Rag Radio : Legendary Houston Folksinger Don Sanders

Don Sanders sings in front of the Sam Houston statue at Hermann Park in 70s Houston.
Legendary Houston folksinger Don Sanders on
Rag Radio with Thorne Dreyer. Listen to it here:

Don Sanders was a central figure in the early Houston folk scene, playing all the landmark venues -- from Anderson Fair, Sand Mountain, the Old Quarter, and Liberty Hall to Austin's Armadillo World Headquarters and the Kerrville Folk Festival.

He has shared the stage with Lyle Lovett (who considers him an important influence), Nanci Griffith, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Lightin' Hopkins, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and Janis Joplin. He performed at countless peace rallies, benefits, progressive political events, and street concerts in Houston's Montrose.

He was known for his unique vision and for his quirky and highly personal songs; among the best known are "Third Eye" ("Open my third eye, mama / Free me from my chains tonight"), "Coffee Song," "Head Full of Reds," "Southern Coast of France," and "Heavy Word User," where he admits to being a "greasy, sleazy information abuser."

Some of Don's later work was inspired by Spanish folk tales, by the nueva trova movement that originated in Cuba, and by Latin American social justice issues, and he has written and sung in both Spanish and English.

Don Sanders also worked with Pacifica Radio's KPFT-FM (as "Donnie Jo DJ") and in Houston theater, writing, producing, and performing in a one-man show called Peregrino at Houston's Main Street and Chocolate Bayou theaters and at theaters in Austin and San Antonio. In recent years he has devoted much of his time to performing for school children, singing and spinning yarns as the "Sourdough Cowboy."

Don was featured in For the Sake of the Song, the critically acclaimed documentary film about Anderson Fair, Houston's venerable acoustic venue that served as an incubator for such talent as Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keen, Steven Fromholz, and Lyle Lovett.

Rolling Stone called Don Sanders Houston's "spritely local folkie," and Lyle Lovett, then a Texas A&M student writing in the school paper, The Batallion, tagged him the "grand old man of Houston folk music." John Wilson wrote on The Rag Blog that, "Over a five year period from 1970 to 1975, Don wrote and performed a suite of songs that pretty much provided the soundtrack for that tumultuous and intensely musical period of Houston’s history."

Many of those historic songs (some of which were mentioned above) have been released on a new CD titled Heavy Word User which came out during the Kerrville Folk Festival. It is available at YourTexasMusic and recently was accepted by Pandora into the Music Genome Project.

Don Sanders dicusses his career and sings several songs on this episode of Rag Radio.

Rag Radio -- hosted and produced by Rag Blog editor Thorne Dreyer -- is broadcast every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CDT) on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin, and streamed live on the web. KOOP is a cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin.

Rag Radio, which has been aired since September 2009, features hour-long in-depth interviews and discussion about issues of progressive politics, culture, and history. After broadcast, all episodes are posted as podcasts and can be downloaded at the Internet Archive. Tracey Schulz is the show's engineer and co-producer.

Rag Radio is also rebroadcast on Sundays at 10 a.m. (Eastern) on WFTE, 90.3-FM in Mt. Cobb, PA, and 105.7-FM in Scranton, PA.

• Also see "Houston Folk Legend Don Sanders is 'Heavy Word User'" by John Wilson / The Rag Blog / Sept. 14, 2011

Houston singer/songwriter and storyteller Don Sanders (right) with Rag Radio host Thorne Dreyer at the KOOP studios in Austin. Photo by Tracey Schulz / Rag Radio / The Rag Blog.
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MUSIC / John Wilson : Houston Folk Legend Don Sanders is 'Heavy Word User'

Singer-songwriter and storyteller:
Don Sanders is still a 'Heavy Word User'

By John Wilson / The Rag Blog / September 14, 2011

Houston folk legend and children's entertainer Don Sanders will be Thorne Dreyer's guest on Rag Radio, Friday, Sept. 16, from 2-3 p.m. (CST), on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin, and streamed live here. To listen to earlier shows on Rag Radio, go to the Internet Archive.

I have often wondered how the angel of fame selects the musicians upon whom it bestows its gifts. I have no doubt Justin Bieber is a nice enough young man with a pleasant voice and engaging personality but does he really warrant the rewards flowing his way? And going back in time, what about such stars as Fabian in the 50s and the Archies in the 60s? It seems the fame angel is slightly tone deaf or at least blessed with a delicious sense of irony.

Of the artists with whom I have a personal relationship, Don Sanders is a case in point. He has yet to receive the adulation he so richly deserves. Granted, he is a featured artist with the Texas Commission on the Arts and an honorary board member of the Kerrville Folk Festival, but his music, which compares favorably with any of the recognized folk greats, still exists primarily as the soundtrack to the aging Houston folk crowd.

From the moment I first saw him perform in Houston in the early 70s, I knew he was the real deal. Lots of people agreed with me. He was profiled in depth in numerous articles -- from the Houston Chronicle and Houston Post to Texas Monthly and Rolling Stone. (Rolling Stone referred to Don as Houston's "spritely local folkie.") He was universally loved and respected by musicians of every stripe in Houston.

