Austin's Greatest Unsigned Band Krackerjack
Best known today for its parade of great guitarists, this hard rock blues band ruled the Red River scene in the early '70s
Though they were only together from 1970-1974, and never released a record during that time, Krackerjack is revered this many years later by those who experienced live their hard-rockin’ blues draped in glam. Groupies became aware that taking a member of the ‘jack home for the night was not just an invitation to bed, but to their closet.
Drummer Uncle John Turner and bassist Tommy Shannon played Woodstock with Johnny Winter in 1969, and came back to Texas dressing like Jimi Hendrix and the Who. They were the rhythm section on the three albums that announced the albino guitar hero’s arrival, then their departure came when Winter’s manager Steve Paul convinced the guitarist to shed the blues and play rock n’ roll, backed by the McCoys (“Hang On Sloopy”) of Rick Derringer.
A guilt-ridden Winter sent Turner and Shannon away with a righteous severance, which they used to put together their new band Krackerjack in 1970.
While Johnny was recording “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo,” Unc and Tommy were in Dallas convincing Oak Cliff rockers Bruce Bowland (vocals) and Mike Kindred (piano) to leave the Mystics for their new band. Down in Austin they found guitarist Jesse Taylor, who played like the freight train from Lubbock he came in on. Then it was off to San Francisco to teach those hippies how to rock. But that proved to be their first mistake.
“They had a big show at the Matrix and everybody said they were too loud,” said Jillian Bailey, Uncle John’s girlfriend during the Krackerjack years, and also the band’s road manager. “They couldn’t get booked after that.”
Texas couldn’t come quick enough, though the band was often denied service on the drive through West Texas for their long hair and freakish garb. “We even got turned away at a gas station,” said Bailey, a Chicago native who hoped the rest of Texas wasn’t like that. The open arms of Austin let her finally exhale.
“When we first got here we lived at the Armadillo,” Bailey recalled. “They had all these little rooms and Eddie Wilson let us crash in one of them.” The Dillo had opened just a few months earlier and hadn’t figured out what to do with all those offices. “We hated Shiva’s Head Band because they were always practicing. It was hard to get any sleep.” Bailey and Turner stayed only a month, but Krackerjack returned often to the Armadillo in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. Johnny Winter was such a god in Austin that 2/3 of his trio were a draw.
The group eventually settled in a house on 16th Street between Trinity and Red River, just six blocks from the New Orleans Club, where they were the biggest band since the 13th Floor Elevators five years earlier. Were Krackerjack shows as crazy as the Elevators? “Times three,” answered New Orleans Club manager Ron Coleman. The sell-out crowds would spill out to the sidewalks. Inside was drunken delirium.
“I didn’t miss too many Krackerjack shows at the New Orleans,” said Vickie O’Bannon, who started going to rock clubs as a sophomore at Reagan High in 1967. “They were the best band in town. And probably the most nationally underrated band ever.” Ms. O’Bannon is in possession of studio tracks the band recorded in its heyday, and she let me hear five of them. First off, Tommy Shannon drove that bus. He and Uncle John were a tremendous rhythm section. And Bowland was a great, wiry-voiced, rock n’ roll singer. Krackerjack was Aerosmith before Aerosmith, plus they had a secret weapon in Kindred, the best piano player in town, who gave them a Faces feel. Jesse Taylor led the murderer’s row of guitarists, followed by John Staehely, Robin Syler, Stevie Vaughan and Gary Myrick.
“Playing guitar for Krackerjack was kind of a rite of passage,” said Jimmie Randall, former bassist of Jo Jo Gunne. “But I think one of the reasons they didn’t get a record deal was because they were changing guitarists all the time.”
