The Eye of the Hurricane

Where did everybody go…

As posted on Galley earlier this week:

They’d rather give you songs than diamonds or gold

It’s a scary thought to look at this picture and think that the only one left alive is Jessi. I was looking up some Waylon Jennings stuff tonight and ran across this old picture and my heart just about broke. I was thinking to myself… “Is Outlaw Country gone?” It was a time when guys and girls that said they’d rather leave Nashville, 1/4 million dollars in debt, than continue to be pushed into putting out uninspired music. And don’t give me this stuff about CMT’s run at putting out some self proclaimed Outlaw Movement in a last ditch effort to sell more albums to Richard in Des Moines… that drives around in his truck with the “Rebel Without a Cause” sticker, reliving the old days of drinking pull tab beer and listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd. That manufactured turd of CMT went right down the crapper and most of the Outlaws they were pushing now have rapping midgets on stage among other stupid skits. My stomach gets seriously ill at the thought of guys like Merle Haggard rapping to get attention.

And don’t get me wrong. If that is their thing, then that’s cool. People can feel free to like it. But don’t tell me it’s Outlaw Country when it’s the mainstream machine that is pushing it out.

So anyway.. I try to drown some sorrows in one of my favorite iTunes playlist’s titled “Tank’s Good Music”. Creative… I know. It’s full of old and new stuff randomly mixed together. It’s got a little Johnny Cash and Matt Powell flowing together, Jason Boland following Waylon Jennings, a little Stoney LaRue and Merle Haggard… and even it out with RRB, CCR and Wade mixed in with guys like SRV and Willie Nelson. After a few songs you start to realize that all these songs start to feel like they have one soul. Kind of like the roots are the same but the person that is singing is just different.

I think we’re moving into the time in the music scene where some big(er) things are about to really start happening. There’s alot of people around that can look at that picture up there and say that they’ve seen most if not all of them perform. I’m not one of them. But I’ll be damned if I let what we have pass me by without enjoying every single second of it. There are some pictures I have that one day I’ll bring them out, sit my boy down and tell him that I’ve seen all the people in those pictures and each one of them has changed my life a little bit. Eat bologna sandwiches for a week if you have to the next time that Bleu Edmondson Band concert comes to town. Get that Hy-Top mustard to put on your hotdogs so you can hit the RRB show this weekend. Make some memories and don’t let this movement pass you by.

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Texas Music Community is on the move

Well, alot is said about Galleywinter being the center of rumorville within the Texas Music Scene. I just think it’s becasue everyone takes the time to actually read what people are saying. You hear the same crap in a bar… you just tune it out. Anyway, the latest news flys in the face of all that. Another Engagement has sprung from a relationship evoled from Galleywinter. That makes it somewhere around 10 weddings a whole lot of dating and lots of great friendships. Meg is moving to Texas in a few months and I personally think that there is no way she would even consider it if she didn’t have the friends she’s made through Galleywinter. It’s going to be a hard move for her to leave her friends and family, but the draw to Texas is just too much.

So we’ll just keep on, keeping on with Galley. At least until we run out of money.

She loves it when my guitar rings…

As posted on Galleywinter this morning

Acoustic shows…

What is it about an acoustic show that just drives emotion straight into your heart? Maybe it’s the intimate setting… maybe the lack of “production”… maybe it’s how clear you can hear the words… maybe it’s the songs/covers and the stories that go along with them… heck, probably it’s all of the above. In fact I know it’s all of the above. It’s just a shame that these shows are few and far between and often not attended. Most of the time you might get a Stoney LaRue acoustic show.. or a Wade Bowen show.. or even a Stoney and Bleu show if you’re really lucky. Then there’s Steamboat. A time when all the greats in this scene, sit down and play and sing together. That right there, is worth the price of the trip.

Last night I got the opportunity to see Matt Powell, Wade Bowen and Bleu Edmondson sit on stage at a party I somehow found my way into and it was better than any show I’ve seen in quite a while. Don’t get me wrong… I love a full band set that leaves you drained for the next few days, but there is something about seeing those 3 guys joking around and swapping Bruce Springsteen songs back and forth and staying on stage till the door is locked and they quit selling beer. It gives you an insight to how close this Music Scene is and reminds you the reasons for wanting to drop the day job and follow bands around Texas for the rest of your life living off of corner store hotdogs and cheap bottled water. So… thanks guys! Thanks for taking the time during the week to come play shows like last night. Thanks to guys like Matt Powell that wasn’t even supposed to be there, but came and got on stage. You see stuff like that all the time at these types of shows. You just never know who will come out and play.

Don’t let the acoustic shows die. If you see one, take the time to go take part in it. Go to the Clubhouse Concerts.. go to the acoustic tours of guys like Cody Canada/Stoney LaRue and Wade Bowen/Randy Rogers… go to that show with Walt Wilkins and experience his songwriting and voice… go to the acoustic concert series on Monday nights in the random towns outside of Austin… just go…

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