The Texas-Rhode Island Underground Railroad

The Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1980. Kim Wilson, the singer, recovers quickly from an opening soundman brainfart with a simple gesture, and the train keeps a rollin’.

There’s never been a better roadhouse band. Jimmy Vaughan is playing the Stratocaster boat oar with very tasteful stick-on mailbox letters. Keith Ferguson is playing an old-school Fender Telecaster bass upside down, or backwards or something. This is more or less their original iteration of the Thunderbirds, except Fran Christina had replaced Mike Buck on the drums after their first album.

Fran’s interesting. He’s left-handed I think, but he plays a right-hand drum kit. He plays with what’s called an open-handed method. Drummers usually cross their hands, with their right hand playing the hi-hat cymbals on their left, and the left hand banging on the snare between their legs. They generally “open up” only when they move the right hand over to the ride cymbal on their right. Open handed drummers play the left side of their kit with their left hands, and the right with their right. Fran’s got two big rides, but he favors the one on his left, and plays the high hats with his left, too. Lots of heavy metal drummers play this way now, but only because they really don’t know how to play the drums. Fran’s terrific.

Fran’s a paisan from Westerly, Rhode Island. He was an original member of Roomful of Blues, which is still kicking around, although the personnel is a ship of Theseus at this point. Here is Roomful playing in the Knickerbocker Cafe in Westerly in 1979:

I performed in so many places back in the day, I can’t remember if I ever performed in the Knickerbocker Cafe. But I certainly remember being drunk in there. It was a terrific place to hear blues bands. There was an underground railroad of musicians from Providence to Texas and back, back in the day. Duke Robillard and Preston Hubbard were both in Roomful, and eventually made their way into some iteration of The Fabulous Thunderbirds. The Austin crews used to make the trek north to perform in places like the Knickerbocker and Lupo’s and did cameos in the old Met Cafe. I remember seeing Jimmy Vaughan’s brother, Stevie Ray, playing at the Knickerbocker with Lou Ann Barton doing the singing. I think she ended up getting traded to Roomful of Blues, with a player to be named later.

There was no such thing as “recreational” drugs back in the seventies. There was plenty of booze of course, and ditch weed doobies galore. What drugs there were were serious drugs. Several of these fellows I mentioned favored the most serious of drugs. Several of these fellows are dead, and died young, with a sandbag where their liver used to be. Rest in peace, fellas.