In the month of March each year, much of the focus of musicians, fans, labels, promotional teams, advertisers, and social media outlets focus on Austin's South by Southwest - aka SXSW.
However, many performers can't get booked in Austin, and many fans can't travel there. In addition, many performers don't want to participate in SXSW - and the same can be said for fans (hands go up for TMC).
Yet, as fans, we dig music. Even more so, we dig grabbing our own beer from the fridge at a fraction of the cost, not having to wait in line for the bathroom, saving money on travel costs, and using our sofas as a multipurpose device: work space, bar bench, snack station, and nap haven.
So if you find yourself in that category and want to take in some great music, join me at this year's Couch By Couchwest aka CXCW - where the beer is cheaper and the only hipster is you. This year's on-line festival will run from March 11 - 18.
Click the poster below to jump to CXCW's site, view the videos at YouTube or Vimeo, participate on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.
Also, you don't have to be a passive couch potato with this. Know an artist or performer? Recommend they submit an original video. How about yourself? Can you strum three chords and sing in tune? Then fire up the camcorder. LoFi videography will work. Set up your camera, pick up a guitar, press record, sing, save, submit. Bonus points may be awarded for appearances by couches, beer, pets, or kids.
I took my daughter to high school orientation Thursday night. Multiple teachers and principals gave about an hour overview of class options, extracurricular activities, etc. Normal stuff. Things you'd expect to hear as a parent ... for the most part.
But I was also intrigued by some of the nuggets some of them offered. My daughter thought I was scribbling furiously because of new information relevant to the next four years of her education. Instead, I was attempting shorthand to help remember many that's what she said quips.
The sad reality? My kid's school has been rated as one of the top schools in the state. If its blue-ribbon quality, I weep for the kids, parents and teachers everywhere else.
PTO person: We have a new program for the class of 2016. Basically, its designed so we can give them love and gifts over their four years. We plan to raise money to give them praise and things and a big gift their senior year.
TMC: Thanks. Just what we need. More expectations of entitlements for the next generation.
Teacher: Students are required to earn 2 foreign language credits. We'll be offering French and Spanish as our foreign language classes next year. And of course, our classes are honors and AP level.
TMC: So even the burnouts from the smoke pit can get at least one AP credit? Cool!
Teacher: If your student takes 3 years of JROTC, it'll cover the PE credits plus the half-credit for personal finance.
TMC: It still blows my mind that our schools provide a personal finance course. But with runaway consumer debt, folks who believe their mortgage balance and fluctuations in home values are directly related, and using bankruptcy as a cash management technique, I guess its clear many parents have no clue as to how to teach financial responsibility at home. Having said that, how in the world does participation in JROTC equate to learning personal finance concepts.
And now a few free-standing quips - presented without comment.
Algebra teacher: (Regarding the need for a graphing calculator) Math isn't as easy as it used to be.
Clueless teacher: Hi, I'm Ms. , and I'm the teacher of [pause, look back at the PowerPoint screen, turn back] Marketing and Communications.
Confused teacher: I don't feel like I'm getting any older..even though I guess I am.
Fine arts teacher: No sound bites here. But for her info slide in PowerPoint, she chose to use a maroon-colored font on a blue background.
Fashion/apparel track teacher: I don't see a single nekkid person in this room. So I know the fashion industry isn't going away.
Technology challenged teacher: We'll put this informational PowerPoint file on the school's website in a few days after we reduce the file size and strip some information out of it.
The Feel Bad For You compilations continue. @Rockstar_Aimz has taken the reins from @Truersound to give him a much needed break from his accumulation, sorting, uploading and blogging 12 iterations of FBFY in 2011.
As is generally the case, the February compilation has no theme. Just a bunch of folks pitching in a song here and there for your listening experience - and perhaps to stretch your conventional thinking to try a new artist or two.
I love this month's cover art from @AnnieTUFF. Nothing screams my teenaged era more than a box of vinyl LPs and Dymo label maker strips.
If you under the age of 40, you probably didn't have one like this ... or maybe at all. But my brother, sister and I had one, and labeled all sorts of stuff. Hot Wheels storage cases, bicycles, school notebooks, lamps, toolboxes, our foreheads, and so on.
View the playlist and download the compilation at the FBFY blog. Or simply listen to it right chere.
TMC's submission is Don't Love Me Wisely by The Setters. As I understand it, the group was pulled together by Michael Hall on a whim and without a whole lot of thought about short, medium or long term plans. The band included Walter Salas-Humara, Alejandro Escovedo, and Hall. Salas-Humara is the long-time front man for The Silos - a band I've enjoyed for years and blogged about a time or two.
Hall once fronted a great band called the Wild Seeds. The band released a couple of albums that were fun then - and remain relevant today...
Brave, Clean + Reverent ...
