The always friendly, slightly deranged voice of Doug Sahm shouts "Rock -- eeee!" and he is not summoning the boxer, nor the squirrel. A tenor saxophone comes blistering in, usually for one of the shorter solos allotted a player on a doo wop or RB number. The player is San Antonio's Rocky Morales, and as critic and longtime Texas music fan John Morthland once wrote, "Nobody gets that shrimp-boats-bobbing-in-the-Gulf sound down better than Rocky Morales." The saxophonist was a close collaborator with Sahm off and on since the 1959 regional hit Why, Why, Why. This song was released on the Harlem label by a band Morales was fronting at the time named the Markays. Until the death of Sahm in the late '90s, it would have been a sure thing to predict that if the latest project of this bandleader didn't feature Morales, then the next one would. The hearty tenor man plays on classic recordings by the Sir Douglas Quintet, as well as later productions by the superb Texas Tornados. He was vital to Sahm's RB direction, especially when it was heavy with the sounds of bluesman T-Bone Walker or a tribute to an RB legend such as Johnny Ace.

Morales is also a member of one of San Antonio's legendary horn sections, the West Side Horns. This group was formed in the early '70s and christened by Sahm, with whom the group used to play regularly at venues such as the old Soap Creek Saloon. Sahm was something of a mentor to all of the horn players involved in this scene, an accomplished enough musician on several instruments to want to have a hand with developing different types of horn arrangements. Morales performed with Sahm at many important venues, including Carnegie Hall. The West Side Horns have traveled all over the world, including gigs in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Amsterdam, Japan, Switzerland, and Belgium. Other members of this group have included Al Gomez on trumpet, Spot Barnet on saxophone, Mike Zeal on bass, Moses Vasquez on drums, keyboardist Sauce Gonzalez, and last and perhaps least, vocalist Little Roger. As a member of this group or in a variety of other ad hoc horn sections, Morales has played backup for a number of blues, RB, and rock artists, including Rick Danko, Joe King Carrasco, and Kim Wilson. In 2000, he began performing with Texas RB crooner Randy Garibay and his Cats Don't Sleep band. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi