I have said a lot about the whole process of planning, recording and releasing our brandnew album "That Hot And Blue Guitar", but I haven't said anything about the individual songs. I told you the old Texas Heat records are all sold out, but that only considers four songs that had been recorded before. There's a total of eleven songs on the album, which means there are seven songs that hadn't been recorded before by Texas Heat. Let's have a look:

1) "Johnny Cash And Me": I had written "Johnny Cash And Me" a couple of years ago, and we have been playing it live since 2015. It was about time this one got recorded. It's basically the story of how Johnny Cash found his way into my life and my heart. It all started in the summer of 1973. I didn't speak English yet. You didn't start to learn English in Germany before 5th grade. Thank God this has changed! So, I didn't understand a word on any of these first 13 songs I heard on that old yellow AGFA tape that summer. It was the dark voice and Luther's "boom-chicka-boom" on his Fender Esquire that got me hooked. The song takes you all the way from 1973 right into the present, stopping here and there to tell you how "the virus" got worse. Oh, and four days ago, I found that ole yellow tape back. What a treasure!

2) "The Sunken Lands": This is the first song on a Texas Heat CD that I didn't write. It's a masterpiece written by John's daughter Rosanne and her husband John Leventhal. Elli picked the song for its mere beauty. It tells the story of that little house in Dyess, Arkansas that J.R. Cash grew up in. The main character in this song is John's mother Carrie (Rivers) Cash, a woman I had the pleasure and honor of having met in the summer of 1984 in Hendersonville, TN.  Life on a cotton farm sure must have been tough.

3) "Old Black Record": Yeah, yet again! I know, I know... I recorded "OBR" numerous times over the years, but we couldn't record this album without re-recording MY signature song. I'm proud of this tune. It tells the story of Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two at the beginning of their career, in Memphis, TN at SUN Records. The Tennessee Two were Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant. They're still my favorite band. This one's for you, guys!

4) "Like John And June Every Night": We have been playing this song since 2015, just like "Johnny Cash And Me". I wanted to write a song about the love John and June shared. It ended up being more of a tribute to June. June was a wonderful, kind, warm-hearted woman with a great sense of humor. I've said so many things about John, it was time to write and sing about June, too. So, this one's for Valerie June Carter. Thanks for being kind to me and treating me like a friend, June!

5) "That September Day": Manfred Vogel, one of the prime experts in our country when it comes to Country Music, calls this song "the best Johnny Cash tribute song of all". Dirk Neuhaus of country.de calls it "the best song you have written". I guess you can tell these words make me proud. I wrote this song on a cold, snowy December night in 2011 from notes I'd had for a couple of years that make up the first two and half verses. I had talked to a fellow Cash fan about "where were you when you got the news John had passed". We both knew. I started writing at about 2:30am, thought I'd had it finished at about 5:15am, only to realize that the fifth verse didn't make any sense. So I took the first half of that verse and added a new second half. Then I wrote the first two lines of a new sixth verse and added the two lines that didn't fit in the fifth verse. Mission accomplished, 6:30am. Hard work, a lot of tears, but a proud moment. The original recording had a violin on it, but Elli's voice sounds much more fitting. I love this new version!

6) "Redemption Day": Sheryl Crow stood at June's open casket and performed the old Carter Family classic "On The Sea Of Galilee" for June's memorial service. Somehow, her music fit into John's world during his days with Rick Rubin and American Recordings. He recorded "Redemption Day" in 2003. it ended up on "American VI: Ain't No Grave". Sheryl Crow had recorded it for one of her first albums. There's a somewhat weird remix of John's recording that Elli found on the internet. Both John and Sheryl Crow recorded it in the exact same key, so Sheryl performed it on stage as a duet with John, with John's voice coming from a hard disc and his photo displayed on a huge screen in the back of the stage. It's on youtube. Go watch it. It's great! We combined the three versions, Elli sings it, and our friend Erwin Van De Ven adds his brilliant mandolin playing.

