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Flanfire (Duggan Flanakin) is bringing LIFE to Austin music -- and telling the world how sweet it is!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Chris Brecht: Somewhere Between Bob and Townes 
Amy and Landis rockin' out!; Ryan Morris in a fog!; and who does not love Erin Ivey?
Chris Brecht on stage at the Continental Club with Broken 45's bandmates Matt Mollica (Hammond), Bobby Daniel (bass), and Ricky Ray Jackson (pedal steel) -- and drummer Billy Doughty (not shown).
It is always a joy to listen to Chris Brecht -- whether with his full band (at the Continental Club for his second CD release of the new disc "The Great Ride") or solo (at Jo's Hot Coffees on Memorial Day at a benefit for the Green Corn Project).
The quirky Coloradoan with the unkempt sandy hair and infectious smile is one of a generation of new poets who are fast becoming legion here in Austin -- Nathan Singleton and his bandmate Justin Wade Thompson, Jeremy Nail, Dustin Welch and North Dakotan Leo Rondeau are just a few -- who have found music as the medium to deliver their visions, observations, dreams, and real life experiences.
First time I heard Chris (after knowing him a while) was at a Ham Jam evening. We were all sitting out in the atrium and Chris was singing songs that sounded like the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan -- and then pal Graham Weber actually DID sing a Dylan song as if to emphasize the point. Chris also plays harmonica -- and on stage he often seems to be in his own reverie ... you are just waiting for his self-deprecating witticisms that are what distinguish him from the fellow we met in "Don't Look Back." But the quality of the writing is just as good -- and getting better.
"Better Grab My Coat" is on the new CD -- yet another of those would be love songs that end up showing the sadder side of romance ... "when the midnight screams it screams at you, when the snow falls hard, it falls for you .... I'd better grab my coat, it's gonna be cold without you." But a song Chris did at both shows I saw this week, "Oregon," is not -- and it may be his best yet.
Then there are those great tunes that first drew my attention -- the amazing "Reading My Mind" ("Remind me of your blue-eyed son who's been walking for miles and is still not done ... SAD one you've stayed too long, outside the crowd your time has come ... as a hard wind blows through the alleys of our clothes, If I hadn't seen you come I could never watch you go."
Did I mention players? Chris has had help from guitarists Brad Rice, Gordy Quist and Chris Masterson, the wonderful Eleanor Whitmore, drummer Stephen Bres -- and various others. Rice (now in Keith Urban's band) co-produced the album, which was recorded at Bismeaux.
But back to the songs -- "I Played Cards with the Devil" ("meet me on 4th Street in the rain where the Cowboy Junkies play, when you said to me, 'come inside,' you stepped into the light and I saw the devil in your eye" -- THIS SONG FLAT OUT ROCKS! [Of course, Chris left it off the record even though the lyrics are posted! But you can find it at his myspace page for now.]
Or how about "A Song about Lightbulbs"? "I haven't got the fog of time I must be out of my lightbulb mind, the streets are a jungle and I'm going after you bilnd as the crowd of people that I'm diggin' through." Or "Dead Leaf" (another sad love song) -- "Moonlight tears where the night mind dies, I cannot sleep against the grains in my eyes, shelters of hope to create new lies you ain't nowhere, there ain't no lines, if your cross of a vacant road I can't help you, I'd rather watch a dead leaf blow."
OR "Absinthe" -- "Said the window to the northern rain, I could touch her poetry but it's not the same, even a whisper can't calm her down, I look into her eyes but she's nowhere to be found..." And another favorite (with a key line borrowed from Gary Snyder), "Night Highway Ninety-Nine" -- lots of harmonica here, too -- "Hemingway returns with a typewriter burn and no fixation for death, sunflower sun is hard on her skin, I'm sinking in all the way to the sea." And of course, "By Train" -- just how many verses there really are to this one depends on which ones Chris remembers (or adds on the spur of the moment?) on a given night.
