Dallas-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bob Kirkpatrick may not be a household name, but he's been quietly building an audience for the last 30 years in clubs around Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Although he hadn't recorded in 23 years prior to 1996's Going Back to Texas, Kirkpatrick has long been a regional star in the Texas triangle, but since he has always made family his first priority, his recording/blues career fell somewhere down the ladder. Kirkpatrick, born in 1934 in Haynesville, LA, became interested in music at age six, starting out on piano and switching to guitar. Kirkpatrick worked with Ivory Joe Hunter while attending school at Grambling, doing some road dates, but it wasn't until he saw B.B. King in 1958 that he became a true convert to the blues.
There’s something about Texas. Open up the history books and you’ll find the Lone Star State at the eye of every rock ‘n’ roll storm. Pull up a stool in any bar-room and you’ll still hear Southern gentlemen spin stories of ZZ Top, Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Now, tip a ten-gallon hat to the bandleader writing her own name onto the state’s famed back pages, as Ally Venable releases breakout third album, Texas Honey – with production from another local hero. “Ally is the future of the blues and the crossover music of American roots-rock,” nods Mike Zito. “She is Texas Honey.”
Bobby Keys was an American saxophonist, born December 18, 1943, in Slaton, Lubbock County, Texas, and died December 2, 2014, in Franklin (Tennessee). Not knowing how to read music, he learned to play the saxophone on his own. At the age of fourteen, he met Buddy Holly - also from Lubbock - and saxophonist King Curtis. During his teenage years, he accompanied singer Bobby Vee on the Caravan of Stars tour, organized by television host, Dick Clark.