Jesus Christ in His grave." It was easy to get the lyrics wrong in the vinyl era.

Black Sheep

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar
recorded 20 July 1981

This is one of many variants of an oft-told tale: the good son who falls victim to his siblings' duplicity and is disinherited by his father, but ultimately proves his loyalty and exposes their greed. I learned this from country singer Stonewall Jackson. It was already ancient when he recorded it nearly fifty years ago.

Maggie Blues

Zoomer Roberts: Dobro
Buddy Winston: guitar

Anybody who has ever played guitar has tried sliding something across the strings: a bottleneck, a piece of pipe, an empty jar, a pocket knife, a microphone stand -- anything to get that shimmering glissando. For a few years in the early 1980s, I aspired to being a Dobro player, a Dobro being an acoustic steel guitar with a metal resonator. It's a difficult instrument to play well, and this is about as good as I ever got. The song is an adaptation of the old sentimental parlour favorite, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie." Josh Graves of the Foggy Mountain Boys disposed of a couple of chords and dubbed it "Maggie Blues." The recording heard here comes from a 1984 Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer practice tape.

From A Buick Six

Don Roberts: lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Zoomer Roberts: electric guitar, bass, harmony vocal
Mike Carlton: electric guitar
Cindy Seaman: harmony vocal
recorded at TGR Studio, 1975

When I was playing guitar for Cliff Seaman and the Texas Goldrush (1974-1976), an aspiring young guitarist named Mike Carlton followed the band and absorbed everything I knew. When I left the group to join Jamie Hilliard's band, Mike got my old job. He eventually moved to California, where he played music on weekends and worked as an exterminator by day. One of his clients was Merle Haggard. Merle heard Mike's playing and was favorably impressed. They became pals and did some picking together at Merle's house. When Merle was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, one of the first people he thanked was "Mike, my bug man."

There are two guitar solos on this track. Mike plays the first one, and I play the second. My brother always preferred Mike's. The song, of course, is by Bob Dylan.

Bound to Ride

Don Roberts: lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Zoomer Roberts: harmony vocal, acoustic lead guitar, electric boom-chick guitar, bass
recorded at TGR Studio, 1975

My late brother and I played together around the house from the time he came home from the Navy in 1966 until we both got busy doing other things in the early '70s. He sounded like no one else: his singing was, in large part, shouted. His guitar playing was unrelentingly percussive. He wrote hundreds of songs, too. When I find recordings of them I'll post them. When Cliff Seaman installed recording equipment in his garage, my brother and I went over and laid down two tracks. We each got a cassette dub of the session and he all but wore his copy out, he liked it so much. This song, "Bound to Ride," came from a 1930s recording by Fiddlin' Arthur Smith. We sang it together many, many times.

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt

Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal
recorded 20 July 1981

Woody Guthrie wrote this song on the occasion of Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in 1945. I used to sing it for myself or for friends -- there was never any call to perform it in public. The only recording of it I've ever heard is by Bob Dylan, and consequently, it sounds like I'm "doing Dylan." The chord change from C#7 to E before resolving on A is from Dylan, too. Woody often didn't change chords at all. Irrespective of who contributed what, it's a good song.

Franklin D. Roosevelt isn't universally beloved these days, but the pendulum of public opinion will swing back in his direction eventually. That's what pendulums do.

Mississippi Mud

From the album "Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer, Volume 1" (1982)


Zoomer Roberts:
vocal, mandolin, bass
Jerry Boyer: vocal, kazoo
Buddy Winston: guitar



When Bing Crosby described "Mississippi Mud" as "an earthy anthem," and he knew whereof he spoke. He helped popularize it in the 1920s when he was a member of Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys. Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer delighted in digging up derelict ditties such as this and -- for whatever reason -- playing them as fast as we could. The version heard here is a studio recording from 1982. The above photograph shows us performing it live at the El Paso Civic Center, probably at the "4 Centuries '81" festival.

I Cried Again

Zoomer Roberts: vocals, bass
Buddy Winston: guitars, banjo, harmony vocal

This song was a "weeper" until an East Coast bluegrass band called the Greenbriar Boys revved it up. The Shade Tree Boys (Hal, Henry and Whoever) did their version for years and played havoc with the lyrics. "Here's a beautiful little piece," Hal would say, " called 'I bowed my head and she crossed her legs and broke my glasses'." I resurrected it in the 1980s, and Buddy and I recorded it for one of our self-produced Applejack albums.

