Castles in the sky - everything's going to be alright

Well, it's hard to know where to start. There's some major change in the air. Are you feeling it? I mean beyond getting a President Obama, I mean more on a personal level. We've been getting good news, bad news, and news that just means big changes for whatever they are worth. Some of it seems like big news until something really big comes along and makes it seem trivial.

We meet and make friends with so many people while waiting in line at the venues, and then, often, you spend the evening with those same folks - you get acquainted and look forward to seeing each other at the next show. One of our Del Castillo extended family has died. It was the husband of a woman who was also a fan of the band, and they always came together to the shows (much like MrB and me) and we would save each other a spot stageside if need be. The band played this song as a dedication to him on Friday. The intro with the dedication is not in the vid, but right at the end they say "For our friend, Mike." It's called Castles. Pretty song.



The same day I heard that news, I found out my friend is marrying the love of her life sometime in Spring. It's like a fairy-tale story, that one is. I am thrilled. It helps to calm the waters of what's beginning to feel like the vortex of a drain.

This is it, folks, we're doing it live.

Hug the one you're with.

Nutty Brown night

I think the Nutty Brown Café and Amphitheatre in Dripping Springs is my favorite outdoor venue these days. During this hotter-than-average summer I wimped out a lot and stuck to indoor activities more than usual, but with the return of cool nights it’s a great time for going. Del Castillo played there on Saturday night, with Alpha Rev opening. Had not seen Alpha Rev before, and they were a great surprise! They are an Indie pop rock band, and I loved the fiddle player’s style. Second time lately I've seen a fiddler produce guitar-like sounds from the instrument (the other being Stuart Duncan on "Black Dog" last week with Plant & Krauss). We will see them again, maybe at the Oasis in a couple of weeks - a free sunset show overlooking the lake.

The Nutty Brown holds probably 1000-2000 people, not really sure, and this show was competing with a big football game so it was less crowded than it would have been normally. There was plenty of room to move around everywhere, even up front. We left the front rail for an elevated perch for awhile (it used to be the stage before the place was redesigned), and there was a nice, cool, strong breeze blowing - strong enough to blow over a half-full drink. Had not seen Del Castillo in about 4 months (that's a long time)! I've seen them so many times that we know each other, and all the other big fans are there so it's like a big happy familia... like a family reunion where people actually like each other. They put on a great show! I know it's great for bands to get to play to the hometown crowd.

The Nutt's patio is really pretty large, with lots of trees, room for kids to romp, a talking parrot, and also has a big parking lot in the back - free parking AT the venue. What a concept! They will seat you at a table if you want to order food and drinks that way, or you can even bring your own chairs. The whole experience was in stark contrast to the ACL Festival from the week before.

In the water, in the blood

Just catching up on reports for the last week (and a half) here in the music town. I already posted on the Wed. June 4th Quebe Sisters' show - featuring 3 fantastic sibling fiddler/singers from Texas. The following evening, on Thursday, was Paula Nelson at The Shady Grove. Paula also comes from a musical family, being the daughter of Willie, and having grown up around the extended "family" that included people like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and nearly anyone you could name in country music. Shady provides a nice, relaxed backyard groove. I got to meet Paula's mom and other family members, which was pretty cool, and really enjoyed the show too.

Following Paula was Micky and the Motorcars, a band that features 2 brothers who are the 2 brothers of the ones in Reckless Kelly: Micky, Gary, Willy and Cody Braun, respectively. The 2 bands have a similar feel, and you wonder why the Idaho natives didn't end up in the same band after landing in Austin, Texas many years ago... but maybe they had their fill of that in the 9 years they spent in a band with their dad as kids (they were good enough for The Tonight Show!)


Skipping backwards a week to May 29th at Shady Grove, there was Del Castillo. If you read this blog regularly, you know they are one of my favorite bands to see live, and this show did not disappoint. Like Reckless Kelly and Micky and the Motorcars, the band features 2 brothers... the enormously talented guitar playing Rick and Mark del Castillo, who are some of the finest guitarists I have seen anywhere. Add Alex "Lobo" Ruiz's passionate vocals, bass, 2 more on percussion, lots of energy and there you have it. I've never seen Shady Grove turned on its ear like that. The shows they have there are played to seated, relaxing folks or standing socializers in the back. Normally the music promotes that groove, but this one was quite a bit more intense. There was dancing!! (It's practically required at a D.C. show). All of the above-mentioned shows were free, by the way!

