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Flanfire (Duggan Flanakin) is bringing LIFE to Austin music -- and telling the world how sweet it is!
Friday, February 09, 2007
Rose, Bean and Songsalive!
Datri Bean returns to Austin; Melinda Rothouse with Melissa Mullins (r).
The fun-loving mighty mite Melissa Mullins is at it again (after lots of traveling) -- hosting what is now a MONTHLY Songsalive! songwriters' showcase that is NOW located at Cafe Caffeine on West Mary Street. On Thursday night Melissa brought in songwriters from New Orleans, Seattle, and Portland (Oregon) for a musical feast that concluded with her own solo set.
Songsalive! is a nonprofit organization, founded by two Australians, that is dedicated to the nurturing, support, promotion and exposure of songwriters and composers to the world’s music markets. Their motto is 'GIVE LIFE TO SONG'. Recently the group expanded its mission to include raising awareness about global, humanitarian and social issues affecting our world -- staging concerts, events and programs that raise this much needed awareness. They also put out an annual compilation CD from songwriters who perform at their events. Now I missed Melissa's set this evening (dynamite in a small package on stage!), but had to take the time to thank her for opening the doors for so many of her fellow musicians, including serving as Chapter Coordinator for Austin Songsalive! and also hostess for the Writers Who Rock showcase now housed at Austin Java Co.'s 12th and Lamar location.
Now Melissa will be taking her new band to Flipnotics on March 5 -- and her band's own band, "MJ Baby and the Last Word" -- will also have their own set. This group is often just two old souls whom Katrina blew all the way here from New Orleans -- Melinda Rothouse (bass, vocals) and Matthew DeOrazio (guitar and vocals). Sometimes, I am told, they have a drummer, too. They're on the road a LOT (but I missed most of their set).
I will get to Raina Rose's set later, but have to tell my friends about Datri Bean (the gal with the amazing multicolored striped socks and the I Can't Believe It's Not Buttah" voice. Datri used to live in Austin, where she met her personal chef (and much more) -- the six-foot-nine Colombian bicycle mechanic who made her dinner the day she first borrowed a broom after moving in next door. But fate took the duo to not-so-sunny Seattle, where Datri blossomed as a singer-songwriter now known all over the West Coast. But Austin, it turns out, is home again -- maybe it's just a better jumping off place for tours that take her from Atlanta (Eddie's Attic in June) back and forth to the rainforest and hopefully a LOT more often here in Austin.
I can hardly wait to see Datri hook up with Suzanna Choffel and Alice Spencer to totally blow people away with their jazzy joy ... well, this is just to give you a little idea. Datri's instrument of choice is her Casio Privia keyboard (well, maybe she'd equally like a new Steinway, but they're SO hard to drag around!) -- and she has this fantastic PHRASING in her singing (sometimes she just stops and rolls her eyes and you know she has just had a funny thought go through her head that she's not ready to share with all of us yet). Songs this evening had this food theme -- mustard greens, green onions, and "eggs and ham and an early morning shot of Jim Beam." Indeed, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (I swear that's the paper's name!) has said that Datri has a "seemingly innate ability to charm a packed house into quietude with infectious tunes about sweet tea and tamales."
Her "Texas Song" was written shortly after leaving heaven on earth (Austin - where else?), and by the way her still quite new debut CD is entitled "Slow Down Summertime" after the title track. Somehow this disc was cut here in Austin (while she was down last June for Kerrville - duh!) with Stanley Smith on clarinet (Spankers); Rob Jewett (Wayne the Train Hancock) on upright bass, Scott French on drums, and on some "particularly sassy" tracks, Terry Shimazu plays "an almost gospel" Hammond B3 organ. As an extra bonus, Kim Deschamps sits in on pedal steel on the tearjerker, "Not Enough Winter." [Okay, I am scamming her own myspace bio.] A quick glance at her calendar and you see NO SHOWS upcoming in Austin -- not even during SXSW week -- but that certainly will change, so keep an eye out. THIS GAL IS FUN (and a personal friend of Raina Rose).
A Rose by Any Other Name Would Be Raina!
With a name like Raina, you figure she must be from Oregon (where it rains every day) -- and if you did not know it already, the third song on her new (and third, including as a duo in the Gypsy Moths) -- and she's only 25 years old. I met this lovely lady at the Gospel Brunch last Sunday and again the next night at a big private gathering -- where I first heard her sing "I Like You Better," a song that told me this woman is a tower of song. The song is also the lead-off on her brand-new CD, "The Prophet, the Pandhandler, & the Moon."
