This year I followed up my favorite SXSW Austin tradition of attending Leeann Atherton’s Barn Dance at her house the Sunday after the festival is over. This year the weather wasn’t as cooperative as the last years, but in spite of the cold, everyone had a great time. The BBQ was good, the music was great, the people friendly – in short – just as it always is at Leeann’s. (Picture above: Hedvig Mollestad and Leeann Atherton)
One of the premiers at the Film festival during SXSW was the documentary and concert film Road to Austin. The film was screened Thursday, and after the screening, many of the artists who participated in the film held a concert. The film is a perfect introduction to why the music scene in Austin is like it is. (Picture above: screen shot from the trailer to Road to Austin)
I have liked Hedvig Mollestad Trio since the first time I saw them. This year they play several gigs at SXSW, and I got to see a off-festival gig at Leeann’s Traveling Barn Dance at Maria’s Taco XPress yesterday. Their music is hard and loud guitar-based jazz rock, and they showed us how the experts do it.
Guy Forsyth is one of my all time favorite Austin musicians. I have written about him on this blog before, and Friday night I saw him at another pre SXSW late night show at the Saxon Pub. I can’t count all the different settings I have seen and heard him in, everything from solo, with a tuba, with the Asylum Street Spankers to a pop band setting some 10 years go. This time he was reunited with his old compadre George Rarey, and he played one of the best sets I have ever heard from him.
Everyone know about Bruce Springsteen, and his songs are well known throughout the western world. He has also toured extensively with his E Street Band, so many have also seen him live. September 23rd Bruce Springsteen turned 64 years old, with no plans to stop making and performing music. (Picture above: Bruce Springsteen with Th E Street Band at the Telenor Arena in Oslo, 2013.)
Amy Winehouse is one of the most talented and also one of the most successful British artists in the first decade after 2000. She was nominated for six Grammys for her second CD, Back in Black, and won five. When she died in 2011, the same album was the best-selling album in the UK after 2000. September 14th it is 30 years since she was born.
In 2008 Shelby Lynne released the CD Just A Little Lovin’, her homage to Dusty Springfield, still one of the best British singers of all time. I saw Shelby Lynne do the songs from the CD at the Austin Music Hall during SXSW in 2008, and it is still one of my favourite albums.
One of the good things about festivals like SXSW is that you both get to see artists you have never heard of, and also that you get too see artists you have heard on CD, but never seen live. James Hunter is one of these, with some critically acclaimed CDs, plus one of the best songs after 2000, People Gonna Talk. I saw him at the Americana Association night at Antone’s.
Richard Thompson has been named one of the best guitarists in the music world, and also the one with the most characteristic sound. It is not that he plays everything very fast or loud, but more that his style is so personally unique and with influences from an eclectic range of sources.
I have written about Carolyn Wonderland before, and will probably do it again. During SXSW she played two official gigs, and I saw one of them, the closing act on the Continental Club Friday March 15th. Carolyn is playing the Blues in Hell festival in Norway in September, and for my Norwegian readers who are going there, look forward to it and be prepared for an even better show than the last time.
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