My Mother

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar
recorded 20 May 1982

This Hank Snow number is so morbid and maudlin that most people can't stand it. I sang it in a bar one Mother's Day and the audience vacated the premises en masse. To my recollection, that was the only time I ever did it at a gig. This home recording is from a tape I made for some friends one day in 1982. My thanks to Kris Wentworth for hanging onto it for the past 26 years.

Frankie and Johnny

Zoomer Roberts:
vocal & harmonica
Buddy Winston: guitar

Yet another performance from the 2007 KTEP pledge drive. We've been kicking this old warhorse around for so long that it has a life of its own. There's no real arrangement to it: the yodels and instrumental breaks are inserted in random places, the order of the verses changes, the juxtaposition of Nellie Blye and Johnny is variable, the methods of execution range from electrocution to lethal injection, and the ladies in the audience may or may not get the final verse dedicated to them. An old pair of slippers of a song, this.

Old Fashioned Love

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & harmonica
Buddy Winston: guitar

With all due respect to Bob Wills, whom I heard do this song first, it was an old recording by Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards that made me want to sing it. Buddy was already doing it as an instrumental, so it fell into place naturally. This performance is from the KTEP pledge drive of 2007. We did a lot of songs that night!

The Old Side of Town

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & harmonica
Buddy Winston: guitar

It's easy to insert myself and people I know into the scenario Tom T. Hall paints here. I sang this in the honky tonks when it was current, and dusted it off for the 2007 KTEP pledge drive.

Zoomer & Buddy Salute Elvis

Zoomer Roberts: vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar
recorded 16 August 1997

I Was the One

These performances are from a live KTEP broadcast commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. I selected three of my favorite Elvis songs for the occasion. To my surprise, none of the other performers had ever heard of any of them (or maybe the sinus infection I had that night rendered them unrecognizable). This song was the flip side of "Heartbreak Hotel."

Long Legged Girl (With the Short Dress On)


This obscure song is from the soundtrack of Presley's 1967 film, "Double Trouble." The syllabic rhythm makes it fun to sing, but there is little else to recommend it.

(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame

My vocal mic was off for most of the first verse of this one. Hence the fade-in. This song and "Little Sister" gave Elvis a double-sided hit single in 1961.

Where the Soul Never Dies

Barbara Jean Roberts: vocal
Zoomer Roberts: guitar & vocal

My late sister and I used to sing together for our own amusement. This is what we sounded like. I sang this old Baptist hymn as a solo at her funeral in 2004, but I prefer this version. She probably would, too.

Home of the Blues

The Lariat Cowboys

Zoomer Roberts:
vocal & lead guitar
Joe H. Leaver: guitar
Tony Quero: bass
Mark Kays: drums

When you get right down to it, nobody sang like Johnny Cash except Johnny Cash, and nobody sounded like the Tennessee Three except the Tennessee Three -- but that didn't keep the Lariat Cowboys from trying. The late Tony Quero used to record our gigs at the Lariat Lounge on Dyer Street, and if I thought we were having a good night I'd get a copy of the tape for my "archives." It has taken me 25 years to work up the nerve to go back and re-live those honky-tonk nights and bloodshot mornings.

Trouble In Mind

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar
recorded October 19, 1983

Give a boy a guitar, a tape recorder and some beer, and he becomes a bluesman -- sort of.

When I Grow Too Old to Dream

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar
recorded 1 May, 1982

I learned this song from an old Riley Puckett record. Puckett is best remembered as the guitarist for Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, but he also recorded as a solo artist, and his repertoire included "pop" songs -- such as this sentimental waltz. This is one of those songs you sing for yourself when nobody's looking. Those are the best songs...

Home In Pasadena

Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra
recorded 19 February, 1924

I first heard this song by the Any Old Time String Band, who probably learned it from Al Jolson's 1924 recording. Many of us have a "Pasadena" tucked away in our memories: a bygone place where all is right with the world. This instrumental version by Paul Whiteman whisks me back to mine every time the needle drops.

This Ole House

Zoomer Roberts: vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar

We often include this Stuart Hamblen classic in Gospel programs. Singing it is a challenge (because there are few opportunities to breathe, swallow, snort or cough) but I managed to get through this 2007 KTEP performance without incident. The words hold a different meaning for me now than they did when I first heard it back in the 1950s.

