Janice Williams Loves Austin

There is a lot written about “clearing clutter” these days. There are over 421,000 sites that come up with you Google that term. I am an advocate of clearing clutter (  . . . I can feel my husband smirking before he’s even read what I have to say . . .). I believe you have to get rid of old stuff before new stuff can come into your life. I told Mark that I seriously was going to do some clutter clearing this week.

But, man, it is harder than it looks. I know the rule in the closet is “if you haven’t worn it in the past year, blah blah,” but what about this winter that I spent unemployed? I didn’t NEED to wear my prettiest heavy sweater from Norway. I didn’t have a place to wear it to. And I’m sure these 10 pounds of layoff weight will go away eventually and allow me to wear again the long sleeved t-shirts and the “uniform” that I’ve worn for the last five years. And, besides, everything really does hinge on the next job. I may need two dozen t-shirts with band names on them.

Tonight I had to go in search of a bit of tax information that is buried in OLD financial stuff. Where IS that financial stuff? I haven’t quite figured out where it is. I know where it was in our house in Carrollton, but since we moved 9 years ago and THAT file cabinet now is full of drum hardware, I am not sure where those papers went. Meanwhile, I pull down other boxes of papers in my closet. This would be a good opportunity to clear clutter. Oh, but then I got caught up in reading what was in there. Newspapers with articles from when I was a reporter for the Canyon News. The big article I wrote when Willie played the Buffalo Bowl for 25,000 people. It was my first experience at a concert of that size (and they really weren’t all that common at the time — at least not in the Panhandle). It is something to read about it from my own first-hand experience. There’s a report I wrote for physiology and anatomy class in high school about the respiratory system. I really could throw it away, but it fascinates me to see a TYPED report and to recall how difficult it was in those days to put a paper together. No spell check, no easy formatting. I made a whole chart that would probably be a breeze to do today in Word with “tables” and “fit to page,” but it was quite an achievement in 1976 and I am not ready to let it go.

In the 80s I worked for the Zig Ziglar Corporation. There were some stultifying, boring days working there in sales. Cindi worked in the cubicle behind me and, since this was in the days before emailing, instant messaging, texting, or any other technical forms of communication, we wrote notes and wadded them up and threw them over into the next cube all day long. I found some of her notes among my things. And a gazillion birthday and greeting cards from co-workers there, all with the PIG theme that I loved so much back then. I did toss a 1987 calendar of pigs that I couldn’t quite see holding on another 20 years and a pig poster that did nothing for me then and does nothing for me now. But all the other cards and notes will have to wait until I can “really sort through them” (my forever excuse).

Then I found a big box of letters. I have one box of letters that is very carefully preserved. I didn’t disturb the packets of letters in it. I know it contains letters from all of my grandparents and Mark’s grandparents and many other dear loved ones that have passed on. But the other big box of letters is really just a BIG box of family stuff from the 80s and 90s. But how does anyone throw away their nephews’ colorings? And their Thanksgiving turkey hand outlines? And funny pictures that they actually drew of Mark’s rock band when they were 7 or 8? And the letters that are in that box, too. A lot more letters from my Dad than I remember him writing. I knew he wrote a nice thank you after every Christmas and birthday, but there are more. I will have to save them all and re-read them sometime when I have a good light and my reading glasses and time to decipher Daddy’s impossible handwriting. And there are dozens and dozens of letters from my mother, written when they lived on the farm (near Amarillo) and I lived in Dallas. This was before email became our primary method of communication. Back in those days it wasn’t unusual to get a couple of letters from Mother a week, telling about a neighbor that had been robbed, or her trip to town for groceries, or what she’d heard from others in the family. And, since she commented about what was going on in my life it is as much a diary for me as it is for her (I saw one where my wedding was upcoming and she didn’t want Mark’s mother to have to wait for Mom to choose her dress color if she — Mark’s mother– wanted to go out and get a dress sooner).

So, instead of clearing, I have only cleared a shelf in the closet and it is only clear because the boxes are here on the floor now. I expect a few days will go by and then I will close them up again and put them back on the shelf. It’s one thing to clear out the old newspapers in the living room and to clear old bottles from under the sink, but when it comes to clearing my LIFE, I’m going to take it a little more slowly.

Mark reminded me this morning that I needed to blog. I think I’ve got a mental block about going back and re-doing that SXSW Thursday entry. I still truly want to do it, because that was the day of the Fat Caddy Records party and seeing Ryan McGarvey play the blues.

But let’s get past that mental block by at least catching up with where I am tonight. I am resting in the afterglow of some great music. Really a magical night, as so many of them are at TC’s.

Tonight my cousin Beau from Arkansas was in town. He has always been one of my very favorite cousins and I was incredibly flattered that he called and let me know he was coming to town. Now, realize that he isn’t one of my first cousins that I grew up with, he is my cousin Patsy’s middle son, so I was 20 when he was born and have watched him grow up. I took him and his friend Matt out to TC’s to see Mark play. Turns out that Matt, who lived in Austin for a year, had been to TC’s once before and was familiar with it, but hadn’t been out on a Monday for THIS band . . . and he was duly impressed, as was Beau.

It was a really special night because Mike Keller, on guitar and vocals, has joined the Fabulous Thunderbirds and is leaving on a month-long European tour with them this week. He will be missed on Mondays at TC’s. He’ll be back, of course; he is always going to be a part of Little Elmore Reed, but he’ll be out for a while. That added great energy to the night. It was also Willie Pipkin’s birthday. Willie plays guitar, too. His girlfriend Phoebe, of the Belleville Outfit, brought a fabulous cake and I would say that everyone in the club got a piece of it, but that would have had to be a loaves-and-fishes miracle because the place was packed. Let’s just say that LOTS of people got a taste of it.

