When I begin listening to an album, my first order of business (apart from deciding whether or not I actually enjoy the music on a superficial level) is classification: Where does the record come from? When was it made? What traditions does it see itself as being part of? The longer it takes me to answer these questions, the more fascinated I become with an album - nine times out of ten, a record that resists classification will be far more engaging than one that does not. To that end, I have been listening to Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 = Honkey Blues for a few solid weeks now, and I'm still not sure I fully understand it. I certainly enjoy it - I figured that out pretty quickly. I simply don't know how best to describe or classify it.
San Antonio's Sir Douglas Quintet was the project of country prodigy Doug Sahm. After a childhood and adolescence filled with radio sessions and club dates, Sahm was coaxed into forming his band in 1965 by producer Huey Meaux. Seeking to capitalize on the British Invasion, Meaux suggested the name "Sir Douglas Quintet" in an effort to sound more English. The band released its debut, The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet, in 1966, charting a top 20 single with "She's About a Mover" - an organ-heavy blues number.
"Look, for me right now there are three groups: Butterfield, The Byrds, and the Sir Douglas Quintet." - Dylan
In 1968, the band released Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 = Honkey Blues. As the title would suggest, the album was rooted in blues. Given Doug Sahm's history (not to mention the fact that the band was from San Antonio), the record's country /folk influence was no surprise, either. What was a surprise, however, was Sahm's decision to bring in a five-piece horn section to augment the band - and not necessarily as one would expect. There were certainly songs on the record that utilized the horn section as expected on a blues/soul record - most notably "Are Inlaws Really Outlaws?" and "Can You Dig My Vibrations." What one could not have expected, however, was the sporadic influence of free jazz - a genre which was still young at the time. Throw in a bit of San Francisco psychedelia for good measure, and you've got a band that could seamlessly synthesize a number of American genres at will.
I'm so impressed with this album that I'm uploading two tracks today. The first is the more straightforward of the two: "Whole Lotta Peace of Mind." Right off the bat, the song seems to be pulling two directions at once - the country vibe of the fiddle meets the heavy delay effects of the psychedelic era, creating something all its own. The stew thickens as the horns enter around the 30 second mark and the harmonica makes an appearance soon after. It's like an unholy marriage of Seatrain and The Electric Flag. The second of the two tracks, "Song of Everything," is the more "challenging" - beginning with thirty seconds of chaotic horns and percussion before breaking into more traditional song structure, the cut displays Sir Douglas Quintet's affinity for free jazz.
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