Doug Sahm: Juke Box Music / The Last Real Texas Blues Band auf 2 CDs

The late Doug Sahm was one of the genuine great (if under recognized) artists of contemporary American music, and the master of all things Texan and musical. His legacy spans just about every genre of contemporary popular music. And some of Sahm's best work can be found on the two albums of Gulf Coast R&B and blues he recorded for Antone's Records: Juke Box Music and The Last Real Texas Blues Band.

Originally released in 1988, Juke Box Music united some of Austin's best blues players with Sahm's San Antonio musical compadres to create a classic Texas big-band R&B sound. It was a style that Sahm absorbed from T-Bone Walker, Junior Parker and Bobby "Blue" Bland as a youngster and mastered playing the San Antonio clubs as a teen, finally captured for a full album. The Last Real Texas Blues Band in 1994 found Sahm further refining his take on the style with studio cuts as well as live tracks recorded at Antone's nightclub, offering some of the most soulful sounds to be heard in modern music (and earning a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album).

This two-fer re-issue includes Juke Box Music's original 11 cuts and the four bonus tracks added when it first appeared on CD, and all 14 numbers from The Last Real Texas Blues Band as well as a new bonus track (T-Bone Walker's "Crazy, Crazy Baby") recorded live at the Antone's nightclub 25th Anniversary celebration. Also included are the original Jerry Wexler liner notes to Juke Box Music, Sahm's notes from The Last Real Texas Blues Band, and new liner notes by Austin writer and longtime Sahm fan Rob Patterson.

Together, these albums form a landmark of blue-eyed R&B and offer a true lesson in musical history, as well as some of the most stirring and soulful music to emerge from Texas in recent memory.