Flanfire

There’s this group of songwriters I have met thanks to Rob Cooperman and maybe now and then independently — but it is hard to tell, as they hang out in packs.  All of them are very talented, often sharing stages with one another, touring together, and of course that carousing thing.  Kalu James is a Nigerian by birth, raised in Benin, and moved in 2001 for computer studies to Rochester, New York (also home to Jess Klein).  It was there he began his singing career – for some wonderful reason Kalu moved to Austin a few years ago to enjoy our winter wonderland weather and grace us with song.  James Moran is a Nawlins street rat (self-proclaimed) who escaped Katrina or for whatever reason spent an eternity in San Antonio before the lovely Aly Tadros [off on tour with Douglas Jay Boyd as we write] started singing HIS songs at Red Fez and to defend his own honor he just HAD to move up here and start playing gigs.  [Of course James sang Aly's songs that night, too -- but it makes a good story.]  Both these guys have new product on the shelves and at their shows — and Kalu’s oft-times singing and swizzling partner Josh Halverson is not far behind. 

JAMES MORAN (self-titled)

I could say that James Moran is a dirtier (Nawlins does that), grittier Danny Malone — but that would not be fair to either performer.  Both are intense guys who sing pop songs [Moran prefers "soul," but acoustic they are soulful pop], both wear fedoras, both are loved by the ladies, and neither is as tall as I am.  Both, however, write great songs that are all their own.  So let’s move past the outward appearance and get to the nitty gritty.  Daniel Coffey produced Moran’s debut; Bryan Williams recorded the guitars (all James), and Damian Rodriguez the vocals (again, all James).  I also have to say the last time I saw James on stage was at B. D. Riley’s with Rob Cooperman joining in now and then — it was a TOTAL GAS!  These guys are fun!

“Come What May” opens the CD, and this is a catchy song.  “Jadi’s Song” is all about “writing this song on your guitar” to the woman whom he loves.  “Agree to Disagree” shows a great vocabulary — something he shares with Tim Buckley (father of Jeff Buckley, whose work Moran dearly admires).  We do look forward to the full band version of these songs — because with a band, James will be able to emote more.  “Mea Culpa?” is a sad song about a broken relationship – how do lovers learn to listen before it is too late?  How do we know when there is nothing left to try?  But more importantly, how do we know when to shut up and just wait until the storm clouds disappear? 

[What we] “Could Be” is a plea to stick together to see what good things can happen in a mutually supportive relationship.  “Home To Stay” is yet another tale of a guy who goes off track in a relationship [notice that James is always a lover], while “Least That I Could Do” is a reflective ballad about how good a relationship can be when giving is at the bottom on both sides.  I like this song.  “Believe It or Not” is the jazziest song on the record — this time the relationship seems adrift, with some loss of meaning, and yet our gallant lad holds out hope.  [We have the] “Solution,” James sings on the final song — but you have to open up your eyes.  Sometimes Moran’s lyrics sound like rap set to music — so many rhymes in one long phrase.  Moran will be joining Rob Cooperman on February 8th at Momo’s Club — and maybe some Mondays at B. D. Riley’s (but there was some cryptic message about the “final show” for the Undercover Songwriters Showcase). 

KALU JAMES – Live

Of course the second to last time I saw James was at a Kalu James (and Josh Halverson) show at One 2 One Bar the very night before — and Kalu handed me an advance copy of his new live record, cut at Ruta Maya with his full band — Randall Squires (bass and producer), Ed Miles (drums), Drew Howard (lead guitar), Michael Rubin (harmonica, mandolin, vocals), Erik Telford (trumpet, keyboards),  and the inimitable Josh Halverson on two songs.  Curiously, Jeff Buckley is at the very top of Kalu’s “influences” list on HIS MySpace — me, I prefer Nick Drake, but most of these guys may not even know who he was.  But he also likes Tracy Chapman, and she is clearly a HUGE influence on his vocal style.   

Kalu has a BIG voice (and he is a big man who admits he sweats during shows, kinda like Marvin Dykhuis) — and his band is just topnotch.  The first time I heard Kalu sing was at a Ham Jam, and his pure vocal tone was just stunning!  Kalu must mean “bear” in some language he speaks — because he just oozes warmth even when not on stage.  I listen to this live record and hardly hear the words — and then I really listen and sometimes cry.  “SCheck” opens quietly, then the guitar comes in like a xylophone hitting solo notes — and you know you are up for something good.  Then comes that gravelly vocal and you wonder what is this song all about?  And it does not matter — it is all about introducing the band.  And, OH — it is really “soundcheck.”

Then the REAL music begins — “The Way I Feel” opens with the organ holding a long note — and the guitar comes in underneath, and then Kalu … singing a love song ….. about Rochester and the love he found there as a young African man in America where the summers are colder than whatever he thought was winter and the winters are a whole other planet.  The sheer energy of this performer already comes through, and we are just getting started.  “Dreams” is a bouncy tune, Simon and Garfunkely even, about a “brand new chapter for this love.”  “Love for Someone Else” is a quiet song about ending an affair – “I’ve built mansions, you leave me with a leaky roof,” and so it is time to move on.  Next is “To Be in Love with Me,” a song about smiling … and why not?  Malaria is prevalent in Africa, and this song evokes memories that left Kalu smiling in the face of danger.  And then there is “Big Heart,” which opens with a monologue and ends with a smile.  “The World Needs You” is just beautiful.  Did I mention these are lengthy cuts — four of the songs are over 7 minutes long.  “Listen to the Wind” opens with an Erik Telford trumpet solo and later there is this mandolin dolo from Michael Rubin}  The final cut, “Answers,” is yet another ballad … oddly, his live sets are anything but.  This is lovely stuf — even thugh i am very tired after a long day.  But just get out to see Kalu soon.

I am hearing this all over town — that 2010 has started off with a HUGE BANG and is going to be a powerful year.  Flanfire has been busy at home and yet got out to see Ruby James in her debut performance at Happy Now Happy Hour on Thursdays at Maria’s Taco X-Press.  Ruby has pressed copies of her awesome new CD (which we will review very soon) and will be making them widely available at a forthcoming CD release event to be announced.  We had to miss some other CD release parties but did pick up the new Kalu James Live at Ruta Maya record and another hot new project from James Moran (who came to Austin from New Orleans via San Antonio) — and an extra special treat from longtime Austin resident Bonnie Whitmore who for some unknown reason is still up in Nashvegas.  Plus more new music from Jennifer Ellen Cook — and some wonderful stuff from Scott Andrews (two EP’s in fact).

Friday the 14th was a very special evening at Momo’s Club — the first ever pairing of Ouachita with the Belleville Outfit.  I walked in, got my colleague a seat, found none for me, looked over to stage left, and saw Phoebe Hunt dancing enticingly — and so of course I joined her as Ouachita just grooved one.  This band – two of whose members (Drew De France and Dave Pennington) hail from Camden, Arkansas, which is on the Ouachita River – has made major strides in the last couple of months after installing Alabama native Kurt McMahan as the sole lead singer and adding bassist Sonny White.  Keyboardist Jonah Kane-West and saxophonist Hank Bragg round out the band (for now) — do not be surprised if the horn section expands soon.  The lads hope to have their own new CD out well before SXSW — catch them every Wednesday through March at the Saxon Pub or wherever they are playing.  Belleville — they just keep getting better.

BONNIE WHITMORE — Embers To Ashes

Flanfire and the late Mrs. Flanfire became friends with Bonnie Whitmore when she was about 19 and starting to play bass with the Shelley King Band.  We traveled by boat to Cancun together and deepened that friendship, then augmented it greatly as friends of Bonnie and (Jamie) Blythe, getting to know sister Eleanor in the process.  Like Austin native (Bonnie hails from Denton) Rachel Loy, Bonnie was first known for her bass licks, but her singing and songwriting have emerged as she has found her voice.  Many of these songs we can thank to the aftermath of an aborted romance (maybe even her own) – that’s obvious!  — the details of which shall not grace these pages.  Bonnie, as the lyrics show, is one tough cookie despite her curls and (well) curves.

