Big Gus Samuelson — Uncovering the layers

Story by Billy Keith Bucher, Photos by Mary Jane Farmer

Big Gus Samuelson

Big Gus is the man.

Big Gus Samuelson has come full circle from his meager beginning in Summer Grove, Louisiana, before moving to Shreveport and then, a few years later, on to Dallas. “I started to play with various bands in high school. Mainly Texas swing bands. And then I got a job as the road manager for Merle Haggard in 1981 and 1982. After that, I played with several more swings bands before I was lucky enough to play on the Cowboy Weaver show for a 12-show season. I felt kind of lucky because I felt like I was in the right places at the right time. It was sort of like a Forest Gump kind of deal. I did write Chubby Carrier and said that I was going to add the Swampadelic name to my act and he said that was all right with him. So it made it all official. ”

Big Gus has a quiet, gentle voice, but that turned out to be only one side. Later, he would suddenly become the radio DJ and I realized thinking, right into the interview, ‘Hey, this guy REALLY talks fast. It is gonna be hell to transcribe this interview.’

“I had started to write pretty close to the beginning of my playing days and wrote through all of my transitions. It’s extra nice, because I was able to take some of the Louisiana influences which I grew up along with me and put them into my swampy songs over time and make all my songs become more alive.

“My band members have really helped me along with this as well. They are quality musicians and they have all been around for a while. I fell into working at The Range radio station (95.3) in Dallas and I’ve kind of worked things around that bit of stability. I’ve been doing the radio show for ten years now.

“I looked around my big band the other night when we were playing and I realized that I’ve been working with bass man Steve Byrd, who recently from 1100 Springs, and before that it was my old friend on bass, Bobby Chitwood from my Bugs Henderson days. He was an old Bugs Henderson player. I have been very blessed to have these excellent musicians around me all the time. And I have sax man Alan Burton with me now who can take off on the road any time with the Tommy Dorsey band if I need to spend some extra time in the studio. That is the same with trombonist Gregory Waits.”

“I have to admit that Waits is one of my favorites in the band as well. When I was in high school in Atlantic, Iowa, my mentor was a trombone player named Rex Peer. He had played with Benny Goodman and Louie Armstrong, and had also done the funky trombone work on “Rainy Day Women” for Bob Dylan. He got his part in one take! Waits is cut from that same mold. He can really shine on stage and bring the audience up out of their seats as he wails above the rhythms of the band,” Big Gus continued.

Gus sat back in his chair at The Forge and let out a sigh. “All of my musicians have given me the ability to write some good stuff and have fun doing it!!! Tony Joe White was also a big influence on me when I was growing up. It’s been between country and blues and a Western swing. That’s the groove where I like to be.

“My brother was always good at putting cars and trucks together and just trying to carve a little niche in everything. Well, I’ve found that I am good at putting bands together, at finding the right people to make it all work out all right! I guess I like to just do Americana music. That’s where my groove is. That is where I am comfortable. It’s really nice right now because I can play a solo act, a duo, a trio, or bring in a bigger band with more horns. People seem to like that! For the most part I can bring in a five-piece band. That gets things hopping.

“And I just like all kinds of music. I even like the music of Tony Bennett and Sinatra. You can’t leave them out of the picture. My mother was good at instilling that music in me. She’d take me to shows like Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis Jr., in Dallas at Fair Park. She wanted me to know.

“I have been nominated for various music awards. In 2015, my CD Sinner Man was up for Album of the Year amid a lot of Americana nominations. It was actually inspired by the Del McCoury song ‘Get Down on Your Knees and Pray.’ I even though about calling the band Sinner Man.

“I’d like to play what I call Southern Rock, but then people think of Molly Hatchet, the Allman Brothers, and Lynard Skynard. Bu,t I’d like to go back to traditional mountain music and, of course, traditional blues is my forte. That’s kind of where Sinner Man came from and I’d like to go back to it on the next CD.”

Follow Big Gus’s various schedules on his Website, http://www.biggusandswampadelic.com

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