Cooder Graw 3-30-06 ~ Big Texas Dancehall

Sister K and I had planned on going to see Cooder Graw but she changed her mind at the last minute (par for the course) so I went with Niece C and met up with Linda Lou and her friend Kathy. Kathy had never seen Cooder Graw before and Linda Lou has seen them several times when I send out my mass emails in an attempt to get my so-called friends to go out. Yes, it's true. Some of my so-called friends are so lame that I have to email them and practically beg them to go out and I have to make sure to put RSVP (with the definition of it so they know what it means) in the email because they don't have sense enough to reply back to me. Maybe my so-called friends are getting too old and senile for me and I need some new and younger friends...ha Cooder Graw played some tunes from their newest CD and some stuff that I hadn't heard them play in a long time..."Picture in the Closet" was one of the tunes. It reminds me of someone that I know. ;-) After I heard it, I had to go have a shot of Jager and chase it with a Lone Star. I managed to find a guy to dance with that didn't make me want to poke him in the eye with a sharp stick and we danced to a couple of song...he bought me a beer also...nice guy from Edna I think he said. Anyway, the show was full of high energy and loud country music. If you've never seen them before, you definitely need to check them out.

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Brandon Rhyder & Davin James 3-29-06

Yep...I was @ Puffabelly's. I saw Brandon Rhyder and Davin James. Davin was tearing it up as usual and Brandon has a healthy pair of lungs. That is all...for now.

Buck Owens ~ RIP

Funeral services will be held Sunday (April 2) in Bakersfield, Calif., for Country Music Hall of Fame member Buck Owens. The singer, songwriter and businessman died Saturday (March 25) of an apparent heart attack at age 76. Owens' body will lie in state Saturday (April 1) from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. at his Crystal Palace club and museum in Bakersfield. The funeral is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Valley Baptist Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Bakersfield SPCA.

