Home amid Corona Virus

Click Image for more photos ...

We packed up all our gear, our bikes and our cats into our Honda CR-V to return home after seeing Whitney Rose at the Continental Club on Tuesday the night before. It's about 2,500km (1,500mile) or 25hrs of interstate driving and we've done it many times now. We left Austin TX on Wednesday March 11 and were home by Friday March 13 with overnight stops in Little Rock AR and Indianapolis IN.

The trip was pretty uneventful apart from a nasty hail storm near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. There had been a nasty tornado through Nashville only a few days earlier that had done considerable damage so for a moment it was more than a little distressing. But the bad weather passed and it was smooth sailing there after. Clear roads, warm weather and no snow -- well a tiny bit in the shaded north side of some ditches here in Ontario.

Our three cats -- Piscine, brothers Radar and Little Moe -- are not comfortable travellers. Piscine spends hours wandering the car and screaming that she's not happy. But she usually settles down and goes to sleep for at least some of the day. Radar and Moe are just terrified by the whole experience and hunker down quietly hoping it will all end soon. And it does, after 8 or so hours driving each day.

They like getting out of the car and exploring our hotel rooms. They're happy to be fed and climb on our bed in the night. But finding them in the morning can be a bit of a struggle. If there is a place to hide they'll find it. And if they find it you will have trouble finding them. On the morning in Indianapolis they had wormed their way together under the bed (Kate thought that there were critters in the night under the bed) in such a manner that we had to dismantle the King bed and box spring in the morning to get them out. In any case, they, like we, were glad to be home.

We crossed the Blue Water bridge at Port Huron MI. At the Canadian Border Services in Sarnia we were pretty much the only car crossing and got immediate service. They asked us where we had been, how long we'd been away, what we were bringing back, how much liquor, any tobacco and so on. They weren't interested in the cats; they never are in spite of us waving the required paper work. We were sent over to the "search your car for any drugs" area and were not at all keen on the idea of having our car torn apart. It's hard enough to get everything packed away and the cats loaded as well! In any case, the border services there were just concerned to make sure we were well and that we hadn't been to any other place other than the US. We were quickly sent on our way.

Back at home in St Marys, ON we discover that there's been a COVID-19 case in town -- we are not aware of any cases in TX during our holidays. The patient here is in critical care in the nearby Stratford hospital and the town has started lockdown procedures. The town day care had been shutdown first on very short notice from the province. Now the town has voluntarily locked down the library (Reg is a board member), museum, town hall, arena, pool, seniors center, Pyramid Resource Center, etc. Restaurants have voluntarily closed. Board meetings are cancelled or held by phone. Doctors and dentists have shut their offices.

We have been in self imposed exile distancing ourselves from friends and family on the slim chance that we might be carrying the virus (alternatively that we might meet someone who is). We have, nevertheless, been out to the Post Office, Drug Store and Independent Grocer but will keep out of circulation for a couple of weeks. At this writing we've been in social isolation for one week.

This may be the end of the world as we know it, but I don't feel fine.

Whitney Rose

Click image for more .photos ...

We saw Whitney Rose at the Continental Club on our last night in Austin. She's a Canadian ex-pat who now makes Austin her home. I believe her home (or at least where she grew up) is in PEI and she made a bit of a name for herself in Toronto before moving to Austin where she's been very productive releasing several albums.

There's a new album, "We Still Go to Rodeos", due out in April, 2020 and she sang some songs from that. Believe Me, Angelina, from that album, is a novel twist on cheating husbands -- it's a conversation between the two women. Her first album, self titled, was released in 2012 so she's been around a while. With all these albums under her belt she has an impressive list of tunes of her own to draw from. She does a few covers as well, but mostly it's her music.

Oddly every time we see her she has a different backing band. I didn't catch the names of the players she had tonight (two young fellows on electric guitars, a bass and drums) but they worked well together. I assume they've been playing together for a while but this is not the band we saw with her a year ago, or in years before that. Austin has a lot of great session musicians who can readily pick up and play along with others. And, I suppose, a lot country music just isn't that complicated.

Anyways I like her music a lot. It's pretty pure country music. These days there's a bit of 60's pop sound to her as well. And a bit of Roy Orbison operatics -- she has quite the strong voice and makes "You Don't Own Me" (the Leslie Gore tune) a regular feature of her shows. She works hard when she belts out some of those tunes.

