Why Tony Garnier is great
Garnier has done an amazing job on what has to be one of the toughest gigs in the music business.
Tony Garnier happens to be a very experienced, very seasoned musician capable of playing in an amazing variety of styles — most far more difficult than Bob Dylan's blues and folk based tunes (and that's no slur on Dylan).
He also happens to be saddled with the most difficult task of leading a band for someone who out of a devilish playfulness, or sheer impulse, a desire for spontaneity and high-wire walking, or quite possibly plain insanity, likes to change keys, beats, songs (after they've started) and pull all sorts of other tricks to fuck up those playing with him, whether its his current band, The Band, Joan Baez, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Grateful Dead, studio musicians or anyone else.
Given that, Garnier has done an amazing job on what has to be one of the toughest gigs in the music business. I mean if you're out there playing in front of a few thousand people, it helps to know what the song is you're going to play or if it's going to be in the same key as the last time you played it if you ever played it at all.
The reason Dylan's band has a cohesive sound at all is because Garnier probably with the help of God managed to make Dylan realize that they could be pretty damn good if they had just the slightest clue of what he was going to do.
I think the other reason Tony's lasted so long is he passed the shit test as in taking the shit Bob dishes out. Apparently Bob gives the guys in his band a lot of shit, kind of this weird loyalty thing. If you can take his shit over a prolonged period of time and not quit or whine, you've passed the shit test.
No musician has played as many shows or has been with Dylan as long as Tony Garnier, but he started with the Asleep At The Wheel.
Garnier joined the Wheel before their 2nd album. I think they were already in Austin, but might have still been in California. That would be maybe 72 or so and he stayed with them approximately until the end of the decade and is on at least five Wheel albums (in my opinion, their best stuff). He then (I think) moved to NYC, played with Robert Gordon, maybe some others and was in the Saturday Night Live band for awhile, which is probably where he met GE Smith. No musician has played as many shows or has been with Dylan as long as Tony Garnier, but he started with the wheel.
Around the time of "The Wheel" album which is still my favorite record. The place the Wheel played in Philly for a long time was the Main Point in Bryn Mawr. This was when they still had their first bus, a Greyhound Scenicruiser just like the one on the back of Cody's 2nd album (it may have actually been that bus). It had Asleep At The Wheel painted on the sides in Ringling Bros type lettering. Bryn Mawr's a small upscale suburban town. Ray Benson who was one of the drivers parked the bus behind the club in a driveway. When loadout came sometime after midnight, a car had parked besides the bus. They had parked the bus front in. So Ray's fucking inching the bus out, little by little and basically getting nowhere. After about 15 or 20 minutes a Bryn Mawr cop comes along, and says, "Who the hell was Asleep At The Wheel to get in this position?" He wasn't expecting about ten pretty big guys in cowboy hats and western clothes to come out. This was back when they had a couple of horn players and Andy Stein sitting in. Finally Tony Garnier walks over to a no parking sign and yanks it out of the ground, and Ray was able to get the bus out. It was one of those things I wish I had a video of. It was hysterical.