The Steel Guitar Forum

I found an old 4/4 song called Be Real. Who was the Steel player? And is the lead singer the same as in the Texas Tornados.

From Wikipedia:

Members

In addition to Sahm and Meyers, original Sir Douglas Quintet members included Jack Barber on bass, Frank Morin on saxophone, trumpet and keyboards and Johnny Perez, Ernie Durawa or T.J. Ritterbach on drums. In 1969 Harvey Kagan joined the Quintet on bass, forming their most familiar line up - Kagan, Morin, Perez, Sahm, and Meyers. Bassist Jim Stallings also contributed to several albums during this period of shifting personnel which included, among others, guitarist Tom Nay of Sarasota, Florida (who played with the group for about a year), and John York, who later replaced Chris Hillman in The Byrds. Sahm and Meyers were later also members of the Texas Tornados (with Freddy Fender and Flaco Jimenez) in the early 1990s.
In 1972 the group split up when Sahm contracted to produce a solo album. Meyers, Perez, Morin, and Stallings briefly regrouped as The Quintet, with Farlow taking Sahm's place. In 1973 several Sir Douglas Quintet outtakes were released in their final album from the group's classic era, Rough Edges.
Sahm and Meyers continued to work together throughout the late 1970s and rejoined with Perez in 1980 for a reunion tour and album.
Founder Doug Sahm died of a heart attack in his sleep in a motel room in Taos, New Mexico on November 18, 1999, at the age of 58. Augie Meyers continues to tour, and record on his own independent record labels, based out of Bulverde, Texas. Harvey Kagan nowadays performs with a San Antonio area wedding/event band, The Oh So Good! Band, best known for discovering American Idol contestant Haley Scarnato. Frank Morin remains active in music, with teaching, production and film soundtracks work.


The steel player was probably Doug Sahm himself.

Pete Drake is listed on a compilation that I have.

Yes, Doug Sahm was also the leader of the Texas Tornadoes.

FWIW, there is a great box set of all of the SDQ Mercury recordings...whole lot of Texas music in that box.

thanks for the info. They had a uniqe sound.

Apparently Doug was quite a steel player himself .

Bobby Black is also credited on on of his albums..

Interesting side note on the band's name. They were formed in San Antonio at the height of the British Invasion and their record producer thought "Sir Douglas Quintet" sounded British and might help them capitalize in record sales.

If my memory serves me correctly Doug was a fiddle player, I think. J.R.

Doug Sahm And Band

Listening to the LP Texas Tornado by The Sir Douglas Band.
First heard of them through Freddy Fender. He wrote Wasted Days and Wasted Nights as a tribute to Doug Sahm.
There are some great artists on the album.
Dr John, David Bromberg on Dobro and Charlie Owens on steel.
I'm surprised Sir Douglas wasn't more famous than he is now

Doug sure could sing,very unique voice and style. Sure recall "she's about a mover" on the AM radio.Ha!

from my record collection. Steel player is listed as Harry Hess.

I was under the impression that it was indeed Harry Hess on “Be Real”. But don’t ask me how I got that idea.

“She’s About A Mover”. Cool song, and just about anybody could sing it, totally making up their own lyrics...

I had a friend who was a huge Flaco fan. When he played that first Tornados album for me 30 years ago I was floored by how much great music an accordion can have in the hands of a master. Sorry, steel fans. As good as the players were on those albums, the show was stolen from them.

“Hey baby que paso”!!!

Fred

Flaco is indeed a monster, and always sounds great!

I do want to add, though, that Charlie Owens steel break in San Antone is absolutely perfect - the first week I owned my first steel, which arrived as an extended E9, I found the tab here on the forum and learned it… although not fancy in any way, it is exactly right.

Tommy Detamore wrote:I was under the impression that it was indeed Harry Hess on “Be Real”. But don’t ask me how I got that idea.

Of course you must know, Tommy, you played "on the return of Wayne Douglas".
The typical great guitar of Doug on this Boz Scaggs number:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F03_r6sjzz4
The new Augie Meyers is also woth a listen.
Thanks for reviving this thread, Dickie.

A few random note updates on players mentioned in this thread...

Bassist Harvey Kagan, a good friend of mine and fine musician, passed away in July of 2019.

Harry Hess, a good friend who was also Forumite, passed away many years ago from heart disease brought on by sleep apnea.

Doug himself was not a pedal steel player, but non-pedal was one of his first instruments. We did a few "twin steel" gigs with Alvin Crow back in the late 70s. Alvin later became a member of the SDQ and also the Texas Mavericks, another Doug Sahm band from the late 80s-early 90s.

Jack Barber is still playing with Augie. Ernie Durawa is still working quite a bit in Austin as a bandleader and drummer.

There were two Charlie Owenses who were steel players. The one from Memphis was on the album mentioned above and also played with Jerry Lee Lewis in the late 60s through early 70s. I saw him in Vegas with JLL back in 1970. The Texan Charlie Owens was active in the DFW area, and I lost touch with him decades ago.

Okay, carry on...

my all time doug sahm favourite, don`t know who`s on steel, fantastic sound and touch...maybe Bobby Black

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRlJysHj3Es

Could be Larry Campbell

I have heard that Tom Brumley did a few things with Doug.

Great steel on this Sir Doug version of "(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone".

Believe it's Charlie Owens on steel. Also, Bob Dylan on harmonies!

https://youtu.be/HWfwDNqYZj8

Also, Tommy Detamore KILLS all through the country cd, "The Return of Wayne Douglas"

Norbert Dengler wrote:my all time doug sahm favourite, don`t know who`s on steel, fantastic sound and touch...maybe Bobby Black

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRlJysHj3Es

I thought it might be Bobby, too on "Carol Jane"...
According to PragueFrank:
ca 1983 unknown, TX – Sir Douglas Quintet (Doug Sahm [vcl/gt/steel/piano], Louie Ortega [vcl/gt],
Bobby Black [steel], John Main [bass], Doug Clifford [drums/percussion], Augie Meyers [piano/accordion/synthesizer]. Producer: Kenny Denton)
311 CAROL JANE Sonet SNTF 897 06007 530956 0

-Dave

Here's my favorite Doug Sahm track, Bobby Black doing his very best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBfz5f7_xXk

When I think of the Quintet, I think of the ‘60s - not the ‘70s as Bill wrote in the title. They were still together for awhile after 1970 but that was the tail end. Their two most famous songs were “She’s About a Mover” (1966) and “Mendocino” (1968).