LIVE MUSIC I'VE SEEN

2007-2008

Artist

Date

Location

Comment

7/29/08

A "Chicano Soul Review", put together by Larry Lange. Larry and his band performed some of his usual blue-eyed soul, and then backed up a number of old San Antonio soul and doo-wop singers from the 50's and 60's, including: Rudy T. Gonzales of Rudy and the Reno Bops, Sonny Ace of Sonny y Los Twisters, Dimas Garza of The Royal Jesters, Henry Parilla, and The Sequence,

Friday, May 30
Scott Ainslie	Acoustic blues performer.
Freebo	Freebo who is best known a long time bass player with Bonnie Raitt, now leads his own band as an acoustic guitarist and vocalist. He had stellar back-up guitarist and bass player,and several guest vocalists and musicians, put on an entertaining set. He also showed up throughout the festival as a guest of many other perfomers on bass and tuba.
Sam Lardner & Barcelona	Sam Lardner lives in Barcelona and plays with a band of flamenco influenced musicians. It was a nice blend of folk and flamenco guitars and vocals.
Slaid Cleaves	A nice set by this Austin based singer-songwriter.
Bob Schneider's Texas Bluegrass Massacre	The newest project by Bob Schneider features Jeff Plankenhorn on dobro, and has nothing to do with bluegrass. Bob played some new material, and the closed with his most well known songs, including "Tarantula" which got the whole crowd singing along and on their feet.
Saturday, May 31
Don Sanders, Purly Gates, and Freebo	A Children's Concert.
Austin Lounge Lizards	These guys are hilarious and great musicians as well. They featured a number of songs from their most recent album, "The Drugs I Need"
Noel Paul Stookey	One third of Peter, Paul, and Mary.
Peter Yarrow	The second third of Peter, Paul, and Mary. It was Peter's seventieth birthday, so a lot of time was spent celebrating and bring people on and off stage.
Bethany & Rufus	Peter's daughter Bethany and virtuoso cellist Rufus Cappadocia, along with percussionist Gaston "Bonga" Jean Baptiste. The whole family affair concluded with a birthday cake for Peter and the manadatory singing of "Puff, The Magic Dragon" with all of the kids they could bring up on stage.
Ronny Cox	Some country music.
Band of Heathens	By far the most electric set of the two days. These guys rocked with an alt-country sound that was at times reminiscent of Little Feat and Drive by Truckers. Thet showed a lot of talent with three songwriters taking turns on lead vocals and guitar.

Heybale

5/25/08

Continental Club

A great performance, as usual. This time, Redd Volkaert & Earl Poole Ball and the gang were joined by special guests Cindy Cashdollar and Erik Hokkanen.

Marc Broussard

4/25/08

Antone's

This soulful crooner from Louisiana certainly had the large crowd in his pocket, but it didn't quite do it for me. The horn section and backup singer that I was told that he had with him for his last show in Austin might have helped.

Nick Lowe, with Ron Sexsmith

4/18/08

Antone's

Nick Lowe put on one of the most entertaining solo acoustic shows that I can remember. He has a great voice and great songs and has that dry British sense of humor. Ron Sexsmith opened with a nice sol set of his own.

Son Volt, with Bobby Bare Jr.

4/17/08

Antone's

Son Volt put on a pretty good show, although Jay Farrar sure looks depressed all the time. Bobby Bare's opening set was painfully loud and distorted.

The Mother Truckers, Octopus Project, and Kellye Gray

04/12/08

Downtown Austin - Cesar Chavez

At Art City Austin.

Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, and Reckless Kelly

4/10/08

Antone's

At Jessefest, dedicated to Jesse "Guitar" Taylor ...

George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Cowboy Mouth, with Bonerama, and Dr. Zog & Funk Zydeco

04/05/08

Downtown Austin - MLK & Congress

At the Louisiana Swamp Thing & Crawfish Festival. George Clinton and the full gang with something like 40 people on stage. Undfortunately Bonearama had travel problems and were only able to add some horn section to Cowboy Mouth's typical wild show. Chubby Carrier and Dr. Zog played a couple of fun Zydeco sets.

