Backyard Fireball! Earl Campbell vs. Nolan Ryan BBQ

If you are a regular reader here, you probably know it’s grillin’ time in Texas. We have already wheeled out the Weber for some smokin’ action, and yesterday we tried a new product: Nolan Ryan’s All-Beef Smoked Sausage.

For those of you who are not from Texas, or who are not familiar with baseball – Nolan Ryan is a Hall of Fame pitcher who worked for four different teams during his career. “The Ryan Express” was a pitcher for the New York Mets, the California Angels, the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers, and he threw seven no-hitters, more than any other pitcher in baseball history.

He’s also a part owner and CEO of the Texas Rangers ball club, and a businessman who has his own line of beef products. Including Nolan Ryan’s All-Beef Smoked Sausage. You know we’re big fans of Earl Campbell’s Hot Links, but we thought we’d give Nolan’s product a test run on this first full week of the 2011 baseball season.

We like Earl’s sausage because it’s meaty and has a slightly spicy kick that makes it good to eat even without barbecue sauce. Nolan’s product doesn’t plump when heated like Earl’s does, but it has an edge on taste and seems denser to the bite. Perhaps it’s the ingredients: Earl Campbell’s sausage has chicken, beef and pork while Nolan Ryan’s claims to be 100 percent beef. I bought the “Hot and Spicy” style of sausage but it didn’t seem all that hot and/or spicy, at least not like Earl’s sausage.

I’m probably going to buy Nolan Ryan’s All-Beef Smoked Sausage again – it’s readily available at the supermarket where I shop the most (that would be Kroger) and I’m already a fan of his frozen slider burgers. The price is similar between the two products, but I got the Nolan Ryan sausage on a store discount so that gives the pitcher another edge. But I’m gonna also buy Earl Campbell’s Hot Links again as well, because I have a history with the Tyler Rose (I saw one of his greatest games in person) and his meat products are pretty good.

And another thing, which has nothing to do with sausage: for a legend, Nolan Ryan is a truly nice guy. The few times I’ve come into contact with him, he’s been cool and down-to-earth. If the Houston Astros can’t go to the World Series this year (don’t hold your breath), I’m going to totally secondarily root for the Texas Rangers to get there again. Thanks, Nolan Ryan!

MP3: “Nolan Ryan (He’s A Hero To Us All)” by Jerry Jeff Walker

MP3: “Big Bad Earl” by Tom Cantrell with Dink & the Oo-ettes

Earl Campbell Meat Products official website

Nolan Ryan’s All-Natural Beef Products official website

In case you missed it, a lot of BBQ toonage here

Backyard Fireball: It’s BBQ Grillin’ Time!

The Patron Saint of Texas BBQ

I realize some of you in other parts of the country (and the world) are still gettin’ winter weather. Here in Texas it’s grilllin’ time. If you are in Minnesota or New York, stop yer bitchin’ for a minute and see if you can get a whiff of my charcoal fire.

Ah, sorry to be taunting you like that. Here in Texas barbecue is a religion, like football and drivin’ fast. Barbecue is sittin’ on the patio, a Weber grill smokin’ some ribs while you listen to rock and roll and swig a cold beer. Barbecue is more than just tossing some wieners on a fire. It’s smoking a succulent side of beef, making sure those pork ribs are just right, and poking a fork in a chicken thigh to make sure the juices run clear. It’s real cookin’!

It’s also potato salad, watermelon, beans in barbecue sauce, potato chips, Big Red soft drinks and lots of cold, cold beer. You got all that, all you need is some fine music.

MP3: “Bar-B-Que” by Wendy Rene

MP3: “Boogie Woogie Barbecue” by Mitch Woods

MP3:  “Barbeque” by Robert Earl Keen

MP3:  “Bar-B-Q” by ZZ Top

MP3: “(Take Out The Squeal) If You Want A Meal” by Earl Summer Jackson

MP3: “Baby Back Ribs” commercial music from Chili’s

MP3: “Barbecue Boogie” by Elvin Bishop

MP3: “Barbecue Any Old Time” by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee

MP3: “The Original Queen Bee Barbecue” by Harley David

MP3: “Aussie BBQ” by the Aussie Bush Band

MP3: “Southern Fried Chicken” by Hank Penny

MP3: “Eat Your Wife And Kiss The Barbecue” by Mount Righteous

MP3: “UFOs, Big Rigs and BBQ” by Mojo Nixon

MP3: “Hot Dog” by the Detroit Cobras

MP3: “Hot Barbecue” by Boogaloo Baby

MP3: “Too Much Barbecue” by Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows

MP3: “Texas Cookin’ ” by Guy Clark

MP3: “BBQ” by The Master Plan

MP3: “The Barbecue” by Eddie Murphy (Not Safe For Work!)

