Big Gus & Swampadelic — Don’t fence them into one genre!
Short story and pix (click on link at the end of this story) by Mary Jane Farmer
Gus Samuelson
Big Gus & Swampadelic have been around now about a year, in this incarnation, and yet none of the musicians are new to the music scene. Gus Samuelson led the band Shootin’ Doubles prior to changing his musical focus to what it is now… not genre specific, not formula specific, and not what everybody else is doing. Swampadelic features Bill Sallee on stand-up bass, Ric Denker on fiddle, Chad A. Ford on drums, Greg Waits on trombone, and Gus on guitar, lead vocals, and sometimes washboard. Ford is also with the Dallas Cowboys drum line, Waits is with a jazz band, and Denker is the only remainder of Shootin’ Doubles besides Big Gus.
This band recently smoked the Loose Wheels Texas stage in Denison, with each song delivered showing just how come the band has been compared more than once with the likes of Doug Sahm, bringing surprises with every song. It was the premiere for Big Gus’ newest song, “In The Water,” an Americana blues number featuring, right now, just him on guitar and lyrics and Ford on drum thumpage. Introducing the night was a song swap between Gus and Ed Burleson, belting out songs in their own direction, mostly country as that is Burleson’s speciality.
Another of the uniqueness of this band is that they do no cover songs at all, only originals. Buddy Magazine is carrying a story in its upcoming January issue about Big Gus and his songwriting backgrounds and styles. This free magazine should be available in venues this weekend.
Category: *- Features, Loose Wheels Texas
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