Hank III

Radney Foster Q&A

By Rob Patterson April 2006
It's almost ironic to think of Radney Foster as a musical veteran even after close to 20 years of making records, first with Foster & Lloyd and then as a solo artist, as well as writing songs recorded by Nashville stars like Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Brooks and Dunn and Sara Evans. Yeah, his hair may be graying, but he still boasts boyish good looks as well as a youthful exuberance in his records and performances. And he remains on the cutting edge creatively, no more so than on his latest CD, The World We Live In. Since Foster & Lloyd first came on the radio in 1987 with hits like "Crazy Over You," "Sure Thing," and "What Do You Want From Me This Time" as well as one of Foster's signature songs, "Texas in 1880," he's been one of the leading lights in bringing quality rock and pop influences into contemporary country without forsaking the music's roots. His 1992 solo debut on Arista Nashville, Del Rio, Texas, 1959, proved his continuing chart appeal with four Top 40 country singles, including "Just Call Me Lonesome" and - another one of his signature numbers - "Nobody Wins," which hit No. 2. After scoring a creative triumph in 1999 with See What You Want to See , Foster left the major label realm for the feisty Music City independent label Dualtone, where he continues to prosper, albeit in a different realm. The Del Rio native has also been one of the biggest Nashville boosters for young Texas artists like Pat Green and Cory Morrow, who he has written songs with, and the Randy Rogers Band, who he has produced two albums for. In recent years his songwriting may have displayed a touch of gooey romanticism, the natural result of being a happily married family man. And such numbers on The World We Live In as "Drunk On Love" (which recasts the old drinking song theme into a love song), the provocative "The Kindness Of Strangers" (which finds tenderness in an encounter between a prostitute and her client) and his personal retrospective "Half Of My Mistakes" tell it like it is with a literate honesty that's the mark of a great songwriter. And the music on the album puts the rock accent on country-rock in a way that continues to show, just as he did with Foster & Lloyd, how country can go modern and hip without sacrificing its soul. He's an artist who can work within commercial country, alternative country, the singer-songwriter world and the Texas music movement without missing a beat - the mark of a genuine creative artist and innovator. The World We Live In sounds like one of your finest albums to date. What was behind your thinking as you went into making it? It was a lot of fun to make, and I tend to write a bunch of songs, but then try to weed through them and figure out what I think makes a record that makes sense. I don't if they're necessarily related to a theme. You say "themed record" and all of a sudden people get bent out of shape. But you want it to make sense, and you want it to go from one end of the continent to the other. But there does seem to be a love theme that threads through the album, right? There are three songs that sum up the total of what this is about. One would be "Half Of My Mistakes." It's really a song about growing up even though love is a particular theme in that. It is what gets you through when you screw up, and when you don't, and how you look back on it, all those kinds of things. And then there's "Drunk On Love," that's pretty self-explanatory. Then you've got things like "Fools That Dream" - that's really a love song too. And then there's "The Kindness Of Strangers," which my wife says is downright creepy. You know when you've done something right or wrong and you're not sure which it is? Right after I wrote that song, I did just a little me and my guitar demo in my basement studio. And I burned a CD of and gave it to my wife and said, honey, when you're running errands today listen to this thing and see what you think. And she called me a couple of hours later and she was crying. And I was like, oh my God, honey, are you okay? I thought maybe she had an accident or something. And she said, yes, I'm okay, but no I'm not. I'm sitting here crying and I have no idea who for - whether it's the guy or the whore or who. I don't know what to think. I'm just unbelievably moved by the darn thing. And I thought, okay, I did my job.
You venture into some risky territory on that number. I think we do incredibly kind and incredibly stupid things during those points of emotional desperation in our lives. Both of those people in the song at the same time are doing incredibly kind and yet incredibly stupid things, and they're all covered up in it. Ain't nobody clean. But they both end up being incredibly kind to one another. I sense a lot of humanity on this record. Is that a result of being grown up and being in a happy and secure relationship, and maybe it gives you the security to explore these sorts of things? I think so. I certainly wouldn't have written "Half Of My Mistakes" when I was 25 years old. You didn't think you made any yet. Or if you did, you really enjoyed them and wanted to do them again. Yeah. You'd only get half the song. And I think writing that song "Never Gonna Fly" with Jack Ingram was a real treat, because we both talked about how you have to think of yourself as completely bulletproof and that you're gonna be the next Elvis by the time you're 21 to do this in the first place. Because if you knew how hard it was, you'd never get involved in the first place. Every song on here but one is co-written with another writer. You're so well-known as a songwriter, but are you also able to also put your ego aside and just choose the best songs for the album even if you didn't write them all yourself? If you look back on most of my records, they fall into the 50/50 range most of the time between ones I write myself and the ones I co-write. But I don't think about which is which when I try to figure out the best 10 or 12 songs to go on a record. I couldn't care whether it was me or an entire committee that wrote the thing as long as it expresses what I need to express. It just turned out that this time around, more of them were co-writes than ones I wrote on my own. I've also had albums where there were more that I wrote on my own than with other people. But I don't really think about that. And just as a matter of course, looking from year to year, I probably co-write two-thirds of the time and write on my one one-third of the time. That's sort of my M.O. - I tend to me the guy who, if I'm not in the studio, I'm touring on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and writing songs of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And trying to figure out how to see my family in between. Darrell Brown, who co-produced this album with you, co-wrote a lot of songs on it. Was he very influential on how it turned out? He is one of my best co-writers and really a great collaborator for me. He produced the See What You Want To See record and he and I wrote "Raining On Sunday" together and several other songs. The last four records I made have had at least one Darrell Brown/Radney Foster song on them. He really stretches me and he's great as a co-producer because he's a good sounding board. At this point I know how to make a record. That's not an issue. But you need someone who can get you really comfortable and get you out of any complacency that might be lurking beneath the surface. It's always good to have another set of ears and another set of emotions around. And the more I produce for other folks, the more I like having someone there with me when I make one. I sense what happens with me when I have a good collaborator when I make a record, and it's a similar feeling when I collaborate with someone like the Randy Rogers Band and help them make a record, if that makes any sense. What was behind doing this album in Los Angeles with a real rock'n'roll crew? A real rock'n'roll crew. I have made rock records before. If you really think about the first Foster & Lloyd album, it was a rock record with pedal steel. There's really not much question about that. And See What You Want To See is really a rock record. But then, Del Rio, Texas is certainly a whole lot more of a country record than it is a rock record. I don't know. I can't make my mind up, you know? This album just all fell into place. The first thing that Darrell and I did was start going through the songs. And the nice part about being an independent is that no one is saying, besides yourself, that you have to put out this kind of record now. Major labels tend to get a bit out of shape in that way - where do you fit into the marketing plan? That kind of thing. And that's okay. It's a different business. That's what they do, and if it all works together for you it can be the greatest thing since butter and sliced bread. But not everybody fits into that.
