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
