Bonnie Whitmore "Tin Man"

So this week, I have met and hung with two musicians from Denton, Texas, and I don’t think they know each other.  A couple of nights ago, Rodney Parker came to play my new Threadgill’s WHQ series, The School Night Sessions.  They happen on off nights, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, in air-conditioned comfort in the back room at Threadgill’s on Riverside and Barton Springs in South Austin.  They grew out of our Music Fog Marathons in March during SXSW.  I am very comfortable in that back room, I love the intimate vibe, and the great new sound system.  I wish the Music Fog crew lived in Texas so we could bring this great music to you, but you'll have to wait for our next trip will to Nashville for the Americana Fest in October.  More about that in the near future.

On Friday night, I found myself watching Bonnie Whitmore sing and play bass with Mando Saenz. Bonnie is one of those people that just seems to have moonlight shining on her. She is part ingénue, part vixen, and 100% musician.  We had the family trifecta during our Music Fog Marathon in March, when Bonnie brought her sister Eleanor and brother in law Chris Masterson to play with her.  Chris and Eleanor have been on tour with Steve Earle and Allison Moorer, and The Dukes and Duchesses. Bonnie's second album is Embers To Ashes, and this is one of those ‘burn them down’ tunes, from the girl from Denton, TX, “Tin Man.”

- Jessie Scott

Peter Case "Walk In The Woods"

I wish I was walking in the woods. That sounds like a cherry assignment compared to what is going on in my house right now. I can’t go into my kitchen because there is a rodent in there. I saw him run through the living room a couple of nights ago. So I got some of those glue trays, and put one under the kitchen counter, in an indentation near the dishwasher. When I got home last night, the bloke had surfed the tray all the way into the middle of the kitchen. I fantasized about the velocity that it would have taken to move that thing ten feet, but since I had been home for a while, I started hearing the tail lash against the floor, and I was hoping the bugger couldn't get loose and come after me in the middle of the night. Wanna come over to my house and get this thing out of here? Will he be dead, or exhausted by today? What if he gets loose?

Photo by Greg AllenYesterday was quite the day, I crashed my phone, then someone hit my car in a parking lot, and now this. I might just take a “walk in the woods...and never come back.” But seriously, there is something so mysterious about this song. Is it an alien abduction? A childish prank, or something more sinister? Or something more committed, like running away for love, being misunderstood? Read the lyrics - oh the ambiguity! Love, love, love Peter Case. This song comes from his 1986 solo self-titled record. Last year he released the raw and rocking album Wig!, then The Case Files, a collection of demos, outtakes, live tracks and other odds and ends from his solo career, appeared this year. Peter is about to take another run at the road in starting September 9th. We caught up with him at Americana Fest in Nashville last year. It was intense. Yes it was.

- Jessie Scott

Robert Earl Keen "The Rose Hotel"

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland has a new exhibit that I am honored to say, I am part of....I'm featured in it! No, I'm not going to be invited to any high falutin’ induction ceremony, it ain’t like that. The Hall is featuring some of us broadcasters in “On the Air: Rock and Roll and Radio,” an interactive kiosk with bios and airchecks from influential jocks nationwide who introduced listeners to rock and roll and related genres. Having just acknowleded my 40th anniversary in radio earlier this year, I'm proud to be one of the journeyman (and journeywoman) DJs who brought tunes to the nation way back when. So I guess I could say my home is in the Hall Of Fame. Really.

I used to play a song on the radio at XM from Robert Earl Keen called “My Home Ain’t In The Hall Of Fame,” and I beg to differ, I think Robert Earl Keen definitely belongs there.  I have so much respect for him, as the Pied Piper of Texas Music, as an Americana standard bearer, and as a beacon, having stayed true to his art through the twists and turn of the road.  Yesterday, Robert’s new album Ready For Confetti came out.  It is his 16th release, in a career spanning over 30 years, and there's a great "Making of" video here.   Oh, and by the way, it is snowing confetti on his website!  And again, REK takes to the road, with shows that are anthemic, not to miss celebrations of song.  Tomorrow night he plays Antone’s in Austin for his album release show, and then on Saturday, he plays the Texas Hall Of Fame. So there, it comes full circle.  Quite lovely.  Not to confuse things, but I wanted to post a Robert Earl Keen video for you, too, so here is the title track to his last record, The Rose Hotel, from Lollapalooza 2009. 

- Jessie Scott