Flanfire

The Queen of the Barn Dance, Leeann Atherton, is about to go on a lengthy tour. No big surprise, you say -- after all, she just released two brand-spanking-new CD's, "Mama's House" and "Everyday Dream." But, NO! The tour, which begins at the Hop Bottom Festival in Pennsylvania and stretches to California and Oregon this summer, will continue (with some interruptions) through until November's WonderJam in Amsterdam (and who knows where beyond there!), will feature Leeann and new partner Zhenya Rock (Flying Balalaika Brothers, Red Elvises, Zeegrass) in their new duo act, Gypzee Soul.

The band made its debut at the July 1st Barn Dance in Leeann's own back yard -- seven rousing songs, all written by Zhenya with Leeann helping on lyrics -- with Leeann on vocals, shakers, and harmonica and Zhenya playing balalaika, banjo, guitar, and bass balalaika (with his loops working here and there as well). The most amazing thing here is that Leeann is no longer the savvy soul and blues singer from her longtime Friday night gigs at Maria's Taco's -- she is a young chanteuse full of life energy that belies the fact that she has two sons of considerable size and increasing age and has labored as a teacher and done other jobs for many years.

Must be the water (er, the rain that amazingly refused to fall during the barn dance -- heck, the SUN made an appearance during the Gypzee Soul set!). But what songs -- and what joy this happy pair brought to their friends and extended family. "Show Me In," "Time" (which you can check out at the gypzee soul myspace page), "Lazy Sunday" (well, it surely was! but what was that lyric about slow down, here comes the rain -- that DID NOT HAPPEN!), "Thank You" (nuff said), "Singing from the Heart" (which is clearly what they were doing), "Musical Capital of the World" (a tribute to Austin), and the traditional gypsy song "Bedamonge Romale" with extra lyrics supplied by our young lovers. "Time" in particular reminds me very much of It's A Beautiful Day and songs like "White Bird," with lyrics that included "time is a friend of mine, I live it day by day".

It was Leeann's mom's birthday, and she was supposed to be making her first barn dance, but bad weather in Dallas meant a cancelled flight -- so we had to eat the cake (prepared by a real French chef) without her. Hopefully, she was able to catch the show on the live video feed. Also performing at the barn dance were Kim Deschamps and his band, the Shelley King Band, Django Porter in a band soon to be known as The Spell (which includes Sick on violin, Pickles and David Moss, and the Meeks brothers and more and which will be playing at the Hole in the Wall next week), and John Hogan and the Southside Stompers (featuring Washboard Judy on, well, washboard, Bulldog Lowery on giutar, Danny on snare, and Mary Jo on fiddle).

Earlier in the week, we were at Ego's (which is increasingly getting back to those old smokey days that sometimes makes breathing a real experience!) to hear Jane Bond and Chad Tracy, Slowtrain, and the very quirky Hope Irish (whose drummer, Seth Gibbs, opened for her with a solo set of songs he sometimes does with their other band, The Brother Machine).