Sam Doores and the tumbleweeds

The evening began on a shit-kicking hatchet swing of pure hillbilly adrenaline with Sam Doores & The Tumbleweeds. Instantly the place burned with dancing drunks aplenty, their bodies gyrating and thrashing with a blatant, even outwardly hostile, disregard for the personal space of those around them. Many a drink was spilled, and many a courtship ritual squandered, I’m sure, but the show was such a high, manic thrill as to make all that in retrospect seem terribly moot…on songs like Depression Blues or Throw Another Cap In the Fire, Mr. Doores voice, that wonderful metallic Hank Williams twang of his, cut clear through the microphone like a zap of lightning, the others (being Riley Downing, Dan Cutler, Tony Fricky, and Matt Bell, respectively) romping and stomping (hootin’ and hollerin’!) behind him. Part-way through the set, they were joined on-stage by none other than “America’s Favorite Yodeling Pervert”: Brody Douglas Hunt…a keen wordsmith with a voice like a bucket of tar, he complimented the band quite appropriately, pulling the audience up by the collar and knocking them on down again in anticipation of the evening’s headliner: Hurray For the Riff Raff.

With S O N G B I R D etched across her knuckles, acoustic guitar strapped and strangled in her tiny arms, Alynda lee Segarra spat into her microphone like it was a fumbling opponent, her sandy timbre pumping the swollen mob before her full to the brim with piss and vinegar. She seems to play music almost as an act of sheer defiance – and I mean that in a most complimentary sense. With a larger band than I’ve previously witnessed backing her up, she got to go full tilt this time around…and while this may have displaced some of the most appealing aspects of her more intimate stage persona, let me just say that she completely owned her set and proved herself to be a performer of great presence and command. She can lilt and yelp with the best of them, and it is with full confidence that I predict the only direction this girl is headed is straight to the top.

Both The Tumbleweeds and Hurray For the Riff Raff play regularly around town. If you don’t take the time to seek them out, the only one you’re cheating is yourself.
- Ju Ju Accociation

Front page feature, July 9, 2008

When Cameron, Samuel and Ben take to the stage this year at Woody Fest in Okemah, Okla., it will be after soaking up some Woody Guthrie atmosphere in Pampa.

The trio of musicians plans on being in Okemah, birthplace of Woody Guthrie, for the annual summer music festival dedicated to their native son. The festival is held each year on the weekend nearest Guthrie's birthday, July 14. It's a birthday that Samuel shares with his musical hero.

Cameron Snyder, Samuel Doores and Benjamin Ziakin have spent the past few days in Pampa, practicing, jamming and recording, before moving on to Okemah.

"We actually get to play on stage this year," said Samuel. "Last year we just played on the street."

"It's a giant party," said Cameron.

Most everybody stays at a campground, he said, and at the campground there are a couple of large tents for jam sessions.

"You play until six o'clock in the morning," Ben said. "By nine o'clock in the morning, it's too hot to sleep, so you get up and play some more."

"There are some brilliant musicians there," Samuel said.

The three 21-year-olds, Samuel will turn 22 in Okemah, came to Woody Guthrie by different roads, but their enthusiasm for his music is mutual.

Their journey to Pampa began last year, like Guthrie's, in Okemah.

It was there that they met Tim Justice, a member of the board of directors for the Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center here in Pampa. He told them about Pampa and Guthrie's connection to the Texas Panhandle town.

"We took a road trip from Washington through California through Nevada and Arizona," Samuel said, "and ended up in Okemah, and Tim told us about this place."

While Cameron and Ben went on to Austin last summer, Samuel came to Pampa and spent a couple of weeks.

"I've never been treated so kindly in my life," Samuel said.

When Samuel told Ben and Cameron about his trip to Pampa, the three of them decided to come to the panhandle before heading to Okemah this year.

Cameron got here on July 1. Ben and Samuel got here on the Fourth.

They've been recording an album in the back room of the folk music center.

"It's been really exciting recording where Woody learned to play the guitar.

The Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center is housed in what was Shorty Harris' drugstore in the 1920s and 1930s when Guthrie lived in Pampa.

It was while working in the drugstore that Guthrie found an old guitar in the back room of the store and his uncle taught him to play it. The slight young man went on to become a legend in American folk music, not only writing and performing songs that reflected the Depression and Dust Bowl of his early years, but inspire the next generation including Robert Allen Zimmerman (who took the stage name Bob Dylan) from Duluth, Minn. Now a new generation of 21-year-olds has discovered Guthrie's music.

"We are honored to have them here," said Thelma Bray, founder of Pampa's Tribute to Woody Guthrie.

