Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm

Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm
Studio album by Various Artists
Released	March 24, 2009[1]
Recorded	2008 and 2009
Genre	Rock, Tex-Mex
Label	Vanguard
Producer	Bill Bentley Stephen Brower David Katznelson Shawn Sahm

Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm is a 2009 tribute album to the late Doug Sahm, released on Vanguard Records.

History and Critical Reaction

Sahm died of a heart attack, in Taos, New Mexico, on November 18, 1999, days after his 58th birthday. As co-producer Bill Bentley^[2] recalls, "Shawn Sahm and I tried to do a tribute album right after Doug Sahm died in 1999, but it was just too soon. Ten years later, we found a partner in Vanguard Records, through David Katznelson, and it all fell together."^[3]

The album, described as "a warm evocation of Sahm's spirit and sensibility, how he effortlessly encompassed almost every element of Texan music", was favourably reviewed:

Bookended by Sir Doug's two best-known songs — "She's About a Mover", here performed by Little Willie G., the vocalist for Thee Midniters and Malo, supported by Ry Cooder among others, and "Mendocino," performed by Sahm's son Shawn...(t)he order of the day isn't reinterpretation, it's celebration, and there are many joyful performances here, highlighted by Los Lobos' relaxed, breezy "It Didn't Even Bring Me Down", Delbert McClinton's easy-rolling "Texas Me", Jimmie Vaughan's glorious slow crawl through "Why, Why, Why" (and) Joe "King" Carrasco's rollicking "Adios Mexico" supported by the Texas Tornados...^[4]

According to another reviewer,

...it would be difficult to imagine a more deserving candidate (for a tribute album) than Doug Sahm. ...Sahm’s vision, which coupled the tangled roots of rock ‘n’ roll with the rhythms and spirit of Tex-Mex, is both broad enough to facilitate the tributes of a diverse range of artists, and specific enough to make it all hang together. ...As a tribute album, this set does the intended work of sending us back to the original recordings with fresh ears—and that may well be the best possible measure of its success.^[5]

Track listing

1. She's About a Mover - Little Willie G.
2. It Didn't Even Bring Me Down - Los Lobos
3. Too Little Too Late - Alejandro Escovedo
4. You Was For Real - Greg Dulli
5. Dynamite Woman - Dave Alvin
6. Ta Bueno Compadre (It's OK Friend) - Flaco Jiménez with the West Side Horns
7. Texas Me - Delbert McClinton
8. I'm Not That Kat Anymore - Terry Allen
9. Why, Why, Why - Jimmie Vaughan
10. You're Doin' It Too Hard - Charlie Sexton & the Mystic Knights of the Sea
11. Nuevo Laredo - The Gourds
12. Be Real - Freda & the Firedogs
13. Adios Mexico - Joe "King" Carrasco & Texas Tornados
14. Mendocino - Shawn Sahm
15. I Wanna Be Your Mama Again Sarah Borges and The Broken Singles^[6]

References

1. Vanguard Records Keep Your Soul Release Page; www.vanguardrecords.com.
2. Bentley, then an executive with Warner Bros. Records, had acted as executive producer of two Texas Tornados albums, featuring Sahm, in the years prior to Sahm's death: 4 Aces (1996) and Little Bit Is Better Than Nada Mixes (1997). Following Sahm's death, Bentley was the executive producer of The Return of Wayne Douglas (2000), completed prior to Sahm's death and released posthumously. Bentley was also the producer of the Doug Sahm compilation, Genuine Texas Groover: Complete Atlantic Recordings (2004).
3. Peter Hund, Review of Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm, plus related interviews; www.goodnewmusic.com.
4. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Review of Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm; www.allmusic.com.
5. Ben Child, Review of Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm, April 2, 2009; www.popmatters.com.
6. Additional track added when record purchased through Amazon.com; see Keep Your Soul track listing; www.amazon.com, referenced for informational purposes only.