Cover photo © 2025 Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon

More than eight decades ago, there were a number of small labels releasing blues records, run by enterprising business men and woman in search of the elusive hit record. Labels like King, Modern, Imperial, and Trumpet were eclipsed by other labels including Chess, Sun, Excello, and Specialty. It was exciting period to be in the record business.

Producer Eddie Stout was born a bit too late to be a part of that period, which is a shame because he certainly identifies with the music and sounds from that golden era. That is apparent when you survey the extent of his career as a bass player, record label owner, record producer, and festival promoter.

He recently staged the 13^th annual East Side Kings Festival in East Austin, an event with five stages spread over several blocks with artists like Darrell Nulisch, Sean “Mack” McDonald, Kirk Fletcher, Igor and Yuri Prado, Stan Mosley, Earnest “Guitar” Roy, and local singer Jai Milano. It is a funky little festival with a laid-back feel and smaller crowds than your typical blues fest. Yet it is enough of a draw to attract blues fans from across the globe.

“The festival got started by my good friend, Jason Moeller, who was the drummer with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Now he’s just doing everything, especially Charlie Crockett. I think he’s the only shuffle drummer left. Jay gave me a call one day, and said, do me a favor. Put together one of those shows you always do where I get to play with all of these great musicians at one time.

“That’s how it started. Instead of just doing a show like we usually do, I figured let’s do a block party so you could just walk up and down and play with everybody. So 14 years ago, I picked out a block that I always frequented as a youth and had a lot of blues on it too. We threw in like $700 and got like 8-10 bands the first couple years to help out. Things just kept growing from there.

“Our foundation came along right after that because I just wanted to keep the festival going. John Paul DeJoria was a contributor. He has a foundation called Peace, Love, and Happiness. Man, that cat is soulful, and filthy, doggone rich, helps everybody. Jay knew him from years ago. We approached him about helping us out, and about 10 years ago he started donating to the East Side Kings. He’s the one that said, “man, you got to make this a foundation.”

“We came up with our mission statement, which is, “To preserve and promote the cultural heritage of African American Blues, Jazz, and Gospel.” That’s the road I’ve been on all my life. Nobody makes any money. I’m the one that comes up with concepts, ideas, marketing, booking, venues, everything. Jason helps me with spiritual advice and so does the small board that we put together. They’re all local musicians that come up with ideas or problem solving that I wouldn’t think of otherwise. East Austin is where I like to focus on, because that’s where I grew up listening to that music. There were a couple clubs right there where I’d go see blues, and as a youth after midnight, you could always pick up a half a pint.”

Stout did not start playing music until his teenage years, but once that fire ignited, he quickly fell in love with the music.

“My neighbor first led me to music, my good friend in junior high, David Murray. He played guitar like a motherfucker. He was great. That was sixth grade. Then I had another neighbor move in. His name was Billy Etheridge. He played piano in the Chessman out of Dallas. He was a vacuum cleaner salesperson, but he still played music. He picked up a gig at Nature’s, downtown in Austin. Me and David Murray went down to see him. We were teenagers, hopped on my little Suzuki 50, went down there and they actually snuck us in under their trench coats. We went to the back of the room, sat down with all the girls and drank margaritas.

“From then on, we just went straight to the blues, going to every blues show we could find. It was mostly Wednesday nights with the Cobras, and then of course Monday nights with Jimmie Vaughn, Tuesday night with Stevie Ray doing the Triple Threat band with W.C. Clark. We went to every show, hundreds of them. There was no looking back, just listening to a song, running home and learning it because we didn’t have any records.

“I started out on guitar, just plinking along trying to learn songs. Then this guy named Jimmy Raj called me up and said, we need a bass player. I’ll teach you everything, and he had a bass. I just started going over to his house every day. Around 11th grade, I  joined a band called Thrills for about a year.

“Then I started my own band with David Murray on guitar, Stevie Fulton on drums, and Keith Dunn singing and playing harmonica, called it the Dynaflows. Keith Dunn was freaking amazing. He had all that early Chess Records stuff down that we didn’t know of, like” Gold Tailed Bird”, the Jimmy Rogers and Muddy Waters stuff. I was real fortunate to be in a good band at an early age.”

After two years, the Dynaflows dissolved as Murray started working with guitarist Lewis Cowdry, one of the linchpins of the Austin scene. Stout relocated to Dallas and did a five year stint on bass with Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets.

