These came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got ’em. Here’s what I said about them back then (with some minor editing):
Tex-Mex music fans won’t have trouble spotting the common thread running through these two discs — they both feature future members of the superstar outfit Texas Tornados.
The Sir Douglas Quintet was singer and multi-instrumentalist Doug Sahm’s early ’60s rock outfit, grandly titled to cash in on the popularity of the British Invasion. Although they were more influenced by Memphis than Merseybeat, their spicy Tejano frat-rock sometimes plays along with the ruse — like on Liverpool-via-San-Antone garage-rock classics such as She’s About A Mover and Nuevo Laredo, featuring Sahm’s finely sandpapered voice and the 69 Tears-style Farfisa of Augie Meyers (another future Tornado). Equally distinctive is Fender’s one-of-a-kind fusion of pachuco doo-wop and rustic country, on display on Lone Star in hits like Before The Next Teardrop Falls and Wasted Days & Wasted Nights. The biggest difference between the two acts: Only Fender would have the cajones to rework The Who’s Squeeze Box into a countrified fiddle-rocker — and the ability to pull it off. Now there’s something you won’t hear on a Texas Tornados CD.