The last event was this past Sunday, June 8th at Antone's. It was a benefit for prostate cancer awareness, and for our friend and Austin music legend Van Wilks. Van is a survivor of this disease, having discovered his in the early stages and undergoing surgery this past February. As you may or may not know, Austin is home to some of the best guitar players in the world (some more famous than others, but fame is not always the best indicator of talent and skill). Quite a few were on hand to play this benefit. It started very early in the evening with a couple of young bands (Fireants and Joker). I dug up some video on the performers, so get ready for guitar, Texas style!!

Dave Sebree, rarely gigs with his own band, plays with Beto and the Fairlanes, owns and runs the Austin School of Music. This vid is a few years old. Also, super nice guy and no big ego. Great player!!!

Carolyn Wonderland (pictured above), been playing the clubs in Austin for years, has shared the stage with Bonnie Raitt who gave her some major kudos, just did a taping of Austin City Limits (the PBS show).

Van Wilks (pictured above), this is an older video (but the intro features the poster for Sunday's event)

Eric Johnson. EJ is extremely copyright-sensitive, so here's his video that was on MTV awhile back, a gorgeous instrumental he still plays, "Trademark":

The band in this video is the same one Eric played with on Sunday. He hasn't (to my knowledge) played with bassist Kyle Brock for many many years, not in public anyway. I had not seen Eric for over a year, and we didn't have time to hang around to say Hi because of MrB needing to get up at 5am the next day for work (I took a vacation/recovery day off -- after about 8 hours of standing with very sweaty hot temperatures and nothing to eat but 4 crackers -- Gaaaah! My dogs were barking!!). Eric Johnson is my favorite guitar player in the world, and one of the nicest people you will ever meet.

Carson Brock is the son of the aforementioned Kyle Brock, and I believe he's one of Van's guitar students. Anyway, I don't even know if he's in high school yet, and he kicks ass on guitar!! Definitely in the vein of Eric Johnson in style. He will only get better and better.

David Grissom is another local guitar god. He's known for playing with Joe Ely, John Mellencamp, the Dixie Chicks, and Storyville. Here he is just being impressive all by himself:

It's great how this community pulls together to raise funds for causes and for each other, and all you men need to make sure to get yourself checked for prostate cancer. It's a hell of a lot more common than we realize, and if it's caught early there are good recovery statistics.

These week in the venues - Favorites playing

Just catching up here with a quick post on our shows this week. Thursday was The South Austin Jug Band at Shady Grove. It was a free show, and we managed to get some decent seats this time (hard to do at Shady these days). I took this video that features Brian Beken (fiddle), Matt Mefford (bass) and Dennis Ludiker (mandolin). The one little spot in there where it sounds muffled is where a butt eclipses the microphone, but it's not a total eclipse and doesn't last long. I don't know the name of this song. Dennis, on the far end there, just won the Texas State Fiddle Championship. James Hyland (kind of the band leader but not in this video clip) announced it by saying that when you win something in Texas, you get a belt buckle. Brian is also an outstanding player on fiddle, mando and guitar too. I am amazed at how many great players there are around here. The Jug Band is still evolving with new vibes mixed with the old.

Dennis will be playing at Mandolin Mayhem at Threadgill's next Sunday with Sarah Jarosz and Kym Warner of The Greencards (who are playing there on Friday) and I'm sure there will be guests too, so we're looking forward to that.

Saturday night it was Del Castillo at Antone's, (pictured are guitarist brothers Rick and Mark del Castillo) and I don't think I've ever seen the band having such fun on stage. It was a fantastic show, and I'm so glad we went, even with the 5 hours of standing on concrete that is included in an Antone's show (the music takes the pain away). All the regular fans/friends were there at stage-side so it was nice to see everybody. Same thing for Shady Grove. We see friends everywhere we go.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

Another Weekend in Austin

The Home Alone weekend went fine, although everyone's routine was messed up (especially cats, who are almost Monk-like about doing things the same way all the time). It is nice to have MrB home again. I still worked every day but for only a few hours a day so I got in some downtime.

