Well, boys and girls, here comes the lowdown on what THE DUDES is all about. Grab yourself a comfey chair and a cocktail and I'll do my best to fill you in.

Back in 1964, Stevie DuPree went to serve his country. He went to boot camp in Alameda , California . When he finished boot camp, they chunked him right in the middle of San Francisco and the lap of the Hippie movement. Needless to say, Stevie's eyes suddenly became wide open. Quite a change from going to the Cy-Fair rodeo on the weekends and getting drunk and throwing up on his girlfriend (they never lasted too long). Pretty soon our boy found himself spending more time down at The Fillmore Auditorium. He was hanging with the likes of The Dead and Jesse Colin Young. Watching them boys like Jimi Hendrix and Clapton and Carlos Santana and the like when they were just breaking out. Stevie knew that one day he'd be there, too.

When he got back to Houston , Texas , Stevie met The Reverend Don. The Rev and DuPree decided to put together an acoustic unit called Horizon. They won some songwriting awards. They started to play at all the IN places for their kind of music all over Texas and Louisiana and Oklahoma . The future looked bright.

At this time, I'd like to point out that most musicians, at some point in their career, get comsumed by the dumbass. The Rev and DuPree were no exception. Not satisfied with their small, but dedicated, following, they decided what they needed to do was become a cover band, make big money and live the good life. Folks, I'm here to tell you, that was a sad, sad day. Within a year, they was scratcin' and snarlin' and fightin' with each other so much that no music got done and one day in 1977 they just walked away !

That brings us to present times. In March of 2003, for reasons known only to the great Boogieman in the sky, Stevie got up out of his recliner and said, "Man, I got to call Don". So he went to the telephone book, opened it up and there was old Don's address and phone number same as it was 30 years back. Stevie made that call and come to find out, old Don had been lookin' for Stevie for a while. Kind of spooky, ain't it. So Stevie went over to Don's house a couple of weeks later, not really knowing what to expect. The Rev pulled out his guitar and Stevie pulled out a harp. They started jammin' and then they started smilin' and then they both said, "Man, we GOT to make this thing happen this time".

Ya'll know the rest. The boys got together and started writing up a storm. The Dudes first CD, Nothing But The Truth, was released in June of 2004. They're gonna let ya'll have another one pretty soon, or so I'm told. They've even been talking about going over to England to play. That ought to be something.

Anyway, that's about as caught up as we can get. Ya'll keep on doin' the Boogie and don't never stop.

December 12, 2004

Uncle LeRoy DuPree

Keeper of the Eternal Flame

Learn more about Stevie DuPree and The Dudes... www.dudesband.com