So we went through the songs and had what we felt would be a nice little collection, then we started thinking about: Who should play on this? How should it feel? What should it be all about? And the song "Drunk On Love" made us sort of go, if it was going to feel like something and you could hire any band in the world you want, who would it be? And we were like, well, The X-pensive Winos, Keith Richards' side band would be a pretty good way to go. And Darrell goes, well I know [drummer] Charlie Drayton. And he and I both know [bassist] Bob Glaub. And [Wallflowers keyboards player] Rami Jaffe had played on See What You Want To See . Those were fairly easy calls to make. And our engineer, Niko Bolas, is really good friends with [guitarist] Waddy Wachtel. And the funny thing is that Waddy said, yeah, I can come and play on the first day but I can't make it on the second. And we thought, that's okay. We can cut them on the second day with just acoustic, bass, drums and keys, and then go back and do overdubs with some of the guys from my band, who also played on the record. But after we got through the first song and were working out the arrangements for the second, Waddy leaned over to Niko and said, "I can really come tomorrow. I just didn't know what the hell this was going to be like. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'd like to come back tomorrow." And we were like, okay, cool. So you got down the basic tracks really quickly? We cut it in two days. There are two things that contributed to that. One was that those guys really know their stuff. They're all monster players. And in addition to that, Darrell and I had the arrangements down already. And then I went out and did acoustic dates with those arrangements in my head to the point where, in the studio, I didn't have to look at a lyric sheet, I didn't have to look at a chart. I didn't have to think about it to get it on tape. And I would bet that almost half the vocals are the way we tracked it - as it went down. And a lot of the others were, when we got through with the take, "Radney, that was really good. Go do another pass right now with you acoustic and vocal. And by the way, you missed this note in your vocal on the bridge. Just make sure you nail that." And that's the way it worked. You've been a really big supporter of the Texas music movement from early on. What was it about what was happening here, from the point of view of being a native Texan up in Nashville, that caught your ear? I think it's part of it was a generational thing. I cut my teeth on Guy Clark and Rodney Crowell and Willie and Waylon. And wherever they lived, it was always this independently minded music based on the geography of home. I just think that whatever it is that is geographically and culturally different about Texas has a profound effect on the music that comes out of there, and continues to. So I knew at the same time that it's the biggest part of my touring base too. So I just decided to pay attention to all of those things, not that I'd ever forgotten them. And it was at the place where - becoming an independent artist, which was a choice of my own - it was something I felt a kinship with. It's funny, because what has been going on in Texas has almost been like what happened with the punk rock movement - a kind of "build it and they will come" mentality. And I think that's real important and what drew me back to Texas. There are a lot of really good singer-songwriters who were coming up to me the same way that I walked up to Guy Clark and Rodney Crowell the first time I met them and went, "Your records are the reason I do this." And that's a culture I'd obviously want to be associated with. Do you hear, like I do, lots of bands these days not only here in Texas but up in Nashville and elsewhere that really remind me of Foster & Lloyd? It's really been funny how, like when I was playing Annapolis the other day, there were all these Texas boys who were at the Naval Academy at the show, and then these young guys who were obviously in a band. And they were like, we can't wait to shake your hand, because what you do has inspired us to do what we do. They were just all aflutter about that. And nothing can be more flattering than that.
Some people get hacked off when you go, gosh, that sounds like me. You have fans that get hacked off about things and say, this sounds like you and they ripped off that song. And I'm like, no they didn't. They may have heard the record and thought about the feel, but they certainly didn't rip the song off. And what a compliment. Sometimes fans will even get hacked off about a Sara Evans or a Brooks & Dunn covering a song. Are you kidding me? But they're like, it's not the same as your version! Of course it's not. They did it their way. It's like if I covered a Robert Earl Keen song, it wouldn't be the way Robert does it. And the money doesn't hurt either, and it gives me the freedom to do what I wanna do. Just ask Bruce Robison. Do you think that what you did with Foster & Lloyd in the late 1980s was groundbreaking and a sign of what was coming? A lot of people tell me that and there's that whole hindsight is 20/20 deal and that sort of thing. But at the time we were just trying to make the best dang music we could. We felt pretty fearless about bringing all the influences to bear that we really liked. And if that meant The Everly Brothers, Waylon Jennings and The Clash, that was okay with us. That's all we were trying to do, quite frankly. But there was a quote in a magazine that talked about Foster & Lloyd being The Velvet Underground of country music, in that not everybody bought our records, but everybody that did started a band. And I thought that was a nice compliment. But I don't sit around and think about that stuff too much, because if you do, you'll start over-thinking what you are doing right now. Thinking about your place in history is not really a great way to write a song. It can actually screw it up really quickly. It's better to just stick with stuff like human emotions. There's a reason why love songs and story songs and drinking songs are so classic. It's because they're human, they're visceral, you can touch them. You want people to think, geez, I think that guy was in my living room. That's the thing that makes great songs - those stories. And you start thinking about anything more grandiose than that you start getting yourself into trouble. Are you happy now being an independent label artist after being on a major label? The days of me touring 150 gigs a year are gone, and I'm just not going to do it. Fortunately, because of the songwriting, I don't have to. And I do feel very fortunate about that. So I go out and do 50 of them, which is a much more reasonable number for a guy trying to raise kids, but still likes to sing in front of a crowd. It probably also makes them a lot more special. Absolutely. And you're not tired. Not near as tired anyway.