Saturday I went to the BatFest, which occupies the entire Congress Avenue Bridge. The main sponsor was Cricket, so maybe they were responsible for our being swarmed by crickets. There's been a cricket invasion here this summer, and the bright stage lights drew them in by the hundreds (thousands, more like), along with moths, ladybugs, and you-name-it bugs who enjoy the lights that the bats don't. The bands I saw were Maneja Beto and Del Castillo, who were dealing with the bugs very professionally. Both guitarists in D.C. had to get through hellacious solos while large crickets sat on their knees, gazing up at them (the guitarists sit in chairs). For a while, Mark had one perched on top of his head... like a little hat... and he knew it was there (he told us so later). Alex performed for a while with a moth planted right on the front of his trousers while we thought of puns that might be used to describe that situation. All in fun!

There were some kids on the front row by us, some girls maybe 11-12 years old... BIG fans of both these bands, and you would have thought the Beatles were playing by all the squealing and screaming, but everybody got a kick out of it... very cute. It was a great show, and the band let all us hard-cores go backstage afterwards to chat and exchange sweaty hugs, even though the show finished at midnight and they had to hit the road fairly early in the AM for Corpus. And with 1.5 million little bats emerging from under the bridge where we were located, I did not even see ONE. Maybe they gorged themselves on bugs and went back to ... bed ... or whatever.

Sunday, my concert-buddy suggested going to see Warren Hood at Momo's, so not much arm-twisting needed for that gig. It would take too long to describe Warren here, but he is quite beloved in the town for several reasons summed up simply (in no particular order) as:

• lineage
• musical history, bands, gigs, session work
• loads of talent
• really nice person

He has been a member of The Waybacks for a couple of years or so, but when he's not gigging with them he has his own outfit called The Hoodlums which could, on any particular night, include just about anybody. Last time I saw him, Cindy Cashdollar was sitting in. This time there was saxaphone in the band and Seth Walker sat in a bit. Also, Sasha Ortiz (daughter of soul-rocker Natalie Zoe), who I think must be barely out of high school and in a band called Blues Mafia, got up and belted out some fantastic soulful singing. Warren's music? Well, impossible to pigeonhole... always a little jazz, a lotta swing, some classical flavors, a little blues, a little bluegrass, Walter Hyatt, South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana: put in a blender and serve.

Had no camera over the weekend, but if I had I would have taken a pic of Waterloo Records at night. Part of their neon sign is burned out, so that the only thing remaining lit is this:

LOO

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

Secret show

We are on our way tonight to a special free show at Momo's featuring Del Castillo. It's just for fans and friends so they only advertised it on their website, forum, newsletter and MySpace (I know... the whole world knows now). Showtime 6:00 pm. Enjoy your night.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

Del Castillo plays tonight

Today is Cinco de Mayo [wiki], which a lot of people think is "Mexican Independance Day" (which it isn't).

We are going to see one of my favorite bands, Del Castillo, in an outdoor venue. This is a recent EPK (promo) video for them, and has a good sampling of their music. They are Americans (4 native Texans and 2 from parts further north) but their music has influences from around the world, and they are one of the best live bands I've seen. I'm acquainted will all of them except the new guy, Carmelo, and they are super-nice people. The brothers do some unbelievable things with acoustic guitars!

The music junkie tries to narrow it down

Best concerts of the year! It's a tough one coming from the "live music capital of the world", I logged in 56 concerts, but count a day at a festival as "1" so it's skewed on the low end, I could add another 50 or more shows if I counted each festival show.

I will try to narrow down some highlights, and there are too many highlights to bother mentioning stuff that didn't impress me or a "worst list".

Top of the list is being on the front rail for the Rolling Stones at Zilker Park. It takes the entire SXSW music week to equal the intensity of that one. The rest are in no particular order. A lot of what makes them the best is purely personal. Sometimes it's a band I know or work for, and sometimes it's just the quality of the experience, the venue, and/or all of the above.

Saw James Hunter twice, but I have to go for that short acoustic show at Waterloo Records sitting cross-legged three feet away from him and his abbreviated band. He is really growing on me.

The Greencards at Momo's for SXSW, I have never heard them play any better than that, it was just smokin'. Saw them a few times, but that's the pick.

