Natalie Maines is known as the main vocal of the highly successful trio The Dixie Chicks. Now she has made a solo CD, Mother, from which she presented some of the songs at a concert at the ACL Moody’s during SXSW.
One of the good things about SXSW, is that I get to see many bands I haven’t seen before, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, since there was more than 2500 bands playing this year. But the high number doesn’t mean that all bands are necessarily very good. One of the good ones I saw, was Black Tusk from Savannah.
If you are interested in guitar playing and also steel guitar, you have to check out Junior Brown. He has played steel guitar with Asleep At The Wheel, he has taught guitar playing, and he has invented the guit-steel, a two-necked combination of a guitar and a steel guitar. On SXSW’s last day, he played at the ACL Moody.
Asleep At The Wheel is the longest living western Swing band in USA. During their 40+ years of existence, they have won 9 Grammies and numerous other awards. They have toured all over USA many times, plus extensively in Europe. Now Dan Karlok has made a documentary about the band that will premiere this summer. A 34 minutes, unfinished version was shown at the SXSW yesterday.
The first time I saw Guy Forsyth was when he was a member of the Asylum Street Spankers, a totally acoustic band with “no demon electricity”, at the Antone’s in 1997. I liked what I heard, and I noticed this guy whose voice could be heard over the late night crowd at the club. Since then I have seen both the Spankers and Guy Forsyth with his own band several times. Last night I saw him at the Saxon Pub.
Antone’s is the Austin Home of the Blues. Last night they had a free concert with Ray Wylie Hubbard and Billy Joe Shaver. Both artists are true and tested Texans (even if they are born elsewhere), and this is quite evident in their songs. Ray Wylie is the most pronounced, and he also comes forward as the master of words, and Billy Joe also gave his best performance afterwards. (Picture above: Billy Joe Shaver)
For 15 years, from 1992 to 2007, Toni Price played every Tuesday night at the Continental Club in Austin. After a two year stay in San Diego where she came back one Tuesday every month to do a gig, she came back to Austin and she took up the weekly Hippie Hour tradition at the Continental. So far she has kept on playing Hippie Hour for 21 years.
Dale Watson is one of the artists I like to see every time I am in Austin. He plays a gig at the Continental Club every Monday, and tonight I saw him and his band the Lone Stars there. Dale has been around the block some times in his life, but he has come down on both his feet, and got more true sorrow to sing about than many of his contemporaries.
Artist Pictures Blog 