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Hank III

Hey Kixette! What was III talking about when you took this pic?

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NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Johnny Cash Treasure Chest on the Way

Even though this two-CD package won't be in stores until May 23, I think many Johnny Cash fans would enjoy a preview of the latest in his long line of releases.Johnny Cash: Personal File is a collection of 49 previously unreleased tracks that had been stored on tapes marked "Personal File" in the House of Cash in Hendersonville. They were all tracks he recorded with just his acoustic guitar and his voice and then stored away in a private room where he kept such personal treasures as his Jimmie Rodgers memorabilia. Apparently at the time he recorded them, he thought no one would be interested in such a stripped-down sound. When he later cut his first CD for the American Recordings label with producer Rick Rubin (1994's American Recordings), he remarked that he had made a similar record in the 1970s but could interest no labels in it. Those songs are here, in addition to some he recorded later.The song selection reflects Cash's far-ranging interest in all kinds of music. There are poems, old Carter Family songs, 19th century ballads, Irish songs, as well as original Cash material. Cash covers such country hits as Lefty Frizzell's "Saginaw, Michigan" and Johnny Horton's "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)," as well as the Cash-Horton collaboration, "Girl in Saskatoon."Cash tells a charming story about the children's song "Tiger Whitehead," which Cash co-wrote with his friend Dr. Nat Winston. The song resulted from Dr. Winston taking Cash to see the 19th century gravesites of the famed bear hunter and his wife Sally in Whitehead, Tenn. Tiger's tombstone noted that he killed 99 bears. His wife's burial marker notes that she nursed two bear cubs that Tiger had brought home. Cash later recorded it on a children's album.There are songs by such contemporary writers as his then-son-in-law Rodney Crowell, his stepdaughter Carlene Carter, Kris Kristofferson and John Prine. And there are spoken introductions to many of the songs.This is a treasure chest of vintage acoustic Cash. A cache of 49 songs is a lot to absorb all at once, so I've sifted through the songs over several days and found much to savor. Cash began recording these in July 1973 and cut 24 songs then. The other sessions came three months later in 1973 and in 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980 and 1982. The bulk of the recordings are from 1973, which astonishingly was a very prolific records release year for Cash, in which Columbia Records released four Cash albums, followed by three more in 1974. None of them sold especially well, and only 1973's Any Old Wind That Blows broke the Billboard Top 10.The first 1973 sessions are obviously songs that 1973-era Nashville record labels would never release, and you have to wonder if these songs amounted to pressure valves that Johnny Cash, the artist, wanted to cut versus songs Johnny Cash, the hit machine, couldn't record. These were mostly covers, and some were very sentimental songs such as "There's a Mother Always Waiting at Home," "Missouri Waltz" and the Louvin Brothers' "When I Stop Dreaming." He also did a five and a-half-minute version of the epic poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee," which I memorized in college and which was a staple of Texas bars and I'm sure of bars everywhere late at night. I think Cash fans will be delighted to hear his lively rendition of this classic Robert W. Service poem.It's eerily like sitting in Cash's den with him and listening to him reminisce about memories of people he had known, places he had been and songs he has loved.Most revelatory perhaps is a series of original Cash gospel songs, reflecting his lifelong desire to record a gospel album. What became his only gospel album was My Mother's Hymn Book, part of the posthumously-issued Unearthed boxed set. All of disc two of Personal File is made up of gospel or inspirational songs, 24 in all. Eleven of them are Cash originals (one co-written with his wife June). I especially like "One of These Days I'm Gonna Sit Down and Talk to Paul," about St. Paul, with whom Cash was fascinated. He later wrote his only novel, Man in White about the life of Paul. "I know just how he felt locked in that jail," Cash sings. "One of these days I'm gonna shake that healing hand."

