The story of the Gourds goes a little like this...

It really starts for me in Shreveport LA. About 1985 or so. Me and a fellow named
David Green, a drummer, met at Johnny's Pizza where we both worked. We formed a
band called The Bumz. We later changed our name to The Picket Line Coyotes. This band
was me,DaveGreen,Joey Percival and Robert Bernard. We played around S'port for and parts
of the USA for a few years before we moved to Dallas. In Dallas Joey had some
kids and quit. We met Jimmy through another band that rejected him from an
audition. (That band was Big Loud Dog Billy King (of cowboys&indians) George
Reiff(of playing with everyone in Austin fame) and Mike Schwedler(who now
manages the Old 97's)). So Jimmy hooked up with us in Dallas around 1989. This
band The Picket Line's was two guitar, bass and drums. We took our cues from
Replacments, Husker Du etc. I did almost all the writing and singing. Jimmy
had yet to began seriously writing songs at this point. Now you may recognize
the last name of Coyotes guitarist Robert BERNARD. That's right Claude BERNARD
is the accordion playing soul cheese of The Gourds. These two fellas are
brothers. And when we, the Coyotes,decided to move to Austin. Claude, having
just graduated highschool wanted to reunite with his brothers. They had all
three been seperated when their parents died in the early 80's.
Robert being the oldest helped John and Claude get to Austin, where we all
lived together in a big house just east of I-35 off Woodland ave. We called it
"The Manz" short for Mansion. This is where Jimmy and me first met and played with
Claude. The Gourds, however were still a long way off. First The Coyotes had
to break up. And this we did do when Robert quit the band. This was around
1991-92 I suppose. After this we all sort of just kept playing music, but not
in a serious way. Now, about this time also a group that had spun off of
Killbilly, a band we knew well in Dallas, began playing free shows at The
Saxon Pub on South Lamar every Monday night. They were called The Bad Livers.
These fellows taught us that we could use acoustic instruments and old music
styles and some other-than sense of obscurity and do basically whatever we
wanted. We didn't need to be loud or modern or trendy or obvious or afraid. I
owe them a debt for showing me that simple lesson. To thine own self be true.
Soon after Jimmy moved to Nacadogches, Tx. out in the piney woods and grew up
alot and wrote some incredible songs that he brought back to austin with him.
While he was gone I had been playing regular shows at The Chicago House with a
fellow from Shreveport named Ron Byrd. We traded off between guitar and
mandolin. He did some of his songs I did some of mine. When Jimmy returned he
landed at Claude Bernards house. He immediately wanted to get a band going
again. So me and Ron sort of joined Jimmy and Claude. We called ourselves The
Grackles. So this is my, Jimmy and Claudes first band together. Claude played
Mo Tucker style drums. Jimmy played bass and some guitar like he does now. And
Ron and I did the same ol guitar mando stuff. All of us wrote songs, except
Claude. This band did not last long. Although Jimmy loves Ron, he could not be
in a band with him at that time. Also I and Ron had some issues that we
passively handled badly. So I was left with a bad taste in my mouth as far as
being in a fuggin' band went. Time passed and we all drank alot together, but
we didn't play any music. Everyone was sort of in another space. Jimmy and
Claude then tried to have a two man band called Old Govt. They played one
terrible show that I missed. But Claude had taken up the hooter for this
failed project. The hooter, as you may know, is a keyed instrument that is
blown into by the human mouth and played like a little piano thing. So this is
the genesis of Claude on Accordion. At this same time Ron had hooked up with
Robert Bernard and my wife's brother Keith Langford to form Prescott
Curleywolf. They played two or three shows and had a record deal, boom like
that. I couldn't believe it. Well in the mean time we had begun trying get our
thing together. We felt we needed a drummer. My wife, Robin, said her brother
was a drummer and would love to play with me. I doubted her evaluation of the
kind of drummer we wanted and overlooked the chance to play with Keith, who
went on to play with Prescott Curlywolf. That was a mistake it would take a
few years to correct. So we hooked up with Charlie because he called me and
was aggressive about wanting to play together. He had been a big fan of The
Picket Line Coyotes, he said. So Jimmy went and watched him play one night
over at the Carousel Lounge with Jean Caffiene and reported back to me and
Claude that this guy Charlie would work. We had no idea how great he would be
for us. In the three years we played with Charlie he had a big influence on
where our direction went musically and professionally. If it weren't for
Charlie we would never have gotten our first shows when we did. We would never
have met Mike Stewart, our producer/manager who introduced us to Munich
Records in Holland. We wouldn't have done anything the same. Charlie was
really our guide in to this ugly world of the music business. We will always
be grateful for his contribution to our musical lives. But, we were frustrated
with him as we wrote more and more songs that he didn't seem to be able to
play. Severe limitations began to emerge. Shows became inconsistent.
Emotionally, we were all tired from touring constantly. It was just the best
thing for us to mutually part ways. In this time Keith Langford was playing
with Curlywolf, Phillip Mceachern & Diaz Bros.(of which Jimmy was a founding
member) and The Damnations. We wanted Keith to be our drummer and he wanted to
be our drummer. But it didn't seem possible without hurting all of our friends
who wanted him also. Keith is just one bad ass man. Excellent musician and a
wonderful human being. He is the real deal. So, we got him to sit in with us
on four shows in late OCT of last year 1997. The Damnations opened for us on
all four of these shows. They were Ft Worth, Denton, Dallas and Beeblefest in
Austin. After seeing how great a match Keith and The Gourds were, they fired
him so he wouldn't have to struggle with quitting. This was a tough time.
Debra Kelly, Amy Boone and Robert Bernard are The Damnations. They are still
looking for a drummer a year later. Keith is just one of a kind. And we were
lucky, very fortunate and blessed to have him join our combo. He is my
brother-in-law after all. So this has been going for a year now with Keith.
And we just recorded our first record with him. He has made us so much better
than we ever thought we could be. It's really a dream to be playing with him.
Also, it looks as if Mr. Max Johnston will be joining the Gourds proper pretty
soon. He plays all over the record and has been playing all the shows with us
since he moved to Austin. So, that is how it all comes together. Sorry you
asked? This was fun to just blurt it all out. It's fairly accurate. But I
don't know. You know how life is. It all just seems like one long story that
mutates and shifts and bleeds over into other stories and you lost the thread
and then find it again and memory becomes selective. Romance plays it's tricks
and you tell it as best you can. OK gourds history----kevin's version.