Sir Doug And The Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove

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Directed by Joe Nick Patoski

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 1100 Rock and Roll Boulevard Cleveland, Ohio 44114 216.781.ROCK (7625). Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove: Directed by Joe Nick Patoski. Sir Doug & The Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove tells the story of Doug Sahm, the wild man musicians' musician and unsung hero of Texas music.

USA, 2015

Texas

Genre: Rock, Country

We haven’t run a Music Documentary Monday in a while, but when we asked filmmaker Brendan Toller about his favorites of the year, he responded with such written enthusiasm for this title – an SXSW 2015 premiere, as was his own Danny Says – that we decided on a one-off revival of our review column to share it with readers at length. Check back in a few weeks for our annual round-up of the year in music film, featuring picks from Brendan and host of other connoisseurs.

Joe Nick Patoski is a rock ‘n’ roll/Texas font, penning books on Willie Nelson, Selena, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, LA Times, No Depression, et al., and he quickly rose to Variety’s “Top Documentarians to Watch in 2015″ with his directorial debut, Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove. Doug Sahm’s recordings, legacy, and inducive character are among the thrills of my life, so it was just minutes on the ground at SXSW before Patoski and I were cackling in a corner over a mess of Franklin’s barbecue. This prowess of this production from Austin-based creative team Arts+Labor was the true gem of discovery at SXSW 2015, and few music docs in this “year of the music doc” have reflected the tone and candor of their subject so well.

Doug Sahm is an indefinable character, but here goes. At 7 he was considered San Antonio’s country music prodigy, getting a tip of the hat from Hank Williams himself. In the mid-’60s, at the suggestion of record producer Huey P. Meaux, Sahm partnered with his longtime friend, organist Augie Meyers, and Jack Barber, Frank Morin, and Johnny Perez to form the Sir Douglas Quintet. The Quintet cashed in as a fake British Invasion band with their ’65 smash “She’s About A Mover.” They traveled the country and, like not a few other Texas greats (the 13th Floor Elevators, Johnny Winter, Butthole Surfers), got busted for a few joints. Sahm’s parents mortgaged their house to get him out of jail.

As soon as he shook loose from probation, Sahm moved to San Francisco, and any remaining “redneck” roots were hippified by the LSD revolution. He took this dual sensibility back to Texas, and it defines the forces that have kept his adopted hometown of Austin weird. As his lookalike son Shawn Sahm recalls in the film, Doug was driven by the groove – a desire to keep the whirlwind of beautiful music, women, and food forever in orbit. His eclecticism and showmanship permeate his solo debut, Doug Sahm & Band (produced by Jerry Wexler and featuring contributions from Dr. John, Bob Dylan, and the Memphis Horns), but those qualities didn’t always pay in the bloated ’70s record biz (see also NRBQ). In the ’80s Sahm took the rollicking highs and lows of showbiz to Scandinavia (“Bavarian Baby”!) and Canada, returning home late in the decade to form Tex-Mex supergroup the Texas Tornados. He passed away in 1999 at the early age of 58. Fans include: Jeff Tweedy, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Bottle Rockets, Drive-By Truckers, et al.

Like Sahm, Patoski and Arts+Labor chief Alan Berg are at heart creative-community organizers. They’ve assembled a team of Austinites that wind together beautifully shot interviews, archival stills, and rare footage and audio tapes (including an incredible reel-to-reel recorded by Sahm’s wife foreshadowing her departure from their marriage). Super-8, VHS, and HD formats are embraced and blended to stunning effect by colorist Joe Malina and director of photography Yuta Yamaguchi. Sir Doug and the Genuine Cosmic Texas Groove is infused with a thoughtfulness and heartfelt sense of humor that transcends tribute and effortlessly infects viewers with the groove: you too will be driven to discover astonishing music, love, and food, with Doug Sahm providing your spiritual soundtrack. As Sahm himself put it, “You just can’t live in Texas if you don’t have a lot of soul.”

Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove will go into general release in 2016 via Submarine Entertainment.


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Kickstarter appeal of new film about Austin legend

By Richard Whittaker, 9:00AM, Sat. Jul. 25, 2015

Joe Nick Patoski

Doug Sahm, the musical legend behind Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove(Photo by Nelson Allen, courtesy of the filmmakers)

Important rule for anyone considering making a music documentary: Getting the rights to all the songs you want can be costly and difficult. So a new film about a legend of the Austin music scene is looking for help from the scene he helped found to get those rights secured.

Joe Nick Patoski may be a first-time filmmaker, but his fingerprints are all over the history of Texas music journalism. A former senior editor at Texas Monthly, he's been the biographer of Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Selena, and even spent a stint managing/cat-wrangling seminal Austin rockers the True Believers. Now he's landed himself a director's credit on IMDB with his documentary Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove, chronicling the life and times of everyone's favorite fake aristocrat.

Who was Doug Sahm? As the filmmakers describe him, he was the Texas cat of Texas cats, and Texas’ musical soul, all about the groove. From his faux-British Invasion emulators the Sir Douglas Quintet, through the original Tex-Mex supergroup the Texas Tornados, Sahm was arguably the progenitor of the Austin music scene, the original cosmic cowboy. Admired by Dylan, friends with the Dead, Sahm may be the most influential Texas musician you've never heard of, or even heard. Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove aims to correct both of those omissions.

Full disclosure: Austin Chronicle Editor and co-founder Louis Black is one of the film's executive producers, along with award-winning documentarian and Arts + Labor founder Alan Berg and producer Dawn Johnson (Be Here To Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt).

Patoski's film debuted to sell-out crowds at SXSW 2015 (see 'Texas Me', March 20), but he needs to get the rights cleared for over 40 original Sahm songs, performances, and compositions. The total bill for that comes in at $75,000, and with less than a week to go, Patoski is still $30,000 short. Without those rights, the film will never get to fulfill Patoski's dream of spreading the word about this forgotten legend of Texas music.

This isn't just about getting the film out there around the world. This is about getting Sahm into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and that's why there's a petition accompanying the fundraiser. Even if you don't have a cent to contribute, you can still see your name alongside Carolyn Wonderland and Denny Freeman by signing up (just scroll to the bottom of the Kickstarter page for the link).

Feel like helping out? Head over to the Kickstarter appeal, or find out more at www.dougsahmdoc.com.

One in a Crowd (formerly Kickstart Your Weekend) is a series intended to showcase Texas film and tech projects that are crowdfunding their way to a goal, be it distribution, a prototype, or production costs. If you have a project that we should know about, email us at filmflam@austinchronicle.com.