Raina is human rights political ["Nursery Rhymes" is now posted on Neil Young's list of antiwar songs], but she's just as capable of a "Theoretical Love Song" about an imaginary romance -- and she's barefoot and flowers in her hair and dancing on the green grass and oh yeah, she coughs and goes on and has wardrobe malfunctions and goes hiking on the Austin greenbelt and writes strange songs about "Truth or Consequences," which is both a TV game show and a town in New Mexico .. and a mostly instrumental, the rest in Spanish song about the late Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
I could go on and on -- but back to "I Like You Better" -- She got me on the first line -- "I like you better when you're sleeping, coz you can't make some jackass comment...." But it get's better: "Let's make love like we're making dinner, like tonight this is something we're gonna need, and I'm worried about you coz you're getting thinner, and I know we're both so hungry ...." What poetry -- and there is so much more in this song and throughout all of Raina's music. "Still in Love with the World" is another new song that "came to me in a dream" and is yet another portrait of Raina's great love for this life we are given and offered the chance to share.
The new CD officially closes with "God Bless," which is about how everyone panhandling at a freeway exit (or anywhere in Austin, for that matter) has a sign that says, "God Bless." This cut, in which Raina also asks God to send her a sign, features a fiddle solo by Austin newcomer "Pickles" Moss from "Green Mountain Grass." But there is (yes!) a hidden track 13 -- "Fiddle and Bow," a banjo and fiddle driven hoedown. "Never trust a man with a fiddle and a bow, fickle as the wind ..." Raina warns -- because he will break your heart -- and may lead a girl to "sleep with your twin brother." Hmmmmmm! And, by the way, Raina is going on the road with some of these very same Green Mountain (I am told they are from Illinois -- not Vermont!) boys after a quick trip back to the West Coast. But she too will be back in Austin by the end of February and has a show at Flip's on March 1st -- with Johann Wagner. And for the record, the GMG boys have a gig on February 24 at Stubb's with the Hot Buttered Rum String Band.
Datri Bean returns to Austin; Melinda Rothouse with Melissa Mullins (r).
The fun-loving mighty mite Melissa Mullins is at it again (after lots of traveling) -- hosting what is now a MONTHLY Songsalive! songwriters' showcase that is NOW located at Cafe Caffeine on West Mary Street. On Thursday night Melissa brought in songwriters from New Orleans, Seattle, and Portland (Oregon) for a musical feast that concluded with her own solo set.
Songsalive! is a nonprofit organization, founded by two Australians, that is dedicated to the nurturing, support, promotion and exposure of songwriters and composers to the world’s music markets. Their motto is 'GIVE LIFE TO SONG'. Recently the group expanded its mission to include raising awareness about global, humanitarian and social issues affecting our world -- staging concerts, events and programs that raise this much needed awareness. They also put out an annual compilation CD from songwriters who perform at their events. Now I missed Melissa's set this evening (dynamite in a small package on stage!), but had to take the time to thank her for opening the doors for so many of her fellow musicians, including serving as Chapter Coordinator for Austin Songsalive! and also hostess for the Writers Who Rock showcase now housed at Austin Java Co.'s 12th and Lamar location.
Now Melissa will be taking her new band to Flipnotics on March 5 -- and her band's own band, "MJ Baby and the Last Word" -- will also have their own set. This group is often just two old souls whom Katrina blew all the way here from New Orleans -- Melinda Rothouse (bass, vocals) and Matthew DeOrazio (guitar and vocals). Sometimes, I am told, they have a drummer, too. They're on the road a LOT (but I missed most of their set).
I will get to Raina Rose's set later, but have to tell my friends about Datri Bean (the gal with the amazing multicolored striped socks and the I Can't Believe It's Not Buttah" voice. Datri used to live in Austin, where she met her personal chef (and much more) -- the six-foot-nine Colombian bicycle mechanic who made her dinner the day she first borrowed a broom after moving in next door. But fate took the duo to not-so-sunny Seattle, where Datri blossomed as a singer-songwriter now known all over the West Coast. But Austin, it turns out, is home again -- maybe it's just a better jumping off place for tours that take her from Atlanta (Eddie's Attic in June) back and forth to the rainforest and hopefully a LOT more often here in Austin.
I can hardly wait to see Datri hook up with Suzanna Choffel and Alice Spencer to totally blow people away with their jazzy joy ... well, this is just to give you a little idea. Datri's instrument of choice is her Casio Privia keyboard (well, maybe she'd equally like a new Steinway, but they're SO hard to drag around!) -- and she has this fantastic PHRASING in her singing (sometimes she just stops and rolls her eyes and you know she has just had a funny thought go through her head that she's not ready to share with all of us yet). Songs this evening had this food theme -- mustard greens, green onions, and "eggs and ham and an early morning shot of Jim Beam." Indeed, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (I swear that's the paper's name!) has said that Datri has a "seemingly innate ability to charm a packed house into quietude with infectious tunes about sweet tea and tamales."