Chris Masterson (Eleanor’s husband) produced and added numerous instrumentation, and Eleanor played fiddle.  Falcon Valdez did the drums and percussion, George Reiff the bass, and Rich Hinman threw down some hot pedal steel.  Most of the songs were recorded here in Austin by Andrew Hernandez.  And that’s enough shop talk.

“Cotton Sheets” opens the disc — where did this city girl get so country?  [DUH - in Nashville!]  I happen to know that Bonnie bought her first cowboy hat in Austin the other day.  ”Embers to Ashes,” the title cut, is toe-tapping and just plain fonky — and that’s all that’s left of that former love.  I would hate to be under these boots!  “Cowboy Lullaby” and “GTO” were co-written with the amazing Amanda Shires, that West Texas woman whirlwind.  The pedal steel on Lullaby leads the way for a gentle waltz that hearkens back to earlier days in love …. yet perhaps the first hint of trouble in paradise (”cowboy return to me”).  GTO is a lament that the end of the engagement left our gal a little dead inside … and wanting to get in her car and drive.  I gotta say this is a very commercial record — but an honest one, too.  Bonnie is just awesome!

Sandwiched in between these two is “Tin Man” (guess who?) — as our gal has been “replaced by a girl named Mary who shares my middle name.”  Yet whether she is the lion or the scarecrow she plans to follow the Yellow Brick Road — “Please Take the Words Back” is a piercing plea to the thief of her heart to undo the damage he has done — and yet she cries, “I didn’t mean to hurt you …”  By contrast, “She Walks” is a ballsy Shawn Colvin like song — and, yeah, Bonnie is playing LOTS of gigs in Music City.  Then there’s “Cry on My Pillow,” which might sound very sad — as Bonnie sings, “I’m not made meek, cos I’m not a sheep, but I’m going to the slaughter anyway.”  Yet it is her choice to cry (or not) — this is sultry Bonnie regaining her edge … maybe after a long talk with sister Eleanor.  The guitar work here (Chris M of course) is gritty and a little like gears grinding their teeth. 

Indeed, Eleanor contributed to “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” a very pop song and maybe my favorite of this album.  There’s that Shawn Colvin reference again — I just cannot help myself.  I gotta see this one done live — it will just flat out KICK!  And she will need no machine to pour out the smoke.  The album closes with an oldie but goodie — “Love Too Sweet,” cowritten by Texas songwriter (and longtime friend) Brent Mitchell.  Eleanor’s fiddle   Bonnie promises to play shows in Austin during SXSW — and please, friends, kidnap her if necessary but do not let her get back to Nashville too soon.

JENNIFER ELLEN COOK – A Storytelling of Crows

I remember meeting Jennifer Ellen Cook at Jovita’s as she was dashing around during the heyday of her band Smash Riley.  HIGH energy, I daresay, suitable for the lead guitarist with the Jessica Rabbit (stolen from Indie Sounds NY) wiggle in her walk.  I met Jennifer the other night at Momo’s Club, and met up with her by design a few minutes later at the Gallery at the Continental Club (to watch McLemore Avenue with Landis Armstrong and an all-star cast).  I could write a big piece on that band, but Jennifer is, well, persuasive.  I missed her Carousel show on Thursday with bandmates Julio Figueroa (drums, percussion) and Nathan Lynch (Bas) — Seth Forster, who plays guitar on the CD, is now emeritus with the band.  Indeed, most of the hot guitar here on the record is JEC herself.

Truth be told, Jennifer reminds me a LOT of Cyndi Lauper — and that’s a huge compliment.  She can sing her “Time after Time” songs and her “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” songs with equal verve.  And for that matter, some Annie Lennox could be thrown in here too — like on the first cut, “Snow,” which has that light and darkness duality that is consistent throughout this song cycle (and more I think).  Almost Zoroastrian, she opens with “I will ride a dark horse into light.”  And this is a song about leaving someone behind — except in the mind.  And so it goes.  Song 2, “In My Light,” starts with “I think there is a naughty angel hovering over my bed.”

“Tell It Like It Is” – a bluesy song about that recognition without admission that the jig is up.  In “God Is a Mean Drunk,” Jennifer says she loves the road because there is no moral code .. and if God is love, “well then, love is to blame” for leaving her alone in a “speeding metal box.”  One of my favorites here is “Strangers in Wonderland,” where Jennifer notes that the crow flies away without looking back, but people carry on and destroy even wonderful days.  “Pillow Talk” is a Lauperesque ballad — “I want to steal from poets just to meet our needs…” and yet “a well of darkness and a shotgun blast” may be needed to ger her to listen.

Jennifer ain’t no “Devil’s Doll” — indeed, while he is “praying for a fight, but I’m just praying,” and oh yeah, he has this lover who is not a secret anymore.  So he is a rattlesname who “tastes blood and gin” and wants to play but she is just not having all that.  Yet the next cut, “One Sure Thing,” is from a more hopeful time “when the lights go out and this town [Hollywood, that is] lies naked, I’ll be your guiding star, even if the ground is still shaking…..”  The last cut is “Creekbed,” a flat-out rocker (live, especially) about a woman who “gave up the moral high ground so you could put me down” and who “ain’t your Superman.” 

OK — Kalu and James Moran to follow next time.  Meanwhile, get out to the Haiti fundraiser at Dominican Joe’s on January 18th — and Chad Pope turns 40 (or some age, anyway) on Saturday night at Momo’s with Wendy Colonna.  Bring a paddle to spank him … but do NOT buy him any alcohol.

I will never forget Labor Day at Ski Shores … Randy Weeks and Will Sexton playing for over 200 minutes straight (Randy’s songs) for a bunch of friends and with a very special guest who was the one really responsible for getting her daddy and his friends out on a sunny afternoon.  Nor will I forget one Wednesday happy hour earlier this year when I walked into Z Tejas and Will (noticing that every table was occupied) asked if someone would let his friend Duggan sit at their table.

Nor can I forget that night at the Driskill when Will was so excited about going into the studio with Mark Hallman and Andre Moran to cut all the tracks on his brand-new CD “Move the Balance” in one day.  Or his joy at getting a new MySpace page (which of course someone else is monitoring).  Then there was that night a few weeks back when Ruby James and I drove up to NXNW with some friends in from California and Will and Charlie Faye extended their set for a full hour just for us.  And that night, even more recently, when Ruby hopped on stage at the Hole in the Wall and realized that Will could not remember the words to his own songs.

I can write this last note because the whole town now knows that Will had a mild stroke — and that his friends in Austin have responded with great generosity and love to give him a cushion to rest and recuperate.  So right now the best thing we can do for Will — but even moreso for our own enjoyment — is to get down to Waterloo (or wherever good music is sold) and buy one, two, three or more copies (yeah, it’s after Christmas now, but good gifts are always in season) of the CD which has on its inner sleeve, “White Middle Aged Well Dressed Man Looking for Love.”

Will plays guitar and bass here, with Bukka Allen on B3 and accordian; Mike Thompson on piano, guitar and even trombone; and Dony Wynn on drums and percussion.  Ray Bonneville (harmonica), Bill Carter (bass), and Hallman (bass, vocals and lots more) are joined by Ruby (Red) James, Charlie Faye, and Noelle Hampton as guest vocalists for eleven songs written by Will (sometimes with friends and family).  All 11 songs, IMHO, are suitable for lots of airplay, and I even had the “bright idea” that we could raise a lot of money for Will (and get his great songs heard around the world) just by persuading some of his and brother Charlie’s high-profile friends to contribute their own vocal tracks to each of the songs here — for example, Steve Earle, who along with Charlie Sexton co-wrote “Amnesia Lights,” and why not Bob Dylan on “Pissed Off Nights”?  But then again, people worldwide just oughta hear Will singing these songs.

