Page 24 - BiTS_04_APRIL_2025

budget he was given to record was way higher than he had been used to, and he was
therefore able to hire session musicians of the quality mentioned in the previous
paragraph, to supplement the work of Sir Douglas band mates Augie Meyers and
Martin Fierro. The albums he recorded for Atlantic over the next few years, including

‘Texas Tornado’ (1973) and ‘Groover’s Paradise’ (1974, on Warner Brothers) covered
a rich heritage of Texas musical styles. Of course, being such a large state, Texas
contains a very wide depth and breadth of music, from Texas blues, Rockabilly,

Country, Jazz, Western Swing,
R&B, Conjunto (music played
by Texas based Mexicans
inspired by the accordion

music of Poland, Germany and
Czechoslovakia) and souped-
up Polka! Together with his

lifelong friend and
collaborator Augie Meyers,
Sahm moved easily between
the musical styles, even if the

albums were not particularly
commercially successful.

During this period, another
friend, film star and musician
Kris Kristofferson arranged a

couple of cameo film parts for
Sahm and his band, in ‘Cisco
Pike’ (1972) and ‘More
American Graffiti’ (1979). The

latter film featured their cover
of Bo Diddley’s ‘I’m A Man’ -
probably not the sort of music

most people would have
expected in a feature film!

By the end of the 1970s, in

spite of the albums and film
appearances, and the esteem
within which he was held

within the music industry, the
music of Sahm and Meyers had been rather passed by, the fashions and musical trends
being unable to find a place for music that itself could not be conveniently pigeon-

holed. He had left San Francisco for Austin, Texas during the decade, to become a
member of the ‘Cosmic Cowboy’ scene, with Willie Nelson and songwriter Jerry Jeff
Walker, and this became his home for most of the rest of his life.