Dec. `09 - Texas Music Magazine

the Flatlanders, the Arc Angels and many
more KGSR favorites.
EXTRA
Dec. ‘09
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Strait heads back to big screen
Believe it or not, it’s been nearly 18 years
since George Strait’s first foray into
Hollywood as Dusty Chandler in 1992’s Pure
Country. And now it seems he’s heading
back to the movies, this time with a limited
role in A Pure Country Gift. While filming
has been underway in Nashville, little is
known about the plot, though it’s described
as a feature film sequel. The new film stars
Oklahoma singer-songwriter Katrina Elam.
A release date has not yet been
announced. In other Strait news, Mr. Pure
Country has tapped fellow Texan Lee Ann
Womack to join him and Reba McEntire for
an arena tour kicking off Jan. 22 in
Baltimore and running through April 10.
Strait and Womack were nominated for
Musical Event of the Year at November’s
CMA Awards for “Everything But Quits,” a
duet off of Womack’s 2008 album, Call Me
Crazy.
Crowell to keynote songwriters
symposium
Grammy-winning “Houston Kid” Rodney
Crowell will deliver the keyonote speech —
and a public concert — at the kickoff of the
2010 Austin Songwriters Symposium on
Jan. 29. The event, which runs through
Jan. 31, will take place at Austin’s Wyndom
Hotel. In addition to Crowell’s performance
and opening address, the weekend will feature workshops on such topics as song
pitching, publishing, studio production and,
of course, songwrting. Registration and
ticket info — along with an application for
artists interested in playing a 20-minute
showcase at the symposium — can be found
at www.austinsongwritersgroup.com.
The times they are a-changing at
KGSR
Austin radio station KGSR recently
announced some pretty big changes. First,
on Nov. 13, ship captain Jody Denberg
announced that he was leaving the station
after 19 years on the air. Denberg will stay
on until some time in early December, after
which he’ll enjoy some free time and relaxation. Also in November, KGSR informed listeners know that the station would be moving down the dial from 107.1 to 93.3. The
move extends the station’s geographic
reach to almost four times that of its original frequency. Amidst all the changes,
though, one KGSR tradition continues: Vol.
17 of the station’s popular Broadcasts CD
series was released the day after
Thanksgiving. The double-disc set features
exclusive live tracks by Steve Earle, Hayes
Carll, Bob Schneider, Spoon, Todd Snider,
Rich to grand marshal Nashville
Christmas parade
Kristofferson gets mean for
Jerry Lee Lewis
For his new digital EP, Mean Old Man, Jerry
Lee Lewis assembled an eclectic group of
artists to help him put a “killer” spin on five
songs old and new. The title track, “Mean Old
Man,” was written by Kris Kristofferson especially for Lewis. Other artists featured on the
EP are Merle Haggard (“Swinging Doors”),
Kid Rock and Slash (“Rockin’ My Life Away”),
Sheryl Crow (“You Are My Sunshine”), and
Eric Clapton and James Burton (“You Can
Have Her”). The EP is currently available
only on Amazon; look for Lewis’ full-length
album in early 2010.
EXTRA
PUBLISHER/
S T E WA R T R A M S E R
Photo courtesy John Rich
John Rich — the Texas-born half of the
“Music Mafia” duo Big & Rich — will serve as
the grand marshal in the 57th annual
Nashville Christmas Parade on Dec. 4. In
more good news for Rich, on Nov. 20 a
Nashville judge dismissed assault and
harassment charges against the singer in
connection with an altercation involving
former Nashville Star contestant Jared
Ashley. Rich and Ashley’s civil suits against
each other are still pending, however.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
EDITORS
C I N D Y R O YA L
CONTRIBUTORS
CODEY ALLEN
RICHARD SKANSE
LY N N E M A R G O L I S
ETHAN MESSICK
A M A N D A PA L M
JOSH SHEPHERD
ART DIRECTOR
T O R Q U I L S C O T T- D E WA R
www.txmusic.com
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COPYRIGHT © 2009 BY TEXAS MUSIC, L.L.C.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
R E P R O D U C T I O N I N W H O L E O R PA R T I S P R O H I B I T E D .