Payola is going down - end the bribing of radio stations forever

The battle to end payola is heating up; New York attorney general Elliot Spitzer has been suing radio stations, members of Congress are pushing for new laws against payola, ånd the FCC is under fire for not enforcing existing laws. Major record labels bribe radio stations to play their songs, and the results are awful both for independent musicians and the quality of mainstream radio. But now they're running scared. Free Press, an organization we have always been big fans of, has set things up so you can push Congress, the FCC, and offending radio stations to end payola. It takes 5 minutes.Tell the FCC to enforce existing laws and stop tolerating payola:http://action.freepress.net/campaign/payola
Tell senators that they should co-sponsor Senator Feingold's legislation to stop payola:
http://www.freepress.net/act/feingoldpayola
Find radio stations in your area that are under investigation for payola:
http://www.freepress.net/payola/map.php
Free Press also has a bunch of great information about payola. The home base for their payola campaign is here:
http://freepress.net/payola/
Also, I should add that, for a while at Downhill Battle we've been thinking about bringing in some volunteers to help keep the community active. We need a couple good writers, and somebody techy with basic PHP knowledge. You won't be buried behind the scenes, you'll be working on the parts of the site that get seen by thousands of people every day. Email me if you're interested: hw@downhillbattle.org (include writing samples, or info on your tech experience).
Thanks everybody,
Holmes Wilson
Downhill Battle

(When I talk about NashVegas, this is exactly one of the things that distresses me about radio stations. They're paid to play the same crap over & over again!!!)

Silence Nash Vegas - sing to Viva Las Vegas

Pop county music really chaps my ass
kinda fries my brain to the core.
I've tried to like it but I just can't
I find it to be quite a bore.

There's a whole lot of talent waiting out there
Big & Rich really give me a scare.
Faith Hill is trying to do her share.
They've all got millions and don't have a care.

