Wake, work, shop, cook, clean, relax, sleep. Repeat. There is so much routine to our lives, it's easy to forget that it can be touched by the divine. For the last few days, the Music Fog crew has been tearing through the Texas Hill Country doing location shoots. We have been exploring the history, and seeing how creativity grows out of the rolling hills and the craggy outcroppings. It has given me a greater appreciation of how important music and entertainment has always been to the hard working people who settled this area. There are living, breathing reminders of this in the buildings, the towns, and yes, of course, in the souls of the people. Music abounds year round in Central Texas, but this season it resounds with jingle bells, and mistletoe and even brighter lights. There is magic in the air. It's a time to take stock, to take a deep breath, to remind us to drink in the wonder of it.
Denise and I went to a most remarkable show this past Wednesday night at the One World Theater in Austin. It is a glittering location, with fellowship provided by Carolyn Wonderland and Guy Forsyth, backed by their collective bands. They simply reinvent the holiday songs we have been singing all our lives, and add some new ones to the Christmas repertoire. It is a tour de force, a must see, with inventive instrumentation that twists familiar tunes with a splash of Technicolor brilliance. It is a joy to behold. As each song comes along, it awakens your mind's eye, and you can time travel back to the carefree days of growing up, to the different eras of your life. You can savor the honey, can quiet the "to-do" list, and be thankful for the blessings bestowed.
That is the concept Music Fog is named for. That is also the place Walt Wilkins writes from. We heard Walt and the band while on a pit stop at Luckenbach on Saturday night. His voice, his lyrics, ring clear and true. We take you back to a performance we filmed with him this summer at The Mansion on O in Washington, DC with Ramon Rodriguez, John Greenberg and Bill Small. Listen to the love in, "Would Not Make It Through," which you can find on Agave from The Mystiqueros.
- Jessie Scott