Randall was a member of Smiley, who played the New Orleans Club, and also shared a stage with Krackerjack in 1970 at King’s Village Rock Grounds. That was a short-lived, but fondly-remembered outdoor venue at I-35 and Howard Lane owned by Krackerjack’s booking agent Charlie Hatchett and Ron Coleman from the New Orleans Club. “One of our best concerts had ZZ Top, with Krackerjack opening,” recalled Coleman. “We had 3200 people.” Krackerjack practically stole the show, which drew a good-natured reprimand from ZZ Top manager Bill Ham. “He said ‘don’t you ever make my band follow Krackerjack again.’”
But Ham turned down an offer to manage Krackerjack. And Clive Davis, who had signed fellow Golden Trianglers Johnny Winter and Janis Joplin to Columbia, also passed. “We went to New York with tapes of the band and met with him, but he thought they needed more development,” said Bailey. The raw, energetic music that drives the kids crazy in clubs doesn’t always transport to recordings. In fact, it hardly ever does.
After the New Orleans Club was forced to close in Nov. ‘71 as part of an urban renewal plan for Brackenridge Hospital, Coleman opened Waterloo Social Club (600 E. 7th St.), Krackerjack’s new home base. They rotated with Jimmie Vaughan’s Storm and Stevie Vaughan’s first Austin band Blackbird. After that club went out of business, it became Waterloo Country.
Krackerjack played every rock club in Austin over the next two years- Mother Earth, Black Queen, South Door, Armadillo- and they were big in Wichita Falls, Odessa and Waco. Jesse Taylor was the first to leave, after he broke his hand and was replaced by John Staehely. When he left for Spirit, Uncle John, who always called the shots, hired two guitarists- Syler from Dallas and Stevie Vaughan.
“Unc was pushing for Robin to be the featured guitarist, and me and Tommy (Shannon) would be going, ‘Stevie’s the one!’, said Bailey. Turner stuck with Syler and let Vaughan go.
“Unc was very particular about how the band looked onstage,” said Bailey, “and one night Stevie was up there with a big fat wallet in his front pocket. I guess that was the last straw.” Ironically, Krackerjack is best known today for the three months its membership included Stevie Ray Vaughan.
By the band’s second year, Bowland’s alcohol and drug use was becoming a problem, though he was usually able to get it together onstage. Shannon was in and out of jail/rehab. Then there was friction over material, since the band wrote its own. “Mike (Kindred) was the best songwriter and he wanted to sing more,” said O’Bannon, who lives in Williamson County near the reclusive Kindred. “But Unc wanted Bruce to sing everything.” Kindred left the band in ‘73 and cut off contact, though Shannon had to play Kindred’s “Cold Shot,” a co-write with W.C. Clark, every night with SRV.
Some of the tunes in the K-Jack repertoire include “Medicine Man,” “Til Tuesday,” “It’s Another Thing,” “Gimme the Gun” and “Chicken Slacks.” That latter song came from a lyrical misunderstanding. “We were listening to Sam Cooke’s ‘Twistin’ the Night Away’ and I said ‘What are chicken slacks?’,” laughed Bailey. Cooke’s “chick in slacks” gave birth to a Krackerjack favorite about buying new pants because your ass is hanging out of your ripped jeans.
Krackerjack’s last guitarist was Gary Myrick of Dallas, whose 1974 exit to L.A., where he formed Gary Myrick and the Figures, marked the end of Austin’s greatest band to never make it. Myrick achieved what everyone on the Austin rock scene predicted of Krackerjack, having a big hit record with “She Talks In Stereo” in 1980.
Awesome article!! I have some Krackerjack playbills. My Dad had played in a band in Lubbock called Street Theatre with Jesse Taylor, Vince Hopkins, and Joe Ely prior to the migration to Austin. I still have some of the gear used from those days. Would love to hear or see some footage of Krackerjack.
Krackerjack was the first show ever put on from Stone City Attractions...it was April 18, 1972 as a benefit for the Vietnam War Resistors League. The first of thousands of concerts Stone City put on...Thanks Krackerjack for catapulting Stone City to its future...Chicken Slacks forever!!!