7) "The Visit": John's final studio album was the aforementioned "American VI: Ain't No Grave", which came out shortly before his birthday in 2010. I was alone at home when it was dropped into my mailbox. I took the CD and put it in the player. I sat quietly as he took me on a trip, as he had done with every album since 1977, when "The Last Gunfighter Ballad" was the first new album I had bought. It was a tough time listening to these songs, knowing this would be my final time to listen to a new album. Yes, there were and will be unreleased things being released, collector's editions, whatever, but not a new album (unless Rick Rubin decides there'll be an American VII, but he said it won't happen). I cried through most of the record, with a little laughter here and there. The last song is the final goodbye... aloha oe. I sat quietly for ten minutes after the album had ended, then I wrote "The Visit", right on the spot. It felt like John had come around this one last and final time to tell me a story. More than any other song, THIS ONE is my tribute to John. It's a very personal song. Words cannot express how I feel about him.

8) "That Hot And Blue Guitar": I sat in front of my computer in late July 2011, checking my emails. Yes, I'm a record-buying nut. It was a Saturday. One of the mails announced the re-release of John's first album for SUN, "Johnny Cash With His Hot And Blue Guitar", on vinyl. I clicked on the link, and another window opened, showing the album cover. I didn't buy that release (I think I didn't...), but I wrote this song, right on the spot. I used the expression "That Hot And Blue Guitar" as a synonym for "Johnny Cash". The guitar breaks are put together from pieces of Luther breaks. The intro and outro are all mine. I got an award for the song, back in 2013... for a song I wrote. Makes me proud! But more than that, the song itself makes me proud. It's powerful and uptempo,  filled with energy. The song inspired the photo on the disc and in the sleeve. My two main guitars, P.o.W. (standing for "Piece Of Wood", the love song I wrote for this 1982 52 vintage reissue Telecaster) and LPB (standing for "Lake Placid Blue", the color of this 2009 FSR Fender Baja Tele), are the guitars I made this album with. P.o.W. has been on stage with Johnny Cash, once, on April 25, 1988, in Ludwigshafen, in the hands of my friend Bob Wootton, John's lead guitar player from September 17, 1968 all the way to 1999 and John's final appearance with his band.

9) "Etta's Tune": A masterpiece, written by Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal. The first time I heard this song, I cried all the way through it. I still do, at times. Etta is Marshall Grant's wife of 65 years. Marshall wrote a book about his life with Johnny Cash, "I Was There When It Happened". Go buy it and read it! NOBODY knew all these stories better than Marshall. I called him on the phone, one time in 1995, around the time I wrote "Old Black Record". He didn't know me. We talked for about 30 minutes. What a WONDERFUL, friendly and kind person he was! I wished I could have met him, just once. Luther passed away on August 5, 1968. On August 6, 2011, Texas Heat played the first official Johnny Cash tribute gig. On August 7, 2011, Marshall passed away. I cried my heart out. There's a video on youtube in which Rosanne tells the story behind this song. Elli sings it, and her singing moves me deeply, every single time I listen to this recordong or play and sing the song with her.

10) "Cash In My Heart": I wrote this song on September 12, 2012. I wanted to be close to John that day. It describes him the way I see him. You may agree or disagree. It's my song. My tribute. "He conquered my heart to never leave again". "The best kind of music I ever could find". "To not notice him, well, you'd have had to be blind". "When the world wrote him off, new success would unwind". All true. Just like "He outsold The Beatles, he outlived the king". True, in 1969. And the last truth in this song: "I still spend my money on the records he made, and of the times that I met him, there's none I would trade". No, not at all!

11) "Heart On The Highway": I wrote this in early 2014. No, it's not about Johnny Cash or anybody around him. This one's about my love for Elli. It's a tribute to the love we have, a story about those 15 months I drove back and forth between my old home and my new one. I had to steal that one expression from Kris Kristofferson. It has fascinated and moved me for decades. In some of his songs, he uses the adjective "holy" to describe love and other gifts from God. "Burning love, so true and holy". There's nothing dirty about the love Elli and I have for each other. Nothing. "Holy" is more than fitting, in my eyes. I love her with all my heart. Without her, there wouldn't be this new Texas Heat line-up, or this record. And I take the sound I learned from all these Johnny Cash records, shows, videos, DVDs and use it on songs I have written or will write. Not all, but there'll always be some. The end of this record is the re-ignition of everything Texas Heat has stood for over the years and will stand for in the future.

