Janice Williams Loves Austin

Cold and damp, but spirits were warmed at Mercury Hall tonight for the Dos Equis Singer/Songwriter Music Series. It was an interesting night and a great show. I wish I had been raised as a risk-taker. I am in awe of my friend Marsha and her ability to put on shows and not be assured of the outcome. Tonight was one of those nights that didn’t go in her favor. It went in OUR favor because we got a great show, but, sadly, the band didn’t make much money and neither did Marsha, the promoter.

A comedy of errors started the night when it was discovered that the South Austin Jug Band didn’t know they were booked for the show! Bands these days have managers and bookers and a whole host of other good folks to help them do what they do. But in this instance, someone dropped the ball and the band didn’t know they had a gig! So they were quick to mount up and head to the hall and be ready to play. But, sadly, it looks like advertisements on the radio didn’t bring anyone to see the show and the turnout was less than dismal. Those that were there were happy to be there and looked forward to the Jug Band. I was glad the show wasn’t going to cancel.

Bill Rice opened the show. I hope you have had the opportunity to see Bill Rice play. I knew him as a friend long before I knew he was a musician. Then when I learned he was a singer/songwriter, I was nervous about it. When you know someone and like someone, you want them to be good, but you don’t want to find out if they are bad! Fortunately, I found out that Bill is very good. He performed for the station last year at Hill’s and did an amazing job at the blood drive on 9/11, performing for the folks waiting to give blood. He opened tonight and sang just a few songs from his debut CD “I’d Do It All Again.” Bill’s songwriting style sounds a little like Hal Ketchum to me. He has a very natural voice and doesn’t force the song. I like it. And he has honesty that I hear very little of in the music of the Texas country music scene. I mean, really! Who else would write a song about leaving his wife and son and say “I’d do it all again.”  I say they are honest. I don’t know enough about Bill to know how honest they are, but they have that universal truth to them that comes through. And they aren’t about beer. Check him out.

The first time I saw the South Austin Jug Band was opening for Lyle Lovett at the Backyard, not long after we moved to Austin. I remember at the time we were looking forward to hearing them because we had heard of them. We had heard, we thought, that Champ Hood’s son and Jerry Jeff’s son were in the band. We were wrong about Jerry Jeff’s. Django was already off doing his own thing. But Champ Hood’s son, Warren, definitely was in the South Austin Jug Band. We were very impressed with their stage presence and energy in front of that daunting crowd.

Fast forward to my first stage introduction as a disc jockey in Austin. The very first Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2002.  I was only working part-time at the station, but I had the honor of getting to go to the Festival and do some big stage announcements. The very first one was the South Austin Jug Band. I met James Hyland, the driving force, the voice of the South Austin Jug Band and the others and thought they were the nicest guys. They put on a great show that afternoon.

Now the players have changed a lot over the years. Warren Hood went on to the Berklee School of Music and then returned to Austin and now plays with Warren Hood and the Hoodlums (and many others). Willie Pipkin went back to his love of blues and plays with Little Elmore Reed and I see him about every Monday night. Others came and went, but James Hyland remained. Dennis Ludiker and Brian Beken are vital members of the band now, trading mandolin and fiddle. Matt played bass tonight and I’m sorry I don’t know his last name.

James gave me the new CD tonight. It is their third and it is called “Strange Invitation.” I was feeling a little guilty, thinking maybe he didn’t know I had been let go from the station and can’t promote it there for him. But then he ended the show tonight with free CDs for everyone that was there and that assuaged my (ever-present) guilt. They played several songs from the album tonight and it sounds great. I’ve sampled bits and pieces (and am listening right now) and I like it. I like the way the mandolin and the fiddle interplay. I’m no album critic so I’m not going to give you the song-by-song review, but I like this album and I like that the Jug Band is unique.

