Not SXSW

I went to Austin, TX this year mostly for the alternative music festival that happens in the shadow of SXSW. My first day (last Thursday) began at Threadgill's World Headquarters just across the river from downtown with Joe Ely, a long time favorite of mine. His solo acoustic set was riveting as always. He was followed by the Stone River Boys, new to me, who were very entertaining. Finally, the group I primarily came to see, Warren Hood and the Hoodlums took the stage. Warren is the prodigal son of Champ Hood, long time member of Uncle Walt's Band as well as playing with Kelly Willis and Toni Price, who attended the prestigious Berkeley School of Music. He plays primarily fiddle with a number of groups including the Waybacks and Little Feat. He and his group were fabulous. I was fortunate to meet his mother, Elizabeth, and told her that I was a big fan both of Champ and, now, Warren. The whole series at Threadgill's was sponsored and filmed by Music Fog.

My evening was spent at Opal Divine's Penn Field, my favorite venue, watching the likes of Romi Mayes from Canada and Carrie Rodriguez and meeting up with the gang from KNON radio. It was there that I found out about a KUT radio showcase (official SXSW) the next morning (Friday) at the downtown Hilton, featuring John Hiatt and the Court Yard Hounds, sisters Emily and Martie of the original and current Dixie Chicks. It was in the lobby and great except for the brevity-three songs from John and two from Martie and Emily due to technical problems.

After a delightful lunch with a friend at Red's Porch looking out over the hill country, I was off to Yard Dog, a funky art gallery on S. Congress with the worst venue of my festival for a mid afternoon concert by Justin Townes Earle, son of Steve. Views of the stage were hard to come by, and the sound was bad-far too may chatty cathys would didn't listen to the music. Most of these shows only last for 20 minutes which is why I like Opal Divine's with 40 minute sets. The evening was spent at the East Side Show Room, east of I35 for the Ruby Jane Show (this was a regular concert-two 45 minute sets). I met her mother, Jobelle, who is Ruby's biggest fan! This young girl is 15 years old and as good a fiddle player as I've ever seen. She has already toured with Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, played with Alison Krause as well as Warren Hood and Phoebe Hunt from the Belleville Outfit. This show was great! What a future this young girl has!

My third day, Saturday, was greatly effected to a severe weather change-Friday was 74 degrees and today was in the mid forties with 30 mile an hour winds making it feel like the thirties. It worked out well as I spent the entire afternoon at Jovita's inside (many of these venues do outside concerts) and saw some outstanding music. The music ranged from rock-Chuck Prophet, folk/bluegrass-Chatham County Line, black roots music-Carolina Chocolate Drops, to alternative country-Deadstring Brothers. All of those groups were great! On top of that, the food was excellent also. The evening brought me back to Opal Divine's in spite of their outdoor venue because of the groups that were scheduled. They moved inside into a small room which was not good, but I still saw Arty Hill from Baltimore and Sarah Borges from Canada as well as the Kansas Jayhawks go DOWN-rock, chalk, Jayhawk!

It was back to Opal's for lunch on Sunday before going to Jim Franklin's (legendary Armadillo World Headquarters artist) art opening. I had time to catch the Rizdales also from Canada who were great! I wish I could say the same about Jim's art show! After that, I hit the road back to Dallas. As Dallas Wayne says "and the road hit back!" I have never seen so much traffic on I35! Ahh well, back to reality.