This gig is a regular residency while she's in town. She does tour quite a bit in North America and Europe but was here every Tuesday during our visit to Austin.

This is a pass the hat gig where you are expected to tip. The club is quite small with seating for about 25people -- the rest of the space is for standing and dancing. If you got 100 people in there that would be a lot. While there are some dancers, mostly what happens is people stand at the front of the stage.... and block the view for everyone else.

Tuesday night is a good time to go the the Continental Club. There's the Whitney Rose early show (no cover), then James McMurtry solo in the gallery, and Mike Stinson after the Whitney Rose show. Each of these are great performers. We're not late night folks so we left after her first set -- we were heading home in the morning and needed to be to bed early.

Mystery Monday Farewell

Click image for more photos ...

Mystery Monday is/was a regular concert on Monday nights since November of 2012 hosted by Christine Albert & friends on the Backstage at the El Mercado restaurant  (motto: World Peace thru Tex/Mex) on S 1st in Austin. There's a regular backup band with David Carrol on bass and Bobby Kallus on drums. The "Mystery" part is a rotating cast of Austin musicians who join the hosts. When we are in Austin we often attend; it's been a good way to have dinner and discover music. You can have a tasty Tex/Mex dinner, perhaps a margarita or "Mexican Martini" (or two) and enjoy some live music in an appreciative room where people listen to the music. We've been introduced to many musicians through this concert series.

This Monday March 9, 2020 was a "Farewell Concert" -- Christine has stepped back from organizing things. God knows what's going to happen in the future. At the show we went to back in February Christine announced that the series would end on the Monday before SxSW (which was March 9). We assumed this was just a hiatus for SxSW which would have events scheduled on the Backstage. It turns out to be more permanent than that. Since then, with the corona virus pandemic, the cancellation of SxSW, and the shuttering of all bars/restaurants and live events in Austin things are really up in the air.

We first starting going to these concerts in 2014 when we bumped into a brief mention in the local paper (the Austin American Statesman). At that time the concerts were in the front room of the El Mercado on a tiny stage in the corner. Jimmie Dale Gilmore was cohosting with Christine then and did so for several years. In 2015 the concert had moved to the newly custom built Backstage with a much bigger raised stage, better sound system with lighting and more. Bill Kirchen was a cohost with Christine for much recent times but he had stepped back recently as well. Sarah Elizabeth Campbell was the original co-host with Christine but she passed away in 2013. Christine Albert has been the constant thread holding this series together.

Tonight's band had Christine Albert with her husband Chris Gage and long time stalwart Bill Kirchen as guest hosts; Bobby Kallus on drums and David Carrol on stand up bass. Guests included Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Rich Brotherton, Judy Painter, Bob Livingston and many more. If you want to see the concert there are some good Youtube vidoes -- Danviewtube produced a version with pretty good sound and an editting out of the chatter between songs (for the complete show Dan recorded view here). Christina Fajardo also has some videos of tunes played that night. There was a film crew recording the event with multiple cameras and camera men. I'd be interested to see what comes of that.

I believe the set list went something like this:

1. White Freightliner Blues (Townes Van Zandt) by the ensemble. It's the song they always use to open the show.
2. Evangelina (Hoyt Axton) by Bill Kirchen with his wife Louise.
3. If You Were a Bluebird (Butch Hancock) by Chris Gage
4. A Thousand Times Yes (Kimmie Rhodes) by Christine Albert & Chris Gage
5. Ruby Ann (Martin Robins) by Bill Kirchen
6. Rhumba Man (Jesee Winchester) by Chris Gage
7. Everythings Beautiful Now (Christine Albert) by Christine Albert
8. She Had a Heart of Gold (Judy Painter & Marcia Ball) by Judy Painter & ???. This song is a tribute to Sarah Elizabeth Campbell.
9. Runnin' With You (Sarah Elizabeth Campbell) by Rich Brotherton
10. Hillbilly Truck Drivin' Man (Bill Kirchen??) by Bill Kirchen
11. Man on a Pilgrimage (Butch Hancock) by Butch Hancock
12. Oxblood (Butch Hancock) by Bill Kirchen & Butch Hancock
13. What Am I To You (Chris Gage & Christine Albert) by Chris Gage & Christine Albert
14. May Have to Do It (Mike Stinson) by Christine Albert
15. Howlin' at Midnight (Lucinda Williams) by Jimme Dale Gilmore & Christine Albert
16. Just a Wave, Not the Water (Butch Hancock) by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
17. Dallas (Jimmie Dale Gilmore) by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
18. Buffalo Return to the Plain (Jimmy LaFave) by Christine Albert
19. The Times They Are A'Changin' (Bob Dylan) by Bill Kirchen & the ensemble.

