Album Notes

Gadfly Records is proud to release "16 Tons of Monkeys," a live release from the Austin supergroup of the same name and fronted by Tonio K. It's Tonio's first-ever live release, coming almost 25 years after he first emerged on the scene in the late '70s.

***In addition to some Tonio K. classics the CD also includes 3 unreleased songs done live and 2 unreleased bonus tracks!***

This 1992 concert, recorded at Pearl's in Austin, features the ace lineup of:

Tonio K. (vocals, guitar)
Don Harvey (drums)
Scott Garber (bass)
Reese Wynans (Hammond B-3)
Bukka Allen (piano)
Jerry Holmes (guitar)

CD folder includes typically excellent liner notes from Senor K.!

Despite receiving massive critical praise for "Life in the Foodchain" (1978) and "Amerika" (1980), Tonio K. bounced around from CBS Records, to Arista, to Capitol-EMI (which resulted in the 1983 EP "La Bomba"), before settling into What?/A&M for his third and fourth albums: "Romeo Unchained" (1986) and "Notes from the lost civilization" (1988). Since being "dropped" from A&M, he has been one of the music industry's most successful songwriters, penning the most played song of 1993 ("Love Is," recorded by Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight), and placing songs with Bonnie Raitt, Aaron Neville, Al Green (from the "Michael" soundtrack), and many others. A fifth album recorded with an all-star cast (Paul Westerberg, David Hidalgo, Peter Case, Bruce Thomas, and others) was canned by A&M and released by Gadfly Records ("Olé") in 1997. A collection of spare tracks and other oddities -- "Rodent Weekend '76-'96 (Approximately)" -- was released by Gadfly Records in 1998, and "Yugoslavia," a CD of tracks recorded in the '90s, was released in 1999. All four of Tonio K.'s earlier full-length albums are available on CD from Gadfly Records.