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The Handbook of Texas Music
By Laurie E. Jasinski Texas State Historical Association
Copyright © 2012 Texas State Historical Association
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-87611-297-7
CHAPTER 1
A
ABBOTT, DARRELL LANCE (1966–2004). Guitarist and producer Darrell Lance Abbott was born in Arlington, Texas, on August 20, 1966. He was the son of Jerry and Carolyn Abbott. Darrell Abbott, better known as "Dimebag" Darrell to his fans, is perhaps best-known for forming the rock band Pantera with his brother Vincent Abbott in the early 1980s. Pantera became one of the world's most popular metal bands and helped to keep the rock genre alive throughout the 1990s.
Born and raised in the Dallas area, Darrell Abbott was influenced by music at a young age. Son of country songwriter and record producer Jerry Abbott, Darrell and his brother Vincent, better known as Vinnie Paul, were encouraged early on to play music. Despite being surrounded by country music as a child, Darrell was drawn to such rock music influences as Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Ace Frehley of Kiss, Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen, and Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne's post-Black Sabbath guitarist). In his early teens, he frequently won local and statewide guitar talent competitions.
Darrell Abbott (on guitar) and his brother Vinnie Paul (on drums) formed the original version of Pantera in 1981 and founded the record label Metal Magic in order to release their music. At first, the band was more pop-oriented and somewhat reminiscent of the so-called Sunset-Strip style of metal rock. Abbott was originally known as "Diamond" Darrell, because of the flashy style of rock music he played.
When vocalist Philip Anselmo joined Pantera in 1987, the band redefined its sound and began playing a harder-edged style that some music critics dubbed "power metal." It was at this time that Abbott changed his nickname from "Diamond" to "Dimebag." He reportedly auditioned for the band Megadeth in the late 1980s but was turned down. Pantera signed with a subsidiary of Atlantic Records in 1990 and released the album Cowboys from Hell. Two more albums soon followed, Vulgar Display of Power in 1992 and Far Beyond Driven in 1994. Far Beyond Driven debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard charts and marked the band's peak of commercial success. Pantera released two more albums and received four Grammy nominations over the course of its career. Abbott lived in Arlington and had a recording studio in his home where several Pantera albums were recorded. However, after persistent feuding between Darrell Abbott and Philip Anselmo, Pantera broke up in 2003.
During that same year that Pantera split up, Darrell and his brother Vinnie Paul formed the new band Damageplan. With Abbott on guitar and Paul on drums, the brothers recruited vocalist Patrick Lachman and bassist Bob Kakaha. Abbot produced the group's debut album, New Found Power, which was released in February 2004. Damageplan traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to play a concert on December 8, 2004, at the Alrosa Villa Nightclub. However, during the first song of the evening, audience member Nathan M. Gale fatally shot Abbott, along with concertgoer Nathan Bray, Alrosa Villa employee Erin Halk, and Damageplan security guard Jeff Thompson. Apparently, Nathan Gale was upset about Pantera's breakup and blamed Abbott for the band's demise.
Darrell Abbott was noted for his short, tight guitar solos, which many critics argued helped preserve the traditional heavy metal sound, even after the genre had lost popularity in the 1990s. He performed on recordings of other groups, including Anthrax and Nickelback. Darrell Abbott also played a cut on Spacewalk: A Salute to Ace Frehley (1996), a tribute album to his early guitar influence, and he and Vinnie Paul collaborated with country musician David Allan Coe. After Abbott's death, Guitar Player magazine acknowledged him as one of "The 10 Most Important Guitarists Ever." With his roaring approach and heavy metal guitar riffs, Abbott inspired a generation of young metal guitar players.
Abbott was survived by his father, Jerry Abbott, and his brother, Vinnie Paul. Darrell Abbott's funeral service took place at the Arlington Convention Center, and he was buried in the Moore Memorial Garden Cemetery in Arlington, along with one of Eddie Van Halen's guitars.
ABRAM, JACQUES (1915–1998). Jacques Abram (born Jack Gregory Abram), concert pianist and teacher, was born on August 6, 1915, in Lufkin, Texas, the son of Harry Abram and Nell (Denman) Abram. His grandfathers, A. M. Denman (a physician) and Simon Abram (a merchant), were early settlers in Lufkin. At age three Abram, after watching an older cousin play a popular tune on the piano, played the instrument with both hands and repeated the music. Shortly thereafter, Abram's family moved to Houston where he studied piano with Mildred Foster, Hu T. Huffmaster, and Ruth Burr. At age six he appeared as a soloist with a Houston orchestra and performed Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466. Also as a child, Abram became a protégé of Ima Hogg, an accomplished pianist, a cultural leader, and a founder of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Their friendship endured until her death in 1975. At age twelve Abram won a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with David Saperton. Later Abram was a student of Ernest Hutcheson at the Juilliard Graduate School in New York City. As winner of the national Schubert Memorial Award in 1937, Abram made his professional debut in 1938 as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy in performances in Philadelphia and in Carnegie Hall in New York City. The success of these concerts won Abram a contract with the National Artists Corp., which booked him in concerts across the nation.