The Steps

03/21/08

Threadgill's World Headquarters

Good young Austin band, influenced by Stones, Lou Reed, and Modern Lovers. Good show, but I wished they would have had more than 45 minutes of material.

Junior Brown and Shelby Lynne

03/14/08

Austin Music Hall

A SxSW show. Junior Brown was great as usual on his guit-steel with his hard-core country and a bit of surf music. He finished with a tribute to the late drummer Buddy Miles, of Jimi Hendrix fame, who had played in Junior Brown's band for a time. Shelby Lynne played mostly songs from her new album which is inspired by Dusty Springfield. Unfortunately, I found it incredibly boring.

Daniel Lanois

03/14/08

Austin Convention Center

A SxSW show being broadcast by DirectTV from what they called The Bat Bar. The famous producer played mostly atmospheric instrumental guitar, acompanied only by drummer Brian Blade. You can download a 12-minute version of his opening song, "The Maker", here.

Rattletree Marimba

03/14/08

Agave

Zimbabwean style marimba band based in Austin. Pretty decent dance music

Paul Metzger

03/14/08

Spiro's

Some of the strangest, eeriest music that I've ever heard. Metzger plays a heavily modified 21-string banjo, frequently with a bow. It sounded Eastern at times, and always different, to say the least.

Joey Cape

03/14/08

Headhunters

A short acoustic set by this singer from San Francisco.

British Sea Power

03/14/08

The Mohawk

A pretty good band that has been compared to Joy Division and The Pixies.

Joe Hell & the Red Roosters

03/14/08

The Blind Pig Pub

Some sleazy blues and slide guitar work.

Airline

03/14/08

BD Riley's Irish Pub

Some good solid rock by a young Dallas band.

Daniela Cotton

03/13/08

Opal Divine's Freehouse

A very soulful singer.

Guitar Shorty

03/13/08

Opal Divine's Freehouse

Some dynamic blues by this veteran blues guitarist.

Vallejo

03/13/08

The Tiniest Bar in Texas

Cornell Hurd Band

03/13/08

Jovita's

With special guest Bill Kirchen sitting in on guitar.

They Might Be Giants with Oppenheimer

3/05/08

Stubb's Bar-B-Q

I was able to be on the guest list for this show, thanks to my wife's college roomate's husband, Victor, who is TMBG's guitar tech. Although I was not real familiar with TMBG's music, I really enjoyed the show. Very fun music, great muscianship, and entertaining in-between song banter. Oppenheimer, which is two young guys from Ireland were a pretty decent opening act. Thanks to Victor & Janice for thinking of us!

Alan Haynes

2/22/08

Evangaline Cafe

A really great blues guitarist who has been around Austin for a while, including a stint in the Antone's House Band in the 1990's. Outstanding playing on some classic blues, as well as some excellent Jimi Hendrix. Thanks to Peter K. for suggesting this.

Antone's House Band All Stars

2/14/08

The Long Center for the Performing Arts

The first public event at Austin's new performing arts center at the former Palmer Auditorium location. It was billed as a "concert tuning" event to help adjust the sound system with an audience present. The venue seems nice -- not overly fancy, because they reused a lot of materials from Palmer to save money -- but it seems quite functional and offers great views of the city from the upstairs balcony and large courtyard in front. The music featured the Antone's house blues band, including Malford Milligan, David Grissom, Derek O'Brien,Riley Osborne, Barry "Frosty" Smith, and Larry Fulcher with their usual solid blues set.

