Flanfire

On a day that started with a missed (by the other person) appointment, continued with a worm attack, and ended with one of our young friends locking her keys in her car (allowing me to play Sir Galahad to rescue her spare set from her distant domicile), my youngest daughter also officially got married, my oldest daughter started her new job, and my wife got great news from her office.

So, to celebrate at least some of those events, we trekked over to Ross' Old Austin - way up North Lamar in the nosebleed section of North Austin - to the next-to-the-last edition, we are told, of Aussie Roseanna Hill's Tuesday night songwriter showcases. Ross, BTW, has been hosting music at this location for at least a decade - both indoors in a room that seats about 50 and outdoors in nice weather where folks on his front porch and those sitting on outdoor tables can enjoy a good time. He also serves up tasty steaks, salads, and soups - and stuff and has a bunch of old maps of Waterloo and Austin as the city progressed from its infancy. His family has been in the Austin food business - including the bakery business - for decades - and he's got dozens of stories to tell if you can get him going.

This week's show featured an opening set by Roseanna (who also shows up at Ruta Maya for a similar gig), followed by half an hour or so by the Rainravens' Andy Van Dyke - who says the venerable Austin country rockers are still hoping to record a new CD - perhaps a collection CD for distribution in Japan - this year. That's www.rainravens.com for those who forgot or never knew their stuff.

Closing out the evening was a young romantic, Parker Worsham, native Austinite, who plays around town. But we were there to hear our new friend Tahni Handal, a California native and emigre seeking to expand her horizons and share her songs in the Live Music Capital of the World! Word is she is headed to the studio with Woody Russell, a Montana native and Seattle emigre who arrived in Austin in 2002. This singer-songwriter is playing next month at the Y-Bar and the Ginger Man.

But more on Tahni, whose songs are intensely personal and reflect her faith in a God who intervenes in her life to help her deal with life's tough stuff. She did let on that she at an earlier age was a metalhead player -- and somehow that old lifestyle did not destroy her ability to carry a tune or to write quiet songs that you can actually listen to up close.

Ross' is NOT a hip venue - but you can have a good meal, interact with real songwriters (and at lunch, sometimes, an old-fashioned piano player), and not spend a fortune - and maybe, if you pay attention, get an Austin history lesson as a bonus.