Greezy Wheels is an Austin

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

-based rock

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 band that formed in the 1970s. They played frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters

Armadillo World Headquarters

The Armadillo World Headquarters was the premier music hall and entertainment center in Austin, Texas, United States from 1970 to 1980.-History:...

, to the point of being regarded as the house band.

Greezy Wheels' music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 is a raucous blend of rock, blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, and country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

. At the time, they were the only band with a female fiddler, Sweet Mary Hattersley. Sweet Mary consistently brought the crowd to a screaming frenzy with her version of the "Orange Blossom Special

Orange Blossom Special (song)

The fiddle tune "Orange Blossom Special", about the passenger train of the same name, was written by Ervin T. Rouse in 1938. The original recording was created by Ervin and Gordon Rouse in 1939. It is considered the best known fiddle tune of the twentieth century and is often called simply The...

." The music of Greezy Wheels reflected the cultural dichotomy of Austin in the 1970s — a unique place where hippies had roots deep in the heart of Texas.

The band played up to 1978, when they took a 25-year hiatus. Greezy Wheels reformed in 2001 and are now recording for their own label, MaHatMa Records, after releasing two CDs on the Tana Records label. Their music has become more sophisticated, but has kept its off-the-page personality and musical comparisons are difficult to make. Principal writer and leader, Cleve Hattersley, continues to write quirky music that gets good airplay around the country, in collaboration with keyboardist David Roach and Cleve's sister, Lissa Hattersley. Sweet Mary still blows people up with her fiddle.

Cleve and Sweet Mary released a duets CD, 'Totally,' in 2009, shortly after Lissa released a solo effort, 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation,' and a new band CD, 'Gone Greezy' is out in 2011. Current members of the band: Cleve, Lissa, Sweet Mary, Penny Jo Pullus, John Jordan, and John Bush.

Recent CD's: 'Millennium Greezy' (2001), 'HipPop' (2004), 'String Theory' (2007), 'Gone Greezy' (2011)

The old stuff: 'Juz Loves Dem Ol' Greezy Wheels' (1975), 'Radio Radials' (1976)