The title cut, “Move the Balance,” opens the CD, with Ruby on backing vocals, and Mike Thompson’s piano paves the way for this lilting, very moving song .. that you just want to play over and over again [but that's true of every song here].  One of my very favorites is “Certain Kind of Something,” with Will serenading his lady, explaining that she has “got me running round in circles with your image in my brain … “  This is like Buddy Holly meets the early Beatles … but up to date musically.  [Mind you, John, Paul & Co. modeled themselves after the Crickets!]  You just have to start singing along by the second time the chorus comes around.

But “Sunday Driver” is just as smart lyrically, with Will singing that, “and I know you’d like to be known as the world’s strongest known survivor, but I’ve done about all I can do, my Sunday driver.”   But ”Pissed Off Nights”  may be even better — “those you left behind keep getting nearer and nearer, and those you stand behind just keep on disappearing ….”  There is a LOT of Mike Thompson here, and Bukka on B3, and that’s always good.  But what about “For Always”?  A bouncy little ditty — easy to dance to — all about “my destination blues” — “but with all of the keepsakes of my heart, you know you will always be a part … for always.”  I again am hearing the ghost of Buddy Holly here …. even in the guitar solo.  And Charlie Faye!

“Best Intentions” is like Will as Tom Waits — his voice gets low and down and dirty … with Bonneville’s harmonica adding in lots of fog.  This song has Greg Goshorn and Stephanie Smith as co-writers … This is late-night music — for the 3 am club.  Next up is “Beauty Pageant,” a lament marked by some beautiful piano … that just grows on you. 

“Amnesia Lights” gets you dancing close with your honey … “we were only trying to find the time that passed us by …  if you try you just might forget it all tonight, underneath the amnesia lights …”  Now Ruby and Noelle join Will on “Little Late for Loving Me Now,” a rocker that once again evokes The Crickets (though Holly’s lads would not have added the ”whoo hoo hoo’s) and a hot guitar solo and Dony’s classic rhythm.  YUM!

All very good — and yet the final two cuts are my very very favorites.  “Closing the Airport” is like “Blue Christmas,” a sad ballad in whic ”time has tangled up all my thoughts, all I need to know no one can tell … seem to have lost, misplaced everything … close the airports and the highways in this town, close the street that I live on….”   Just beautiful.  And then there is “Happy Hour,” one of my favorite songs of all time … and so autobiographical.  Will sings, ”here comes the lonely clown, here comes the lonely clown, here comes the lonely clown with the big red heart … ” And yet, “Since time began the wisest men will meet again at happy hour.”  [Which must mean Bill Carter, Stephen Doster, and Will at Z Tejas every Wednesday.]  We get Thompson’s trombone as part of the happy hour celebration music at the end of the song … as the loneliness fades away while wise men play joyfully together….. you gotta be there!

So I was at Momo’s Club tonight (Monday) and ran into my pal Ben Mallott, and he was telling me about his trip to Dallas to see the Longhorns beat North Carolina at the new Cowboys Stadium on Saturday and how after the game he was trekking about town and ran into Graham Wilkinson who was playing a show there.  And so I got the message that it was long past time for me to post comments about Graham’s (to date) masterpiece, “Yearbook,” which Graham had given me a copy of (late even then) at his Halloween party at the Ghost Room.

Truth be told, one reason I had not reviewed it was it has been in my car CD player ever since, and I normally put records (CD’s are records) there AFTER I have finished a review.  I flat-out LOVE the Underground Township, and Graham — dreads and all — is just about larger than life.  But then I know a little something about living with more than one spirit inside … Yeah, there’s enough reggae in this big blond white guy to attract the likes of P. J. Herrington, whom I know through Kris Brown and Mr. Brown, to play guitars.  Other official band members (the “senior class” on the record yearbook) include Matt Morris on drums, Wayne Dalchau on bass, Chris Stringer on keys, and Patrick Herzfeld on drums — but there are often horns, and here and there buddies of Graham (like Alejandro and Hayes Carll) who show up to sing or maybe rap on the furniture in time.  The M&M Horns (Margaret Whitt and Meg Kemp, also known for their work in Jabarvy), Nick Warrenchuk (trombone), Mark Wilson (saxes), and Leila Hanley (alto sax and flute) are on this collection of songs.  For the whole schoolfull, get the record!

Because this column is all about SONGS!  “Let It Go” encourages us to “laugh until life makes sense” when things around us threaten to swallow us whole (such as the death of a daughter or a brother).  “Boys and Girls” yearns for a simpler time, “before the false truths were written in stone.”  After all, what we face in real life today is “criminals as politicians,” and “all this pain in so many lives….”  But this record is all about the “Ragamuffin,” Graham’s brother Aaron, and on this powerful song Lloyd Maines lends his considerable skill on pedal steel.  Indeed, the whole record was inspired (Graham tells us) by a band trip to New York City to play a gig with some of his brother’s friends that turned into a month-long tour in the summer of ‘08.

On the other hand, the record is also about Graham’s big loving heart – songs like “Star Blue – Spend All My Time with You” and “Our 1st Night,” tender love songs (okay, I just see some Red Skelton soft shoe on Star Blue).  Another one of my favorites is “Ghost,” one of many songs here where Graham talks about the discord in today’s world and wonders, “why don’t we love one another?”  The big guy with the big heart sings this great song, “Blame,” when you want to blame the mess on just about everybody else, but if you want to let love win the day you just let them blame it on you and get over it.  My decade in Baton Rouge (and eternity in Houston) makes me smile at “From Covington,” even though “sister Melody has got some felonies, thirteen class A, in all,” when the one I know best got busted mostly for walking to the Randall’s after curfew to get a soda.

“Blank Pages” is just Graham and a piano in that sepia-sounding effect singing, “scraping with worn fingertips and broken nails, I scream, ‘the living stay hungry, the dead they are not alone…..”  And so, after you listen to the 15-song set all the way through, you find yourself back at track 1, a rockin’ number, “Watertowers & Windmills,” a song about coming to grips with things you cannot understand when the world seems about to fall totally apart (the water tower is two days shy of running dry, and the old windmill has stiopped singing it’s song….”  And “Sunrise,” a toe-tapping, horn-happy ditty that must have been written on the bus on the way back from New York that ends with the sounds of real live Boys and Girls (and of course the intro to that reggae song).

I have to close out these comments by mentioning, “Personality Disorder,” a tap-dance number reminiscent of Richard Gere in Chicago — tap-dancing through the muck and mire of a world “so unbelievably full of idiotic super-natural-light-hearted wild turkey babble ….”  And I am brought back to Halloween, with Bobby Perkins playing bass wearing a grass skirt and me in my Zoot suit …

And that brings me back to why Ben and I were at Momo’s this Monday — but before that I gotta tell you Ben was the victim last Friday night of a flying skillet he had to catch with his bare left hand and all of a sudden unable to play his scheduled gig at Flipnotics.  So naturally, BettySoo and Mailman Dave came to the rescue, showing up on half an hour’s notice for unsuspecting folks like me who had been at Momo’s for an early set or two.  Oh, Ben did drop by, ostensibly to sing a duet (on a Tom Waits song) with Noelle Hampton and her band — and the guy, for some strange reason, grabbed Noelle’s guitar and painfully but poignantly gave his friends the treat of his version of “White Christmas” before yielding the floor to Will Sexton and Charlie Faye and later Jess Klein (all of whom Noelle graciously lent her stage to during the evening).