Who Dat? Big Bad Earl! – The Music of Football Part 2

Big Bad Earl (No. 34) and the Oilers: Nov. 20, 1978

The best football game I ever attended was in 1978, in the Houston Astrodome.  The Oilers were playing the Dolphins, and although Miami had hotshot quarterback Bob Griese Houston had its own secret weapon: a rookie named Earl Campbell.  You know the rest – Campbell romped for 199 yards and the game-winning 81-yard touchdown run, and people still call it one of the best Monday Night Football games ever.

Campbell created a sort of Oiler fever in Houston, and a number of people created songs about the player once called the “Tyler Rose.”   Even Joe Tex unleashed a song called “Do The Earl Campbell.”   Now that wasn’t new: NFL teams had their own fight songs for many years.  In 1960, the league put out an album, Marching Songs, with tunes representing each of the 13 teams in the NFL at that time.  Some of the older teams still use those older fight songs, many have enlisted local artists (in some cases, big-name artists) to update the sound of their fight songs.

I still wince when I hear the old 1970s Houston Oilers fight song, called “Luv Ya Blue” or “Houston Oilers No. 1.”   It is one of those ear-worms that will get into your head for days or weeks, and won’t leave.  Written by Lee Ofman, it has the same tune as a fight song Ofman wrote for the Miami Dolphins a few years earlier.  I like some of those songs for the New Orleans Saints, including “Who Dat?” and the highly rhythmic “Let’s Get Fired Up” by Zig and Gaboon’s Gang.  Zig is none other than Zigaboo Modeliste, drummer for the mighty funky Meters, and he cut this little tune in 1980 or so under the auspices of the Popeye’s Fried Chicken chain.

So here you go: football songs!

MP3: “Luv Ya Blue/Houston Oilers No. 1” (excerpt)

MP3: “Miami Dolphins No. 1” (excerpt)

MP3: “Big Bad Earl” by Tom Cantrell with Dink and the Ooettes

MP3: “Bum’s Promise” by Tom Cantrell and the Newettes

MP3: “Let’s Get Fired Up” by Zig and the Gaboon Gang

MP3: “Who Dat?” by Trey Banks and J. John

MP3: “Crank Dat Dallas Cowboys” by Ya Favorite Homie JR

MP3: “Tony Romo” by unknown artist

Stream “Let’s Go Cowboys” by Los Lonely Boys  (Windows Media)

MP3: “Go Dallas Cowboys!” by the NFL Marching Band

MP3: “Hi-O Hi-O For Cleveland” by the NFL Marching Band

MP3: “Let’s Go You Colts” by the NFL Marching Band

MP3: “The Super Bowl Shuffle” by the Chicago Bears

MP3: “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over For Monday Night Football” by Hank Williams Jr.

Listen to fight songs from current and former NFL teams

Another site with fight songs from current and former NFL teams

ESPN website recalls the big Monday Night Football game with Earl Campbell

Vince Young vs. Earl Campbell

                                                                            

Derrick Dolls - insert your own joke here

Just last night we here in Houston had our very first Monday Night Football game since, uh, a long time.  Good news, the Texans won!  And it got me to thinkin’ … about that other Monday Night Football game, the one in Houston, you know, the only one I ever went to.   Uh, if you watched the game last night you wondered (like me) why anyone in their right mind would schedule Houston to play Jacksonville. 

Well it was probably to celebrate the 30th anniversary: Nov. 20, 1978.  The Houston Oilers vs. the Miami Dolphins in the Astrodome.  The place was packed to capacity, and everybody had these fruity Columbia blue pompoms – on the Dome floor, the crowd sounded like sticking your head inside a jet engine.  Future Hall of Famer Bob Griese quarterbacked the Dolphins, but everyone came to see Houston’s rookie running back Earl Campbell.