Butch Hancock "Boxcars"

It feels like I haven't been out in Austin in ages! On Wednesday night, I noticed the buildings seemed to have different colored lights than I remembered. I don't know if that's true, but it felt like I was seeing everything with new eyes. Plus, the skyline - and lights - were beautiful, pristine, glowing. I was heading to the after-party for Hayes Carll, to celebrate his just completed taping of Austin City Limits. Congrats to Hayes, so well deserved for him to appear on that illustrious TV show! We can't wait for it to air.

I hope Music Fog gets to catch up with Hayes on camera at the Americana Music Association's Festival and Conference, coming up September 8th through 11th in Nashville. Here's a link to sign up for that, whether to attend the whole conference, or just get a wristband so you can see all the music. And don't forget tickets to see the Americana Honors and Awards at the Ryman Auditorium!

This year is the first that it will be held at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown where the conference rate is $169 a night, plus tax. The hotel is completing a multi-million dollar renovation that will be finished in time for the Americana Music Festival and Conference to be the first group in the “new” hotel. The rooms are amazing! It will be a hot time in Nashville, for sure!

I am so looking forward, but also really glad I live in Austin, as there is always something going on here too. Our own Denise went to the Flatlanders show last weekend at The Paramount. Not only was she blown away by it, but there was a moment when Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore sat and watched Butch Hancock in awe. He performed a haiku, a cappella, that he had just written about a dead owl he found on his property in Terlingua. Butch is one third of The Flatlanders, a magnificent singer/songwriter on his own, and part of the Lubbock Mafia. What is it about Lubbock that has bred such individual artists? Look at this list!

Catch Butch, with various special guests, at the Cactus Cafe in Austin during a five-night stand, August 10th through the 14th, as he revisits his legendary No Two Alike series...not repeating a single song during the run. This is Butch's way of celebrating the past 30 years of the venue, as they enter a new era, and closing out the "original" Cactus. Meanwhile, Music Fog brings you a classic from Butch that we recorded in Okemah, OK during WoodyFest last month. "Boxcars."

- Jessie Scott

Butch Hancock - Eats Away the Night

Red Dirt Rangers "Without My Baby"

Our own Music Fogger Chris Walsh asked me for a definition of Red Dirt Music last trip. We were deep in Oklahoma, and the heat was knocking us back a tad. I explained that it was a pure Oklahoma thing, although it gets lumped into becoming Texas-Red Dirt in lots of people's minds these days. And although both movements look in a similar direction for inspiration, and draw from a similar passion, they are really different entities. Red Dirt is epicentered in Stillwater, which is the home of Oklahoma State University. There was a two-story, five-bedroom, funky old place called The Farm that acted as its home. The Red Dirt Rangers started hanging out there as a band in the late 1980's. But years before that, Ben Han, John Cooper, and Brad Piccolo became an integral part of the Farm’s musical brotherhood; first trading songs and licks with folks like Jimmy LaFave, Tom Skinner, and Bob Childers. Later, with the next generation; Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland & the Stragglers and Stoney LaRue.

The Rangers represent all the musicians who honed their chops in that living room, front porch, garage (aka The Gypsy Café) and campfire-dotted acreage of the Farm, where the sheer joy of creating music with friends transcended everything else. As Rangers' mandolinist-vocalist John Cooper has noted, "The Farm was as much an attitude as a physical structure. It allowed a setting where freedom rang and all things were possible. Out of this setting came the music." The physical structure burned down in 2003. But the music, and the Red Dirt Rangers are still going strong.

We caught up with the trio at the main stage at WoodyFest, and asked them to come see us the next day. And so it was, as they brought us new songs and tales of enigmatic Red Dirt Godfather and guiding light of The Tractors, Steve Ripley. Look for him to produce their next CD, as he did the last album, Ranger Motel released in 2007. "Without My Baby" will likely be on the new one, which is set to be recorded soon! Meanwhile, enjoy the very first recording of this song, and witness the early stages of what should be a Red Dirt Rangers classic.

- Jessie Scott

Randy Weeks with Stonehoney "Little Bit of Sleep"

I read this awesome column in the New York Times back in the 90's, obviously it was awesome, or how could I be citing it some 13 years later. The premise was that people talk about sleep like they used to talk about sex. It's not uncommon to overhear conversations like, "Did you get any, man? Yeah, eight hours and it was great!" or "What'dja do this weekend? SLEPT - all weekend long!" We indeed, are a sleep deprived society, surviving on caffeine pills, energy drinks, our Starbucks fixes, Jolt Cola and Mountain Dew, and if we are lucky, the occasional nap, hallelujah!

When Music Fog hits the road, we average 4 hours a night. Don't cry for us, we have a blast, but sleep evades us. Ah, hell, who are we kidding? It evades us the rest of the time too. Okemah, OK was one of these trips. The crew raced out from DC, trading places behind the wheel to steer the BBC (MF truck named "Big Blue Crew") to its destination. We load, we unload, we build, we video, we film some more, we strike the set, we load out, and we hit the road again, only stopping for Waffle House, diesel, and coffee.

When we were talking to Jimmy LaFave about coming up for WoodyFest, he asked why there were so few collaborations in front of the Music Fog cameras. Although, there is the occasional marquee player joining in, but it is rare when we have two entities colliding. And so it was welcomed when the irresistible force met the immovable object, when the effervescent Stonehoney backed the unmistakable Randy Weeks. Though in no way am I suggesting that one is irresistible and the other isn't. It was huge. Randy was heard to say, "Why can't you guys come on the road with me?" A delightful question to ponder! And a tour we would sure love to see. Watch for yourself, as Randy pulls one out from his 2009 Going My Way CD.

- Jessie Scott