Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > February > 21
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Review: The Outlaw Trail
History and music arrived at a crossroads on the Paramount Theatre stage Wednesday night with the presentation of “The Outlaw Trail,” an ensemble country/rock concert that was being filmed for broadcast (first on the HDNet channel, later on PBS and still later available on home video) at the historic downtown venue.
Taking their cue from the historic Outlaw Trail — the chain of byways and hideouts that chased the Continental Divide from Montana to Mexico in the 19th century — the show’s producers assembled a cast whose music, they thought, embodied the same rebellious spirit as the renegades, gunslingers and lawmen who made the West so wild.
That conceit proved elastic enough to include a diverse host of musical talent that ranged from stalwarts of the Austin and Nashville scenes to some up-and-comers and a few genuinely left-of-center choices.
Thus, concert-goers were treated to juxtapositions like hometown Latino rockers Del Castillo sharing the stage with “Nashville Star” winner Buddy Jewell, cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell, Muzik Mafia rapper Cowboy Troy and Mavericks heartthrob Raul Malo.
Joe Ely, Rodney Crowell, Asleep at the Wheel, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jessi Colter lent a shot of gravitas from the original “outlaw” musical heyday of a quarter-century ago, and younger performers like fiddler Megan Mullins and Holly Williams (Hank’s granddaughter) dovetailed well with a house band of all-star Austin players helmed by veteran drummer (Eric Clapton, Bob Seger) and musical director Jamie Oldaker.
Utilizing Western-themed songs by Bob Dylan, Poco, the Eagles, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Marty Robbins, and laced with original material, the three-hour performance traced an emotional arc from the high-flying hubris of pistoleros riding a wide-open range (“Wanted Man,” “Big Iron,” “Rose of Cimarron”) to the elegiac ballads that evoked the closing of the frontier (“Pancho and Lefty,” “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” “Slow-Movin’ Outlaw”).
The performances were exemplary as a rule, and there were a handful of genuinely thrilling moments: Joe Ely’s “Me and Billy the Kid,” jump-started the crowd early on; Raul Malo’s two diverse turns (on Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” and that soundtrack-‘o-the-70s rocker “Bad Company”) elicited cheers (“Don’t put me on after Raul!” pleaded Suzy Bogguss); Lee Roy Parnell downright lit up the joint with a fiery, slide guitar-laced rocker about crossing the river to Mexico; Jessi Colter made two quietly moving appearances at center stage and Asleep At the Wheel’s Ray Benson (with a distaff chorus that included Colter, Williams, Bogguss and Carlene Carter) even made the old warhorse “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” seem fresh and moving.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
Review: Tim Finn at the Cactus Cafe
As the happy crowd slowly filed out of the Cactus Cafe late Tuesday night, a fan with a British accent remarked that he’d been surprised to find the club was so small. In the U.K, he said, you’d have seen Tim Finn in a much larger venue.
The same goes for Australia and Finn’s native New Zealand. There, Finn achieved iconic status with Split Enz, which he founded in the early ‘70s, and his later solo career. In the United States, however, Finn is known to a relative few, largely for a brief stint in his brother Neil’s band, Crowded House, and his collaboration with Neil as the Finn Brothers.
But while Tim Finn is still building his audience in the U.S., he has decades of top-flight material to do it with — not to mention loads of natural charisma. It’s not just his leonine good looks and ready grin. Whenever he put down his acoustic guitar at the Cactus to play upright piano, he had to turn his back to the audience, but never lost their rapt attention. (Although he did leave his terrific guitarist-backing vocalist, Brett Adams, looking slightly uncomfortable to be facing the packed room alone.) Finn’s voice has gotten lower and warmer over the years. His soaring melodies sometimes taxed the upper end of his range Tuesday, but he so fully inhabited everything from Split Enz’s wacky “Shark Attack” to the gorgeous ballad “Persuasion” (written with Richard Thompson) that a little thinning on the high notes didn’t much matter.
Finn and Adams also brought splendid musical rapport that made “It’s Only Natural” and “Weather With You” sound as full as the lavishly arranged recorded versions by Crowded House. Adams’ deft rockabilly runs helped Finn transform Split Enz’s new wave rave-up “I See Red” into something earthier, and Adams’ unusually subtle use of the whammy bar on “Winter Light” heightened the ethereal mood Finn created.
