Austin, Misc Music

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These are photos from various gigs we caught while in Austin during our winter stay during February and March of 2015. There are other albums I've already shared for some of the shows we saw. This collection is a bit of a hodge-podge but might be of interest to some. 

It begins with Sunday breakfast at Threadgill's and an odd punk reunion at End of an Ear (a record store just around the corner from our place). 

Then on to the Broken Spoke where we saw Amanda Cevallos. She recognized us from previous visits. We also saw her as a presenter at the Ameripolitan Music Awards where Tara Dunphy (of Rizdales fame) was up for an award. 

We caught Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines at the Cactus Cafe on the UT campus. We saw her last year as well. 

Then some pictures from the Ameripolitan Music Awards. One of the highlights (beyond the local connection with Tara) was the award for Billy Joe Shaver as one of the founders of the genre (truely he is). As Billy Joe was not well that evening Joe Ely (who we really love but seldom see) accepted the award for Billy Joe and sang his song "I'm Gonna Live Forever". A real highlight of the evening. 

An oddity about Austin Music. They have live music every where, even at the airport! Ray Benson (of Asleep at the Wheel fame) has a bar there..... and you can get your Salt Lick BBQ at the airport as well. 

We caught Christy Hays at Patsy's Cowgirl Café out by the airport one night. And we made it out to Donn's Depot one Monday after the El Mercado to see Chris Gage play. He has a regular gig with interesting people dropping in. 

We saw James McMurtry, Kasey Crowley and bunch of great writers at the Quarterly Tertulia at the Continental Club Gallery. We also saw James at a CD release one afternoon at Waterloo Records. 

We went to the Saxon Pub a few times and caught David Grissom (recommended by some folks we met early in our trip), Guy Forsyth and the Hot Nut Riveters (a really fun band -- we also saw Guy at the KDRP Larry Monroe Benefit on our last night) and a cow poke Bob Hearns who had just picked up a lovely hand built guitar from some luthier in town. 

This year we were in town for Butch Hancock's birthday celebration of the life of Townes Van Zandt at the Cactus Café. Lots of interesting performers doing Townes tunes and another opportunity for us to see Butch and Jimmie Dale. Townes is held in very high esteem. He's a writer whose legend lives on. 

There's some pictures of CD release gigs at Waterloo Records -- Steve Earle and James McMurtry. Both excellent. 

We saw Tessie Lou and the Shotgun Stars at Poodies Hilltop Lounge outside of town and Bo Phillips' Band at Gruene Hall near San Antonio. 

KUTX MapJam is an outdoor event where you bike from place to place in East Austin. Again the weather was perfect. I was really impressed by a young singer and band by the name of Ruby Jane who performed at the French Legation. Quirky voice, interesting tunes, strong band and she plays violin as well. 

Another musical find for us was Mike Stinson who we caught at Ginny's Little Longhorn saloon. Great tunes that I can't stop humming. Really glad Kate bought the album -- sorry we didn't buy both!

Maria's Taco Express is an odd restaurant that features live music. On a sunny day it's a great place to be for lunch. Food and drinks are excellent as well.

We caught Los Pinky's, a Conjunto band, at the White Horse. A real dive of a bar (apparently it used to be worse), but an interesting place none the less. And I like the accordion and guitar twang of Conjunto -- I only wish I knew more Spanish. 

The final gig in this collection is the Annual General Meeting of the Healthcare Alliance for Austin Musicians where we caught Marcia ball and Shelley King. We had fun.