RIP Jerry Wexler - Is Anybody Going to San Antone

For all the accolades former Atlantic Records honcho Jerry Wexler received this week since his passing in Florida (the day Wexler died, Bruce Springsteen dedicated his R&B-flavored "Back In Your Arms" to him in Jacksonville), his obits cannot help but focus on his work with soul greats Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett. But let it not be forgotten that some of his best work involved Texas artists including Lou Ann Barton, Doug Sahm and Willie Nelson.

Most folks know that just a few years after Nelson moved to Austin in 1970, Wexler helped the Nashville outlaw with his career-defining albums Shotgun Willie and especially Phases And Stages -- Rhino's 2006 reissues of both albums contained this quote from Wexler about meeting Willie: "Somebody introduced us and it was instant karma... I have been told time and time again by the well informed... that it's up there with his best recordings." Who knows if Willie would've traveled to Muscle Shoals to record Phases And Stages without Wexler's involvement?

A decade later, Wexler (and Eagle Glenn Frey) helped Lou Ann Barton establish her career with her 1982 debut Old Enough. The April 1, 1982 issue of "Rolling Stone" said this about Barton's album: "Old Enough is one of Jerry Wexler's finest achievements as a producer, as well as an impressive production debut for Glenn Frey." Certainly, none of Barton's albums have been as focused as the first one.

This week, I'm listening to Doug Sahm And Band, the 1973 solo debut produced by Wexler and Arif Mardin. The album where Bob Dylan plays uncredited, and where Sahm unleashes such classics as "(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone," "Don't Turn Around" and even Nelson's "Me And Paul." It stands as one of the finest Texas country albums ever recorded.