Every year 'round about this time, I wonder where the summer went. Well, except for this year. Today and tomorrow it will be upwards of 110 degrees in Austin! However, I am forlorn as I contemplate the coming hallmarks of fall, the kids back in school, summer vacations are winding down. And once again this year, I didn’t make it out to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for the biking and hiking and boating in the glorious mountain air. Soon enough the snow will fly and the ground will be covered in a blanket of white. Not long thereafter, the holidays will come, and the new year of 2012 will start with The MusicFest at Steamboat. Here is a head’s up, Tickets Go On Sale Today! Reservations open up at 9am Central Daylight Time.
But now that I have given short shrift to the rest of 2011, allow me to dial it back. Several years ago, I attended an industry music convention in Lake Tahoe. One day, a gaggle of us girls took off to the Ponderosa Ranch, yes the home of the Bonanza TV dynasty. We toured the set, and then we went for a horseback ride though the trails in the mountains. It was a delicious afternoon. And having that memory, every time I see this band’s name, I think back on that moment. Ponderosa. The band’s music takes me other places, too. Through the south, Memphis, Muscle Shoals, down the Mississippi and through the red dirt to Georgia. They bring the Southern Rock back to a new generation. And I like it.
We have an as yet unreleased track for you today called “Heather,” that we recorded during our Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill’s this past spring, a suitable tune for these sultry days. And here are the tour dates to catch Ponderosa live in the American South.
- Jessie Scott