Threadgill's & James McMurtry

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Saturday, Nov. 21.

Today it's Threadgill's South and James McMurtry.

Our last day in Austin is wet, gray and cool. Not the weather we've been banking on. Nevertheless, we've read about an interesting Latino / Texas / Mexican event in town and bike over to East Austin to see La Pastorela — a reenactment of the Shepherd's Christmas story. It's supposed to be at a seedy bar called The Iron Gate at noon. However, when we arrive, the bar is closed with a fellow raking leaves in the yard who has no idea what we're looking for or talking about. We had seen this advertised in the entertainment section of the Chronicle so it must be true. Only it's not! It never happened, or at least we never found it.

We have since learned: "La Pastorela, the traditional Christmas play about the journey of a group of shepherds who are following the Star of Bethlehem to visit the newly born Christ child, has been performed in Mexico for centuries." 

We visited a Taqueria on 6th East where they're quite busy. It reminds us of the St-Viateur Bagel shop in Montreal. We have lunch at the nearby Buenos Aires — an Argentine restaurant. For the east end this is very upscale. The Iron Gate is still closed when we're done and there's still no sign of La Pastorela. There is an East Austin art / studio tour today, with La Pastorela being one of the many events over a very large area. We have a map we have been given by a couple at the Taqueria but we can't figure things out.

We return to our hotel and pack the bikes into the car for a return to the North Lamar bike shop. It was good to be able to use these bikes to explore the bike trails around Town Lake. On the way back we stopped at Waterloo Records for postcards and one last browse of the CD collection.

We have dinner at Threadgill's South and are going to see the James McMurtry show in the beer garden afterwards. The dinner is very white gravy — Reg has chicken fried steak (where you expect white gravy on the side) while Kate has shrimps and sweet potato fries. The place is interesting for historical posters of Threadgill's North (the original site), the Armadillo World Headquarters (which was here before the restaurant) and all the musicians who have played at these places ... but the food is pretty uninteresting. It's "home cooking" in the "Cracker Barrel" style: steam tables, white bread, white gravy, mashed potatoes, meat loaf and overcooked veggies. There are large portions and some like it this way, we don't. We don't think it's the "Texas Cookin'" Guy Clark was referring to in his song of the same name.

But it's a warm enough evening and the concert is outside under the trees with a wood fire burning. It's cool but warm enough by the fire. The fire pit is about 4 ft. across by 4 ft. deep. People gather here to chat and warm up while waiting for the show to start. Others remain here as the show goes on.

Kate makes friends with a couple from College Park, Ohio who have been here at a conference. They are sort of ticked that the weather has changed to wet and miserable. He was at Penn State and knew the spouse of a colleague (Wayne) who Kate has worked with.  Small world! We met another couple — he's a union organizer, and she's a lecturer at UT. James should have done "Can't Make It Here Anymore" for us lefties but he avoided politics tonight.

James is playing with a live electric band; he has a bass player and drums. He did lots of tunes from "Just Us Kids" and other recent albums. A big hit for the crowd is "Choctaw Bingo". It's a dense story with a driving beat about a holiday car trip to a family reunion in Choctaw City, Oklahoma where they sedate the kids with Benadryl for the car drive and visit an uncle who cooks speed, has an Asian bride, they shoot guns and have an all around "gay old time". There's a verse in the song about having a "big old hard on" for a pair of cute buxom twin cousins. It used to get the most audience response but now as the audience seems to be aging it's the Benadryl line. It's an older and pretty sedate crowd; there's some dancing but not much.

Reg discovered a drink at Threadgill's called the "Janis Joplin" (she got her start playing at Threadgill's North). It's a glass of finely chopped iced topped with lots of bourbon and a splash of Southern Comfort. A dangerous drink for sure, look what happened to Janis! Kate stuck to the Becker Chardonnay.

Tonight was a gay old time with no gun fire. A great concert, a lot of fun, and a chance to see James perform with a full band as he does every Wednesday midnight at the Continental Club. We enjoyed ourselves and are to bed by 12:00 midnight. That's very late for us! We're seldom up this late.

Sunday, Nov. 22

We had a 12:30 departure out of Austin, a long wait in Detroit for our connection, but flew home to arrive at London airport by 8:45 that night. We returned to St Marys where all is well. Our nephew Ken has done a good job of tending the plants, critters, etc. at our home. We are grateful for his help.

We are tired travelers with stories to tell, pictures to share, and memories to hold onto. But now, to bed.

Transcribed and edited during the OMIGOD! pandemic of February 2022 from notes taken at the time.