Hardin Wouldn't Run

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & harmonica
Buddy Winston: guitar

John Wesley Hardin is buried here in El Paso at Concordia Cemetery. We have played there several times as part of the annual Walk Through History, which raises money for the upkeep of the grounds. We always include this song from Johnny Cash's ambitious mid-'60s album, "Ballads of the True West." We changed a couple of chords, but not Cash's lyrics, which paint a vivid picture of Wes Hardin in old El Paso. This performance is from the 2007 KTEP pledge drive.

The One Rose (That's Left In My Heart)

Zoomer Roberts:
guitars & standup bass

I recorded this song and the five that follow in the spring of 1984 at the home of local bluegrass musician Charles Harding. He had a four-track cassette machine with sound-on-sound capabilities, and invited me to lay down some tracks using his Martin dreadnought guitar and Kay acoustic bass. In 1988, I gave a dub of the instrumentals to Hank Snow at the Grand Ole Opry. He expressed approval of my handling of this old Lani McIntyre number because I had included the introductory verse, which only appears on Jimmie Rodgers' 1930 recording. Mr. Snow and I stayed in touch until his passing in 1999.

Memories

Zoomer Roberts: guitars & standup bass 

This lovely waltz was composed in 1915 by Gus Kahn and Egbert Van Alstyne, and typifies the sentimental old songs I hold dear. The interplay between the two lead guitars is a tip of the hat to Mr. Hank Snow.

Listen!

Brown Eyes

Zoomer Roberts: vocal, guitars, standup bass

I wrote this song about someone I used to know, recorded it, and never sang it again. The combination of standup bass and "sock rhythm" guitar has always appealed to me, although it fell out of common use decades ago. The electric guitar is a Gibson ES-335 that Buddy Winston loaned me for the occasion. The spoken comment, "Aw, Zoomer Roberts now," is a nod to Ernest Tubb. The performance is drenched in beer. Why not?

Diamonds In the Rough

Zoomer Roberts: Vocals & Guitars

This old Carter Family favorite has received better treatment than it gets here, but as Mark Twain said of Wagner's music, it's "not as bad as it sounds."

Roadside Rag

Zoomer Roberts:
guitars & standup bass

I picked this up from local steel guitarist Scotty Hootman (pictured at right). The first section is in E and the bridge is in C, which makes it almost impossible for most bands to play without rehearsing it first. Hence its relative obscurity.

Milwaukee Rag

Zoomer Roberts: guitars, standup bass

Doc Watson recorded this with Flatt & Scruggs as "Nothin' To It." Somewhere along the line somebody told me the original title was "Milwaukee Rag." I learned most of this version from a flatpicking instruction book by Dan Crary.

Tom Dooley

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & harmonica
Buddy Winston: guitar

Most of us know "Tom Dooley" from the Kingston Trio hit of 1958, so it was a revelation to hear this version on a Doc Watson LP. It's an ideal vehicle for finger-style guitar and cross-harp. The story itself is unchanged. This performance is from a 2007 KTEP broadcast.

Little Darlin'

Zoomer Roberts: vocals, bass, lead guitar
Buddy Winston: rhythm guitar
Cindy Bickford: drums

After seeing Sha-Na-Na perform "At the Hop" in the Woodstock movie, I began singing it myself as a solo. Then I bought one of their albums, and heard songs I had missed the first time around, including the Diamonds' "Little Darlin'." I tried doing them all as a one-man blue-eyed doo-wop group, and at one time had a fair-sized repertoire worked up (including a histrionic "Teen Angel"), but "Little Darlin' " was the one that caught on. (I found out later that Joan Baez did the same thing with the same song years before I did.)

This was recorded at the same 1982 session that produced "You're Not Mine Anymore," and again I'm presenting a dub of the track as it sounded before it was bathed in echo.

A Teardrop On A Rose

Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys

After Hank's death, his band dubbed instrumental accompaniment onto this voice and guitar demo. It was issued in 1955 as a single and on an extended-play 45. Unlike most such items, it never appeared on LP. It was overdubbed a second time a few years later, and that version was included in an album called "The Spirit of Hank Williams." The second version survived into the CD era, and the original, undubbed demo has emerged in recent years, but the version here is all but forgotten. Due to the low fidelity of the original acetate recording disc, Hank's voice seems to be coming from far away -- which, in a sense, it is.

