Life Is A Butt Dial
Tales From A Life Among The Tragically Hip
Austin music legend and long-time cohort of Kinky Friedman (official title: Executive Buttboy), Cleve Hattersley has the stories, stories of a life that has seen it all. Each is a two or three page memory of folks he has met, places he has seen, history that happened before his eyes. In a book that the Texas A&M Press called “too real” for them in their rejection letter, he reveals untruths about heroes, truths about antiheroes. All in the land of the tragically hip. Joseph Heller swore up to his death that Cleve had earlier saved his life, when he was stricken with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Harry Dean Stanton literally followed Cleve wherever he went whenever Cleve visited LA, and when they toured Australia with Billy Swan and Kinky (HD loved great pot, you see). Whether it was catching Hendrix audition for a gig he didn’t get, playing water tag in LA with Jim Morrison, or getting kicked out of the Mean Fiddler, the toughest Irish bar in London with Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Kinky (and they were all on their best behavior!), history has unfolded in front of Cleve throughout his extraordinary life. Cleve witnessed the entire cultural (and sometimes violent) revolution of the sixties, from hanging with Jerry Rubin as he taught others how to make bombs, to attending (and fleeing from) riots in Berkeley and the Haight. He smuggled large amounts of pot, spent time in the Huntsville State Penitentiary for his indiscretions, and managed and booked two of New York City’s most infamous clubs, the Lone Star Cafe and the Blue Note Jazz Club. Cleve’s seminal band, Greezy Wheels, members of the Austin Music Hall Of Fame, played two of the most important shows/events in Austin history, including the breakout shows for Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen at the Armadillo World Headquarters. The Willie show has been called the most significant cultural event in Austin history (by Michael Corcoran and others). Nearly fifty years after its inception Greezy Wheels is releasing their final studio album, ‘Ain’t Quite Like That’ simultaneously with ‘Life Is A Butt Dial,’ on their own MaHatMa Records label. Cleve wrote all the originals on the cd, which is already being called “a masterpiece.” There will be more stories to tell......
“Who knew he was the Zelig of the counterculture....? His captivating, rollercoaster of a memoir reveals the secret to his success: he was the guy with the best weed.” - Larry “Ratso” Sloman
“Wherever Cleve Hattersley has been in his long, colorful life has been somewhere.....Wherever Cleve goes, dangerous, fascinating, funny shit follows. This inevitably makes Life Is A Butt Dial one roaring good time of a read.” - Michael Simmons, MOJO, High Times
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Greezy Wheels has been a major player in Austin, Texas music for nearly fifty years. Members of the Austin Music Hall Of Fame, once deemed the “Grateful Dead Of Texas,” they have played a part in some of the most iconic and important events in Texas music and cultural history. To presage that fiftieth year (2020), the Wheels have recorded what many are already calling their finest ever studio album, Ain’t Quite Like That, co-produced by Cleve Hattersley and John Bush at John’s Cicada Moon Studios. It is to be Greezy Wheels’ final record. Nine tunes written by Cleve and arranged by the entire band are complemented by two amazing covers, Mercury Blues and Blue Moon Of Kentucky. The cd takes the listener on a trip through the gilded age of great jams, beautiful melodies and poignant lyrics that still speak directly to the moment. These songs will be in that moment well into the next century. Current band members pay homage to all the Greezies who have gone before, giving this record an all-time feel. Cleve, who has finally fully spread his wings on guitar and slide guitar, is joined on the top end of the sound by his wife, Sweet Mary on fiddle. Bush on drums, bassist Brad Houser, and keyboardists Matt Hubbard and Coleman Berg drive the bus, backing up vocalists Lissa Hattersley, Penny Jo Pullus, and Cleve with a unity that speaks of years of playing together. That’s because they have: Penny Jo has been a band member for twenty years, and John, Brad and Matt are all core members of Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. Extra fun is provided by horn sections from Brad and Matt, with Mary playing the trumpet parts; and extra special fun comes from the fiddles of Minnie and Ella Jordan. Coinciding with the release of Ain’t Quite Like That is the launch of Cleve’s tell-all book, Life Is A Butt Dial (YES Publishing Austin, Texas). Subtitled Tales From A Life Among The Tragically Hip, it is a riotous look at his life through the jaundiced eyes of one who has seen it all and met everyone. With a foreword by Kinky Friedman, Cleve’s drawings of many of his subjects, and sixteen glorious pages of photos, Life Is A Butt Dial has the feel of a best-seller all the way; from the man Larry Ratso Sloman has labeled the “Zelig of the counterculture.” Great music and great reading, a combo that cannot be beat. There may never again be an album (nor a book) quite like this. Anyone who hears the record will automatically want to know more about Cleve, Greezy Wheels and Austin, Texas culture. Anyone who reads the book will just have to have the cd. If the modern music world wants to know from where it came, they need only look at Greezy Wheels. It’s where it all started.
Ain't Quite Like That
Ultimate Greezy
Yup - only one more after this, y'all!
String Theory 2.0
Penultimate Greezy
The first full CD with Brad Houser and Matt Hubbard. Jody Denberg on Unusual Thing: "a great record!" PayPal
Unusual Thing
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The new cd features John Jordan's final work with the band, before his retirement, plus the first contributions from newest members, Brad Houser and Matt Hubbard. This is a good one, folks, and we are quite proud of our work here.
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Kitty Cat Jesus
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CD Baby
Gone Greezy
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Hip Pop
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Millennium Greezy
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How I Spent My Summer Vacation
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