Flanfire

NRK P1, a Norwegian radio outlet, did a SXSW live taping on Saturday at Leeann Atherton's barn -- highlighted by two songs by Leeann with Zhenya Rock and Bill Kirchen's infamous "Hot Rod Lincoln," in which he delivered a nearly complete history of rock and roll and the blues in the classic Sixties era. Also on tap were the 6-5 redhead with the androgynous voice, Brett Dennen, Austin's own Grady and the infamous Asylum Street Spankers and two bands from Norway, Big Bang (a longtime barn dance favorite) and Lionheart Brothers. The show also featured taped conversations with Austin legends like the Broken Spoke's James White and Austin Music Awards winner Patrice Pike -- and more.

During the show, each band did two or three songs, and the highlights included Big Bang's brand-new "The Prettiest Girl in Austin," featuring Oystein Greni (with the long golden hair) on guitar and vocals, the bearded Olaf Olsen on drums, and short-haired Eric Tresselt on bass. These guys play serious blues rock with great energy and lots of moxie -- and sing in English for the American crowds. Grady's stinging southern rock (as interpreted by Alberta native Grady Johnson) smoked on "Chili Cold Blood" and "Western Cowboy" (not a cowboy ballad!!) kept up the fast pace.

But then Leeann and Zhenya slowed everything down with "Brand New Girl" and "Thank You," which featured Z-Rock on the balalaika. Does anyone, BTW, doubt that Leeann is going to take Europe by storm this summer and very hopefully record a super-CD "live in Europe"? Isn't it just about time for Austin's greatest singer and spokesperson to take that love to faraway lands? For the taping, Leeann described her barn as "an old soul place filled with lots of music."

Brett Dennen is the toast of Rolling Stone, and Austin's John Thomasson tells how he was touring with another band a year or so ago and Brett was opening with just his guitar and a drummer, and he was gassed at the good sounds and offered to play bass (doing double duty) for the rest of the tour -- and now he will be going with Dennen to Europe in August. The Norwegian hosts noted that Rolling Stone had called Dennen a 25-year-old soul living in 1972. It was a little before that time I wrote a poem about going to Modesto (his hometown area). Songs for this day included "Do Not Fear What You Don't Really Know" and "She's Mine," plus the joyful "Love Will Come and Set Me Free." In describing this young singer, the only name that came to mind was Roy Orbison -- even though he surely does not look like nor even sing like Roy -- but he has that aura.....

Is it really fair that Bill Kirchen is still hanging around Austin schooling just about every other guitarist young and old (I mean, are we not spoiled enough with Redd Volkaert?)?? Sure, we have lots of young guns who either grew up here or moved here at an early age -- and of course Bill has played Austin since the Armadillo daze ... but NO ONE can crank it up and have more fun still jumping around on stage (faking it, yeah!) than Commander Cody's favorite lieutenant. And then the Spankers -- Wammo and Christina Marrs and Nevada Newman and Scott Markus, plus newer members Josh Hoag on bass and Charlie King on lotsa stuff. Their newest CD is their "kids" album (their only non-R-rated effort), but even when they did "You Only Love Me for My Lunch Box" Wammo could not resist a little tongue twister that inevitably led to some language not acceptable on American radio (at least before midnight).

Of course, I had plenty of fun on Friday -- first at Bull McCabe's Irish Bar, where Adoniram Lipton had convinced the owners to bring in live music for what was in reality kind of an open invitation private party featuring Slowtrain, Faultline for Now, and the Bryce Clifford Band and a special solo appearance by Pittsburgh's Eric James. This serendipitous ensemble of talent kept even the passers-by happy all afternoon -- James for the record used to play in a band with Slowtrain's Brett Staggs (and Brett's brother-in-law Reed, who was also in town), and his own brother-in-law is the lead singer in Faultline for Now, B Sterling Archer.

For an evening treat, I stopped by at Opal Divine's Penn Field to catch the tail end of the Chicago House 20th anniversary party and caught a little of Will T. Massey, a single song from Michael Fracasso, a short set by the amazing Betty Elders with husband Gene on fiddle, and a rocking set by Jimmy Lafave, who got his start in Austin at this legendary acoustic venue that lives forever in the hearts of longtime Austinites. Betty is promising to get back before mikes and audiences after what has seemed an eternity (I last saw her at the Texas Music Theater in a singers-in-the-round show with Lafave, Fracasso, and Eliza Gilkyson that my lovely Nancy STILL talks about as one of the best shows she has ever seen). And Jimmy has a brand-new CD that will be out on May 4th -- and a band with BOTH John Edmond and Andrew Hardin playing lead guitar, plus Radoslaw Lorkovic on keyboards and accordian.

And somehow I may have forgotten to mention catching a smokin' set from Kim Deschamps on (was it?) Wednesday at Maria's Taco X-Press -- with Country Matt Giles on guitar -- plus Kim had as special guests Lee Winright and Andrew Walker. And on Thursday night I went to Pipes Plus on the Drag for a cool lineup of singer-songwriters hosted by the wonderful Graham Weber. I got there for most of Ricky Stein's solo set (he wowed the Saxon Pub tonight, I hear!) plus sets from Kristy Krueger (from Dallas), Chris Brecht, Ted Hodgie, Neva Geoffrey (now in Kentucky), Jason David Hyatt, and Mike Schoenfeld (who has a CD release party on April 5th at the Mohawk for his quirky songs). My friend Betsy says that Graham is the second best songwriter in Austin (after the beloved Mario Matteoli) and the world, too! But for me the highlight of the evening was that Nashville's Tommy Womack - one of my favorite songwriters - had stopped and blessed us all with a song from his brand-new CD, "There I Said It," called "Nice Day" -- a really sweet song about real life as a musician living on the edge with his family.

Finally, I vaguely recall an afternoon at Epoch Coffee House with the Zookeeper and a couple of minutes watching MothFight with the amazing Marcus Rubio sitting in -- and his next-door neighbor Sean McCarrey on hand to invite me to an upcoming gig at the Parlor in April. These San Antonio boys are quite talented, and Zhenya Rock (for whom Sean is opening next week at SA's Red Room) told me today he really likes it that Sean is stretching his music out into new territory. Of course, Sean is telling everyone he knows that Zeegrass is the best band in the whole wide world -- and maybe so.

Flanfire -- Bringing LIFE to Austin music.