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Thursday, September 24, 2009
Sarah Jarosz to perform on “A Prairie Home Companion”
Wimberley native Sarah Jarosz will appear along with the Sam Bush Band on the season opener of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” this Saturday, Sept. 26, from 5-7 p.m. It will re-air on Sunday, Sept. 27, from noon-2 p.m.
Jarosz released her debut album, “Song Up In Her Head,” earlier this year.
More on Jarosz:
Schoolgirl troubadour graduates to national scene
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New Texas Tornados record on the way
The Texas Tornados, who are now Shawn Sahm, Augie Meyers, Flaco Jimenez, Speedy Sparks, Ernie Durawa and Louie Ortega, have reunited and finished recording an album they started when singer Freddy Fender was still alive.
The Tornados have signed a deal with Ray Benson’s Bismeaux Records, to put out the record in early 2010. On Nov. 6, Doug Sahm’s birthday, there will be a tribute show at Antone’s to raise money for a marker on Doug Sahm Hill in the park next to the Long Center.
Sahm, the son of co-founder Doug Sahm said “you can’t replace Doug Sahm or Freddy Fender, but we’re all about celebrating and respecting just how great those guys were.”
Nov. 18 marks the 10th anniversary of Sahm’s death from heart disease.
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Weekend picks: Fuzzy pop rock, mutant folk and modern metal
Pictured: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
FRIDAY
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at the Mohawk.The New York indie band, still going strong on the release of its critically acclaimed self-titled album earlier this year, has a new EP, ‘Higher Than the Stars,’ out this week. Like the full-length, the new release is steeped in fuzzy synth-driven pop rock. With the Depreciation Guild and Cymbals Eat Guitars. $12. 9 p.m. — Peter Mongillo
Also recommended:
- Tiny Tin Hearts (CD release) at the Parish
- Peelander-Z, the Birthday Suits, Woodgrain, HUG at Red 7
- Datarock, Esser at Emo’s
SATURDAY
Cave Singers at the Mohawk.This Seattle trio’s country-bluesy mutant folk was downright hypnotic at Fun Fun Fun Fest in ‘07. Their new album ‘Welcome Songs’ is one of the year’s best; as Pete Quirk’s mumble-to-a-moan has become more assured, the music has gotten more confident as well. It’s brave, spare, beautiful stuff. With headliners Asobi Seksu and Lightning Dust, which features members of Black Mountain. 9 p.m. $10 advance, $12 door. — Joe Gross
Also recommended:
- The Horrors at Emo’s
- Busdriver at Red 7
- the Deaf Ears CD release at Club Deville
- day two of Red Eyed Fly’s 10-Year Anniversary with Dangerous Toys at the Red Eyed Fly
SUNDAY
Lamb of God at the Austin Music Hall. Once, this Richmond, Va., band was called Burn the Priest, which has got to be one of the greatest names of all time for a metal band. Then they switched to (the more marketable) Lamb of God and proceeded to become one of the most consistent modern metal bands around, blending tropes from death metal, precision math-punk and whatever language Pantera invented. With the always amusing Gwar and up-and-comers Job for a Cowboy. 8 p.m. $32.50. — J.G.
Also recommended:
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Nasty’s hip-hop celebrates ‘Lucky Thirteenth’ anniversary
For thirteen long years Nasty’s, a North Campus dive bar best known for cheap swill, frosty pitchers of margaritas and ample enthusiasm for rugby, has played unlikely host to one of the city’s hottest urban scenes. Anchored by one of Austin’s premiere party rockers, the inimitable DJ Mel, each Monday a diverse crowd descends on the club from all corners of the ATX to hit the dance floor and bump and grind to an irresistible booty-moving mix of hip-hop, dancehall and scorching soul. To help celebrate the party’s “Lucky Thirteenth” anniversary, Mel has imported DJ Eleven from the NYC-based Rub crew to join in the throwdown.Sloppy debauchery will no doubt ensue. The party runs from 10 p.m til 2 a.m., but plan to hit the club early to avoid a line. $7 cover at the door.
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ACL 2009 preview: The Felice Brothers
Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The combustible acoustic quartet the Felice Brothers, whose unplanned unplugged set at the Newport Folk Festival last year launched roots rock legend, channeled the fire performing in New York City subways. South By Southwest veterans, the Felice Brothers debut Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. “South By’s cool, but it’s not that cool,” says singer-accordionist James Felice. “At ACL, you don’t have to deal with as many industry people and (jerks) like that. There’s less fishing around for what people can exploit. Just enjoy the music for what it is.”
(The Felice Brothers perform at 1:15 p.m. Oct. 3 on the Dell stage).
American-Statesman: Your SXSW showcase (at Habana Bar) this year was intense.
