This Saturday shapes up to be one of the best days of music in Geezerville since South by Southwest, Saturday, 2001. That was the day I caught full sets from 15 bands, ended up doing tequila shots at the bar of the Continental Club with two women from Australia, and lived to tell about it.
In case you haven’t heard, Chicago’s Bloodshot Records will be recreating one of its storied SXSW day parties at the Yard Dog Art Gallery on South Congress. Bloodshot is celebrating 15 years as a label, a remarkable accomplishment considering the state of the music industry, with similar blowouts all over the country and Saturday’s event features local artists from their roster, like Rosie Flores and Scott H. Biram. Detroit’s Deadstring Brothers, whose mix of Stones swagger and Skynyrd Southern rock slays me, are on the bill, along with boozehounds the Waco Brothers, the Jon Langford-led punk-country act that traditionally ends these things with half the equally inebriated audience on stage. It’s free, all ages, and starts at noon. My liver will be in hiding until then.
If that wasn’t enough, that evening the Texas Union will be buzzing with two acts that are incredibly difficult to choose from. In the Union Ballroom, Joe Ely takes a break from the Flatlanders (they make their Grand Ole Opry debut the night before) to travel back to 1987. He’s reuniting the band from that era: Rolling Stones sax player Bobby Keyes, Davis McLarty on drums, Jimmy Pettit on bass, and David Grissom on guitars. If, like me, one of your fave Ely discs is 1990’s Live at Liberty Lunch, you already know the fireworks that ensue. If possible, Grissom’s guitar work has improved over the years, and Ely is always at his heart-stopping best when urged on by a grind ‘em out group of professionals.
David Bromberg makes one of his infrequent stops at the Cactus Café the same night. As I’ve noted before, Bromberg was the act I saw most in the 1970s. He’s worked with Doug Sahm, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and some guy named Dylan. He’s a folk musicologist of the rarest sort and an amazing guitar picker. If that wasn’t enough, this time he’s bringing along the Angel Band, which features his wife Nancy Josephson and whose latest release, With Roots & Wings (Appleseed), was produced by Lloyd Maines. It’ll be a game time decision on whether I’ll be at the Cactus or Ballroom. Most likely I’ll bounce between the two and sleep extra late on Sunday.
This article appears in September 11 • 2009.