Ponderosa Stomp, free today at McCarren Park Pool (details)

Did ya see that? Roy Head, one of the more under-appreciated figures in American popular music, and certainly one of the more exciting, is still a top-notch showman more than forty later. While he didn’t do the weird James Brown contortions, I witnessed Head putting on an even more intense performance at a small club gig in Austin only a couple of years back. While “Treat Her Right” is one of the most dynamic pop hits of all time, every good selector knows that “Just A Little Bit” is his real jam.

Today you’ll find the inimitable Mr. Head billed alongside another high-energy Texas soul man from the mid-1960s, Mr. Bobby Patterson. Best known as the composer and performer of “How Do You Spell Love,” “T.C.B. or T.Y.A.,” and more than a few the Joe Tex-informed novelties, Patterson apparently still has it. And, another gargantuan force in Gulf of Mexico music, this time from the Louisiana side of the border, the very prolific and funky Mssr. Willie Tee, whose career spanned the r&b, soul, funk, and disco eras, leading the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians band along the way. The bill also includes three more acts, all worth heading to the pool for on their own: Tami Lynn (“I’m Gonna Run Away From You”), black Texas rockabilly legend Ray Sharpe (the Lee Hazlewood produced 1959 classics “Linda Lu” and the immortal “Monkey’s Uncle”(!)), and singer/swamp pop songwriter Tommy McLain (“Sweet Dreams”). They’ll be backed by Tee, legendary Memphis guitarist Teenie Hodges (Memphis session star on classics by Al Green, Ann Peebles, etc.), Impala’s bassist Scott Bomar, and the number 2 Stax drummer, Willie Hall, who was featured on loads of Bar-Kays and Isaac Hayes records, (yep, that’s him on Hot Buttered Soul – bashin’ out the first few minutes of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” by himself, “Theme From Shaft,” you name it…).

Definitely an uncommon collection of uncommon people…

Before we run to the pool, check out Roy Head’s set of moves in another very lip-synched version of “Treat Her Right”…

Now why