Flanfire

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.

Flanfire flew up to New England last week to check out the hometowns of T-Bird Crane and the queen of Momo’s, Princess Grace — and fell in love with both Northampton (MA) and Burlington (VT).  And why not?  Austin’s own (since a year ago, at least) Jess Klein played shows in both cities, opening her first tour with her new CD, Bound to Love.  Jess will be back at Momo’s on October 3rd to formally release the CD, produced by Mark Addison and Scrappy Jud Newcomb, that friends are saying is Jess’ best of the seven recordings she has released in her storied career.

Burlington is on Lake Champlain, which I hear ices over many winters, but which on this weekend had a thriving outdoor music scene highlighted by historic Church Street where restaurants open out into the closed old street and musicians perform up and down the six-block area as people chow down on a wide variety of delicacies and consume local Vermont beer (my favorite, Long Point Blackbeary).  I, however, stopped by The Skinny Pancake to get a Nutella and strawberry crepe (The Love Maker). 

Northampton, home of Smith College and just a few miles south of UMass Amherst, is another smallish city with lots of good restaurants and several music venues.  My man Tim (T-Bird) took me to the Haymarket for tea and some delightful food, and steered me to nearby Look Park where Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals opened at an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the funk band SouLive (those guys are good!).  Ms. Jones and her band put on quite a show (though I think several of Austin’s soul bands have better songs and more overall energy), but the highlight for me was the presence of the Waking Dream puppets.

JESS KLEIN – Bound To Love

There is something apparently magical about the Austin music scene that is attracting seasoned musicians to relocate here and find new energy, new hope for their futures.  In the past year alone Flanfire has had the great pleasure of getting to know such artists as Jackie Bristow, Jess Klein, and Ruby James (others, too) who have come to Austin to live and record new music.  Others (Alyse Black, Aly Tadros, and brand-new Austinite Barbara Nesbitt, for a few) made records elsewhere and then came to live in our fair city – certainly not because they love 100-degree weather all summer long.  Reviews will be coming soon for Ruby, Jackie, Barbara, and hopefully that pixie Jackie Daum (who came here to record with Billy Harvey, worked at Botticellis and rarely graced a stage but made a lot of friends before relocating to San Diego).

She has lived here for a year now, but few Austinites even know Jess Klein, despite the fact that she has six or seven (depends on how you count) prior CD’s, is a Telluride Troubadour Songwriting Contest winner, toured worldwide (Europe and Japan) with her first Rkyodisc release, Draw Them Near, performed her song “Little White Dove” on Good Morning America, and had her song Strawberry Lover  voted as one of the 10 sexiest songs of the year by the New York Daily News. 

The Rochester, New York, native has lived in Boston and New York City but came to Austin, she says, to “find a home where I could park myself between tours and feel inspired and supported. Living here and writing these songs uplifted me. Recording them was so much fun, and playing them live feels like a pure expression of my love for the world.”  Indeed, Jess’ new record, Bound To Love, is a pure expression of her gratefulness — and her courage to stand before sometimes rowdy audiences to pour her heart out, telling stories from deep within her own soul and sometimes her vivid imagination — all of which grip our hearts especially when her voice soars to the higher registers.

I first met Jess Klein at Momo’s Club (where else?), but when I first saw her on stage at Flipnotics in January (it was cold outside) I thought seriously about opening the windows thanks to the hot flamesshe was sending out to an enraptured audience.  I still sometimes get tongue-tied around this gentle woman whose passion for life has been rekindled by her move halfway across the USA.  I recall the other night at Threadgill’s she was sitting on a low wall in the back listening to a Jimmy LaFave song — and you could just see the boogeying energy that was largely in her head but yet emanating out into the night with a force ten.  Probably getting inspired to write another song.