Nickel Creek: they played unplugged behind Yard Dog for SXSW where the audience is about a foot away (back up or you might get a fiddle bow in the eye!), and that was awesome!! Neil Young was nearby in the audience. They also played a fantastic sold-out show at Gruene Hall a couple of days later, I never saw them play any better than that. They played until the house pulled power, get on home now. Fantastic. Click on the Nickel Creek label for more posts on this band.

Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three are one of the best live bands I've ever seen. Check them out. Saw them several times at SXSW.

It was pretty sweet seeing Rosanne Cash at Waterloo Records.

Sonny Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar (with guest Redd Volkaert) at the Cactus Cafe. Great show in a great venue, and nice to chat with Sonny for a minute while he signed an autograph. A show at the Cactus is like seeing someone in a living room.

South Austin Jug Band, it's hard to decide between their show at ACL and the one right before at Mean-Eyed Cat in the drizzling rain. You get a dancing audience for them and it charges things up, mud, dust, sweat and all.

Clifford Antone's memorial at his club was about a 12 hour show and we only did 7-8 hours so we missed Eric Johnson (my favorite guitar player in the world) but did see an incredible heartfelt tribute. More here.

Eric Johnson, I have to pick the Antone's show with Ant B (a little extra jazz fusion flavor than usual), Mike Keller and Double Trouble, with honorable mention to a bluesier show 2 weeks previous with Keller, DT and Malford. Made extra special by having the opportunity to introduce Jeen Lilly to Eric. More here.

Calexico at Emo's, great venue for them, very up close and informal. They played Garden Ruin and more, and were super friendly at the autograph table.

Del Castillo... I'd have to pick the back-to-back nights at Antone's in July. Monte Montgomery strapped on an electric guitar and played with the electrified DC bros for the encore. I'll bet you never saw THAT before. Thought not.

You may find more pictures of these events here.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

Get your flamenco-gypsy blues on

For all those headed off in new or different directions this weekend, here's a beautiful guitar instrumental by Del Castillo called "El Camino menos Transitado", or "The way less traveled" (I think that's the English translation).

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

If you've seen Del Castillo, he's on the far left

Happy birthday today to Austin's own, the awesome Rick del Castillo, who is one of the finest guitar players I can think of, and a heck of a nice guy too.

Paz, Amor, y Musica Latina!



Tags: guitar - Flamenco - Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

Del Castillo at Waterloo

The new Del Castillo CD, “Brotherhood” is finally here. They had a big CD release bash at Waterloo Records yesterday. The place was about as crowded as it gets. DC is one of the most popular bands in Austin. They are still our own secret, they have not really broken into the market in other towns other than having small followings, but they are still opening for bands in other towns that would open for them in this one.

The show was at 5:00, and it was already crowding up by 4:15 when I got there. That’s early for Austin! Believe me! They had to put 3 people down on the floor, so it was very close quarters for the performers/audience. It looked like several official videos were being filmed, and I will be in all of them for sure. No way out of it. The dancing old lady in the front. That’s me. The one in your video.

You know you’re from Austin if… your favorite band releases a CD of songs you’ve been hearing performed live for years.

That’s the case here for the most part, there are a few exceptions, and there’s one with Willie Nelson. That’s great though. It’s wonderful to finally have a recording of these songs.
- Music - Austin - Texas -

Music weekend

Went to see Glen Phillips (formerly of Toad the Wet Sprocket) at the Cactus Cafe Friday. We always enjoy Glen, he's a great songwriter and singer. His stuff is melodically beautiful and the lyrics are though-provoking. He always has a lot of left-wing political comments thrown in here and there in the banter, and some of his music has somewhat political themes. Usually the atmosphere at the Cactus is very well-behaved and reverent toward the music (even the bartenders clink quietly), but this time there was one guy who voiced very loudly a rude and mean-spirited comment, "It's not the government's job to take care of poor people!", followed by a round of "boos". Glen responded with "then why HAVE a government? Oh yeah, so it can go to war and kill people". It was a stunningly rude heckle and very surprising, I wouldn't think that Glen's music would attract ultra-right-wingers. Of course, anything is possible when it comes to music, and it's more likely that the guy got dragged there by a date or a wife, and decided it was OK to ruin the experience for others just because maybe he wasn't having the best time of his life. Asshole.

