Well, this morning Scott, Kevin and Kayte all flew out of Austin for various destinations. I envy them how quickly they'll be back home. We are looking at 2 days on the road of almost non-stop driving, and they'll be home this afternoon. But, that is the way of things, and it has been awesome having them with me on the tour. Now I am on to the solo shows. Stu took today off work so he can hang out with us all day. We went out to lunch at the Screaming Goat (tasty morsels to be sure!) and explored some guitar shops. Most of them were boring, but we finally found a vintage shop with lots of primo used guitars. I realized why I had wanted to find one after we went inside. I miss Sam Moss's shop. This place was a little bigger than his shop, but it had a similar vibe, with all the old guitars. I realized upon walking in that I hadn't been in a shop like it since he died. I was never close to Sam, but I appreciated his eye for guitars. At the shop in Austin, I saw a real Epiphone Casino, like the Beatles had and the Edge uses (It is the same vintage as my Epiphone Ensign amp, from the 60's before Gibson bought them, moved their production overseas and used them as a budget line for their guitar models). There were vintage Gibson acoustics galore. There were crazy electric banjos, and gypsy guitars. There were Matchless amps, and Les Paul's - oh and we heard that Les Paul passed away this morning. That man single handedly created modern music. Most of you won't know this, but not only did he invent the humbucker guitar pickup, and the carved top solid body electric guitar (the guitar that Slash is holding on the cover of Guitar Hero 3 is a Les Paul), he also invented the multi track tape recorder. This invention changed music forever. It allowed 4 side by side sections of tape to be recorded independently of one another. This ushered in the modern studio era. Now, a musician could record the drums of a song first, then the bass, and then as he listened to both of those, he could play the guitar, and if he messed anything up, he could go back and re-record just what he messed up. Prior to this invention, studio recordings were just live performances with a mic in the room. Now things beyond live could be done. This is what George Martin did with the Beatles that was so revolutionary. They used the four track recorder to it's full potential, and no one had heard anything like it before, and people still listen to it today. Les Paul created a new medium for musical art. Thanks, Les. I hope it sounds good wherever you are. Well, they had so many used pedals at this vintage shop that I wanted to hang out for a few hours trying everything out, but it was getting to be time to go set up for the show.
When we got to Flipnotics, it turned out to be just as cool as my local friend Larry said it was. He suggested I play there. It was brightly colored, and had a vaguely spacey theme. It was positioned at the base of the biggest hill in Austin, and in the back there were several decks connected with little walkways that progressively climbed up the
steep hill into the trees. Very cozy atmosphere. One thing about Austin, and Texas in general, is that it is hot. Really hot. It was 105 when we were there. Lots of people ride their bikes around and to work, and everyone sweats, and no one is put out if you smell a little hot, or have gotten a little sweaty. It's just part of living there, and everyone is in the same boat. I like how relaxed people are in Austin. The South is polite, but it is not always an honest polite. It is often a surface politeness that people still use to keep their distance. And the hippies in NC in my experience can tend to have a clique-ish supierority to them. They seem to be open-minded, but really only to their own alternative way of thinking, and not actually to anybody else. I don't know if they mean to, but they can make you feel like a loser if you are not like them. In Austin, I ran into lots of people that look just like the hippies here, and I had my guard up, because I expected them to be kinda judgemental like they can be here, but was completely disarmed by how genuinely nice people are here. Lots of different looking people, and different social subsets, and races, but folks were easy to talk to, interested in what I had to say, eager to listen to our music, and helpful in many ways that they didn't have to be. It was like a culture of kindness. Eric, who was one of the barkeeps at Flipnotics and also the sound guy, was super nice getting me in and helping me 
get set up. Stu helped out with the van and the trailer, and carrying gear in. We were running a little late, but got the show started on time due to Stu's terrific help. There was a tiny little stage, just big enough for me and my piano and guitar, and I got to playing the show. It felt strange not having the band. It has actually been some time since I did solo shows. So, I navigated the differences, and tried to sing my heart out. Stu and Liz were there, and they said that when I got rolling on an intense song that I was fierce! There is always a divide between stage and crowd that you have to overcome before people are enveloped into your songs. Apparently, I use fierceness to jump across! I think that sounds cool. There were two folks who used to live in New Orleans there, and they listened the to the songs, and really seemed to enjoy it. We had some banter back and forth, and turns out they also used to live in Hattiesburg, MS, where I am headed tomorrow! Small world. They signed the mailing list and bought some CD's before they left. The other folks listening were in the bands that were playing later that night. Owen and Emily, a band which does not contain an Owen or an Emily, were really cool and seemed to like the songs. Jehovah's Fitness was up after them. What a great name!
After the show, we loaded up and decided to go see the bats and get some food. There was this place with bright green neon that cought my eye on the way to the bat bridge. It was a Texas Bar-B-Q place called the Green Mesquite. More on that in a minute. In Austin, there is a big bridge, I think it's called the Congress Street bridge, that crosses the big river that runs beside downtown. Apparently, over a million bats live under this bridge, and every night at sunset they fly out in a huge cloud that lasts for a long time. There is a big statue of a bat nearby, and a crowd of onlookers gathers every night. By the time I finished the show and we loaded up, it was nearing the end of the bat cloud, but we hurried out there, and still saw quite a few of them circling around, and taking off. You could also see hordes of them on the horizon. I'd stare off at the tree line in the distance, and then my eyes would adjust and I'd see a seemingly endless stream of them cutting through a gap in the trees. It was pretty cool. The afterglow of performing, the river, the bridge, the sunset, a nice evening breeze, the city skyline, the crazy bats, and good friends well met all made for quite a memorable moment. As light faded, it became harder to see the remaining bats, and we were getting hungry, so we took off back to the Green Mesquite. Our waitress was from Asheville, if you can believe it. There was a rather long wait, and we sat there and enjoyed conversation together. I love Stu. It's like you have to be around him for a while for him to open up, but he did over the bats and into dinner. I recognized the Stu that I had taught piano to for a couple of years, and it was cool to see that's still who he is, when there's enough down time to stop worrying about work that has to be done. Nobody on task is relaxed, and he is great helper when there is work to do, that's for sure, but it felt nice to have nothing to do. When we had lessons, I remember how excited he could be about things, like there was light bulb behind his eyes, and that light was on while we were hanging out at the Green Mesquite. Oh, and the food was amazing when it did come. They can cook some cow in Texas. There was a big signed poster from the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives guy saying "You can't beat the meat at the Green Mesquite." In the outside seating area, which we could see from our table, there was a covered permanent stage. It's like everywhere is a venue in this town. I saw built stages at other restaurants too. This is a music loving place. That was a definite change from NC. There are music loving people in NC, but the city itself, and the local businesses are not into it like this. Can you imagine a Hot Topic with a stage? It's like they have gotten used to having music around, and it is just normal for bands to be everywhere. We loved Austin. Go if you get the chance.
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