... and Mud, Lies + Shame
After the band went their separate ways, Hall released a half-dozen or so solo releases with a wide range of lyrical and composition style plus his project with The Setters.
For the last several years, Michael Hall has been a contributing writer to Texas Monthly magazine.
An overdue - and now somewhat dated - blog entry. December 25, 2011, is now so far back that its not even in our rear view mirror anymore. After the build-up to Christmas, we all zip through the day like a hot knife through butter. Then we move on to taking down decorations, celebrating New Year's Eve, watching bowl games, and bitching about winter weather.
Before leaving the season completely though, I wanted to post a show review. Nashville Unlimited has become somewhat of a Christmas tradition for me in recent years. Prominent Nashville bassist Dave Pomeroy pulls together many wildly talented performers for the show.
Each year the show is held at Christ Church Cathedral. Most of the performers are not announced beforehand. I've seen John Prine, The Steelriders, Emmylou Harris, Tommy Emmanuel, and Riders In The Sky just to name a few. No tickets are sold, and little promotion is done. The only thing asked of folks who attend is to make a donation to support Room In The Inn.
RITI is a Nashville-based homeless-assistance organization. I began helping with some of RITI's programs about 12-13 years ago. Their programs are wonderful and impactful, and I credit the staff and the folks they serve with changing my views (for the better) towards the homeless.
Throughout this year's 2-1/2 hour show, Dave repeatedly reminded us about the purpose of the evening - to support RITI. Folks certainly enjoyed the music, but he frequently mentioned RITI, its programs, and that folks in the back of the room would continue to take donations. Over the last few years of this show, over $100,000 has been collected and donated to Room in the Inn.
As for the music, Pomeroy hit a grand slam for this year's show. So many folks - outside and inside Nashville - generally label Music City as a 'country' town. Some may even broaden it to include bluegrass or Americana. But 2011 Nashville Unlimited featured country, bluegrass, blues, jazz, Mandolin-laden Celtic, baroque classical, and even big band - many genres rarely associated with Nashville.
The show opened with two a-cappella, bluesy songs by The McCrary Sisters - No Room At The Inn and Silent Night.
Next up was songwriter Danny Flowers. I didn't recognize the name, but I made the connection as soon as Dave introduced him. Flowers has been a Nashville-based songwriter since the mid 1970s. His most well-known song is likely Tulsa Time, recorded by Don Williams and later Eric Clapton. Flowers said he wrote a song just for the evening over the Thanksgiving holidays. He gave no title for it, but the refrain repeated "...All I want is Jesus..." It was a wonderful number. I hope he performs it elsewhere next Christmas season and that someone ups it to YouTube. Next he sang the old hymn In The Garden a capella - again, a very moving few minutes.
Daniel Tashian from a new group named The Boxwoods then played the Christmas classic, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire ... on a ukelele. Yep. And it was great. Not Don Ho'ish at all. Afterwards, his bandmates joined him to sing a song titled Christmas Time At Last. One of the band members is Tom Littlefield. Tom once fronted the Nashville-based pop-rock band, The Questionnaires in the 1980s. The title track to their major label EMI debut, Window To The World, was covered by Shawn Colvin (YT). Littlefield also collaborated with Tommy Womack to pen a fave of mine from There I Said It, I Couldn't Care Less (YT).
Music City Baroque followed The Boxwoods. This Nashville ensemble played two classical songs - neither of which I know the title. But hey, toolittleculture can wreck toomuchcountry so I just rolled with it. The thing that really captured my attention; however, was the oddest string instrument I've ever seen. The guy playing it said it was called a theorbo - or just a 'bass lute' if one wants to take the simple route.
This isn't the guy who played the theorbo. He was just in the way of a good picture I found of the instrument.
In the past, Dave Pomeroy has generally opened the evening following his intro comments. For this year's show, he waited until about half-way through it and sang his creation I Wish It Could Always Be Christmas. He even donned the Christmas tree hat he is wearing in his video of the song.
After only one number, Pomeroy brought out Pat Bergeson and wife Annie Sellick. Bergeson was a long-time guitarist for the legendary Chet Atkins. (I also learned he is the ex of bluegrass great Allison Krauss.) Following the death of Chet, he joined Lyle Lovett's band and performed with other greats. He and Annie performed two jazzy numbers, That's What I Want For Christmas and Christmas Memory.
