Texas bandleader, songwriter and film-maker, Guy Schwartz, is about to release his 45th album with a renewed commitment to live performances on the road.
Schwartz has performed as a sideman for a diverse group of artists, including Vince Bell, Lightnin' Hopkins, BW Stephenson, Blaze Foley, Lionel Hampton & The Monkees, and, his bands (including Relayer and Z-Rocks) have toured with the likes of Nickle Creek, David Lindley, U2, Eric Johnson, Muddy Waters, Duran Duran, Huey Lewis & The News, Todd Rundgren, Carolyn Wonderland, Van Gunn, The Thieves, ZZTop...
Hailed as a hero by some in his hometown of Houston, Texas, for a career in music that goes back to the '60s, Guy Schwartz' unwavering support of local musicians and music in Houston has led to his being called 'The Godfather of The Local Music Scene' by The Houston Press, and his band, The New Jack Hippies, has been called "Texas premiere blues-rock, hippie jam band", by Nashville's Billy Block.
Playing 200 road dates a year with The New Jack Hippies as recently as 2003, Schwartz' efforts have been recently concentrated in studio work and video. Schwartz & partner MArlo Blue have created TWO television series (Hippies.TV & SOUTH BY DUE EAST TELEVISION) featuring local, original Texas music of all styles and genres.
Now - Guy Schwartz has decided to make a change that he can believe in. "Working in the studio and editing room with all of the great Texas talent is a blast, but it's time to spend more time playing my songs again", he announced in March.
Schwartz' current acoustic tour (without the band) sports conventional dates at established venues, but also concentrates on spontaneous musical events created on the fly, as he meets new musicians, often found on Facebook, MySpace & Google AFTER he hits town, and convinces them to do something spontaneous for the cameras, usually in an unannounced guerilla raid on an unsuspecting restaurant, college campus, or anywhere that sounds like fun.
This new musical reality TV show is called 'Guy Schwartz' Road Journal', and it's first season was well received in Texas.
Besides the perfect musical strangers he meets as he goes, episodes have featured guests like songwriting giant Billy Joe Shaver in North Carolina, Texas triple-threat Carolyn Wonderland in Amsterdam, and Americana Music Awards multi-winner Gurf Morlix in the Cottage Country of Ontario, Canada (as they perform unanounced in a 50-foot tall Teepee).
Find episodes of 'Guy Schwartz' Road Journal' online at www.Hippies.TV
This summer, on these scheduled shows, Guy Schwartz will leave the cameras behind, as he straps on his acoustic guitar to play and sing some of his favorite songs from 45 years of songwriting. The songs include his love songs, rock songs, country songs, weed songs, and unconventional blues songs, recorded by artists as varied as Hamilton Loomis, Kinky Friedman, Gloria Edwards & The Calvin Owens Blues Orchestra.
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