Dax Riggs with Dustin Welch and the House Band

2/09/08

Continental Club

I first saw Dax Riggs at ACL this year and got bored after a couple of songs. For some reason I thought it would be different in a smaller venue, but it wasn't, although the unusually young crowd for the Continental Club seemed to love his droning songs and simple guitar strumming. I did enjoy Dustin Welch and his band, with their jamming, although loud harmony vocals, guitar, banjo, and violin.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

1/23/08

Stubb's Bar-B-Q

A really excellent show. Grace is a talented songwriter and musician, has a hot band, and is great looking as well. Her material ranges from blues to rock to soul. Her original material rocked, and the band also did a nice job on cover songs "Mystery Train" and Neil Young's "Down by the River". Here is a review & photos from the show.

Shawn Mullins with Amy Cook

1/12/08

Cactus Cafe

The first time I had seen Shawn Mullins. I was impressed with his singing and guitar playing on his own songs as well as covers from James McMurtry, Kris Kristofferson, and Steve Earle. Amy Cook opened up with some nice singer-songwriter material as well.

Kathleen Edwards

1/09/08

Continental Club

Kathleen sounded great on some new material from her forthcoming album and some older material. She played with her husband, guitarist Colin Cripps. They apparently have been staying in Austin for a few weeks, and she said they may be coming back soon for a longer stay. I hope so.

Heybale

12/23/07

Austin Convention Center

As ususal, some fine traditional country music by Heybale, featuring former members of Johny Cash's and Merle Haggards's bands. At the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar.

Particle with House of Fools

12/15/07

Antone's

Particle's previous instrumental keyboard-driven combination of funk, rock, and electronica has now been supplemented by guitar, with vocals on some songs. Still a very fun and energetic performance. Members of House of Fools joined them on several numbers as well.

The Knitters and The Hacienda Brothers

12/8/07

Continental Club

The Knitters feature John Doe, Exene Cervenka, and D.J. Bonebrake from the band, X, along with Dave Alvin on guitar. They played mostly retro-country with a punk a flavor. John Doe and Exene have interesting vocal harmonies, and Dave Alvin played some great lead guitar, although I had hopoed he would sing and perform some of his own material. The Hacienda Brothers have an interesting style they call "Western Soul". It's a blend of hard-core country and peddle steel guitar with soul music, and it actually works pretty well, even when they throw some accordian into the mix.

Nickel Creek with Tom Brosseau

11/17/07

Stubb's Bar-B-Q

One of the last stops on Nickel Creek's "Farewell (For Now) Tour". I enjoyed all of their original tunes and fine bluegrass playing, but especially fun were covers of The Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" and Britney Spears' "Toxic".

Booker T. and the MG's featuring Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn, with William Bell and Eddie Floyd

11/08/07

Palmer Events Center

An event sponsored by Antone's to benefit "Help Clifford Help Kids" on the Stax 50th Anniversary tour. During the first part of the show, Booker T., Steve Cropper, and Duck Dunn showed off their skill and versatility on songs ranging from jazz and blues to gospel and Carribean, and of course the classic "Green Onions". Then, they brought back a large dose of the Stax Records material they are best know for with vocalists William Bell (songwriter on many Stax classics), and Eddie Floyd (best known for "Knock on Wood"). They finishing up with the Otis Redding classic (co-written by Steve Cropper) "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay". Jimmie Vaughan joined them for Bell's "Born Under A Bad Sign", a song made famous by Albert King and Cream among others.

Larry Lange & the Lonely Knights

11/02/07

Evangaline Cafe

An entertaining show at this Cajun eatery. His music draws from the San Antonio & Beaumont/Port Arthur school of classic R&B, Blue-Eyed Soul, Swamp Pop, and Tejano, much in the flavor of Doug Sahm.

Wanda Jackson and Elana James with Erik Hokkanen

10/15/07

Continental Club

A fun evening. It was rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson's 70th birthday party. She played her material from the 50's and a whole lotta Elvis (whom she dated in the 50's, pre-Priscilla). Elana James played some of her Hot Jazz violin and country fiddle, accompanied by Erik Hokkanen on electric guitar, along with an excellent acoustic bassist.

