Steve Poltz "License Plate Eyes/Rains"

What can you say about an artist whose work spans from 'the sublime to the ridiculous' like Steve Poltz's does? From the Jewel hit "You Were Meant for Me," to "Monkeys (Coming Out Of Your Ass)," he is adept at conveying the most heartbreaking emotion to the zaniest, and he does it all well!

Steve's latest album Dreamhouse continues in the singer/songwriter vein he has been delivering for a while now. So we were totally unprepared for what we experienced when he showed up for our SX session in Austin. The band came, Steve has had problem with his hand incurred while skiing in Rossland, BC: The diagnosis is "an undisplaced spiral fracture of the fourth metacarpal in the left hand and did not involve a joint." That was posted to Steve's website on January 27th, along with X-Rays. Little did we know what was to take place with no guitar to tether him to the stage. It was supersized. It was raw emotion, it was Iggy Pop inspired, and it was caught on camera! Check out Poltz' site, lots going on there! Kind of what you would expect from a man that has a three ring circus inside his head!

-Jessie Scott

Ray Wylie Hubbard "Snake Farm"

I was shocked, shocked I tell ya', when I went to the search box on the Music Fog page, and did not get a hit on a video when I typed in "Snake Farm!" Now HOW could that be?????

Ray Wylie Hubbard is one of our most frequently recorded artists. We LOVE getting together with him, he is craggy, authentic, a beacon in the night, or the day for that matter. It is amazing to think about the trajectory of his career. He might just be the perennial late bloomer. His albums, over the course of the last decade and a half or so, are a definitive body of work and one that is continually growing! His latest, A: Enlightenment, B: Endarkenment (Hint There Is No C), continues the growl, the grit and the groove. And last weekend was his second annual Grit N Groove Festival at Luckenbach. It was a day in the Texas sun with a wonderful sense of camaraderie on stage and in the audience. Guests this year included Lincoln Durham, Elizabeth Cook, James McMurtry, Kevin Welch, The Trishas, Matt King, Hayes Carll, Slaid Cleaves, Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes, and RWH and band. Whew and a half!

But back to Snake Farm from the CD of that name back in 2006; you might know that there IS actually a Snake Farm, down I-35 from Austin in New Braunfels. A must if you are visiting the area. From our session last month at Threadgill's, here at last is the modern classic, "Snake Farm." Just sounds nasty...pretty much is!

-Jessie Scott

Danny Barnes "TSA"

Hallelujah! Danny Barnes is another just begun to be sung hero. His inventive take on songs and stylings is pure Renaissance Man stuff. He has marched to his own drummer walking a most creative path. He was a Bad Liver, a band which grew out of the Austin acoustic scene, drawing from all kinds of musical genres, whether they seemed simpatico or not: from blues to punk, to country, rock, fusion and jazz. And all this on the banjo, which is his weapon of choice.

Danny is lauded by a long list of luminaries like Robert Earl Keen and most recently Dave Matthews. Danny's most recent CD Pizza Box is out on ATO Records, the label of which Dave Matthews is co-founder. From Danny's website, Matthews says, "Danny Barnes’ Pizza Box is my favorite new music, my favorite rock record, and my favorite country record. From the first time he sat down and played me "Road," I knew his next record was going to be great, but I didn't expect this. The music is smart and soulful, and the lyrics are profound. It is heaven and earth. It is Americana, from the back porch to the pulpit, shattered dreams on angels wings. I can't stop listening. In the haze of over produced, "perfect" recordings, Danny Barnes spent less than two weeks banging out an album that may well save your soul."

The song TSA comes from that album, as Barnes brought an understated elegance to the stage at Threadgill's for the Music Fog cameras. No banger jokes are necessary.

-Jessie Scott