1 Im A Fool To care
2 Nothin But The Blues
3 T-Bone Shuffle
4 Reconsider Baby

Texan Doug Sahm played "roots" music long before anyone coined the term. From the country music he performed as a kid, to his work with the pop/rock Sir Douglas Quintet and the Tex - Mex flavored Texas Tornadoes, to his later, blues oriented projects, throughout his career Sahm embraced a variety of disparate musical styles indigenous to his home state, creating a body of work that does its part in demonstrating the richness and complexity of American music.

Born in San Antonio in 1941, Sahm was considered something of a musical prodigy, showing proficiency on steel guitar, mandolin and fiddle. At age 8, a featured spot on the legendary Louisiana Hayride radio program out of Shreveport, LA allowed him to play alongside some of the greats of country music, including Hank Williams, Hank Thompson, Webb Pierce and Faron Young. As a teenager, Sahm also immersed himself in another musical tradition by sneaking into clubs in the black section of San Antonio to hear great bluesmen like Bobby "Blue" Bland, Junior Parker and T - Bone Walker.

Sahm met keyboardist Augie Meyers in the early '60s, and thus began a friendship and musical association that would last for the rest of his life. In 1964, the two became part of the Sir Douglas Quintet - so dubbed by producer Huey Meaux, who had the idea of capitalizing on the popularity of British Invasion bands by casting a bunch of boys from Texas as Englishmen - who scored a hit the following year with the catchy single "She's About A Mover". Sahm moved to northern California in 1966 and the band moved with him. Despite a shifting cast of personnel, the Sir Douglas Quintet stayed together until the early '70s, releasing several albums on the Mercury subsidiary Smash and charting another hit in 1969 with "Mendocino". Sahm returned to Texas in 1971, though by then sales of the Quintet's records had flagged, and the group disbanded.

The same year, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records bought out Doug Sahm's contract from Mercury, resulting in Sahm's first solo albums, Doug Sahm And Band and Texas Tornado, both released in 1973. Though Sahm continued recording periodically throughout the decade and into the '80s for various labels, including Huey Meaux's Crazy Cajun imprint, none of the records sold terribly well.

Sahm's career got a much - needed shot in the arm with the formation of the Tex - Mex supergroup the Texas Tornadoes in 1989. Along with Freddy Fender, Flaco Jimenez and Augie Meyers, the band represented a cross - section of Texas musical traditions, and remains a working unit to this day. In addition, in 1988 Sahm signed with the blues label Antones, beginning a series of critically well - received recordings that delved back into the blues/ R&B roots of the Lone Star state.

The '90s were a musically fruitful decade for Sahm. With the Texas Tornadoes, a newly re - formed Sir Douglas Quintet and renewed respect for his blues credentials due to his Antones records and work in the Last Real Texas Blues Band, his plate was full. Sadly, Doug Sahm died on November 18, 1999 in a Taos, NM hotel room, victim of an apparent heart attack.