Well, the Cactus is not known for bar fights, so the show continued, and it was a really good. Glen comes here several times a year and we see him maybe twice. Check out Glen sometime.

Saturday it was Del Castillo at Antone's.  Del Castillo is about the best live band in the world. They are just stunningly good, and this was an exceptionally good show even for them. It got really crazy there at the end. Usually Mark and Rick stand up on their folding chairs and play, and Mark adds the "behind the head" feat to this, but this time the tech hoisted Rick up on his shoulders, so I was glad we didn't have to catch all those people! They were videotaping it for some future use, and there was a camera on me most of the night. I expect to get about one second of screen time out of it. They love to film the novelty dancing old ladies, there are all ages of hard-core fans there but I seem to attract attention and end up in people's videos. Could it be because of being front and center? Ohhhh, maybe that's it. DC is going to be doing a House of Blues tour around the country with Styx (of all people, weird combo but not something to turn down at this point)!

Sunday (today) Eric Johnson had a DVD and CD signing over at Borders so we went over and said Hi and got our new ACL disks signed. Look for some Electromagnets Reunion shows in February. More about those when it's closer to time. The weather has turned perfect again as though the ice never existed.

I'm tired today and should be working on my freelance work and here I am putting up concert pics and blogging! Sheesh. I'm worthless.

- Music - Austin - Del Castillo - Glen Phillips -

Rick del Castillo

Happy birthday to Austin guitar phenomenon, Rick del Castillo. He and his brother Mark are some of the finest guitar players you will ever see or hear! I love this band, heart and soul.

Paz, amor, y musica latina!

- Music - Austin - Del Castillo - Guitar -

Brothers of the Castle in La Zona Rosa

We opted for the Austin Del Castillo show instead of San Antonio (Helotes). The Austin show was a "Help Clifford (Antone) Help Kids" benefit, which started early with a dinner, silent auction, and schmooze session. The cost of that was $250 per ticket (yikes! Too rich for me, and not a cheap date, either). La Zona Rosa was duded up to the best of its ability. It will never be truly posh, which suits me fine. The regular riff-raff fans got to go to the show for $20, music only, so we lined up waiting for our time to go in.

Someone kept snapping pictures of the little black car across the street, LOTS of pictures (wtf???), and it turned out to be the car of John Paul DeJoria, owner of Paul Mitchell . Think salons, shampoo, white bottles, PETA-approved, rides motorcycles with Peter Fonda when he’s in town… that guy. He finally came out and left in it. The car door raised up in the air to open, and the engine made a wonderful purring sound going down the street. A lot of the high-rollers left before the show.

While I was at the bar, I was standing near Susan Antone when she was introducing Michael Ward to someone. Today I find out that Michael Ward was in the Wallflowers, and I believe is now with Ben Harper, and is good friends with Lance Armstrong. I didn’t know who he was last night.

That’s it for sightings, it’s all about Del Castillo for me. The place was still filled up with big round tables and tablecloths, kind of like a wedding reception. A little smaller crowd than you’d normally see for DC because of the benefit, and people either not knowing about the music tickets or thinking they wouldn’t get in. The front filled up with us DC-nuts. Alex was talking about the back of the room at the schmooze tables, saying there must be glue on the seats. You'd have to tie me down to keep me from dancing to DC. I dance like Snoopy, but... heh heh...

The sound at La Zona Rosa is not designed for being stage-side, I think I’ve ranted on this before. Thursday it was not terrible, but a different mix than I’ve heard coming from the guys before, as in the brothers’ voices were actually drowning out Alex! Yes, that’s right, and probably just from where we were standing. I’m hoping that I will soak up enough lyrics to just automatically learn Spanish, but that has been going at the rate of about 10 words a year, so not great progress. Lots of smiles from the stage, absolutely wonderful to see. They did Song For Jordan and Don Nicholas which are older favorites and great to hear. Rick was even more on than usual, just an absolutely wild man on the guitar, not to discount Mark, he was awesome! Everyone in the band gives 100% percent, always, it’s very electrifying. Clifford called them Austin’s Secret or something like that, and that’s basically true right now but the more they get out there the more they will be discovered by people so it’s just a matter of time I think. Great show!! Love the new stuff. (New CD in April!!!)