The very next night I was back at Flipnotics to catch a set from Margo Valiante after stopping by House Wine to hear some new songs from John and Kristen Nixin.  Wise birds got to Momo’s early on Monday to hear Jess Klein and Randy Weeks swap songs for an hour, whetting the appetite for the main event, one that I have a sense might one day be seen as historic.  Dustin Welch has done the string quartet show before — with violinist Trisha Keefer, bassist Joe Beckham, and cellist Brian Standefer, notably at a show I caught at Lambert’s what seems to be a lifetime ago.  This time though Dustin brought out James Duvall and Eli to record the second of two shows also featuring Phoebe Hunt and sister Savannah Welch — with dad Kevin (plus grandparents and little sister) shooting video and the rest of the family basking in the glow. 

And speaking of family week, last Wednesday I got to see Eleanor Whitmore and hubby Chris Masterson at the Scoot Inn and Vanessa and Jason Lively and full band on Vanessa Lively Day at Momo’s.  Just good stuff.  On the horizon — Christmas Night at Antone’s with Blues Mafia, Shelley King, and Carolyn Wonderland, and next Sunday at Threadgill’s North Lamar for Hank and Shadri Alrich (lunch) and then out to the iguana Grill to catch the beautiful Barbara Nesbitt.  Finally, KUDOS to Jazz Mills for collecting (and organizing into gift baskets) tons of stuff for Christmas presents for Austin’s homeless and hopeless.

There is something GOOD happening down at 5th and Brazos — the One 2 One Bar recently switched to charging a cover for their downstairs music room, stopped letting people in an out from 5th Street (you have to go to the Brazos Street entrance now), and continued their practice of bringing some of Austin’s finest players to their stage (with windows open to the street except when it is REALLY COLD outside).

Thursday night was no exception — with the early show featuring Wayne Sutton and Wayne Duncan, always a quality act.  I got there in time for the later set — the Dank Trio (Douglas Jay Boyd, Clayton Colvin, and David Jimenez) plus J. T. Holt from Dertybird sitting in.  DO check out the videos — Doug singing with JT and David jamming on one and Clayton singing on the other. 

Earlier in the evening I was up at the Nomad Bar just off Cameron Road to catch part of a set from my old friend Rich Restaino and the Obits — now an eight-piece R&B flavored band with three Ronette-style girl singers (featuring the lovely and talented Sara Shansky, Ellzie Restaino, and Roz Mandola), Lloyd Wright on keyboards, Dave Wylie on drums, Alex Sefchick on bass, and Hunt Wellborn on guitar.  Rich and the band have a new CD in the works and were handing out free samples of “Susie” (after she woke up) to anyone willing to pick one up.  Sara showed her pipes on “You Don’t Miss Your Water (till your well runs dry),” and the girls kicked on “Please Mr. Postman.”  Early in 2010 we should begin to see the band on bigger stages — I am liking this.

The night before I stopped by Maria’s Taco X-Press for Jessica Shepherd’s CD release — which was moved INDOORS due to the 34-degree weather outside.  First time I had ever seen live music INSIDE at Maria’s but with the rousing success of this evening I anticipate it will not be the last time.  Jessica was stunning in a long black and white dress and her rich vocal power — and her band began with Perry Drake on drums and Kyle Judd on acoustic guitar, and David Valley on bass.  Spicing up the mix were Laurie Gibson on fiddle and vocals, Sally Gibson, Dee Ann Smith and Eric Leikam on vocals, Washboard Judy on, well, washboard, and special guest Danny B Harvey on electric guitar.  PLUS Maria Corbalan herself was in the house looking fabulous!  [Reports that Sin City's Shilah Morrow was sipping Mexican martinis with an unidentified music reporter are just not undeniable.]  But the real star of the evening was the room itself — Maria’s is so colorful, and the sound was so very good — do not be surprised if the Argentine Angel comes up with yet another winning idea!

SO it is a cold, rainy day and I am thinking, “I want a Cuban sandwich from Texas Cuban.”  That’s Hector Ward’s new venture down on South Lamar (near Planet K), the same Hector Ward who used to be in Sigmund Fraud and now fronts his own band.  The same Hector whom my daughter says is a great cook.  That guy.  She was right.  And it’s Phil Roach and Lance Duncan in the tiny kitchen.  And the El Cubano (half of the Texas Cuban which feeds two) melts in the mouth and the Cuban Croquettas are much better than jalapeno poppers — and then there is the Cuban coffee, and do not forget the plaintain chips. 

But the food is just the appetizer.  Phil notes that his band (he’s the lead guitarist with Hector Ward and the Big Time) is headed to Houston on Saturday to play at show at Walter’s on Washington with, ta-da, his brother Kai’s band Blues Mafia and — oh, wow! — Uncle Lucius, which of course features Michael Carpenter from my daughters’ high school on lead guitar.  So now I text my daughter to let her know we have a show to go to this Saturday.  Which means I will NOT be rippin’ up the dance floor at the new Gibson Room at Maggie Mae’s for T-Bird — but that’s all right since I had that pleasure on Thanksgiving Night (dancing with some Trishas and the wife of a well-known snake farmer about town — and a WHOLE LOTTA OTHER PEEPS).  Yeah, the Mafia were on that bill, too — and they opened the next night at Antone’s for Gary Clark, Jr. (or do we just call him Gary these days).  Kids are all right — opening for Carolyn Wonderland at Poodie’s New Year’s Eve. 

I ought not tell you all that House Wine on Monday nights (even inside when it’s cold and/or rainy) is still the happening thing (okay, one of many great Monday night scenes in this town).  But I will mention that Daren has scheduled a Ham Jam for NEXT Monday.  Details if you are on his list — OR if you are NEW to town in 2009, just buzz me and I will hook you up.  Not to be missed — but remember our good friend is still on his way back from a big setback, so make sure he gets his rest.

Also during the week, I got to see Rachel Loy and her lubby-dubby-hubby Brian Keane (who has a couple shows at Momo’s in December) along with the Band of Heathens, and earlier I had gotten to see the very best ever (for me, at least) show from the Belleville Outfit right after a smashing set from the Fireants.  Below you can see the handsome Colin Brooks, the charming Chris Cataline with the beautiful Stephanie Hunt dressed up for their new project The Ghost Songs, and that is indeed Phoebe Hunt dancing on the countertop at Momo’s long after the band quit playing (with me of course dancing on the floor along with her).

My good friend Ruby James was in town for a few days and I took her out to Jimi Lee’s grand finale for the fall season at Hyde Park Bar & Grill – but that was just the warmup before we trekked down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center for the festivities following the marriage of local favorite Sarah Lincoln to her Argentine hero Alberto Cosano (and, yeah, he plays amazing guitar).  Sarah in her wedding dress blaring away on her alto sax (dainty for her) was a sight (and sound) to behold.  Then on Friday last (after her set at Cedar Street) Ruby and I drove up to NXNW just in time for the final song of Will Sexton’s and Charlie Faye’s SCHEDULED set — but the band played on, as it were, and I got to hear (and later grab a copy of) music from WIll’s brand-new CD (of which the writeup will follow soon).  That was even better than the orange chicken I wolfed down — food for the body, music for the soul.

[Jonny and Claire; Brett Randell with cellist Chris Rains and Music Reed on drums at Momo’s; and Blues Mafia’s Max Frost grinding out the blues.

Now to go back a few days more, I could mention a great set at Flipnotics from Jon Sanchez and Claire Hamilton (both of the Summer Wardrobe, and she also of The Breathers) and an equally fine sets from Noelle Hampton and Lee Barber and my dear new friend Barbara Nesbitt.  OR I could mention an amazing turkey day party somewhere out at the far western edge of Hays County featuring music from JusTif (a duo you have to hear!).  I will not say much about a recent strange illness except that I got aid and comfort from afar from the sisters Bristow — Jackie who is now in Australia playing before big crowds after her highly successful first-ever tour of Japan, and Katrina who sent me some rough cuts from her forthcoming CD and some great advice about how to cope.  Jackie will be back in late February, hopefully with her new CD (recorded mostly here in Austin) in her lovely hands.