I’ve been wanting to go experience either a new venue or a new band so I would have something exciting to write about. I couldn’t get myself out to a new venue tonight, but after Mercury Hall I did go over to the Spoke to see Lucas Hudgins and the First Cousins. I had heard good things about them so I thought I would see. They have some good dancing music and the band is very good. I like the selection of songs, too, heavy on the Lefty Frizzell, Bob Wills, Wynn Stewart, and such. I didn’t care so much for the singing style. It’s like a lot of the people you see trying out on American Idol, there is an affectation and an effort to sing that great singers never use. Okay, some may use it. Remember Johnny Ray? My dad used to laugh about how Johnny Ray would “chew his words.” Of course, Daddy had to demonstrate as he said the word “che-ew-ew-ew.” Lucas had some of that “trying-too-hard” going on. But the band is top-notch and the dancers were loving it. Dave Biller on steel guitar was exceptionally good.

Three widely divergent performances tonight and now home with the kitties (oh, yes, and Mark, too). Nathan is curled up in front of the fire warm and toasty and Wilburt is on his favorite drum where he is in sight of Mark at his computer and me on the couch at mine. But he’s zonked out and not watching either one of us. I think I’ll join the boys and call it a day, too.

Brrrrr . . . winter in Austin. My friend Courtney and I were walking up Lamar with that cold north wind hitting us and it felt like Chicago. Or what we imagine it is like in Chicago. But, I said, people in Chicago invest in heavy coats and know to bring along gloves and scarves. We were less than protected, but we survived that arctic blast.

Another great day of music. I keep expecting to hit a “dud” at some point, but not in a long while. Courtney, my former co-worker who also received the boot right after I did, and I headed for Waterloo Records this afternoon to start our musical adventure together. Courtney is a huge Texas music fan and it is such a shame that she isn’t in her previous job of promotions, it was a perfect match for her talents.

We headed to the CD/DVD release at Waterloo Records for The Band of Heathens. I’ve been hearing so many people telling me how great the Heathens were, I knew I needed to see them. When they first formed a couple of years ago, I was excited because one of their members was Brian Keane and I was already a big fan of Brian’s. But when I heard the “Live at Momo’s” CD they put out, I only really felt drawn to the songs by Brian and didn’t connect as much with the other songwriters/singers. It wasn’t bad, it just didn’t sound like my favorite thing. As time went on, Brian decided he wanted to pursue his solo career more than the band effort and the Band of Heathens was getting more attention and consuming more time, so Brian left the band and continued on his solo path. And I’m SO eager to hear a new release from him. He is still a favorite.

So, I had a preconceived idea of what the Heathens were like, but they’ve gotten so much more attention and good buzz, I needed to see them live. And they were fantastic! I’m so glad we went and now I must go see them for a full show (they’ll be at Momo’s Saturday night at 11 pm for their CD/DVD release party). At Waterloo, they sang several songs from the new Live at Antone’s CD (yes, they only have two recording and they are both live CDs, that’s a rarity). There are five members of the band and three sing and play up front (though the bass player chimed in on one song). I don’t know the members individually yet and I will have to remedy that. Together, they reminded me primarily of The Band, or, locally, Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros. Very much a folk blues sound. They surprised me when they did the song “Ain’t No Cane” that Lyle Lovett also did on his It’s Not Big, It’s Large CD. I had never heard the song six months ago and now I’ve heard two very different and both wonderful versions of this gospel/Delta blues song.

So, satisfied with seeing something new that I liked, we faced that chilly wind and headed back to the car. But we saw The Counter Cafe where the old G/M Steakhouse used to be and decided to try it out. I have a nostalgic feeling about old diners with a long counter. I don’t know why, I certainly never went to one as a kid, but I love them. I never went to the old place, even when I worked right across the street (too impossible to cross Lamar!), so I was glad we just happened by. I really like sitting at a counter and seeing the food being prepared directly across from me. I had hoped to find “diner” prices on the menu, but I found prices more suitable for the folks that live in the Nocona and other expensive apartments nearby. Not expensive, but let’s just say more than a hamburger at Hut’s would have been. But Courtney and I split a hamburger and fries and were quite satisfied. Well, I was extremely satisfied when Courtney offered to buy dinner! Then I realized I should have tried the grilled tuna and roasted asparagus! They had some beautiful food and the chicken salad looked amazing. I would like to try it again when I’ve got a good appetite and a richer date.