Tonight's show, although a swan song, was also a celebration of all that had been. The owner of the restaurant (I didn't catch his name) spoke ruefully about Christine's decision to shutdown the series but hopefully as well with a view to sorting things out and continuing on. Jimmie Dale, who had hosted for a couple of years, spoke about how great tonight's show was, how the series had reinvigorated his involvement in the Austin music scene and about all the great friends he had made because of Mystery Monday. He also mentioned how Christine and Chris had met through him back in the day when he was touring with Chris Gage. Lots of connections there.

Usually the doors open at 5:30 and the show runs from 7:30 until 9:00 or so with a lot of folks following the crowd to see Chris Gage at Don's Depot (another long standing residency where lots of guests show up). We usually arrive sometime around 6:30 and get a good seat before the crowds arrive. Today the show will start at 7:30 and we arrive shortly after 5:00 -- we are lucky to get seats at the very back of the room! Shortly thereafter people are turned away so that staff can serve dinner to hungry folks like ourselves. When the show starts quite a few enter as standing room only guests -- the house was packed solid.

Anyways, it was a fitting farewell to the Mystery Monday series. We hope that something will be revived or take over the Backstage of the El Mercado on Monday nights. It's been a great event in a very good listening room that we have thoroughly enjoyed. We'll see what happens on our next visit to Austin.

TVZ Birthday

Click image for more photos ..

On Friday the city announces that the South by Southwest Festival is cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak. They don't want to be an epidemic center created by the thousands who would be gathering from all over the world. There are some who think Austin will be better without SxSW and all the crowds but nobody anticipates how bad it's going to get.

The SxSW festival often marks the end of our winter stay in Austin. We have booked to head home just before the festival starts -- we don't like crowds and it gets very expensive to stay. This year we plan to leave a day earlier anyways.

One of the important events (at least for us), just before SxSW, is the annual Townes Van Zandt Birthday Bash organized at the Cactus Cafe at UTX by Butch Hancock (pictured at left). Townes' birthday is March 7, 1944; he died young on January 1,1997. Sometimes SxSW starts earlier and we miss the event. We are lucky this year to be here. Today is the 22nd annual birthday bash.

We get away early and I drop Kate off at the Student Union/Cactus Cafe building so she can get in line to get good seats and I search for nearby street parking. After circling for a couple of times I end up parking at a student residence which has several floors of off street parking -- it ends up costing us $24. Not cheap.

Butch is just back from New Zealand and has lots of stories to tell -- he's somewhat amazed at the eels in NZ rivers and claims one of them ate Jimmie Dale Gilmore. He's not one to watch the clock and tells quite long stories before playing Towne's tunes and moving on to the other guests. He also encouraged folks to sign up for a New Mexico boat trip he's organized where you camp out and swap songs around the camp fire. It's a full house and there are a lot of guest performers in the course of the evening. Some who had travelled a good distance just to honor Townes.

There are some very good tunes (e.g. Beety Soo did a couple of stand out tunes on a borrowed guitar, Jackson Emmer came down from Colorado especially for this event and there was this couple from New Mexico who sang well together). We enjoyed the music.

There are some very odd characters too -- there was this fellow who had chummed around with Townes and others back in the 1960's, he told a long story about Linda Miller (who he had a relationship with) and how "For the Sake of the Song" was written for her. He arrived on stage wearing an "Open Carry" T-shirt with a picture of a Yosemite Sam character brandishing two joints (marijuana open carry, not gun open carry). It seemed that he had spent a lifetime doing too many drugs and it affected his ability to hold a line of thought. Once on stage he was hard to get rid of. But Butch was kind, respectful and forgiving. Not so some of the audience or the sound man.

There was a break and a 2nd set. But we cut out at around 11:30 with new people still coming up to sing Townes' songs. It was very loosely organized, more of an ad-hoc tune swap. There are quite a few, like us, who have to cut out early.

I'm glad we were able to attend this birthday bash. Townes van Zandt is, to many, a really important Texas artist who shaped the music we love so much. If you don't know his music here's some tunes to try "Tecumseh Valley", "Pancho and Lefty", "If I Needed You" and "Marie". See also the Townes Van Zandt Youtube Channel.