I recall one night long ago in Washington, DC’s Montrose Park, a bunch of us were hanging out long after dark when someone came over and whispered, come into the maze and listen — but be very quiet and still .. and we tiptoed in and heard this young woman playing the flute and it was wonderful and we instantly knew why we had been warned against bluster.  Jess Klein is sometimes like that flautist — you have to be quiet so she can soar and touch your heart in ways you had not imagined possible anymore. 

Her old friends tell me Bound to Love is Jess’ best record yet, and lots of thanks must go to Mark Addison and Jud Newcomb, as well as to supporting musicians Rob Hooper, Harmoni Kelley, George Reiff, Slaid Cleaves, Matt the Electrician, Kim DesChamps, Susan Howe and Freedy Johnston.  The truth is that good as this record is, it cannot capture the electricity of Jess’ live performance, but people often drive while listening to CD’s and we do not need autos on cruise control with drivers and passengers totally oblivious to their surroundings.

Get to a Jess Klein live show (I heartily recommend Momo’s on October 3rd, when Jess will be joined for the evening by fellow TB Artists performers Josh Grider (new CD release that date as well) and the incomparable Randy Weeks (how many songwriters can you listen to for four hours and never get tired?).  But when you come to see Jess Klein, get up close and be quiet and still — well, that is, until she blows you away and you cannot contain yourself.

“When the Time Comes” opens the record — “What you want is up ahead and what you had is all behind, all the voices in your head have finally left you peace of mind, and you walk like you’re on water now, you’re following a sign ….”  This song Jess wrote traveling toward Austin with a clear vision that freedom was in her future and she needed to be ready to soar.  Now let’s imagine Jess is telling a fictional story in “Don’t Wanna Say It,” as she sings that, “I have tried, oh I’ve tried to let no one see me cryin’, but the world passes on and I’m dyin’.”  This is a song about surrender .. and hope.

The title cut speaks to those voices that our writer has “seen the proof in the breeze blowin’ through my window shade, seen the proof in the sun glowin’ on the house I’ve made, where my heart’s growin’, where I’m not afraid — I’m free … and I’m bound to love.”  The key to this new joy and confidence — “My energy comes from giving to you … you help me pull the right things through…”  “I Just Want To Know Your Name” is a penetrating song that asks all of us are we just putting on a show and do we even know who we really are?  About being on stage, our writer says, “When I’m not smilin’ for them I’m starin’ at my shoes, I walk a mile for them, I sing another blues.” 

Then Jess tells another of her famous stories — “Postcard” is about a woman whose “true” love did not quite work out, and her memories of what might have been that keep her going.  Jess’ cover of John Hiatt’s “Before I Go” fit right in with the theme of the recording, and Jess too “will try .. and stumble” but like Hiatt, she can sing, “But I will fly, He told me so.”  Thanks so much to the loverly Abi Tapia (in whose house in the Berkshires Jess spent a few days last week) for co-writing “Fool,” and to Slaid Cleaves for his powerful duet vocal on this airplay-necessary cut.  Another story song — about a waitress and a truck driver finding and quivering through the beginnings of what could be true love.

“Putty” is a tough song about a “mental love affair” — and the presumptions so many of us have that we are so indispensable to another person whose life we want to manipulate for our pleasure.  As Jess says, “Buddy, what will you do when I’ve laid it all out on the floor and I ain’t got no more lazy days or time to spend?”  Life is not a game we can win but an adventure we must let take us where it will.

“It Will Come to Me” is one of my favorites – Jess here sings that she is embarking on a “bigger ship in a broader sea” (could that be Austin?) and yet recognizes that, “you won’t ever get too far if you don’t let the stars do their work and pull you out of that corner where you are.”  And just to remind us that she is one tough cookie, Jess tells a fictional story about a ”Traveling’ Woman” who is just plain frustrated with all of the phony lovers and would be boyfriends none of whom is really true – and she says what she wants — with the key being that whoever would be hers would not try to put her in a cage – if you want her love you had best not try to make her put her suitcase down!  This is a sexy song — and live she just flat out BELTS this one (as Jess says, her family always said she was too loud!).

