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Doug Sahm - The Texas Tornado!

by

John Holmes

A great many years ago I stumbled upon an album entitled “The Last Real Texas Blues
Band”, recorded live at Antones, in Austin, Texas. The list of songs looked very good,
and so did the band, comprising many notable names on the Austin blues scene,
particularly (for me) guitarist Derek

O’Brien, a wonderful but largely
overlooked player.

The band leader was Doug Sahm, whose

name I was aware of, from being a
member of the Sir Douglas Quintet, who
had a UK hit with ‘She’s About A Mover’,

in the mid-1960s.

Over the years I have collected quite a

few more albums by Doug Sahm, from
which it is obvious what a wide ranging
musical talent he had, whether it was
playing blues, pop, rock & roll, country

or tex-mex.

Let us have a look at the life of this man,

who was known as the ‘Texas Tornado’.

Douglas Wayne Sahm was born, to Viva
Lee and Victor A. Sahm, on November

6th 1941, in San Antonio, Texas, just one
month and one day before the entry of
USA into World War 2.

From an early age he appeared to be a
child musical prodigy, and was
proficient on the fiddle, mandolin and steel guitar by the time he was 8 years old.

Even before that, at the age of 5, he sung ‘Teardrops In My Heart’ on the San Antonio
radio station KNAC. Before he hit his teens he had sung on the ‘Louisiana Hayride’,
under the name “Little Doug Sahm”, and appeared on stage with such artistes as Hank

Thompson, Hank Williams and Faron Young. At age 13 he was offered the opportunity
of a regular slot on the ‘Grand Ole Opry’, but had to decline (or at least his Mother
did on his behalf!) due to still being at school!