Doug Sahm Hell Of A Spell (LP)

Doug Sahm and Band

  Gonna Be Easy

With 'And Band,' Doug Sahm pretty much abandoned the psychedelic trappings of his Mercury years. True, the last couple of Mercury LPs had downplayed the trippiness, but 'And Band' set him upon the course that he would follow the rest of his life as he explored the deep roots of Texas music in honky tonk, western swing, Conjunto, and electric blues. Others did this, but none as well. Sahm's gift was to blend it all so unselfconsciously.

Judging by the profusion of remaindered copies that populated cut-out bins for years, Atlantic expected big things of 'Doug Sahm and Band,' but the expectations went unfulfilled. It peaked at #125 on the Top 200 albums. It's Gonna Be Easyshone the spotlight on Atwood Allen, who'd been in Sahm's orbit for years. Apparently, Allen was on the Playboy After Darkshow where Sahm sung Mendocino,but looked so ungainly he had to sing off-camera. Working for Mission Ice Co. in San Antonio, music wasn't his full-time career, but his sweet high tenor sounded good with Sahm, and more to the point he could follow Sahm's idiosyncratic phrasing. Bob Dylan liked Atwood, too, and brought him onto the Rolling Thunder Revue when it touched down in San Antonio. Allen died in San Antonio a couple of years after Sahm. It's Gonna Be Easyis his best-known song. In other hands, it could have been a country hit, maybe even a soft rock hit. 

Various Truckers, Kickers, Cowboy Angels - The Blissed-Out Birth Of Country Rock, Vol. 6: 1973 (2-CD)
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