During World War II Abram served in the Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and in the United States Army Air Corps. After the war he resumed his career and toured in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. A highlight of this period was his performance in 1949 of the United States premiere of Benjamin Britten's Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski, and he recorded the concerto for His Master's Voice, the British arm of RCA Victor. This recording was later re-released under the EMI label. Abram also recorded for the Musical Heritage Society.
Abram taught at what is now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma at Chickasha and at the Royal Conservatory of Music at Toronto. He moved to Tampa, Florida, in 1963 and for about thirty years taught at the University of South Florida. Late in life he suffered a neurological ailment in his right hand and an injury to his left hand that ended his ability to perform. Abram was married twice—to Dorothy Gregg and to Christine Dorsey. Abram had three children by his second wife. He died on October 5, 1998, in Tampa and is buried beside his parents in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.
ACE, BUDDY (1936–1994). Blues singer Buddy Ace, also known as "The Silver Fox of the Blues," was born Jimmy Lee Land in Jasper, Texas, on November 11, 1936. Ace grew up in Baytown, Texas, and moved to Houston when he was a teenager. He showed musical talent and played with his family at an early age and performed as Jimmy Lee Land in a gospel quartet in high school with Texas soul singer Joe Tex. His early influences included Ivory Joe Hunter and Big Joe Turner.
Ace's career took an important turn in 1955 when he signed with Houston-based Duke Records under the name "Buddy Ace." It was a year earlier, on Christmas Day 1954, that singer, pianist, and Duke recording star Johnny Ace killed himself while playing Russian roulette backstage between performances at Houston's City Auditorium. In an effort to capitalize on the late singer's popularity, the Duke label first recruited Johnny Ace's brother, St. Clair Alexander, to perform as "Buddy Ace." When that failed, Duke Records owner, Don Robey, turned to Johnny Lee Land, who agreed to perform under the name Buddy Ace.
Buddy Ace recorded several songs during the 1950s, including the popular "Angelboy," but his biggest hits came in the 1960s. "Nothing in the World Can Hurt Me (Except You)" and "Hold On (To This Fool)" proved the most successful of his R&B hits. In the 1970s Ace moved to California where he lived in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento. It was during the 1970s as Ace entered his forties that his hair and beard turned white, earning him the nickname "The Silver Fox of the Blues." He was also referred to as "The Root Doctor," the title of one of his songs. Ace performed regularly throughout California, and his releases included Don't Hurt No More (1994) and Silver Fox (1994), but he never again had the level of success he had enjoyed during the 1960s. He died of a heart attack on December 26, 1994, while performing onstage at a club in Waco, Texas, and is buried at Magnolia Springs Cemetery in Magnolia Springs, Texas. EveJim Records released Ace's most recent work as From Me to You in 1995.
ACE IN THE HOLE BAND. The Ace in the Hole Band has been country superstar George Strait's backup band since 1975. The original members, which included George Strait (vocals and guitar), Ron Cabal (lead guitar), Mike Daily (steel guitar), Terry Hale (bass), and drummer Ted Stubblefield (who was replaced early on by Tommy Foote), met while they were students enrolled at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University-San Marcos).
The Ace in the Hole Band rose from the ashes of Stoney Ridge, a group that had included Daily, Hale, Cabal, Foote, and vocalist Jay Dominguez. In July 1975 Dominguez left the band, and Foote moved to Houston after graduating from the university. The remaining members began posting flyers across campus to advertise for a new vocalist. George Strait, at the time a young agriculture major, auditioned and was quickly hired as lead singer. The band played its first show as Ace in the Hole on October 13, 1975, at Kent Finlay's Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos. Ted Stubblefield, who also was a member of Kent Finlay's group, High Cotton Express, played drums for both bands for a short time. Foote returned to San Marcos to replace Stubblefield by January 1976, and the core Ace in the Hole lineup was formed.
During the mid-1970s Cheatham Street Warehouse provided a particularly fertile environment for the development of such groups as Ace in the Hole. Finlay booked a variety of dynamic young acts including Asleep at the Wheel, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jerry Jeff Walker, Alvin Crow, and others, and the bands that played at Cheatham Street often came by on their nights off to listen to each other and engage in a spirit of friendly competition. Ace in the Hole's main hometown competition at that time was Joe Bob's Bar and Grill Band, led by Joe Bob Burris, a talented singer-songwriter who continued to perform locally in the early 2000s. Ace in the Hole played nearly every week at Cheatham Street for six years during the mid-to-late 1970s before it broke into the national market in the early 1980s.
