Michael Fracasso "Elizabeth Lee"

Back in the saddle in Austin, savoring the few days in New Orleans. It has been a mighty fine run of music this last week. On Thursday in Bywater, we went to see Kermit Ruffins rip it up at the dive bar, Vaughan’s Lounge.  Kermit keeps the NOLA tradition alive, mixing up R&B, Jazz and Dixieland to a joyous packed house. Friday night found us at the Dale Watson show at the legendary Rock N’ Bowl, Texas Two-Stepping with a cast of characters of every description. Dale was particularly relaxed and in fine spirits. It was great to see him in a different city. This was my first time back to Rock 'n' Bowl since they reopened on Carrollton Avenue in 2009. Good to see New Orleans having some normalcy and the hope for a better future.

Then last night, at my School Night Sessions at Threadgill’s, we were happy to welcome a song swap from Michael Fracasso and John Fullbright. What a night! Beautiful songs, beautiful voices, and a very appreciative audience. And why not? John Fullbright is biding his time, growing, writing, becoming. One day, he will be an overnight sensation. Michael has been at it since he left his native Ohio for the bohemian folk scene in New York City in 1979. In 1990, he moved to Austin, where he was able to make a home for his  sophisticated yet earthy music. We filmed him at the Cherokee Creek Music Festival in May. He touched our hearts, and turned our blood to ice water with this, a mill murder ballad. It can be found on his latest CD, Saint Monday, his eighth, which came out in April. This is the Music Fog version of “Elizabeth Lee.”

-Jessie Scott

Slaid Cleaves "Rust Belt Fields"

Austin on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend erupted in wildfires spawned by the low humidity, 35 mph winds, and a tinderbox of drought stricken foliage. In the evening there were ten fires reported; Bastrop, Pflugerville, Spicewood, Cedar Parl. There are homes of people we love in these areas, and there are reports of people being evacuated. In Austin proper, the night sky was filled with rheumy smoke clouds hanging in the air - the scent of burning wood. It has been a mean season here, and we are praying for cooler temperatures, a break in the high pressure system that has engulfed the area for the last six months, and especially, we are praying for rain. Texas is not alone in making prayers. In other parts of the country people are praying for other things. Scarcity of a different sort can produce a firestorm of another kind.

Music Fog brings you a new Slaid Cleaves video today. It is a song he co-wrote with Rod Picott, and one that Rod has released but Slaid has not. Slaid does have a new album out today, called Sorrow and Smoke: Live At The Horseshoe Lounge – which is a line from his song “Down at The Horseshoe Lounge.” Slaid is from Maine, and it took him a while to muster up his courage to even walk in this legendary Austin dive bar. His is an important voice, and not to dwell on the theme of Labor Day, but this song chronicles lost employment. To be healthy, to get America back on its feet, we need to manufacture again. We filmed Slaid Cleaves at Cherokee Creek Music Festival in May. This song is not on his new live double album, in fact, Slaid has not released it yet. We commemorate the moment anyway with “Rust Belt Fields.”

-Jessie Scott

Jack Ingram "What's A Boy To Do?"

I just went through an excruciating exercise of rating some tunes from a variety of genres for a website, and I am happy to return here, to the music I love. Music that wraps its warmth around you, that isn’t screaming at you insistently, demanding you pay attention. I like Americana, what can I say, and I'm not alone, just last week the word, in its musical sense, was included in Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Americana joins Tweet, m-commerce and around 100 other words whose use is now widely recognized enough to be considered a part of the lexicon. According to the dictionary's editors, Americana is: "a genre of American music having roots in early folk and country music." Simple enough, and now you have a concise answer to the question “What is Americana,” should anyone ask. We are excited to be making preparations to attend this year’s Americana Music Festival, from October 12 to 15, that will be headquartered in Nashville at the Downtown Sheraton Hotel. It was a blast last year, and we will be announcing our plans soon.

Music Fog’s most recent excursion was to Cherokee Creek Music Festival near Llano, Texas in May. While we were there, Jack Ingram came by to play an as yet unrecorded song for us. He wrote it during last year’s CMA week with Mando Saenz, who we have now mentioned three times this week. That might mean we need to get together with him for a shoot soon – wonder if he will be at the Americana Fest! It’s all Jack Ingram right now, though, and it’s beautiful, “What’s A Boy To Do?”

- Jessie Scott