Long before the Texas Jewboys stormed out of the Hill Country to assault unsuspecting Christians, the most popular band in Austin, Texas was Greezy Wheels. While Kinky Friedman was still singing around the Echo Hill campfire, his killer character from 'Case of Lone Star,' Cleve (Hattersley) was already leading Greezy Wheels into the annals of Texas music history. Greezy Wheels was the first Austin band signed by a major label (London Records), one of the first bands anywhere to feature women performers (Lissa and Sweet Mary Hattersley are to this day among the most beloved of all Texas musicians), and they were one of the Armadillo World Headquarters' biggest draws for nearly eight years. Popular from coast to coast, Greezy Wheels released two albums for London in the seventies, "Jes Loves Dem Ole Greezy Wheels" and "Radio Radials," the first of which earned them the quote "ahead of their time" in the 'Rolling Stone Record Guide.' Greezy Wheels opened or headlined shows for the likes of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Doug Sahm, Jerry Lee Lewis, Commander Cody, Willie Nelson and dozens of other stars. They jammed and hung out with the Dead and the Mothers of Invention. Sweet Mary even taught Jean Luc Ponty how to play the "Orange Blossom Special," which they then performed with the Mothers. Two of Greezy Wheels' biggest fans were the very young George Strait and Steve Earle.

Greezy Wheels gave up the ghost in 1978, when then drummer, Chris 'Whipper' Layton, decided to go play with Stevie Ray, and Cleve and Mary moved on to New York to run the infamous 'Lone Star Cafe,' then the world-renowned 'Blue Note' jazz club. Over the many years that followed, Cleve became Kinky's executive buttboy, Lissa moved to NYC and played with some of New York City's finest musicians in a band called 'Sweet Liss and the Swells,' and Mary continued to blaze fiddle trails, jamming with everybody who came through New York, from Vassar Clements to Jerry Jeff Walker. Cleve and Mary even befriended John Belushi, who, as it turned out, was a huge Greezy Wheels fan.

With the new millennium upon us, Cleve, Lissa and Sweet Mary are all back in Austin, and through a wondrous series of miracles, Greezy Wheels is up and running again, with a new album, "Millennium Greezy." The album itself took sixteen years to finish and wouldn't have been completed at all, had not Sweet Mary been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. The community of Austin came together around Mary and said, "Let there be Greezy." Now, with Mary in remission and excellent health, Cleve writing outrageous new songs, and Lissa wrapping her golden vocals around all the new material, Greezy Wheels is back. Way back. And they're doing it for other musicians, too. Money from the sale of each record goes to the SIMS and Kenneth Threadgill Foundations. It's the Greezy way.