I worked in a record store when t bird rhythm came out.. their timing could not have been better.. people were starved for something they could relate to and dance to.. what a band
Every aspiring blues wanna be who saw this is the early 80s and had never been exposed to gulf coast blues or swamp blues and thought that the best blues came from England quickly got on the TBird bandwagon
Long time ago I was in Fremantle a buddy heard a band I didn’t know was playing in a club in Perth. We hitched a ride. Stood right in front of the stage drinking cold beer listening to the Fabulous Thunderbirds. One of the best gigs I’ve ever been to.
I’ve got this on a VHS tape somewhere in the closet. They were the s*** during this time. I love Stevie but Jimmie is the Man. What’s cool is that they had different styles.
Kim use to wear a turbin when he first hit Austin Texas, great frontman and harmonica player , Jimmy was great, Keith Ferguson played a heavy bass , Fran kept the rhythm going, great band, love Jimmy doing The Crawl
Good Gawd, I heard this the night they broadcast it, and haven't heard it since, but I never forgot it! I must have played it a hundred times just tonight. I know they did more than 20 minutes on that show that night. It couldn't be too hard to add the rest and release it. I'd buy it in a red hot minute.
The first 4 Thunderbird's records are some of the best blues and swamp blues ever recorded, great band, Mike Buck was the original drummer and he was great also, I lived in Austin Texas back in the 1970s and the early 1980s , saw alot of wonderful music, one of the best Thunderbird's shows was at Harlings Upstairs in Kansas City Missouri around 1982 or 1983 , they were a great band
Andrew - thanks for posting this and the other t-birds stuff. This is very much what they sounded and looked like when I saw them at the Bayou in DC (1979-80?) and at the Double Door in Charlotte in Aug 1983 (not sure if Keith was still in the band at that point). It was about 1978-9 in Atlanta when I first saw them - all the people in the club that Friday night came back on Saturday night to hear them again. Enjoyed hearing you with Doug Deming band last night in Camden - tremendous show.
I was lucky enough to see this lineup in a small club before they hit it big. To me, these are The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Got see Stevie 3 weeks later in the same club on a frigid February nite with about 11 people there. No matter, he ripped the place apart like he was at Madison Square Garden. A true professional.
Actually this Austin City Limits was broadcast in 1983, not 1984. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was ready with a HI FI stereo VHS tape. Wish I still had it. It was a much better quality then this one. Unfortunately it was stolen from my collection. The T-Birds played first then the second half was Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was Stevie Ray's first time on ACL. They should release this entire show out on DVD. I'd buy it in second.
Pinky's stuff with Roomful of Blues was great too.Also that's where Franny came from.I liked Buck and Keith with the TBirds best of all for the lowdown Blues stuff.Of course, being from Big D, I only saw them a million times, so what could I possibly know?
This is not the original rythm section with Keith and Mike Buck. Jimmie is on his maple neck strat which in my oppinion was his best sounding strat; but with Mike missing on drums their best stuff was behind them. Go to their Chrysalis Recordings and see if you agree? These records are some of the best blues ever recorded. God be with you Mike and Kieth.