Friday, September 14
Asleep at the Wheel	A traditional start with some Western Swing from Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel.
Heartless Bastards	Some good solid rock. For some reason I was expecting more of a country sound.
Del McCoury Band	Traditional bluegrass.
The Wonderful Harmonizers	Some pretty good Gospel.
Amy Lavere	I enjoyed her energetic delivery and acoustic bass sound.
Will Hoge	Enjoyable rock-and-roll.
The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker	One of my favorite discoveries of the festival. Sort of a "Blues Brothers" style R&B and soul review with a great horn section and frontman Charles Walker who played in the '60s and '70s with the legends at the Apollo Theater.
Manchester Orchestra	Didn't do much for me.
Joss Stone	A fun set. Her soulful voice, which at time seems a bit forced, doesn't quite fit with her youthful good looks. But somehow she pulls it off with energy and enthusiasm, a solid band, and a nice mix of slower ballads and uptempo dance songs.
J.J. Grey & Mofro	I always love J.J. Grey and his band, and they put on their usual solid set of original, swampy blues-based tunes, this time with a horn section.
Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective	Supposedly Andy Palacio is the most popular musician in Belize. I really enjoyed his unique Garifuna sound, which blends native indigenous music, language and traditions with influences from Latin America, the Caribbean, and West Africa.
James Hunter	I typically like James Hunter's music, but somehow it wasn't doing it for me at the outdoor stage.
Queens of the Stone Age	Not my thing.
Spoon	Just heard a few songs, but I thought their new material and big band with horn section worked pretty well on the big stage.
Gotan Project	Very eclectic world beat/electronica music with an interesting stage setup. I wish I had stayed to hear more of them rather than going to hear...
Kaiser Chiefs	More not my thing.
Björk	A review in the paper the next day said that everybody in the crowd was dancing ecstatically to the "hit songs" of this strange woman from Iceland. Those must have been the true believers up front. From where I was towards the back, everyone was leaving shaking their heads after just a few songs. I joined the mass exodus before long.
Saturday, September 15
Dax Riggs	I enjoyed this solid rock set by this former Deadboy & the Elephantmen singer. He seemed to have a bit of a Jim Morrison complex, but pulled it off pretty well.
Back Door Slam	A young trio from The Isle of Man. They played blues rock ranging in style from Muddy Waters to Hendrix, with some good original material as well. I liked it.
Raul Malo	As usual, fine crooning vocals and a range of songs with a tight band.
The Legendary Soul Stirrers	Surprisingly good gospel-soul set. Although only one band member, lead singer Willie Rogers, looks old enough to go back as far as their Sam Cooke days in the 60s, they still put on a fine show featuring impressive harmonies.
Cary Ann Hearst & the Gun Street Girls	Some fun twangy rock by the young Cary Ann and her band.
Augustana	Didn't do it for me.
Railroad Earth	One of my favorite discoveries of the Fest. The played long jamming bluegrass songs featuring fiddle, mandolin, dobro, and banjo, with more than a little Grateful Dead influence.
Steve Earle	I normally like Steve Earle a lot, but the part of the show I saw that was mostly solo acoustic didn't quite penetrate the large crowd.
Stephen Marley	A strong Reggae set, with the expected large proportion of Bob Marley and the Wailers material.
Ocote Soul Sounds	I was a bit disappointed by this band led by Martín Perna, the creator of Antibalas, along with Adrian Quesada of Grupo Fantasma. They were too jazz influenced and lacked the danceable rhythms that I had expected.
Zap Mama	Fun world music.
BeauSoliel	I always enjoy BeauSoleil, and I thought they played an especially hot set of Cajun music on this day.
Damien Rice	Although I enjoy Damien Rice's thoughtful songs and acoustic music, I was afraid that it wouldn't cut it at the large outdoor venue. But I was actually pleasantly surprised that he rocked it up a bit and the crowd was quiet enough that he was able to be heard pretty well at the large stage.