Finn sometimes played percussion and guitar simultaneously, sitting on a chair behind a kick drum and a snare turned on its side. The snare, he said, was the idea of the late Split Enz/Crowded House drummer Paul Hester, to whom he dedicated the pensive “Salt to the Sea,” from Finn’s last release, “Imaginary Kingdom.” He introduced another melancholy song from that album, “Unsinkable,” as inspired by his young son, who was so fascinated by the Titanic he exclaimed “Dad, let’s all go down together!” (Amusingly, that song followed on Split Enz’s “Six Months in a Leaky Boat.”)
Finn said he’ll be recording again in April, and the two brand new songs he played, “Driving Blind” and the sardonic “Saw and the Tree,” were among the best of the night. He jested about his “35 years in show biz,” but he’s plainly continuing to develop his craft as well as his name recognition.
Opening act Eileen Rose has a lovely, powerful alto, and was funny and engaging as she chatted in a thick Boston accent with the audience and the nephew who accompanied her on guitar and piano. However, her use of backing tracks was jarring indeed.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
Weekend Picks: Classic hip-hop, New Wave-style pop and hair metal ballads
Friday: Evil Army, Iron Age, Hatred Surge, Warwulf and Breadth at Broken Neck. Thrash, thrash, thrash and more thrash at this cool warehouse space. I’ve never been to a show here that got going before 11 p.m., but maybe this one will be earlier. No presale tickets. Broken Neck, 4701 Red Bluff Road. No phone. — Joe Gross
Friday: Tribal Nation at Flamingo Cantina. Mayor Will Wynn declared last Thursday, Valentine’s Day appropriately enough, D Madness day in Austin. As a longtime friend and fan, I was thrilled to see him receive the honor. You can catch D and his mind-boggling rhythmic dexterity as he works the drum kit for this excellent veteran reggae ensemble. — Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: Black and White Years at Stubb’s. Coming off a well-received set at the MIDEM music conference in France, these New Wave-style Austinites celebrate the release of their new CD. $8 advance, $10 at the door. With Ume. — J.G.
Friday: Love Bites: The Power Ballad Sing-Along. I have a confession. While most people in Austin know me as an urban music fanatic, I spent a good part of my misguided youth as a hair metal chick. (Hey, I grew up in rural Ohio in the ’80s, what’s a girl to do?) Consequently, there’s something about tossing on a pair of ripped jeans and standing in a room full of fellow metal-heads and belting out my best “Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone” sounds downright exhilarating. Get your lighters ready. $12. — D.S.S.
Saturday: Jad Fair, Aliens at End of an Ear. A free in-store performance from the founder of the seminal proto-punk band Half Japanese and his latest collaborators. 6 p.m. — J.G.
Saturday: Brand Nubian at the Parish. I vote we end the ’80s revival (which has been dragging on for the better part of a decade) right now so we can move ahead to reliving the ’90s. Ah, the ’90s, that golden era when hip-hop was full of jazzy beats and witty wordplay. This group, which includes rappers Sadat X and Grand Puba, had a string of underground hits in the ’90s including the 1998 classic “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head.” Free, RSVP here. — D.S.S.
Saturday: Dean & Britta at the Cactus Cafe. Dean Wareham and Britta Philips, a romantic couple, were in the final incarnation of Warham’s long running indie rock band Luna, which now and then were producing some of the best chilled-out, interlocking-guitar rock New York had seen in many a moon. These days, their music seems even mellower. With Keran Ann. Shows at 7 and 10 p.m. — J.G.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Write and Win: Spin party passes
Win two badges to the Spin Party, an annual highlight of SXSW, where such acts as the Killers, New York Dolls, Hives, Kings of Leon and Pete Townshend (with the Fratellis) have played in recent years. This year Vampire Weekend (next month’s Spin coverboys) and others, to be announced Monday, will perform the afternoon of Friday, March 14, at Stubb’s.
Enter simply by writing 100 words or less about the act you’re most looking forward to seeing at this year’s SXSW. Former and current Spin writers Michael Corcoran and Joe Gross will pick the winner, who will not only receive two VIP passes to the party (with free food and drinks), but will get to hang out with Spin editor Douglas Brod and other Spinsters.