I was sitting with Susan and Jason. Susan is the one that had that great birthday party for herself to benefit the New Orleans charities. She is so vivacious and fun to be around. She ALWAYS has something going. Last week she was taking a poll and asking how many people had heard the expression “off like a prom dress.” I was surprised how many people had not heard it. Tonight she was asking if people knew what the term “crazy eyes” meant and she and Jason were drawing cartoons of band members and bar patrons (none of whom had “crazy eyes”). Most of the Belleville Outfit was on hand tonight, too, and I got to meet Rob Teter, who I had spoken to on the phone, but hadn’t met in person. This band is destined to be really big, so I hope you’ll go see them while you can in Austin. They’ll be at the north Threadgill’s Friday night. Maybe that would be a good time.

I hate to be a name-dropper (no, really I don’t),  but I’m not dropping names for MY sake, I’m just telling you where the coolest people hang out on Monday nights. Gary Clark, Jr., and James Bullard were on hand, and Ronnie James, formerly of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, was playing bass. Mike’s drumming brother Cory (of the Marcia Ball band) and even Mike’s folks were on hand for his last Monday night at TC’s for four weeks. But next week will still be very cool with Eve Monsees stepping in.

All that said, I hope anyone that reads this that hasn’t been to TC’s will stay away. That place is just too dang crowded. Like Groucho said, “No one goes there anymore, it is too crowded” except that everyone still goes there and I don’t know how we all fit!

Okay, lets’ continue with our trip back in time to SXSW, which seems oh, so far away now.

Friday afternoon I went to the Shady Grove for a Seth Walker showcase. Mark used to be Seth’s drummer and co-produced his album “Seth Walker” and wrote the best song EVER, “2′ to the Ceiling.” You listen and see if it doesn’t just give you chills. It gives me even more chills because I was right here in the house when Mark wrote it and then Seth added the music.

That Friday was sunny, bright and hot. It made me feel good to be sitting outside on a patio and watching the world go by. A lot of world goes by on Barton Springs, too. I enjoyed when people would stop and listen before resuming their walking, or play “air drums” as they continued by. Not so much the guy that was wearing only a thong. I assume. I only saw him from the rear and it looked like he had a rubber band around his waist and a piece of dental floss between his butt cheeks. Eeeeeee….. too weird, Austin.

I was there with my friend Marsha Milam, and many of her friends flocked to us. I was especially happy to see Al Moss, an independent record guy from Nashville that is truly the best in the business. He brought along Chrissy Coughlin, a singer/musician from New York. She was giddy and excited because she had just picked up her new CD Look Ahead. She was kind enough to give me a copy and it is very good. I don’t know who to compare it to since it is a genre I don’t listen to a lot, but I could say Sheryl Crow. Very good band and production, too. I like “Big Log,” the old Robert Plant song from years ago. Her friend Christina lives in Austin and joined us, too.

We had a great time watching the kids dancing in front of the stage. Most were completely uninhibited and threw their arms in all directions and just had a ball. One little uninhibited boy’s parents forced his much more cynical sister to go stand on the dance floor and join him. He held her hand and danced around her with abandon while she rolled her eyes and pleaded with her parents to allow her to come back to the anonymity of the table.

I had a great Thai salad at the Shady Grove. It looks like I will becoming very familiar with that place and their menu in the weeks to come. I hope you’ll join me there for “Unplugged at the Grove” beginning April 10. I will be there helping Marsha Milam produce the show each week for Shady Grove and KGSR. Mainly I’ll be there for the music. It starts with the Gourds and Ruthie Foster is week two. It is the 15th season for the show and it is a great line-up this season.

So, things wrap up at Shady Grove and I make my way across town to Scholtz’s Biergarten for the Texas Music Magazine SXSW party. You were invited to this one. Well you were if you subscribe to the magazine. And if you DON’T you are truly not a Texas music fan. It is, without a doubt, the best music magazine in the state. Never anything cheesy or ad-revenue driven, it is a quality production.

They had a quality party, too. Huge crowd on hand for it. I got there too late for Billy Joe Shaver and some other great ones that were early in the day. I made it for White Ghost Shivers. I’ve heard lots about them and have never seen them. They are a novelty show with a tall guy in too-short pants and a bow tie, a showgirl with lots of makeup and garters, etc. Entertaining, for sure. I couldn’t hear the lyrics, which I’m sure were quite entertaining as well. Hard to really experience them in broad daylight with a loud talkative crowd.

Next up was Guy Forsyth. Mark used to be Guy’s drummer for a year or two, too, so I have seen his shows many times and I LOVE Guy’s music. Again, it wasn’t the best setting to hear him sing and play his saw, but since I did know these songs, I still enjoyed it. His sweet wife and adorable baby girl were on hand, too, so I got to ooh and aah over the baby.

As it got closer to time for Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros, who were who I came to see, of course, I started seeing more people I knew. I ran back through Scholtz’s to check to make sure my car hadn’t been towed and saw my friend Denise. I wrote about her and her hairless cat Butterbean in my Audrey Auld Mezera entry here. Then my Luckenbach friends Neal and Betty Brown and old Terlingua chili cook off friends Geronimo and Judy Trevino came in. I have lots of memories with those folks. Sand covered, smoky memories with the Trevinos.

Bull rider John Burris came by and said hello and then the Mystiqueros all started coming by, wishing me a happy birthday. How sweet. Tina Mitchell W