Flanfire

This is for Michael Weston King.

OOPS! After all that March 21 confusion over posts getting erased, I did not realize that I had erased my review of his performance at Troy Young Campbell's showcase at Threadgills on Wednesday during SXSW week and of his sparkling new (mostly live in Europe) CD, "Absent Friends." King, who was in town largely for the debut of the Townes Van Zandt documentary (as he had been a pal and tour mate of our legend), played several showcases and visited many old friends from Austin, where he once did a record for the long-dead Watermelon label.

Stop right now and find his website (www.michaelwestonking.com) and listen to some of his songs if you do not already know King's music. Better yet - just go out and buy Absent Friends! I would compare him (and his old band The Good Sons) to Eliza Gilkyson as a songwriter and to bands like the Jayhawks and Uncle Tupelo but better .... Why is this guy not in regular rotation on all of our really good radio stations? In my very humble opinion, his songs are at the top of the heap - Gram Parsons good! And there are strong hints of gospel influences in many - so I wonder if King is pals with my hero Steve Winwood.

The new CD - which has four new songs and new versions of 10 others previously recorded - begins with the hypnotic "I Fall Behind" and includes other amazing songs like "The Wooden Hill," "Angels in the End," and "Always the Bridesmaid." One of my personal favorites is the sad requiem "Tim Hardin '65," which has lines like this:

I wish that I could see my folks as newly weds, smiles and jokes long before life's disappointments took away their shine.
And I wish that I could show them their sweat and toil was worth it and I would grow to be such a fine upstanding boy.
Mostly I wish I could show my children how secure was the building before the walls came crashing down around them.

But by far the most intriguing song on this CD is "Mother Tongue," which touches deep into the hearts of anyone who has lost (via separation or death) a parent or child --

You and I speak the mother tongue
We don't know where, Daddy’s gone
Where he’s gone, or where he’s been
Or if we’ll see him again

He didn’t hate you, he just ignored you
I will describe his face for you
His face, for you, is ashen grey
Afraid of what you’ll say ...

He loved us once, he loves us now
You must hold onto this truth somehow
Sometimes it fades, and I can’t recall
The time he loved us all
And every time the phone rings, there’s a chance he could be calling
To tell us that he’s sorry and he was wrong for leaving
And I want so much to tell him
That we would all forgive him if he just came home.......
Oh Daddy are you coming home?

Perhaps King's songs are just too real for American radio. I will only say that my visit with Michael Weston King and the opportunity to learn more about his music was the single highest memory I will carry away from South by Southwest 2005.