After a great couple nights of listening to new bands/artists, I thought I’d take one night to see old favorites. In the afternoon, we went to a day show featuring Carrie Rodriguez.
Again, it’s a great place to actually meet and talk with your favorite musicians.
Carrie was at Jovitas with her band and fiddle. The act before was Dale Watson, a traditional Texas swing band and Carrie was out on the floor swinging with the best of them.
The first evening act was Chip Taylor. One of my favorite recent albums is the one he did with Carrie Rodriguez, “Red Dog Tracks.”
His band this evening consisted of a newly discovered fiddle player/vocalist from Canada who he dragged to Austin and he is producing her debut album. His guitarist moves between him and Van Morrison, and was with Chip this evening. Chip Taylor has a long career, most notably as an Americana/Country artist, but is also the writer for the rock song “Wild Thing” and pop song “Angel of the Morning” recently remade by Shaggy to a #1 hit and 14 million copies. Chip is an artful, widely varied artist.
Just to let you know, the photo police continue to patrol, so the pictures aren’t as good as they could be.
County artist Steve Earle was next, most known for songs like “Guitar Town” and “Copperhead Road” he played to a very enthusiastic crowd and was the only performer who came out for an encore. He had a great new song that he dedicated to Pete Seeger that wished for a time we could “throw that hammer down” because we didn’t need it any more and it is getting heavy to keep carrying. I look forward to hearing the new disc. Allison Moorer joined him for a couple of songs as well.
It was then a mile sprint down 6th street to the Molotov Lounge to see Michelle Shocked. An incredible performance and rapport with the audience. Â She played more rocking versions of “Anchored Down in Ankorage” and my favorite song of hers – 500 Miles (Been a Long Time).
She told a story about learning to drive a manual transmission car and then said it wasn’t a very interesting story, but she didn’t want us to leave without hearing a truthful story from a Texan.
The night ended with Rickie Lee Jones. I liked Rickie Lee’s jazzy, folky, past albums but wasn’t quite ready for this performance.
She came out and played thrash speed-metal songs, pretty much devoid of melody or much else. We left after three songs after it became apparent it wasn’t just a song or two, but a new direction. I’m also not sure her trance-like state was entirely naturally influenced. It was the only performance of the festival that I didn’t stick around to watch. However, a great number of people did not seem taken aback, so I guess I missed the last album review and new direction.