“Rosalie” goes to the other side — a quiet, tender song about a lost love.  This song makes you cry when Jess’s voice soars into the stratosphere … and if we can learn anything, it teaches us to cherish each moment and be very careful with our own hearts and especially the hearts of those we profess to love.  Maybe Jess is even singing about someone who foolishly walked away from her long ago.  This could be the one song here that defines why Jess Klein touches the heart so deeply.

But “What For” is an anthem — you want to stand and place your hand on your heart.  Jess dedicated this album to her father, and this song reflects a deep love for someone whose “rare, sole example gives a night flyer ample fuel for the burning and the turning up for more.”  This very personal song lets us know that this woman who “live my life safely, making steps like a baby” would get on stage “where I’d open the cage and soar….”  Now, after years of dealing with a world that often makes us call into question our own deepset values, the die is cast and the time has come to stand bravely up and let those whom we love know that “we are all in this together” and maybe it is time that the one who was being led takes the lead in love and grace.  This Jess Klein is quite a woman, and Austin should be proud that she feels loved here …  and just might stick around for a while if we are willing to let her keep her suitcase packed to travel to Narnia and back and places in between.

ALY TADROS — Things Worth Keeping

Aly Tadros [left, with Alyse Black at her side] makes you think she has been around the world (oh, wait, she has!) — and that she is a sophisticated chanteuse (well, absolutely!) — and a lot older than she really is (don’t ask, don’t tell).  She made this record in — of all places, you might think — Louisville, Kentucky, but then you remember that Ben Sollee is from Louisville and he plays cello on “Keep Up” and that alone is worth the trek.  The record provides a nice introduction to Aly’s songs, but to get the FEEL of this enchanting woman I strongly suggest you go to Aly’s MySpace page, click on the “But a Memory” blog entry, and watch (despite the low light) several songs from the live set at her CD release at Austin’s Hideout Theatre — because it is the live show that opens your senses to the breadth of her talent.  Alyse Black and Aly have been touring together — and no wonder, as BOTH are cabaret singers of the highest order.  It took me a while to get it — they seemed so different at first.  Now Aly and Alyse are on tour for what seems the rest of this year and into next year,   “But a Memory” is cut 8 on the record, and the first of 14 separate videos embedded here.  The second cut here, “Names We Forget,” is the final cut on the CD — and live she dedicates the song to Douglas Jay Boyd, another of the many talented songwriters who have either met or become better friends through the now-dormant Shut Up and Sing! songwriter showcase (which Rob Cooperman does have plans to revive with maybe a new venue and a new partner in crime). 

HILARY YORK – In the Dark

I got to know Hilary York [center] when she and Aimee Bobruk were doing this songwriter showcase at the Scoot Inn that I hated to miss even once a month.  Tall and blonde, Hilary has this contralto voice that sounds like Marianne Faithfull today and delivers a punch with every note.  At her CD release the other night at the Contintental Club (where she sometimes works), Hilary [shown here with Joe Reyes and Kullen Fuchs] had a hot band (Doug Walseth, Zachary Firnhaber, Kullen, and Kyle Schneider) and even hotter special guests (Buttercup’s Joe Reyes, and Darian Momanaee from the Low Lows).  Ian Moore graces the album itself, along with Steve Bernal, Gary Newcomb, and Julie Lowery (and more) — but the star of this show is Ms. York herself. 