Her "Texas Song" was written shortly after leaving heaven on earth (Austin - where else?), and by the way her still quite new debut CD is entitled "Slow Down Summertime" after the title track. Somehow this disc was cut here in Austin (while she was down last June for Kerrville - duh!) with Stanley Smith on clarinet (Spankers); Rob Jewett (Wayne the Train Hancock) on upright bass, Scott French on drums, and on some "particularly sassy" tracks, Terry Shimazu plays "an almost gospel" Hammond B3 organ. As an extra bonus, Kim Deschamps sits in on pedal steel on the tearjerker, "Not Enough Winter." [Okay, I am scamming her own myspace bio.] A quick glance at her calendar and you see NO SHOWS upcoming in Austin -- not even during SXSW week -- but that certainly will change, so keep an eye out. THIS GAL IS FUN (and a personal friend of Raina Rose).
A Rose by Any Other Name Would Be Raina!
With a name like Raina, you figure she must be from Oregon (where it rains every day) -- and if you did not know it already, the third song on her new (and third, including as a duo in the Gypsy Moths) -- and she's only 25 years old. I met this lovely lady at the Gospel Brunch last Sunday and again the next night at a big private gathering -- where I first heard her sing "I Like You Better," a song that told me this woman is a tower of song. The song is also the lead-off on her brand-new CD, "The Prophet, the Pandhandler, & the Moon."Raina is human rights political ["Nursery Rhymes" is now posted on Neil Young's list of antiwar songs], but she's just as capable of a "Theoretical Love Song" about an imaginary romance -- and she's barefoot and flowers in her hair and dancing on the green grass and oh yeah, she coughs and goes on and has wardrobe malfunctions and goes hiking on the Austin greenbelt and writes strange songs about "Truth or Consequences," which is both a TV game show and a town in New Mexico .. and a mostly instrumental, the rest in Spanish song about the late Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
I could go on and on -- but back to "I Like You Better" -- She got me on the first line -- "I like you better when you're sleeping, coz you can't make some jackass comment...." But it get's better: "Let's make love like we're making dinner, like tonight this is something we're gonna need, and I'm worried about you coz you're getting thinner, and I know we're both so hungry ...." What poetry -- and there is so much more in this song and throughout all of Raina's music. "Still in Love with the World" is another new song that "came to me in a dream" and is yet another portrait of Raina's great love for this life we are given and offered the chance to share.
The new CD officially closes with "God Bless," which is about how everyone panhandling at a freeway exit (or anywhere in Austin, for that matter) has a sign that says, "God Bless." This cut, in which Raina also asks God to send her a sign, features a fiddle solo by Austin newcomer "Pickles" Moss from "Green Mountain Grass." But there is (yes!) a hidden track 13 -- "Fiddle and Bow," a banjo and fiddle driven hoedown. "Never trust a man with a fiddle and a bow, fickle as the wind ..." Raina warns -- because he will break your heart -- and may lead a girl to "sleep with your twin brother." Hmmmmmm! And, by the way, Raina is going on the road with some of these very same Green Mountain (I am told they are from Illinois -- not Vermont!) boys after a quick trip back to the West Coast. But she too will be back in Austin by the end of February and has a show at Flip's on March 1st -- with Johann Wagner. And for the record, the GMG boys have a gig on February 24 at Stubb's with the Hot Buttered Rum String Band.
AND SPEAKING of fiddle players, I did cut out from Cafe Caffeine to grab some etouffe and Abita Amber at Shoal Creek Saloon on a night when Brian Beken was playing fiddle (and mandolin and his Gibson electric) with Rob Socia's band. Rob, who is off to Costa Rica for a major event in April, had old pals Travis Woodard (Gene Pool, FBC, and much more) on drums and Eric Smith on bass ... and Rob as usual rocked the house (which included BOTH Keller Brothers!). Rob plays every second and fourth Thursday at the saloon, home of Saints fans and Louisiana food and a really fun scene for mostly twentysomethings (and youngathearts like me). The highlight of the evening was Eric telling of his magical trip (with his dad) to Levon Helm's farm in upstate New York for the concert of his life a few months back and of reading Levon's book about The Band for the third time and probably not the last. [As one who was blessed to see them live, I know what he means!]
