Flanfire

Kevin Carroll is probably best known in central Texas as the lead guitar player with the Charlie Robison Band, but on April 6 the Idaho native (and Boise State grad who once sold guitar strings to Willie Braun and his buds when they were kids) debuted his new band and a bunch of songs he has been singing at recent solo gigs at MoMo's over the past few months. Backed by bassist George Reiff, drummer Daren Hess (who also plays with James McMurtry), and omnimusician Ron Flint playing keyboards and singing harmonies, Kevin made quite an impression on the two dozen or so folks in the audience at Flipnotics. The small stage did cramp Kevin's on-stage antics a little, but we did get a taste of the man with the moves.
I was sitting next to Michael Fracasso, who's off on a 10-day tour of Japan in the morning, and we were both enjoying Kevin's songs, including Box of Wine (what a nice way to spend an Austin spring day), Dark Valley Serenade (in which Kevin sings of someone dancing like you don't need the money and laughing as if it was funny), Disappear (a song about a hitchhiker seeking anonymity), and Spirit of a Clown (with a cameo of J. Edgar Hoover in his party clothes). We were also much enjoying his (acoustic) guitar riffs. Maybe the most intriguing song I heard was the dark Wintertime. These are all songs that need to be heard again - and a third time, too.

On Tuesday evening, the whole family trekked down south to Evangeline Cafe for some good Cajun food and music by Brennen Leigh (with the lovely Jen Obert on fiddle). Brennen had a second gig that evening at the Saxon Pub - and she has just gotten some great press from John Conquest of Third Coast Music (and some of his gust contributors as well). Later in the evening, owner Curtis (as is usually the case on Tuesdays) welcomed piano player Gene Taylor to the stage. What a treat to have one of the Alvin Brothers' original Blasters and current keyboardist for the Fabulous Thunderbirds entertaining you over dessert (Dixie beer and bread pudding - what else?) with old standards ranging from Professor Longhair's Going to the Mardi Gras to Ain't Misbehavin' (an instrumental version of a song I last heard sung by youthful Bonnie Whitmore three days earlier).

Then it was home to stay up late and watch Nashville Star. Folks, this year's show is getting to be too much like American Idol - even down to shots of the pitiful wannabes and the cutting back on original songs by the artists. This year's talent pool was fairly evenly matched, but none of this year's crew is as good as, say, Texan Sheila Marshall, who only got about halfway through last year's competition, and surely not as good as first year third place finisher Miranda Lambert of Lindale, who is finally getting her breakout CD on the charts (40,000 copies in week 1, I read somewhere, for the girl I remember singing songs by real Texas legends during her weeks on the USA network program).