SXSW Austin and random video finds.

Well while we were running around west Texas playing beer joints trying to scrape a spring break crowd in college ghost towns, there was something rumbling down south. South By Southwest was last week in Austin and thousands flocked to the hundreds of live shows, parties, and magical randomosity that only Austin can provide. Bored as I was, I got on Youtube and the blogosphere to see what all I missed. Here's a few videos I stumbled across that I liked for one reason or another.





Playing For Change



Metallica's "secret show"



Explosions In The Sky



A Guy With A Camera Standing On 6'th St.



Street band called Baskery



Jimmy Lafave


...........and on and on and on and on. I've caught SXSW once and it was a great experience. Hopefully sometime soon I can find myself that way again. For everyone that made it down (or up) to Austin this last week sorry for your hangover, but I don't feel bad for you.

A few fine video finds ( lazy post day, but still important things)

This one is a great cover of Merle Haggard's Silver Wings. He was and still is a great pioneer in Texas music. The people covering his song are popular Texas musicians in their own right, Cody Canada, Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, and Stephanie Briggs at the House Of Blues in Houston Texas last November. Bad quality but a great song and it looked like a great time.



This is a song and music video obviously, by Stephanie Briggs and The Oso who I spoke of in my last post. The song is a favorite and one that makes me happy no matter where I'm standing in life. This is a significant song to me that for some reason always stops me cold for just a moment.

This video wouldn't let me embed it. Boo hiss, but just click here to go see it. The song is titled "It Ain't Easy Being Me" by Chris Knight. This is a song I heard in college and was instantly attracted to. I've heard a myriad of bands cover it over time and still love hearing it from whomever can play it right on stage. There is something so terribly haunting in those lyrics that I think resonates with any man who has realized too late, that he has gone too far.



A video from my harmonica playing side. I know a great deal of harp players look down on the works of John Popper, but it is obvious that at the least he has brought a new perspective and crowd of listeners to the instrument. I have always enjoyed this song and when I found this excerpt of John Popper playing along side it, I loved how a song so familiar made room for a harp that I never thought would fit.



I'll end with this funny colored gem. It's from the great Ray Wylie Hubbard playing in Dallas. You might know his song "Redneck Mother" famous from Jerry Jeff Walker playing it. I had the great pleasure of playing with him a few months back at the Hog Pit in Midland. He was a really great guy. I had never heard a cleaner band at sound check. (This video's mix has the vocals way too high for my taste.) His show was way too fun as you could guess. He worked the crowd with his great stories of back before so and so, and he played the good ones 'til it was time to go home.