Friday, January 02, 2009

Austin live music endings 2008

I did make it out for live music shows this past week. They were special occasions as they were both long-time Austin favorite players who won't be around anymore. On the 30th, went to see Malford Milligan, who has now officially moved to Milwaukee as of yesterday! You Eric Johnson fans who stop by here will know Malford as the soulful voice on Eric's Live and Beyond record from a few years back (my own voice is on that one too - in the form of a holler from the audience).

You might wonder why anyone would move to Milwaukee on January 1st. I know Malford hates the hot weather here, and suffers from Cedar Fever, but after seeing him with the Greg Koch band I can see why he really wants to go. I've seen Malford singing with some of the greatest guitarists on the planet, but I really think he's got a hell of a lot of chemistry going with Greg Koch. So best wishes to Malford, and look out Milwaukee! The video above right is of Malford and Greg playing at the recent NAMM in the Fender booth. That's Roscoe Beck (Austin-based) and Tom Brechtlein with him. They are not in the regular band. Song is Jimmie Vaughan's Don't Cha Know.

Listen to Greg really tear it up in this video (another one from the Fender NAMM gig, this one sans Malford).

ADDENDUM - JAN 2: Looks like Malford is not quite gone yet. There's a farewell bash for him at Antone's on Tuesday night (billed as the LAST Blue Tuesday).

The other ending that is a bit sadder is that our beloved South Austin Jug Band is calling it quits. The played their last full Austin gig on New Year's Eve at Momo's, and will tour around in January (Colorado and more) and then that's it. We've been a fan of theirs ever since we moved here and saw them shortly after. They play a range of styles from bluegrass, swing jazz, dawg jazz, americana country, to pop. I worked for them for about a year and a half (something like that), I did their website. I still work for several of the band members under their new incarnation as MiLkDrive, but the music they play is very different from the Jug Band so it's not a continuation (although MiLkDrive kicks ass too). Here's a video (one of 3) that I took on New Year's that features a reunion of some of the band members who left awhile back. This features the crazy good fiddling of Brian Beken and Will Dupuy on bass and vocal, also Willie Pipkin (guitar), Warren Hood (fiddle), James Hyland (guitar), Dennis Ludiker (mandolin) and Robb Kidd (drums).

Karma


Tags: - - -

2 comments:

Ellen said...

I've been to Greg Koch guitar store workshops and he is a riot, besides being a first-class guitarist.

I guess this mean that Storeyville is no more?

Blueberry said...

I think Storyville is bound to have a reunion show or two down the line somewhere. Never say never, right?