Aterciopelados	This South American Band from Columbia had what was probably the most rabidly enthusiastic audience that I saw at this year's festival. I thought the band sounded pretty good, but I wasn't having the ecstatic reaction that most of the hard core fans in the crowd seemed to be having.
Indigo Girls	Just the two Girls playing guitars. I have enjoyed previous shows I've seen by them with a full band, but the twosome alone seemed a bit flat to me.
Arcade Fire	Obviously the huge crowd of young fans loved these guys, but I just didn't get it. They had a pretty cool stage set up and impressive light show, and played a wide variety of instruments well, but to me, they lacked a distinctive or memorable sound.
Sunday, September 16
Ryan Shaw	I really enjoyed this young soul singer, who at times reminded me of a young Stevie Wonder or Al Green. I think he has a bright future.
The Jones Family Singers	Some fun Gospel. A large family band, who at one point got the crowd fully engaged by roaming around throughout the audience.
The National	Another not my thing.
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals	Another one of my favorite new acts at the festival. Grace Potter palys both Hammond organ and guitar, and has a strong backing band. Her music has elements that remind me of Lucinda Williams and Neil Young with strong hooks, solid vocals, and long electric jams (which may have been a bit too much for some, but worked for me).
Kara Grainger	She has been called the Bonnie Raitt of Australia, and she indeed has a similar sound. I enjoyed her set, but would have preferred more grit in her delivery, which seemed just a bit too smooth to me for my taste.
Ian Ball	Some fun rock by Ian Ball, normally lead singer of Gomez, who obviously had a good time playing with his own band as a solo artist.
Ziggy Marley	I only heard one song by the Reggae star at the Austin Kiddie Limits stage.
DeVotchKa	I really liked this Denver quartet who mix rock with Eastern European dance music, with interesting instumentation including violin, sousaphone, and bouzouki.
Charlie Musselwhite	A solid classic blues set.
Bloc Party	Just heard a bit of this band. Although hip-hop is not normally my thing, I though they were actually pretty good.
Patterson Hood	Mostly acoustic set of depressing southern songs by the lead singer of Drive By Truckers.
Rose Hill Drive	More noisy rock.
Regina Spektor	Sounded like a non-self-absorbed version of Tori Amos.
Preservation Hall Jazz Band	Traditional New Orleans Jazz.
Amos Lee	Wanted to be bluesy, but was too pop for my taste.
My Morning Jacket	Probably the most visually entertaining set that I saw. The stage was decorated with a Polynesian Island backdrop, they came on stage with goggles and snorkels, and they had girls in hula skirts holding up pineapple in various poses throughout the set. I'm not sure what it meant or what it had to do with the music, but it was definitely fun to watch. And although I don't really remember the music, it seemed pretty good at the time.
The Decemberists	The final show before the big Bob Dylan finale. I enjoyed their quirky indie sound, although I didn't find their lyrics as interesting or clever as pre-show descriptions had led me to expect.
Bob Dylan & His Band	What a disappointment. I have seen Dylan before, and his voice has ranged from rough to non-intelligible, but it has never been this bad. In fact, I'm not sure if any other professional singer would go on stage sounding like that. Tom Waits would sound like a canary by comparison. The closest description I could come up with is Clarence "Frogman" Henry's frog voice with laryngitis. To make matters worse, they (I assume Dylan) dictated that the big screen could only show two stationary camera shots, a long shot of the entire band, and slightly less long shot of Dylan along with his drummer and pedal steel player. I suppose the idea was to prevent anyone from "stealing" a useful video off of the screen, but the result was that there were no close-ups of any of the band members, no visual interest on the screen, and the majority of the huge crowd could not really see what was going on. On the plus side, the band sounded excellent, especially Austin's Denny Freeman on guitar, and the choice of material including "The Levee’s Gonna Break", "Tangled Up in Blue", "Highway 61 Revisited", "Like a Rolling Stone", and "I Shall Be Released" was quite good. Dylan's voice did actually improve somewhat towards the end, but not enough to make up for the overall letdown of a show.

