First year in Austin Texas (1991) was a year to remember. Catching up with several musicians in Austin after meeting a whole bunch of Texas musicians at a summer concert in Alberta in 1988. Ponty Bone & The Squeezetones, RC Banks, Jim Yanaway, Alex Napier, Doug Sahm, Flaco Jimenez among others. After living in L.A. for about a decade in the 80’s, the time finally came to load up the car and make a trek to Nashville. There were hopes and dreams during those days. Sharing original songs in music city USA. As things turned out, Nashville was a good place to visit but not the right vibe to consider living there. Austin was such a very important stop on that roadtrip to Tennessee. Meeting up with pb and all the wonderful Texans, it wasn’t a difficult decision to choose to come back to Austin after the first two weeks trying out Nashville. Ponty said…. “you’ll be back!” He was right. After two weeks in Nashville, the decision was made to turn back around and get back to Austin. Calling Austin home for the next 30 years.
This photo shows Ponty Bone and the Squeezetones when Debra Peters became a Squeezetone for a couple of days/shows at an outdoor festival in Port Aransas, TX. 1991 Also in the photo is D’Jarma Garnier on guitar. This was where, while sun tanning at the beach, one fine moring, Ponty came up with a new band name. The old “Hollywood Saints” was a great band name when playing around in L.A., but no meaning having anything at all to do with Texas. Ponty rises up from the sand and says, “I know, how about the Luv…. Saints! with his friendly and amazing Texas drawl. Everyone loved Ponty Bone. When you hang with PB, you meet EVERYONE who is ANYONE in music in Texas. There were so many, many high times during those days. What a lucky life.