Pat O'Bryan - ...of trains and angels (1998)

I went on the road with a band for the first time in 1972. By the late 70's I had played pretty much every bar in Texas, and quite a few throughout the Southwest U.S. By 2005, I'd played quite a few clubs and concerts in Europe, too.

The Armadillo World Headquarters, Texas Opry House, Auditorium Shores, Manor Downs, Fabrik, Open-Air Weimar (Germany), a club in the barrio antigua in Monterrey, Mexico, Antones and the Austin Outhouse stand out as memorable. And there was this one gig in Abilene that I would rather forget. And the other one in Killeen.

I've shared stages and/or opened for Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, Hubert Sumlin, Billy Gibbons, Eric Johnson, Cheap Trick, Climax Blues Band, Kim Wilson, and pretty much any blues guys who came through Texas in the 70's or 80's.

After a stint in the Texas Hill Country playing with a cover band I hit Austin and joined "Fools," which was Van Wilk's band. We were managed by ZZ Top's management company, which was a mixed blessing- but it led to tours with a lot of cool gigs, including an extended tour with Cheap Trick.

After I left "Fools" (you can die of exposure, you know), I was out drinking with a buddy and he insisted that we needed to see W.C. Clark at the Continental. Being drunk, I informed W.C. that his keyboard player kinda sucked and he should let me sit in.

Little did I know that this is exactly how you get gigs in East Austin. So, I sat in and stayed almost two years. During this time, W.C.s band was the best band in town- Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Hubert Sumlin, Kim Wilson, and all sorts of old blues guys who were in town to play at Antone's sat in with us. We opened for lots of blues shows- like B.B. King.

After a short timeout to raise my son, Patrick, which I spent running a recording studio in Houston, doing session work on various albums, and holding some jobs I'd rather not think about, I released my first CD, "Sideways Sumlin's Greatest Hits Volume 2," which got lots of airplay on obscure blues labels in Europe and Asia.

This came in handy when one of the tunes off my next CD, "...of Trains and Angels" showed up on a compilation CD in Germany. I sued the label and we settled for a record deal. Win-win. That led to 5 more CDs on ZYX records, lots of compilation CDs, and- more importantly, because we all know that European labels are a little casual about paying royalties- they got my CDs in pretty much every record store in Europe and a surprising amount of radio airplay.

This led to some fun tours: Germany (lots of times), England (Micky, I'm coming for you, son), Scotland, Sweden, and a drunken/stoned chorus or two in Amsterdam.

In 2005 I retired to write best-selling books and become an Internet Marketing consultant. It's a long story and you don't need to know. You've got sordid stuff in your past, too, I'll bet.

In 2011, I started playing little gigs around Terlingua, Texas. I was trying to "seduce my muse" into coming back. She did. I eventually played on a few CDs recorded in Study Butte, a few jam sessions around Austin, and remembering why I did it in the first place.

In 2013, LaRoja and I moved to Terlingua. I'm staying busy doing my "day job" music - New Age tracks for motivational audios and music for films and videos. In addition, I'm playing with the Badlands Blues Band, doing session work, and promoting benefit concerts.

NEWS- New CD, "Uncle Pat's Imaginary Blues Band- Terlingua Bootleg" is out now. 10 tracks ranging from the acoustic National Steel based "Little Red Rooster" to Blues-Rock versions of standards like "Breaking Up Somebody's Home" and "Spoonful," to the highly electronic "Wang Dang Doodle," the CD is getting lots of attention, especially in Europe.

I'll be taking my imaginary blues band on the road here in Texas, first.