Steve Power The Finest in Texas Music, Music

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Nothing On The Radio - EP

This is a straight ahead old school rock and roll tune. I wrote this in Holland, the world headquarters for house music, as a reaction to having to drive up and down the country with nothing worth listening to on the radio except the occasional great late night broadcast from community radio that would loose signal about two songs into the set. This song is a never fails to get 'em dancing stormer.

The Same Old Song

A tried and true two-step with Warren Hood channeling Bob Wills' Frankie McWhorter. One of the best compliments I ever received was at a songwriters circle where two Nashville songwriters were debating, "Who had the big hit with that?"

DiMaggio

This is one of my all time favorite loves songs written by one of my all time favorite songwriters, Mike Plume. An open acoustic arrangement and beautiful performances allow the story to simply draw you in to two peoples' moment.

Earl Poole Ball -piano, Warren Hood -fiddle, Mark Leshner, -drums, David Miller -Fender and upright basses, Steve Power -vocals and acoustic guitar, Casper Rawls -acoustic and electric guitars. Piano sound on "DiMaggio" by M. Monroe.

Recorded and mixed by Fred Remmert at Cedar Creek Recording, Austin, TX. Mastering at Terra Nova Digital Audio, Austin, TX by Nick Landis Produced by Steve Power

Cedar Creek Recording, South Austin, Texas 1973 Neve mixing console, formerly of Graceland.

THE JOURNEY

Below you will find links to some samples from Steve's Javelin Records CD, "The Journey". Click on the title. Give it a few seconds to launch. Just for the hell of it, we thought you might like a little background on some of the songs. You can find more songs at www.myspace.com/stevepowertx where all these recordings are for sale.

Money and Fun

Having lived in Hollywood for several years, I always loved Bob Segar's "Hollywood Nights". The story in that song of a mid-West small town dude searching for what glitters in California that ain't gold I saw happening hundreds of times. "Money and Fun" is my take on that story which continues to unfold daily. More than one reviewer has attributed the musical influence to Buddy Holly or The Bobby Fuller Four. This amuses me no end as the actual influence was The Rivieras. For those of you with a gear geeks bent of mind...like me...the signature riff is played on a 1930's "frying pan" Rickenbacker lap steel through a '64 Fender Vibrolux Reverb.

Running for the Border

This is pretty much a true story. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. It is one of the most fun songs to play live, though I'm still trying to figure out how to pick up the harp without losing the drive of the rhythm guitar. It is an absolute stormer of a number. "Stonkin'!!" as my friend Tich Gwillam used to say. In answer to repeated questions, the harmonica I play is a Hohner Special 20, tweaked by Tim Northcutt of Hot Rod Harps in Austin, through a 1950 Shure 520 with Black Label CR element and a modified Fender R.I. '63 Vibroverb.

You're Too Late, I'm Gone

This song took third in the "Blues" category of the Austin Songwriters Group 2006 Song Contest. Considering the number and quality of entries any kind of a result in an ASG song contest is no mean feat.

Shadow of a Doubt

"'Shadow Of A Doubt' is driven by Colin Edwards’ accomplished piano playing ~ this recording (for some reason) reminded me of Roy Orbison! - The Stillwater Times

It was John David's idea to do The Drifters treatment. The soloing by Pete Matheson, guitar, and Colin Edwards, piano, is just wonderful. Colin's playing is particularly remarkable when you consider he'd only ever heard the song two times. This was done in one take as I sat beside him calling out the chords.

The Journey

As I often tell at shows, this song was inspired by my great-grandfather, Mel Tanner. He was sort of a frontiersman. Did some things. Knew some people. Amongst some interesting tales in the man's life was his being a witness at the Wounded Knee Massacre. I say witness, because what I was able to piece together from records and one family account is this. At the time, he was most likely working as a civilian horse wrangler for the Quartermaster Corp attached to the 7th Calvary. When the shooting started he quickly figured this was madness, but there was no way he was going to be able to stop it and the best course was to get the hell out of the way. So he dived into a haystack and hid out till the shooting stopped. I figure that was probably a pretty smart play. He took exception to the event being called a "battle". He always insisted, " That weren't no battle. That was a massacree."

He had written in his will that when he was buried he wanted someone with a guitar to walk behind the funeral wagon singing cowboy songs. And someone did.

House of the Rising Sun

I have to say that this is the best version of this song that I’ve ever heard + there’s superb guitar playing from Graham Williams and Ian Lawrence that really adds to the power of the arrangement…-The Stillwater Times

A traditional American folk song that has been recorded by loads of people, most famously The Animals. This rather unique version, like most good songs, has a good story behind it. If you go to the Reviews page you will find an excerpt from "Chasing the Rising Sun" by Ted Anthony which tells a part. The rest is in Ted's book. It will be for sale early 2007.

Normal Man

When in doubt have a conversation with a deity. This is a song asking the question most every artist asks at one time or another, "Why couldn't I have been created normal?"

Life Went and Happened

Inspired by the John Lennon quote, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."

Charlene

This is a rather dark narrative which is my wife's least favorite. "It's so mean." I always really liked it myself and actually had a Dutch percussionist friend of mine who was obsessed by it, but then he was undergoing intensive therapy and medication for depression.

Flip, Flop, and Fly

From Cotton & Morganfield - On A Mission From Jake

This is not on "The Journey" but comes from Cotton and Morganfield "On a Mission From Jake". I've included it here as an additional sample of my harp playing. Little Sonny Cotton was my alter-ego in The Blues Brothers Dedication Review, a tribute act that was for seven years my bread and butter in Holland. We were, to my knowledge, the only Blues Brothers tribute act in Europe to receive an official endorsement from Elwood Blues himself. The act was based on a musical play of my creation featuring the characters Little Sonny Cotton and Otis P. Morganfield. One of the reasons for Elwood's support was that we were the only BB tribute act in existence consciously trying not to be Jake and Elwood.