Flanfire

Once in a blue neon moon, you walk into a room and hear something very, very special. I remember one night in Montrose Park in Washington, DC, where we spent many evenings enjoying nature at the edge of Rock Creek Park, someone said, Be Quiet and Listen, and we heard this wonderful young woman playing the flute in heavenly tones. Dozens gathered without a word or even a whisper to listen and be blessed.

Tonight was one such night. After going early to the Cactus Cafe to hear Amy Farris (more on her show later), many of us stuck around for the Kerry Polk CD release. I know Kerry, and I have heard some of her songs, and I have really liked what I have heard. I also knew that Kerry had an all-star cast on hand for her show: David Hamburger on guitar, dobro, and national steel; Karen Mal on mandolin and vocals; Jenny Reynolds lending her lovely voice in harmony - and more (details to follow).

But even I was not prepared for such a presentation as this. Song after song after song, all with lyrics and sounds that make all of us feel (as Carole King once wrote for the Byrds) "younger than that now" while at the same time a little older and wiser, too. Just listening to this Mississippi woman, you KNOW she has spent hours staring at the clouds and letting the world go by. I was, in a word, stunned and calmed in my soul.

Kerry opened with the full band - Cisco Ryder on drums, Lance Ashcroft on bass, David on electric guitar, Karen on mando, and Willis Meyers on pedal steel - with "Wheel Keeps on Turnin'", about a "wheel hanging in a cafe at the crossroads" that's been hanging there for over 30 years. "Sweet Little DJ" is an ode to midnight radio, and "Song to a Poet" honors the likes of Townes Van Zandt and other traveling troubadours - cowboys with a halo, lonely and with broken wings. "Horse in These Hills" is a song about a Vietnam veteran who goes home and gets hooked on heroin, while "New York City Friend" is just that.

All of the songs are gems, but some shine a little brighter - including the fabulous "'65 Ford Fairlane," with Kerry and David and dueling guitars as she recalls the vehicle of her youth; "In the Twilight," with songwriter Michael Austin showing off his skills on the clarinet; Jukebox '59, about her older brother sneaking into the black juke joint, with a paean to Jimmy Reed thanks to Hamburger and harmonica player Richard Brock; the super sweet "Swing with Me," a true story of how her great-grandparents met during the War Between the States - he from New Orleans, she from Mississippi, with Jane Gillman (from Rue La La and other ventures) joining in on dulcimer and harmonica and Karen helping on vocals; and "Shoot for the Moon," which on the CD is backed by producer Mark Hallman (who sang backup vocals on several songs tonight), Glen Fukanaga on bass, and Elena Fremerman on fiddle - a song in which Kerry provides her philosophy - Shoot for the moon, dance with the stars, look to the sun and be who you are... aim for the sky, aim with your heart, what it will take is all that you've got... and as you get wiser, just don't forget A LIFE LIVED WITH GRACE IS ONE WITHOUT REGRET. Finally, and maybe the best pure song of all, is Blue Neon -- a song that Dale Watson has to love -- pure honky tonk and even with a line about a Little Longhorn Bar at the crossroads where she learned to dance. Okay, it's a song about a lost romance, one she knew all along "would never last."

During the show, someone brought Kerry some beautiful flowers -- but there was no vase, and the flowers had to wait until after the show to get their due. The real flowers were already on the stage -- in particular (for me, at least) Jenny Reynolds, just down from Boston less than a year ago and already teaching teachers at Kerrville on the topic, "Let your imagination tell the truth: freeing the mind to create", and Karen Mal, a woman often called lovely to look at but whose inner beauty shines through on stage such that a blind man can feel the glow of her spirit as she plays and sings not to draw attention to herself (on such a night as this) but to enhance the enjoyment of the one whose night it is. Karen, by the way, is also playing with the Dimestore Poets, who are at Maria's Taco X-press at 11:00 am on Sundays and will have a CD release of their own at the Cactus on June 23.

Making the evening even nicer, a lot of good friends (other than the above mentioned musicians) were in the house -- Winker-with-an-eye (back from Florida and New York), KUT DJ and Lounge Lizard Tom Pittman, Martin from Waterloo, Dr. Ruth, Bill Smith and more. I DO have a disclaimer on Kerry's music -- my mother was also born in Mississippi and lived in Louisiana and Mississippi, and I have spent many hours staring at the clouds.

Okay, so back to Amy Farris - Folks, it just ain't fair to have her playing "second fiddle." First, Amy is a fine fiddler and viola player too. Second, she too had put together quite a band for her little show - starting with Lisa Pankratz on drums. She had Jerry Holmes on electric guitar and lap steel, John Ludwig on bass, Robin Ludwig on backup vocals and percussion, and Mac McNab (whom I last saw at the Cactus backing Michael Fracasso) on acoustic guitar -- Hill Country pickers all!

Let's face it - everyone always knew Amy could sing and is just plain amusing on stage. Okay, she is more known as a fiddle player for Alejandro Escovedo and then for Bruce and Kelly (in their pre-parents-of-twins days) and other notables around town. But she went off to sunny California to work with Dave Alvin on this record and got him to cowrite several of the songs. Not bad for a country girl who grew up in Austin and learned to play VIOLIN and VIOLA before learning to play fiddle.

The record (and her show) opens with a Bruce Robison song, Drivin All Night Long, and then Amy lets us know she is "Heading East" to find an imaginary ex-boyfriend. As Rolling Stone so eloquently put it, Amy is not all country - "The title track (Anyway - the only one on which she plays no strings) harks back to the girl groups of yore, "My Heart's Too Easy to Break" borrows a little surf music guitar and gets it drunk and "Let Go" is pretty much what Marlene Dietrich would've sounded like if she'd gone to Nashville" - said the Stoners.

Amy and Dave wrote "Pretty Dresses" in honor of Ray Price, for whom Amy once fiddled and got to ride in his bus - first single woman ever to do so, we learn from her website. As a tribute to her first time hearing Dave Alvin as a member of X, she renders her own version of John Doe's "Poor Girl." My favorite of the evening was a pure dirge, "Big Louise," which Amy did not write but which she uses the viola to create a mood -- "She's a haunted house and her windows are broken and the sad young man's gone away."

The Cactus was full to the brim for both shows, and will likely be full for Greezy Wheels on Tuesday before taking off for the hinterlands for a well deserved vacation. But in Austin there are always other venues.

This coming Saturday marks two years since we lost our beautiful daughter Susan to what is commonly termed mental illness. Natalie Zoe's great words of comfort, Jason and Beth Richard's invitation to a seder at their home, and countless other kindnesses have helped us through the tough years in this city that so often seems to live by Kerry Polk's own motto - A LIFE LIVED WITH GRACE IS ONE WITHOUT REGRET. As my lovely wife's leukemia begins to interfere with her time and energy, we face yet another challenge. But we are not alone, and we will live every day to the fullest extent possible. Amy Farris dedicated her new CD to her ancestor, Margaret Elmira Bonham Farris, who lived 93 wonderful years and left a warm spot in Amy's heart. My own mother turned 93 on Sunday, and she celebrated with an old wartime friend whose daughter was born when I was ten days old - then got taken out to lunch by a dozen or more of her good friends. Next on her agenda (I was told today) was watching a video of "Calendar Girls." Oh, yeah -- last month she got to see Willie and Bobbie Nelson on stage in our hometown. Had a blast! She's been a missionary and a teacher and has friends all over the world. She, too, understands and lives by Kerry's words. No wonder I like Kerry Polk so much.

See you real soon! Why? Because I like you. [Only older folks should get that one.]