TCB
Music news
By Christopher Gray, Fri., March 31, 2006
DUST IN THE WIND
Weather permitting, the fifth annual Lonestar Rod & Kustom Round Up rolls into Festival Beach at Fiesta Gardens Saturday, prompting a full weekend of music on South Congress. Jesse Dayton and Ryan Bingham rev things up with a free show 6:30pm Friday at Jo's Hot Coffee, while the original Honky lineup headlines over Grady and the Lifters at Trophy's, and Texan Johnny Reno's new band High School Caesar hits the Continental Club with all-girl surf trio Queen of Spades and Shaun Young's Thunderchiefs. Saturday, the reunited Blasters join Doyle Bramhall Sr., Barfield, and the Weary Boys at Festival Beach. That night, it's Chili Cold Blood and Two Timin' Three free at Jo's; Chicago's Hot Rod Hucksters, Lil' Bobby Bleed, Dixie Witch, and John Schooley's One Man Band at Trophy's; and the Continental lineup featured in Music Listings (p.100). Much more at www.continentalclub.com.
This weekend's Austin Record Convention should take care of any leftover SXSW cash. Once again at the new Crockett Center, 10601 N. Lamar, Saturday and Sunday, 10am-6pm, tickets are only $4 for both days, but early-shopper passes, enabling holders to start dropping dead presidents at 10am Friday, are available for $25. Since you'll be broke coming back, stop by brand-new vinyl outpost Backspin Records, 5247 Burnet Rd., on the way there.
Local pop-punk pranksters the Midgetmen celebrate four years of not breaking up and foolproof promotional ploys Friday at the Flamingo Cantina with the Total Foxes, Lemurs, Just Guns, and their first-ever acoustic set. The Mad Dog was delicious, guys.
Austin's formerly cosmic Dust Devils took home four trophies from the 2006 Texas Music Awards, held last Saturday at the Music City Texas Theater in Linden: Vocal Duo or Group of the Year, Album of the Year for Gathering Dust, Female Vocalist for Barbara Malteze, and Song of the Year for "Walk On." Other winners included Entertainer of the Year John Arthur Martinez, Singer-Songwriter of the Year Hayes Carll, and Live Band of the Year Texas Renegade. Congrats to all.
SPIRITUAL BOY
The subject of the hourlong BBC documentary, The Passing Show: The Life and Music of Ronnie Lane, a new 90-minute theatrical version of which begins a week-long run Friday at the Alamo South, onetime Austinite Ronnie Lane was one of the sweetest people on Earth, says his former Small Faces and Faces mate Ian McLagan. McLagan joined the Small Faces in 1965, and the two hit it off immediately. "We argued over the years, but we were always good pals," says McLagan, featured in Passing Show alongside Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Joe Ely, and Lane's widow, Susan. (Lane succumbed to MS in 1997.) Among the hugely popular and influential Sixties Brit-rockers, Lane was an easygoing contrast to his more manic co-founder Steve Marriott. "Steve, you could say he was the madman, screaming and shouting and flying off the handle," says McLagan. "Ronnie was calmer. I loved Steve as much, but he'd wear you out." McLagan shelved his latest album, This Is It, to prepare Spiritual Boy, his tribute to Lane, in time for Lane's 60th birthday on Saturday; the never-released title cut, he notes, is "probably the last thing Ronnie ever wrote." "Itchycoo Park," one of Lane's signature songs, was never one of McLagan's favorites until he realized he couldn't exclude it from the album, which he'll release at Saturday's Alamo birthday show, with a live set from McLagan's Bump Band after the film. "I used to hate doing it live," he allows. "But I'm hoping this will make up for it."
MILEAH JORDAN, 1962-2006
Mileah Jordan, logistics manager for Stubb's barbecue sauce division and former Liberty Lunch office manager, died overnight March 16 at her Austin apartment. The cause of death was unknown, but Jordan, 43, had had multiple health problems in recent years, said former boyfriend and neighbor Rob Cooley, who found her body the next morning. Jordan grew up in Abilene, studied art history at the University of Dallas, and moved to Austin in 1984. She designed T-shirts for Joe "King" Carrasco & Los Coronas and later booked local bands Not for Sale, Swine King, and the Diamond Smugglers. Jordan met future Lunch owners Mark Pratz and J'Net Ward when they were managing the Continental Club and followed them to the legendary Second Street venue, where she worked until its 1999 demise. "I thought it was funny the way she would throw beer bottles into the trash as a way to get people to leave," says Cooley. Jordan, who was buried near Quitman last weekend, is survived by her father, Bob Jordan, of Port Aransas.
BOOM TOWN
Named after Billy the Kid's reputed last words (and the subsequent gunshot), Austin quintet Quien es, Boom! are relieved that debut LP Cast Your Burdens Aside is finally out, mainly because they're already fretting about its follow-up. "It's been sitting on the shelf for a while," says Jeremy Butler, who started the group a year and a half ago with songwriting partner Dabney Dalle and various friends. "You just want it to be released so people know what you're up to." Now that it is, Butler is still struggling with how to describe it. "Those are our very first songs we ever wrote," he says. "It's a strange mixture of traditional songwriting mixed with a little bit of electronics. ... I'm horrible at this. I don't know what it sounds like." TCB would venture ambient folk or acoustic anti-pop, but find out in person Friday at the Parish with the Glass Family and Brothers & Sisters.
TIGER BY THE TAIL
Busy month for the reaper, who called home "Bakersfield sound" pioneer, businessman, and Hee Haw co-host Buck Owens last Thursday at age 76. The author of "Act Naturally" and "Together Again" is shown here exiting his tour bus (guitarist and songwriter Jim Lauderdale is at left) shortly before his surprise appearance at the Continental Club's annual Owens birthday tribute in 1995, which moved the country icon, as well as performers the Derailers, and several others in the club, to tears. "Buck was never one to hang around for long periods of time," reflects Continental owner Steve Wertheimer. "But he was so moved by his music being performed by all these great musicians that he hung out for close to five hours that night." In subsequent years, organizer Casper Rawls would call Owens from the stage, and the entire audience would sing "Happy Birthday" over the phone.
Joining Owens on the celestial roll call were Swell Maps founder and author Nikki Sudden, 49, who expired shortly after playing the "Farewell New York Bash" last Sunday; Austinite Jack Jacobs, border-music enthusiast and founder of progressive-country outfit Balcones Fault, who passed away March 9 at age 58; and Country Music Hall of Fame member Cindy Walker ("Dream Lady," Music, February 20, 2004), whose songs were recorded by Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Bing Crosby, Ernest Tubb, and Ray Charles. Walker, 83, died last Thursday at Parkview Regional Hospital in Mexia, Texas, near her hometown of Mart. "I loved her dearly," Willie Nelson, whose You Don't Know Me: Songs of Cindy Walker came out earlier this month, said in a statement.