The first year I attended Nashville Unlimited, Pomeroy introduced Nashville Mandolin Ensemble - another completely unknown group to me. I was prepared to hear a song or two of nasally bluegrass Christmas carols. Instead, they blew me away with their complex arrangements of worldly music. Since that first year, they have become a favorite of mine for the show. If you can put yourself back in the Christmas mood briefly, seek out their now out-of-print Christmas CD Gifts. Their four-song set consisted of:
Carol of the Bells
Dance of the Mirlitons (from The Nutcracker)
Medley of songs
O Holy Night (vid from a performance of it at Nashville's weekly Music City Roots show at the Loveless Barn)
After a quick re-arrangement of the stage, the Time Jumpers performed three numbers. There has been a buzz about town about this group as they play each Monday at The Station Inn. A somewhat 'super group' of western swing, the band has rotating band members including Vince Gill and Ranger Doug from Riders in the Sky. I have no idea of the first number they performed - though it did include some nifty guitar picking by Gill. Ranger Doug had us scratching our heads a bit with a yodeling-laced second Christmas tune. And the group closed with All Of Me. I found it interesting Gill was just part of the band. He didn't front it. He didn't step front and center. He barely acknowledged the applause following his intro and later guitar solo. He was just a band member.
The night closed with the most logistically-challenging and most unexpected group, Duffy Jackson's Big Band. Yet again - here was another group I'd never heard of despite my having lived in and around Nashville for many decades. Jackson is a highly talented jazz and big band drummer, and his gigs included a stint with the Count Basie Orchestra. Pomeroy's stage hands had to move a lot of chairs and mic stands to accommodate the 20-piece or so band. But they did so quickly, and Jackson's group tore into Winter Wonderland, White Christmas and Sleigh Ride. While Duffy looks like he may have been separated at birth from Seinfeld's Newman, he has some mean jazz drumming skills
I wanted to blog a review of the show. But I also wanted to re-state the purpose of the evening - to support Room in the Inn. Based on a great idea suggested to me by Rockstar_Aimz, I've added a sidebar graphic with a link to RITI. On their main page, one can easily find the 'contribute' link - if you'd like to join me in supporting this great and much needed organization. I'll plan to leave it available for the foreseeable future.
I started listening to Government Cheese in the late 1980s. Through the wonders of the www and e-mail, I connected with Tommy Womack from the Cheese. In turn, Tommy introduced me to the music of Todd Snider when he mentioned a gig where he agreed to play bass in Snider's band, The Nervous Wrecks. Bada-bing, bada-boom, I then started listening to Todd's music...a lot. Soon I found my way to the Todd Snider List-Serv (aka The Sh*t House Wire) where I've met a few kindred spirits sharing a common interest in similar types of music that I prefer.
Michelle, one of the lifers at The SHW, recently completed and uploaded a one-hour video documentary project she did for a degree course. In her words:
It's a discussion about communication between artists and audiences with some of the guys from Daddy (Will, Tommy and Dave - and Michael Webb, who recorded At the Women's Club.)
While Daddy may not be a household name as a band, its pedigree is solid. The full band line-up is Womack, Will Kimbrough, Dave Jacques, and Paul Griffith. Depending on travel schedules and location, Womack and Kimbrough often play together just as a Daddy duo.
Tommy's background is well established with his time in Government Cheese, his solo releases, songwriting with Jason and The Scorchers, and a one-release deal with The Bis-quits. Jacques is perhaps most recognizable as the long-time bassist for the legendary John Prine.
I first started listening to Kimbrough in the late 1980s or so when he fronted his band, Will and The Bushmen. More recently, he has released a handful of solo records. In his 'spare time', he has played with Todd Snider (and produced some of his early records), Jimmy Buffett, Rodney Crowell, and Emmylou Harris - just to name a few.
At The Women's Club was the debut release for Daddy back in 2005. They followed up with a second release in 2009 titled appropriately enough For A Second Time. I was fortunate enough to attend the in-store release performance at Grimey's for that one. (Trivia time: Did you know Mike 'Grimey' Grimes was the bassist in The Bis-Quits along with Tommy and Will?)
If you aren't familiar with Slide It In referred to in the first portion of Michelle's video, here is a full performance of it. Though a great performance in its own right, its not the same version referred to in her documentary.
Great work Michelle!
And if you are wondering about the Six Seconds of this entry's title, you've got to at least watch the portion of Michelle's doc around the 3:00 to 6:00 section.
May 2012 bring you much joy, fresh challenges, exposure to new music, renewed commitments, and plenty of cold beer.
Charlie Robison - New Year's Day
I can't let January 1 pass without mentioning the anniversary of the death of Townes Van Zandt. I've said it before and will again. His artistry and tragedy are inseparable. Townes' lyrics were profound, wonderful, challenging, deep, compelling, depressing, enlightening, and coveted. His life was complex, troubled, lived large, sacrificed, misunderstood, carefree, arguably selfish, and most of all tragically yet predictably shortened.
Also, you don't have to be a passive couch potato with this. Know an artist or performer? Recommend they submit an original video. How about yourself? Can you strum three chords and sing in tune? Then fire up the camcorder. LoFi videography will work. Set up your camera, pick up a guitar, press record, sing, save, submit. Bonus points may be awarded for appearances by couches, beer, pets, or kids.