“During that time I was up there, we did a record with Greg “Fingers” Taylor called Harpoon Man. And I thought, man, this is what I want to do. Fingers was the harp player for Jimmy Buffet for quite a spell. I had been playing with Anson, who backed Fingers on the album.

“I got a couple of bands together, like Reverend Horton Heat and Darrell Nulisch, and then right after that I produced one with the wild Texas guitarist U.P. Wilson. He used to always come out and sit in with us when we played out the Bluebird at Fort Worth. It just took off from there. I did a bunch of Paul Orta stuff on my Pee Wee Records label. He was a great harmonica player and singer.

“There were only a very few people that believed in me when I was younger. I think it was because I was very set in my way of wanting to do things, be a musician and being a producer. I didn’t think I would call myself a producer. I just wanted to do records and hang out with the guys. Lewis was one of the early ones that believed in me.

“Everybody has different ways of being a producer. I’m not a fan of guitar driven music. I like it to be like a vocalist and guitar accompaniment and mix it on down, vocal, snare, bass rhythm. I think what makes a producer is just being able to listen to the musicians, staying neutral and keeping everybody as friends. It’s really hard job to do. Sometimes it seems everybody hates each other. Part of this whole journey is keeping people together, and getting them back together.

“I do go for a certain sound, kind of like a pre-war tape thing, warm sound ,singing not screaming, guitar playing not wanking, and no synthesizer, just all real music, real Hammond B3 organ, real piano, and recorded mostly live. It used to be all live and I try to still adhere to that now.”

At a small Texas record event in a local hotel, Stout talked about the details of licensing a record. In the audience was Harry Friedman, who at the time owned Amazing Records, another Texas label that released albums by Gary Primich, Omar and the Howlers, and the Juke Jumpers.

“Harry came up to me, said, “Hey, come to work with me.” So I helped him a little bit with Amazing, and then he switched over to Antone’s Records. That’s where I started licensing, marketing, and touring in Europe. I was a really going gangbusters at first. ‘Then Justice Records wanted me to help them, followed by New West Records. So I was helping other record companies and a lot of local cats licensed their stuff over to Europe. In the early days it was really easy because Europe was hungry for music. I don’t know how many times I’ve been over there, probably over a hundred.”

Change came around again as Stout was hired by Malaco Records, a label that had a roster that included Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor, and Denise LaSalle.

“I worked for Malaco for about a year. It was very difficult for me, that Southern Soul style of music. My niche is blues, straight up, unknown artist playing blues. I can really work with that. While at Malaco I was able to work with singer Z.Z. Hill, and Bobby Rush for sure. The Japanese love Malaco. I did a really big deal for several records with Malaco in Japan.

“But I couldn’t get any headway with them. Their gospel stuff seemed to do good, but I just couldn’t get my hands around it all. Some of it I liked, you know, the Bobby Rush stuff. I just had to dissolve and fade away. I wanted to open a distribution unit like I did for Antone’s for a while. I was able to set up a place in Amsterdam where we could distribute records out of, you know, score ’em, pick, pack and ship PPD.

“I’ve always had a label since I started Pee Wee Records, had something going on that was mine. People come on and they say, I produced all these records. Yeah, but you didn’t pay for ’em. And where did you get the money? I do the whole thing. I’ve got to find the money, I produce the project, find the songs, put it together, hotels, transportation, flights, all tooth and nail, I guess. Producers come to me and say, “Oh yeah, I produced all this.” All I can do is bite my tongue.

“Lead, follow, or get out of the way. If people listen to everybody, we can get back to square one, when there weren’t all these solos, and people actually listened to each other, creating a sound instead of just a rhythm section with a bunch of solos. And they had to play simple because there was no amplifier that was loud enough to project. Everybody played simple, together, and it made a good sound.”

Stout started his Dialtone Records label in 1999 with the release of Second Time Around by A.C. Littlefield and the Original Bells Of Joy. The label’s catalog on extends over more than thirty titles focused on Texas musicians, including many who had been flying under the radar of the blues community.

Asked if he had any favorites, he had a quick response. “The first Little Joe Washington that we did, Houston Guitar Blues, was special. That was actually just one microphone because all of it was so loud. We just used the vocal mic and it sounded amazing with Little Joe on guitar, Bill Campbell on bass, Willie Sampson on drums, Clarence Pierce on rhythm guitar, and Nick Connolly on piano. That was the old school, a good record.