Bernd Wolf, February 28, 2018

I really have to tell you all about our new album, "That Hot And Blue Guitar". We'll release it on Friday, February 23, 2018. It'll almost coincide with Johnny Cash's birthday on February 26, but that is not intentional. It just so happens, even though this is an album about Johnny Cash. But let's start at the beginning.

"There's this great studio around the corner from where I live. I'd like to record a band there. How about it, Bernd?" These may have not been the exact words, but that's how it all started. My friend Danny Hendriks, now formerly frontman and lead singer of the Music Road Pilots, started talking to me about "this studio". De Moor Studios in Wijchen in the Netherlands, that's what he was talking about. Texas Heat hadn't recorded anything in years, and all our old CDs were long sold out, and I wasn't allowed to have them repressed or use the recordings in any form. Since these were all my songs, though, songs I had written, I could always go back and record them again. This was the time. I thought we needed a PureCASH album to sell at our shows, and get this Johnny Cash theme done and settled to be able to move forward. So, with a lot of planning and checking different schedules, we went to Wijchen in November. It hurt to not be able to see my son Dean on his birthday, the first time ever in 17 years, but it was the only weekend that worked. So Elli, Jens, Gunnar and myself hit the road and drove to Wijchen. We checked into our B&B somewhere in the vicinity, and with great excitement, we drove over to the studio. Danny greeted us and introduced us to the studio owner, Jules Peters. What a nice guy! And looking around the recording room, I knew this was gonna be great if we managed to play well. Three days... well, two and a half, actually, of hard work lay ahead. Sunday at around 6pm, we stopped the session. We had recorded all eleven songs with the full band, worked on individual tracks here and there, recorded some extra guitars and left the rest for another weekend. We had to record the vocals and record some more guitars. We went home tired and happy, knowing there was more hard work waiting in the future. There was one moment on this weekend where I knew that the album was going to be great. Danny and I listened to "Etta's Tune", a song written by Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal about Etta and Marshall Grant that we recorded for this album, when Elli came into the control room and said, "Is this us? Really? Cool!" From the very first note on that we recorded, I knew Danny was the right guy to record us.

Two months later, in January 2018, Elli and I drove out to that area again to record the remaining guitars and all the vocals (we had recorded scratch vocals while recording the band, of course). Saturday morning, we started the second round of recordings in the attic of Danny's house. The guitars came in great, a little editing here and there, and then it was time to start singing. Danny had a number of great studio mics. We tested them all, recorded some lines and compared, then made a decision as to who would sing through which microphone. The fun we had recording the band in November was at least repeated, if not doubled. Three singers... three Country singers, that is, supporting each other to get the timings, the phasings, the notes, the sound and, most importantly, the emotions down on tape... ah, excuse me, hard disc. If I hadn't experienced it in November, it would have become more than obvious here what a hard worker with great ears Danny is. What a pleasure to work with him! We ended up getting everything recorded by Sunday night. Erwin Van De Ven, a supernice guy, great Bluegrass picker and great repairsman, dropped by on Sunday to bring Danny a guitar he had worked on. And since he brought his mandolin, we thought there certainly was room on our record for a Gibson F5. You can hear him beautify "Redemption Day", a Sheryl Crow song that we arranged the Texas Heat way. It now has a certain Bluegrass touch. A Gibson F5 and a Fender Tele on the same song, that's as close as I could come to also salute my other hero, Marty Stuart.

Going home that night, I knew I could have recorded the one or other extra guitar here and there, but the album was really done. Mixing was next, and sending tracks back and forth by Whatsapp sure is a modern way of working together. And I was yet to get in touch with the last person missing in this puzzle, and to say the best was saved for last would not be fair towards Danny and Erwin and my band, but Dion Vermaes sure was worth the wait. Dion mastered our album at De Moor Studios, and, once again, what a supernice and super talented guy he is! Make no mistakes about all this - it was our good, no... our dear friend Danny Hendriks who coordinated all these people and the whole timeline. About a week ago, after two weeks of mixing and talking back and forth, making some suttle and some not so suttle changes, adding reverb here and there, talking about differences in sounds, moving instruments in the mix from the right to the left and back again, finding a guitar missing I wanted to record but forgot to, making a change that makes up for that missing guitar, I had to make a decision in what order I'd want the songs. Elli and I found the right order, I guess. There is no other possible order.

