Janice Williams Loves Austin

I am a homebody, there is no doubt. So for someone that loves live music, I always face that dilemma. I want to see music, I want to be out enjoying it, but I want to be home at the same time. Or at least in my pajamas. That is frowned upon in some Austin bars. But yesterday I read my own calendar and saw that Audrey Auld-Mezera was highly recommended at Momo’s at 5:30. I like to take my own recommendations, so I made myself show up for this one.

I’m so glad that I did. All I knew about Audrey was that she was Australian. I had received a couple of records at the station that I liked, especially her singing with Bill Chambers (Kasey Chambers’ dad) on the classic country song “Faking Love.” I knew she could really sing country. And she could. She really knows the way a yodel and a twang should sound, even though she grew up in south Australia (in Tazmania, I think).

When I got to Momo’s there were only a half-dozen people in the place, including Eddie Wilson, of Threadgill’s, who is, apparently, a friend of Audrey’s and her host when she is in Austin. She started right at 5:30, which I SO appreciated, and played a full hour. Before she got very far into the set the place began to fill up and there was a sizable crowd by the end. It was just her and a guitar player named Andrew Hardin. Both had a beautiful way of filling a room with picking. I watched her hands, trying to see how she was getting that much music out of that guitar, but I couldn’t figure it out and had to stop myself from studying and just sit back and listen.

Not being familiar with her music, really, every song was new to me and I really appreciated how they were not the same old tried-and-true themes of love and loss or love and gain, etc. Or, when they were, they were certainly a new twist on the idea. I was especially impressed with a sweet song called “Bread and Roses” (here’s a video of it). She sang for prisoners at San Quentin and was told, of course, that she could not bring anything in to the prisoners, she could only sing. So the song is what she would like to be able to give to them. Serious, but still with humor. And an abundance of compassion.

Audrey also wrote the Sunny Sweeney song “The Next Big Nothing.” I did not know that connection and liked her version, too. She thanked Sunny for recording it and providing her some royalty mailbox money.

There was supposed to be a cover charge and there ended up not being one, so I bought a couple of Audrey’s albums to make the show worthwhile for her. She had a cute song “40″ that I was able to relate to (a few years ago!). You can hear it on her myspace.

I thought I would see some of Austin’s singer/songwriters on hand for the show, but, if I did, I didn’t recognize them. I did see a longtime friend of Mark’s, Denise. I’ve never had a long conversation with her and she entertained me with her tales of her hairless cat Butterbean. She said she missed me on the radio with my stories of Nathan Jr. and Willie. Her cat sounds like the one that needs to be on the radio. She said hairless cats are said to be a personality combination of cats, dogs, chimps, and human babies. They really demand attention and care. Her Butterbean gets a “spa day” once a week with a bath and toenail clipping. Butterbean wears a turtleneck sweater and walks on a leash! He goes with her to her office and rides in the truck with his head hanging out of the window! I have got to see this cat Butterbean.So, all in all a great evening out. I liked Audrey, a very down-to-earth, normal person, it seemed. Before the show she came by and said hello to me and commented on how much she liked my necklace. Just a little connection, but nice. She’ll be in Beaumont tonight, San Antonio tomorrow night at Casbeer’s (have you ever been there? wonderful place), and back at Gruene for the Fred Eaglesmith weekend. She’ll play Sunday afternoon if you are down that way.

I AM going to see some more live music tonight, so maybe I am getting out of my allergy-induced, housebound rut.

There are a few things in your life that make you realize the passage of time and that you are aging. One that has made me truly sit up and take notice is the possible election of a president in November that is younger than me! That shouldn’t happen before you’re 60 or so, should it? My mother and I were trying to figure out when there was first a president younger than she was. It probably wasn’t until Clinton and she was 64 or so.

But tonight I’m feeling old because I am certain that this was the first Academy Awards presentation that I’ve ever watched where I hadn’t seen a single solitary movie up for anything. Not one. Even my mother has seen Enchanted that had three songs nominated. I kept waiting for that Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story nomination, but it never came.

I don’t think this fact of not having seen ANY of these movies would be so bad to me except that I actually have a Master’s degree in film. Okay, the degree is for RADIO/tv/film, but there were darn few courses in radio (like, NONE) so my Master’s course of study primarily relied on film classes just to get it done. I used to be reasonably knowledgeable about things like Emeric Pressburger and the symbolism of The Day The Earth Stood Still.”Now I couldn’t even name the actresses and actors that were handing out the statues. I breathed a sigh of relief when one of the “oldsters” like Tom Hanks or Harrison Ford would present because I knew who they were and had actually seen a movie they were in.

Mark and I really were going to go see No Country for Old Men when it came out. But we went to see Walk Hard instead and laughed. It was worth it. I still don’t want to miss a Coen brothers movie, so I’ll put it on the list.