It was just two years ago today that my darling Nancy slipped away — or rather was gathered up by a whole band of angels who had been preparing her for the journey to another kingdom for several days as her loved ones and dear friends came to send her off and hold me up.  Kevin Hollingsworth (who is now facing his own fight for his health), Brennen Leigh (with our old friend Leo and also with her brother Seth), Wendy Colonna and Chad Pope (who drove nonstop from Lake Charles just to get to play for her on her last day of consciousness), and Malford Milligan and Nick Connolly — and more.

Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday, and I will be eternally grateful for the love shown to me that year at this heart-wrenching time.  I lost my dad on Thanksgiving Saturday 18 years ago, as he fell carrying the American flag at the hometown Christmas parade — serving his country and his community and showing folks like me how to give from the heart without guile. 

Now we move into the Christmas season (Hanukah too, and Kwanzaa as well — and who knows what all else these days), when the world tells us to think about what we can get and yet is it not in truth a time to think about how much we can give to others?  A time of reflection — and of hope … and new beginnings.  Here in Austin, that is often easy enough, given the sheer number (and quality) of people moving into the Austin music community from all over the place every week. 

And yet, as I start my second decade as an Austin resident, those old friends can never be far from the mind and heart.  One such old friend is Phil Fajardo, whom I met nearly a decade ago through Greg Adkins, Phil’s partner in The Gospel According to Austin project.  Phil has been put through the ringer with uncertain diagnoses, and so his friends threw a big benefit at the Scoot Inn on Sunday — and I got there in time to see The Monstas and a quartet that included Marvin Dykhuis, Chip Dolan, Glen Fukunaga, and Danny Britt (playing without the brace I had seen on his right arm the night before at Jim Patton’s 39th birthday party).  And that’s not the only benefit I got out to in November.  It’s like, when anyone in our great big community needs a hand, we circle the wagons and throw down for them — and thereby always remember our own mortality and need to give out to others.  Which is what led me into this community in the first place — watching Papa Mali and the rest of the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers at Shaggy’s on Easter Sunday 2000.

SHELLEY KING – Welcome Home

Nearly ten years ago, Flanfire and the late Mrs. Flanfire stepped out into the Austin music scene — our first venture was the swan song at Shaggy’s for the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers’ SXSW Sunday show featuring Dave Alvin and the late E. R. Shorts.  Just days later, though, we stopped in to Jovita’s to catch the first of our MANY shows from the Shelley King Band (Tony Velasco, Perry Drake, and Kyle Judd the Guitar Stud plus Shelley).  After the show (during which numerous toddlers danced all over the Jovita’s floor), Shelley gave us a copy of her debut CD … and we have been close friends ever since.  That includes a family cruise (that is, Shelley’s musical family as well) to Mexico and the second wedding of her mom and dad (now there’s a major story for you). 

I got to hear the songs from Shelley’s new CD, “Welcome Home,” for the first time at SXSW this past spring at a showcase at Austin Java (with Chip Dolan and Marvin Dykhuis), but this record has been in the making for over two years (I know because she had to miss my Nancy’s celebration service to meet up with the Subdudes in Colorado two Januarys ago).  Margaret Moser still hopes someone else will make Shelley a rich woman by recording some of these songs — my hope instead is that Oprah will make Shelley rich by just having her on her show.  And why not?  State Musician of Texas — and first woman ever to win that honor — in 2008.  The list could continue — but Margaret IS right that others OUGHT to record some of these songs that the whole audience always sings along with.

I also well remember how excited Shelley was a few years back to get a gig on the same bill with the Subdudes, and how she was even more excited to learn they liked HER music.  It really was not that much later on that Shelley got together with John Magnie, Tim Cook and Steve Amedée to start to work on the recording that became “Welcome Home.”  It just took seemingly forever to get the finished product — but it has been well worth the wait.

“Summer Wine,” the very first cut, has already made a splash on worldwide radio, and the Katrina-influendced title cut is likely to be sung at gospel brunches from here to eternity.  “I Remember” is a zydeco shuffle that also has its roots in old gospel music — with lots of wailing and foot stomping that gets your blood going and then the quiet moans.  Before I forget, I should mention Shelley has an “official” CD release at the Cactus Cafe on December 2nd  — though when the record came out on November 10th Shelley sang and signed CD’s at Waterloo and then at an afternoon show at the Saxon Pub.  I love this record, which combines the best of Shelley as dance band leader and gospel singer.

The dance beat picks up again with “Everything’s All Right” (written with the amazing Theresa Andersson, another of Shelley’s close friends), and trust me, you can always dance to Shelley’s music (gotta love that accordian here).  And yeah those old guys can really sing harmony.  “Asking Too Much” (written by longtime Subdudes collaborators Tim Cook and Steve Strickland) is classic country, right from the opening piano riffs … a song Patsy Cline would have killed for.  [Note to Margaret -- run this song by Margo Timmons!]  “How You Make Me Feel” is a cowrite with longtime pal Floramay Holliday (another passenger on the good ship Shelleypop a few years back), and “I Can’t Make It Easy” is a Shelley co-write with Subdude John Magnie — this is a song to squeeze your honey to on the dance floor.

“It’s Starting to Rain” gets Shelley back to belting out the ballad — soulful, funky, and again very danceable — and singable.  I would have loved to hear Janis sing this one.  “Falling Fast” is a little faster two-stepper that will get many a pretty woman swung to and fro and maybe even kissed.  This is Gruene Hall music (where Shelley recorded her first live album, BTW).  Then Shelley underscores the main theme of the album with the passionate “Grain of Sand,” reminding us of her long-time membership in the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers (this is where we came in!).  DO remember the first Sunday in every month at Maria’s Taco X-Press — and oh yeah, that’s coming up soon!  [And speaking of Papa Mali, the next big thing he has been working on is the upcoming Wendy Colonna record -- more on that in a month or three.]

COURRIER – Like the Cold of Snow in the Time of Harvest

I first saw Courrier at Stubbs a few months back opening for Austin Collins and was immediately impressed.  I caught up with the band recently at La Zona Rosa at their EP release party.  These guys come from the same tradition as The Rocketboys and Quiet Company (and several other bands with powerful themes in their music and lots of passion in their music), though they like being compared with bands like Death Cab for Cutie.  The six songs here are not likely to make dance cards, but a couple could easily be sung as anthems, particularly “Wildfire,”  or as hymns, like “The Ascendist,
which includes a song within a song — “O the answer, I looked for the answer And I found the trail, I found the trail, I don’t want to walk no more…..”

JESSIE TORRISI – Bruler, Bruler

Jessie Torrisi is originally from Philadelphia but since she lived in New York as a professional jazz drummer for the past decade, she gets props as part of that music scene — from which she has emerged as a singer-songwriter in her new-found home in Austin.  Jessie is engaging and fun, and her energy electric.  For a drummer, she is a pretty good singer — one that others are taking notice of around the country.  Jessie rooked new friend Alissa Schram into dusting off her old cello and getting back into the groove (taking her away from her day job only now and then), and pieced together one after another group of outstanding players for her various shows about town (including at times multi-instrumentalists Rob Jewett and Carley Wolf).  Indeed, Jessie’s shows are sometimes circus-like as musicians switch instruments, she gets everyone involved in singing, and that includes the entire audience.  Like the record title says, she just loves to burn and burn brighter. 

