Slide-o-Rama

Saw an absolutely great show at the Cactus Cafe last night: Cindy Cashdollar's Slide-o-Rama, this time featuring the great Louisiana guitar player Sonny Landreth, with Redd Volkaert as a guest. Saw some good friends in the line that we hadn't seen for weeks, maybe months, and it was really nice to be able to do some catching up.

Mostly it was just Cindy and Sonny alone on the stage, just playing really beautiful guitar music, just awesome. It made me think about Eric Johnson, we haven't seen him play in several months and are really missing him, but Sonny Landreth sure did help to fill in that gap a little. The experience is enhanced by the Cactus being such a great listening room, it's a club, yes, but more than that it's like a music sanctuary. People are very attentive -- you don't have all that talking and glass clinking in spite of the fact that it has a full bar. Some performers are a little taken aback by that atmosphere. People usually don't dance in there (although a have seen it on one rare occasion - people stood up during an Alejandro Escovedo song and danced by their chairs), and I think Sonny is used to seeing more moving around.

Cindy Cashdollar is one of our local treasures. She's worked with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Dixie Chicks and a boatload more. That's her real name! Redd Volkaert is most commonly known as previously being Merle Haggard's guitar player. He was voted "Best Electric Guitarist" last year in the Austin Music Awards, taking the prize normally taken by Eric Johnson.

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