Flanfire

Anticipation! Well, there's Sunday's SXSW Barn Dance, and then there's next Thursday's big wedding event at Mercury Hall in which my daughter and her husband Ryan will pledge their vows before family and friends (they had a civil ceremony a while back to clarify things for the political establishment). Meanwhile, of course, there is music galore - and not all of it directly linked to South by Southwest or its "NOT" alternative venues.

Last night, for example, I took the wife, daughter, and grandson to Central Market to dine and dance to the music of Susanna Van Tassel - the Austin by way of Santa Rosa (California) country songbird who in so many ways is the REAL
"sweetheart of the rodeo" (thank you, Roger McGuinn and Gram Parsons). Susanna - a long, lean Valentine machine - reminds one of Donna Fargo with a Texas twist. Not that she only sings sweet songs - Nolan Porterfield of the Journal of Country Music says Susanna has "one of the sweetest, saddest, happiest honky-tonk voices I think I've ever heard." From Roger Miller to Kitty Wells to Loretta Lynn to her own wonderful songs (many of which are found on her 2002 disc, "Little Star," this graceful mom brings your heart to a warmer place. She even has a new song proclaiming that she does not want to sing any more sad songs - but she still does. And did I mention Jim Stringer - a common thread who has helped so many of these young Austin country singing wimmen with his great guitar licks.

Earlier in the week I spent great time hearing and hanging out with three other Austin country divas - the energetic and newly married (just this Monday) Elizabeth McQueen (and her Firebrands, including hubby Dave Sanger of Asleep at the Wheel fame, gunslingers Chris Miller and Andrew Nafziger, and bassist Lindsay Greene) at Threadgill's (one of many gigs for her during the week); the not quite so newly (last summer) married Karen Poston (with guitarist Kevin Hollingsworth and an all-star band backing her and pal Penny Jo Pullus - both at the Hillbilly Lane showcase at D&L's Texas Music Cafe and sponsored by the ubiquitous Bill Groll. I stayed at that gig long enough to also hear Kaz Murphy play with the same band - HOT!

Penny Jo, you may know, also sings backup vocals in the legendary Austin hippie band, Greezy Wheels, but with her Vanishing Breed band the upstate New York native lets her grittiness hang out on such songs as "Hardly a Day Goes By" and other songs she did not write and "What's a Girl To Do?" (which on her record, My Turn to Howl, has Susanna, Karen, AND Elizabeth all singing backup vocals) and other she did write. Last year's Hillbilly Lane extravaganza was actually held at Penny Jo's own house and barn somewhere in South Austin.

All four of these fabulous Austin women are ten times better at singing the kind of country music I like than ANY of the contestants at the Nashville Star competition (excluding the pride of Nacogdoches, Sheila Marshall, whose country credentials were challenged on live TV last Saturday but whose voice and songwriting should keep her moving in the right (read, Texas music) direction. All of them, you see, are real women who write real songs about real things and live real lives with their friends and families in a real city with real people as their neighbors. And, as is plainly clear, they all help each other out and support each other's work. Now, that's Austin, baby!

Okay - keeping on my chick singer fling, I finished off Thursday afternoon by trotting over to Jovita's to catch a set by one of my personal non-Austin favorites, Susan Cowsill (formerly of the Continental Drifters and, well, duh - the Cowsills). Her new band - The Midcity Ministers - rocks, and Susan says Lucinda Williams is helping out her debut solo CD with a duet of one of Lucinda's own great songs. Susan has been in New Orleans for most of the past decade and has emerged from some "stuff" looking fresh and rarin' to go. I would say she is probably the Crescent City's closest clone of our own Leeann Atherton.

On Wednesday, after some solid sounds from Scrappy Jud - first with old soul and band mate Troy Campbell in a Loose Diamonds reunion and then with the Beaver Nelson band as part of a great Opal Divine's lineup, I boogied over to Threadgills to hear Mandy Mercier - backed by the incomparable Marvin Dykhuis (who played later that evening at Donn's with soon-to-be-21 Warren Hood sitting in) and a legendary rhythm section. It is always a joy to see Mandy smiling and laughing at herself -- anyone who missed her Janis Joplin tribute show earlier this year should hope that there will someday be a CD of that great show. Somewhere in the middle of Thursday (or Wednesday, it is getting blurry) I also caught a fine acoustic set by super songwriter Nathan Hamilton and a set from the Sidehill Gougers, late of College Station and now hanging in the San Marcos-Austin corridor and playing sometimes at Momo's. The Gougers are getting good reviews, and why not - they pay tribute to Gram Parsons. Brian Beken on fiddle and mandolin is from Montgomery, Texas (now there's a real small town for you); Andy Tindall hails from Alvarado (not much, if any, bigger); Shane Walker is from Crawford (everybody knows about Crawford); and girlsinger Jamie Griffin is from Sealy (where the mattresses USED to be made).

Okay - there is more to come. I also endured and enjoyed a hot set by James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards - which of course bespeaks of the sarcasm and bitter poetry of the bandleader. It's hard not to like this son of Lonesome Dove's lyrical genius, but dang he often makes Texas sound like some unholy place. What actually amazes me is that you can actually see this guy playing in town so often, when he is surely so much in demand worldwide. I think he had six guitars on stage at Threadgill's - five more than he sometimes uses in sets some friends recalled to me. Hanging out with me during that wonderful early Thursday afternoon (I remember now) were my pals Patrick Fitzgerald of Austin and Tom Hinze, who has opened up Tom's Garage in Appleton, Wisconsin (where Packer fans are learning Americana music). All of that music (including McQueen and a cast of thousands) was brought to us by Threadgill's and Third Coast Music's John Conquest - who left Austin for the quieter, warmer climes of San Antonio a while back.

Meanwhile, wedding planning and Caleb (my grandson who already is a huge music lover at nine months) and wife hugging and kissing and other pastimes - and, okay, work! - fill up other hours of these glorious days during which I am thankful to God and everyone for the good weather. I have family coming in from Phoenix and Winter Haven and Chicago and other locales for the big wedding event - a true South Austin affair, complete with chocolate cake with white chocolate icing for all you lucky invitees!

I may have some interesting announcements in the near future about other things of value and vitality - stay tuned.