The first cut is her signature song, “Hungry Like Me,” which I recall singing with her in an impromptu performance indoors at the Irie Bean months ago.  Then there are the “travelogue” songs — “X in TeXas,” “Breeze in Carolina,” “Runaway Train,” and “So Many Miles.”  “Cannonball” has an old-time Broadway feel — or better, off- off- Broadway, Bette Midler style.  Which is to say this is a showtune dance number (I can even envision this interpreted by a mime) — and if you look at the waiflike Jessie on the cover of the EP, you can also see her with broom in hand making mischief wherever she flies (somewhere between Eastwick and Practical Magic).  “Runaway Train” has a calliope feel, and “Storm Clouds” showcases Jessie’s vocal strength.  “So Many Miles” is a true ballad — slow dance music.  “The Brighter Side” encapsulates Jessie’s own hope for her future — keep your chin up and full of smiles and magic … the piano opens up and then Jessie sings that, “I’ve been down so long I can’t tell the sky from the ground….”   But then there is her inspiration, of whom she sings – “It seems you’ve been through everything and never lose your shine…..”  A song of hope and depth — a fitting ending to a nice debut, a song that tells us she has something real to go home to after the circus tent goes down.

I remember the first time I met Grace Pettis — at Journey Imperfect Faith Community for a Wendy Colonna music show.  Only much later did I learn she is the daughter of songwriter Pierce Pettis, but even on that first encounter I knew this was a woman of considerable substance.  Sitting out at Cafe Mundi this past Thursday night, my bud Nathan Hubble added his “amen” — as Grace was singing “What You Didn’t Want to Know,” a song from her debut CD, “Grace Pettis,” which Grace will be showcasing at Journey IFC’s warehouse meeting place in North Austin on November 21st.

But before I review the CD, let me tell you how I GOT to Cafe Mundi for Naked Folk, a songwriter showcase hosted by Chase Gassaway and Lamar Stockton (who leads the Resonate worship band at River Bend Church).  And before I do that, I need to note that Lamar and Nathan go way back to grade school, and that all of these guys sing harmony vocals on Grace’s new record.  I also need to note that the third guest on this night was the lovely (above, right) Jordan Whitmire, whose songs were so good I thought they were by Carole King or maybe fellow Dallas girl Norah Jones. 

Okay, so it is Tuesday night, and my old pal Brennen Leigh, along with Noel McKay (below, left), are playing a show at House Wine.  Now, Brennen sometimes sits in with Nathan (on electric mandolin), and so it was not that big a surprise that he showed up at the gig.  So did keyboardist Lacy Quin, who is playing a show with Steven Ray Will at the Saxon later this month.  Nathan told me about this gig, and as soon as he mentioned Grace Pettis, I was down for it (having missed a couple of her recent shows).  Later that evening I stopped by the Blind Pig to see JusTif (Justin and Tiffani, below, bottom center), who had been at my house party two days earlier (and the multi-talented Scott Andrews showed up with his mandolin for a 10-minute version of “A Horse with No Name” and much more).  I even went next door to Maggie Mae’s to feast my eyes upon the saxy glam boy Greg Williams (along with Dave Madden and Glen Rexach, among others) at Live Band Karaoke (bottom, left) — a real hoot for everyone who braves the stage.  Then I met back up with Matt and Lacy at the Hole in the Wall as Brennen and Noel played twin lead guitars with Missy Beth Crisman (below, center) and her Alaskan country twang. 

Then on Wednesday, I devoted myself to my new friend Barbara Nesbitt (below, right), as she played two sets at House Wine and later let me listen to rough cuts from her forthcoming album that features Doug Pettibone and members of her old band from San Diego.  Barbara has upcoming gigs in Austin at Flipnotics (Nov. 21) and the Iguana Grill (Nov. 22) that will be well worth going to.  And after Naked Folk on Thursday, I trekked over to Ruta Maya and caught a couple of songs from Irie Jane, a full set by my friend Beth Richard (with her husband Jason on guitar and Steve Bernal on cello and Gray Parsons on vibes and keyboard), another full set from Cayce Rose and the Mind Games (I have known Cayce (bottom right, with Beth Richard) since she was 13 and now she is married to Mario Matteoli, who plays guitar in her band), and most of a set from Gabriel Siklosi and her band Beautiful Minds) before hitting yet another highlight — THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THE NEW LONESOME HEROES MUSIC VIDEO (which features horses and a marisachi band and much more — but will otherwise not be widely available until after the video’s New York City premiere on December 2nd).  Folks, this video, shot by Rich Russell’s boyhood friend, Brookyln-based filmmaker Danny Stolzman of Frameless Films.  [Technically, the actual Austin premiere was earlier in the evening at Jo's Coffees but I got to the afterparty for a special showing).

GRACE PETTIS -- Self Titled

Words cannot express the heritage that Grace Pettis brings to her debut recording -- you just have to be quiet and listen to hear this very modern yet very traditionally spiritual woman who challenges anyone with claims of faith to stand up and face the music.  The self-righteous have to squirm or else be converted to the unconditional love that pours out of Grace's whole being.  Let's start with "Love Is There," about to be covered by Sara Hickman.  Grace lets us know that LOVE is there in the prison cell, in the soldier's private hell, even with the father who left us and with the battered wife, the homeless in the rain, and (believe it!) even with the stillborn and his mother.  As Grace sings, ""In the broken places, in the empty spaces, love is there somehow." 

Billy Crockett as a younger man toured with Dallas Holm, Rich Mullins, and Sandy Patty (some of the most powerful contemporary Christian artists before Nashville made that genre soupy), then he and his wife moved to the Texas Hill Country to build the Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio (and record a new record of his own as well).  Players on this beautiful disc include Colin Brooks (well, everything and vocals too), Rick Richards on drums, Chris Maresh on bass, Dirje Smith on cello, and Dave Madden on piano and vocals -- and a host of backing singers to create the choirs on "Love Is There" and the little gospel ditty, "Let a Little Light."

But this is not exactly a gospel record.  The opening cut, "The Gypsy's Code," opens our eyes to a woman who told me that right after she graduates college and gets married she plans to hit the road and tour until the cows come home:  "I am a wanderer, crossing borders, My home today will be tomorrow just another place I've been."  In "Nine to Five Girl," the hard-working waitress vents her anger at the higher paid office worker who leaves a measly dollar tip (but is this not a larger vent against anyone with wealth who disdains the poor, the servants who make the lives of the richer among us much more comfortable?). 

I was struck by Grace's live performance of "What You Didn't Want to Know," as she sings, "I'm the weatherman, I can't command the falling snow, I'm the one who tells you what you didn't want to know."  And then there's the playful "Italy" (not the town south of Dallas where Bobby Perkins grew up), a vision of a coming honeymoon where she and her man will "walk our feet on holy ground" and of course check out Michelangelo and Da Vinci and drink chianti and (of course) sing for the Italians.

Grace can also be tough: "Heard Enough Now" is a flat out rebuke of a smooth talker whose "silver tongue might wish me well, but you're good for nothing else," someone whose "money is far from your mouth" who says some "pretty things" and who has "some cause that you want me for," but Grace will not "fight your holy war."  [Uh, maybe the hypocritical church?]  And yet she can leave all of her frustrations behind and visualize a soldier and his girl “Dancing” (co-written with Sofia Echegaray) — “Threw your head back and laughed, and the ribbon flew from your hair … and we were dancing, dancing, around and around.”

Twelve cuts in all, including “Speak Tenderly” and “A Bird May Love,” and “Turning Now,” which speaks of “bicycle ribbons on the handles, you flew me over sidewalk mountains, childhood wilderness; you taught me moving grace, though it took a few scrapes; Now I ride my life like my old bike, it’s a balancing act.”  A song about growing up and dealing with what life brings — and letting go of childhood for the adventures that adulthood brings. 

The record closes with an honest lullaby, “Long Sleep,” with Grace admitting (as even Mother Teresa did many times) that “God is a long lost friend and lover, I believe once we were happy together, but faith is a fading dream, a song I sometimes sing just to remember.”  And yet this song is truly a prayer that we all awaken from our “long sleep” to breathe again as the dawn breaks over us.

