Doug Sahm – Groover’s Paradise

A groove you can drive a truck through
wider than a Texas mile

I’ve been waiting until I could start listening to the former lead singer of the Sir Douglas Quintet. The time has arrived, and I knew it would be some quality music, and I’ve enjoyed dipping my toe in the Doug Sahm waters. I’d heard his music from the ’60s and ’90s, but didn’t know much about the 1970s; it didn’t disappoint.

Texan Doug Sahm was an exceptional talent. By the time most kids were still figuring out how to play Little League, Sahm was already on stage. At age 11, he played steel guitar at the Skyline Club in Austin, sharing the bill with Hank Williams on what was one of Hank’s final performances on December 19, 1952.

Why choose one genre when you can play ‘em all? He could play country, blues, Tex-Mex, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, and anything else that came his way. He was one of those musicians who seemed to be a walking jukebox.

This song is very country-rock and has a San Francisco hippie feel to it. He was basically Americana before Americana was a popular word. He didn’t chase trends at all; he did what made him happy, and that is why his music sounds so genuine. He hung out in San Francisco for a while in the early seventies. Among his friends were Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Willie Nelson, and the Grateful Dead. But he always went back to Texas.

This song is the title track from his 1974 album. It was produced by none other than Doug Clifford and Stu Cook of Creedence Clearwater Revival; the album has a loose, laid-back feel, and Clifford played drums. This song is a tribute to Austin, celebrating the unique blend of hippies, cowboys, and soul that defined the city in the mid-1970s.

For me, he was like a bridge between genres and generations. He could play an accordion song, a honky-tonk ballad, then rip into a garage rock, all in the same set.

Here is one of his sons, Shandon Sahm, playing this song.

An entire concert, but I have it starting on Groover’s Paradise.

Groover’s Paradise

Go out on the highway
I thumbed myself a ride
Too long in New York City
My mind is taking a ride

I want to go back to Texas
Cosmic cowgirls playin’
I want to have some fun
in a good ole Texas way
Down in Groover’s Paradise
Groover’s Paradise, Groover’s Paradise

Told you one or two times
Ain’t gonna tell you no more
Too long in Detroit city
I can’t hardly breathe no more

I need a whole lot of cold Pearl beer
and a little Texas smile
A groove you can drive a truck through
wider than a Texas mile
Down in Groover’s Paradise
Groover’s Paradise, Groover’s Paradise

Groover’s Paradise!

Well the guacamole queen is there
Man she’ll really curl your hair
Enchiladas and Bar B Que
Come on baby what you gonna do?

Come on over here beside me
Tell me how you’ve been
When I get done layin’ it on you
Then you’ll know I am back again
Back in Groover’s Paradise
Groover’s Paradise, Groover’s Paradise

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

30 thoughts on “Doug Sahm – Groover’s Paradise”

  1. A true American treasure! And a shoutout to Augie Meyers (over in the corner on the Vox Continental organ in the live video), the last survivor of the Texas Tornados and co-author of two of their Spanglish songs, “Guacamole” and “Hey baby, ¿qué pasó?”

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  2. Excellent stuff. Thanks for putting the whole album on there. Great album cover. “Why choose one genre when you can play ’em all?”. Indeed. What I saw of the live video was great, will watch more later.

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  7. Pingback: Doug Sahm – Groover’s Paradise – MobsterTiger

    2. Record pile? I imagine it is as tall as the Empire State Building. I’m not gonna reach for the joke of you being King Kong, but you get the idea…

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  11. I’ve often heard over the years, that without Doug’s influence or interference, there would not have been the Austin music scene of the 70s as we know it. He was the original Cosmic Cowboy, way before Michael Martin Murphy and JJ Walker. I heard The SDQ in San Antonio in the late 60s at some street dance I attended with a friend, down on a square near the Alamo (how appropriate). I thought they might have been a Brit band, but, nope, just a bunch of San Antonio guys acting like they were from Fabs-land. I then saw him again at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin in mid 74 or 75, that was back when everybody had red eyes and drank Lone Star Longnecks, had long hair and wore straw cowboy hats, sandals or Justin boots, a very confused group of people in that town at that time. I’ve not heard his back story on playing with Hank Williams, but that sounds about right. Another fine trip into Texas musical history, Max.

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    1. Thanks for your input Phil. I figured that you saw him at some point. I just can’t get enough of his music…and I’m constantly on the look out for this other stuff. He did love Austin at this time no doubt… He seemed like the real deal….genuine.

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      1. I read this post when you first upped it. I am rereading it now. First thought, and oh boy is this hyperbole, in one way, Doug Sahm is Americana. Naw, that’s too much, even for him.

        I remember the Sir Douglas Quintet. It was one of the first times I encountered (or was aware of) music business hype. The Sir business was just the record company’s trying to put together another American answer to the Beatles. Doug played some of the local Los Angeles television shows and you could tell he was just being himself doing what the times called for.

        I have mentioned them before. There are two recordings by The Formerly Brothers, which included Sahm, Amos Garrett and Gene Taylor. Just another example of great music.

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      1. Thanks, CB. I guess I was lucky, or perhaps at times, unlucky to have been around all that madness in those years. I survived it and came away with many a rousing tale. Now I’m so old I’ve forgotten most of them. The only rock music I play now is in our church band, and that can get pretty darn stompin.

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  12. Wait a minute. The only rock music you play now is in your church band… What does that mean? All popular music can track itself to church music.

    And don’t get me started on the wonderful dichotomy of Georgia Thomas A. Dorsey. It’ll all save your soul, whether your soul needs it or not.

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  13. Thanks for the link to the Austin show. I’m listening to it now. Loose, not the greatest recording quality, but a show that I’d bet 5 times as many claim to have been there for than could fit in the hall. Amazing show. An all-star band for one show only. (For those who haven’t followed the link, the band is fronted by Dough Sahm on vocals and guitar, with Leon Russell piano and vocals, Jerry Garcia pedal steel guitar, guitar, and vocals, Mary Egan and Benny Thurman violins, Phil Lesh bass, Jerry Barnett drums. Anyone there you haven’t heard of was an Austin musician.)

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    1. My pleasure! I loved it and with Sahm…if I get just one or two people who haven’t heard of him to listen…that would be a job well done. You were right the other day…he is a American Treasure that more people should know.

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