The very first cut on this record is called “Jaded,” but I always remember it as “the future’s got me thinking of the past … and it won’t last.”  What a GREAT line.  Kullen plays trumpet (and probably keys too) here.  What’s not to like?  The second cut, “I Look for You,” has another hook – “I feel your thythm,” and you want to get rhythm.  That’s Jud Newcomb on guitar solo here — mmmmmmmM!  On “Carnival,” Hilary (per my roommate) sounds a lot like Mary Travers … and come to think of it, looks a little like the younger Mary too.  This waltz is best danced WITH Hilary (if you are lucky enough!) — Ian Moore is playing THIS guitar solo.  “Cover Me Up” is one of the featured cuts (also with Ian Moore AND Jud on guitars).  Halfway into this song you get a rush of excitement as Hilary explodes with high energy … another great dance tune.  Now I like “Shutters and Doors,” a gentle ballad that features Scrappy’s non-brother Gary Newcomb on pedal steel (the best in the whole wide world!).  This song is like eating chocolate mousse with nutmeg flavored whipped cream on top.  Song 6 opens with Steve Bernal’s deep, dark cello — like dark chocolate liqueur.  Then there is this cover of Randy Newman’s dark “Baltimore,” which in a way reminds me of the neighborhood around the Scoot Inn.  Another fine Scrappy solo is on “Close Your Eyes.”  Hilary lets you know she may “eat you alive” if you do not stay away in the final cut, “Loosen Your Grip,” which features Kullen on piano and organ and trumpet and tender loving care for this wonderful song.  This woman is a master of the supper club – she even makes the Driskill’s ghost light up and shine. 

Ho-kay!  You can see the video of Jessie Torrisi and the Mello Cellos (Rob Jewett, who plays a lot of other instruments as wel, and Alissa Schram) at La Zona Rosa, where Tuesday nights will be rockin’ with members of the Marshall Ford Swing Band and Milk Drive in upcoming weeks.  Many may not realize that the front room at this giant venue is a great place (for example) to shoot a video, watch a band and play ping-pong all at the same time — and the bar has pool tables and a great lounging area besides.  And some good draft and bottled beer. 

I could not resist throwing in another photo of Danny B Harvey — shown here playing with the Jessica Shepherd Band (that’s Perry Drake on drums, but also Trisha Keefer (of the Trishas and Dustin Welch’s House Band) on fiddle and David Valley on bass).  This show was out at Klattenhoff Park in Wells Branch on a hot Sunday afternoon — but the real smoke was coming from the stage.  Jessica just sent her new CD off to the manufacturer and it is hot stuff. 

The Beautiful Mistakes started out a few years back and were for a while the house band at Roadhouse Rags (one of my favorite Austin venues), but here they are at Momo’s Club — Ben Todd and Ben Sirko on guitars and vocals, Ashley Pankey on bass, Jason Toll on drums, and the amazing Aaron Starr on harmonica (amazing because he has brought out the saxophone as a second instrument).  This is one kick-ass band that can jam with anybody — the more I listen, the more I like.  Stop by the Continental Gallery and ask Ben for a demo — made (where else?) at Roadhouse Rags — and I hear the band is about to put together a newer collage of their live sets there onto a playable disc.  RUMOR has it that a tall Kentucky blonde may be on stage with them here and now.

Also debuting a new CD is Boerne’s Matt McCloskey (living here now, of course), who has been holding down Mondays at Momo’s for the past few weeks.  Matt has a new CD available, “These Times Won’t Last,” recorded with George Henderson on bass, James Richardson on drums, and Joe Moralez on keyboards — but his band right now includes Brian Marshall on guitar (and banjo!).  Matt himself plays guitar, piano and harmonica on the record, which features seven of his rockin’ songs.  He is back at Momo’s in July (with Deadman on the bills too) and plays the EverGreen House Concert in Boerne at the end of the month.  The title cut is a nice opener, and the record continues with “Bottled Up,” which rocks, and a real ballad, “That Kind of Love,” that has an old-time feeling – a mesh of Mellencamp and Ryan AND Bryan Adams, pop but indie too.  Maybe Matt lives in a pink house?  “Give All Your Love To Me” is another ballad.  “Love Her Through the Hard Times” sounds like a song written by a man who is growing in responsibility in real life — a song about commitment that all too often these days is foreign to our experience — a real primer for keeping the fires lit.  “Dyin’” is pure R & B — and great to dance (close) to.  The last cut, “Baby, I Need You,” is an admission that genuine love really makes a huge difference in our lives.

