I’ll tell you my favorite story about Hughes. When you traveled out of Austin workin’ as a musician, you drove up and down I-35. That led them all through Waco. I had a great time slot. After all the church ladies went to bed. I’d play Laura Nyro, Terry Reid and James Gang all in the same set. Hughes came in the studio one night, and he even brought a guitar. He rarely played a live tune for me, but he always had a new recording. He was the first guy I ever saw that had digital recordings. I mean 15 inch reels and the first CD I ever saw.
We were sipping coffee, and talking about what was the latest when we got to laughing about all the acts in the Austin area that their manes began with W. Now this is 25 years before ‘Dubya’. There was Willie, Waylon, Walker, Weir, Willis and I don’t remember them all, but we were in stitches trying to recall them all when all of a sudden I looked at him and said, “Hey man, What about WoodEye?” He had this Oh Shit look on his face, and he said. “ I guess I never thought of that before!!”
I mentioned that every time I played a WoodEye? tune for months. Oh yeah. That night he played a song on the acoustic. He said he was just getting started. It was Chico. 1977
