The Trip, Part 4


"Gone to Texas baby, all I need is the ride...." Terry Allen

Such a whirlwind of tangled emotions, snippets of life eyeballed through the
windshield, miles transporting you from one region of this great land to
another. Seeing the topography and foliage change. East Texas was flat and
huge. It humbles you just knowing there is something so vast. Actually, I
felt the same way in the Mississippi Delta. And why is it that you get
spotty phone coverage and GPS, but Facebook and Twitter find you just fine?

Got followed for miles by a Texas state trooper, who didn't stop me, but
sent the message loud and clear to slow down. And when the speed limit is
already 70, that's pretty easy to accommodate. Pulled into Austin by
evening, and it RAINED! It's been awhile since that happened, things are
bone dry here. Went directly to see old friends Paul Thorn and the band at
The Shady Grove. A wonderful "welcome to Austin" evening. Yesterday, hung at
KNBT in New Braunfels with Mattson Rainer. He had two in-studio
performances: Shelley King with Marvin Dykhuis and Chip Dolan....amazing
soul and phenomenal harmonies. And then Radney Foster stopped by, and I got
to sit in on the interview. He is celebrating the release of the new album
Revival. Played Gruene Hall last night with his red hot band The Confessions
and had a guest appearance from Raul Malo. Jeff Horny did a making of the
album DVD called "Behind The Confessions" which, among other things,
contains man-on-the-street interviews of people's takes of the concept of revival. (We've included a clip below.)

-Jessie Scott

The Trip, Part 3

“If I can’t find her in West Helena, she’s in East Monroe, I know”……Robert Johnson

The last object in the house was the cowboy hat that I purchased in Santa Barbara when Kissy Black and I Jess01 went to the Gram Parsons Tribute produced by Polly Parsons and Shilah Morrow. It is with me in the car, and that’s a good think because it’s been days of no makeup and road food from convenience stores. Now I must say, these stores have life, action, and amazing aromas wafting out. They are seemingly the hub of some of the towns we have stopped in. They are no longer on Main Street, but they satisfy the same need. We stopped yesterday in Indianola, MS for maybe the most amazing Oyster Po’ Boy I ever had. Gossamer light, melt in your mouth, and then there was a chocolate dessert. Now if you are going to do sugar, Mississippi gets it right. We also stopped for a walk around ancient Indian Mounds, and caught Sunset over the Mississippi at Warfield. My IPOD is cranking along in the C’s now. It Jess02 has been uncanny in capturing moods and vistas, with just the right musical accompaniment. Ahhh random! House is on the market. One more day of hard driving. Hope to make Austin tonight.

-Jessie Scott