The Steps and Dash Riprock

09/13/07

Shoal Creek Saloon

Bill and Sheri's ACL Fest Pre-Party. Dash put on their usual fun show featuring music from their new disk "Hee Haw Hell" along with their classics such as "Stairway to Freebird", and a rocking version of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab", dedicated to The White Stripes. The young Austin band The Steps lived up to the hype of their XL cover story by rocking through a series of original tunes and one well-chosen cover, "Roadrunner" by The Modern Lovers. Thanks to Bill and Sheri for the great food, drink, and music! A great way to start off ACL Fest weekend.

Ladyfingers

08/15/07

Carousel Lounge

According to one reviewer, lead vocalist and songwriter Adam Weiner "manages to variously channel Elvis, Screaming Jay Hawkins, and Dion".

"The Jimmy Reed Highway", featuring Omar Dykes, Jimmie Vaughan, Lou Ann Barton, Gary Clark Jr, and Derek O'Brien

08/08/07

Zilker Park Rock Island

Part of KGSR's Blues on the Green series. A great show dedicated to the legendary bluesman, "The Big Boss Man", Jimmy Reed. Jimmie Vaughan put more energy into his guitar playing than I've seen in years. Omar just sang and played harmonica rather than his usual guitar, but with Jimmie, Derek, and Gary, there were plenty of guitars to go around.

Leo Nocentelli Supagroup, Papa Mali Trio, and The New Mastersounds

07/29/07

La Zona Rosa

Night two of Funky Batz 2nd Annual Funkfest. The headlining "Supagroup" was led by Leo Nocentelli from The Meters backed by Stanton Moore, Rob Mercurio, and Rich Vogel from Galactic. The surprise guest was Ivan Neville sitting in on keyboards for a couple of classic Meters songs. But the bigger surprise was "American Idol" Taylor Hicks joining the band for one song on harmonica, and he did a surprisingly good job. Papa Mali was his usual funky self. The New Mastersounds were a solid funk band from England.

The Midnight Disturbers, Papa Grows Funk, and Will Bernard Trio

07/28/07

La Zona Rosa

Night one of Funky Batz 2nd Annual Funkfest. The Midnight Disturbers were a New Orleans All Star Brass band featuring Stanton Moore & Ben Ellman from Galactic, Skerik, Kevin O'Day, and others. Papa Grows Funk was my highlight of the evening. The Will Bernard Trio was a bit too jazzy for my taste. And unfortunately, Mingo Fishtrap had to cancel because their lead singer was ill, but the horn section provided some additional fire on a number of songs by the other bands.

Todd Snider

07/22/07

Lakeway Resort and Spa

Part of KGSR's Live at the Lake series. A very unique venue in which to hear Todd Snider, with a three-tiered pool fronting Lake Travis.

Ian McLagan & the Bump Band

07/18/07

Zilker Park Rock Island

Part of KGSR's Blues on the Green series.

Arnett Howard and Friends and Champipple

07/15/07

Westerville (Ohio) Music and Arts Festival

Arnett Howard's Band did some nice soul, blues, reggae, and funk covers, while Champipple played a funky instrumental set.

The Pete Best Band

06/28/07

Threadgill's World Headquarters

Pete Best was the original drummer of The Beatles. He and his band covered the early Beatles from the 1960-62 era. Pete was never a great drummer, so he had another drummer in the band to help out. But the three vocalists, all supposedly from Liverpool, who played the John, Paul, and George roles were really able to recreate the early Beatles Merseybeat sound. Here is a review By Margaret Moser.

Ruthie Foster with Papa Mali

06/13/07

Zilker Park Rock Island

Part of KGSR's Blues on the Green series. Here is a video clip of Ruthie's performance.

The N'Awlins Funkmasters with Porter, Batiste and Stoltz

04/29/07

The Howlin' Wolf

Some of the best music I heard the entire Jazz Fest weekend. The N'awlins Funkmasters was an all-star band featuring Bernie Worrell, from Parliament/Funkadelic and The Talking Heads, George Porter and Leo Nocentelli from The Meters, Henry Butler, Russell Batiste, Tony Hall, Skerik and a couple of other horn players, and guest Ivan Neville. The band really layed down the funk, and the combination of the best of New Orleans with Bernie Worrell's unique synthesized keyboards made it some of the best funk shows that I've had the pleasure of listening to.