The Golden Horseshoe Jamboree

Hal Smith & His Country Squires

This El Paso band was formed when Johnny Cash sound-alike Hal Smith joined forces with Luther Perkins sound-alike Dave Wardlaw. Their name came from the Ford station wagon they drove to their gigs (the farthest from home they ever got was Prescott, Arizona). They recorded three singles for the Yucca label, at least one of which got a good review in Billboard magazine. Those records are now prized by collectors, and have appeared in several anthologies of West Texas rockabilly rarities.

They also broadcast "live" on KHEY radio, and this is one of those shows. It was recorded by Hal's father from an AM table radio in 1958 or 1959. Although the sound quality is negligible, it's a nostalgic treat for those of us who remember El Paso as it was in those days.

Ten years later, Hal would give me my first job, name me Zoomer, and let me copy this tape. Enjoy the warm, friendly atmosphere of the Golden Horseshoe!

Hard Travelin'

Zoomer Roberts: vocal & guitar

Love him or hate him, there is no getting around the influence Woody Guthrie has had on American music. This performance comes from a tribute concert that took place at the Chamizal Theater in 1985. It was recorded on a portable tape recorder by someone in the front row of the audience.

The production was staged by Charlie McDonald, who was boyhood friends with Bill Guthrie, Woody's son by his first wife, Mary. I met Mary Guthrie several times, and she gave me some good advice: "You keep going!" Her brother, Matt Jennings, played fiddle in a band with Woody in the 1930s, and he told me stories (none of them flattering) that I've never heard elsewhere. In the late 1980s, a BBC crew traveled to Matt's home in Horizon City to interview him for a film documentary about Woody, and he invited Applejack to be there to eat, drink, and accompany him on some fiddle tunes. I appeared on screen in the finished product for about two seconds.

Lovesick Blues

Zoomer Roberts: spoken introduction & vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar

"Lovesick Blues" is a difficult song to sing, and possibly not worth the effort. Buddy and I worked it up in 2003 for a Hank Williams tribute show on KTEP, and that is the performance heard here. It was recorded "off the air" -- hence the extraneous noise. We did the song a few more times that year, but I quickly got the desire to sing it out of my system.

I Know You Rider

Zoomer Roberts: vocals, electric bass
Buddy Winston: vocals, guitar, banjo

Although variants of "Rider" had been in the collective folk consciousness for decades, I first heard it performed by the Grateful Dead on Public Television, circa 1970. In those pre-VCR days, a common method of recording the audio portion of a telecast was to place a microphone in front of the TV speaker and hope the phone didn't ring. The end result was distorted, tinny, and typically had an annoying buzz running through it. Such was the case with the tape I made of the Dead. I kept that cassette for years, and from it learned everything about this song but the words, which I finally got from an LP. Applejack played the song regularly in the late '80s, and we recorded it for a self-produced album. The concert that I taped from the TV all those years ago is now available as a download from the Grateful Dead's online store, and it sounds great.

There's No U-Turn (On the Road of Life)

Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar & vocal
Buddy Winston: rhythm guitar & vocal
Jerry Boyer: vocal

This song and the one below ("Wasted Tears") are originals that I wrote specifically for Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer. JBZ was a side group that got together every year throughout the '70s and '80s to play at the Border Folk Festival. We recorded an album in 1982 that we felt good enough about to think we could play the more prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival. However, the only way for us to make that leap was to enter the "New Folk" competition, and that required original material. We recorded these two songs in my living room on a Montgomery-Ward boom box and submitted a copy of the tape to the judges in Kerrville. To our surprise, we were accepted as contestants, and we're still talking about our experiences on the subsequent trip. We didn't win, however, and our thoughts turned to other things. In retrospect, both of the songs sound formulaic, but I'm proud of them.

Wasted Tears

American Patrol

Glenn Miller & His Orchestra
(Live 1942)

Broadcast recordings of Glenn Miller's civilian band are a large part of his legacy. Many were made at the behest of Miller himself. Others were made by unknown souls who connected home disc recorders to their radios and captured precious minutes of long-ago nights in faraway ballrooms. These broadcast recordings, or "airchecks", contain many titles the band never put on record, and different arrangements of some they did. A CD of such material, "Broadcast Versions They Never Recorded," emerged in 1994. It contained the "long" arrangement of "American Patrol," but the original recording disc ran out at 3'20" and the performance came to an abrupt, frustrating halt. I have grafted the final 1'10" of the studio recording to the end of the imcomplete "live" version. Surprisingly, they are at the same tempo, but the difference in sound quality between the two reveals the exact location of the splice.

