This record makes me cry!  Stephen Doster has performed a major miracle with the help of four young Texans who were willing to learn from a master.  And now they are on tour and we will not see them for weeks — and it is killing me.  At least I have Deadman as consolation (and a big dose of Dustin Welch — and yes a lot more good Austin music).  But this is like Canned Heat meets The Band meets the Allman Brothers (especially with Red Young on stage at their CD release).

Let’s start with the cover art — grainy photos from a time gone by portraying visions from several of the songs — “Lift Your Head Up” (the title cut), “A Million Ways,” “One Day My Soul Will Fly Again.”   This stuff looks more like Stephen Foster than even Stephen Doster.  There can be no contest either locally or worldwide for best album cover art and design — this is just beautiful. 

Then there’s the band — Big Sandy’s Kevin Galloway, with his hair and beard grown out, on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, San Antonio’s Joshua Dane Greco on drums and percussion — yeah, he’s a jazz player in his first rock and roll band, and he grew out his hair as part of the “look” this band exhibits in spades!  Cypress Creek HIgh’s (I used to watch him play football!) Michael Carpenter on lead guitar, vocals, and harmonica, and yes he has a LOT more hair than in his football days, but more to the point he also uses a bow to play the guitar and (yes, I saw the Yardbirds with Beck and Page) with much more creativity than the guy who later became the backbone of Led Zeppelin.  Hal Jon Vorpahl on bass with the curly long hair (as long as John Michael’s from Deadman, but much curlier) and the hat. 

And, yeah, the band SMOKES as the guys grind out their Southern Classic Rock with all of the fervor of Mylon Lefevre in his prime.  As at the CD release (see video below), the band has help from producer Stephen Doster on guitar, Mark Wilson on alto and baritone sax, Ed McNames on trumpet, Red Young on keyboards and organ, and Devon Guilford, Sonia Moore, and Decamp on backing vocals (only Guilford was at th CD release, and she was flat out amazing!). 

At Threadgill’s I met the parents of most of the band – all solid Texas folk who are the salt of the Earth.  No wonder these guys have been able to put together a band that is beyond time.  Like Drew Smith’s Lonely Choir CD, there is not a cut here that is not a hit in its own right.  The crowd at Threadgills, by the way, was pegged as maybe the best ever for any show at the venue — and yes a good bit of that was spillover fom the sparkling opening set from Hector Ward and the Big Time (who will have their own CD release party at Threadgills on May 9th). 

There are, as there just about have to be in such timeless music, lots of gospel overtones in nearly every song, starting with the title cut, “Pick Your Head Up,” which is an exhortation (that there is still time to get away) that ends with a kicked-up verse of “I’ll Fly Away.”  Now this is very different songwriting from that of a Dustin Welch – yes, there is plenty of meat here, but this record is all about the SOUND — and the feelings it evokes. 

 Galloway has a voice as distinctive as that of John Fogerty — “Everybody Got Soul,” though has layers of guitars that remind one of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul.”  Here the line is “the only one controlling my future is me….”  “Liquor Store” is a tale about losing — at the track, in life in general — and I’m searching for grace in the bottle tonight …   “Hold on Your Heart” is a rocker that ought to get people up onto the dance floor.

One of my favorites here is “San Bernadino” (where the Jokers play) — this is classicf Bob Seger music!  Another story song, that is — slowed down, opens with harmonica and organ (thanks, Red Young!) … “couldn’t see the stars in the Milky Way….”   But he moved to San Bernadino and became a local legend.

“Mississippi Highway” is a classic blues tribute to all of those who have gone before on the southern music circuit — and a lament that “they sent my jobs off to Japan.”  “Ain’t It the Same?” opens with a fistfight on a five dollar bill.  This is a song about a guy who “”used to have a woman and two more on the side ….”  but they ”cut my hair last winter, ain’t it the same?”

Carpenter sings lead on “Fire on the Rooftop,” and his Steve Winwood style tenor provides quite a contrast to Galloway’s gruss baritone.  But wow what a guitar solo!  “A Million Ways” is a dirge (opens with bass and organ) about how the powerful seek to deceive, while “Coming Down” is a flat-out rocker that opens with drums and then the guitar’s wail.  This is more city music .. “I know the believers and they say it’s coming down…”  and more smoking guitar.  The CD ends with “All Your Gold,” which opens quietly with these lines: “If I could stand out in the cold with all your gold in my hands, I’d throw it far as I could see, turn around and walk  away….”   and goes on to speak of one day “my soul will fly again….”   The pace picks up, and the guitar comes in and you realize this is a modern gospel song of the highest order.  Play this record loud on a day when you can just sit back and watch the clouds … drinking Dublin Dr Pepper and eating Moon Pies, playing baseball on a real sandlot and drinking grape Kool-Aid and talking about  nothin.  This record is grits and Virginia ham and old-fashioned barbecue music …                                                                        

