TCB

Big Al

Longtime Austin scenester Al Ragle passed away June 8 from complications of hepatitis C and cholangitis. Ragle, 54, grew up in Dallas’ Highland Park neighborhood, spent several years in San Francisco before moving to Austin in the early Seventies. “He was always part of the woof and weave of the music business in Austin,” says (Condo) Joe Bryson, who owned Inner Sanctum records until 1984. Ragle, who worked at Inner Sanctum until 1980, had a special fondness for New Orleans music, remembers Bryson, as well as for cosmic cowboys like Milton Carroll, Gary P. Nunn, and Billy Joe Shaver, who Ragle managed for a brief period. “He was one of those gentle giants,” says Bryson. “A big guy, but just a real sweetheart. You couldn’t help liking him.” Ragle worked at a number of other local record shops, including Sound Warehouse, Music Mania, and most recently, Antone’s Records. “He was always good for a laugh,” says Antone’s manager Mike Buck. “He always had something funny to say, [plus] he always had some scheme going. He was a real wheeler-dealer type of guy.” The gregarious Ragle was also a familiar face in the clubs, holding down jobs at Antone’s, the Austin Opry House, La Zona Rosa, the Backyard, and the Continental Club when he wasn’t on the road with Paul Ray & the Cobras and this week’s cover subject, Marcia Ball. In recent years, he ran the music-history Web site Dowop.com and Realiza Records (home to Eliza Gilkyson) with girlfriend Nancy Gilkyson. Ragle is survived by his parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niece, as well as literally hundreds of friends and acquaintances. “You can’t call Al a slacker because he worked,” says Bryson, “but he was there on the scene always.”

Ailing Al

Another of Austin’s beloved Als, Alejandro Escovedo, is having his own problems with hepatitis C, a deadly, still-incurable ailment that continues cropping up in musicians and revelers of an era where decadence had few tangible consequences (The Growing Chorus ). “He’s doing OK,” affirms friend and sometime guitarist/guitar tech Alan Durham. “It depends on the day. If it’s a treatment day, then it’s really, really bad.” Durham notes Escovedo was well enough to drive into Austin Monday to pick up his kids, but also that, “I talked to him a couple of times last week and he could barely speak.” Escovedo, who was hospitalized in April following a performance in Tempe, Ariz., has canceled all shows until next March, including a scheduled appearance at September’s Austin City Limits Music Festival. “He’s doing what [doctors] tell him to do,” says Durham, adding Escovedo remains optimistic because “he’s found some people that are very positive they can help him.” Help is also required in coming up with the “major money” necessary for treatment, and to that end, the Continental Club is hosting benefits for Escovedo Wednesday and Thursday. Booked for Wednesday are Sin Pelo (featuring Escovedo bassist Andrew Duplantis), Gary Clark Jr., Jon Dee Graham, Beaver Nelson, and the Gourds‘ Kevin Russell and friends. Taking the stage Thursday are the Real Heroes, Damnations, Li’l Cap’n Travis, Miles Zuniga‘s non-Fastball new band, and Davíd Garza. Cover is $15 both nights, with a jar for additional donations at the door. Bloodshot Records is also organizing a separate benefit in Chicago, and Durham says further contributions can be sent to Escovedo care of manager Heinz Geissler at the Texas Music Group, 805 West Ave. #2, Austin, 78701.