Ps. The Cactus Cafe is celebrating 40 years. The Austin Lounge Lizards are celebrating 40years. Kate and I are celebrating 40 years. Coincidence?

Overheard with Evan Smith

Click Image for more photos ...

When we are in Austin, one of the things that we like to do is go to tapings of Overheard with Evan Smith -- it's a long running PBS show with a studio audience.  The tapings are done in Studio 6A of PBS station KLRU on the campus of UTX. This was the studio where Austin City Limits was taped for many years. These days ACL has a much bigger stage in the Moody Theatre downtown. I understand that this show will be moving to another site within the year.

We discovered these tapings a few years ago at the suggestion of someone we met at a music event. One of those suggestions well worth following: "Oh, you might find this interesting while visiting". We certainly have. Evan Smith interviews all sorts of interesting people.

You can see the show on various PBS stations. We subscribe to a podcast but it's not quite the same. We love going to live tapings (something about seeing stuff live). We never miss any of them while we are there. Entry is free and it's usually some interesting person who might be flogging a book or has interesting stories to tell. That was the case for the shows we saw this time.

We saw Brill Bradley interviewed on Friday February 7. He's a former senator, he was a presidential candidate (vs Al Gore) and has lots of opinions on the current political situation. He's also a very tall man who played basket ball at college, in the NBA and the Olympics. He went to Princeton and was a Rhodes scholar. His credentials are impeccable. And he had a lot to say about Donald Trump. He was also, by times, very funny. Like before the taping when he a had a bit of coughing fit and collapsed on the table pretending to have keeled over. We learned a lot and enjoyed the show. 

Here's a link to the Bill Bradley show.

We saw Rick Wilson interviewed on Monday February 10. Rick Wilson is a savy republican operative/media consultant who has done a lot to get some pretty nasty folks into office. However, he is not a fan of the current president and believes the GOP is all the worse for it. His first book was "Everything Trump Touches Dies" (2018). His current book, "Running Against The Devil: A Plot to Save America from Donald Trump and Democrats from Themselves", is a strategy plan for beating Donald Trump in 2020. There will be some hard choices made. He touched a bit on the "Lincoln Project" -- it's a project by those on the political right (including folks like George Conway) to defeat Trump. It was any interesting talk and a bit of an eye-opener. One of the funnier lines: he calls Florida the "Gunshine State" as they're crazy about gun rights. 

Here's a link to the Rick Wilson show.

The last show we went to this time was an interview with the Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig who together investigated and wrote the book "A Very Stable Genius. Donald J Trump's Testing of America".  While most shows aren't terribly well attended this one was pretty much a full house. The authors both seemed like really nice people as well as both being Pulitizer Prize winners (I think the she has won 3 Pulitzers).  We bought the book, had them sign it, and Kate is reading it first. It is a fascinating but frightenting bit of history -- what the hell is going on in the Whitehouse? While it reminds you of all the horrible things Trump did, it also provides all the context around it (including what some of the people were thinking at the time). 

Here's a link to the Leonning & Rucker show.

If you get a chance to attend one of Evan Smith's interviews you will not be disappointed.

The Haunting

Click image for more photos ...

We went to a dinner theatre event: The Haunting of the Tavern at an English styled pub called The Tavern at Lamar and 12th. The show was produced by the same gang who do Esther's Follies.

The dinner choices for the main plate were a steak (which I had), salmon (which we had ordered for Kate) and a veggie bowl (which Kate ended up with because I'd left a note that she was a vegetarian ... who ate fish). It was a bit of struggle to serve the three course meal during the breaks in the play but the staff worked hard to get food and drinks on the table.

This is the first time they're tried this. They had sell out shows during February when they premiered and we are lucky to get seats for this their extended run. We have front row seats and are right in the thick of things during the play.

The play is a comedic farce involving a will, a faked ghost, a murder and a cast of suspects. There's an extended plot line where the Scooby-Doo gang (the children's cartoon series) investigate the murder. That's the Scooby-Doo puppet in the picture above.

We laughed ourselves silly. The Esther's Follies gang are quite funny. Kate was talking to one of the characters we recognize who does a "Texas" map bit at the Follies show. He's done it for years, we've seen it many times and it's still funny.

The murder in this play is resolved by the audience casting their votes on who they think did it and why. That made the last act a bit of a let down.

It was fun. We didn't go to Esther's Follies this visit but this helped to make up for that omission.

Mike Stinson

Click image for more photos ...

