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Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Weekend Picks: Party in the woods, Bruce, Kelly, Ghostface, Grupo and more
Friday: Psychedelic Horse S at Beerland. This Ohio outfit was one of the true revelations of SXSW ’07, as in tune with the parameters of small-stakes no-fi guitar rock as early Pavement or earlier Guided By Voices. It’s 1990 all over again, people. Brilliant bummers Pink Reason headlining. —- Joe Gross
Friday: When Roots Attack! at Ruta Maya. Get your irie vibe on and help the kids from KVRX at this student radio benefit with McPullish, Don Chani, Judge, DJ Dubbist, and Green Belt Soundsystem. All proceeds go toward the station’s operating costs. $7 —- Deborah Sengupta Stith
Saturday: Grupo Fantasma at Antone’s. They have the funk, the soul, the salsa, the Latin heat. Prince loves them and so should you. With DJ Chicken George. This is a late show for Antone’s; doors at 10 p.m. $15. — J.G.
Saturday: Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison at the Paramount Theater. Kelly and Bruce play their fourth annual holiday show with special guest Kevin McKinney. $26.50 to $41.50. Online tickets
Saturday: Ghostface Killah at the Parish Room. While the Wu-Tang Clan whence he came appears to be in a state of utter disarray these days, Ghostface Killah’s star continues to rise. After dropping not one but two killer albums in 2006, he’s spent most of ’07 on the road with Rakim. (They dropped by SXSW in March.) With his latest album scheduled for a Dec. 4 release, Ghostface is back in town, once again on Scion’s dime. You know the drillie: The online RSVP puts you on the list, but doesn’t guarantee entry. Show up early to get in line. Free. —D.S.S.
Saturday: Not Your Typical Party at the Oaks (in Manor). I normally don’t recommend out of town events, but this throwdown at the Oaks in Manor features a whole mess of my favorite Austin hip-hop artists. (Plus the small-town girl in me is a sucker for a party in the woods.) On the bill are D.O.S., Uncle Suel, Crew 54, Young Nick, Public Offenders, DJs E. B. Low and Notion and a mess of others. Beer and barbecue will be available for purchase, but if you prefer to pack a flask of your favorite poison, setups will also be available. According to the flier, it’s a 15-minute drive from downtown Austin, so if you do plan to go, please, please designate a driver. $5 —D.S.S.
Sunday: Konflicto, Naw Dude, the Extravaganza at The Broken Neck. An early three-band punk rock bill off in some random nonbar venue, just as the gods of hard-core intended. The first band hails from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and plays a (probably) political hard-core yelled entirely in Spanish. The second act might possess Austin’s best new band name and contains members of Army of Jesus, the Capitalist Kids and the Teeners. The third band is totally old-school shout-along thrash-o-rama. 8 p.m. sharp. The Broken Neck, 4701-B Red Bluff, near Cesar Chavez Street/Springdale Road. — J.G.
The real Blind Willie Johnson?
Blues fan Jeff Anderson has found a remarkable document, the 1918 draft registration card of a Willie Johnson, who was blind. But is it the great gospel bottleneck slide player Blind Willie Johnson, who recorded such songs as “If I Had My Way,” “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” and “Motherless Children Have a Hard Time” in the 1920s?
Some of the info on the draft registration card contradicts that of Blind Willie’s death certificate, which I hung much of this 2003 article on. But, then, some of the info Anderson found makes more sense. Especially this part: Johnson’s widow, Angeline Johnson, said that Johnson had been blinded at about age 7 when a girlfriend of Blind Willie’s father threw lye in his face to avenge a beating. In the 1918 document, when Johnson was 21, he says he’d been blind for 13 years. Intriguing.
The death certificate, with information provided by Angeline Johnson, has Blind Willie’s birthdate at Jan 22, 1897; draft card puts it at Jan. 25, 1897. Considering record-keeping of the time, especially among itinerant African Americans, that’s close enough. Death certificate says he was born in Independence, near Brenham; draft card puts his birth at Pendleton, near Temple, which has long been thought of as Blind Willie’s birthplace. Could it be that Angeline said “Pendleton” and the doctor heard “Independence?” Or wasn’t listening very closely? With Blind Willie’s mother, Mary Fields, coming from Moody and his father (named Willie Johnson Sr. on the death certificate, but Dock Johnson on the draft card) living in Temple, it makes much more sense that Blind Willie was born in Pendleton, which is just a few miles from those towns.
One thing on the draft card throws doubt that it belonged to Blind Willie Johnson. It listed his 1918 home as a Houston address, 912 Fuller Street in the Fourth Ward. In hours and hours of researching Blind Willie’s life, I couldn’t find any connection to Houston. Temple and nearby Marlin have evidence that Johnson lived there. He died in Beaumont in 1945, and Dallas and Atlanta was where he recorded. I called the helpful folks at the Houston Public Library and they looked up 912 Fuller Street in the 1919 city directory. I was hoping that maybe it was the address of a blind vocational school or Pentecostal church, but the owner of the building was a Narcissa Waters.
I guess we’ll never know for sure where and how the mysterious Blind Willie Johnson lived, but this newly discovered document should reopen the conversation. And maybe turn up some new leads.
Byron Scott funeral today
So sad to hear about the passing of Byron Scott, a local guitarist and ’80s fixture who could play rockabilly (Trouble Boys), funk (Do Dat), spy music (Double O Go-Go), ska (Twistyze) and just about everything else (Pez). With his trademark porkpie hat and broad smile, Scott was always a pleasure to run into at gigs and he always knew where the afterparty was.
A diabetic with recent heart problems, Scott was rushed to the hospital several weeks ago after suffering a stroke. He didn’t respond to treatment, his friend Cathy Criss says, and was found dead in his hospital room on Friday. He was 52.
The funeral is today at 1 p.m. at Austin Peel & Son Funeral Home at 607 E. Anderson Lane.
George Strait tickets on sale Dec. 1
As already announced, George Strait is kicking off his 2008 arena tour Jan. 10 at Austin’s Frank Erwin Center. We now know the tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 1.
Tickets are $54.50 and 64.50 and will be available at all Texas Box Office outlets, by phone at (512) 477-6060 or (800) 982-2386 or online at TexasBoxOffice.com.
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