Texas Swinger: Jamming for Emily Remler
A SHEEPISH confession for starters. I had never heard guitarist Emily Remler's work before her death last year, at 33, of a cardiac arrest while on tour in Australia. I knew only that she was one of those young musicians who was, as they say in show biz, "about to happen." Having read the Remler quotes included in the liner copy of "Just Friends, Vol. 1: A Gathering in Tribute to Emily Remler" (Justice), I am even sorrier that I...
Texas Swinger: WALKER PERFORMS WITH PERSONALITY
Texas-born country singer Clay Walker walks the thin line between a sound that is old country traditional and a presentation that defines personality-driven modern country music.While most of his songs feature the simple fiddle-and-steel-guitar sound favored by fellow Texan George Strait, the 27-year-old Walker packages his music live in a show that, while hardly flashy, allows him to put plenty of personality into the mix.Unlike many other new country stars around his age who have...
Texas Swinger: How the loot got looted
Mob is blamed for S&L fiasco
INSIDE JOB: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans by Stephen Prizzo; Mary Fricker and Paul Muolo; McGraw Hill; index; footnotes; 443 pages; $19.95.In the early 1980s, Congress deregulated the savings and loans. It wasn't long before a Mafia-connected fellow from Long Island was giving his S&L staff a morning pep talk, "OK, boys, get out there and bilk 'em." Before long, a loyal employee had written a song,...
Texas Swinger: RYAN'S LACK OF SHUTOUTS NOT HIS FAULT
Nolan Ryan threw his first shutout since May 26, 1984 last week. That's kind of difficult to believe since Ryan has thrown more shutouts (55) than any active pitcher except Don Sutton.But the drought was hardly Ryan's fault. Here's why. In Ryan's 138 starts between shutouts, he allowed no earned runs 16 different times and just one earned run in 30 more. But in 21 of those 46 starts, he didn't even get the win.He also...
Texas Swinger: `Prime bank' cloud lingers over San Diegan
San Diegan Larry Taggart, who was California's savings & loan commissioner in the mid-1980s, is in the middle of a storm again. In a civil suit, he is charged with helping to engineer a so-called international "prime bank" scheme that fleeced a Tacoma physician of more than $400,000.In a prime bank scheme, people are told their funds will be pooled and placed into financial instruments that will be traded in rapid-fire fashion among overseas...