Flanfire

Anne-Marie Harrop tonight - at Leeann Atherton's barn dance - took her first baby steps at becoming a real bona fide rock star. It was the debut of Anne-Marie's Cloud 8 Experience (featuring Perry Drake on drums and Jackson on guitar - complete with all manner of fuzz boxes and other distortion devices). Three songs - some compared Anne-Marie to Grace Slick, because her songs and her voice are so psychedelic (and her lyrics are aking to beat poetry). TONS of energy, showmanship, and personality. The audience was left panting for more but already drained and speechless. As a guy who kept telling Shelley King to make sure to give Anne-Marie a mike to sing into while she was playing bass for Shelley, it was more than gratifying to see her singing LEAD vocals and the very discerning crowd going wild.

But just as exciting for me was watching El Goins do three of his own songs and playing Leeann's guitar as pal Carolyn Wonderland (who later did three songs of her own) played lead and sang harmony vocals. El - Carolyn's off-and-on drummer who also plays with Patrice Pike and many others - has been spending much of his non-playing time in the studio. His latest project, for singer-songwriter Brian Keane, is due on the streets any day now. I got to hear the entire CD in El's living room (complete with breakdowns of the harmony vocals and some of the unmixed tracks), and it is just fine. El and Brian got Susan Gibson, Carolyn, and Wendy Colonna to sing harmonies, Eleanor Whitmore to toss in some fiddle, and Guy Forsyth to sing a duet with Brian - and that's just half of the extra participants here. Some of the songs remind you of the Jayhawks - but to hear the live version, just trot to Momo's on a Wednesday night these days. For those who don't know, El produced the "Loose Collection of Saints and Sinners" CD that was recorded live in a room at the San Jose Hotel in south Austin - and a growing number of other music bears his mark. But truth be told, El's best work might be his own songwriting - and his cooking.

Yet another highlight was Canadian refugee Andrew Walker's set, which featured some great licks by fellow Canada refugee Kim Deschamps (due to leave soon for another tour with Charlie Robison). Kim, too, played a few songs, including a steamy 12-bar blues with a slide. Andrew says he has moved into a haunted apartment - but I will let him tell the whole story when you come to his next gigs. Maybe the Long Branch on Monday night?

The Keller Brothers closed out the evening with another hot set of music folks can dance to. Drummer Corey is on the road these days with Marcia Ball, while gunslinger Mike just got back from Minnesota, where he's recording with Doyle Bramhall I. Leeann (who also did a short set with Jackson, Sunny, and El Goins on drums) sang a couple of songs with the Kellers (and pal Scott on bass) and it was very good.

Others playing included the traveling duo Butterfly Sky (Ruth and Greg), who were joined on harmonica by none other than our hostess with the mostess Leeann. SMOKIN'! The Sky are hanging out in the Austin-San Marcos area for the deep winter and hope to find gigs at house concerts and non-sucky venues. San Antonio's Sean Palen - a modern day Tim Buckley - also shared several of his intense songs on acoustic guitar. This is an Air Force veteran who just started playing out in public 18 months or so ago and is already drawing a following.

Earlier in the day we stopped by the wonderful Maria's and chowed down quickly to get more time on the dance floor. And why not? Gurf, Papa Mali, Scrappy Jud, Bhudda Mills, Nick Connelly, Sarah Brown, Carolyn W, and Shelley King - with special guest also on guitar - were all so glad to see the sunshine that they sang and played even better than normal. Slaid Cleaves was just one of many musicians in the audience.