Dust My Broom - T.D. Bell & Erbie Bowser

b. 26 December 1922, Lee County, Texas, USA, d. 8 January 1999. Bell did not take up blues guitar until his early 20s, following military service. The major influence on his style was T-Bone Walker. His band was one of the major attractions on the Austin scene, and backed visiting artists at the Victory Grill, and on tour through west Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Bell gave up playing in the early 70s when disco made live musicians uneconomical, but resumed in the late 80s in partnership with his long-time associate Erbie Bowser; they were still an impressive team. In the late 90s he was still performing with his band the Blues Specialists. He died of cancer in 1999. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Dust My Broom - T.D. Bell & Erbie Bowser

BOWSER, ERBIE (1918–1995). Erbie Bowser, blues, jazz,qqv and boogie-woogie pianist, was born in Davila, Texas, on May 5, 1918, the youngest of ten children. Bowser's parents moved the family to Palestine, Texas, when he was five. His father played the violin, and his mother played piano, violin, and accordion. Erbie began playing piano and singing in the church choir, as his musical parents expected. While still attending Lincoln High School he joined the North Carolina Cotton Pickers Review and began performing throughout the South during summer vacations. After high school he joined the Sunset Entertainers and toured Texas with the Tyler-based band, playing blues, jazz, and big band tunes. He soon toured Europe and North Africa with the Special Services Band, playing at USO shows in England, Sicily, Italy, and Africa. Upon his discharge from military service he worked as a brick mason, and then attended Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas, for two years. His parents' death prevented him from finishing college. He married a woman from Greenville, Texas, in 1948. Around 1949 the couple moved to Odessa. There Bowser found a job with Midwestern Drilling Company, while his wife went to work at the local hospital. Bowser met guitarist T. D. Bell working in the oilfields of West Texas. The two began playing together with Johnny Holmes at nightspots in West Texas and New Mexico. Their musical partnership lasted five decades.

Bowser and his wife moved to Austin in the mid-1950s, so she could attend Huston-Tillotson College. In Austin Bowser began a twenty-year career with the National Cash Register Company. He also participated in jam sessions with musicians from nearby colleges, performed with fraternity bands such as the Sweetarts, and played solo at the Commodore Perry Hotel. When Bell moved to Austin around 1960, he and Bowser began playing together at the Victory Grill (owned by Johnny Holmes), the Club Petit, and Charlie's Playhouse. Eventually various combinations of Bowser, Bell, and such musicians as Roosevelt T. Williams (the Grey Ghost), Mel Davis, James Jones, Lem Nichols, and Fred Smith became known as the Blues Specialists. Bowser and the Blues Specialists were regular fixtures on the Austin music scene throughout the 1960s and 1970s. After a hiatus, in the late 1980s Bowser and Bell returned to the stage. In 1991 they released an LP entitled It's About Time (Spindletop). Sponsored by folklorists and blues and jazz enthusiasts such as Tary Owens and by organizations such as the Texas Commission on the Arts, Bowser made national and international appearances, including performances at the Smithsonian Institution and Carnegie Hall. This return from semiretirement resulted in a revival of the Blues Specialists, and Bowser and Bell became regular performers at venues such as the Continental Club.

Bowser credited the influence of his parents, his wife, and a high school music teacher, B. G. Bradley, for his success and his early interest in music. His wife of forty-seven years coached him through difficult songs, because, although he had an excellent ear, he could not read music. Bradley, who had played with Erskine Hawkins before becoming a teacher, encouraged Bowser to play from his heart. Other influences included Dorothy Campbell, Nat Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and the Ink Spots. During his fifty-year career, Bowser worked with many other fine performers, such as Jim Watts, George Rains, Mark Kazanoff, Ed Guinn, Jonathan Foose, Long John Hunter, Little Daddy Lot, Spec Hicks, and Marcia Ball.

Among the honors and recognitions extended to him are a proclamation of honor from the Texas Commission on the Arts and induction into the Austin Chronicle's Texas Music Hall of Fame. Displays and holdings honoring Bowser include biographical and charcoal portraits in the "Texas Piano Professors" exhibit at the Texas Music Museum in Austin and interviews and biographical sketches in the keeping of the Austin Blues Family Tree Project. Bowser died of cancer on August 15, 1995, at St. David's Hospital in Austin. His piano can be heard on such recordings as Tary Owens's Texas Piano Professors (1987); the Blues Specialists Liveset: January 15, 1989; Long John Hunter's Ride with Me (1992); and Blues Routes: Heroes and Tricksters (1999). The Blues Specialists continued to perform in 2008. Bowser was inducted into the Austin Music Memorial in 2010.
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Dust My Broom - T.D. Bell & Erbie Bowser