SXSW announces first round of
bands
More than 200 showcasing artists were
announced on Nov. 24 for the 2010 South
by Southwest Music Conference and
Festival. A large contingent from Austin
made the list, including Alpha Rev, Best
Fwends, the Black, Suzanna Choffel, Contra
Coup, DJ Car Stereo Wars, Daniel Francis
Doyle, Gerald G, Colin Gilmore, Harlem,
Headdress, Jazz One, Monarchs, Nakia and
his Southern Cousins, 1001 Nights
Orchestra, Pink Nasty, Riverboat Gamblers,
San Saba County, Sixteen Deluxe, Uncle
Lucius and YellowFever. Other Texas cities
were represented by Fergus and Geronimo
(Westway), Guitar Shorty (Harlingen), the
Novas and Jonathan Tyler and the
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Northern Lights (both from Dallas), Two
Star Symphony (Houston) and Zlam Dunk
(San Marcos). Stay tuned for future
announcements of showcasing acts
between now and the festival, which runs
March 12-21. Visit www.sxsw.com for details.
chops more than her celebrated songwriting. Guests include Shawn Colvin, Emmylou
Harris, Raul Malo, Jim Lauderdale, Mike
Farris and Ann and Regina McCrary. .
Patty Griffin sings the gospel
Austin’s Reckless Kelly scored a direct hit
with listeners on their last album, 2008’s
acclaimed Bulletproof. So what do they do
now that they’ve got arguably the biggest
audience of their career waiting for their
next round? They share the love by knocking out a record full of someone else’s
songs. Due Feb. 9 on Yep Roc, the new
Somewhere in Time finds Braun Brothers
Willy and Cody and the rest of the Reckless
gang covering the songs of fellow Idaho
native Pinto Bennett, of the Famous Motel
Recording artists accustomed to mining
each new Patty Griffin album for potential
new songs to cover will have slim pickings
to choose from on the Austin songwriter’s
Downtown Church (Jan. 26 on EMI),
because Griffin herself covered 12 of the
record’s 14 tracks. Produced by Buddy Miller
and recorded in Nashville’s Downtown
Presbyterian Church, the album — Griffin’s
seventh — is a collection of gospel tunes
showcasing the singer’s formidable vocal
Reckless Kelly salute a Famous
Motel Cowboy from back home
Robert
Earl
Keen
.%7 9%!23 %6% !4 (/53% /& ",5%3 (/534/.
4(5 .%7 9%!23 %6% !4 (/53% /& ",5%3 $!,,!3
-/. s $%# 4(5 45% s $%# Cowboys fame. Bennett himself guests on
the album, along with Texans Joe Ely,
Mickey Raphael and Lloyd Maines.
Folk stars to sing happy birthday
to Kerrville founder
Rod Kennedy, founder of the Kerrville Folk
Festival, will be celebrating his 80th birthday in style, surrounded and serenaded by
enough talented friends to rival any festival
lineup. The Music from the Heart: An 80th
Birthday Tribute to Rod Kennedy celebration is set for Feb. 2 at Austin’s Paramount
Theatre. Artists scheduled to perform — and
maybe do a little roasting of the birthday
boy — include Robert Earl Keen, the
Flatlanders, Eliza Gilkyson, Terri Hendrix,
Ruthie Foster, Jimmy LaFave, Marcia Ball,
Ray Benson and Randy Rogers, with Lloyd
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Maines, John Inmon, Joel Guzman, Brady
Black and Paul Glasse on hand to provide
all-star house band support. Proceeds from
the concert will benefit the Center for Texas
Music History at Texas State University in
San Marcos.
Pettis, BettySoo win Mountain
Stage contest
Two Austin-based artists were among the
five co-winners of the 2009 Mountain Stage
NewSong International Finals in November:
BettySoo and Grace Pettis. Pettis, the
daughter of songwriter Pierce Pettis, also
won the competition’s Best Song award for
“9 to 5 Girl.” BettySoo, meanwhile, seems to
be making a habit of winning these sort of
things — she was a Kerrville New Folk finalist
in 2008.
Eat like an Austin City
Limits star with new
cookbook
Remember that time you
begged Willie Nelson to share
the recipe for his sweet and
tangy tequila-mango salsa, but
he stubbornly refused to give
up the goods? Well, good news:
Austin City Limits make-up
artist Glenda Facemire did get
the recipe, along with tips for
making a ton of other mouthwatering specialties courtesy of
ACL artists including Marcia
Ball, Lisa Loeb, Sara Hickman,
Double Trouble and Carolyn
Wonderland. They’re all compiled in Facemire’s new cookbook, Music in the Kitchen,
which the University of Texas
Press published in October.