Jen Womble in a duet with the handsome Kalu James and the incomparable Josh Halverson on guitar — the West Texas Wombat just sounds soooo good up there — we have all been waiting quite a while for this — and we want MORE!

Ricky and Erin Stein (with Ricky’s band The .44) rock the house at the Saxon Pub on “Keep St. (Baby Come a Long Long Way)” and “Drink One for Me” — that Erin is cuter than Ricky and almost as cute as Phil Morris (the guy on bass!). 

THIS, folks, is guitar gunslinger Kevin Hollingsworth on that Gibson and Austin legend Mandy Mercier (the ONLY woman whom I have ever heard sing Janis with as much passion as Janis) on guitar and vocals — all at Maria’s Taco X-Press.  The song is “Outlaw Man,” one of my favorites from Mandy, a woman who personally took care of more than her share of “outlaw men” (Blaze Foley, for one).

Why is Jodi Adair dancing on stage?  Maybe because her band this evening at the Amsterdam Cafe is Carl Ryals on drums, BB Morse on bass, and the Stratocaster Kings — Spencer Jarmon and Landis Armstrong — on twin lead guitar.  Landis had played a set with the lovely Paula Nelson (along with bassist Mark “Eppy” Epstein, who just flew in from Hawaii — guy’s credits include Johnny Winter and Jon Bonamassa), and for some ODD reason needed little armtwisting to stick around.  Gotta love Paula’s new songs, BTW.

The ABSOLUTELY AMAZING Jess Klein at Flipnotics and her AMAZING song, “Out on the Riverview,” perhaps the most beautiful, most powerful song she has ever written .. but then again, there are so many.  Wise birds and people will FLOCK to Momo’s Club Tuesdays in June to see this treasured jewel before her new album (produced by Mark Addison and Scrappy Jud Newcomb, who with Rob Hooper are her band these days at Momo’s) is released and she is flying all over the world again.

Okay – I finally got a new camera and realized afterward that my old one may still be under warranty.  But no photos of lots of great shows last week — so I am hoping for guest photos, and I did hear about some awesome video that Ihor Gowda shot of Tiny Tin Hearts during their show on Friday at Momo’s Club [the Book People Party].  Others may have photos of that wild and wacky Friday night at the Scoot Inn with Stonehoney and 29 Mules (a bunch of Texans living in Lost Angels who write a lot of songs about God’s own country). 

On Wednesday I got to hear Dave Phenicie of Stonehoney singing solo in a song swap with his old girlriend (and the inspirational founder of Stonehoney, so the story goes) Angela Easterling.  The lovely South Carolinian (from Greenville) was in town after showcasing as a New Folk Finalist at Kerrville and yes this was her first ever Austin performance — at Threadgill’s (indoors south).  Angela, who has a brand new record out, will just have to come back to town this fall so we can get to know her better.  Well of course that evening (as did Friday) ended up with a jam with Danny B. Harvey and more of the Stonehoney boys. 

Thursday I stopped by early to catch Andrew Hardin and Kelly Mickwee, hung out with Kevin Welch (even as Dustin Welch was playing the Continental Club) — and Kevin was excited about this new song he and Dustin had just finished.  [Late Friday night I ran into Dustin, who was just as thrilled about the song -- but HE will be out of town most of June!]  Meanwhile, little sis Savannah is busy making movies — both here and (if all goes well) in Berlin later this year.

Now on Wednesday I was having lunch with the gorgeous Jessica Shepherd (who played me tracks from her forthcoming new release) at Habanero’s (what GREAT food they have!) and as we were walking out I ran smack dab into Hector Ward — and he said I had to come out to Molotov the next night for his full band show.  And so of course I did — gotta support my man Phil Roach, my old friend Scott Beardsley, and Matt Price and the horn section — and of course Alison Beardsley (whom I have known since she was 15) is back from Boulder (she’s a Buffalo!) to sing with her dad’s band.  Boy has this girl got some PIPES — and great energy as she stands toe to wheelchair with Hector and his booming baritone.

