As you may already know, the Music Fog crew scored a free "Gopher" for our coverage of SXSW 2009. Flying all the way in from Idaho, Sheila was immediately thrown into the snake pit and was left to fend for herself. This is her official "report card." A formal notorized document will be mailed to her parents on company letterhead.
To: Mr. & Mrs. Francis From: Music Fog
Re: Report card for student #001, "Sheila Francis"
English: A Comments: Sheila demonstrated great communication skills, such as her ability to use proper punctuation and spell the word "ya'll" correctly. She even spelled 50% of her Twitter updates properly...a new world-wide Twitter record!
Math: A Comments: We've never actually left an event with every waiver signed by every artist! Kudos!
Our love for James McMurtry goes back many, many years. However, when we saw this article on Slate, we knew the shit was going to hit the fan...but in a good way. Slate writer Ron Rosenbaum made this observation:
"Seriously. It's time to retire ol' Francis Scott Key's "The
Star-Spangled Banner" and go with a song that more truly represents the
America of today: post-crash, pre-apocalypse, meth- and money-addicted,
heading down the highway to self-destruction."
Rosenbaum was takling--of course--about McMurtry's song "Choctaw Bingo," which he calls "New-national-anthem-level genius." Other than the fact that it would suck to have to stand for almost 10 minutes before every sporting event, we couldn't agree more.
We have searched and searched for a high-quality video of McMurtry performing that song, but to no avail. So we decided to make our own. We captured the following video during our showcase at Threadgill's in Austin during SXSW. Enjoy.
Ahhh Texas! As I sit in the airport, it is time to recap a marvelous trip to the land where songwriters seem to grow effortlessly from the soil. Saturday I went to Luckenbach for the first ever Ray Wylie Hubbard Grit 'n Groove Festival. It was a beautiful almost 90 degree day with ten hours of smoldering music. There is something about the musical heritage at Luckenbach that is pure magic. I think all the artists caught the vibe. The day started with an acoustic set from Ray, soon to be followed by Gurf Morlix who did his gentle yet ironic music. Sam Baker was sparse poetry in the Southern Gothic tradition set to atmospheric music. Carrie Rodriguez was spectacular in an acoustic-plus set. Omar brought the growl and the blues to a sunny afternoon. Hayes Carll was a total crowd-pleaser, with the audience singing along. The Trishas we're sweet and hot. Charlie Sexton just rocks whatever he does, and then The Band Of Heathens took the stage and took us to church. The night ended with and electric set from Ray Wylie Hubbard, with Gurf on steaming electric guitar, The Trishas singing backup for “Papa Was A Rolling Stone.” Ray's last song of the evening was “Wanna Rock and Roll”.....so glad it all did!
