Flanfire

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.

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!