Robert Ellis "Friends Like Those"

One viciously hot day this summer, I wound up in the frosty confines of the Cactus Café on the University of Texas campus for a stellar evening of song with Robert Ellis.  Jonny Corndawg opened, he brings a zany Steven Wright-esque approach to his music.  Or maybe Jonny should be counted among the likes of John Hartford and John Prine, the school of acerbically analyzing the oddities of life.  Whatever, Jonny is a decidedly left of center character who quite obviously marches to a different drum.  Check out his homage, “When a Ford Man Turns To Chevy” here.  He just released a record called Down On The Bikini Line.  It is required listening.  I admit, I am a sucker for the strains and refrains of old school country.  And I like it served with a distillation of modernity on it too, a twist of a phrase that speaks of ‘today.’

photo by Tim GriffinAt 22, Robert Ellis is a young master of the genre.  At the Cactus, he brought his band, equally as elegant as they are earthy. They deliver another level, bringing hipster and traditional together, all wrapped up in a baritone-led package. Robert is as comfortable sharing the bill with the likes of Dawes, as he is with Jamey Johnson and George Jones, his hero, with whom he will share the stage at ACL Live at The Moody Theater in Austin on October 6th. All his dates are here.  Music Fog had a magic moment of our own with Robert Ellis during our Spring Marathon at Threadgill’s in March.  From that session, we bring you a solo version of “Friends Like Those.”

- Jessie Scott

Dale Watson & The Texas Two "My Baby Makes Me Gravy"

About five years ago during SXSW, I set up shop in a parked tour bus off 6th street in Austin, and invited a bunch of folks to come play for us.  We recorded a cast of characters that year: Tommy Ramone, Chip Taylor, Elizabeth Cook and Tim Carroll, J.J. Grey of Mofro, to name just a few.  One of my favorite moments was when Dale Watson came to the bus door, and asked if he could bring his band.  When I said yes, he stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled to summon the guys, who started running up the street with their instruments. They piled onto the bus and we were entertained by seven of them.  The bus sounded like we somehow had been transported to the 1940s.  It was magical.  And of course, Dale was perfect, frilly shirt, hair coifed. It was episodes like this that made me want to start videotaping the proceedings.

Dale Watson and The Texas Two have a new album coming out today, The Sun Sessions. What an amazing idea.  Take one of the most righteous purveyors of retro country, and hook him up at Sun Studios in Memphis, and then record lo-fi.  By the way, Dale has a couple of residencies in Austin; at The Continental Club, and at the beloved dive bar, Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon, the home of Chicken Sh*t Bingo on Sunday nights.  Willie loves him, Hank 3 calls him ‘the savior of country music,’ and today we bring you one of the songs from the new Dale Watson CD.  Here is “My Baby Makes Me Gravy.” 

- Jessie Scott

Sons of Bill "Siren Song"

ACL Music Festival is now a memory, and I didn’t go anywhere near it this year. Oh I heard that Stevie Wonder rocked and that Coldplay was cool, I saw some of Alison Krauss and Union Station on the stream on You Tube, and I am sure some stars were born this weekend.  Now if I wasn’t doing anything else I would have been happy to be there, as I have attended for the last five or so years, but weekends are my busy time now, and you can’t be everywhere. Well, I take that back, maybe you can be everywhere, but it has to be sequential, just one day and one date at a time. 

I have lots of friends who are trying to do just that, and we lovingly refer to them as road dogs. Virginia’s Sons of Bill are busy making every day count. They have been touring a bunch by themselves, and after this summer's run with Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, SOB were asked to continue with RCPM on their dates through the Northeast and the Great Lakes this month.  Sons Of Bill are anxiously awaiting the release of their next album, which they had hoped to deliver this fall. But we hear now that it will be coming out after Christmas, which is only three months away! Yowsa!  We had SOB in front of the Music Fog cameras at MusicFest at Steamboat 2011.  Wait a minute, that means 2012 is just over three months away, and that is a wonderful thing, since we will be returning to Music Fest.  Happy, Happy; Joy, Joy!  The song we bring you today is as yet unreleased, but is forthcoming as part of the new album from the brothers Wilson. “Siren Song,” new music from Sons of Bill.

- Jessie Scott