Sunday after noon is lovely, warm and sunny. It gets up to 75F. We went to see honky tonk legend Mike Stinson (and Chicken Shit Bingo -- more on that in a moment) at C-boy's Heart & Soul on South Congress after the Hippy Church at Maria's Taco Xpress.

We arrive early for the 3:30 show and are waiting with others for the doors to open. One of the staff has his Harley Davidson Sporster parked out front right by the door and comes around to tell us not to touch his bike. I'm thinking ... Why in hell don't you park safely in the parking lot instead?

We're chatting with a couple of guys our age in line. The one fellow is visiting from Costa Rica to house/dog sit for a friend. He's never been to a Chicken Shit Bingo or to a Mike Stinson event or to C-boys. We tell him that it will be a good show and advise him to get a good seat early as there aren't that many. We end up in a comfy booth right by the stage. There are a few high tables with bar stools and a good sized dance area. There's also a bit of a back patio and it's a nice day to sit outside. Our new friend from Costa Rica really enjoys the show. We get to talking and he tells me we ought to go see Ulla (Rich Brotherton & others who perform traditional Irish tunes) at the Saxon Pub -- he was there last Sunday, so were we!

Chicken Shit Bingo is a real Austin thing. It's a game of chance involving, you guessed it: a chicken and some chicken shit. They chicken is in a wired mesh cage with a numbered grid on the floor of it. You place a bet on where the chicken will shit and if you win you take the pot. The fellow in the picture was one of the 4 winners that happened while we were there. The older lady is Jinny, of Jinny's Little Long Horn Saloon, and she conducts the game. Winnings each time were $108 counted out by the band.

Mike Stinson tells folks to line up for the bingo on the far side against the booths and not to line up in front of the bar. There are very few rules but the admonishment to not block the bar is one of the few.  He asks Jinny if they've been feeding Exlax to the chickens. He also makes a joke about the pending coronavirus problem -- he thinks he can survive the Corona Virus but if they every have a Coors Light Virus then he'll be in real trouble. Drinking, and drinking songs, are a big part of his music.

Mike sings lots of songs we're familiar with -- "The Box I Take to Work", "I May Have to Do It" (which Christine Albert has been singing at Mystery Mondays), "Stop the Bar", "Late for My Funeral"; and some covers like "Troubles in My Bubbles in My Bottle of Beer", "Going to California" (Jimmie Rodgers). There are lots of tunes that are new to us and some we're waiting for like "Died and Gone to Houston" which probably came up in the second set. Mike has several CD's and has his last one "Hell and Half of Georgia" (2013) for sale. We have it already.

The bar fills during the first set with several very good dancers on the dance floor. I think people come here to dance on a Sunday afternoon. There's no cover charge (they pass a tip jar), a good dance floor and music made for dancing. We left early during the second set and will have missed out on some great tunes.

C-boys has Chicken Shit Bingo as a regular Sunday afternoon affair. Mike Stinson plays once a month, we've also seen Dale Watson here. Mike also has a regular gig on Tuesday night at 10:00 at the Continental Club but this afternoon show is more to our liking.

If you get a chance to see Mike Stinson do go. He's the real deal.

Hippy Church

Click image for more photos ...

Another lovely warm spring day in Austin. We went to Sunday brunch at Maria's Taco Xpress. It's only a block away from where we are staying across the street on Lamar. We've been there in years past but not on this trip. They have live music on their outdoor patio and advertise the weekly Sunday event as the "Hippie Church". There certainly were a few hippies there.

The "Rockin' Gospel Project" is a very large band, somewhat ad hoc, that plays the first Sunday of every month. They're sort of R&B and 60's music with a dynamic leader who worked very hard to keep the audience rocking. The band members are older (well old like us) and we haven't seen such a congregation of old hippies for quite a while.  At one point, they passed out face masks (actually masks you would use for doing plaster work), did a song called the coronavirus dance and had everyone put on the masks to join in dancing. Some did a conga line dancing around the patio. People were to take pictures and post them on Youtube saying "Austin's ready!".

Like many Austin events people bring their dogs which tend to be well behaved. We find it odd that so many restaurants let you bring your pets.

I met a young woman who was shooting pictures for their Facebook page, she asked if I'd share any pictures we took and we've gladly obliged. The picture above is Kate's.>

It was quite a funny event but, in retrospect, a bit of black humor -- laughing in the face of imminent catastrophy. Coronavirus isn't a joke.