Dr. John

04/28/07

Tipitina's

A classic Dr. John show at the classic New Orleans venue, featuring a five-man horn section.

Friday, April 27
J. J. Grey & Mofro	A great start to the Fest. One of my favorite bands led by J.J. Grey's soulful singing. They played lots of new material along with their usual swamp funk. And for the first time that I've seen, they were supplemented by a horn section.
Swamp-Blues Guitar Summit featuring Lil' Buck Sinegal and Rudy Richard	Some good Louisiana blues by a couple of veterans.
Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians	A nice taste of Mardi Gras.
The Subdudes	As ususual, an enjoyable set from this funky band.
Bryan Lee & The Blues Power Band	More good blues.
Lafayette Rhythm Devils	An acoustic Cajun band.
Dr. John	The Good Doctor.
T-Bone Burnett	A bit too mellow for my taste.
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Ave.	Despite his name, mostly played trumpet.
Lucky Peterson	Even more good blues.
Bonerama	A band mostly made up of trombones. A nice blend of jazz and New Orleans funk.
Van Morrison	Nice versions of classic Van Morrison. But I might have been more impressed had I not seen a very similar set at the ACL Festival last September.
Lucinda Williams	Lucinda sounded good as usual.
Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie	Some great zydeco. Especially cool was when Geno brought a teenage kid on stage who played some mean accordian of his own.
Amazones	Women drummers from Guinea.
Percy Sledge	Some old school R&B. Percy wore a sharp suit, and the highlight was when he brought his wife up onstage and got down on his knees to sing to her.
Saturday, April 28
Shannon McNally	I enjoyed her Americana sound and fine band, and she looked good too.
Mem Shannon & the Membership	More excellent blues.
Ray Abshire	Traditional Cajun accordian.
Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentleman	Funky New Orleans R&B.
New Orleans Klezmer All Stars	Their usual entertaining blend of Klezmer and frenzied New Orleans Jazz.
The Electrifying Crown Seekers	This gospel group lived up to their electrifying billing.
Henry Butler	Another fine set by Henry Butler, carrying on the legacy of Professor Longhair and other great New Orleans piano giants.
Friends of Bobby Charles	Unfortunately, the reclusive songwriter, famous for songs such as "See You Later Alligator", "Walking to New Orleans", and "Tennessee Blues", didn't show up. Reportedly, one of his excuses was a dream that he would be shot during his performance at Jazz Fest. However to make up for it, friends including Sonny Landreth, Shannon McNally, Dr. John, and Marcia Ball turned out to perform his songs in one of the best all-star sets of the Festival.
Johnny Rivers	Best known for "Secret Agent Man' Johnny put on a surprisingly good set of music. He performed a variety of material from his long and versatile career, featuring both songs he wrote and covers that he is known for such as "The Midnight Special" and "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu".
Richie Havens	A definite throwback to the 60's. The music was spiced up by some interesting cello accompaniment.
Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys	A rocking Cajun set.
Linda Hopkins	A great voice. Her music combines Jazz, Blues, and broadway show tunes.
Rod Stewart	We had to go see a few songs, just to say we did. I thought it sucked. He mostly did songs from his most recent album of covers.
Sunday, April 29
Theresa Andersson Group	A decent set, although Theresa didn't tear it up on her violin as she has most of the times that I've seen her.
Jean Knight & her Knights of Rhythm	We saw her perform her hit, "Mr. Big Shot".
Hot Club of New Orleans	Some well-played New Orleans-style Hot Jazz, ala Django Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli.
The New Orleans Social Club featuring George Porter and Leo Nocentelli from The Meters, with Ivan Neville, Henry Butler, and drummer Raymond Weber	This New Orleans super-group was joined by guest vocalists Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Willie Tee, and John Bouttee. Although the set was marred by some early sound problems, it was still a fitting tribute to New Orleans by some of the best.
Jerry Lee Lewis & the Killer Band	"The Killer" looked shaky making his way to the piano, but once he got up there, he could still pound the keys. He and his band tore up most of his classic songs and tunes from his recent CD.
Gillian Welch	Normally an acoustic singer-songwriter has trouble capturing the audience in a setting such as this, but Gillian and her partner pulled it off with some energetic and entertaining songs.
Rosie Ledet & the Zydeco Playboys	Some fun Zydeco.
The New Orleans Bingo! Show	The Bingo Club is more about Vaudeville-style performance art than music. The Bingo Club consists of a bunch of costumed crazy people making noise with a saw, theremin, bullhorn, and all kinds of toys and mechanical devices, while backing up Clint Maedgen's songs and keyboard playing, and jumping off of the stage and running around in the audience. Definitely a unique and entertaining way to wrap up Jazz Fest.
Bonnie Raitt	Just caught a couple of songs on our way out.

