As I write this Jeremiah and I are about an hour outside of Memphis headed back to Nashville from our annual pilgrimage to South by Southwest in Austin, TX. Fortunately, our gracious house host for the week, Mr. James Segerson, gave word that I had forgotten my laptop at his house before we got too far down the road. Otherwise, this blog certainly wouldn’t be happening now, nor would my work day tomorrow morning. That would be a big time FAIL! Luckily we have tiger blood though, so it’s only WINNING for this crew. ;)
It definitely felt like a successful trip though. This was my fourth trip down, and it seems to get better every year. We ended up playing four shows altogether. We started out on Tuesday at an Irish pub called BD Riley’s on 6th street. Cool venue with a stage that opens up to the street, and considering the winter we’ve had in Nashville, that warm air and sunshine was just as welcomed as the nice little crowd we had in there. A few acts after us, we got to hear Mike Stinson play- a great songwriter and an old friend from our days in Los Angeles. Naturally, we took advantage of the free bar tab while we waited to hear him go on!
Wednesday we made it to the Guitartown/Conqueroo Kick Off party- our first year being there early enough to catch it! From there, we headed out to the Waterloo Ice House to see the ever fabulous Randy Weeks- another LA buddy- before we played a couple spots later. We had some friends out for that and had a fun little night. The manager there was awesome, and liked our set enough to hook us up with all sorts of fun things- pint glasses, posters, t-shirts, picks- all sorts of goodies!
Thursday prompted our newly adopted tradition of feasting at Matt’s El Rancho, a fantastic Mexican restaurant I used to frequent with my family when I lived there early on. We each had a couple (strong) margaritas, despite it being St. Patrick’s Day. Later that evening I caught the Americana Music Association’s event at Antone’s. What a great lineup! Band of Heathens, Abigail Washburn, Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis, Emmylou Harris, and the Old 97’s. It was like a sardine can in there for Emmylou, but how can you complain- it’s Emmylou!!
Friday was an epic day of music starting out with the Sin City event at Maria’s Tacos. We didn’t get to see everyone, but were there long enough for Tim Easton, Stonehoney, and Shurman. From there we raced over to the new Austin City Limits venue at Moody Theatre, for the Lost Highway 10 year celebration. We were able to score VIP passes for that one, which was a pretty awesome way to see Black Joe Lewis, Hayes Carll, Dan Tyminski, Ryan Bingham, Robert Earl Keen, and Lucinda Williams! What an amazing and inspiring show to see. Topped off the evening with a little pizza in the crowded streets of downtown before crashing!
Saturday was our mini-marathon day during the marathon week. We made it to the Continental Club just in time to catch the end of Mother Trucker’s packed set. Our friend Mark Gonzalez has been working to help promote them, and it was great to see those efforts paying off for a deserving band. We had to spilt from there to make it to Sam’s Town Point in time to play our first of two shows that night. It was pretty great to be at Sam’s and catch our breath a little bit from all the madness of the downtown. It was such a perfect evening out, and we were able to enjoy a couple beers on the back porch before playing. That show was our only one with technical difficulties for the week- pretty good for us! Jeremiah was just rocking so hard that his foot stomping knocked the power source loose, but other than that all went well. After that we hopped back to town to play Uncorked- a lovely wine bar with an outdoor patio overlooking the Austin skyline. I guess the full moon was as big as it’s appeared in 20 years or something, and it rose up right behind us as we played. A glass of wine and visiting with some friends after was the perfect ending to our SXSW run.
So here we are under that big ol’ moon once again, passing Memphis and looking forward to a little rest soon! Great to see everyone- let’s do it again next year! J
BIG THANKS TO:
Jason, Penny Jo, and Bonny for helping us out with our banjo situation. We were short one arriving to Austin, and they set us up!
Jim for his hospitality and awesome company! Love the new pad!
Everyone who helped us set up shows- Todd, Johnny, Julie, Ramsey, and Jason- and to all those who tried! Last but not least, thank you so much to everyone that came out!!