 Let’s see — here’s a photo of Sarah [okay, they are BOTH named Sarah, and I am not sure which is which, but this is Sarah from Montgomery as opposed to Sarah from Corpus Christi) of the Reliques at the Hole in the Wall last Wednesday.  I was admittedly prepared to toss these two off until I heard them sing -- and now I am eager to get out to their next big show (not Momos on April 21 but the Living Water International Benefit on April 25th which also has my new friend David Ramirez on the bill).  There is just something good about this music and the women who are making it.

The duo opened for Greg Garing (shown below with his beloved Jaime) and Stretch Dawrson and the Mending Hearts.  Greg, by the way, has played his last Austin show for a while as he is moving to California where he has a bunch of shows lined up.  But if you see him before he heads west, just ask about his health (amazingly better!).  You may have seen the video I put up on my Youtube site of Stretch and Gemma Donald, the 20-year-old fiddler from the Shetland Islands who is fast becoming an international sensation (and she has family in Houston so may be in Texas more often if we just invite her). 

Then there's the photo of Kelley Mickwee and Savannah Welch singing harmonies for brother Dustin at his CD release Saturday night at the Continental.  What a show that was, with Eldridge Goins on drums and Andrew Duplantis on bass (plus Trisha Keefer on fiddle and Kyle Ellison on guitar).  Regular bassist Joe Beckham is on the road with Papa Mali (way to go, Joe!), and yes Dustin did get Jeremy Nail, Kacy Crowley, and Kevin Welch to help out a little here and there, but this was Savannah's real debut as lead backup singer (no Drew Smith) -- amazing energy plus a maturing voice that just cuts through. 

Next up is a photo of a painting from George Hampton (father of Noelle) taken at athe opening party for his exhibition at Z Tejas ... this one is of the Broken Spoke, and there are more to come featuring other historic Austin venues.  Not bad for a lifelong Californian who moved to Texas four years ago.

And here (above) we have Phil Roach with the horn section -- Mitch Vontes on saxes, Matt Price on trombone, and David Gilden on trumpet -- of the very hot band Hector Ward and the Big Time, who will have their own CD release in May after opening in April for Uncle Lucius at Threadgills.  This was my first time to see Kai's older brother play, and I was duly impressed.  My pal Scott Beardsley, whom I know through keyboardist Thomas Mann, is the bassist in this large band, which also has Dave Farris on congas, Mike McGurk on drums, and Kheli Kitts on backing vocals (a job shared with Alison Beardsley when she is not off in Boulder getting educated).  Hector -- whose prior band was Sigmond Fraud (with my old pal Long Distance Lance) -- also plays guitar and sings and dances -- all in a wheelchair that seems like a prop he is so vivacious in it.  This band has some GREAT songs, and Hector's voice is so strong he can cover both Elvis and Johnny Cash (and probably Bob Seger too), but he reminds me more of an Hispanic Omar Dykes.  This band truly is Big Time!

Had to throw in a photo of Dave Wilcox and his wonderful Gretsch -- from Brothers and Sisters (who were sans sister at the Continental Club as they opened for Li'l Cap'n Travis -- my first chance in a while to see Gary Newcomb and as always he does not disappoint.  [An aside -- got to see him playing jazz pedal steel at Mings' Second Anniversary Party along with El Goins, Brad Houser, and an all-star cast of characters -- chief among whom is owner and motorcyclist Fai Jow, whose coconut soup is to die for!  But for this party he brought out some mighty fine Louisiana gumbo!]  Gary is off to Holland next week for a Bruce Robison show across the pond. 

And here are Brennen Leigh and Sly Barrack jamming together on Telecasters along with Missy Beth (fiddle and vocals) and her badass band that also featured ATAP’s debut (that’s Andrew Thomas Austin-Petersen for novices) on electric bass.  The lovely women at the right — Tanya Winch, Elizabeth Wills (who only played percussion this evening), Karen Chisholm, who had invited me to the show, and Amanda Hickey – were all on stage at First Friday at Gateway Church along with the wonderful Jess Klein — and actually several other fine performers.  Just for the record, headlining their May 1 extravaganza will be Deadman – a band I really love.