One of my favorite articles is by a young Lyle Lovett, writing for the Battalion at Texas A&M in 1978. (In a 1998 interview Lovett would refer to Don Sanders as a "big influence.")

Over a five year period from 1970 to 1975, Don wrote and performed a suite of songs that pretty much provided the soundtrack for that tumultuous and intensely musical period of Houston’s history. During this time Don expressed his commitment to social change by performing at countless peace rallies and Montrose street festivals, and was also involved with Pacifica's KPFT-FM in its early days, appearing as "Donnie Jo DJ."

Don's repertoire included such classics as "Third Eye," in which President Nixon and a parrot seek enlightenment; "Coffee Song" ("just waiting for my coffee to boil"), with its bubbling sound-effect chorus; "Roaches" (who are on the pathway down because they live with hippies); and "Heavy Word User," where he describes himself as a “greasy, sleazy information abuser.” There was ample evidence that Don had, as he claimed in the same song, “a jar of talent and the lid's unscrewed.”

Yet universal acceptance stayed away.

It wasn’t for lack of effort on Don’s part. During that period, pretty much on his own nickel, he produced a series of recordings (two LPs and one extended play 45) that highlighted the eclectic nature of his work, the strength of his writing, and the beauty of his voice and guitar work.

He was, however, swimming against the tide. The major labels had a lock on the music industry, and while local radio stations were willing to play local artists, getting exposure outside Houston, much less Texas, was really hard. It is much easier today to produce an album on the cheap, but doing it in the 70s was quite an undertaking.

When I broached the subject recently over lunch with Don he gave me a wane smile and said, “Big record companies really wanted an artist with a burning desire to succeed and make money. I had two problems, first I liked to experiment with different voices and ways of constructing songs.” Then he paused. “And, secondly at the time I just wanted to get laid.”

I didn’t really see the second part as a great impediment to fame, except that it might keep you from focusing on business, but the first could definitely cause problems, especially when it was coupled with the prevailing attitude of the day which focused on the idea of trying to avoid selling out your artistic vision for the chance at a quick buck.

Don Sanders in front of the Sam Houston statue in Houston's Hermann Park. Photo from the Houston Chronicle archives.
“Back around ’78,” said Don, “I was offered the opportunity to go to Nashville and write for Marty Robbins music. It was a pretty standard gig, they would pay a monthly draw and you had to write and pitch two songs a month, but I didn’t really want to write love songs so I turned them down.”

Still, Don kept on plugging through the rest of the decade and into the next, releasing the CD Tourist in 1984, until he decided to do something different. “I just got tired of the format, touring colleges and the bar circuit,” he said, “doing a fast song, slow song, and telling a story.”

It lead, almost naturally, to work in theater -- first at Houston's Main Street Theater and then later with Chocolate Bayou Theater, doing a one-man show of his songs and stories focusing on the troubles in Latin America that grew out of the story “Grunty Mind and the American Love Story” that appeared on the entire side two of one of his LPs.

He had some success touring through Texas. But again, the angel of fame played favorites.

“I just didn’t know how to get it into the larger theaters,” said Don. This once again proves that it’s not what you know but who you know.

In 1992 Don signed a deal with a manager who dealt in children’s music, and it was there that Don found the niche that he occupies to this day, performing for school children. His universally praised shows include:

• Cuentos y Canciones: Latin American folk tales and songs in Spanish and English;
• Gusher Times: based on the oral history project conducted at the University of Texas (Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Collection, 1952-1958); and
  
• Sourdough Cowboy: based on the oral history of the WPA workers and songs collected by the Lomax family.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he says “performing for children. You have to learn to compete with the distractions and the different developmental levels of the children. You surf the wave and you either stay on top or you get buried.”

So, in the end maybe the angel of fame knew what it was doing. I have to think that bringing the gift of music and song to school children is a pretty cool thing to do and may be of more lasting value than any of the things most of us will accomplish in our lives.

Of course what goes around comes around, and it was after a recent appearance at Houston's Anderson Fair with Sally Spring that Don and I started talking about re-releasing his vinyl work as a CD. (Incidentally, Don appears in For the Sake of the Song, the acclaimed 2010 documentary about Anderson Fair, the venerable Houston acoustic venue.) We embarked on the project and with the help of Rock Romano at Rock Romano’s Red Shack studio the songs were coaxed off their aging tapes and vinyl to be tweaked and mixed into digital format.

The new CD, Heavy Word User, which came out during the Kerrville Folk Festival, is available at Amazon, Itunes, CDBaby, and YourTexasMusic and recently was accepted by Pandora into the Music Genome Project. It is nice to hear songs by Dylan, the Band, Neil Young, Hoyt Axton and Townes Van Zandt, followed by a Don Sanders tune.

So, if the angel is still looking it has one last shot to help Don get this music to the larger audience it so richly deserves. Of course, if it continues to look away then Don still has the children and his digital music is out there and in the mix, standing shoulder to shoulder with the greats. Nice legacy.

[Music producer John Wilson, who is president of YourTexasMusic, was a music critic for the Houston Chronicle and a contributor to Space City!, Houston's late 60s/early 70s underground newspaper. He now lives in Johnson City, Texas.]



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