So, finally, three days ago, I received the masters, and I'm happy. The album sounds great! It is way about time to thank Danny Hendriks for his hard work, patience, know-how, his perfect coordination, his friendship and all the fun we had! If you want to record a great record, you should go and contact Danny and his company For The Record Music. More thanks go out to Jessie, Danny's wonderful wife, for her great hospitality. To Jules Peters at De Moor Studios: I hope YOU are satisfied with our results! Your studio is a great place, my friend! Thanks for inviting us and letting us put some serious boom-chicka-boom through your facility!  To Erwin Van De Ven: thanks for stopping by and putting some of your talent into our record! And thanks for taking care of my boxes. Finally, to Dion Vermaes: Thanks for your talent and for putting the right finishing touches to our record! To you all: We'll be back!

One last word: These songs, at least eight of them, are a piece of my heart. I'm proud of these songs, I'm proud of these recordings, I'm proud of my band! Please support us and everybody involved in this project by buying this record. Support independent musicians and all these extremely talented people involved in their projects!

Bernd Wolf, Texas Heat, February 3, 2018

13.11.2017 

So, nach langer Zeit mal wieder ein Posting. Es war viel los über den Sommer, vor und hinter den Kulissen. Ich hatte im Mai von einer EP geschrieben, die wir aufnehmen. Die Arbeiten daran sind noch im Gange. Wir hoffen, Euch diese EP mit fünf Songs im Februar auf dem Country Music Meeting in Berlin präsentieren zu können. Darüber werde ich in einem anderen Post mehr sagen. 

Jetzt zum vergangenen Wochenende: Elli, Gunnar, Jens und ich waren in Wijchen in den Niederlanden, um dort Aufnahmen zu machen. Sicher ist Vielen bekannt, daß ich die alten Aufnahmen von Texas Heat nicht mehr verwenden darf. Aber wir richten den Blick nach vorne! Wir haben am Freitag in den De Moor Studios in Wijchen mit den Aufnahmen für ein PureCASH Album begonnen. Unser guter Freund Danny Hendriks ist mit seiner Firma "For The Record Music"  unser Partner für diese Aufnahmen. Danny ist ein exzellenter Toningeneur, mit generell einem sehr guten Ohr und kreativen Ideen, im Besonderen aber für Country und Americana. Somit fiel unsere Wahl naturgemäß auf ihn. Danny und ich kennen und schätzen uns seit Jahren und sind Freunde. Ich kann mich auf ihn verlassen und habe vollstes Vertrauen in ihn und seine Fähigkeiten. So starteten wir am frühen Freitag nach Wijchen, um die Arbeit an diesem Album zu beginnen. Was soll ich sagen? Uns erwartete ein großartiges Studio mit tollem Raumklang, bester technischer Ausstattung und einer warmen, freundlichen Atmosphäre. Jules, der Chef des Studios, begrüßte uns ebenso herzlich wie unser Freund Danny. Nach einer kurzen Tour durch die Räumlichkeiten ging es dann an Aufbau und Soundcheck, um noch am Freitag die ersten Tracks im Kasten zu haben. Das Arbeiten dort ist entspannt und geradezu ideal. Wir haben die Zeit dort gut genutzt, um möglichst weit zu kommen. Das alles passierte ruhig, entspannt, zu null Prozent hektisch, mit höchster Konzentration und wachsender Begeisterung vor und hinter der großen Scheibe. Die Arbeit mit Danny macht riesigen Spaß, denn er versteht sein Handwerk und kann sich sehr gut auf das jeweilige Projekt und den jeweiligen Song einlassen, was die Grundvoraussetzung für beste Endergebnisse ist. 