From the outset Ace in the Hole played mainly traditional country music, including honky-tonk and western swing, by such artists as Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Johnny Bush, George Jones, and Merle Haggard. In fact, the group had difficulty finding work in Austin venues, which were caught up in the "Progressive Country" movement at the time and had little interest in hiring a more traditional country band.
Around 1976 Mike Daily's father, Don Daily (son of Pappy Daily, founder of D Records in Houston), decided to record the band. He arranged for the group to go to Doggett Studios in Houston Heights and cut the Dallas Frazier tune "The Honky Tonk Downstairs." On the flip side was Strait's own composition, "I Just Can't Go on Dying Like This." The single was released to regional radio stations throughout the Southwest, and it received airplay on stations in Houston and Oklahoma. Approximately one year later the band had added Bill Mabry on fiddle, and it recorded the Clay Blaker song "Lonesome Rodeo Cowboy," along with another Strait tune, "That Don't Change the Way I Feel About You." Within a year the band cut Blaker's "The Loneliest Singer in Town" and another Strait composition, "I Don't Want to Talk It Over Anymore." During this session the band also recorded "Right or Wrong" and an instrumental version of "Little Liza Jane." The three George Strait compositions were later released on the multi-platinum MCA box set George Strait: Strait Out of the Box (1995).
In 1977 Cheatham Street Warehouse owner Kent Finlay, local songwriter Darrell Staedtler, and George Strait drove to Nashville in hopes of making connections for Strait in the Nashville music scene. At the time most Nashville record executives were promoting a pop-oriented country sound and were not interested in Strait's more traditional approach. Nevertheless, Strait did record several good demos in Nashville and made some initial contacts that would eventually lead to his first record deal.
The most important contact Strait made in Nashville was reconnecting with MCA Records A&R man, Erv Woolsey, who had once owned the Prairie Rose nightclub in San Marcos where Ace in the Hole had performed. Through Woolsey, Strait would later sign his first record deal with MCA in 1981. By 1984 he had become one of the most popular entertainers in country music, and Woolsey left MCA to become Strait's full-time manager. Strait's commitment to more traditional country music would revolutionize the mainstream country market and inspire legions of younger "neo-traditional" artists.
The 1980s brought several changes to Ace in the Hole as Strait began touring nationally. In 1983 piano player Rondal Huckaby joined the group, and drummer Roger Montgomery replaced Tommy Foote, who became road manager, a job he continued to hold in 2011. In 1984 Ron Cabal left the band and was replaced by Rick McRae and Benny McArthur on guitars. Fiddler Gene Elders joined the band in 1985, and in 1987 Mike Kennedy became the group's newest drummer. In 1990 Cabal wrote a book entitled A Honky Tonk Odyssey, My Eight Years with George Strait. Cabal was later killed in 1996 in a hit-and-run accident outside of Austin.
Although Ace in the Hole is primarily George Strait's touring band, the members also have recorded with Strait in the studio. Perhaps the most notable of their studio recordings was Strait's 1987 release, "Ocean Front Property," which was the first country song ever to enter the charts at Number 1. The band members also were featured in Strait's critically and commercially-acclaimed 1992 movie Pure Country. In 1994 the Ace in the Hole Band recorded a self-titled CD without Strait that featured guest vocalists Darrell McCall and Mel Tillis. The band's success and solid reputation continued into the 2000s as they maintained a steady touring schedule with Strait, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and named Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music in 2009. That same year, in June 2009, Strait and Ace in the Hole headlined the opening of the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington to an audience of more than 60,000 fans.
As of 2011 the Ace in the Hole Band included Terry Hale (bass guitar), Mike Daily (steel guitar), Ron Huckaby (keyboards), Rick McRae (lead guitar and fiddle), Benny McArthur (lead guitar and fiddle), Mike Kennedy (drums), Gene Elders (fiddle and mandolin), Joe Manuel (acoustic guitar), David Latimer (keyboards), John Michael Whitby (keyboards and guitar), and Thom Flora and Marty Slayton (backup vocals). When not on tour with Strait, the band members stay busy with a variety of other projects. Gene Elders performed with Lyle Lovett, and Ron Huckaby, Rick McRae, Terry Hale, and Benny McArthur play with a variety of other musicians throughout Texas. Mike Daily records and produces other artists and is active in music publishing with Tommy Foote.
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Excerpted from The Handbook of Texas Music by Laurie E. Jasinski. Copyright © 2012 Texas State Historical Association. Excerpted by permission of Texas State Historical Association.
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