DB Media Entertainment - Louie Ortega

Tornado member excited about re-release

Louie Ortega talks about Doug Sahm, The Lovers and a new European release

The Texas Tornados swept back through town over the 4th of July weekend. While I was setting up backstage for some interviews about Doug Sahm, I had a chance to talk with Louie Ortega, guitarist with the Texas Tornados as well as the namesake of his band, Louie & The Lovers.

It was a legal matter, how Doug Sahm came to be in California, and considering where he came from, it was Doug's nature to be uncomfortable in the "big city," (Marin County) which is probably how he ended up in Prundale, in the heart of the Cesar Chavez movement. It was more like cosmic fate when he heard a cassette tape (remember those??) by a Salinas, California high school band working off the moniker "Country Fresh." The band featured high schoolers Louie Ortega, Frank Paredes, Steve Vargas and Albert Parr. Supposedly it was Vargas who had a connection to Sahm's wife. The rest, as they say, is history.

"He discovered me as Louie & The Lovers," Ortega told me. "He got me my first record deal (with Epic Record) when I was in high school. He always kept me involved in his projects."

Which is how Ortega became an original Tornado.

When asked about Doug's legacy and the failure of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to give him the recognition he deserves, he bristled. "It's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ladies and gentlemen! Why don't we have like the classic rock and rollers in there? That would be Doug Sahm, I would think he would be at the top of the list."

As for Louie & The Lovers, the band has been working ever since Doug left California. Their first record, (completed in one 18-hour session) "Rise" was recorded while they were still in school and Doug promised that the album would not be released until after they graduated. He kept his word, but little if anything happened after it came out other than a glowing review by Ed Ward in Rolling Stone Magazine. So much rock was pouring out at that time that the band may have been overlooked, but they toured steadily, and gained a loyal following.

Now, nearly 20-years later, "The Complete Recordings of Louie & The Lovers," has emerged and is over 80 minutes of some of the best rock and roll of it's time. "Actually, this last year, a company out of Germany, Bear Family Records, released the The Complete Recordings of Louie & The Lovers," Ortega said.

The Tornados rocked it on Saturday, as they always do, and their original guitarist, cloistered in small room, looked up with a grand smile and said "Thinking about ya, Doug."

We all are thinking about Doug, especially now with the Hall getting ready to nominate musicians for the class of 2011. Don't tell Louie Ortega that Doug Sahm doesn't deserves to be there. He just may punch you in the nose.

Seriously.