Texas Tornados

Formed in San Francisco in 1989, Texas Tornados is an American supergroup featuring Flaco Jiménez (Tex-Mex accordionist and singer), Doug Sahm (guitar, singer), Augie Meyers (keyboards, accordion, vocals) and Freddy Fender (guitar, vocals). The band blends Tex-Mex, country, rock, blues and conjunto music, often with bilingual lyrics in English and Spanish. Their formation was no accident, as the musicians had long known each other under the same name, which was Doug Sahm's backing band in the early 1970s. Signed to Reprise Records, Texas Tornados recorded a successful debut album, reaching #25 on the country charts in 1990, before winning a Grammy Award in the Best Mexican-American Performance category for the track "Soy de San Luis". Invited to play at the White House for the inauguration of Bill Clinton's presidency, the band performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Farm Aid Festival as part of an international tour. With a repertoire mixing original compositions and covers, Texas Tornados continued in the same vein with Zone of Our Own (1991), #50 on the country charts, then Hangin' On by a Thread (1992), #5 on Billboard's Regional Mexican Albums chart. In 1996, the song "A Little Bit Is Better Than Nada", taken from the album 4 Aces, was featured in the credits of Ron Shelton's film Tin Cup, starring Kevin Costner, and appeared on the soundtrack. The band records two live albums, Live from the Limo, Vol. 1 released in 1999 and Live from Austin, TX: Austin City Limits, from a performance recorded for the series in 1990 and released in 2005. After Doug Sahm's death on November 18, 1999 and Freddy Fender's on October 14, 2006, Flaco Jiménez and Augie Meyers continued to perform with other musicians, recording their final studio album, ¡Está Bueno! in 2010. Since the successive deaths of Flaco Jiménez on July 31, 2025, and Augie Meyers on March 7, 2026, the band continues with Shawn Sahm (vocals, guitar), Louie Ortega (guitar) and Ernie Durawa (drums).