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DECEMBER
5
Katy Guitar Fest
Westland Baptist Church
Katy
www.katyguitarfest.com
5-6
Dickens on the Strand
Strand National Historic Landmark District
Galveston
Delbert McClinton rocks Gruene Hall on
Dec. 31. (Photo courtesy New West)
www.dickensonthestrand.org
Courtesy Greezy Wheels
9
Ring in the new year with live
Texas music ... all over Texas
Recording Academy Texas Chapter
Holiday Open House and 15th
Anniversary Celebration
Do some last minute shopping to the music of
GreezyWheels at the Armadillo Christmas
Bazaar Dec. 24.
JANUARY
Gibson Guitar Showroom
Look, we can’t promise that
Austin
2010 will turn out to be your
www.grammy.com/texas
best year ever. But we can help
you usher it in with a bang by 11-24
Armadillo Christmas Bazaar
directing you to some surefire Austin Convention Center
excellent New Year’s Eve con- Austin
certs scheduled throughout the www.armadillobazaar.com
state. So plan ahead, grab a
designated driver and get your 31
First Night Austin
2010 started right with some of Downtown
the best music in Texas. Our
Austin
www.firstnightaustin.org
picks: Delbert McClinton at
Gruene Hall; Mike Blakely at
Luckenbach Dance Hall; Two
Tons of Steel at Floore’s
Country Store in Helotes; Jack
Ingram at Cowboys Dance Hall
in San Antonio; Cross Canadian
Ragweed at the House of Blues
Houston; Black Joe Lewis & the
Honeybears at Stubb’s in
Austin; Robert Earl Keen at the
Austin Music Hall; Deryl Dodd
at Hog Creek Icehouse in Waco;
Kevin Fowler at Billy Bob’s Texas
in Fort Worth; Reckless Kelly at Photo: Rockslide Photography
the House of Blues Dallas; and Suzanna Choffel performs at the Armadillo
the Toadies at Trees in Dallas. Christmas Bazaar Dec. 17.
4-9
MusicFest
Steamboat, Colo.
www.bigskitrip.com
13-18
Ski Jam
Steamboat, Colo.
www.skijam.net
Photo: Matthew Fuller
Joe Ely helps kick off the Fort Worth Stock
Show &Rodeo Jan. 15.
15-2/7
Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
Will Rogers Memorial Center
Fort Worth
www.fwssr.com
30
3rd Annual Blues Festival
Luckenbach Dance Hall
Luckenbach
www.luckenbachtexas.com
Norah Jones
The Fall
(Blue Note Records)
Initially, the idea of Norah
Jones trading in her piano
for the guitar seemed cause
for concern. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,
right? But one listen to The Fall and it quickly becomes apparent that it doesn’t matter
if Jones is playing guitar, piano or the kazoo
— the girl can sing, plain and simple. Jones
claimed she wanted a new sound for this
album, one that broke away from her country-tinged, bluesy roots. She eases listeners
into that new sound with tracks such as
“Chasing Pirates” and “It’s Gonna Be.” The
liner notes are crammed full of rock and
indie veterans, including songwriting collaborations with Ryan Adams (“Light as a
Feather”) and Okkervil River’s Will Sheff
(“Stuck”). But although The Fall, produced
by Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Modest Mouse,
Kings of Leon), is much more rhythm heavy
than her previous outings, it is by no means
a rock album. The Jones of old is still here,
crooning on the bluesy “Back to Manhattan”
and the sultry “I Wouldn’t Need You.” This
evolution of Norah is a gradual one, from
jazzy blues siren to pop-rock maiden, and
proves that, yes, change can be a good
thing. AMANDA PALM
Shelley King
Welcome Home
(Lemonade Records)
Framing Austin-based songwriter Shelley King’s powerhouse voice — alternately
capable of soothing, growling and languidly
coasting on command — with the jangly
groove of New Orleans bar-band vets the
Subdudes is an idea that sounds good on
paper. On record, it’s the best Texas/
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Louisiana collaboration since crawfish enchiladas. Perhaps emboldened by her 2008
run as official State Musician of Texas, King
transcends the straightforward countryblues of her past albums with something as
sonically rich and thematically solid as any
album this year. The message is as buoyant
as the music, for the most part; shades of
sadness aren’t unrealistically omitted, but
they are overwhelmed in the joyful pulse of
songs nodding to the spiritual, the personal
and the inevitable intermingling of both that
makes albums like this such good company
when optimism is deeply felt (or sorely
needed). ETHAN MESSICK
Texas Renegade
Bad Dreams & Other
Things
(Socket Dog Music)
The band’s moniker might
sound like it was cranked
out by a random bar-band name generator,
but underestimating Texas Renegade would
be the listener’s loss. Songwriter Andy
Bertelsen and company crank out the
scruffy country-rock with conviction, and
their lyrics find the sweet spot where
unique imagery meets universal emotions
often enough (and adventurously enough)
that it can’t all be an accident. Poetic but
not pretentious, nearly emo lines about
“the sound of shadows on the sheetrock
down the hall” go down better when delivered with a little harmonica, fiddle and
downhome grit. A more obvious comparison might be Reckless Kelly, but these guys
sound just as well-versed in ‘90s mainstream rock (Gin Blossoms, the Wallflowers,
Counting Crows), giving a sturdy melodic
backbone to their growing ambition.
