Flanfire

Once in a while you still hear the laments about “the good old daze” in Austin and the venues that once were — and people saying that live music here is dying out for whatever reason.  Yet every day it seems I am meeting musicians who just moved to Austin and every week I seem to find another new music venue — and new venues are opening faster than I can check out.  Even better, some of these new venues are some of the best in the city.

Let’s start with an old venue that has taken on new life thanks to the vision and a lot of hard work by partners CJ Vinson and Lauren Bucherie, who started the “Sessions at the Hideout” just a few months ago.  Months earlier, Brian Conway was booking Erin Ivey and special guests for shows at this old theatre in the back of the Hideout coffeehouse at 7th and Congress — that’s when I first learned that this old theatre, which seats maybe a hundred folks (if you add a lot of chairs), could become a fabulous listening room.

Well, CJ and Lauren have turned this musty old room into a warm and friendly gathering place where people come just because the doors are open.  I finally got over to the Sessions to see my friends Justin and Tiffani (who are old friends of CJ’s during their days in Brooklyn) and their duo Justif.  Now I had first met this couple back in February at the impromptu Stonehoney show at Threadgill’s on North Lamar (the day Justin told the lads he would gladly play drums for them and did NOT mention he had quit playing drums for real a decade earlier).  Well, Justin did play with Stonehoney at the Saxon Pub, and that was not his only show with the band.  I did not know at that time that they were singing together (Justin on guitar), but ran into the couple at the Monday night House Wine open mike where everybody who gets on stage is pretty darn good.  And they were too!.  What a joy to catch their set at the Hideout, and then to hang out for the rest of the evening.

Vanessa Peters was up second — I remembered meeting her at a Melissa Mullins showcase at El Mercado years ago, and I had seen her more recently at Momo’s Club.  The bandleader of “Ice Cream on Mondays” has put out two more records since our first encounter (at which I immediately pegged her as a Dallas gal) and is touring (including in Europe) extensively.  Then it was another Brooklyn buddy of CJ — Ted Hefko, a Wisconsin native who spent nine years in the Crescent City before heading north long before Katrina hit town.  I really liked Ted’s music, and that is good as he does get to Austin here and now (sometimes playing sax with CJ’s band), and his songs impressed me quite a bit.  His brand-new record, Egyptland, was recorded partly here in Austin (at Trampa Studios under the direction of Adam Ahrens).  Indeed, Ted gives kudos to my friend Rose Reyes “for opening up the Austin music scene to me.”  Last but hardly least on this night’s bill was Jess Klein — in town for a short while before hitting the road again with her brand new CD, Bound to Love.

The next “Sessions” event will be November 5th — with Aimee Bobruk (fresh from her sister’s wedding), The Blue Hit (love that Grace Rowland), Jason Poe (of the band Jets Under Fire), and Bethany Solonika (maybe on autoharp and vocals).  Judging by the talented friends who have already played the Sessions, I would recommend that any time CJ and Lauren and friends open the doors the show will be well worth the small cover charge — and then some.

One night a while back at the House Wine open mike, I got to hear this gal Lauren Bruno (just here from Berklee School of Music) sing a song or three and she kept talking about this benefit concert she was throwing at her house (which turned out to be in far northeast Austin, even north of my humble abode).  So my new pal Brett Randell and I drive up, find the place, and walk into this trippy backyard with a video screen, a mini-stage that sits at the doorway of an outdoor shed that has been turned into a music room (compleat with soundproofing all around) — and that, we learned, is where they put the drum kit and bass amp so that the noise does not escape into the neighborhood. 

We pay the two dollars, which we learn is going to Clayton Lillard’s Backyard Crew project — since he was a ten-year-old in San Antonio, Clayton has been repairing bicycles to give to children with at least one parent incarcerated.  Yeah, this guy (who just moved to Austin after two years at Berklee) has been fixing about 100 bicycles a year — and has been written up in a whole bunch of newspapers, magazines, and oh yeah just got to speak at Texas A & M with two U.S. Presidents in the house.  No big deal — he just loves to play good music — mostly drums and guitar.

Lauren and Clayton have started up the Austin expansion of “$2 Shows,” a concept begun in Los Angeles by the equally renowned Spencer Ludwig, who one day decided to throw a benefit concert where all the proceeds would go to a charity of his choosing, musicians could play without hassles from the club scene, and a community might be created.  $2 Shows is now an official nonprofit that is also expanding into Louisiana — you can learn more at www.twodollarshows.com . 

So at this music event, we also get to see a video of Spencer Ludwig welcoming the Austin audience to his little idea made flesh.  Clayton played drums for the band Salesman and guitar with Lauren in their band — Anna Noel was there, and there were several others who performed before the night ended with an acoustic jam.  The event  raised 146 dollars for Clayton’s Backyard Crew.  Lauren and Clayton hope to have a second $2 Show the third week in November.

Flanfire decided to take the night off from carousing around town listening to live music and instead catch up a little on his backlog of unreviewed CD’s (and EP’s, for that matter).  But before we get to new music from Alyse Black, Colin de los Santos, Kevin Higgins (of the Dust Devils), and Courrier, we have a few brief announcements.