Mixed Notes

Eastside soulman W.C. Clark took Song of the Year for “Let It Rain” at the 2003 W.C. Handy Awards in Memphis, beating out none other than Bob Dylan… Congratulations to the Derailers, the Dixie Chicks, and Charlie Robison for surviving the latest round of bloodletting at Sony Nashville. Not so lucky were Mark Chesnutt, Pam Tillis, Billy Gilman, and Cletus T. Judd, among others… Hollywood Records will re-release Dallas sunshine kids the Polyphonic Spree‘s debut The Beginning Stages of… with four bonus tracks June 24. Look for a new album in early 2004… NYC’s Bamboo Kids will join Issues, 20-Eyed Dragon, and the Revolting at a benefit for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital Saturday at Ego’s. Music starts at 3pm with free barbecue… The Derailers, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Kevin Welch kick-start Serranos’ American Music Festival Friday at Symphony Square. Saturday brings another “Ribbon of Highway” Woody Guthrie tribute with Eliza Gilkyson, Slaid Cleaves, Welch, Michael Fracasso, and Jimmy LaFave. Tickets available through Star Tickets and all Serranos locations; music at 8pm… E Street Band member and The Sopranos consigliere Steven Van Zandt‘s syndicated radio show Little Steven’s Underground Garage, which spins everything from early Stones and The Who to the Hives and the Mooney Suzuki, finally comes to Austin 8pm Sunday on Z-102.3… The Golden Hornet Project celebrates four years of genre-bending 8pm Saturday at the Mercury, as the Tosca String Quartet performs works by Golden Hornets Graham Reynolds and Peter Stopschinski, Trail of Dead‘s Conrad Keely, and others… Jimmy & the Mustangs, veterans of the early-Eighties L.A. scene that spawned X and the Blasters, debut their Austin-based lineup Saturday at Nasty’s with Gravy Boat and Phil Gibbs… Primordial Undermind, Bahrain, and Book of Shadows (ex-ST 37) are part of the lineup for the Summer Solstice Party, Saturday at Garden of the Ancients, 4800 Yager Ln. in Manor. The $5 admission includes free food, beer, and camping.

Bang Bang

Alabama slammers Verbena came rocketing onto the modern rock radar screen with 1999’s Into the Pink, a Dave Grohl-produced slab of bile that contained should’ve-been-hits “Bang Bang” and “Baby Got Shot.” Then they disappeared. Heading into Athens, Ga., frontman Scott Bondy accounted for lost time.

WHY FOUR YEARS? “Lot of things: personnel changes, changes at the label, wanting to have the right songs. Some of it was on our part, but there were some pretty major forces lined up against us. We recorded a record two summers ago that we scrapped. We were in the studio with the wrong guy, and it became apparent early on. It never came to blows, but it came close.”

NEW ALBUM LA MUSICA NEGRA: “I had a great time being in the studio. I looked forward to it more than anything I’ve ever done in my life. This record is miles above the one we threw away.”

NEW BANDS: “It’s just so hard these days — the fact that Interpol and the Faint get over aping to a T bands that were really good and already did that stuff. I don’t think you could get away with that 10 years ago. The Strokes aren’t a band, they’re a Gap commercial. I’m sure they don’t want to be recognized for how messy their hair is and how tight their pants are.”

SURPRISED VERBENA IS STILL AROUND? “Not really. I’m surprised we’re still on our record label, but as far as being a band, no. It’s an intangible thing; I still don’t feel like I can just sit down and write a song. It never became mechanical. I think we’ve gotten better at craft and what our ears want to hear.”

Verbena plays Emo’s Friday with the Deathray Davies, Pleasure Club, and Auna.

Slipped Disc

The Tulia Texas Review

(Iguanaman)

THE USUAL SUSPECTS? Review documents in song the story of the 46 citizens of Tulia, a small town in the Panhandle, who were arrested in July 1999 on felony drug charges. Of the 38 people who were convicted, a majority were African-American, garnering the case national attention from the ACLU, NAACP, and New York Times columnist Bob Herbert.

THEY FOUGHT THE LAW: Austin environmental litigation/human-rights attorney Jeff Frazier, who worked on the Tulia case, wrote all 11 songs on Review and sings on the CD alongside the Malford Milligan Band, Ruben Ramos, and Seattle vocalist Karen Pernick.

FIGHT THE POWER: Songs such as “Deep East Texas Task Force Blues” and “Citizenship” echo the ACLU’s contention that law enforcement ignored proper procedure and the defendants’ civil rights, while “Colored Man” and “Work, Dog, Work” address the general issues of racial and class divisions.

WE SHALL BE FREE: During the 2003 legislative session, Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill allowing the remaining defendants to be released on bail. All but two were set free June 16. The final word on their convictions rests with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Release party 5pm Friday at Waterloo Records