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The Old Magic

Last night’s performance by Nick Lowe at La Zona Rosa was his first appearance in Austin with a band in almost 20 years. Nevertheless, it was the opening and closing tunes – when he graced the stage solo – that stand out most. Read More | Comment »

1:11PM Wed. May. 9, Jim Caligiuri

Otherworldly Roots

Early in the Austin City Limits taping last night, Punch Brothers frontman Chris Thile mentioned an episode of the landmark PBS program from 1990 featuring Strength in Numbers, a supergroup once composed of Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Mark O’Connor, Edgar Meyer, and Jerry Douglas. Read More | Comment »

12:47PM Wed. May. 2, Jim Caligiuri

Mysterium Tremendum

It figures. I spoke to Mickey Hart yesterday and learned something. The former Grateful Dead drummer, who's appearing with his band at La Zona Rosa Thursday night, used the word “sonification” to describe the music he’s making. Turns out he’s taking light waves and turning them into sound. And these aren't just any light waves. Read More | Comment »

2:20PM Wed. Apr. 25, Jim Caligiuri

10 Minutes With Amos Lee

Friday headliner at this weekend’s Old Settler’s Music Festival is Philadelphia native Amos Lee. Discovered by Norah Jones, the young soul-folk singer-songwriter surprised everybody when his fourth release, 2011’s Mission Bell, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard album chart. Read More | Comment »

12:13PM Wed. Apr. 18, Jim Caligiuri

Not Fade Away

How much is too much? On the heels of last year’s 73-CD box set of every show on the band's infamous 1972 European tour, Shout! Factory is releasing the Grateful Dead's All the Years Combine, a 14-DVD set with a running time of nearly 38 hours. Deadheads, are we screaming “enough” yet? Probably not. Read More | Comment »

1:03PM Wed. Apr. 11, Jim Caligiuri

Rabble Rousers

If the music thing doesn’t work out, the Atomic Duo should consider becoming a comedy act. At the Cactus Cafe Wednesday night there were several belly laughs in reaction to the stories and onstage antics of Mark Rubin and Silas Lowe. There were also a couple of noticeable groans. Read More | Comment »

11:48AM Thu. Mar. 29, Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Encore: Donovan

The name Donovan suddenly appeared among the acts playing South By Southwest just before the music part of the festival began. When I contacted his publicist wondering if it was really the psychedelic Sixties folk-poet, they assured me it was and asked if I’d like an interview. Hell yes I told them. Read More | Comment »

4:44PM Wed. Mar. 21, Jim Caligiuri

This Old Porch

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t dreaming when I saw Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, and Steve Earle all on the ACL Live stage Sunday night. There are photographs so it must have happened. As far as dreams go, however, it was a pretty good one. Read More | Comment »

1:55PM Tue. Mar. 6, Jim Caligiuri

15 Minutes With Paul Kelly

Revered Australian songsmith Paul Kelly brings his inventive A-Z show (he says “A to Zed”) to the Cactus Cafe next Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 28-29. Excerpted for this week's print edition of the Chronicle, in Music Listings, is part of an interview we did last week. Here's the whole enchilada – on A-Z, the resulting box set, and his new biography. Read More | Comment »

12:10PM Wed. Feb. 22, Jim Caligiuri

Beyond the Sun: Chris Isaak's Epic Moody Theater Taping

Taped for PBS, Chris Isaak’s appearance at the Moody Theater on Monday was so lengthy it probably became a mini-series. With costume changes, a stage reset, and do-overs, the evening stretched past three hours. Except for an easily tired handful of the crowd that departed early, there were no complaints. Isaak demonstrated an enthusiasm that never waned. Read More | Comment »

10:08AM Wed. Feb. 15, Jim Caligiuri

Small Invitations: Catching up with Trish Murphy

Trish Murphy takes part in a song swap with Robyn Ludwick and Ginger Leigh Thursday night at the Flamingo Cantina. I’m sure there are people who only know Murphy as part of the popular covers act Skyrocket, but a decade ago she was a much loved singer, songwriter, and band leader on her own. She hasn’t sung her own songs in public in what seems like a very long time. Read More | Comment »

10:06AM Wed. Feb. 8, Jim Caligiuri

Missing Momo's

It’s appropriate Suzanna Choffel was the last act to play Momo’s. It had become her home base even before she began dating Paul Oveisi, the owner. She played there Christmas Eve, a Saturday, and at the time nobody knew it was the final show because the venue was closed for the holiday. Then came an announcement that the next day’s shows were canceled. Read More | Comment »

1:20PM Thu. Feb. 2, Jim Caligiuri

Radio Radio

I’m a radio geek. Always have been. So I tackled Kim Simpson’s new book, Early '70s Radio, with more than a little interest. I felt I knew the subject. Lived it. Simpson, who's speaking on the subject tonight at Book People, 7pm, writes that at the beginning of the decade commercial radio formats numbered in the single digits. By 1980, the tally was 133. Read More | Comment »

10:47AM Wed. Jan. 25, Jim Caligiuri

Monster Band: Susan Tedeschi Q&A

After being married almost a decade and raising a family, blues mama Susan Tedeschi and slide guitarist Derek Trucks joined forces – in a band. Revelator, their soulful debut, recalls traveling circus acts like Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the 11 musicians that appear on disc kick things off in Texas at the Moody Theater. Read More | Comment »

11:31AM Tue. Jan. 17, Jim Caligiuri

Tom Ardolino R.I.P.

Tom Ardolino, longtime drummer for “The World’s Greatest Bar Band” NRBQ, died January 6. I spoke to Austin’s Conrad Choucroun, now the ‘Q’s drummer, in October when the reconstituted Quartet came to town for the first time since 1994. Read More | Comment »

11:06AM Thu. Jan. 12, Jim Caligiuri

Back When: 2011

One last shot of 2011, I promise. Here’s my semi-annual mix of songs I liked from albums released in the past 12 months. As always, it’s a combination both local and national of longtime favorites like the Old 97’s, Richard Buckner, and the Jayhawks, and new discoveries of Austinites like the Carper Family and Sons of Fathers. Read More | Comment »

12:38PM Wed. Jan. 4, Jim Caligiuri

11 for 11

2011 was the most interesting year yet in Geezerville. Actually that surprises me. When the year began, I would have never predicted some of the things that happened locally, nor some of the artists I’d get to interview, some of the shows I’d witness, and the online ruckus I instigated. Read More | Comment »

4:53PM Wed. Dec. 28, 2011, Jim Caligiuri

My Dinner with @tblsh

I was kidding really. The Bright Light Social Hour posted on its Facebook page that, after a brutal year on the road, they were very glad to be home for the next month. I facetiously suggested “let’s do lunch!” Band manager Alex O’Brien thought I was serious and his brother, bass player Jack O’Brien, sent me a message that they were up for it. Read More | Comment »

1:20PM Thu. Dec. 15, 2011, Jim Caligiuri

South Austin Silent Night

So many new holiday albums get released every year – some arriving as early as August – that it could be an industry in itself. Here’s what topped the stack this year, some local, some national, some holly jolly. Read More | Comment »

2:24PM Wed. Dec. 7, 2011, Jim Caligiuri

15 Minutes with Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe didn’t set out to prove there's second acts in life, but he’s succeeded spectacularly. Coming up in the late 1970s with Elvis Costello, etc, he'd turned into a punk rock crooner – Tony Bennett with a taste for Americana – by 1994’s The Impossible Bird. His new The Old Magic is on tap when he opens for Wilco at the Moody on Thursday. Read More | Comment »

1:12PM Tue. Nov. 29, 2011, Jim Caligiuri

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