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Bud, Kurtz – Award Winning Singer , Songwriter

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Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals, Mandolin, Harmonica

http://www.tunecore.com/music/budkurtz
http://www.okcu.edu/petree/soc/hkurtz/KURTZ WEBSITE 2007.htm

Dr. Howard A. Kurtz Ph.D.
Criminologist/Sociologist
hkurtz@okcu.edu


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Bud Kurtz began playing in clubs at the tender age of 17 and worked his way through college as a musician. He was a regular at the Legendary Cellar Clubs in Dallas and Fort Worth Texas that gave birth to some of the top American blues and rock musicians of the past thirty years. Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and ZZ Top, are just a few of the well known names that emerged from those smoky black halls. In those days Bud was a tall skinny blues singer nicknamed Yank with a three octave range and a reputation for being a perfectionist. He was the lead vocalist for " Dallas County" the top Jazz Rock Band in the Soutwest along with Galen Jetter founder of the Dallas Jazz Orchestra , Steve Howard member of the legandary White Trash Horns and John Bryant drummer for The Ray Charles Band.
He jammed with all the Texas greats and was proficient enough at his craft that legendary jazz musicians like Bones Malone from the Blues Brothers band invited him to jam with him and other future jazz and R&B stars . He warmed up for top acts including Alice Cooper and appeared to be on his way to the top of the profession until a mistake on a medical diagnosis threatened his life with a terminal illness . After much soul searching he was reminded of a promise to his mother that he would finish college. He returned to campus and ultimately was given a university research fellowship. This turned into a Doctoral Degree in Sociology and a career at a university far away from the glitter of the music business. Coaxed out of his self imposed retirement ten years ago he is back in top form and shows no signs of slowing down. He is available for important session work , collaborative recording projects,select gigs and major tours .

LAST RODEO

is the name of his solo Country CD . He decided to leave off any obviously sounding Straight Shooter songs since he still plans to continue to record with the guys down the road . he went with songs that have a personal connection. Most have been inspired by total strangers and some by people he is around every day and others come from hidden inspirations that envelope us all.

Blues for Taxicab Lou

This project is dedicated to one of his oldest friends Lou "Lazar" Bovis . He included original cuts that Lou particularly liked and a couple of new tribute songs dedicated to Lou.
Who was Taxicab Lou; See Quotes Below
“ We met at his parents club "Lou Ann's" in the late 1960's when my band auditioned there. I broke out some flood lights swinging my microphone and that seemed to leave an impression on the kid working in the kitchen. A few years later he just walked up and started playing the B3 on our set at the legendary Cellar Club in Dallas. He would later kid me that I said he could be in the band but that we wouldn’t pay him until he learned all the material.

Lou came in and out of my life for the next 40 years. He would call me in the middle of the night or simply show up at my door after driving all night from New Orleans or Chicago. He went through an inheritance and hundreds of bands over the years and reached such a status within the blues community that BB King would recognize him and ask him to come on stage and play. He can be heard on tracks recorded by people like Jimmy Vaughn and Bramhall and many others but he failed to produce a statement CD that captured his enormous talents.

I used to go to London for a week every January. Lou met me there one year at the London Hard Rock Café. He showed up with a pair of berets he had purchased in Paris. I still have mine. We ate and then we went out on the town ending up at a big fancy hotel looking for a piano. We found one and sat around reminiscing about music we liked (he played and I sang) for about three hours. We were off in the corner just talking and playing. When we decided to call it a night the lobby erupted in applause. Unnoticed to us, a crowd had gathered and they thought we were the featured act. We couldn’t stop laughing when they began leaving tips on the piano and the management asked us if we wanted a regular gig. To us we were just having a music conversation.

Lou passed away in December of 2007 alone in his apartment in Dallas before his keyboard genius could ever be completely appreciated. He spent his last years playing local Texas blues gigs, driving a taxi and handing out business cards proclaiming himself “Taxi Cab Lou ".
During the past few years he called me weekly sometimes every day and he talked about getting together with our longtime band mates to make the blues album of the year. We never did and when he died I realized we never will.

These songs are unedited and in some cases unmixed. In all cases they are spontaneous, jammed and created on the fly. In a few cases backing tracks are used as a base but everything else is happening for the first time as you hear it. They used to call this form of writing “Stream Riding “back in the sixties. You relax, pick a key and let yourself flow into the endless stream of musical inspiration, sometimes calling on the spirits of deceased musicians to return through you and help you express the will of the stream. I hope you get it and ignore the occasional stretching of the melody, chord progressions and the vocal chops.