ETHAN MESSICK
new releases
Nov. 17
Nov. 17
Nov. 17
Nov. 17
Nov. 24
Dec. 1
Jan. 5
Jan. 12
Norah Jones
Jon Dee Graham
Sons of Hercules
Snowbyrd
Sunset
The Eagles
Steve Earle
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Jan. 19 Spoon
Jan. 26 Patty Griffin
Jan. 26 Shurman
Feb. 2 Eleven Hundred Springs
Feb. 2 Chamillionaire
Feb. 2 Jamie Foxx
Feb. 9 Reckless Kelly
Feb. 16 Smile Smile
Feb. 23 Shearwater
March 1 Sara Hickman
March 16 Jonathan Tyler and
the Northern Lights
The Fall
It’s Not as Bad as It Looks
A Different Kind of Ugly
Diosdado
Gold Disolves to Gray
Asylum Album Box Set
Copperhead Road:Rarities Edition
A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is No C)
Transference
Downtown Church
Still Waiting for the Sunset
This Crazy Life
Venom
Body
Somewhere in Time
Truth on Tape
The Golden Archipelago
Absence of Blame
Pardon Me
Jon Dee Graham
It’s Not As Bad As It
Looks
(Freedom)
It’s Not as Bad as it Looks is
one remarkable album not
just because it might not have happened, but
because it is some of the best songwriting
from Jon Dee Graham in a great while. In the
fall of 2008, Graham was found on the side
of the road by a Texas state trooper 30 minutes after Graham’s near fatal car accident.
Drenched in blood and hanging from a
barbed-wire fence, Graham popped out of
shock as the trooper tapped him on the
shoulder, “It’s not as bad as it looks!” Graham
insisted. His hospital bills would soon prove
otherwise, but when all was said and done,
Graham survived the ordeal and came away
with a perfect title for this triumph of a
Blue Note
Freedom
Saustex Media
Saustex Media
Autobus
Rhino
Geffen/Universal
Bordello/Thirty Tigers
Merge
EMI
Sustain/Universal Republic
Smith Music
Universal Republic
J-Records
Yep Roc
Kirtland
Matador
Sleeveless
F-Stop/Atlantic
comeback (from nearly dying, that is) record.
Produced by Graham, Stuart Sullivan and
Michael Hardwick, the album chronicles
Graham’s dive into human imperfection, the
journey towards an emotional center and a
realization that things will somehow and
always work out. The song “Beautifully
Broken” chronicles his recovery, while “My
Lucky Day” is an incredible anthem of not
giving in. “Best” is a great blend of musicianship and arrangement that accentuates the
emotional lyrics of finding the answer you
seek. His band, the Fighting Cocks, is spectacular here, creating a tremendous amount of
live energy, especially in the rocker “La-La
(La-La-La).” For fans of great songwriting,
this album is for you. The listener can definitely learn a good deal from Jon Dee
Graham, besides the fact that he’s going to
outlast every one of us. JOSH SHEPHERD
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Q&A Billy Harvey
Over the past 14 years,
Billy Harvey has established himself as one of
Austin’s finest songwriters, performers and producers. He’s worked his
magic on projects by
Bob Schneider, Kacy
Crowley, Charlie Mars
and more. He’s the guy
Photo: Holly Bronko
that established producers, like Dallas-based Salim Nourallah, look to
when they need a fresh take on their own
work, and the go-to guy in the studio for guitar parts, keyboards, percussion and vocals.
