Flanfire

I went to Dallas to see Jessica Shepherd tonight - with her band -- Kyle Judd on guitar, Perry Drake on drums, and Greg Bumgardner from Canyon Lake (now San Marcos) on bass. Lest anyone be confused, Dallas is a night club on Burnet Road with a huge oval-shaped dance floor (with three posts in the middle to hold up the roof), lots of pool tables, cheeseburgers and fries to go along with your beer and liquor, three - make it four - bars, and live Texas music on Thursday nights. Dallas' reputation is as a kicker heaven - hats and two steps - but oddly enough in between Jessica's sets tonight, the house threw in a bunch of hiphop and funk and that stuff seemed to draw even more folks onto the dance floor than the live countrified pickin'. There were a few who braved the floor for traditional Texas dancing - but not that many. Even so, folks generally had a very good time. Jessica and the band played songs from her Travelingirl CD (which still sounds good after nearly four years), some of her newer material (including the beauty parlour song that makes me want to get a copy for my mother), and a few covers - including a rousing rendition of The Doors' "People Are Strange" which got applause from some of the regulars. Jessica always closes with her version of One Way Ticket to Austin, which she co-wrote with Shelley King - and which featured lots of solo work by Kyle and other band members. Greg's other band is a duo (sometimes trio) called Acoustic Jungle.

Today is New Year's Eve - and as my old friend Scott Wesley Brown says, I wish you peace.