Photo: Big Sand & His Fly-Rite Boys - bigsandy.net
Big Sand & His Fly-Rite Boys
Big Sand & His Fly-Rite Boys
Lock up the thrift stores, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys might be coming for our vinyl when they hit town Thursday at Shank Hall.
Big Sandy, aka Robert Williams, is a big vinyl fan, a hobby he inherited from his father, and these days his record collection tops 75,000. He says he prefers finding records in the wild rather than in record stores or online. In fact, it’s at the top of the agenda for the rockabilly band, which formed in 1988 in Southern California, when they are on the road.
“We’ll get up early on a Saturday and go hit the garage sales, or rummage sales, or you go to a church with their charity shop,” Williams says. “I like finding records in places like that. It’s just a little more exciting than a record store when you already know you’re going to find some nice stuff.”
A Music-Filled Home
Growing up in a house filled with records, Williams parents’ music became his music, and the sounds became his sounds. “When I listened to those older records, it just took me to another place, and I just loved being there,” he says. “(My father’s) music was like early rock’n’roll, country, western swing, rockabilly. My mother was more into rhythm and blues, doo-wop, and her family is from Mexico, so a lot of the traditional Mexican music, a lot of music that was created on the Texas/Mexican border, Tejano music.
“I just grew up absorbing all of that. The music I make is a product of that. And I’ve noticed that it seems there are similar stories with a lot of the people who come out to shows and who are in other bands making similar kinds of music.”
However, when Williams was younger, just as it is today, listening to old music was not a ticket to easy popularity. He says he always felt out of place and out of time. As a little kid, he watched old movies, imagining himself being transported to “a different realm, a different dimension.”
“Growing up, listening to those records, I felt like I was alone in it,” he says. “Like a weird kid who’s into this older music and always felt a little out of place in school. Well, in the early ‘80s there was a rockabilly revival, a kind of resurgence that happened, and I fell in with that kind of crowd, and I felt at home there. That’s where I’ve been sort of ever since.”
A Good Time
As Williams approaches nearly 40 years since forming the Fly-Rite Boys with long-departed guitarist TK Smith, he finds that people still respond to the “truth and honesty” of the old songs. But when he and his band hit the stage, it doesn’t really matter if people are familiar with the history of the music. Big Sandy & the Fly-Rite Boys just want to create an atmosphere where people can have a good time.
“You just have to feel it in the moment, and that’s how I love it to be myself,” he says.
Along with Williams are guitarist Ashley Kingman, bassist Russell Scott and drummer Frankie Hernandez. The band put out an EP, a tribute to Williams’ longtime hero, Freddy Fender, in 2020. Their last full-length album, What a Dream It’s Been, came out in 2013. “I have a little stockpile of songs that I’ve been working on,” Williams says. “So the songs have been written and we’ve rehearsed them a little bit, but we haven’t had any time to get in the studio for any length of time and record it. We’re overdue, but I’m hoping soon.”
Williams did the interview by phone from Las Vegas, where he was part of the long-running Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend as a host and performer. He says the band has had a small hiatus from regular shows, and Milwaukee is the start of a week-plus set of dates that will end in Austin, Texas.
“When we get to Milwaukee, we’ll be back to business with the Fly-Rite Boys,” he says. “I’m looking forward to that.”
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys perform Thursday, May 2 at Shank Hall.
