Janice Williams Loves Austin

I did go see some great music yesterday . . . just too tired to put it down.

My friend Courtney, who lost her job just after I did (same place), wanted me to come see her friend Courtney Patton at Momo’s. [Be sure and click her link--- I love that she has Harlan Pepper and Hubert as her photo! I just watched that movie again this week.] It was one of those great early (7 pm) shows. Just Courtney and a guitar player, Tyler Chandler, on stage. I really admired Courtney’s confidence and absolute comfort on stage. She happily greeted old friends as they came in the door and played on. She’s got a great, strong voice and terrific control. She wrote most of the songs she sang, too, and has an ability to put words and music together well. I haven’t heard all of the CD yet, but it is a very good first CD (produced by Mike McClure). She really has that “Texas country” sound, which is hard for a female artist to manage. No coyness or timidity, just straight boldness without being strident. Liked it! Thumbs up. I hope she gets herself a tight little band together. She and Tyler don’t play together often, it appeared, and I think she would have been better without him yesterday.

The only drag was the people talking in front of us. Why do people do that? And I might have understood if these were a half dozen galoots that were just in here to talk and drink and didn’t care that there was a band on stage, but these were college friends of Courtney’s! You’d think her friends, of all people, would have had the courtesy to shut up and listen.

The music didn’t end for me there. I did go on over to the east side to hear Little Elmore Reed at TC’s Lounge. Always the coolest experience. Eve Monsees was the guest guitar slinger for the evening and she’s something to see. She’s so young and innocent looking, so it is funny to see her singing these hardcore blues songs with gritty lyrics, but she does it without hesitation. And she plays guitar like no woman I’ve ever seen.

+++++

And another great radio show has been forced, face first, into the dust and commanded to bite it. My friend Leslie T Travis  has lost her Sunday night show “The Texas Roadhouse” on KILT in Houston. She played the Texas artists and was able to expose so many of them with the 5 hours she had weekly. Now the show is moving to Saturday nights, will only be 2 hours long, will be programmed by someone other than the disc jockey that does it (which isn’t Leslie) and probably will be pre-recorded, I would say. Sad. Surprisingly (or maybe not), this is not the same corporate chain that we blame most of radio’s problems on. Leslie will still be working at the station, which might be the worst part of all! At least I got the heave-ho and don’t have put up with the nonsense anymore. Keep an eye on her blog for Texas music news and especially Houston gigs and I’m sure you will hear more from Leslie T soon.