Flanfire

RAIN! Falling softly and coolly, putting a slight damper on crowd size at the Austin City Limits music festival -- but not on the great music there. Trekked to the site with two young friends who were buying CD's left and right and thoroughly enjoying bands I had missed on Saturday -- String Cheese and the Rebirth Brass Band in particular, and got to hear a little of Shin -- which sounded GREAT even from a distance.

I stuck around long enough to catch Lucinda - playing with Dwight Yoakum's former rhythm section and a lone gunslinger (er, guitar player), but spent most of that hour with Doyle Bramhall and Mike Keller -- where I ran into Glenn Fukunaga and complimented him on his not too distant past appearance with the Chicks at the music awards show. He of course credited Nat's dad Lloyd for his good fortune, which included a whole month of their infamous tour (including the London show) -- and Glenn told me he will be in the studio starting this week with Eliza Gilkyson (with Mike Hardwick on guitar, I think). THAT should be cool.

I also ran into Austin radio's best-looking couple - Eric and Michelle Leikam of 95.5 FM -- Eric hosts an Austin music show on Sunday nights at 10 pm that should not be missed by anyone up and out at that hour, while "Shelley Knight" is our favorite 9 am till 2 pm deejay. The handsome Antone was a little sleepy.

[Oh, and I forgot to mention that I ran into Laura - former owner of Laura's Bluebonnet Cafe, now called the Austin Diner - at Steve Winwood. She says that Jake (her son) is now getting his Jake's Cakes at home, and she loves being a full-time mom - though she does still dole out chocolate-covered strawberries on special occasions.]

The highlight of my Sunday, though, was taking the wife out to Manny Hattan's and then over to the Gateway to see The Fighting Temptations.

What a surfeit of great music and great musicians - from the Ojays to Beyonce Knowles to Christian rapper T-Bone and throw in the Blind Boys of Alabama and The Reverend Shirley Ceasar -- plus Cuba Gooding, Jr., showing his dance moves. See the movie - get the sound track - then see the movie again, if you are indeed a gospel music lover at ANY level. The message in the film ain't bad, either -- but I will not spoil the plot. This - amazingly - is an MTV movie.

Okay, so I missed some of the best music at the ACL Fest -- but I was satiated anyway and opted to spend time with the one I love best. What a way to spend one's birthday!!!!!