Da ich aktuell über gar keine verwertbaren Aufnahmen verfüge, ging es mit "Old Black Record" los. Also freut Euch drauf, bald gibt es einen der absoluten Texas Heat Klassiker wieder auf CD! Das Gleiche gilt auch für "That Hot And Blue Guitar". Der Sound bis hierher ist absolut Hammer, wir sind allerdings noch nicht fertig und reden derzeit noch von nackten und nicht fertiggestellten Tracks. Seid also gespannt, wir halten Euch weiter auf dem Laufenden! Und an unsere Musikerkollegen: Der Weg nach Wijchen lohnt sich sehr! Schaut mal bei "For The Record Music" auf Facebook vorbei und lasst Danny ein "Gefällt mir" da. Und wenn Ihr Aufnahmen plant, dann solltet Ihr mit ihm reden. Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, irgendwo einen besseren und kompetenteren Partner zu finden! Danny's the man (and I told him)!  ;-) 

Das Album werden wir nach derzeitigem Planungsstand ebenfalls zum Country Music Meeting vorstellen und dabei haben.

Was haben wir in den letzten ein, zwei Jahren so alles gehört und gelesen. "Lügenpresse" und "Fake News" sind da nur die zuerst ins Gedächtnis kommenden Schlagwörter. Ich halte davon sehr wenig. Für Musiker ist die Presse ein wichtiger, unverzichtbarer Partner. Wir freuen uns in den allermeisten Fällen über Erwähnung in der Presse, am liebsten natürlich positiv. Und manchmal ist es nur ein einziger, vielleicht auch nur sehr kurzer Satz, der dann zum Problem wird.

So einen Fall hatten wir heute, tagesaktuell. Ein großer Artikel über Texas Heat im Vorausblick auf unser Konzert am kommenden Sonntag in der Kulturkneipe "Alte Post" in Sandhatten. Toller, großer Artikel mit Farbfoto. Alles gut. Und dann...  der fragliche Satz lautet: "Dieses wird die Band auch in Sandhatten spielen." Tja, und da liegt der Haken. "Dieses" bezog sich nämlich auf unser Johnny Cash Tribute Programm "PureCASH". Und genau DAS spielen wir am Sonntag NICHT! Am Sonntag gibt es nämlich Texas Heat.

Also wenn irgendwer hier weit und breit Cash Fan ist, dann bin ich das. Soweit gut und schön. Und die Bandgeschichte von Texas Heat lässt sich ohne den Man in Black auch nicht erzählen. Aber wir sind tatsächlich keine Johnny Cash Tribute Band und waren das auch nie. Wir spielen lediglich seit gut fünf Jahren ein Sonderprogramm, das mittlerweile PureCASH heisst. Ich war übrigens ein erklärter Gegner davon, das überhaupt zu machen. Warum? Texas Heat hatte ein eigenes Gesicht, und der Erfolg gab uns Recht, aber auch nur so lange, bis das Tribute Programm kam.

Wir haben am 20.05. mit den Arbeiten an unserer EP begonnen. Diese wird fünf eigene Songs enthalten, und keiner davon wird auch nur entfernt etwas mit Johnny Cash zu tun haben. Mit dieser EP kommt das eigentliche Gesicht von Texas Heat wieder ans Tageslicht, und das wird allerhöchste Zeit! Nun wollen wir ja niemanden vor den Kopf stossen. Einige eigene Songs im Cash-Sound haben wir ja immer dabei, denn "Old Black Record" ist gesetzt, bei allen Konzerten, ebenso wie "That Hot And Blue Guitar". "OBR" (so heisst Old Black Record in der Kurzform) kommt als erster Song, Hot And Blue fast am Ende. Und dazwischen gibt es... richtig, Texas Heat! Seid Ihr dabei? Barbecue, Bier, Burger und Texas Heat, so heisst die Formel für Sonntag, mit der Betonung auf Texas Heat. Alte Post in Sandhatten, um 11:00h. Kommt hin und bringt die Sonne mit!

Ach ja, nochwas: Da Fehler immer mal passieren können: Texas Heat ist heute im Lokalteil für Hatten in der NWZ. Danke dafür an Werner Fademrecht (schönen Urlaub weiterhin!) und Nils Coordes.

Bis Sonntag!

