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@larsman: Small world! I remember Kevin’s name, but can’t picture his face (I’m sure we’ve met, but the 70’s are somewhat of a blur ;-). Donut’s guitarist Paul Skelton was in Hurd’s Mondo Hotpants Orchestra, whom I first saw live at De Anza College in Cupertino. I have all TMHO 45’s and LP’s, and most of Cornell’s CD’s recorded since his relocation to Austin in the late-70’s.

The last time I was in Austin my traveling companion (Kim Winn, formerly a member of TMHO) got up on stage with Cornell at The Broken Spoke and sang a song (Merle Haggard, George Jones, Hank Williams, or Johnny Cash? I don’t remember). I’ve known Kim since 1959, and played with him in numerous bands, the first in 1968. Skelton was playing his old Telecaster, sounding better than ever. For the Dave Alvin fans reading this: Cornell's female drummer left the band to join Alvin's band The Guilty Women.

I never played with Cornell, but was in a band with Cornell’s younger brother Drew, a Jump Blues/Swing band named The South Bay Blues Band (changed to The South Bay Revue after we added a black female vocalist to share the front of the stage with Drew). Drew was of course also a member of The Mondo Hotpants orchestra off-and-on over the years. A giant pothead ;-), and 78 collector.

I saw The Plimsouls live a lot, one of my favorite L.A. bands (along with The Beat, Los Lobos, The Blasters, The Long Ryders, and The Continental Drifters). The last time I saw The Plimsouls live was in the mid-80’s, at a small place on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City named The Garage. My gal (a huge Plimsouls/Peter Case fan) and I got there in time to hear the opening act---whose name I had never before heard---start their set. They began their opening song, and she and I looked at each with mouths agape---they were fantastic! It was Los Lobos, who had not yet recorded their debut English language album. There’s no better place for live music outside of Austin than Los Angeles!

Oops, above I meant to say The South Bay Swing Band, not Blues Band. Tenor and baritone saxes, acoustic piano (try lugging one of those around in a van ;-), one guitar (a fat-bodied Gibson), electric bass, 4-pc drumset, and singer(s). Fun band! We gigged mostly from San Francisco down to Monterey.

@bdp24 - again, thanks for that rundown, and I'll let Kevin know what you told me. Kevin was prematurely bald and had a beard and had a great DJ-style voice. After he left Banana Records, he went to work in sales for Capitol Records and then relocated from SF to Seattle. 

San Francisco is not half-bad for live music, either!! 👍

@larsman: Before Cornell put together The Mondo Hotpants Orchestra, he and MHO bassist Frank Roeber had a 3-pc group named The Ragg Brothers. The 3rd member was lead guitarist Kim Muscatel (Cornell played rhythm on an acoustic guitar, like Dan Hicks), the same guitarist who was later in The South Bay Swing Band.

A lot of San Jose’s most interesting musicians (the uninteresting ones formed bands like The Doobie Brothers ;-) passed through The Mondo Hotpants Orchestra, like Kim Winn (my travelling companion to Austin as mentioned above), Gary Dulleck (later the pianist in The South Bay Swing Band), Lyle Pratt (with whom I had been in a band in ’69), Jack Sanford and Larry Stokes (the sax players in The South Bay Swing Band), Joel Crawford (a very interesting guy whom I met in a class at De Anza College. We bonded through our love of The Hollies. He is a fanatic about that group), and of course Cornell’s younger brother Drew, also a member of The South Bay Swing Band. San Jose is a small city ;-) .

So as you can see from the above, though I was never a member of Cornell’s band, I was in bands and groups with a lot of guys who were. For a reason I never understood, he kept Patrick Hennessy---a terrible, terrible drummer (he used Roto-Toms in place of mounted toms ;-)---in his band for years. It’s even more confounding as Cornell was himself a drummer.

Richard Thompson - Grizzly Man (Re-issue on CD and LP)