I was bored, so I picked up a USA Today newspaper and turned to the Life section, and there — in all of its irradiant glory, were the paper’s airplay charts (adjacent to ads for Sting, Taylor Swift, Creed, and Breaking Benjamin).  I scanned a dozen charts — who ARE these people?  More importantly, why would ANY Texan who likes real live music spend a dime on all but a very few of these hotshots?

Which is not to say any of them are awful, or even boring, or even bad?  Some in fact are quite talented, and a few are even TEXANS!  Maybe the real problem is that USA Today has no category for the kind of music we listen to every day.  Let’s see (I will toss “Urban” which is an odd name, since Keith URBAN is not listed there; I will toss “Latin” and and “Rhythmic,” which means What?  SO let’s try
Top 40.”  Miley Cyrus — she’s no Leann Rimes.  Lady Gaga???  [Sounds like Pat Benatar to me.]  Britney Spears – what is WRONG with our country?  Kelly Clarkson — at least she’s a Texas girl.  The Kings of Leon make the chart, at least.

Peering at “Country” — Miranda Lambert — and a lot of people who can actually sing — and then there’s Taylor Swift (could this be a stage name?).  Eye candy, nowhere near as good as Sunny Sweeny, and yet rich and famous and all over the tabloids.  Carrie Underwood?  Another painted doll.  Colbie Caillat — now here’s a real girl, but “Falling for You” is just boring and yet it is a Top 40 hit — but not enough spins for her to make the “Country” chart.  The surprise – Lady Antebellum, with lyrics that actually sound real.   

Now I DID notice Matt Nathanson (for whom my pal John Thomasson plays bass) is up to No. 4 on the “Adult Contemporary” charts, along with Rob Thomas, Pink, and Daughtry (wait — was he not on American Simonized?)  And, oh yeah, Breaking Benjamin with a Youtube that provides the lyrics to their songs (others are doing this as well) — now that is a great marketing idea.  Yeah — there are lots of familiar names in “Adult Rock,” “Alternative,” and even “Active Rock” — but why, pray tell, is there no “Indie Rock” category in this esteemed newspaper?   Anyhow, it is clear to me that the best music — the best real American music — is not even on their radar.  Let’s face it — corporate music today is all about the superficial, the trivial — whether bubblegum or bawdy.

And that leads me to my topic today.  What was it that Townes said:  “Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song, Who do I think that I am to decide that she’s wrong?”  The music we love here in Austin and roundabout is music with lyrics that ring true.  As one friend responded to my request for their favorite Texas songwriters, “There are just too many to name.”  And yet almost none of them are on the radio or on the “charts.”

I mean, would Joni Mitchell (for example) ever make today’s “top 40″ or even the “adult contemporary” charts?  Probably not – as I can hardly see Joni writhing around on “America’s Got Talent.”  The soul of this great nation is wholly ignored by the moneychangers in our temples — our halls of Congress, state houses, city halls, and yes even our civic and religious institutions — but notably, too, our houses of music and art and even dance.

Maybe corporate radio is right.  Maybe Americans cannot take the truth!  Maybe we have become so morally bankrupt that we do not want to hear what real people’s lives are all about?  In this age of plastic (surgery and credit cards and more), maybe we cannot be confronted with our own humanity. 

Here is what I see.  Lots of places are beginning to look a little like Austin, lots of people everywhere are writing songs from the heart, songs that Townes and Guy Clark and our other heroes would listen to gladly.  Over and over again, too, I hear that Austin is a city where musicians and artists are supportive of each other’s work, where there is a genuine love of discovery of each other’s humanity and an encouraging ear and heart that enables the peeling off of layers of protective phoniness that we had wrapped ourselves in where we used to live.

I was reminded of this the other day reading a passage from Henri Nouwen, the Dutch priest who spent his most notable years in a community in Toronto that welcomed people with disabilities.  In his little book, Turn My Mourning into Dancing: Finding Hope in Hard Times, Nouwen writes:

It is our great illusion that life is a property to be owned or grasped, that people can be managed or manipulated…. This illusion sometimes puts us on the road to a frantic search for selfhood and self-fulfillment.  We want to be “true to ourselves” — or at least to our self-made image. 

Nouwen goes on to state that, “In the face of a great pain or inescapable grief, we realize how little we control our lives, how feebly our protests change reality…. Perhaps our need to hold life loosely is no more evident that in our daily relationships.  Loving someone means allowing the other person to respond in ways you have no control over.”  And then he hits us in the breadbasket.  In a section entitled, “Moving Out of the House of Fear,” Nouwen says that, “The suffering of affluent countries such as ours — our anxiousness and loneliness — comes as a hidden consequence of our ignoring those who are less fortunate.  It accompanies our unjust extravagance.” 

And it is that very act — that “leaving our possessiveness for a place of freedom” —   that so characterizes so much of the Austin community.  Sure, many of us would enjoy the fruits of record sales, big checks for live shows, and all that.  But while corporate music is ALL about shuckin’ and jivin’ for the Yankee dollar — the spirit Nouwen says “makes us conquerors who will fight for our place in the world, even at the cost of others” — we are blessed here (and in other places too) with sharing music that unveils the hidden truths of our own lives and the lives of those around us.

Now of course we never always live up to our own visions — but these words I write to remind us of why we are here, and to speak an encouraging word that one day we will realize the song that is in each heart that may all too often be locked up inside and covered by layers of fear that sometimes is masked by bravado. 

My buddy B. Sterling Archer was excited to tell me about LAZ D, a rap artist from Oregon with whom his band shared a stage last night at Beerland.  LAZ D (Cam Lasley) started out in music playing drums in his junior high band, and soon began writing lyrics that best fit the rap/hiphop style he was developing.  At 26, he has just finished work on his second full-length CD of his song, and he tours extensively (though mostly around Oregon).  LAZ D collaborated two years ago with Austin-based filmmaker Jack Gibson to make a video, “Street Anthem,” which was shown at the Sprout Film Festival.  The guy is strong. 

Then you read this line in his bio:  Despite having Down syndrome, Laz D hasn’t let the disorder deter him from writing and performing music, sending words of encouragement to everyone.

When you think of Texas songwriters, a few names quickly come to mind: Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Willie Nelson … and then everybody has others in their top ten.  But that is not an easy chore.  Do you include Buddy Holly?  Can a rock and roller make the list?  Is a Texas songwriter one who is from Texas and writes songs?  Or is it a person who writes “Texas songs” — and if so, what constitutes a “Texas song”?

Just for the record I will throw in one more name — and ask all of my readers to send me their own top Texas songwriter lists.  But before I get to the punch line here (and, yes, there IS a review of Kevin Higgins’ new CD, Find Your Shine, at the end of this story.  I will here and now say that Stephen Doster says this is one of the best records he has ever produced), there needs to be a little summary of how I got to Sunday night at Threadgills to see the legendary Billy Joe Shaver.

But where to start?  How about Wednesday night at the Amy Farris celebration show, where Dave Alvin, with tears in his eyes over the loss of “that red-headed brat,” playing like a man possessed (and Warren Hood sitting in for Amy on fiddle)?  Dustin Welch followed (as usual on Wednesdays), and Kelley Mickwee of the Trishas sat in with Dustin and I promised to make one of their two shows at Threadgills during the week.  Tidbit of value — piano player Scott Bucklin just moved down to Austin from Dallas and Dustin immediately got him to play in his band.  Worth the trip down just to see this guy (who reminds me a lot of Kevin Lovejoy).

I had also promised Molly Venter I would catch her “happy hour” show at Momo’s the next day, and it was easy enough to do, given that my pal Brett Randell played his first Momo’s show right after Molly.  Later, I stopped by Flipnotics, where Aimee Bobruk was hosting a bunch of songwriters, including herself, Jessie Torrisi (new CD out on October 29th at a show at Lambert’s), and Michael Hall (of the Wild Seeds).  Still later, I hopped over to the Hole in the Wall for the beginning of the farewell to Austin (and the entire US of A) tour for Jessie England, who is getting hitched and moving to Denmark (nice gig, eh?). 

