Flanfire

Friends, I thought I had done well to have my friend Laura Jean Thompson down from Chicago and play at the Whip In, Romeo’s, Cheatham Street, Baker St.,and the Ham Jam Concert Series — and to meet with Charlie Stewart and work on plans for Folk Alliance and beyond — but that was just the prologue (and indeed Laura and i had some fine adventures togethe!).

No sooner than I had dropped Laura at Austin Bergstrom on Tuesday did I get myself to the Contintental Club to see Dustin Welch with Steve and Mike Bernal on bass (and cello) and drums, Roberto Riggio on violin, and Eric McFadden on lead guitar and lead and/or harmony vocals. What a show — “Two Horses” as I had never seen it before, with Steve Bernal reaching notes on the cello rarely heard. Afterward, I ended up at the Korean karaoke joint on North Lamar singing and wishing Sarah Temple at happy birthday. Wednesday it was Trophy’s for Josh Buckley and Gilded Splinters with Phil Hurley sitting in on lead guitar. Thursday began with Barbara Nesbitt singing her heart out to a warm and fuzzy crowd (lots of fellow musicians) at Maria’s Taco X-press, then a quick jaunt to Baker St. to catch a set by Jennifer Ellen Cook, and off to Stubbs for shows from Les Rav and the White White Lights (with a stopover at the Mohawk in between). Barbara has a voice that melts gold into butter, and Lauren Bruno and Les Rav have added the impeccable Jenni Wieland on French horn and Andrew Noble on violin (and a little lead guitar!). Special thanks to my pal Scott Andrews, who was at the show the night before he played Houston’s House of Blues.

But Friday’s on my mind, and after a long day of work (missing day 1 of the Austin Songwriters’ Group’s annual confab) getting to the Continental Club with my pal Josh Buckley to see the Mastersons (Chris and Eleanor, with the bonus of sister Bonnie Whitmore in the house, and of course Falcon Valdez on drums. Chris has long been one of Austin’s (well, Bertram’s!) finest guitarists and songwriters but even he admits people come just as much to see and hear (and marvel at) Eleanor, who has developed from a strong side woman (violin and mandolin) to hardcore troubadour guitarist and lead singer. Their new CD, Birds Fly South (due in April, except for some advance copies the kids had with them), is just gorgeous, especially IMHO the title track! They’ll be back for SXSW so do not miss your next chance!
At the show (the reconstituted Derailers followed) Josh and I met two great new friends and he got to play them some of his own songs late into the night.
Saturday I finally got to the Omni for the ASG shindig and ran into so many old friends and met a few new ones – and got to hear Sonny Throckmorton and Joe Manuel (with Marvin Dykhuis and Will Sexton) sing some of their greatest hits, hear some top experts in booking, management, and more share their secrets, and have a wonderful time! Thanks again to Lee Duffy and Rick Busby and the whole crew for putting on such a powerful event (featuring indstrry pros from all over the place).
But life is all about Saturday night, and this one was super special — the return to the stage of Jazz Mills and Cowboy and Indian before a packed house at Hotel Vegas (which had already seen Nakia, the Dead Left and the fabulous Greyhounds). Never enough props for Neal Kassanoff’s songwriting, but adding the love of my life, Lauren Gurgiolo (if you ever watch her play guitar you will know why!), to his band (thanks in large part to the genius of Lindsay Greene!) was a stroke of genius mixed with sheer good fortune. Lauren, lead guitarist for Okkervil River, promises new things from her own group, the Dialtones, in coming months, and Neal was beaming when I asked him how his nonprofit music teaching organization for disadvantaged children, the Groundworks Music Project, was going. He had just gotten a major grant that will cover his entire budget for 2012. GOOD TIMES!!!!!! OF COURSE I cannot be objective about Cowboy and Indian — they are all family to me — Dorian, Peter, Daniel James, Jazz, Jesse and Stephanie RULE MY WORLD and are just downright wonderful! Now part of our evening (thanks, Josh and Anita for hanging with!) was spent at the hottest new country bar in Austin, the White Horse, listening to the Carper Family and later to Clyde and Clem’s Whiskey Business (who as always were a barrel of laughs and a joy to behold!) — and Denis O’Donnell, Mashall McHone and the gang also had a packed house. There was also this amazing ring around the moon — part of one magical night in Austin! And tomorrow — new adventures await, as I wait for another show from Cowboy and Indian (to help out our beloved Ruby Jane) and from the stripped down T-Bird and the Breaks quartet!

Three days (daze?), thirty (plus) bands, and of course a few side projects. SX620 and SXSW have come and gone — and we are just now sorting out all of the music we recorded and the video we shot. One thing we know. There is some great stuff out there — for example, Meggan Carney’s quirky songs and powerful voice, which she will be taking to Washington, DC, and Chicago on behalf of the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau in coming weeks. Flanfire will be joining Meggan and the incomparable Drew Smith in the Windy City (barring strange incidents that could happen). Meanwhile, Drew’s Lonely Choir played an amazing set last weekend at Momo’s that left even Ihor Gowda gasping for breath…. And I met Merri Palmer … at long last. Raw .. her new CD, Drinking and Dreaming, is as raw as an open wound from intentional cutting, so honest Abe Lincoln would blush, and so intense (and yet often funny but even more often poignant) that you just through the songs (and maybe an on-stage performance or two) you sense that this woman way too soon wants to fix every broken thing but knows she cannot … and wonders why. “Early in the Morning” is a deja vu moment in time as one copes with the non-reality that you tried to keep real but could not — one of the most haunting songs ever. “The Daily Grind” speaks of the earthquakes in people’s lives that so disrupt normal and always seem to come with aftershocks. “Underage Smokers” takes us back to high school memories — and a wish that “you’ve grown up to grow sane.” “Hopeless Romantic” bounces into your head to open the show, and you realize that this seemingly happy song has its darker overtones, as “everything I’ve loved so far’s gone bad.” The title cut has this line, “plans are what you make until something more important comes along,” and so relationships sometimes come to an end. There are songs here about which I cannot write — maybe because Merri has a heart the size of the moon itself and a passion for people daring to seek their own truth that comes from seeing hypocrisy way up too close. This offering follows her earlier acoustic EP, “The First Five Years,” and features new new synthesizer and lots of harmonies (many her own). Merri will have a residency at Flipnotics next month and has other shows about town … that is, if she doesn’t hop on a cruise ship to sing for her supper.

Elsewhere I recently gave high praise to the new CD by Jenny Parrott and Vaughn Walters, aka Loves It! Tonight I stopped by the Whip In to catch Jess Klein with Patterson Barrett as they sang an amazing duet of “Grievous Angel” that evoked the passion and joy of the original Gram and Emmy Lou that changed my life. Also on the stage, Professor Feathers aka Mark Addison (who will be sharing HIS songs with Jess i a fw weeks) and Danish songbird Annemarie Jensen (who has been “touring” with Chris Hawkes and will be in town through the end of April).
Then it was off to the Continental Gallery to check out The Frank Mustard Project — I liked their songs but even moreso their cover of Link Wray’s “Comanche.”

Coming up — Thursday at Threadgills’ – Cowboy and Indian (wear a costume); Friday at the Cactus, the beautiful Bonnie Whitmore (with Graham Weber), at the Continental Club, the long-awaited CD release by Slowtrain, and at Momo’s round 2 of Dave maden’s OMG Orchestra featuring Sara Hickman, John Pointer, and more … and the show I really want to see — Merri Palmer with D. B. Rouse (Kiddo) and others at Hornitos — which starts at 7 pm. It’s gonna be a looonnng night!