Silence Nash Vegas
Silence Nash Vegas

http://www.belairs.de/public_html/html/eng/vivalas.htm

Hank Williams III @ the Meredian 3-15-06

Kixette, Sister Kelly and I were supposed to meet up @ Mai's before the show but as usual, Sister Kelly didn't show up until after we had left...suppose she was running late again? I can only imagine. We had a one beer each and had some mighty fine Vietnamese food before we headed to the show which was at the Meredian, about 5 minutes away. Kixette had bought me a ticket for my birthday present (Thanks again, Kixette...in case I forgot) and we arrived early but I think we were both so excited about being there, to sit at home until it was time to leave would've been too much for both of us. I could hardly work that afternoon and made sure that I left from work at exactly 5PM so I'd have time to go home, change clothes and make it to Mai's by 7 PM. I think I got there early because I was so wound up!!! After we ate, we headed over to the Meredian. We (Kixette and silencenashvegas) met up with some members from the cussin' board, SlashW, WhiskeyMama, Bigdad, SuperDave, ChouChou, Paddylonglegs, RedneckGirl, Texas Boy 6, Rena, Swine70, Scott H. Biram's parents, and Sister Kelly. I ran into a couple others that I didn't expect to see there Marsha & Joshua...
Bob Wayne & the Outlaw Carnies were the opening band.
http://www.myspace.com/bobwayneandtheoutlawcarnies I kinda liked a few of their songs but so many people that I know rave about them, it might have been the sheer excitement of seeing III that made me want them to hurry up and get off of the stage. I think they might have played 45 minutes and that was long enough. I wanted to see III!!! RedneckGirl convinced several of us that we needed to be right in front of the stage and that there were some "young" guys saving places for us since she had bought them beer. (ha...what a laugh) We took off through the crowd (5of us) with her in the lead. Sister K & I got separated from them but where we were was not a nice place. Have you ever been in a mosh pit? The 20-something crowd for some strange reason thinks it's cool to mosh during the country set of III's show. Now I know that any of my readers might know of my past where the mosh pit is concerned. I used to go see every band that drew that type of crowd for years until I went to jail before a Pantera concert for having a joint in my purse. My whole "music" life and view of "arena" music change at that point and I did a 180 and started listening to country music...not that top 40 "nashvegas" crap they play on the radio either. OK...OK...I'm babbling/rambling again...back to the original story. Sister K and I were on the edge of the pit and someone was playing grab-ass with me. Imagine that? A 20-something grabbing a "grandma's" ass... I stayed there for maybe 2 songs and then I parted the crowd with an evil look (there was pushing involved also) and got out of there. Sister K had already started to grab the "boys" by their shaved bald heads and was pushing them and I knew from experience that this would cause me to get in a fight and I didn't feel like getting "thrown out of the gawddamn bar". The rest of the night I moved around in different places trying to get a good view of what was going on on-stage. Damn!!! III puts on one helluva show!!! Kixette managed to take a few pics eventhough the pit was bad there also. Rena managed to get in a fight...seems she grabbed some bitch by the throat for getting in RedneckGirls face. Luckily, the bouncer liked her and did not throw her out of the "gawddamn bar". If Shelton Hank Williams passes through your town, try to make it out to see him. He puts on one helluva show but beware of the pit. It's not a nice place...

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Dan Johnson ~ photos

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My week of music 3-6-06 to 3-12-06

Ok...I know it's been a few days since I posted but here's the lowdown on what went on during my birthday week. You forgot my birthday? That's ok. I'll be expecting my belated card from you anyday now, right?

3-6-06
Cross Canadian Ragweed & Robert Earl Keen @ the Rodeo
I met up with my friend Kim & her friend Gary & his son Dylan since they had an extra ticket for the show for me. We got there in plenty of time to see a little of the rodeo and have some food. I was excited about seeing both CCR & REK since it had been awhile since I'd seen either. It was such a short set for both performers but we enjoyed it...I'm not sure about Gary though. He doesn't seem to like too much of anything lately and he only likes what HE likes...doesn't make a damn if you might try to at least act like you're having a good time rather than being a stick-in-the mud with a bad attitude. I know all about those type. I was married once upon a time. Oh well...I'm glad Kim (or me for that matter) is not so narrow-minded as to not give them a chance. I had a good time...sang along with the kids to all of the songs. After CCR played, Kim and the crew decided to leave. Work comes very early when you hang out watching music like I do and don't blame them a bit for leaving early...besides, it's a long drive to Lake Jackson. After they left, I ran into Niece C, Fonda Mama, Angie and some of their friends. I hung with them for awhile & watched REK perform a few songs. Damn, he had on the brighted purple shirt I'd seen it a long time. My headache had started to come back so when the crew decided to go to the carnival, I decided that I was going home. I hadn't drank a drop and most definitely did not want to deal with the drunk kids on the bus ride back to the northside. On the ride out there, I think I was the oldest person on the bus...I'd say most of the people that went to see CCR that night were under 30...probably under 25. On the way back, it was a different story. I got to sit by this man around 35 that seemed to have a semi-brain. Imagine that?
www.crosscanadianragweed.com www.robertearlkeen.com

3-8-06
The Skeeters
Went out to the Hideout with Sister K tonight to celebrate my birthday. I'd heard of the band before from Hank III's message board and wanted to go out to see them since they don't tour this area very often. They're from Alabama...do they tour here? Hello? Is there anyone out there? Just nod if you can see this... Anyway, they were most definitely a country band...no pop country was played that night and I was damn glad. If I would've had some extra cash on me, I would've bought their CD. I really liked them.
www.theskeeters.com

