Flanfire

Alice Spencer is back -- and she BAD! And that's GOOD! Playing Tuesdays (except August 30) at the Hole in the Wall (10:30 pm or so), Alice and her Monkey Butlers -- Mark Rubin on tuba, Pops Bayless (of Shorty Long), Ben Saffer on clarinet (whom we remember from Alice's old Victrola ensemble that played in the basement at the old Empanada Parlour), and Joe Cordi on keyboards -- fill up the room with joyful sounds of music from the halcyon days of speakeasies and bathtub gin. Starting off with "Chauffeur Blues" (which we remember Maria Muldaur singing up close and personal), Alice took the audience on a musical journey aided by her eloquent quartet of soloists and raconteurs. The set list included "Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)," "Shine On Harvest Moon" (featuring a banjo solo), "My Blue Heaven" played way up tempo after a sultry intro, "Honeksuckle Rose," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," "Fascinating Rhythm" (a crowd favorite), and even tunes penned by Bayless and the Bad Livers (one of Rubin's many ventures). One thing's for sure -- Alice, "I'll See You in My Dreams."

Folks, Alice is sassier, sultrier, and sexier than she has ever been - and unlike her Victrola daze, she's on foot in this band, dancing around and even getting folks up to dance to the music. Brand new Austinite Ty Cobb (the harmonica player, not the Georgia Peach!) was beaming as he danced with his lovely lady ... and both earlier bands -- Bryce Clifford (a Toronto boy who grew up listening to good jazz) and Gloucester, Massachusetts, import Stephanie Cornell -- stuck around for at least most of the Monkey Butlers show.

Cornell had a bunch of rowdy friends at her set, her last gig in town until she returns from Beantown hopefully with new Fenway memories. Two of her songs were so new she had not yet named them, but our favorite was "Ghost Story." Her music kept us in a mellow mood.

I had met Bryce Clifford at a Sapphires show at the Carousel Lounge a few weeks back, but had missed his CD release at Ego's, and this was my first chance to catch him live. He had a hot (though admittedly not fully rehearsed) band featuring Zach Firnhaber on bass and Daniel Jones on drums (both from Crawling with Kings), Adoniram Lipton on keyboards, James Ryder on acoustic guitar and harp, and special guest Kullen Fuchs on trumpet, pflugelhorn, and melody horn. Kullen, who is playing with Ian Moore and Will Sexton, just got "back" to Austin after leaving the University of Kentucky where he had been working on his Ph.D. in trumpet (okay, he's just a Mean Greenie from North Texas!).

Bryce opened with my favorite of his, "Woodstock, Ontario," and followed with "College Street," another song about his homeland from his new CD, Signal the Sun. A very cool number in the set was the R&B classic, "Tracks of My Tears," which allowed each of the soloists an opportunity to shine (Bryce plays lead guitar). But we really like "Home," and the lyric "And if my heart should fail to bring you home, I'll blame myself." The music was good old rock and roll with some softer sides - and the trumpet added a wonderful touch throughout. The sound was a little unpolished in places, but even Bryce was having so much fun he knocked his mike off the stage.

For the record, we caught Eliza Gilkyson's first set down in San Marcos on Sunday night at the wonderful venue, the San Marcos River Pub -- backed by son Cisco Ryder and Mike Hardwick. Heard her Cactus show the night before was with quite a few pickers and excellent. Ran into Jimmy LaFave at the show - with his very handsome son.