(click on the highlighted text to see a photo)
In the summer of 1970, a promising Houston band
recruited the services of Memorial High School grad guitar
phenom Bill Browder, and DENIM exploded onto the local music scene.
Consisting of Bill Browder,
Mike Anderson, David Moerbe & Paul Clagett, the band worked up a set
of original material and quickly made a name for themselves with the release
of their first single, "Colorado Love Song", on Texas Revolution Records.
Record label Owner/Producer Walt Andrus hired advertising wiz Sam Irwin (now
known as the fearless leader of Duck Soup) and the ensuing promo blitz cemented
the young upstarts' place in the birth of the "Progressive Country"
scare. Here are the boys in action at the
Malo Concert in Corpus Christi, TX .
Here they are on the front porch of their
rent-house in the Heights, October, 1970.
Oddly, this was to become the address of mass-murderer Elmer Wayne Henley
(no relation to Don) in the near future.
In the fall of 1972, Denim moved to Boulder, Colorado, to take advantage of
a connection in Stephen Still’s organization. The band secured a weekly gig at the Pioneer
Inn in Nederland, and though there were exciting encounters with Tim Schmitt,
Richey Furay and Linda Ronstadt, (as well as future Denim album
producer, John Boylan), their attempts to further themselves
were fruitless. The band dissolved, and, one by one they trickled back
to Texas where they re-formed in the summer of 1973.
These were heady times because of the addition of Richard Mullen,
multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire.
Richard later went on to be the engineer/producer
for many great Texas acts including Omar and the Howlers,
Stevie Ray Vaughan (Richard’s walls are covered
with gold records for this body of work), and currently, Texas guitar guru,
Eric Johnson. Here’s Denim in a
fall 1973 publicity photo.
These were the real formative years. Most
of their time was spent on the road in places such as:
The Alliance Wagon Yard (Austin Texas),
The Red Dog Saloon (Waco, TX, owned by Stan Farr who was not [wink wink]
murdered by Cullen Davis), and Breckinridge, Colorado.
Here they are frolicking in the
snow.
In 1975, with the departure of our good friend, Paul Clagett, Denim sported
a new line-up with the addition of
Greg Jackson.
Later in the fall 1975, the formula was tinkered with again, the result being
the 4-piece band you see here. This
photo was taken at the old Soap Creek Saloon by the multi-talented
(and occasional Garth Brooks scribe) Nashville resident, Cam King.
The combo signed a management deal with Moon-Hill, an Austin agency that
represented B.W. Stevenson, Stephen Fromholz and Rusty Wier. As you can see
here, they cleaned up real good.
The conquering heroes are shown here in a state of ecstasy, as a result of their
signing with Epic Records. 1976
was spent in the exotic locales of Sausalito, California and Los Angeles recording
their debut album,” DENIM”, which was released in January, 1977. The record
was produced by John Boylan who
enjoyed success with Boston and Linda Ronstadt.
Denim performed on
Austin City Limits on November 1, 1976. The fellows enjoyed
a modicum of success, drawing capacity crowds all over Texas.
Additionally, they toured Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri,
Colorado and New Mexico. In spite
of heavy airplay in spots such as Tampa, Florida, Eugene, Oregon,
Buffalo, New York, Hartford, Connecticut and St. Louis, Missouri, the record
sales were disappointing to the cash flow-hungry CBS, so the band began to seek
a new affiliation.
In 1978 the band was persuaded by record industry weasels to change their name
to something "less country sounding", so their second album
was released in the winter of 1978 under the name Traveler.
The "Lost In The Late Late Show" album came out on ABC Records,
home of Steely Dan. The planets
were apparently misaligned, as ABC Records folded up a mere 3 months later.
This left Traveler (Denim) stranded in Texas with a new name that nobody
knew. In these challenging times,
bass player Jerry Crow moved south, and was replaced by the golden -throated
Layton DePenning. Here is the
last photo of the band before they surrendered in March 1980.
The Eighties were spent making babies and money with
The Austin All-Stars (shown here at Steamboat-Austin-St. Patrick’s' Day
1980) and Duck Soup (Spring 1986). In late 1989 the "hired"
members of Duck Soup split off to create the premier
party band, The Big Time, which continues to please audiences with their variety
of music to this very day. For the record, Bill, Layton and David
continued to create and evolve as songwriters though their music was
not performed in public.
In the summer of 1989, Bill Browder,
David Moerbe and
Layton DePenning began the "Living Room Sessions", which culminated
in the recording of the unreleased 3rd Denim album.
They hope to make this available in the future, as it contains some breathtaking
musical moments. Just as momentum
was building, David Moerbe decided that the phony, soul-draining music business
was not for him, so more changes were in order. Mike Cross (vocals &
bass) and Eddie Cantu (drums &
percussion) became part of the
Denim equation in the fall of 1990. As a result of the new personnel, the 3rd Denim album was mothballed,
and work began on a brand new project.
After three years in the making, the new album/CD "Indian Paintbrush"
was released in early 1995.
Mike Rieman also came on board at this time as bass player, allowing Mike
Cross the freedom to move between guitar and keyboards.
With this stable lineup, the band began work on its next recording adventure.
Deciding to stretch out musically, the guys recorded 16 songs varying
in style from Country-Rock to Eclectic-Folk and Spanish to Near-Metal.
The result was "Evolution", a rollicking visit to a musical
monkey island, released in the waning moments of the 20th century (November
1999).
Denim has a brand new CD called The
Fifth Sun with a new batch of "Texas Music", utilizing all
the styles they love: Rock, Spanish, Blues, Folk and Country.