19.05.2017

Hallo zusammen! Na, nicht zwingend jeden Tag... gestern hab ich nix geschrieben. Heute schon. Ich denke, wir sind fit für's Studio. Nix Coversongs... fünf eigene Songs der Band, davon vier neue, bisher ungehörte Eigenkompositionen. Ulla hat zwei Melodien komponiert, Elli hat zu einer der Melodien die Lyrics geschrieben, ich zur Anderen. Und drei von mir. Wer uns vor Jahren mal live gesehen hat, der kennt "Stay Out Of My Honky Tonk" vielleicht noch. Das Live-Video dazu aus der Sense 2010 ist längst vom Netz. Wer das wohl war? Also ich ganz sicher nicht. Jedenfalls war der Song nun dran. Fette Teles und crispe Akustikgitarren, so mag ich das! ;-)

Morgen nehmen wir die Drums auf und spielen live dazu, danach geht's dann weiter mit Bass und unserer lustigen Gitarrenorgie, wie immer. Ich freue mich tierisch auf alle fünf Songs! Elli singt wirklich beeindruckend! Ulla hat ihr quasi Melodien maßgeschneidert. Wir haben viel gearbeitet diese Woche, und nun geht's endlich los! Wir lesen uns!  :-)

17.05.2017

Das war wirklich sehr heftig heute! Eine großartige Probe, bei der wir einen komplett neuen Song arrangiert haben. Und was soll ich sagen... Texas Heat ist zurück in altbewährter Qualität, wenn nicht noch besser. Es macht einfach einen wahnsinnigen Spaß mit dieser Besetzung! Ich habe heute das Duett vorarrangiert. "Heaven On Earth" kommt auch aus meinem Songkatalog, musste aber angepasst werden. Ein Song von 2014, aus der Anfangszeit von Elli und mir und der Gründungszeit  unseres Duos Sweet Chili, der lange in der Schublade geschlummert hat. Elli hat mit Ulla an zwei weiteren Songs gearbeitet. Somit stehen die fünf Songs für die EP fest. Am Freitag wird weiter geprobt, und Samstag nehmen wir die ersten Tracks auf. Wenn man bedenkt, dass Ulla zwei Melodien geschrieben hat und Elli und ich für jeweils einen der Songs den Text quasi aus dem Stand geschrieben haben, dann finde ich das wirklich toll! Ich freue mich wahnsinnig auf die weitere Arbeit mit dieser wunderbaren Besetzung!

15.05.2017
Hallo zusammen, ich habe noch ein paar kleinere Anpassungen vorgenommen. Die Facebook-Buttons sind da, die Menüpunkte sind zum Teil auf deutsche Wörter geändert, die Schrift ist schwarz, die Fotos haben geringere Datenmengen, sodaß hoffentlich die Seite auch schneller lädt. Die Farben habe ich angepasst. Alles kleine Änderungen und Anpassungen, die dafür sorgen sollen, dass die Seite(n) für Euch angenehmer und schöner werden.

Ihr dürft uns gerne schreiben, was Ihr gut und nicht gut findet. Bitte bitte benutzt dazu NICHT den "Leave a comment" Button unter den Blogs! Diese Funktion wird noch abgeschaltet. Schreibt uns gerne an info@texasheat.de , was Euch gefällt und was eher weniger oder gar nicht. Wir möchten das gerne wissen, denn diese Seiten sind für Euch da!

Die Funktionen "Music" und "Shop" sind voreingerichtet, aber da findet Ihr noch nichts. Das kommt noch, nur Geduld! Es wird auch später eine Anbindung an unseren Youtube Account geben. Auch das braucht noch etwas Zeit.

Danke für's Lesen und Grüße an alle!  :-)

14.05.2017
Hallo und herzlich willkommen im Texas Heat Blog! Hier werdet Ihr in der Zukunft immer wieder Neues direkt von der Band erfahren.

Am kommenden Wochenende gehen wir endlich wieder ins Studio. Der Plan ist es, eine EP mit fünf neuen Tracks von uns aufzunehmen. Wir werden Euch auf dem Laufenden halten, welche Songs wir aufnehmen werden. Ab Juni werden wir die Songs auch live spielen. Also kommt in die Alte Post nach Sandhatten, wenn Ihr neugierig seid! Wir freuen uns auf Euch!