Samuel calls New Orleans home now. Cameron is from Bainbridge, Wash. Ben is from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Cameron and Ben went to school together in Bainbridge. Ben met Samuel at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.

Samuel was working at an ice cream shop in Fairfax, Calif., and playing drums in a band at night when he was first introduced to Guthrie's music.

"I saw Rambling Jack Elliott," Samuel said. "He was right next door to the ice cream shop where I was working."

After hearing Rambling Jack Elliott play some of Guthrie's standards, Samuel said he went a bought a copy of 'Bound for Glory,' Guthrie's autobiography.

"As soon as I read 'Bound for Glory,'" Samuel said, "it was over."

He bought a guitar and was no his way. Prior to that he played drums and piano in gospel groups.

Cameron, growing up in Washington State, said he had always been aware of Guthrie's music.

He elementary music class used to sing Guthrie's songs, particularly 'Roll on Columbia' about the Columbia River.

Of his own interests, Cameron was studying jazz on the saxophone at nine years of age and bass at 10. He later taught himself to piano and guitar and a myriad of other instruments, including the harmonica.

Ben said he distinctly remembers singing 'Roll on Columbia' in elementary school.

"I never really understood the significance of Woody Guthrie until I took my first real American road trip and started playing his songs," Ben said.

He said that when he played Guthrie's songs, people were incredibly moved by them.

"I couldn't help but be moved," Ben said.

That was only a year ago.

"That was when I started realizing the power of Woody Guthrie," he said.

Ben said Guthrie's influence has given him direction in his life.

"I mostly just play banjo with this group," Ben said. "I'm a guitarist first and foremost, but I'm working with two great guitarists."

"Ben's got the fancy fingers in the group," Samuel said.
- The Pampa News

July 11, 2008

Along with featuring established folk and Red Dirt musicians like Jimmy LaFave, Ellis Paul and Country Joe McDonald, the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival provides an excellent showcase for emerging talents.

Among the scene-stealing youths were the trio Broken Wing Routine, the final act to play Thursday on the Brick Street Cafe's basement stage. The group got the festival-goers' heads bobbing and got a few people up to dance as they started off with a pair of old-fashioned folksy jams, "I Got Found" and "John Henry."

Band members Cameron Snyder, Ben Ziakin and Sam Doores not only sounded like they could jam with Guthrie, they were dressed in faded jeans and overalls, sleeveless T-shirts and beat-up hats. They looked ready to ride the rails at any moment.

Despite their rumpled appearance, the guys represented "a Horatio Alger, rags-to-riches story," as Snyder put it.

The trio showed up at last year's WoodyFest and were playing on the sidewalk outside the Crystal Theatre on Sunday during the annual Hoot for Huntington's. According to the festival program, they were invited in to cool off and play, and they brought the house down.

Sipping Shiner Bock between songs during their set Thursday, the guys referred to their actually getting an official time slot at the fest.

"This is our first time playing the festival in an official capacity. Las year, we were just playing on the street," said Ziakin.

"This year, we actually made it into the building," Doores said with a grin.

The band certainly warrants the move up. They are skilled musicians and singers, crooning in perfect harmony and playing several instruments, including acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonica, tambourine, bongos and upright bass.

They wrote all 11 songs in their set except for "John Henry" and their closer, the slow, mournful-sounding "I've Got to Know," an unrecorded Guthrie song.
- NewsOK.com

Front page feature, October 2nd, 2009:
"Saturday afternoon, Charles Henry with the folk music center will introduce Sam Doores, who is carrying on Guthrie's tradition of a traveling troubadour... Doores will be the featured entertainer next weekend, Bray said.
"Doores met Annie Guthrie, Woody Guthrie's great-niece, at the center last year during the annual celebration", Thomas said.
Thomas said that when Doores first showed up in pampa two years ago, he stopped by the folk music center and introduced himself.
"he said, 'Hi, I sing.'" Thomas laughed.
So many young men come through the front door and say that, Thomas asked to hear something, not expecting much,
"he sat over there and sang, and I about fell over off the chair," Thomas said.
Tim Justice, another board member had heard Doores at the Woody Guthrie celebration earlier that summer at Okemah, Oklahoma.
"Tim told us about him," Thomas said, "but I didn't realize it was the same person."
Thomas said Echols heard him and Bray heard him and within a week they had him in a recording studio.
"He was so good," Thomas said.
Annie Guthrie took Doores to her father, Arlo Guthrie, where Doores spent Thanksgiving.
"He performed for the thanksgiving meal at Alice's Restaurant and spent the night at Arlo Guthrie's home up there," Thomas said.
"Doors are opening for him," Bray said of Doores, "because he has the talent." - David Bowser