BOWSER, ERBIE (1918–1995). Erbie Bowser, blues, jazz,qqv and boogie-woogie pianist, was born in Davila, Texas, on May 5, 1918, the youngest of ten children. Bowser's parents moved the family to Palestine, Texas, when he was five. His father played the violin, and his mother played piano, violin, and accordion. Erbie began playing piano and singing in the church choir, as his musical parents expected. While still attending Lincoln High School he joined the North Carolina Cotton Pickers Review and began performing throughout the South during summer vacations. After high school he joined the Sunset Entertainers and toured Texas with the Tyler-based band, playing blues, jazz, and big band tunes. He soon toured Europe and North Africa with the Special Services Band, playing at USO shows in England, Sicily, Italy, and Africa. Upon his discharge from military service he worked as a brick mason, and then attended Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas, for two years. His parents' death prevented him from finishing college. He married a woman from Greenville, Texas, in 1948. Around 1949 the couple moved to Odessa. There Bowser found a job with Midwestern Drilling Company, while his wife went to work at the local hospital. Bowser met guitarist T. D. Bell working in the oilfields of West Texas. The two began playing together with Johnny Holmes at nightspots in West Texas and New Mexico. Their musical partnership lasted five decades.

Bowser and his wife moved to Austin in the mid-1950s, so she could attend Huston-Tillotson College. In Austin Bowser began a twenty-year career with the National Cash Register Company. He also participated in jam sessions with musicians from nearby colleges, performed with fraternity bands such as the Sweetarts, and played solo at the Commodore Perry Hotel. When Bell moved to Austin around 1960, he and Bowser began playing together at the Victory Grill (owned by Johnny Holmes), the Club Petit, and Charlie's Playhouse. Eventually various combinations of Bowser, Bell, and such musicians as Roosevelt T. Williams (the Grey Ghost), Mel Davis, James Jones, Lem Nichols, and Fred Smith became known as the Blues Specialists. Bowser and the Blues Specialists were regular fixtures on the Austin music scene throughout the 1960s and 1970s. After a hiatus, in the late 1980s Bowser and Bell returned to the stage. In 1991 they released an LP entitled It's About Time (Spindletop). Sponsored by folklorists and blues and jazz enthusiasts such as Tary Owens and by organizations such as the Texas Commission on the Arts, Bowser made national and international appearances, including performances at the Smithsonian Institution and Carnegie Hall. This return from semiretirement resulted in a revival of the Blues Specialists, and Bowser and Bell became regular performers at venues such as the Continental Club.

Bowser credited the influence of his parents, his wife, and a high school music teacher, B. G. Bradley, for his success and his early interest in music. His wife of forty-seven years coached him through difficult songs, because, although he had an excellent ear, he could not read music. Bradley, who had played with Erskine Hawkins before becoming a teacher, encouraged Bowser to play from his heart. Other influences included Dorothy Campbell, Nat Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and the Ink Spots. During his fifty-year career, Bowser worked with many other fine performers, such as Jim Watts, George Rains, Mark Kazanoff, Ed Guinn, Jonathan Foose, Long John Hunter, Little Daddy Lot, Spec Hicks, and Marcia Ball.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”

Dust My Broom - T.D. Bell & Erbie Bowser

Tyler D. "T.D." Bell (Dec. 26,1922- Jan 1999) Guitarist/vocalist Bell is a local legend, the leader of the hottest band on the East Side, T. D. Bell and the Cadillacs, during the heyday of the Victory Grill in the 1950s. Bell, who came to Austin in the early 1950s, provided early performing experience in his bands for many of the blues and jazz players on the East Side of Austin.

Bell's bands, which generally featured Erbie Bowser on piano, backed up virtually all of the touring blues and R&B acts to come through Austin in the 50s. He had a long association with Victory grill owner Johnny Holmes. One of the few older musicians in town to work full-time during his early years, Bell did not take on outside work until later in life. He now has a small trucking business and had essentially retired from music until Erbie Bower asked him to reform their band for the Victory Grill reunion in 1987.


While Bell has some touring experience, he never worried about making the big time and has been happiest as an Austin musician. Bell, who has lived in the same neighborhood for over 40 years, knows intimately the history of the East Side's decline.

Born 5 May 1918, Davila, Texas, USA, d. 15 August 1995, Austin, Texas. Like his partner, guitarist T.D. Bell, Bowser had to wait until old age to be recognized outside his home state. One of nine children, he taught himself to play the piano after his family had moved to Palestine in east Texas. He first played in public with the North Carolina Cotton Pickers and after high school, the Sunset Royal Entertainers. During World War II, he was seconded to the Special Services band and played USO shows throughout Europe and North Africa. Back in Odessa, Texas, in 1947, he was recruited to join T.D. Bell And The Cadillacs and established a long-standing friendship with the band's leader. Moving to Austin, he worked with local bands and played alongside Robert Shaw and Grey Ghost. Given their advanced years, It's About Time proved to be a worthy memorial to both Bell and Bowser.
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