First, thanks to everyone who performed, came out, or even said a good word about the Flanfire Favorites benefit concert last Saturday at Central Market (and thanks especially to bassman Sean Hopper, who made it all possible).  We raised significant seed money for the domestic violence library project — enough we hope to pique the interest of the University of Texas in securing this unique resource for its Perry Castenada Library.  But just as important, we all had a barrel of fun.  Thanks to Jarrod Dickenson, Ben Mallott, Charlie Faye, Margo Valiante, Stonehoney, Noelle Hampton and her band (including a special thanks to Teal Collins), and the Tiny Tin Hearts.  Thanks to State Representative Valinda Bolton and to Professor Noel Busch and to Amanda Winters, without whom we could not have kept track of the donations or the people who kept coming by.  Thanks also to KUT for the many promos and to KXAN-TV for coming out and interviewing me for the Six O’Clock News.

Kudos, meanwhile, to Blues Mafia for making the finals of the HOUSTON Blues Challenge.  One more victory (October 25th at Dan Electro’s there) and it’s off to Memphis!  Meanwhile, catch the band with Hector Ward and the Big Time on October 24th at Tim’s Porch at the Backyard — or at midnight on Halloween at the Saxon Pub.  Kudos also to my pal A. J. Vincent and his bandmates in Bright Light Social Hour, who won The Sound and the Jury and got to play in the mudfest also known as the Austin City Limits Music Festival!

In other great Austin news, the Lonesome Heroes are back after an extended summer tour (no school any more for Landry McMeans), and Shelley King’s long-awaited collaboration with members of the Subdudes — entitled  “Welcome Home” — is finally ready for release.  Good stuff!

ALYSE BLACK – Hold Onto This

Alyse Black came to Austin nearly two years ago from Seattle, then went back there — with her new Austin-based band — long enough to complete work on her second CD, “Hold onto This.”  Cody Rahn on drums and percussion and Juke Wyatt on bass, with help from Jeff Miller on trumpet and Kimo Muraki on just about everything else, have created with Alyse a collection of grown-up songs whose themes range from breakups to bombers — songs that float along on clouds that all too often carry rain and too rarely yield rainbows.

Alyse, who is on tour with Aly Tadros across the Eastern U.S. right now, is a redhead full of energy and a sensuality that comes across on stage as playfully flirtatious – you know she is having a good time just being gorgeous for you, and yet she never takes herself that seriously.  Or maybe she does, but just does not want us to realize that life is more than a video game existence — hurt hurts!

I well remember the first night Alyse and Aly played on the same stage at the Shut Up and Sing! songwriters’ showcase at a “dingy bar” on Sixth Street.  Who knew these two would become musically inseparable so quickly?  OK — the songs?  I like “Into the Sunlight,” as here Alyse demonstrates her vocal range … and her romantic aspirations.  “Up in the Air (Not Too Late)” shows off the lady’s lower vocal register in the opening lines — this woman can flat out sing!

My favorite cut, though, has to be “B-17 Bomber Girl,” for which Alyse says she was inspired by the full-sized pinup girls whose images once graced the planes our servicemen flew — and how seeing such women helped her overcome youthful disdain that her own shape was more than perfect.  [Totally different genre, but one quickly recalls Susan Gibson's "My Best Feature."]  Truth be told, you can hardly keep your eyes off Alyse she is so vivacious and you never had any idea she used to be or may still be a little self-conscious on or off the stage.

COLIN DE LOS SANTOS – Songland

I know Colin de los Santos through Doug Boyd, Kalu James, and the bratpack of guys who used to hang out at Shut Up and Sing!  So the other night I was at Botticellis and Colin hands me this disc, “Songland,” and I had no idea the power he had unleashed with great help from producer (and fellow songwriter) Chris Hawkes.  The lads are all playing on Friday (October 16th) at Lambert’s (high end BBQ, expensive beer, but a great music venue) and I plan to be there.

Colin spent his last few years at Sam Houston State University along with Zach Arrington and Jon-Michael Hamman, and the three have this singer-songwriter collective known as StrangeLove.  The key word on this recording is “strings” (they get you at the outset) – kudos to Mike and Erin Ross for their work here, as well as to Joe Gerfers (drums), J. T. Holt (lap steel on “The Ripper”), A. J. Siedner (guitar strum on “You Lovin’ Me”)), Aly Tadros and Stella (sultry backing vocals on “Silhouette”), Sara Hamman-Ludwig (vocals on “Megan Rose”) , and Doug Boyd (trumpet — I did not even know he played!).

This record just SOUNDS good — I am still deciphering the lyrics, but this is just good music.  [BTW, Aimee Bobruk and sister Erin hail from Huntsville, home to SHSU.]  From the opening notes of “Texas Pearl,” though the bouncy “You Lovin’ Me,” to the funky “The Ripper,” Colin captures your attention.  “Silhouette” is like an entire suite with a broad range of emotions, notably hot passion.  “Gypsy” has some nice acoustic guitar work (well, what else, given the title?); but it is “Megan Rose” that is the CD’s signature song (or at least Colin thinks so — it is the featured cut on his website).  The strings that opened the record [with "Texas Pearl" and the two "Pink Buzz" cuts (Austin and Boston)] are back and even more beautiful — this is like a ballet set to song, and Sara Hamman’s voice is that of the ballerina (Megan herself, one supposes) searching out the elusive sun and moon.  But “maybe this is just fantasy, I suppose” ….. hmmmmmm.

I love the intro to “Old Blind Man,” maybe MY favorite song here … perhaps because I too often “remember what it was like to truly sing.”  “Shadowed Fervency” further reveals Colin as much more than superficial in his lyrical patterns — there is a humility here, though, that is uncommon in the young poets I have known (and been).  The final cut, “Something,” again opens with acoustic guitar and strings — this is a love song for two people who have been through some tough times yet have the grit to keep on going.  “The way we danced with no shoes to some old reggae blues….” Yeah!

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 — KEVIN HIGGINS and COURRIER!