The Geezinslaw Brothers, also known as The Geezinslaws,
is an Austin, Texas-based country music comedy duo
consisting of
Sammy Allred and Dewayne "Son" Smith
The Geezinslaws became popular country music song parodists and humorists in the late '60s and beyond, but they started out as a country-folk outfit trying to capitalize on the folk craze in the early '60s. The Kooky World of the Geezinlaw Brothers is their first album, recorded live in Chicago with a mixture of spoken humor, straight performances, and humorous songs that will all seem very familiar to commercial folk buffs.. The Geezinslaws reappeared a few years later with a series of superior albums on Capitol Records and was on Willie Nelson's Lone Star Records in the late 70's and early 80's.
One day Gary P Nunn brought a young singer out to the recording studio to introduce her to Willie. I'm not sure if Willie was even there, but Eliza Gilkyson played several tunes on the backyard of the Pedernales Recording Studio and quickly became a very popular singer songwriter around Austin, Texas
Eliza Gilkyson (born in Hollywood, Ca. in 1950) is an Austin based folk musician. She is the daughter of songwriter and folk musicianTerry Gilkyson and Jane Gilkyson. She is married to scholar and author Robert Jensen.
Willie Nelson had the town known as Luck built on his property in Spicewood more than 25 years ago, and it’s since been used as a set for several movies, including “Red Headed Stranger.” Few have had the privilege of seeing the tiny western town — it’s behind a large gate that surrounds the property and is only opened to friends, family and neighbors once a year for an Easter service in the intimate chapel
where music and history are made.........
The Longbranch Saloon
Main Street
William Hugh Nelson, Jr., 33, known as Billy, had been found on Christmas morning at his log-cabin home in Davidson County, Tenn., an apparent suicide by hanging. Buddy Frank, a friend who had visited Billy early Tuesday, Dec. 24, said he seemed perfectly happy then. "On Monday he got himself a haircut and some new pants and boots," says Frank, a Nashville nightclub manager. "We was kickin' up like best friends do."
A
Billy, ruled to have been legally drunk when he died, had apparently hanged himself after Frank drove home around 2 A.M., the day before Christmas. The sometime musician, who lived mostly on an allowance from his father, had been planning to release an album of gospel tunes he'd written—including "I Can Live Forever" and "My Body's Just a Suitcase for my Soul." He had had a history of despondency. His mother, Martha, the first of Willie's four wives, had died around Christmas 1989. At about the same time, Billy separated from his own wife, Janet Caldwell, who had custody of their young daughter, Rae Lynn. In recent wars Billy had been arrested four times for drunk driving, and he was treated at an alcohol rehab facility in 1990. "The only problem he had was with what killed him [alcohol]," says Billy's longtime friend Lou Mullins of Ridgetop, Tenn. "Willie did everything for Billy he could."
Willie, though, once admitted that work often kept him away from his son when Billy was a boy. "I was too busy trying to pay the rent," he told an interviewer several years ago. Three days after Christmas, he was left to perform his final fatherly duty, seeing his son buried in the Nelson family plot. Said one family acquaintance: "Maybe there's some peace for the kid now."
Willie's Birthday Party with special guest Richard Pryor