James Felice: Yeah, it was chaotic, right? All of those South By shows are a little crazy.
It didn’t help that the venue had only one public toilet per sex.
That’s awesome! Yeah, I guess that didn’t help. It was a great set, though.
‘Penn Station’ (from 2009’s ‘Yonder is the Clock’) really fired everyone up.
My brother Ian wrote that song a little while ago. You know, we played a bunch in the city subway back in the day. It’s about the great architect Louis Kahn, who was out of New York City. He actually died in a bathroom in Penn Station. It was a heart attack or aneurysm, I think. That’s a good, driving song to get people riled up.
As a songwriter, do you consciously think about involving the audience in your music?
Not necessarily. That just sort of happens organically. You play a song a few times and realize that people might sing along with a certain part or you’ll just feel it. If it works, you do it again and again, until you get tired of it. Then you don’t do it any more.
How much does your past as buskers play into that and your aggressive nature onstage?
Yeah, that sort of aggressive way of getting attention at all costs is residual from our time busking. We try to tone it down sometimes. People are now paying to see us play, so we don’t need to force them to listen. It’s part of the show, but not the biggest part anymore.
Clearly, you place high value on storytelling. How important is it to sings songs with substance?
It’s essential. I think a song has to be interesting. It has to have staying power, and staying power is often the lyrics. Lyrics might not be the first thing you focus on and they don’t have to be profound, but they do have to be interesting. Stories give songs character and something to relate to on both emotional and intellectual levels.
Townes (Van Zandt) did that pretty well. You’ve covered his ‘Two Hands.’
Oh, we grew up listening to Townes. He’s one of our favorites of all time because his songwriting is so brutally honest and sad as hell. It’s wonderful. We’ve always looked up to him. He was a horrible alcoholic, and that was probably the biggest problem he had. He was a dark guy with a very dark outlook on life. I mean, the first song he ever wrote was “Waiting Around to Die.” But like Van Gogh, he was brilliant.
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Austin music pioneers: Foy and Maggie Gant
The first influential Austin recording artists were… Maggie and Foy Gant.
In 1934, ballad hunter John A. Lomax from the University of Texas tracked down the Gants at their shack on the Colorado River near Deep Eddy and recorded a host of songs performed by Maggie and Foy and their five children. Among those songs was “When First Unto This Country,” which the New Lost City Ramblers recorded in the late 1950s in New York City. The sad American ballad was later recorded by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. It sounds like it also influenced Bob Dylan greatly.
Mike Seeger of the Ramblers heard the song as a child, when his mother Ruth Crawford Seeger was transcribing the Library of Congress field recordings for the Lomax songbook “Our Singing Country” in 1941.
It’s not known how the Gants learned the song or others they played for Lomax, including “The Gypsy Laddie,” “Tee Roo,” “Adieu to the Stone Walls” and “Black Jack Davy,” In his notes to “Our Singing Country,” Lomax chronicles a poor family from northeast Texas that “had followed cotton into Oklahoma, then down into the Panhandle and, in drought and years of bad prices, had moved on.” Dispossessed in the Great Depression, the Gants came to Austin in the early 1930s looking for work. When there was none, they went on relief.
But the family was rich in music, with Foy teaching son Adoniram how to play the guitar and daughters Glyda and Ella loving to sing those funny songs of a dark time. The Gants had two other sons.
Lomax describes a visit to the Gant’s house at 10 a.m. on a weekday. The children were still asleep. “Last night we all got to singing and dancing,” Maggie Foy told Lomax. “We didn’t go to bed until two o’clock this morning. The children stayed up, too, so I’m letting the whole bunch sleep until dinnertime. The singing kept us so happy, we just couldn’t go to sleep.”
This is a great story, but after a few days of research, it’s hit a bit of a dead end. The Austin City directory of 1935 shows that Foy and Maggie Gant lived at 3203 Riverside View (the street no longer exists). But by 1938, there’s no record of them living in Austin, though Adoniram had moved to 904 W. Elizabeth Street.
Death records show a Foy R. Gant died in Florida in 2000, but the date of birth was July 25, 1912. Too young, maybe a son.
This is being posted so that anyone who knew the Gant family or was related would contact me at mcorcoran@statesman.com. There’s a lot more research to be done, especially at the UT’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, where the Lomax papers are kept, but right now I don’t even have a photo.
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ACL Fest offers free iTunes sampler, releases map
ACL Fest has released a 16-song sampler of this year’s festival artists available for free download from iTunes. Artists in the sampler include Somali rapper K’Naan, combustible acoustic quartet The Felice Brothers, globally influenced mixologists Thievery Corporation and local garage soul sensations Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.
Festival organizers have also released a map of the grounds to help you plan your daily treks across the park.
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