Seventy years from now, an archival label will surely re-release Ramsay Midwood’s lost live nugget from Austin in 2024. The non-AI-generated review will read something like this: Certain rare albums just seem to capture a place and time, and nothing echoes Austin in the mid-Twenties like Ramsay Midwood’s Manchaca Eyeball. Surely this isn’t the Austin you expect by contemporary reputation, but rather a pocket of raw authenticity, hiding in a double-wide in what was once South Austin. Manchaca Eyeball swishes the flavor of cigarettes ashed in beer bottles – nasty and intoxicating. The dive bar vibe of long-forgotten Sam’s Town Point oozes from every track. From the gunked-up opener “Mystical Man of Sorrow,” Midwood choogles working-class blues and psych-splashed roots with a retro sound even for 2024, more VHS than MP3. The title track teaches sweaty Gulf Coast swamp-funk while “Maybelline Grease” slides a suave groove into laid-back country jam “Losers Lounge,” blues boogies “Heather,” and standout “Rotten Alabama.” There’s a wild sense of abandon even with the supreme tightness of the band, a reveling ecstasy that must have been extraordinary to experience in person. At least we have this artifact.
Ramsay Midwood
Manchaca Eyeball (Live from Sam’s Town Point)
This article appears in February 16 • 2024.