We always seem to think that musicians who are in Austin today will be here forever -- and Chris seems comfortable in his skin here, true, but how can we deny that this guy just might (just might!) be swept along down the road only to play here once or twice a year before long? Pathos, insights that touch the hardest heart -- vulnerability -- not Dylan at all but more on our own plane and yet ethereal too ... closer to Townes maybe, but Chris is downright hopeful and focused on getting his poetry out to people who can identify with the places where he's been (or at least has seen up close enough to report so well).
I have already reviewed Fluoxetine's new CD, but had not seen the band play live until the other night at a birthday party for singer-songwriter (and band leader) Ryan Morris. The beautiful Erin Ivey opened (that woman grows on you song by song -- and it's maybe more the warmth she exudes than anything else, but you really want to be with her as she heads off to Zambia later this summer to teach AIDS orphans) -- and if you like jazz, check out her duo Grand Hotel.
But back to the band -- Landis Armstrong on guitars and vocals, Amy Hawthorne on bass, and a pinch-hit drummer whose name escapes me (Ronny Haas got a day job in Oklahoma that pays really well!). This band is a lot of fun -- they even brought out the smoke machine!
Amy and Landis rockin' out!; Ryan Morris in a fog!; and who does not love Erin Ivey?
Now I have seen a LOT more music in the past few daze -- notably the amazing Dana Falconberry at Clementine's (hanging out with my pal Jack), the Lonesome Heroes (with Chris Brecht) at Jo's for the Green Corn Project (the folks who help you grow your own ..... food!), Dan Dyer and Drew Smith (not to mention Dustin Welch and Jeremy Nail) at Momo's -- love Dan's energy and vocal power, love Drew's new sound). And more to come -- a review of Nathan Singleton's wonderful new record -- and a shout out for a new project by Chad Tracy.
But before I go I have to put in a plug for the BLASTBEAT REGIONAL FINALS -- with the winning band getting a trip to Ireland in December to compete with and meet fellow musicians who happen to be teenagers from Slovakia, Belgium, South Africa, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and even Los Angeles and New York City (and maybe a couple other places, too!). Contestants include --
Blues Mafia (of whom we have written extensively, featuring Sasha Ortiz on vocals)
Sea Fields of Elephants (featuring Max Tolleson and Henry Gillespie)
The Diving Captain (featuring members formerly of the Frets)
Team NEXT (an extended family of hiphop and soul singers from Manor mostly)
The Audiophiles (Curtis McMurtry, Ethan Banner, and Stefan Peierls)
The El Guapos (who will also be releasing their new CD, "Birds. Birds! Birds?")
The entire show (which also features guest sets from Super Pal Universe and The Daze) will be filmed for a DVD to be sold in Austin area high schools (and elsewhere) next fall by music management companies organized by Blastbeat (http://www.blastbeat.org/) and in partnership with the Austin School of Music and Rock Camp Austin. Also competing on Saturday afternoon (starting at 2 pm at Emo's Lounge) will be four music management companies (from Austin CAN Academy, Akins High, Anderson High, and LASA) who are also vying to win a trip to Ireland for the world finals -- these are the kids who put together the concerts, promote them, sell T-shirts and tickets, film and write about and publicize the events, all through a program created by Irish music industry veteran Robert Stephenson as a nonprofit whose goal is to help jumpstart a new generation of social entrepreneurs.
So get out there -- and if you cannot, then get ready to buy a CD next fall. Or invite these bands to play your own parties and shows. Unlike the multitudes who descend upon Austin every month (or so it seems -- and we do not in any wise discourage this in-migration) these are all homegrown musicians who are just starting to reach their own generation (and older folks too).
FINALLY -- I could not fail to report that the Hole in the Wall ACTUALLY has (thanks to its new owner, who hails from El Paso) A REAL SOUND SYSTEM! Check out the sound board!.
Flanfire -- Bringing LIFE to Austin music.