So we pushed onward and headed to Gruene Hall to see Sam Baker and Gurf Morlix. A long trip, but worth it. Sam will be playing the Dos Equis Singer/Songwriter Music Series at Mercury Hall week after next (January 30) and that should be optimum “Sam listening” conditions. Tonight they were playing in the front room at Gruene Hall. If you’ve never been to Gruene Hall (and I know some of my readers haven’t — Hi Mom!) it is a big old cavernous dance hall with a stage on one end and a huge dance floor with big windows along the sides that can be propped open to get some circulation going on those hot summer nights. The walls are lined with big tables and benches and there are lots more long tables and benches at the back of the hall and they are always packed and there is standing room only for the big Saturday night dances. But up front it’s a separate room with screen doors leading to the street and there is a long old-fashioned wooden bar practically the length of the room. The floor is OLD and wooden. Creaky creaky. There is a nice little cast iron stove in the middle stoked up and keeping the room quite warm for a 10 foot radius, and comfortably warm a little further out. A trip to the bathroom, however, means a walk to the far end of the dance hall and it was COLD back in that part of the building. But up front, things were cozy and comfortable and quaint. The stove, the wooden floor, wooden tables and chairs  and two great musicians at the far end of the room sitting and singing. They had a very good little sound system set up so that they could be heard easily. But no one was blasted out, either. The room was full, really fuller than I anticipated it to be, and we weren’t able to sit up close like I had envisioned. There were a lot of people standing up along the bar and at the far ends of the room.

The most interesting person in the room (beside Gurf and Sam, who are fascinating) was an artist that was sketching and painting the singers portraits in watercolor. I don’t know how anyone has the calmness and patience to paint, much less paint when all eyes are on you. I never got up close, but from what I could see, I was impressed.

Gurf Morlix and Sam Baker are similar in their styles, but also very distinct. Gurf’s songs were more melodic and maybe had a bigger guitar sound while Sam’s are sparse and clean. Both were great, though, and I was glad to get to hear more of Gurf’s songs. I’ve seen him before, but only for a song or two. I’m glad I saw him tonight because he isn’t out performing very often, mostly he produces. He did have one of the top Americana albums of 2007 with Diamonds to Dust and he is going to have a new CD out later this year.

Sam’s music is so “just right.” Now, that sentence is the clumsiest compliment I could ever pay to someone that writes with  clarity, accuracy, and precision. See? Now I’m being redundant. I can’t write about Sam because I end up comparing my writing to his writing and it is like comparing, well, my desk here in front of me (covered in sticky notes, toys, pens, CDs, notebooks, resumes, newspapers, and a big yellow cat) with a clean, new legal pad with a haiku written on it in pencil. No, see? Even that analogy and use of words sucks and doesn’t say what I mean. So I’ll quit while I’m behind . . .  Come see him at Mercury Hall and then help me come up with a better analogy. Or go buy Pretty World right now and listen.

I hope you were there tonight for the first of a very cool music series. You can jump in next week and catch up with us when the South Austin Jug Band plays, but you have already missed out on a very special night. This is the Dos Equis Singer Songwriter Music Series presented by Marsha Milam at Mercury Hall in beautiful South Austin.

There were a lot of folks there tonight who haven’t been to Mercury Hall before. It was a church in Mercury, Texas (22 miles northeast of Brady in McCullough County) and has been moved to South Austin for a fabulous wedding venue, party venue and music venue! I saw music here last year when KGSR had a great little music series going and I saw the South Austin Jug Band. I went to a party here one time, too, when I received that great honor of being the Austin Chronicle’s “Sweetheart of the Radio” in their Best of Austin 2006 awards.

This picture (thank you Christy Meaux!) gives you an inkling of how cool this venue is. Hardwood floors (that made Marlon and other dancers that showed up VERY happy) and beaded-board walls, stained glass windows and a “quiet” like no other place. There are some more pictures in Christy’s scrapbook HERE.

