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Flanfire (Duggan Flanakin) is bringing LIFE to Austin music -- and telling the world how sweet it is!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Will T. Massey's on the Peace Train!
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I was out in Colorado earlier this week with another straight-talking songwriter, Chris Brecht, and my good pal Matt Mollica (who brought his accordian on the plane given that his Hammond B-3 would not fit in the overhead). The boys opened for Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter at Boulder's Fox Theatre, one of the coolest music venues I have ever visited. Lots of other Austin bands play the Fox (Black Angels, Bob Schneider, and Boombox in the near future). We missed Erin Ivey and Alyse Black, who played the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks over the weekend (another great venue out that way). .jpg)
Just prior to the trip, I moseyed down to Momo's for Warren Hood's CD release -- so many people, so little time to hang out. Pretty darn good stuff, which I hope to report on in more detail. Ditto the Drew Smith CD release party earlier that week at the Continental Club (just WOW!). On the heels of the Dan Dyer show -- and still waiting in the wings, Dustin Welch's forthcoming masterpiece of songwriting and showmanship (and much more!). Here is a photo of Drew later that evening, singing along with Dustin Welch and Kacy Crowley on Dustin's "Two Horses." .jpg)
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I was also fortunate enough to get out to the Carousel Lounge for PART of the David Lazaroff 30th birthday party (cake good!) -- enough to hear David playing with Elizabeth McQueen (she and hubby Dave Sanger are VERY PREGNANT but not due till January!), Lefty Nafziger (who also plays with Warren), Gary Newcomb, Lindsay Greene, and a host of percussionists. Even better was getting to watch David dancing with his honey to the sounds of Elizabeth and her Firebrands (yeah, the same guys, by and large). Neal Kassanoff had played an early set, as had Gary, so I am told. Later that same evening I ducked out to catch a few songs at Beerland from the Sideshow Tragedy (Nathan Singleton, Jeremy Harrell, and Justin Wade Thompson) and pick up one of their awesome new T-shirts (featuring the Elephant Man). .jpg)
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Aimee Bobruk with Jon Notarthomas (also John Bush, Darwin Smith, and Will Sexton); Alyse Black; and Brian Hudson, Hudson Mueller, and the suave and sophisticated Leah Zeger.
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Will T. Massey has long been known in Austin for his songwriting -- and his gracious gentle soul (so enhanced by his friendship with the genuinely lovely Valerie Fremin).
Will, who will soon turn 40, was not even born when I first started marching for peace and freedom on the streets of our nation's capital. -- and yet his new recording, "Wayward Lady," captures the essence of that earlier peace movement that was built on flower power.
Massey introduced these songs at (where else?) Threadgill's Old No. 1 on North Lamar, wearing a shirt with skulls hidden in the pattern. He speaks his truth simply yet without venom -- much more a member of the "Virtuous Caucus" of which I was a proud member during my days with Liberation News Service than of the "vulgar Marxist" hard-liners who beat LNS founder Marshall Bloom to a bloody pulp after the merrie men of the caucus had taken back their printing press from the interloping gestapo.
The Threadgill's CD release party reminded me so much of those early days with my Quaker friends -- singing songs of peace and freedom that reflect a deep love of our country, our people, and our hope for the triumph of everyday people over corporate (and bureaucratic) greed that has infected our entire political system. The band -- I speak with great reverence -- Richard Bowden playing fiddle with a heart the size of Texas; Marvin Dykhuis on guitars and mandolin; Will Sexton on bass; and the amazing Mike Meadows on cajon, gombe, and other percussion -- plus occasional vocals from Sally Allen -- a collection of talent and gentleness rarely assembled on a single stage.
Some of the songs -- "The Crooked Kind" (condemning the corruption of the "policeman of the world") and "You Work for Me" (Mr. President!) come to mind -- show forth Will's disappointment (rather than hatred) with those who have (mis)led this nation in the wrong direction. But this is a man whose heart is revealed in songs like "Peace Train" and "American Prayer," and even moreso in the title cut ("you're a wicked woman but I love you .. my wayward lady, USA").
Will covers Pink Floyd's "The Gunner's Dream" and "Hooker with a Purple Heart," written by Vietnam veteran Michael J. Martin and Bill Carroll. He laughs his way through "Life on the Run," noting quite poignantly, though, that breaking the law is much preferred to killing. But "American Seance" clearly presents Massey's great sadness over the perceived (and perhaps actual) betrayal of America's real core values by a power structure gone mad.
And yet -- how well do we know our own national history? Sure, we can recount the misdeeds of the old Confederacy (and others who were complicit in the slave trade), the ongoing horrors of racists who sought to crush the civil rights movement, and so on -- but dare we remember the internment of Japanese-Americans ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt, or that goon squads unleashed by President Woodrow Wilson arrested an estimated 175,000 Americans for failng to demonstrate their patriotism in one way or another.
Will longs for a country where people can just live in peace, love their children and one another, conduct their business honestly, and share their good times and hard times as fellow travelers on life's highway. A true son of my pals Marshall and Ray -- who would have been right at home at the old Human Be-In's but who can also speak soberly of the way we oughta be.
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I was out in Colorado earlier this week with another straight-talking songwriter, Chris Brecht, and my good pal Matt Mollica (who brought his accordian on the plane given that his Hammond B-3 would not fit in the overhead). The boys opened for Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter at Boulder's Fox Theatre, one of the coolest music venues I have ever visited. Lots of other Austin bands play the Fox (Black Angels, Bob Schneider, and Boombox in the near future). We missed Erin Ivey and Alyse Black, who played the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks over the weekend (another great venue out that way)..jpg)
Just prior to the trip, I moseyed down to Momo's for Warren Hood's CD release -- so many people, so little time to hang out. Pretty darn good stuff, which I hope to report on in more detail. Ditto the Drew Smith CD release party earlier that week at the Continental Club (just WOW!). On the heels of the Dan Dyer show -- and still waiting in the wings, Dustin Welch's forthcoming masterpiece of songwriting and showmanship (and much more!). Here is a photo of Drew later that evening, singing along with Dustin Welch and Kacy Crowley on Dustin's "Two Horses.".jpg)
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I was also fortunate enough to get out to the Carousel Lounge for PART of the David Lazaroff 30th birthday party (cake good!) -- enough to hear David playing with Elizabeth McQueen (she and hubby Dave Sanger are VERY PREGNANT but not due till January!), Lefty Nafziger (who also plays with Warren), Gary Newcomb, Lindsay Greene, and a host of percussionists. Even better was getting to watch David dancing with his honey to the sounds of Elizabeth and her Firebrands (yeah, the same guys, by and large). Neal Kassanoff had played an early set, as had Gary, so I am told. Later that same evening I ducked out to catch a few songs at Beerland from the Sideshow Tragedy (Nathan Singleton, Jeremy Harrell, and Justin Wade Thompson) and pick up one of their awesome new T-shirts (featuring the Elephant Man).I also got out to the Saxon Pub for a rousing set from Aimee Bobruk and her band, to Central Market North Lamar for Alyse Black and her trio, and to Central Market South for fun and frolic with the Hudsons (and to Roadhouse Rags to see Brennen Leigh). No photos -- but LZ Love rocked the house at the Iguana Grill!
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Aimee Bobruk with Jon Notarthomas (also John Bush, Darwin Smith, and Will Sexton); Alyse Black; and Brian Hudson, Hudson Mueller, and the suave and sophisticated Leah Zeger.Flanfire -- Bringing LIFE to Austin music.
