Bama Theatre

October 19, 1976

Aficionados of the day widely considered the Los Angeles guitarist a walking encyclopedia of American music. His albums reflected a unique level of diversity in the pop catalogs of the day, shining lights on older genres and inventively breathing contemporary energy into styles like American folk and blues, as well as Tejano and other traditional Mexican music. He was a brilliant session player and solo recording artist who had played a solo show in the old “barn” basketball area at Auburn University a few years before the concert in Tuscaloosa. The University Program Council’s “Music Under the Stars” series in downtown Tuscaloosa was part of a movement to produce more shows in the venue. The Bama Theatre was built in 1938 as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The ceiling was inventively lined with small flashing lights interspersed with painted clouds, as in a night sky, the basis for the name of the UPC series. During his career, he performed with bluegrass king Bill Monroe followed by Captain Beefheart and many more. As an in-demand session player, Cooder famously played slide guitar on The Rolling Stone’s “Sister Morphine,” which turned into a broader series of gigs with the band. In the 1970s Cooder began releasing solo albums such as Into the Purple Valley, with unique arrangements of Calypso, country, blues, and gospel songs. It was followed by hardscrabble Depression-era songs of Boomer’s Story, Paradise & Lunch, and Chicken Skin Music, which was released in 1976. To promote the album, Cooder went on the road with a large band that included musicians likely not familiar to pop audiences of the day. Chicken Skin Music featured numbers by blues artists like Leadbelly, Blind Alfred Reed, Pink Anderson, and John Lomax. Time Magazine put it like this: "Ry Cooder makes America come together in its music...well, now he's stretching his musical horizons to other shores, and the results, even though he's probably just begun, are just as cohesive...a pure joy – a work of art even.” The touring band included a trio of brilliant singers Jimmy Adams, Terry Evans, and Chris Givens, who provided counterpoints to Cooder’s vocal duties. But 39-year-old San Antonio accordionist Flaco Jimenez was the featured player. During the early 1970s, Jimenez had worked with Doug Sahm (Sir Douglas Quintet, Texas Tornadoes) in his transition from pop to regional music. A few weeks after the Bama Theatre concert, Jimenez joined Cooder for a guest slot on a new late-night comedy show, “Saturday Night Live.”

UTSA Flaco Jimenez:

https://digital.utsa.edu/digital/collection/p15125coll4/id/1298

 

Opening of the Bama Theatre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=iue-lBzDCis&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Ftuscarts.org%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo