Junior Brown

It is springtime in Austin, and the music just keeps on coming.  I did some rocking this past weekend, and it felt great to be out amongst the crowds.  Saturday I hit the the Reggae Festival at Auditorium Shores, which  seemed to be as much about coming together over pot as it was about the music.  Then again, I was sitting really far from the stage, so that might have made a difference.

Then I caught Junior Brown’s show at Threadgill’s.  My traveling companion had never seen Junior before, and it was especially fun watching his face, as Junior put the Guit-Steel through its paces and crooned into the mic. Don’t forget, Junior can do it all, from old school country and honky tonk, to scorching blues, rock, and funky spaghetti western oldies. With his fingers flying, he is just so much fun to watch.

I started combing the YouTube machine for videos from Mr. Brown, and came up with one from a television series based in Houston, called Texas Roadhouse Live. It is hosted by the irrepressible Kinky Friedman, who will be embarking on a tour of his own. The “Springtime for Kinky” tour begins next week, on April 27 at Knuckleheads. There are all kinds of Kinky updates to be found here.  Aside from touring, there is a play and a movie on the way!.

Junior Brown is also on tour. Here is a video from the season two of the Texas Roadhouse show.

-- Jessie Scott

Frazey Ford "September Field"

Growing up in the 60s was a politically charged time, painted in stark black and white. There were vicious fights over sunday dinner on the morality of the Vietnam War, pitting generation against generation. There was dissent within the family, with siblings or cousins in different camps. And there was a terrible cloud of hanging over some of us, as we waited to see whose draft lottery number would be called next.

It was a shock, the realization that some of us would die without having had a chance to live. It spawned a cottage industry of doctors who would write the necessary diagnosis to get you reclassified. There was also a new kind of underground railroad, with people crossing the border to Canada. My mother always said if my brother Mitch was called up, that was what we’d do. Fortunately, we never were faced with that decision.

Frazey Ford comes from a family that had to make that choice. Her father escaped to the communes of Canada as a draft dodger. She says this created an atmosphere of the wild west, "crazy and adventurous," and it colored her being and informed her art.

After ten years with Vancouver’s Be Good Tanyas, Frazey Ford emerged with a solo CD called Obadiah, which is actually her middle name. She came before the Music Fog cameras in conjunction with the Americana Fest in September during our shoot in the Sheraton Sweet Suite. You can check out her live show dates here, but today we bring you an opportunity to check out an as yet unreleased song, “September Field.”

-- Jessie Scott

Nudie and The Turks "I'm Tired of Living With No Fun"

So I have been holed up for three weeks now, and I am a whole lot better, though not totally healed.  It just takes time, but I am starting to get antsy. I'm ready to hit some music events, and the season is starting in earnest. 

For instance, today is day three of the Old Settler’s Music Festival out in Driftwood, on the southern edge of Austin. Coachella is rolling into Indian Wells, California, and the Wannee Music Festival  is happening in Live Oak, Florida.  Up in Canada this weekend,  the East Coast Music Association is celebrating in Charlottetown, Canada.  Their awards show is tonight, and looking at the nominees is like stepping through the looking glass, into a world of names that are mostly new to me!  Seriously, we can’t keep up, although Lord knows we try! 

Not far from there, Nudie and The Turks are performing tonight at the Cavendish Beach Music Festival on Prince Edward Island. We had the pleasure of recording them on the Music Fog bus in Memphis of 2010 at Folk Alliance. “I’m Tired Of Living With No Fun” is a previously unreleased tune, and very appropriate for all of us watching from the sidelines, but not able to attend all this music. And it is just going to get crazier from here. The season has started. Yay!

- Jessie Scott