Yesterday

The Beatles (Live 1966)

To my knowledge, "Yesterday" was performed "live" only twice in 1965. Both performances were on television ("Blackpool Night Out" in England and the Ed Sullivan Show in the U.S.) and in both instances, John, George and Ringo left the stage and Paul sang the song to the accompaniment of his acoustic guitar and the studio orchestra. "Yesterday" was not on the Beatles' 11-song set list when they toured the world that year. But in 1966 it was, albeit without the orchestra or the exodus of 75% of the band. The Beatles performed the song as a group: Paul sang and played bass, John played the chords on the electric guitar, lead guitarist George played the 'cello licks from the record, and Ringo drummed throughout, ending with a bar-band flourish. Interestingly enough, they played it a whole tone higher on the road: the record was in F, but in concert they did it in G. The Beatles were a pretty sloppy live act by 1966, and the recording here was pieced together from two different performances, one from Munich and one from Tokyo. Nothing is real.

Weary Blues (From Waitin')

Zoomer Roberts: vocal
Buddy Winston: guitar

"Weary Blues (From Waitin')" may not be one of Hank Williams' better-known songs, but it's one of my favorites. In the last year of Hank's life, he befriended the up-and-coming Ray Price, who recorded this song with Hank's band. After Hank's death in 1953, that same band set to work overdubbing instrumental accompaniment onto his simple voice-and-guitar demos in an attempt to create a commercially viable "product." The first of these to be issued was "Weary Blues" b/w "I Can't Escape From You."

"Folk Fury," hosted on alternate Saturdays on KTEP by Gregg Carthy and Dan Alloway, has a long-standing tradition of paying tribute to the work of deceased performers by bringing in local folk musicians to perform their songs. Buddy and I usually work up "new" material for such occasions, and this is the only instance of me performing "Weary Blues" publicly. It's from a 2003 broadcast commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hank's passing.

Zoomer's Rock 'n' Roll Medley

Rock 'n' Roll medleys are nothing new. They come naturally, owing to the fact that many of the songs are constructed as 12-bar jump blues with similar progressions and tempos, and one segues into the next handily. In the C&W bars in the '70s and '80s, this sort of thing was de rigeur in order to quell the shouts of "Rock and roll, damn it!" from the crowd. This live recording was made at the Lariat Lounge circa 1983. The band is The Lariat Cowboys: Zoomer Roberts: vocal and lead guitar, Jimmy Smith: fiddle, Joe H. Leaver: rhythm guitar and harmony vocal, Tony Quero: electric bass and harmony vocal, and Mark "Hot Rod" Kayes, drums. Joe and Tony have both passed on. Much of my vocal posturing here was lifted directly from Jerry Lee Lewis.

You're Not Mine Anymore (alternate mix)

In 1982, I went into Scott Martin's studio with Buddy Winston and Cindy Bickford to make a "vanity" record of "Little Darlin' ". This Webb Pierce chestnut was the flip side. Except for Buddy's rhythm guitar and Cindy's drumming, it's all me: guitars, mandolin, non-pedal steel guitar, bass and vocal. The arrangement was carefully prepared in advance, with one miscalculation: I pitched it a whole tone too low. I had intended to belt it in the honky tonk style, but ended up crooning it instead. The record enjoyed a while of modest success, selling several hundred copies (all of them from the bandstand of the Lariat Lounge) and appearing on juke boxes up and down Dyer Street. The version heard here is from a cassette dub of the original mix. As issued, the vocal was more prominent and more echo was applied. Thanks to Ken Smith for making this session possible.

Crocodile Tears

The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle with Chet Atkins

I love this group, which was made up of Maybelle Carter (of the original Carter Family), her daughters -- Helen, June and Anita -- and an up-and-coming guitarist and fiddler named Chet Atkins. They exhibited a brash, youthful enthusiasm, and embraced the popular songs of the day, but they never abandoned the old Carter Family songs. Besides recording as a group, each of them made records as a solo artist. This hard-to-find side was issued circa 1949 under June's name, but it's a group effort. A fellow in the Midwest put this well-worn copy on tape for me several years ago, and I've used some noise reduction software to make it less harsh. When BMG/Sony reissues it, I'll buy one.