On the Honky Tonk Highway with Augie Meyers & The Texas Re-Cord Co.

by Various Artists

In the 1970s era of country rock, the Texas Re-Cord Company stood out from the crowd. It was a time when country music and blues and redneck rock all collided with west-coast hippie-ness.

But the TRC was based in Bulverde near San Antonio, where Augie Meyers' Western Head Band added a good dose of Tex-Mex dance hall music and western-swing polka to the mix. Meyers was, and is, a lanky, bearded, laid-back character with a waist-length pigtail and a reputation in San Antone music that's longer even than that.

Meyers' Texas Re-Cord label issued some thirty singles and seven albums between 1975 and 1980, and much of the music has not been reissued since. This 26 track CD puts that right. The Texas Re-Cord Co. is ‘finally in lights,’ to quote one of their LP titles.

Of the 26 tracks here, 17 are from rare 45 rpm singles and 9 are from albums. The tracks include:

• 12 by Augie Meyers himself, honoring the country traditions of the Texas honky-tonks and the early western-swing bands but with added Mexican and polka influences. Augie's featured here on vocals and variously on guitar, piano, accordion, and his Vox organ which defined the sound of hits like She's About A Mover and Mendocino in the '60s.
• 3 from another Texas legend, Doug Sahm, the man who formed the very successful Sir Douglas Quintet with Augie before the Re-Cord Co. days, and then in the 1990s formed the Grammy-award winning Tex-Mex supergroup, the Texas Tornados, with Augie, Freddy Fender, and Flaco Jimenez.
• 3 fine vocals by Carol Meyer, who ran the label with Augie from their farm and helped co-ordinate their tour bus trips on the honky tonk highways out of San Antone.
• Other artists in this CD include the magnificently chaotic Mexican rockers El Molino with singer Joe Carrasco, ‘Wild Man’ Ray Liberto (Johnny Cash's brother-in-law), the Mex-accordion star Domingo Saldivar, western-swing piano legend Al Stricklin, Augie's longtime friend Publio Casillas, and singer Denny Ezba who first employed Augie in The Goldens.
• Among the company's successes were Augie’s single High Texas Rider and his album ‘Live at the Longneck,’ a relaxed session in front of a very lively crowd at the San Antonio music venue part-owned by Augie.
• Standout songs here include Deed To Texas, Dynamite Woman, Baby Baby, Mezcal Road, Just Because, Meet Me In Seguin, and Down In Mexico.
• The rarest disc here is the first single made by the legendary Buckboard Boogie Boys – Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Tomorrow Will Do It Again.