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The cover at the door is only $10, and when I arrive Kate has purchased a couple of Margarita's ($10 for two! Wow!), and laid claim to one of the ratty couches, under a Dale Watson mural, near where the performers will be. This is where we were seated for James McMurtry the other night. Again the lighting is less than minimal, hence the B/W photos. When we arrive there are only a few friends of the performers there, who are all greeted warmly, so finding a good place to enjoy the evening wasn't difficult. As the evening progressed more arrived so ultimately it was a good house — not crowded but about as many as at the McMurtry event. Many were, of course, friends/family or performers who played. There was a gang who arrived a bit late having thought the show was downstairs at the Continental Club.
In the picture above, that's Shawnee Kilgore with Michael O'Connor behind and Barbara seated to her left. Shawnee sang a very funny song about "Too Much Texas" (which dates back to at least 2019); Kate remembers seeing her last Sunday at the Purgatory Players; I remember seeing her there over the years and at other events (e.g., at Threadgills, The Austin Acoustic Cafe, etc.). In any case, she was a guest tonight who only performed this one song. But that one song really helped to make the evening.
Michael and Barbara did a song swap over the evening with all original tunes. Barbara repeated some of the songs we had heard earlier this week at the Monday Night Dinner Club with Ben Jones. We had never seen Michael before but he was a very good accompanist with songs of his own and others he had co-written with Geoff Plankenhorn and/or Gabe Rhodes (performers we do know). He's a big gentle bear kind of guy. There's some confusion and laughs around his middle name — is it Sterling, or Scott, or Scott Sterling? Or perhaps it's just the whiskey that's talking.
In the photo album there's some photos of Nevada Newman who, it turns out, is Barbara's house painter. .. or at least so they said. He's another great guitar player and came up to play while Barbara snuck off to the pisser. TMI! He played her guitar and tuned down the bass strings which was quite a surprise to her when she returned. I thought it was pretty brave/foolish of him to do that. Others were warning her, but she missed their warnings.
Barbara was nipping on some tequila having been dry for the last couple of months. So she was a little wild and a bit raunchy. She sang a song about "batting for the other team" having had her fair share of failed relationships with men. The song about "I know what you did!", another failed relationship with a guy who "done her wrong", had her naming Dale Watson and pointing to the Dale Watson mural where I was sitting — it seemed like she was pointing at me! I don't look anything like Dale, certainly haven't done her wrong and, for a while there, people might have thought she was pointing at me. Ultimately, we all had it figured out that it was the Dale Watson of the mural and not me! She and Michael thought the mural looked like Dale was enjoying a blow-job and when Kate purposely took a picture of me with the mural Michael thought the picture would be better if I turned around so it looked like I was giving the blow-job (sic!).
We cut out a little early as Kate's ankle pain became hard to bare. Barbara asked why we were leaving and Kate replied "Too much Dale Watson" (cf. Too much Texas). Everyone hooted at Kate's witty response and Barbara replied "Well played." She then added that "Dale would be playing downstairs on Monday ... no pun intended". He has a residency at the club.
We have seen Barbara several times over the years starting with "The Whiskey Sisters" in 2013, a house concert in 2019, Purgatory Plays and most recently at the Monday Night Dinner Club with Ben Jones.
We enjoyed the event and, no doubt, will be back before our visit to Austin ends.
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