As for the Awards show itself, it seemed long and wordy (maybe the writers wrote too much?). But maybe that was just because I didn’t care much who won since I had no stake in it. I liked the little French girl that won best supporting actress and the couple that wrote the song. I love Jon Stewart, but didn’t think he was that good this time. I guess I missed Billy Crystal. And Johnny Carson. And black and white. Why did they decide we needed everything to be in color all of the time? In my day we watched TV in black and white and we liked it that way . . .

Everything I want to write about tonight would take some time and the Nyquil has kicked in and is urging me toward bedtime. So I just will post a cool picture of downtown Austin. I really would like to spend more time there on foot instead of a car and be able to see so many of the fabulous buildings up close. Do you know which one this is?

I hate being sick. I’m sick today. Mark was really REALLY sick yesterday, but his seemed to be a 24-hour bug. I’m glad I didn’t have what he had. Ick. I have more of an allergy/cold something in my head and chest and I just feel like a wrung out rag.

I’ve been discussing last night’s show with Mark (who missed it since he was sick). Other talents I was unsure of were John Inmon on guitar and Jeff Plankenhorn playing mandolin and assorted other roles, like singing with Ray Wylie Hubbard. I should have known that because I like Jeff and know he plays with Ray, but I didn’t recognize him. Tommy Spurlock was on steel guitar. I had to look up Megan Mullins (fiddle) and John Bohlinger (guitar, etc.). They are part of the Nashville Star house band for that TV show. They were very good. Megan is just 21 and beautiful. Still don’t know who the bass player was, but he looked like Don Rickles from the balcony. I think my sickness was already clouding my head because I kept thinking that Jamie Oldaker, the drummer/musical director looked like Allen Ludden (from the old Password show) and Rick Richards (drummer) looked like Ernest Borgnine. Just a crazy dream.

I think the Nyquil is having an effect. I’m heading back to bed.

Last night I got to go to the Paramount Theater for the filming of a special called “The Outlaw Trail.” An all-star lineup included Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, Jessie Colter, Carlene Carter, Raul Malo, Del Castillo, Rodney Crowell, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Suzy Bogguss, Lee Roy Parnell and more. It was really an interesting night.

Not knowing what to expect, I was afraid I was in for a night of songs like “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and the really Western part of Country and Western, but the song choices were inspired! I don’t know who chose them, but my hat is off to them. The theme was “the outlaw trail” and the narrator (a cowboy poet) read pieces between the songs loosely gathering the songs into a theme. There were classic country songs like Folsom Prison Blues (Asleep at the Wheel did a great job on that!) and El Paso (my God, Raul Malo could sing the newspaper and it would have the crowd on their feet). But they went beyond that to “my” era and favorite songs like Rose of Cimarron (Poco did it originally, Del Castillo was fabulous with it last night) and Dueling Daltons and Desperado from the Eagles (but Holly Williams, Hank’s granddaughter, really put it out there, and Bukka Allen on keyboards was superb). It wasn’t even all country with Raul Malo REALLY getting the crowd on their feet with Bad Company (by Bad Company originally). I’m so far gone from my rock roots I had to ask my friend Marsha what the song was. I knew I knew it, but didn’t know what it was. It was completely electrified and it completely electrified the audience, too.

Some of the performers did their own songs, like Rodney Crowell singing  Ain’t Living Long Like This (I think that was it, I didn’t take notes and now I’m uncertain). Russell Smith (who was with the Amazing Rhythm Aces) sang The End is Not In Sight, which is one of my favorite songs of the 70s, but it sure slowed the energy down last night, coming on the heels of Raul Malo’s Bad Company.

Ray Wylie Hubbard sang a song I had not heard him sing before about gambling, along with Walt Wilkins (my third show with Walt in as many weeks).

The band was incredible. I don’t know who they all were, but I particularly enjoyed Bukka Allen’s keyboards and especially his accordion playing, Rick Richards and Jamie Oldaker on drums together (I loved watching their stick in sync), and Gene Elders on fiddle. I must find out who the others were because they were excellent, too.

That’s the short version of the night. It will be interesting to see it on a pledge drive later this year on PBS. They even filmed the people pleading for money, though it wasn’t amplified, it was being filmed in the balcony overlooking the show between songs.

You’ve heard me talk about my nephews Brandt and Connor a lot, I know. But this week we got to meet another nephew, little Kristofer, and we are smitten! Mark’s dad and his wife, Pam, came to Austin Sunday to meet up with Pam’s daughter Liesl. Leisl lives in Virginia and teaches at George Washington University and is in Austin for a conference. But she is very familiar with Austin, having gotten all of her degrees, all the way to PhD at the University of Texas. Liesl brought her little boy Kristofer with her to see the grandparents AND the aunt and uncle.

There is a lot more connection here than just the family. I knew Liesl and her husband Brent long before I even knew Mark. I was friends with her mother Pam way back and I came to Austin to see Liesl and Brent get married in 1992. A week later Pam introduced me to Mark, Mark and I got married the next year, and then Pam and Mark’s dad followed suit.

Now that you are thoroughly confused as to who is who, let me show you our cute nephew. Guess what common living room adornment got the most attention from this 3-year-old . . .