“Another was Ray Reed, Where The Trinity Runs Free. Ray was a guitar player and singe.r The guy on bass, I forget his name, but he played with Jimmy Reed. That’s why we dug him up. But Jason Moeller, and his brother, Johnny Moeller, I think are on more than half of all of my records. They are definitely part of my go-to rhythm section.

“Dialtone Records, until just recently, has all been African American releases Then I did a couple 45 rpm records with Eve Monsees, the Moeller Brothers and the Keller Brothers. I think that’s the first white people that have done a recording on Dialtone other than being side guys.”

As you would expect, Stout has learned more than a few valuable lessons over the years that have helped him navigate the twist and turns of the record business in this age of streaming and downloads.

“You’ve got to have some thick skin.  If someone has an opinion, you have to really listen to it. As a producer, certainly having a sense of humor helps, and don’t tell your wife how much money you’re spending. I think there was an interview in the Austin Chronicle some years back with her and she commented she was so fed up with spending all of our money and not making anything. So I started a non-profit.”

“I turn back the hands of time to pre-war and post-war blues. There’s a lot of stuff out there they call blues, but it’s just something with a good feel that ain’t close to blues. I just try to represent with that old school sound in mind, try to create a moment in time of what Austin was when I was growing up, with the music flowing out in the streets and the camaraderie with all the cats.

“I’m trying to keep that alive while also helping some people in the community. I think this year we’ve already given away $12,000 or $15,000 for help with funeral expenses, tombstones, paying bills, back taxes, DWI legal help, just helping the guys the best we can. We also buy them passports and help them with transportation, hotel rooms, and instruments here and there.

“And of course, we write grants request for the foundation, which has to stick exactly to your mission statement. We can only spend what the city gives me through grants that aligns with the mission statement, like the East Side Kings festival, and festival related promotion. The other money we get in from sponsors and donations, like $20 here or $10 there, I, that’s what I use to shovel to help the cats. We do a workshop at the fest, and I like to do more of those. I just need more help. I’m hoping we can expand the board with people that will be more involved. If I could clone me, I would definitely do that.

“I took like 20 people with me to the Lucerne Blues fest in Switzerland this year. A couple of them had never even been out to county. The East Side Kings makes it easier because we showcase these local guys for the Europeans. That means I do a lot of marketing. I was the international guy at all those record labels, so it’s easy for me to gravitate towards Europe. I have felt like our fest is one of the best blues festivals in the world. And nobody locally shows up.”

Another project that occupies Stout’s time is documentary film he is calling Rosewood Soul, a historic neighborhood on Austin’s east side that had a major African-American influence.

“There’s some stuff in the can where these people are ready to get on board, Eureka Properties. They own properties on 12th Street, really like what we’re doing, and they love blues. Every year they’ve been supporting us, but I think they want to come on board and really help us out.

“We started working on it in March, filming Delanie Pickering, Stephen Hull, Harrell Davenport, and Xavier Shannon. They are all fine young blues artists and guitar players. We did a live show and took them to the studio to record two songs, plus we interviewed each of them. So we got all that in the can and I’m just waiting for my videographer to put it all together to make a nice little documentary film. I’m ready to go to the next one after that, got a lot of plans in my head to video. I think video is the best way for these artists to be able to sell themselves in Europe and to festivals.”

Stout still plays an occasional gig on bass with the East Side Kings band, but gigs are few and far between as Austin has plenty of musicians looking for work.

“I just don’t have the passion anymore for playing like I used to. So much BS involved. I’ve got too much to do anyway, like staying home and raising my daughter, living life with my wife, that’s a priority. This business is a labor of love, something you’re born with. It’s in your genes, like American music. This is what I do, and there’s no money in it. There’s nothing. While you’re doing it, you don’t see it. But at the end, now I can look back and go, that’s amazing, doing all these records, producing TV shows and records, and  plenty of tours in Europe.

“When I get enough money to do a record, I just pick up somebody and record them for you. Always trying to get some of that mailbox money! I hope there is something good around the corner here for all these cats and our Foundation. I’m bucking 70 years old, so I ain’t got much longer to keep it going. Hopefully there is somebody out there to follow in my footsteps to keep this thing shaking.”

Check out the East Side Kings Foundation and Festival at https://eastsidekingsfest.com/