Country Prodigy: 1940s and 1950s
Sahm began his musical career singing and playing steel guitar, mandolin and violin as "Little" Doug Sahm. He made his radio debut at the age five and released his first record "A Real American Joe" at age eleven. On December 19, 1952, he played on stage with Hank Williams Sr. at the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas. It was Hank Williams's very last performance. Williams died 13 days later (New Year's Day 1953) on the road to his next show in Canton, Ohio.
He is said to have been offered a permanent spot on the Grand Ole Opry, but his mother wanted him to finish junior high.
One of Sahm's earliest recordings was rejected by Mercury Records in 1953. Also in the mid-1950s, he started sneaking into San Antonio R&B clubs such as the Tiffany Lounge and the Ebony Lounge, and he was soon performing at the same venues.
Sahm formed his first band, the Knights, in 1957. Later in the decade, Sahm joined up with Spot Barnett's band playing mostly black San Antonio blues clubs. In 1960, Sahm travelled across the country promoting a record.
He met Freddy Fender around 1958 and Roy Head of Roy Head and The Traits from San Marcos, Texas, in 1959 when they shared the stage at a sock hop in San Antonio's Municipal Auditorium.
Read more about this topic: Doug Sahm
Famous quotes containing the word country:
“So is the English Parliament provincial. Mere country bumpkins, they betray themselves, when any more important question arises for them to settle, the Irish question, for instance,—the English question why did I not say? Their natures are subdued to what they work in. Their “good breeding” respects only secondary objects.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)