This album is the best way I know to say good bye to Lou and to tell him that I love him and will think of him with every blues song I play. This is my way of sending him off with the music that he loved and the honor and respect he deserved.

STRAIGHT SHOOTER
OKLAHOMA COUNTRY BAND OF THE YEAR

Straightshooterband.net

Oklahoma band Straight Shooter has hit the number one spot on the charts at New Artist Radio twice. They have also hit number one on Vitaminic Radio on the Web. They have received Country Band of the Year Awards from the Oklahoma Country Music Association , New Artist Radio and Indie Tracker magazine a Nashville based publication. They won Top Country act on the European Charts in a poll and their music has made the charts in over 36 countries. They regularly top such well known stars as Willie Nelson , Reba and a host of others on internet charts around the world ..
When they played at Oklahoma’a top country show place the “Cimarron” a thousand or so other fans endured the hour long wait for a great meal and a chance to see them perform . A rival club owner told the band that the Cimarron became the largest processor of beef in the state after they started playing there, bad for the cows good for the band .

The bands most popular request,“ Beer Song” is a story about a group of typical friends who just came to drink beer at a local bar. It is a song that most people can relate to who stop for a few cold ones on their way home from work . Like many country artists they are still looking for the right state side deal . They were recently invited to tour Germany and to asked to consider a concert deal with an Australian booking company but they are good old Okie boys with local ties and they have no desire to travel unless the big wheels in Nashville make them an offer they can’t refuse. T
he band went to Nashville to play the Independent Artists Golden Awards Show one summer and headlined with Opry Star Ernie Ashworth who penned such hits as “Talk back trembling Lips”. Their CD contains 8 original songs penned by Bud Kurtz , Vocals , Lead Guitar , Harp and Mandolin, and a few covers that were requested by their fans . For this band it all started one night years ago when they played one of his songs at a local club and by the nights end two different groups offered to pay for them to record it .

Years ago , Bud played on the Texas club scene rubbing shoulders with the likes of ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan before accepting a teaching fellowship at a Texas University . A graduate of the University of North Texas he has been in warm-up acts that have played with Alice Cooper , Big Brother and a host of Blues Legends. The other members of the band are also former professionals who play now as it suits them. The Duggins Brothers are Mike and Jim . Mike plays piano and rhythm guitar and sings . Jim plays a vintage Les Paul and along with his wife Kathy keeps Foster Children. Charlie the drummer is a fromer DJ and a Car enthusst..Mike the bass player has a degree in music . Bud teaches at one of the areas universities when he isn’t writing or playing with the band What makes this band fun is that they are all doing it for a good time first . Everything that comes their way from this has been unexpected and a big scoop of life’s gravy .

Down east Record & CD Review *****
STRAIGHT SHOOTER
Larry's overall impression-
Straight Shooter's are a very tight country band that slide into the genre of Rock & Roll and Blues with ease and elegance. They have an amazing songwriter within their ranks, Bud Kurtz. Bud Kurtz is aided in his mission by the best musicians he could wish to have representing his music. The rhythm section is always right on beat, adding only accents at precise times while maintaining an increasing drive when needed. The guitar work, both lead and rhythm, is some of the best that one could hope to hear in any genre, not just country. The label that signs this Indie band has added a winner to their ranks with the acquisition of Straight Shooter.
Larry's overall impression-
Straight Shooter's are a very tight country band that slide into the genre of Rock & Roll and Blues with ease and elegance. They have an amazing songwriter within their ranks, Bud Kurtz. Bud Kurtz is aided in his mission by the best musicians he could wish to have representing his music. The rhythm section is always right on beat, adding only accents at precise times while maintaining an increasing drive when needed. The guitar work, both lead and rhythm, is some of the best that one could hope to hear in any genre, not just country. The label that signs this Indie band has added a winner to their ranks with the acquisition of Straight Shooter.
They continue to receive airplay from the CD all over Europe, Australia and the
United States. Straight Shooter has been awarded best country band in
Oklahoma for the year 2000 by the Oklahoma Country Music Association. They
have been nominated for many awards including The Online Country Music
Award which was given in October 2000. They have also been nominated by
Indie Tracker Magazine for best country band/group of the year 2000, as
well as best album of the year. Bud Kurtz was nominated for best male
vocalist of the year 2000.The band had three separate individuals
offer to pay all expenses for recording of the CD, just to get a copy of
the "Beer Song". A true "party" song, .
The Band: Bud Kurtz, Charlie Hutsun , Mike Munholand , Mike Duggins , Jim Duggins.