Assessing Doug Sahm's musical legacy can be a dizzying experience. Before his untimely death in 1999 he produced an amazing amount of recordings, many of which were repeatedly reissued or released in differing forms around the world -- and, at times by the 1980s, not in the U.S. at all. His later work is long overdue for a comprehensive reissue project, but at least the 1960s and early '70s Sir Douglas Quintet material has re-emerged in a coherent fashion over the past decade.
Sundazed released a pair of LPs collecting most of the Huey Meaux recordings, and a five-CD set representing the Smash/Mercury/Philips era slipped out as a limited edition a couple years back. For those albums, though, you still have to track down the original '60s vinyl if you aren't a fan of CDs, or can't afford to plunk down the cash for the five-disc set.
Sahm's body of work is characterized by an overall disregard for genre boundaries, but the SDQ's first proper album, Honkey Blues, still sounds somewhat anachronistic in comparison. (A prior "Best of" album was compiled by Meaux after the band's pot bust in late 1965 sent the group underground for a time, and Sahm to California). Recorded in the storied summer of '68 in San Francisco, this album is credited to the Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 -- which is odd in itself as the group listed in the credits is nine players. The only previous Quintet member to perform is Frank Morin on saxophone.
Honkey Blues was an apt title choice, as Sahm and company tackle a set mostly made up of R&B-based originals filtered through a loosely psychedelic, sometimes meandering haze -- definitely of its era, but still surprisingly fresh-sounding today. As it often sounds like the arrangements were put together in the studio on the fly, it's probably as close a cross between Bobby Bland and The Stooges' Fun House album as anyone could ever create. Of course, being a Sahm project, there's also a swamp pop recasting of the swing-era song "Glad for Your Sake," which really sticks out among all the other weirdness going on.
Listeners not scared off by the idea of psychedelic R&B will discover some true Sahm classics, including the album's designated single release, the hard-grooving "Are Inlaws Really Outlaws." Another standout is the melancholy "Whole Lotta Peace of Mind," which is punctuated by some of the most reverbed-out fiddle ever laid down on wax.
After Honkey Blues, most of the original Quintet joined Sahm in California in time to create their next (and last) big hit, "Mendocino," in the Tex-Mex style the band is better known for. (Smash 1968; available as part of the "Complete Mercury Recordings" set, or as an individual import CD from Acadia UK)
