Flanfire

Thomas Mann may be the next big thing in keyboard players in Austin -- he's young, he's from Buffalo by way of Atlanta, and he has a great partner in wife Kelly (Williams) Mann who is the lead singer in Melody Mann - and, yes, folks, she's a Corpus Christi girl who dragged her man back to the Lone Star State. [More on this later]

Which reminds me, we were at Momo's on Thursday to catch the Austin debut of the Heidi Little Band (minus a lead guitar player); logistics fouled them up, and they did a short set, following everyone's Austin childhood sweetheart Rachel Loy (whose beatiful older sister Sarah sang with her, showing her joyful belly that is just two months from delivery of child No. 2). Rachel, for the record, is now on tour through the Southeast and up to New York warming up new crowds, but will be back before the swelter season ends (later this month). Truth be told, Rachel's smile and joy on stage overwhelm her music to the point that you forget what she is singing and just bask in the pheremones of good vibes [Sarah once wrote that driving her car she feels like a 16-year-old boy though she is a 22-year-old professional woman -- well, watching her sing makes me hearken back to the days I WAS a 16-year-old boy.] Oh, yeah -- the band did do "Watching the Detectives" and a bunch of other songs, some from her new CD.

Ran into Brian Keane at the show -- he opened for Hal Ketchum at Gruene Hall on Saturday night and is back there with band next Saturday afternoon -- I will be on South Padre Island and will have to miss the show, but you folks get on down and dance a little. Also there I ran into a keyboard player named Rolf who introduced me to his new bassist Ross and told me about their new project "Danub" (from the old SNL Eddie Murphy skit, he explained) which will be jazzy and a little bit funky as well. So Ross, who hails from Maine and had been living in St. Thomas (paradise, for those who know), just moved to Austin because HIS GIRLFRIEND IS FROM TEXAS AND WAS HOMESICK! [More evidence that you can take a girl out of Texas, but you cannot take the Texas out of the girl.!]

Expect a lot more from the newlywed Miss Little at her upcoming Saxon Pub show on the LAST LEGAL SMOKING IN THE BAR DAY in Austin (August 31) -- well, except for those few clubs who installed smoke controls (the list will be forthcoming) and have a few more years of puffing left. Heidi meanwhile is in the final stages of recording at Pedernales .....

SO back to Melody Mann -- but first, a plug for Kevin Montgomery (last barn dance). I got an e-mail from him this morning early (that Norton tried to hide in the deleted messages box before I ever saw it, but I was too clever by half) that his video of "Tennessee Girl" would be debuting on CMT between 9 and 10 am today. Sure 'nuff, I turned on my set to watch the end of Johnny Cash (sorry I missed it) and there was ol' Kevin, big as life and driving a HUGE red pickup truck WITH TEXAS PLATES, pickin' and grinnin' and showing lots of Texas scenery. Do catch his next show in town - loved Al Perkins' pedal steel on the CMT video cut.

My buddy Brent Allen from the Austin Songwriters Group had introduced me to the Manns when they opened for The Illustrated Band (which is back in bizness thanks to Dave's decision to keep plucking that bass for another year) at Antone's a while back. By the way, the ASG has announced its 2005 song contest [details at http://www.austinsongwritersgroup.com/2005SongContest.html ]

So I get to the gig at the Alligator (we were really there for the gumbo - too!) and all seven pieces are wailing away on the sultry "Stormy Monday." Besides the Manns, there is guitarist Bill Crock, drummer Jeff Jeffries, bassist (and quite good!) Scott Beardsley, plus Dave Gilden on trumpet and Kevin Gibbs on saxophones. The mix runs from Little Feat covers to pure New Orleans to just plain funky, and Kelly has a Bobbie Gentry quality that we want more and more of (though she started out cold as a real adult who decided one day to become a singer and belted out Joplin and Allman Brothers sounds, hiring her future hubby as a piano player in what must now seem another lifetime). In short, Kelly can growl! The band will be back at the Alligator (which is really a great room for bands with horns because of the depth of field) on Friday, September 2. If you like great keyboardists (or may be looking for one for your next studio project) and that full band sound, check them out. And did I mention (PJP and TS are you reading this?) that Thomas is an Irish boy from Buffalo with a HUGE family, half of whom are (what else?) on the police force there.

One more thing -- Leo Rondeau and his band are no longer the Indian Cowboys. Next time I will fill in the details of the new band name -- but they are still playing every Saturday at 5 pm at the Carousel Lounge.