The adventures and various works of a photographer, road tripper, former patron of the local arts, aspiring app developer, and late night coffee drinker and conversationalist.
The last post in my "Ghosts of DFW Music History" series was on April 30th, a full 3 1/2 months ago. I managed to get the post up just before starting my sabbatical from work and embarking on my long road trip up to Alaska. Since my return, following a couple of weeks taken to recharge and recover, I resumed work on my other long-term projects with the aim of returning to the "Ghosts" series in a couple of weeks. Those couple of weeks have, without my ever intending them to, extended to over three months. I have been at work gathering historical materials and following up on a couple of leads, but overall I have been focusing heavily on getting all my other in-progress tasks out of the pipeline - clearing the table, so to speak. Vintage photo galleries, research on a few historical DFW sites, working on my long-delayed road trip travelogues, and, notably, finally getting some business cards created, have been my main priorities since returning from Alaska. But now it's time to get back to work on the "Ghosts" series. If all goes according to plan, I hope to edit and post about half a dozen more entries over the next few months, and to wrap up the entire series by the end of 2024. I'm also strongly considering making an eventual print edition of the completed project, which would not only allow me to expand upon a few things that were left out of the online posts, but also to update the overall text with additional information I've gathered since the original versions went up on the site. I have a potential cover image and design already put together as a proof of concept, and I have some ideas on whom I would like to tap for a potential foreword. This won't happen until sometime in 2025 if I do indeed proceed with the idea. In the meantime, be on the lookout for new series installments in the coming days. I'm waiting to hear back from a few sources and have found new wells to tap for memorabilia, so fingers crossed.
Pantera is the most famous metal band to ever come out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Their influence on metal is still being felt decades after their last album, and everyone who's been in the scene doubtless has his or her own opinion on what constitutes their best work. This is my take on their legacy in terms of what represents them at their best, and what represents the worst they had to offer. Here are all nine of Pantera's studio albums, ordered from worst to best. A few of these placings will no doubt be controversial to more hardcore Pantera fans!
During the latter 1980s, while the punk scene was maturing on the east side of the DFW Metroplex, a similarly loud, aggressive music scene was developing in parallel to it over on the west side. Dallas had its iconic, punk focused venues such as the Honest Place, the Hot Klub, Studio D, and the succession of venues to call 2111 Commerce Street home. Likewise, Fort Worth and environs had their own metal focused clubs such as Rascals, the Tombstone Factory, and Joe's Garage. These two scenes didn't exist in a vacuum, of course, and there was plenty of crossover between them (the Silver Dollar Rock Shop was located in Dallas, for example, and Fort Worth-based Rigor Mortis was famously managed and guided to a record deal by Jeff Liles, who once booked shows for the Theatre Gallery in Deep Ellum). But, musically and spiritually speaking, the early DFW metal scene was based mostly on the west side of town. The aforementioned Rascals, Tombstone Factory, and Joe's Garage will be subjects of future installments in this series, but sprinkled among these iconic venues were a number of smaller, less remembered haunts that also called the areas west of Dallas home. What were some of these, and what (if anything) remains of them today? In this installment of "Ghosts of DFW Music History," we'll take a look at four of them.
1998 Misfits show flyer
If it looks like it should be a barn from the outside, it's probably because it WAS... or it basically was, at one time. It was an urban barn whose inside was given over to western swing and dance and to a honky-tonk inspired atmosphere. Over a total of about seventeen years, 2727 Canton Street in Deep Ellum paraded through a whole series of different owners and target clientele, being known successively as Tommy's Heads Up Saloon, Tommy's Deep Ellum, The Institute, and The Venue, before finally settling in as Deep Ellum Live, the name it is most remembered by today. The list of acts to have taken the stage over its storied history reads like a "who's who" of the 1980s and 1990s local and national music scenes. But in 2004, Deep Ellum Live closed its doors for good and lay mostly dormant for over a decade, finally being resurrected from the dead by an entrepreneurial couple as part of their personal Deep Ellum reclamation project. What is the story behind this iconic fixture of the Dallas music scene?
Continue reading "Ghosts of DFW music history: Deep Ellum Live"
Much has already been written to chronicle Pantera's early years, their formation, history in the Metroplex, and their subsequent rise to fame, and it's not my intention to duplicate that here. Rather, this post is instead going to focus on the story of their in-house record label, Metal Magic, and on the studio where they recorded their early output: how these came to be, the story and history behind them, and the role they played in helping launch the band's career. The story begins with Jerry Bob Abbott, a country music singer/songwriter, musician, producer, sound engineer, and the father of Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott. The tale of Metal Magic Records is as much the story of Jerry Abbott's early career in the music production industry as it is of Pantera's early rise to fame.
Much has already been written to chronicle Pantera's early years, their formation, history in the Metroplex, and their subsequent rise to fame, and it's not my intention to duplicate that here. Rather, this post is instead going to focus on the story of their in-house record label, Metal Magic, and on the studio where they recorded their early output: how these came to be, the story and history behind them, and the role they played in helping launch the band's career. The story begins with Jerry Bob Abbott, a country music singer/songwriter, musician, producer, sound engineer, and the father of Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott. The tale of Metal Magic Records is as much the story of Jerry Abbott's early career in the music production industry as it is of Pantera's early rise to fame.