Flanfire

Not Too Late for The Summer Wardrobe

"Blind" - which also follows Ned Kelly on the CD - features Jon and John showing they listened to Link Wray as children of the deep South - but the vocals remind me a little of David Bowie (while I recall my bud Jackson's own song with the same title). Jon just calls this sound swamp rock -- and there is more of the same in "The Blackhouse," which on stage he dedicated to Baton Rouge. "Why did you leave this world with so many questions unanswered?" -- What an intriguing opening! I got so spaced out I forgot the names of the next two songs (maybe Underground, which opens with a harder, darker sound, and Starball Contribution, which brings back memories for me of the Byrds Mister Spaceman).

Next I looked up, Jon had re-donned his sport coat and stepped out into the audience to put his arm around a lovely lady while telilng what a heel he had been (at least in song) - a promise breaker whose woman had left him. This became sort of a medley with "All the Lovers I've Wronged" and the impassioned "One More Try," which (especially on the record, but also at the show) features a very lively guitar-pedal duet that once again takes us to the asteroid belt and beyond. The set ended with "Sixty-Eight," a song not on this recording but one that must be heard every time we enter the wardrobe on the way to Narnia.

Perhaps the most inscrutable song on the record (which by the way features a reprise of Ned Kelly that again reminds us of our opportunity for a "new life confirmation") is "Redbook," which opens with the words, "Jesus knows me when I'm praying, he don't see me when I fall, Looking always for my savior, I don't see no one at all. When I open up your Redbook, I can't see my name inside .. all the pages stick together, does that mean we're out of time?" This has that Mazzy Star feel. But later, "You don't need proof to see what's already there."

The band says on its myspace page that, "Our music is ambient and somewhat dark, though it's wrapped up in a pop shell. We play ambient southern psychedelic music for the endtimes. If you've ever cried on a rooftop, you might like this." And that is exactly what we get with "Daisy Cutter" [odd that Buttercup has a song, "Cutting Daisies," huh?] ... a real dirge musically, but one which emerges into a "dawn of excitement" and "exceptional life." It is almost as if the whole idea of the music is to put you to rest while you are having to deal with the heavier things of real life -- all the while looking up at the clouds and realizing that God created them for our pleasure and meditation - and the rain (and shade) they sometimes bring.

In closing, I have to give kudos to Will Taylor and Strings Attached (super WOW for Glenn Rexach and Eddy Hobizal for being such virtuosos) and to all of the great Austin musicians who put together the Beatles White Album Live outdoors at the Nutty Brown! From Mark Utter's energetic rendition of "Glass Onion" and John Pointer's "Obla di Obla da," to a spiffily dressed (tie and jeans?) Darin Murphy belting out "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and "Piggies" despite having only half (at best) of his voice, to Craig the crooner Marshall on "I Will" to newcomer Nakia just tearing up the Savoy Shuffle, and especially to the lovely Carolyn Wonderland, who drove all the way back from a gig in Houston to show her guitar chops on "Revolution 1" and then switch to diva par excellence on "Cry Baby Cry" (and then doing her patented curtsey as she surrendered the mike), to the final crescendoes of "Revolution Number 9" the show was fantastic! Best of all may have been the always relevant videos put together by Charles Beard -- and the super harmony vocals as performed by the trio of soon-to-be moms -- Libby Kirkpatrick, Sarah Sharp, and Monica Cravotta (all of whom have very shortly upcoming due dates less than a week apart). Kudos too to the Nutty Brown venue -- and to Ma Nature, who gave us an afternoon storm to hold down the dust and an evening breeze to cool us off from the daytime heat. And prayers for Governor Richards, the yodeler Don Walser (pure Texas hero that he was), and to Carolyn's longtime mentor Jerry Lightfoot, who taught her so many things (including how to sing without the guitar the way she did on Cry Baby Cry). [Yes, I left out a number of fine performances -- but you will just have to buy the live DVD that they were shooting of this show -- to match the "best of" CD from the debut show last spring.]