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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1977)
Musician turns people on with his ‘getting down’ style THE BATTALION Page 5 TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1977 By SUE MUTZEL Battalion Staff B. W. Stevenson and his back-up group resemble gypsies on a road that few can travel successfully. “I like to go on the road,” Steven son said, “but I say that I don’t.” “We re here to make music, try to make people happy, try to keep people dancing, and keep them lis tening to some stuff,” the heavy-set, bearded singer said. “We try to make them think about them selves.” But living on the road isn’t easy. “I mean, I quit about two or three times a week,” he said. “But I can’t — it’s just in my blood. You get that gypsy bone and you can’t ever get rid of it.” “I’ll stay out there as long as they want me to, but when I get off the road, I lay back pretty much — try to write some tunes and relax.” Stevenson talked of being on the road and the music world in general last Thursday afternoon. He was re laxing on his bus-turned-mobile home before his second of two per formances in College Station. With him were his blonde wife, Barbara, and the members of his back-up group, Evangeline Made. Beards and bellies were everywhere as the men sipped beer and talked of their experiences earning a living at music. Evangeline Made, consisting of Kerry Robicheaux, Clarence Smith, Gene Woods, Eddie Hale, Jimmy Adroin and Rod Simon, have only been playing with Stevenson for four or five performances. Both Stevenson and the group noted differences in audiences wherever they have traveled. “They vary in every city, every club and every place,” Stevenson said. “It depends on the night and on how everybody’s feeling — what’s going on in the air.” “There’s a certain magic in the air one night,” he explained, “the next night it may be gone.” “You’ve got to feel your audience sometimes,” Robicheaux said. “You pace your show at times.” This “feel” doesn’t develop over night. “It just comes by working in a lot of clubs,” Stevenson said. “You ain’t got no experience —- you can’t feel the audience.” Playing in different areas of the country draws different reactions to their music. Evangeline Made recently per formed in California and received an overwhelming response. “Just coming from the South, in a lot of places in the United States, turns people on,” Robicheaux said. “Just the idea that we re from that part of the country (Louisiana) seems to turn some people on au tomatically,” he said. Bill possibly unconstitutional United Press International AUSTIN — Somewhere in Texas there apparently is a town that either wants to get rid of its office holders or have something special passed, and wherever that town is, the Senate has voted to help them. The Senate has approved a possi bly unconstitutional bill by Sen. William Moore, D-Bryan, which ex tends recall, initiative and referen dum powers to Texas cities with populations between 2,540 and 2,560 in the last federal census. “I don’t know what city this cov ers,” Moore said. “It doesn’t cover any city in my district. It’s a fairly narrow bracket bill that covers one city but I don’t know the name of that city. ” A search of census statistics in the Legislative Reference Library indi cates five Texas cities fit that descrip tion — Hooks, Bowie County with a population of2,545; Piney Point Vil lage, Harris County with 2,548 resi dents; San Saba with 2,555 people, and Lacy Lakeview, McLennan County, and Kirby, Bexar County, with identical populations of 2,558. The Texas’ constitution prohibits passing local or special laws where a general law could be made applica ble. Courts repeatedly have ruled the constitutional provision forbids narrowly drawn bracket bills. “It’s as unconstitutional as it can be,” said Sen. A. M. Aikin Jr., D-Paris. “It’s a question of whether you’re willing to vote for an uncon stitutional bill or against a senator’s local bill.” The bill was approved on a voice vote. Big Results! CLASSIFIED ADS! “It’s (the South) an area of the United States not a whole lot of people have a chance to understand or visit.” Stevenson wasn’t sure if the sound he and his band are spreading is actually “progressive country.” “I don’t even know what that means,” he said. “The Austin sound,” so often as sociated with progressive country, drew another reaction. “I put the wheels on that band wagon,” Stevenson said. He does consider himself a part of the Austin music scene. “Certainly,” he said, “I live down there.” “I don’t want to be put into a cat egory to where I can’t be versatile enough to turn on an audience — say in New York or someplace like that — where they listen to differ ent types of music,” Stevenson said. “You have to be versatile or you’re going to kill yourself.” Somebody made up the Austin sound and progressive country sound labels for a style of music, ac cording to Stevenson. Everybody' has their roots in that kind of music because they re from the country, he said. Stevenson didn’t really grow up in the country though. But every summer, he worked on his uncle’s farm. “I really didn’t even like country-western till just recently ” he said. His uncle, who was a blacksmith, turned him on to “getting down” to music, Stevenson said. “Getting down” to music as a pro fessional is not an easy thing to do. “This is the most frustrating, complex business there is,” accord ing to Stevenson. “I mean, I didn’t start like just all of a sudden I was there,” he said. “But I still ain’t there.” “You’ve got to get out there and do it. You can’t come to someplace and expect to be laid back and do what you want to do unless you want to play a gig here and there and be a cook on the side.” “There’s a lot of cats out there around the streets that could proba bly blow the socks off you but they probably won’t ever do anything,” he said, “cause they just weren’t in the right place at the right time.” Luck, or lack of it, plays a big part in a musician’s success. “It’s like a song I wrote once,” Stevenson said. “The wheels don’t roll around on the wheel of fortune much. They don’t come around at all unless you’ve got that lucky touch.” f I HIGGINS Save To 30% in Time for Easter Gmiwou's DOWNTOWN, BRYAN M Tuxedo Rental BANKAMERICARD MASTERCHARGE AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN 9 TO 5:30 MONDAY-SATURDAY — EVENINGS BY APPOINTMENT DAMON NORMAN MEL. 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