Flanfire

The real trophy was at Ginny's Little Longhorn tonight. I started out planning to go to Trophy's at 9:30 to hear my pal Mark Ambrose (who used to have a regular gig there), but got "sidetracked" by a call from my daughter who wanted to go shopping and did not have a car. So after an hour with her and the Caleb-dude at Uncle Sam's Place (the new one on IH-35 north of Parmer), I trekked on down to South Austin. But when I got to Trophy's, Mark and the beautiful Deb were pulling away. Kris Brown (who was to play with both the Boxcar Angels and his own Family Sauce) explained that Trophy's had booked two other bands to play, and that seeing how it was nearly 10:30 already and the scene was quite ragged, I decided to head back north of the river. I knew that the Brennen Leigh country band - featuring Scott from Dark Holler on bass and Billy Dee's pedal steel player Ricky Davis, and the inimitable Cade Callahan on snare and vocals, along with brother Seth Hulbert - was playing at the venerable Ginny's, but I was hardly prepared for the ChickenShitSunday size crowd - all full inside and dozens outside when I got there a little before eleven. Redd Voelkart was in the house, along with members of Dark Holler and my pal Bill Groll and my pal Winker, and also Chris Rhoades, who has been playing bass for Wayne the Train Hancock for a while now. There were people dancing and singing along and having a real good time (as is common at Ginny's), but Ricky Davis was having a blast, and Brennen and Seth (who are leaving town next week for the frozen northlands of their youth) were really on fire, bringing down the house on nearly every song (but especially on the Johnny Cash songs they did). Marshall Jones of Dark Holler gave me a new demo of theirs - and you can catch their old timey music act at the Carousel most Wednesdays.

For Brennen fans who missed this great show, she is playing one more time in town before heading north for a while (with planned gigs opening for Ralph Stanley and one closer to Austin opening for Slaid Cleaves as part of her summer vacation). This will be a side project with North Dakotan Leo Rondeau (who just moved to A-town a few months ago), the aforesaid Cade, the aforesaid Scott, and even brother Seth. They'll be honky-tonkin' at D & L's Texas Music Cafe - rain or moonshine, I hear.

As we enter this Memorial Day weekend, we pause to honor those who gave their lives and limbs so that we can continue to live in freedom. May it ever be so, despite rumors of terrorism all summer long (Is it Independence Day the Movie yet?). Though I did just finish a novel by Carl Sagan's son about how the entire human race was wiped out by a manmade virus that Pandora let out of the box - and how the world's great scientists had slaved away to create a mutant group to live in space until they reached maturity, all the while being fed and developed by machines and virtual realities. Naaaahhhhh! And while you are at it, remember out 75,000 troops in Germany, our 39,000 troops in South Korea, and out guys in Iraq and around the globe (including Bosnia and now Hispaniola, to help flood victims) as they endure and sometimes succumb to pressures of living far away from home without a lot of free time to go to concerts and stuff like we do.