Just post your entry to the comments section. Winners younger than 21 must burn their “plus one” by taking a parent.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW
A Willie fave: RIP Calvin Owens
A Texas trumpet giant nicknamed “The Maestro” has passed away. Calvin Owens, a former staff producer and studio musician for legendary Peacock Records in Houston, died early Thursday of kidney failure. He was 78.
Best known as B.B. King’s original band leader, the prolific Owens also recorded in the 1940s with Lightnin’ Hopkins. His credits include work with Otis Clay, Archie Bell, Arnett Cobb, David “Fathead” Newman and Barbara Lynn.
His final session was in November 2007, when he backed Willie Nelson, Johnny Bush and Ray Price on an album expected to come out later this year on Nelson’s Pedernales Records. Nelson has been a fan of Owens. The trumpet player added his bluesy tones to Joe Hinton’s 1960s version of Nelson’s “Funny How Time Slips Away.”
“Calvin played incredibly behind the beat,” said Houston producer Andy Bradley. “His phrasing on the trumpet was truly unique. He was a blues player, not a jazz player.”
Owens’ only Grammy award, ironically, came in the Best Jazz Album category for a 1984 album he arranged for B.B. King. He was also named best horn player in Living Blues magazine’s critic’s poll in the ’80s.
At Owens’ request, there will be no funeral, but a memorial concert is being planned.
Can’t imagine a better way to remember Owens than to hear his friend play this great swan song.
(Pictured: Calvin Owens in the studio with Barbara Lynn. Courtesy of Sugar Hill Recordings)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Willie Nelson
The SXSW grid is up
Check it out here.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW
Aboard the “Obama Train”
Austin throwback soul singer Larry Shannon Hargrove, the man who brought us “Leave Bill Clinton Alone” in the wake of the late ’90s Monica Lewinsky scandal, has written, recorded and released a tribute to Barack Obama this past week. “I’m fired up and I’m on the Obama train,” Hargrove sings, like the ghost of Little Milton. “It’s the train of hope/ and the train of change.”
Hargrove said the song came to him in the middle of the night on Monday. “I had been watching the news earlier and I woke up my wife, saying ‘I’ve got the song,’” says Hargrove, who rounded up his R&B band the next day to lay down the funky groove. Hargrove left a copy of the CD at Obama’s Austin headquarters Wednesday.
“I’ve always wondered if the stars and moon would align themselves and give us a strong black candidate in my lifetime,” says Hargrove, who runs a limousine company when not playing music. “I think an Obama presidency would be a good thing for America. We’re always getting involved in wars on human rights issues, which has made us look hypocritical because we’ve got human rights issues right at home.”
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment
The Black Angels host psychedelic rock fest
The Black Angels are hosting a festival of psychedelic rock March 8 from noon to 1 .a.m at the the Red Barn (6701 Burnet Road, north of RM 2222/Koenig, south of Justin Lane and Burnet Road)
Performers include
1 p.m. Cavedweller
2 p.m. The Astronaut Suit
3 p.m. The Tunnels
4 p.m. Horse + Donkey
5 p.m. Ringo Deathstarr
6 p.m. The Upsidedown
7 p.m. The Quarter After
8 p.m. Acid Tomb
9 p.m. The Strange Boys
10 p.m. Spindrift
11 p.m. The Black Angels
Tickets are $10 at the door, online at LiveMusicCapitol.com, or at Antone’s Record Shop, End of An Ear, Encore Records, & Waterloo Records.
Seriously, guys, next year? How about doing this in April or May rather than mere days before SXSW?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Musicmania Top 10 for the week Ending Feb. 17
Keyshia Cole ‘Just Like You’ (Geffen)
Mary J Blige ‘Growing Pains’ (Geffen)
Scarface ‘M.A.D.E.’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Plies ‘Real Testament’ (Slip-N-Slide)
Alicia Keys ‘As I Am’ (J Records)
Scarface ‘M.A.D.E. Screwed & Chopped’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Wendell B ‘Love Life &Relationships’ (Smoothway Music)
K-Rino ‘Triple Darness’ (Black Book)
UGK ‘Underground Kingz’ (Jive)
Trae ‘Life Goes On Screwed & Chopped’ (Rap-A-Lot)
