| The Taoist Cowboys were a
garage band based in the heart of Fort Sanders in Knoxville, TN
circa 1988-1992. Bob McCluskey was the principle songwriter
and played guitar. Fellow guitarist Scott Carpenter also wrote
songs as did bassist Brad Deaton. Jeff Bills played drums.
The Taoist Cowboys mostly played clubs in Knoxville. In the early
times it was the China King located on Cumberland Ave. Later they
moved to Gryphon's which became their adopted home. They were the
first rock band to play at Gryphon's which became a mecca for bands
during it's heyday. Similarly they were the first band to play at
the Longbranch Saloon when it moved across the street. They also
made stops at Manhattan's and Planet Earth in the Old City.
After saving a little money they put together an album for release.
Cholo, a collection from various recordings, was
released in 1990 . Some of it was live, some of it was four track
material. A couple of songs even came from a "real" studio. This was
made possible by the Cowboys coming in second at the campus battle
of the band contest. Cholo would later be
selected as one of the
100 best albums of Knoxville of all time in
the city weekly, Metropulse. For their next project the Cowboys went
in to Southern Sound Studios in Knoxville, TN circa 1992, and
recorded an album that came to be known as Punt. It's
title came in part from the fact that they broke up before it was
released. An amiable split created in no small part by the realities
of life. This was in the summer of '92. A short ride but a good one.
Punt is free to download, the
songs and the artwork. To just listen, click on the "mp3" link
next to the song title. To save, for PC users, right click on
the "mp3" or "wav" link depending on your choice, and use the "save
target as" option to get the files. For Mac users, control
click and "save or download link as". Follow the same
procedure for the artwork but click on the album thumb. The
album artwork is saved in a PDF file and is 1 MB. |