If you’re like me, you might be a little uncomfortable going to a new venue, so let me tell you what to expect at Mercury Hall (and I hope to put down thoughts on a lot of venues for this site eventually). It might be a little hard to see the corner for Cardinal Lane off of South First if you haven’t been there before. Tonight there were helpful folks with a sign that said “Mercury Hall” pointing the way. So be sure you’ve looked at a map and know where you are going. It isn’t hidden or off of the beaten path too much, but it certainly isn’t in a strip center or with a flashing neon sign. On Cardinal Lane you turn into the parking lot and take advantage of the free parking. The parking is limited, so if you arrive later you probably will park on the street, but it is a quiet street and easy to park on (not a lot of driveways).

Megan ran the door tonight and will probably be there next week, so say hello. She’s in the church vestibule taking your $5 and stamping your hand. Step on into that softly lit church and feel the warmth. There is Dos Equis beer for sale at a table just around the corner and tonight there were some free snacks, too. The room is set up with tables and chairs and extra chair facing the “stage,” but folks mostly just mingled until the show got serious and ready to start. I would advise coming with a friend or two. You can certainly come hang with me if you come alone, but if you are shy at all you might want to bring reinforcements because it is a very small place and kind of hard to remain anonymous and obscured like you can in some places. It’s nice to have someone to visit with while you wait for the music to get going.

So the music did get going and it didn’t take long for Doug Moreland, Matt Skinner and The Amanda Brown to get the crowd warmed up. I think it was Doug’s Bob Wills joke that tipped the scale (“We have to play some Bob Wills because we are in a ‘HAW-ll.’” Okay, it is a joke you have to hear.

Doug played his fiddle most of the night, switching to guitar later. Matt played guitar and Amanda played her beautiful voice. They went through most of the songs on their latest albums Doug Moreland and The Nighthawk Affair. Dallas, Home To You, Boy Like Me from Doug and Somebody Get the Witch, Love and Three Chord Blues and If I Were a Painting from Matt. And many many more. I don’t know how it felt for them to be on stage with an audience that was so quiet and cooperative, but from my viewpoint in the audience, it was great. It wasn’t like there wasn’t some conversations going on, but those were mainly kept to the side by the snacks or outside and the core audience was really listening to every song.

Lots of folks I knew there, too, and that makes it more fun for me. Fun to see old friends that I haven’t seen in a long while and fun to see how friends I know separately arrive together and I find out that they know each other. I think everyone there was impressed with the venue and will be back for future shows. It is a wonderful thing to get to pay only $5 and see music like this.

I discovered once again that I am a poor photographer. But in my defense, this is a hard venue to get an accurate picture in. If I used the flash it makes it look like the band played with full spotlights blazing. If I didn’t use flash so I could capture the ambiance and the shadows (like Christy did above) then it it just too blurry to see. But here are a couple more shots of the show.

Miss Molly was on hand and was the hit of the party, as usual. She made herself at home and wandered from outstretched hand to outstretched hand, allowing us all to pet her. What a sweetheart.

And here is a half-decent shot of the participants on stage. As you can see, the stage is floor level, so you really can be up close and personal. Hope you’ll be there with me next week for the South Austin Jug Band.

Oh, and one more thing. If you read this blog earlier today and saw where I had left it half-written, thank you for coming back for the finale. After the show, Marsha Milam and I went and had a good breakfast at the Kerbey Lane and visited and talked about my future and her future and we talked about her sweet bulldog Casey, who has cancer. After we’d gone our separate ways and I’d come home and gotten ready for bed, Marsha called. She had come home to find that her sweet dog was dead. What a devastating thing to come home to, no matter how much you think you’ve prepared yourself for it. So I left the writing and went to be with her and help her “do” something with this poor dog. I talked to a very nice young man on duty at “3-1-1″ and he was very informed and helpful. Casey will be put to rest in her backyard and will be missed by everyone. She was a sweet, friendly pup.