I didn’t hang around afterwards. La Zona Rosa frowns on that, OK they do more than frown, they strongly encourage you to please leave. Now. That’s OK, there was a nice meet-greet in San Marcos earlier in the month. Not sure when the next DC show will be for me.
EDIT: What does La Zona Rosa mean anyway? I thought it was "The Red Zone" or "the Rose Zone", and if it's that, is it Rose the flower or a color? Also, Alex mentioned a new video shot in Santa Fe. That's very cool, a part of me will always be in Santa Fe because my mother is buried there. I know she would have loved their music.

My DC page - Austin - Music -

Talkin To Ya - in two languages

First of all, open this page (if it doesn't open, your pop-up blocker may be messing with it, so right-click on it or hold-mouse-down for Mac), then scroll down to DEL CASTILLO, click that, and hit the CLICK HERE FOR MUSIC link. It's a RealPlayer download of the great new Del Castillo song, or I should say new recording of a song that we've been hearing live for a long time. Give it a listen!!

This has got to be a hit song! It showcases the best of this band, and it will have wider appeal than some of the rest of the band's recordings simply because it's in Spanglish.

Now, the fact that I don't know what a lot of their songs are about without getting out the lyric translation sheet has never mattered much to me. The music still speaks for itself and is deeply moving. I suspect, however, that if I were comfortable if not fluent in Spanish that they would hit me even harder (at least the non-instrumentals).

As for Spanglish, I am going on record here to say I believe that in a few generations it will replace English as the national language of the USA. Are you now thinking of telling me that Spanglish is not a language? It isn't an official language, no. It's not even a language that can generate a dictionary because it's just a matter of mixing up the two languages as the speaker wishes... and linguistics experts and etymologists correct me, but isn't this how new languages form? What we speak as English now will be called something like "Old American English", or "Anglo-English".

But back to Del Castillo and English (or Spanglish), for some people, the melody or instrumental part of the music is most important, and for others the lyrics come first. A song like this (and the other new one that they are promoting called "Brotherhood") is going to appeal to both of those groups. In a few more generations everyone will need to know Spanish in order to get by in the USA. Some places, like Austin for example, will get there first. Just a few of my humble opinions, folks!

Hot on Thursday, with increased spiciness on Friday

The last half of July is really chock full o' shows! This week it was Storyville at Antone's on Thursday and Del Castillo with Monte Montgomery at Floore's Country Store in Helotes on Friday.

Storyville is a band that I had never seen before but was listening to before moving to Austin about 5 years ago from St. Louis. Texas was calling me (as Texas will do) and the variety of CDs I packed around with me at all times had been filling up with more and more Texans: Eric Johnson (of course), Monte Montgomery, Shawn Colvin, Nanci Griffith, SRV, Patty Griffin, Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, Asleep at the Wheel, the list keeps going. But back to Storyville, I'd seen everybody in the band numerous times on their own or with other bands. They are all really good: David Grissom is a great guitarist, he takes most of the solos and plays the most prominent leads. David Holt is no slouch either. Malford Milligan is always fantastic, one of the most passionately soulful singers around, and of there's the legendary Double Trouble rhythm section of Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton who are most famous for playing with SRV. Tommy also played with one of my old top favorite guitarists back in the day, Johnny Winter. They put on a hell of a good show, although it was way too loud. My husband was front and center, but switched places with me because Malford was dripping sweat on him, and that doesn't bother me any. The pics from the event will be on my concerts page.

Friday afternoon I drove down to San Antonio, and I am always ridiculously early for stuff. I like being first in line and wanted to afford traffic snarls in a strange town in rush hour. I got to Floore's a full 2 hours before anyone else showed up for it, and camped out in the tiny patches of shade cast by parked pickup trucks. It was blistering hot under a big blue, nearly cloudless sky. Scorching and humid, and the show is going to be outdoors but luckily after sundown.

