Americana in ATX

It's been an exhausting week between all the live music and the inevitable work filling every possible gap. Thursday, Mr. Blueberry had to stay home and study so I went out alone. Started out at the Continental Club for their 6:30 regular happy hour (a 3-hour hour) with The Mother Truckers. I borrowed that cool picture from their newsletter.

Here's my snapshot from Thursday. I really like this band, and the Continental Club has to be the rockabilly capital of the world. If it isn't it must be tied for first. When they took a break, I went over to Ruta Maya for the Instruments for Peace benefit. They were trying to raise some money for a couple of anti-war groups, Iraq Veterans for Peace and others. I saw The Texas Sapphires (a hot new honky tonk band), Michael Fracasso, The Ginn Sisters and more. The Ginn Sisters have a lot of local buzz going now. I really enjoyed them. Their new single "(You've Got Everything Going For You Right) Down the Drain" is getting lots of airplay. Great lyrics!

Friday night we went to Houlihan's (and boo hiss on Austin getting another chain restaurant!) rooftop to see Big Blue Hearts. They are a transplanted L.A. band but have not really spent much time in Austin yet. They've got an incredibly sweet twangy 60s sound - a little rockabilly ala Elvis and Roy Orbison. Think Chris Isaak or maybe Raul Malo.

Stayed out too late Friday and almost didn't even get up in time to make it to the Bee Cave Farmer's Market for the South Austin Jug Band at 11:00 am Saturday. I never thought 11 AM could be so bright and early! They played until 2 PM, we went home for lunch, took a nap, drank some coffee and went out to Momo's for Rob Socia and the Beckham Bros. All these shows I've mentioned were free except for Momo's, which was $5 per. All the band links I've provided go to MySpace (even in the couple of cases where I made the websites!) because it's the quickest way to hear the bands' music.

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