Big Al Carson

04/27/07

The Funky Pirate

Big Al has to weigh around 500 pounds, but he has a way with those blues and soul vocals, as well as the ladies.

Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie and Chris Ardoin & Double Clutchin'

04/26/07

The Mid-City Lanes Rock-n-Bowl

No better way to start off a Jazz Fest weekend than with some great Zydeco and bowling.

Aretha Franklin

04/19/07

Bass Concert Hall

The Queen of Soul has still got it. Her voice sounded fantastic, and she was backed by an excellent big band that included ten horns and five female back-up singers. She started out fast with her hits "Respect", "Natural Woman", and "Think", and then went on to mix in gospel and blues with other great songs such as "Chain of Fools" and "Freeway of Love". A review and pictures here.

Joe Ely with Joel Guzman , plus Brothers and Systers

04/15/07

Waterloo Records

At the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Waterloo Records.

Will Taylor and Strings Attached

04/14/07

Republic Square Park

At the Austin Fine Arts Festival. Will Taylor and his band provide string-enhanced covers of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix.

Henry Butler and Midnight Jam with Papa Mali, Cyril Neville, and Big Sam, plus Sideshow Burlesque and Morning 40 Federation

03/31/07

Downtown Austin - MLK & Congress

At the Louisiana Swamp Thing & Crawfish Festival. The jam session featuring New Orleans R&B classics was a lot of fun, reminiscent of some great Neville Brothers / Meters shows I have seen.

Southern Culture on the Skids with James McMurtry

03/28/07

Continental Club

A rockin' show.

Little Richard

3/24/07

UT Tower

Part of the UT Forty Acres Fest. Little Richard is more suited for Geico commercials these days. He complained a lot about the sound of his piano, said "Don't I look pretty?" and "Shut Up!" a thousand times, and sang and played ony bits and pieces of his hits. But overall, it was still a pretty fun time with this rock-and-roll hall-of-famer.

Commander Cody and The Lost Planet Airmen

3/23/07

Threadgill's World Headquarters

A good performance by the Commander and his band, featuring many classics that he had performed many times in the past at the nearby Armadillo World Headquarters.

Raye Sharpe backed by Charlie Sexton and Augie Meyers, Jay Chevalier, Herb Remington, Lil Buck Sinegal with Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural, Tammy Lynn with Willie Tee, Flaming Arrows Mardi Gras Indians, Barbara Lynn, Dennis Coffey, and Archie Bell

03/16/07

Opal Divine's Freehouse

The Ponderosa Stomp, which celebrates the unsung heroes of blues, soul, rockabilly, swamp pop, and New Orleans R&B. See some reviews here. My highlights included Herb Remington, pedal steel player for Bob Wills' Texas Playboys; Lil Buck Sinegal on guitar and Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural on organ who had both played with Clifton Chenier backing R&B singers Tammy Lynn and Willie Tee; and Barbara Lynn's hot blues set.

White Ghost Shivers,