Lost and Found What you are holding in your hand is neither your crotch nor the crotch of the person standing next to you, but rather a musical archaeological find of historic proportions. It is the lost and now found first recordings of the legendary Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys. The album was recorded in a little green valley deep inside of Texas, in what now stands as Kinky's permanent man-for-all-reasons residence. The year was 1971 A.D. It was pre-digital, pre-cell , pre-Twitter, pre-hash tag, but not pre- hash nor pretentious. It was a time when rock n roll was real. Going back even further. It was1967 when I recall first meeting Kinky. I was exiting a bus and walking through a Chinese Open Market in downtown Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. My good friend Jones was having a lunch of pork gruel and fried rice with a guy I had never seen before. His moss was most amazing, hugely drifting skyward and yes, extremely kinky. Jones introduced me to Richard Friedman, new Peace Corps Volunteer from Austin, Texas. As I extended my hand to shake his, he quickly gave me a 'thumbs up you're out' umpire gesture and said, “Your name is Dylan! I suppose it's because you can recite Bob Dylan lyrics. I know guys cooler than that in Texas.” “Jesus H. Wingfatt,” I replied, “it's true, Texans are assholes.” It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. In late '68, Kinky and I were returning to America. We has stopped for a few days in Penang, a beautiful island off the coast of Malaya. We were staying at a foreclosed hotel with no electricity when we ran into our first hippie. We had only previously seen them in the overseas edition of Time Magazine. This chap was an Aussie who played the didgeridoo, a musical instrument played by the aboriginals in Australia. It made a strange sort of farting noise, as did we. We ended up at a local Peace Corps Christmas party. Kinky brought his guitar and played The Ballad of Charles Whitman, which he wrote at my abode in Borneo, and which you will hear on this tape if you so choose. He was accompanied by the Aussie. The audience didn't know whether to sing Auld Lang Syne or go blind. When I returned to the States on April's Fools Day in 1969, Kinky called to invited to me to Texas to Echo Hill Ranch, the family summer camp that I had heard about for two years along with a variety of songs and jokes. Not having T.V. and the ability to watch Laugh In, Kinky was our entertainment. I arrived in San Antonio without my bags, which somehow had cut buns for Hawaii without me. It was the middle of the night, so my python jacket and I caught a bus for Kerrville. I found the deserted bus station to be more spooky than Iban Long Houses with Japanese skulls from WWII hanging from the ceiling. As I lit a cigarette, a car broke the silence of the isolation and a huge guy wearing a 20 gallon hat and cowboy boots ambled menacingly towards me. “Diiiii-lan, Is that you, baw?” It turned out to be Roger, Kinky's brother and future manager. He dropped me at some flea bag motel where Kinky told me that there was no Echo Hill Ranch. He had just made it up during a malaria dream. Of course, it was real and still is. Taking The Beatles advice of “get back to where you once belonged”, I departed once again for Borneo sans Peace Corps. I stopped in L.A. for a day to hang with Kinky and his good friend and fellow Echo Hill Alumnus, Jerry Rudes. They were there pitching Kinky's songs. When I re-entered the customs line a year later, Kinky was in Nashville. Chet Flippo had written an article in Rolling Stone entitled “Band of unknowns fails to emerge” in which he mentioned a Quasi Legendary Living Room Tapes, the article lead to interest by Vanguard Records. Out of that came Sold American, recorded at the Glaser Bros. Studio. The Glaser Brothers convinced Kinky to form a band and tour to promote the album. The band became The Texas Jewboys. Thomas William “Wichita” Culpepper, who played on the Living Room Tapes, was the lead guitar and fiddle player. Lannie “Major” Bowles was on drums. “Little Jewford” Shelby was tickling the ivories and the audience with his deep, resonate DJ. Voice. The bass was played by Willie Fong. Young. Rhythm guitar and vocals was Billy Swan, who immediately after quitting the Jewboys had a number one hit, I Can Help. Kinky asked me to be the road manger. Neither of us knew what that was but we headed out on the highway anyway.