3-10-06
Sister K and I met up to see a movie about Townes Van Zandt, "Be Here to Love Me: A Film about Townes Van Zandt". I know this isn't about bands I've seen but this is a movie about a tragic musicians life. I don't think I'd ever seen him before but he was a talented performer and led a life that would've killed me. I'm sure his lifestyle was what eventually led to his death. God it was so sad...I fell off the wagon that night and have been on and off since. He was in such bad shape at one point in his life that he was locked up in Galveston at that crazy hospital (the only reason I know of it because I had an aunt that tried to kill herself and that where they put her).
I'd heard of shock treatments before but really had no idea of what they really did to you. They erase your memories. It's such a sad movie, that I can't talk about it. Lots of celebrity appearances were also involved in the making of this movie...Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris and others... It had a lot of home movies played in it also. If you get a chance, go and see it.
http://www.townesvanzandt.com/ http://www.townesvanzandt.com/festival_schedules.html

3-11-06
Sister K and I headed out to the rodeo again to see Jason Boland and the Stragglers and convinced Cousin D and Mother R to meet up with us after they'd seen Leeann Womack. The band hit the stage around 8 PM and it immediately got hot in the Dome...maybe it was me having power surges or something but it was hotter than hell, the band didn't break a sweat and they were filling the Dome with their loud country sounds. The only complaint that I had that night was that there were times when I couldn't hear Roger Ray's guitar. I could hear the steel guitar when he played it but not the regular guitar and me being the loud-mouth that I am, told him so after the show. I talked to all of the guys in the band before the show except for Jason and was telling them about the movie that I'd seen the night before. I still can't stop thinking about shock treatments... Anyway, after the show we stood around like we always do while Sister K stared at Jason. The dumbass wouldn't go and talk to him but I did...I made sure to give him a hug also and told him it was a good show and I was glad to see them again.
www.thestragglers.com

3-12-06
Dale Watson and the Lone Stars
Dammit! I went to Austoned today just to see Dale Watson and managed to get Sister K to go with me. She'll go to Austin for anything... We went to Ginny's Longhorn Saloon and had Ginny dogs and cold Lone Star beer. I drank so much beer, I wound up spending the night there @ Cammi's house. I can't do that to myself anymore. I could've killed us both or worse, someone else. Dale played from 4-8 PM but what do you think we did after he played when we should've headed home? That's right, we went to another bar. Some place called Hole in the Wall. There was no cover charge and I bet they had a line up of 30 bands. I'm sure it had something to do with the SXSW deal that's going on in Austin this week but it was ridiculous. Each band only got to play 2 songs or so...that's crazy. I can't tell if I like someone or not in 5-10 minutes. We managed to see Two Hoots & a Holler and I talked to Ricky Broussard for awhile. He's a nice guy...I seemed to like them because I do remember dancing but that could've been due to the fact that I was full of Lone Star beer. We had 1 beer each and then the bartender talked us into drinking a pitcher. Being the Pisces I am, I was most definitely drinking like a fish and then the blackout started. What time we left the bar, I've no idea. I don't remember driving but for some reason I remember getting to Cammi's and Hugh answering the door...I think I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
www.dalewatson.com www.twohootsandaholler.com

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Name this guy w/me...

I'll give you a hint...his initials are J.B.

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Clay Farmer 3-3-06 @ the Armadillo Palace