As if discovering Molotov as a live music venue (with original songs, not covers) was not enough, I then trekked over to Fifth Street at the invitation of impresario Brian Conway to catch a set form The Finest Kind — only their second show with new drummer Daniel Jones.  Ross and Rolf and Adam “Slowpoke” Temple (from the Scabs) were just wailing the whole set (no vocals!).  We are talking phunk!  Just go check these guys out at their MySpace site — brand new improvs up.  But that’s not all!  The THIRD unlikely (for me) original music venue of the evening was (I think) called The Madison — next to Beso – and there was Graham WIlkinson, dreads and all, rockin’ the house with a trio whose members I did not know — and the whole house was dancing and having a ball.  And unlike the other venues, there was no stage — just three guys in a room grooving the joint.  Nice joint, by the way — and Graham apparently is playing there every Thursday for a while.

But back to Friday — I love that stage at the Scoot Inn, and Stonehoney’s set was one I will have to remember until fall.  But this was a party — and 29 Mules was having a ball.  The two Army brats — singer Casey Cannon and guitarist Xavier Gonzalez sing about their homelands of Fort Worth and Corpus Christi and all things Texan.  Their bassist is this big Swede Johnny G. who has a Mohawk and just happens to have been Slash’s bass player for years.  Folks, they even did “Redneck Mother.”

But the best was still yet to come — as the Mules brought back the Stonehoney boys, Angela, aDanny B, and special guest Jim Lacey-Baker (another ex-Angelino now thriving in Austin) kicked out the james for another half hour or so (and this does not even include the after party).  One of the peeps dancing the night away said it was just like Los Angeles moved to Austin — well, JOsh and Teal were in the house — and we were drinking Independence Ale and Live Oak!

Matt the Electrician (sporting a BIG beard) opened Saturday at Momo’s before it got dark — always love that guy’s music.  The crowd starting rolling in during the Fireants’ set, and sweat was the order of the evening for those on stage.  The Outfit are headed off to the hinterlands very soon and by the time they get back they ought to be BIG STARS!  This may be the tightest, most professional band I have seen in quite a while — by a hair, of course — lots of great talent in Austin, and maybe Phoebes is just such a favorite of mine (watching her grow from shy high schoolers in her first gigs with the Hudsons to standing alongside Lyle Lovett — and becoming an AMAZING fiddle player.  But the whole band — Jeff and Jon holding down the rhythm, Marshall Hood on guitar (so effortless — and did I mention his singing!), Connor Forsyth on piano and keys (he AND Marshall have cut their hair), and the effervescent Rob Teter on lead vocals and songwriting (Phoebe writes as well). 

But the evening was far from over –Wisebird (those guys from UTAH! plus Joe Beckham) just smoked their very hot set.  Paul Oveisi was in the house puffing one of his brand-new Momo’s Own cigars (that’s right — you can only get THESE babies in the club!).  Daren Fire-Eye Appelt was in the house, recording the whole show for posterity and looking mighty spiffy for a guy who has just been through living hell (aka chemo).  I was having a blast visiting with old friend Heather Webb who tells me that big things are in store for Adrian and the Sickness!  Jackie Bristow — fresh from some hot recording sessions – popped in for a while, too!  Paul Schieffer, too, was hanging out, having recently moved up from San Antonio and catching up on great bands to hire for an inaugural ball (just in case).  Paul is playing with San Antonio based Elijah Zane.

Sunday was quiet — and yet I got out to hear the B. Sterling Band play at Mosaic — with special guest Sarah Lincoln who is joining the band for their upcoming Southwest tour before heading off to graduate school in Pullman, Washington.

Donovan Keith and Soul Track Mind blow the audience away at Momos Club on their way to winning their round in a major battle of the bandds competition.  THIS BAND plays every Wednesday night at TC’s Lounge in East Austin — and you just have to be there to feel the love the way ONE audience member felt it on this glorious afternoon in Austin.