What a week it has been! I love the close in accessibility of Austin Bergstrom Airport! Flying out to Nashville, the airport was full of friends, all of whom were coming to the Americana Conference too. Sunny Sweeney, Hayes Carll, and John Evans were some of the folks I ran into who were departing Austin, and then I ran into Suzanna Choffel just landing from NY for a Texas run of dates. She’ll be at Threadgill’s later this week. The camaraderie started with the flight, and then tumbled into the week’s event, music, food, panels. It is so good to charge one’s batteries being with the music community. I will have another post about all the showcases and some highlights, but here was an early one.
I tried to keep it fairly low key for day one of Americana Fest, but managed to run into Sean McConnell who was recording at RCA Studio A, and then ran into Patterson Barrett, Tim Easton, Amy Speace, Anna Egge, Doug and Telisha Williams at the Five Spot. I capped the night off with Gary Nicholson doing his Whitey Johnson blues set at Bourbon Street in Printers Alley, with stellar players joining him on stage including Reese Wynans and Colin Linden, a great band totally in the moment. Here is a taste of the Whitey Johnson magic, with one of my favorite songs, “Memphis Women and Fried Chicken.”
-Jessie Scott