It turned out that the show was not crowded at all and a "line" never even actually formed. Wake up Dorothy, you're back in Kansas where Del Castillo is an opening act and there's no line for them (back in OZ-ten they had to start booking them at La Zona Rosa because Antone's was always selling out and LZR is twice the size) (and they will have acts opening for them that will headline in other Texas towns). The crowd made up for it in enthusiasm, it was a great crowd!! I had room to dance, which never usually happens, and I will use whatever I can get. I move when I'm at shows. It's impossible for me to not dance or play air drums, or just tap my foot if it's a slow folksy one. I have to express myself. They played a 90 minute set. I went over to say Hi to everyone and get my setlist signed. There were two things that more than one band member said:

"You're sweatier than I am" (OK, very true. I looked at myself in the mirror at break and my hair looked like a freshly-dunked string mop. I need to get dreadlocks like Malford, but with this extra-fine hair...ah well...love me or leave me. I get sweaty when I dance, and I dance at shows. )

"I saw you dancing". (There's nothing like an old rocker to stand out in the front row, but lots of others were dancing too. I think I am just the oldest, dancingest one)

Monte is a great guitarist. his songs are very melodic and memorable; one listen and you're already humming them. I saw him for the first time back in St. Louis at Mississippi Nights before I moved down. I wore my Alien Love Child t-shirt and he surprised me by giving me a hug. He must have thought I had come up from Austin. Alien Love Child consists of Eric Johnson, Bill Maddox, and Chris Maresh who used to be Monte's bass player and still records with him.

At the Friday show, he brought out the del Castillo brothers, and the DC percussion section to play on "Took Too Long". It was a great choice, and man the guys were in an all-out battle to outplay each other! It was absolutely fantastic!! Then for the encore, he brought them out again, this time with Bert and Alex. They played "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (and who doesn't love love love the Beatles?). I have to say that this was really an unforgettable night!!

Next week, it's Nickel Creek and the Greencards (three times!!) so the fare this month is intensely acoustic.
- Music - - Austin -

Del Castillo is Chingón!

Hard to believe I hadn't seen the band since April, 3 months exactly! This was one of the Antone's 30th Anniversary celebration shows held all week, and it was a great show! It was nice to see them back at Antone's too. La Zona Rosa is better for bands but worse for fans.

Rodriguez always brings in some variety and you never know what to expect. Usually it's something to do with one or more of his movies, this time it was a live performance of some of the Sin City music. He and Johnny Reno (the sax player) rehearsed it in Rodriguez' vehicle while I was standing in line (rehearsing was really just listening to a recording of it and going over stuff without having instruments), and that was pretty cool. In another show he brought out George Lopez as a surprise guest, and he played with the guys, forcing them to play things like "Whole Lotta Love"... now you probably won't experience THAT again! Then he made the crowd catch him, thankfully they did. Then there was the Bruce Willis Chingon donut thing that all got filmed (look for some of it on the Sin City DVD), and the one with the fabulous Tito Larriva, and the one where they played the theme from "The Godfather" for Clifford Antone. Mostly, I like having the opportunity to hear Cuka Rocka and Malagueña Salerosa, and maybe to hear the guys play electric.

Del Castillo is the best band in Austin in my opinion, and would stand up well against any band anywhere. Yes, you all know how much I love Eric Johnson, but he's not technically a "band", is he? I was chatting with the guy next to me in line and Eric's name came up, when I said that I really liked Eric too he said "So it's all about guitar for you?". I said that it was more about virtuosity, and beautiful music. I could have added "passionate", and music with heart, soul and spirit. Also, it really helps for me if I think that the musicians are decent people. It shouldn't make any difference, but to me it does. I wouldn't go near a Ted Nugent concert, he might be the greatest player on earth but he's not getting a dime or a minute of time from me. Ditto Toby Keith. The guys in Del Castillo are definitely good guys. The shows are family gatherings for them, and they make their fans feel like family too. Patricia Vonne is a real sweetie too, and her new CD is good.

I'll probably see Del Castillo next week in Helotes with Monte Montgomery (another opening act gig, but an interesting pairing making for a night of flat-out, pedal to the metal acoustic guitar). After that it looks like September will be the next opportunity to see them because the Keep Austin Weird Festival in August is a conflict with already planned Eric Johnson. It really is an embarrassment of riches (thanks to ev for applying that perfect phrase to the delights we have in Austin).

Lots of pictures from this show and others are posted here.
- Music - - Austin -