Since our plans had been destroyed for the night before, (Thanks to Jarrod Birmingham for ruining my pre-birthday plans @ Blanco's by cancelling & playing @ the rodeo in Ft. Worth) we made plans to go to the Armadillo Palace to see Clay Farmer. While we were there, we ran into some friends of ours, Gary C. and his date. We also saw another guy that we knew from the Angleton/Lake Jackson area...damn if I can remember his name but I think Sister K went to speak to him. It seems my time would be occupied by a stranger from Oklahoma that I met that night sitting next to me at the bar (I never met an Okie that I didn't like.) Had I been drinking, he would've bought our drinks all night but since I wasn't, I watched him drink and he was slamming some tequila shots and chasing it with Coors Light. That alone was funny enough for me to engage in conversation with him. He offered to buy us drinks but Sister K declined...dummy...but she managed to dance with him. After all, my opinions are worth something...even if it's free drinks. I think he needed someone to talk to about his recent divorce and the young guy that was with him (Spanky...imagine that! I've met 2 Spanky's in my lifetime.) had recently been dumped and thought it was the end of the world for him. (and the band played on) Being the jaded pathetic soul that I am, proceeded to tell them both what they needed to do since they were asking for it. (I know that made someone smile) Get a fucking life and get over it was what I felt like saying but I refrained from doing so. At one point he asked me if I hated men but I replied no, only the cheaters and liars and there's plenty of them to go around. (you know who you are) After I had mentioned the little dick water towns in Oklahoma that I knew of (Harrah and Vian) he asked me "how in the hell do you know of these small towns?" and then we proceeded to talk about Cross Canadian Ragweed and Jason Boland and the Stragglers. He'd never heard of Jason but he knew of CCR...(and the band played on) I don't know if any of you have ever been to the Armadillo Palace (hell, I don't even know if I've got any readers other than 1 person) but this place is full of young people that don't realize that there's a band playing most of the time. I was part of that crowd that night (not the young part)...I knew the band was playing but I couldn't do anything about it. This man beside me needed someone to talk to...a stranger's ear to bend so I let him bend my ear for a few hours. All in all it was a good night for my pre-birthday celebration. We left after the band played but stopped by first to talk to a guy in the band that we know, Brian Thomas.
One other thing I wanted to mention was that all of the Jim Beam Sponsorship by lots of up and coming bands. Last weekend we sat in the VIP section with "supposedly" Jim Beam's grandson...Fred Noe or something like that...not actually "with" him but he was there. Anyway, the Beam was flowing and now I heard that Jim Beam (black label) has become the house drink for bourbon @ the Armadillo. Didn't anyone test this stuff first? Last weekend, I got to watch a guy take a shot and then try NOT to puke. It ended up coming out of his nose. Yes, you read this correctly. I'm sure it cleared his sinuses right up. It smells like hairspray to me...or maybe that's because I'm not drinking. Oh well. Sponsorship is one thing but when Sister K can't drink bourbon, there's something wrong with it...

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NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Is Country Music Headed Straight to Heaven or Straight to Hell?

Hank III's "Hellbilly" music transports me totally back to the Texas honky tonks I eagerly dived into as a teenager with a fake ID. His rebellious, hell-raising persona has wearied a bit over the past couple of years, but the actual music here stands up very well. It opens on a high note with a short clip of the Louvin Brothers singing their old gospel song "Satan Is Real" that quickly descends into a demonic laugh. It's listed as "Satan Is Real/Straight to Hell Medley." But the first real, cut, "Thrown Out of the Bar," is good old-fashioned, steel-playing, slap-bass honky tonk music. "Pills I Took" and "Smoke and Wine" are a lot of fun. And there's a classic country shaggy-dog song with "My Drinkin' Problem" ("My drinkin' problem left today."). It closes with the thoroughly gorgeous "Angel of Sin," which is as good a country song as I have heard in a long time.As far as I know, though, this is the first album of country music ever to be slapped with a parental advisory sticker warning for "explicit content." And there is plenty of that explicit stuff here, all right. For example, "Dick in Dixie" is not about anyone named Dick. But there is still some pretty powerful country music here.The second CD of Hank III's set is entirely devoted to "Louisiana Stripes," a chaotic and disturbing -- but highly entertaining -- 45-minute descent into the abyss. It opens like a conventional prison song about wearing Louisiana stripes, but just after two minutes, we begin to hear the ominous stirrings of something much darker. Random sound effects, random voices, trains, distorted singing, howling and the like. There's a snippet of him singing his grandfather's "I Could Never Be Ashamed of You" and short versions of Hank III songs about death, betrayal, sin, salvation, murder and doom. If Frank Zappa had been a country singer, he might have produced something as effective as this.Hank III's musical schizophrenia is always on full display, allowing listeners to make of it what they will. He makes a big ado about professing to not care about what people think about him, but you have to wonder what he really thinks. A lot of care and attention went into this two-CD work. Like his grandfather, he has two musical sides. But his grandfather's two musical egos were divided between the trad country Hank Williams and the musical evangelist Luke the Drifter. Hank III's two identities are trad country singer and self-destructive punk. Which one will triumph? I'm betting on the country singer side.

To read the entire article, click on the link above. I only posted the part that I liked.
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