Jessie’s band, the SNAFU Kitties, closed out the evening — upcoming is a CD release party that will be the actual going away party for Jessie.  Also on the bill were Jessie’s other band, Satellite or Slave,” which features Karla Mansour on guitar and vocals and Kim Vogelsang on bass and vocals.  Yeah, Jessie plays drums and sings (and slipped over to her keyboard for one song), and we all had a blast.  My other MAJOR reason for being there was to FINALLY catch a set from Lauren Gurgiolo and the Dialtons.  Lauren, who is playing lead guitar with Okkervil River, is an old friend who also plays mandolin and much more.  I know her through the Brothers Lazaroff and Elizabeth McQueen and such folk — and well remember a show some of those folk did out at the Cathedral of Junk. 

And thinking about Elizabeth leads to Willie (indirectly, perhaps) and thus to the subject at hand.  NOW I can get back to earlier on Wednesday (yeah, the same night I went to the Sessions at the Hideout!), when I was at Z Tejas to catch a set from Bill Carter, Will Sexton, and Stephen Doster — admittedly, these three Texas songwriters sang mostly other people’s songs.  But when Will and Bill were in Houston the other night at the Mucky Duck, they sang their own songs (even though my daughter asked me why Bill Carter was singing all of those “covers,” not knowing he had written so many songs she recognized).  [I have to specify that there may need to be a separate category for Texas FEMALE songwriters (we are SO blessed).]  And then there is this large in-migration of songwriters who move here, buy some cowboy boots, and develop a drawl (or not).

Now, moving on to Saturday night, I went out into the cold early to see Blues Mafia and Hector Ward and the Big Time at Tim’s Porch, then  stopped by Momo’s just to hang out.  Warren Hood was on stage, and he stuck around and sat in for a few songs with the handsome Dan Dyer, who was showing no visible effects from having most of his gear stolen earlier (in the day, or in the week, I forget).  I do know he and his band mates (Mark Williams, aka Gum B, on bass and cello, and Micheal Hale on drums) played the best set I have ever heard them play in the midst of this adversity.  Next time you stop by Momo’s, toss a dollar or two into the bucket for the Dan Dyer stolen gear fund.

But back to the Trishas — Savannah Welch just happened to be at Momo’s that evening with a couple of friends from her movie career, and once again I reminded myself that I had already missed the Trishas’ Friday show and had to get to the Sunday event — and I am glad I did.  Some of my favorite Billy Joe memories include one night at Threadgill’s when Brennen Leigh and brother Seth got to sit in and sing along on “I’m just an old lump of coal, but I’m gonna be a diamond some day,” and that night at the Broken Spoke with Kinky Friedman and Little Jewford along with Jesse Guitar Taylor — just a couple of months after Eddy Shaver’s untimely death on New Year’s Eve 2000.\

Nearing seventy, Billy Joe showed an eager Threadgill’s crowd that he is hardly an old man — dancing, singing a capella, admitting forgetting some lines to a brand new song, joking about drummer Jason MacKenzie being late to the gig, and belting out brand new songs that have the same fire and power as the ones he wrote decades ago.  First-timers included members of the Trishas, members of Stonehoney (whom I had just heard at Threadgill’s Old No. 1 for the bluegrass brunch), and members of Rosemary’s Garden, a rock band from southern California who were playing the Saxon later that evening and who missed their gig the night before at Momo’s and had the further insult of having their vehicle and trailer towed.  But what’s a little money when you end up watching a legend — a man I never get tired of going to see.  A man who just has to be one of the top Texas songwriters of all time.

KEVIN HIGGINS – Find Your Shine

All of which leads us to Kevin Higgins — better known, perhaps for his work with the Dust Devils (formerly the Cosmic Dust Devils), a band whose other lead singer is Barbara Malteze.  Kevin and Stephen Doster assembled an impressive array of musicians to help out — J. J. Johnson on drums, John Gammil on bass, John Leon on pedal steel, Chip Dolan on organ and accordian, and Warren Hood on violin and mandolin.

The liner notes for this record (written by Rob Patterson) state that Doster says of Higgins, “If William Faulkner was from West Texas, played guitar and wrote songs, they might sound like this.”  Patterson adds that, “Higgins ascends to the pantheon of eloquent and evocative American singer-songwriters [he should just say Texan] with that rare grit for articulating the fullness of human experience within splendid and alluring melodies.”  In short, Mssrs. Doster and Patterson envison Higgins as one of the real Texas troubadours — a man whose characters are “like painted portraits.”

But that’s what others are saying.  Doster told me it is important to listen to this record when there is nothing to distract you from its sheer beauty and poetry.  True right.  I recommend a late night snack after everybody else has gone to bed and the telephone will not ring.

This recording runs like a symphony — maybe like Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” –or perhaps like Aaron Copland’s ballet, Rodeo.  Which is to say, this is a song cycle that paints a consistent portrait of rural America and real people searching for a little joy.  As such, each song is like a movement in the symphony, as Higgins takes us on a journey down “Blue Highways” and byways to show us that we have a wonderful country in which to “Find Your Shine” if we will just go where the wind takes us and learn how to love those whom we meet.  [Funny, Billy Joe says the same thing.]

The very first song sets the mood — “Way out in the fields, what once was a treasure, now just pieces of steel….”  these words describe the fears of those facing the horror of a tornado as it touches down on a “small farm in Nebraska that God had spared today.”  Already you realize that this is powerful stuff — Doug Burr powerful, but even more Texas traditional.  Gentler than, say, Steve Earle, more serious, say, than Robert Earl Keen, and much more hopeful than, say, James McMurtry.

“Monahans” opens with a memory of “my sweet West Texas girl,” whom our hero laments that, ”you grab ahold of something good and it’ll slip right through your hands.”  John Leon’s pedal steel and Malteze’s piano define this tune, which opens at a Dairy Queen in a small west Texas town.  “West Texas Aggregate” is about his brother down at Ray’s Garage where he hardens his heart and works on his muscle car — and much more.  Higgins sings, “This is my home, this is my place, these are my people, descending from grace” — with shuttered storefronts and every make and model car parked outside the bar because misery loves company.

“Curtains” (again the piano and pedal steel) laments the end of a family, “always seems like a long time, always seems like a dream to me now as our home becomes a house, and it seems like only yesterday, feels like only yesterday, this was our home.”  Indeed, as the property is now up for sale, ”Freshly painted walls where family pictures used to hang, glossed over all our memories, it’s as if we never came.”  

“The Levee Boys” is a memory of youth in the Bosque, boys who broke some windows, bent some laws, barefoot warriors … all for one and one for all.”  Then this family moved in from Albuquerque, with sullen faces and a lot of fighting and a boy named Curly whom they befriended and thus protected from his abusive father — until the law came and the family moved away, likely to continue its cycle of abuse.   The title cut, “Find Your Shine,” is a travelogue of oddly names places across America and a couple who run off from their home in search of a better life. 

“Infinity” opens with ”each of us a single thread, woven to the fine fabric of the grand design, she smiles, says the stars look great tonight…. All we are is all that is, there are no two moments quite like this … and all that matters now with our eyes above the clouds is to see the light.”  This is a beautiful song about “we create what we believe, we can live in fear, we can go in peace, we can give to God or always be at odds with our mortality.”   What a meditation this song is.  The final three songs are “Hanging On,” “Kickaround Kid,” and “Alone Star,” and since I know you will want to know what they are about, I will just let you find out the old fashioned way.  Kevin and Barbara, by the way, are performing out at the Iguana Grill on Lake (?) Travis on Friday at 6:30 pm.