He’s also put his creative stamp on numerous
music videos with his unique vision and quirky
animations. This past year, he premiered the
full-length documentary film, Everywhere
Now, a poignant chronicle of his trek across
the country in a car fueled by vegetable oil.
This summer, Harvey released his fifth CD,
The Everlasting War. And, he’s an actor, too,
debuting in the independent film, Strings. It’s
no surprise that someone this busy would
need a break to recharge the creative batteries. But Harvey shocked the local music community with his recent announcement that he
would be relocating to Los Angeles after trips
to India and Europe in early 2010. We caught
up with him to discuss this need for a change
of venue, stoking the creative fires and seeking continual challenge.
Why the move to Los Angeles?
That sounds weird, because I don’t really live
there yet, I don’t have a home. Right now I’m
in this nebulous phase. I know I am moving to
L.A. I had been here (in Austin) for 14 years. I
basically go where my body tells me to go.
And it told me to come here 14 years ago
when I was living in San Francisco. I never
thought it would tell me to go back to
California, but it did. About four years ago, I
got this little seed in me, tapping on my
shoulder saying, “You should check out L.A.,
there might be some cool opportunities there
for you.” I pretty much knew right then that I
would move. But I never thought it would
take so long to extract myself from Austin.
Basically, I love to be challenged and inspired,
and if I feel like I am not being both of those,
then I go. I’m old enough now that I am not
going anywhere to make it. And fortunately
or unfortunately, I have never been asked to
come anywhere because of an opportunity.
That’s given me freedom, but it’s also held
me down in some ways. There’s the possibility of great opportunity in L.A., and I like that.
Are you mainly going to be performing or
are you going to continue to produce?
I never wanted to produce — ever. I always
liked making recordings and my friends
would ask, “Hey, would you make my recording?” and that’s how it started. Then all of a
sudden it evolved into “I’m a producer, I’m an
engineer.” Apparently I have a knack for it,
but I am terrified by it. I equate it to standing
out in the middle of a field, waiting for something to appear in the sky. I’m willing to be
patient and listen so when something
appears, I snatch it in my butterfly net. When
I go to L.A., I imagine I’ll produce a record. I’m
talking to two people right now. When they
come to me, I’m always surprised and delighted ... and terrified. I like the challenge.
What is the process when you first start
working with someone?
I generally try to slow them down a bit, so I
can digest what they are really telling me. A
lot of times, people are trying to say something, but it’s veiled in their metaphors and
their exuberance, and I just try to slow the
getting-acquainted process down so I can figure out what they really want. And then I
drive around with the songs in my car and let
the ideas form and talk a lot with the artist to
make sure that we are very clear with each
other on how we want it to feel.
How did you come up with the idea for
your film, Everywhere Now?
The previous tour I did, I decided to do a
video blog every day because I wanted people to track me, and I like to do that stuff anyway. So, I did the video blog and people
responded well to it. So for my next tour, during the time in between, I became fixated on
alternative fuels and what I could do to not
use gas all the time. A buddy of mine had a
car that ran on veggie oil. You can convert
any diesel to run on veggie oil. So, I bought a
tank online and put it in my diesel car, and I
didn’t even test the damn thing out. I put one
tank of veggie oil in it, siphoned from the
back of a Chinese restaurant by my house,
and then I went out on tour. So, I thought,
“I’m going to video blog this. I want people to
see what I’m doing.” Three days into it, I was
convinced that I was being given a movie. I
knew exactly what to film every day. I edited
every day, the same day I shot it, because I
wanted the movie to have these parameters
that would ultimately be voices. Just the editing every day gave it the voice, because I
edited from the perspective of my emotions
that day, not a month later. It started out
about the car, but it immediately became
about me. Not Billy Harvey necessarily, but a
person’s experience. The voices were me, the
car and the laptop. The soundtrack is the
road. I liked the idea of a musician on the
road on tour with no music.
In addition to your documentary, you also
star in the new movie, Strings. How did you
get involved with that?
It’s being made by some guys here in Austin,
Mark Dennis and Ben Foster, young guys,
really talented. I think they are both going to
be as big as they want to be. I met Ben,
because he edited my “Dealer Plates” video.
And, I just started doing short projects with
him — half of them we never finished. But
then they said, “We’re going to do a feature
film.” We’re actually shooting three more
scenes and then they’ll enter it in some film
festivals and see what happens with it. I can’t
wait to see it on the screen. I’ll be terrified,
though. CINDY ROYAL
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