Both of us spent the week in Austin again and did our best to experience as much as we could of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival week.
We started with dinner at Geraldine’s in the Van Zandt hotel, where Sun Radio was hosting a showcase of three different bands. While enjoying the music, we shared several small plates – cauliflower, beets, branzino, and gnocchi. All were very tasty and paired with delicious drinks. The first band was Cha Wa from New Orleans and they combined Mardi Gras Indian style with classic New Orleans funk – perfect for my taste.
I laughed when spotting their poor, abandoned sousaphone on my way to the restroom.
The next band was local to Austin, Tomar and the FCs, with a retro funky soul sound that we both enjoyed very much. These guys popped up all over town this week – even playing the Yeti showcase next to our apartment on Wednesday afternoon.
We checked out the outside pool area before leaving to walk home and snapped this picture of our apartment behind the fireplace. We have a great view of the Van Zandt hotel from our living room.
Wednesday morning began with another Sun Radio event. This time at Shady Grove restaurant on my way to work. We arrived around 8:30 am and were treated to Warren Hood and Kym Warner providing music to accompany our coffee and breakfast taco.
What a couple of uber talented musicians. Warren attended Berklee college of music where he was awarded the school’s top honor – The String Achievement Award. He has played with a who’s who of country and rock musicians including the BoDeans, Susan Tedeschi, and Lyle Lovett. Here’s another short video of the duo covering the Rolling Stones:
One of our very favourite bands, the Band of Heathens, followed Hood and Warner around 9am. They sounded better than ever with the full band crammed into a corner of the restaurant – a great sound job by Sun Radio. Here they are doing their version of “Heaven Help Us All” from the recent release, “A Message from the People” (originally released by Ray Charles):
What an amazing way to start the day!
I escaped work a bit early and we continued our SXSW sampling by walking down to Guero’s on South Congress. JM Stevens, the musician we chatted with last Saturday, was playing with his full band. We enjoyed the show and another taco. It’s very nice to be able to walk to so many lively destinations. This event was actually called “SXSF – South by Soup Fest” as it raised money for various Austin charities. This is Stevens’ song “Fire in the Wind” – it’s the one with the video filmed in Iceland.
After Guero’s, we had a wander down South Congress and stopped into a small store where I bought some art for the apartment and Diana picked up a summer dress.
We stopped into SXSJ (South by San Jose) on the walk back to the apartment. You’re beginning to see the theme now – everything starts with SX and then adds two letters – see, I knew you were on to it. This is a free music series put on by the San Jose hotel (a very hip place where each room has a turntable and selection of records) and by Jo’s coffee shop in the parking lot they share across the street from the Continental Club.
Arriving back at our apartment, we were treated to Tomar and the FCs again from our balcony as they played at the Yeti showcase next door:
We were able to experience quite a bit of good music in the early evenings just by sliding open the balcony door.
On Friday afternoon we sampled the Sun radio afternoon sessions at the Hula Hut on the river in West Austin. I got there just in time to catch the last song by a band named Western Youth. They sounded great and have quickly become my new favourite local band as we’ve listened to their album – kind of a mix of Jason Isbell and the Allman Brothers. After Western Youth, Marcus King performed a rare solo acoustic set -he has a great voice and I love his songs. He told a story about Warren Haynes (another of our favourites and a long time member of the Allman Bros Band) helping him to get started. Here’s one of his songs:
We drove back to the apartment in time to catch Hayes Carll at the Yeti showcase next door – that has been a nice feature and really brought SXSW close to home.
Inside the Yeti store a band named Carolina Story was performing a quieter and mellower set of songs with an excellent pedal steel guitar player:
Vinod had his family (including in-laws) were in town for a few days of their Spring break and so we walked across the bridge to join them for dinner. What a lovely family and happy kids! They entertained us with riddles for McD.
After dinner we made a trip to the Catherine Sky Bar and I found a Saint Patrick’s Eve leprechaun waiting for me:
Saturday began with a workout and then crossword and coffee – nice to get back into that routine. We’ve been sampling all the independent local coffee shops and this time chose Irie Bean Coffee on South Lamar which had a nice rear patio.
Coffee was followed by a trip to Target to stock up on essentials for the week ahead. I found some inexpensive patio chairs that I thought would be great for our balcony and asked D if she thought they would fit in her car – “Shouldn’t be a problem”. Folks in the parking lot must have had a good chuckle if they watched us trying to wrestle a chair into the car for about 10 minutes. One finally fit but I had to return the other one. A similar struggle ensued back at the apartment trying to unpack the chair – “What goes in must come out”- was the helpful advice that I received.
We had a Saturday dinner reservation at Juliet Italian and walked down (almost a mile) to House Wine next door before eating. Guess what? Yes, another music showcase underway. We enjoyed a band called “Sedona Skies” and were educated about an organization named “Women Crushing Music”. WCM helps aspiring female singer songwriters get ahead in the music business.
The food at Juliet was great but the service was very slow and almost non-existent. The manager eventually got us some help. We enjoyed calamari and octopus to start, followed by veal marsala for me and cioppino for Diana.
We were proud of ourselves for walking back from the restaurant as well – almost a 2 mile round trip.
Sunday also started with a workout followed by coffee and a crossword. This time we chose Merit coffee on South Lamar which also has a nice patio – albeit a bit noisier on the street. To continue the reprise of Saturday, we made another trip to Target to get the second chair. This time it was in and out of the car without too much trouble – all about knowing the right technique.
After Target we stopped into Cosmic Coffee for their one year anniversary party. It was quite the party with bands playing all day on a large stage setup in the food truck area. Wouldn’t you know it, my new favourite local band, Western Youth, were playing. They said it was their eleventh show this week – they must be exhausted with moving all their gear around. Diana enjoyed some wings and excellent tater tots from one of the trucks.
Here’s the live version of the song that I’ve been enjoying most from their album, “The King is Gone”:
Here’s an unauthorized picture of me enjoying the music and making the video above:
We arrived home in time for Diana to catch the bus back up to Dallas for her work week ahead. It’s been very nice having her in Austin for so long to keep me company and enjoy all the music.
I’ve shared enough music with you this week and so I’ll forego the usual “K’s New Music This Week” section. With all the activity, I haven’t quite finished my book this week either. I’m off to see about that now and will share more details on what is one of my best reads in a while next week.