Austin 2011
Our third time down to Austin
was the best so far. . . the previous visits were great but I think we
out did
ourselves on this one.
I used to be a kind of ‘white
knuckle’ flyer but these days
– thanks to our ‘frequent’ trips to Austin
I really look forward to the flights.
Note: one thing that has made
flying more fun is a couple of
apps for my android phone: Google Maps & GPS Status, both run in
‘Airplane
Mode” and don’t require an internet connection. These
programs allow you to see where you are on the map, your
speed,
and altitude and even the relative position of the wings, nose and
tail, AND
the position of gps satellites(!). Pretty
cool stuff. Tip: when using Google Map
(it’s made for cars – not airplanes) you’ll need to zoom out quite a
bit or
else the phone won’t be able to draw the map quick enough.
Or, you could sleep I guess…
‘Reed section’ member Paul A.
Davis handles all travel
arrangements and security details for The
Honky Tonk Kind. Understandably, I can’t go into detail
about
certain aspects of his work except to say it was a flawless operation. We touched down in Austin
at approximately 12 noon – Texas
time.
You might assume – and you’d be
right – that playing in a
band such as ours would require paying attention to a certain amount of
tradition. Well, we have some traditions
of our own. First stop is ALWAYS Polvos
Mexican Restaurant. SJ & Amy Q had already procured a table and we
had the
first of many good Texan beers along with a great big meal. One thing very cool about Polvos is the
‘salsa bar’, lots of good stuff. Now, I’m not saying that this is the
best
Mexican restaurant in Austin
(there’s about 2000 of them). I’m just
saying it’s tradition – and we don’t screw with that. www.polvosaustin.com
That done, we got about 3 hours
to digest and acclimate
ourselves to the HEAT and prepare for the first show. Thanks again to
SJ for
incredible accommodations and hospitality. Also, for hooking us up with
some
beautiful equipment to use. A tweed Deville deluxe w/4 10’s for me and
a
reissue Hot Rod Deville w/4 10’s for Paul. And, a complete DW (fancy
ass) drum
kit for Tom and nice bass amp for Toe. Also, a complete PA system for a
couple
of the shows we’ll need it for. Wow. We roll up to Patsy Cowgirl
Café off Route
71 at about 545pm for our 6:30 – 8:30 show. This joint’s got one of
sweetest
stages – PA provided- and FOOTLIGHTS. Plus, they feed you anything you
want. We
played with SJ on bass as Toe wouldn’t land ‘til Thursday afternoon. It
was
great to have her on stage with us again. It’s Wednesday night and the
crowd is
light but appreciative – felt real good, got our food to go and back to
SJ’s to
eat and test some more Texas
beers…. My day had begun at 2:13am and
now it’s about 11pm – slept good that night. http://patsyscafe.com/
Thursday morning 10am at KOOP Fm
in Austin. This is our 2nd time with Austin legend
Rod Moag live on the
radio.
This is real big deal for us as everyone in Austin listens to and supports this
thriving
station. We decide to do this show pretty much unplugged except SJ on
electric
bass. Felt real good. Real nice place, thanks Rod for plugging our
shows! www.koop.org
Load in time at Riley’s Tavern
in Hunter, Texas
is 8pm. We (me) are a little nervous
waiting for Toe
to arrive – his flight was delayed an hour or so and SJ can’t fill in
tonight
because she is starting a new job tonight – assistant manager at the
Paramount
Theater in downtown Austin. But, as the every-smiling honky tonk God
would have it, Toe arrives with plenty of time to make the gig. As we roll off I-35 at exit 196 Tom
says,
“Ken, where are taking us?” I quickly
assure him that there is a honky tonk out here somewhere as we drive
into the
black night of the Texas
outback.
This is a particularly exciting
gig for us because, among
other things – it’s the oldest bar in Texas.
It is in fact the kind of place you envision when you think of a Texas
roadhouse. Smoke
filled room, loud crowd in the middle of nowhere. Pretty
soon we see the soft glow of some neon
lights… It’s Thursday night and there is
a pretty good crowd in the bar already. Riley’s
has got a great stage, sound system and a nice sound
man. Things are looking great but as we
hit the
stage for our first set thing get even better as a wedding party shows
up and
proceeds to fill the joint. Yes, the
honky tonk God has given us the nod. I’m
having so much fun there’s tears in my eyes. Lots of dancing, tips(!)
and
thumbs up… not that it matters, but nobody knows we are from New England. We cheer for the Texas Rangers and
have a great night. http://www.rileystavern.com/bar.html
2:00am and we’re pretty hungry. The Magnolia Diner on South Congress Street in Austin is the
place to
go. Big neon sign in the window reads
“Sorry, we’re open!”. Chips and salsa
and pancakes and whipped cream and eggs and burritos and enchiladas and
tacos
and coffee and we are ready to call it a day. http://themagnoliacafe.com/
Friday, noon or so, we head out Manchaca Road
to full fill another of our
‘traditions’, that is to grab a bite at the fabulous “Mi Ranchito”. We had discovered this roadside palace of
palatial bliss on our first trip to Austin
3
years ago while driving aimlessly around the Texas countryside (something we do a
lot –
not always on purpose). I should mention
that for some reason my sense of direction simply does not function
while in
Texas and while we have an abundance of GPS devices of one kind or
another we
tend to rely most upon the dead-reckoning skills of Tom Trombley - has
he is
often to only one who ‘knows the way’ – unless it’s dark out, then we
find a
dive bar and have a beer. Anyway we
stumbled upon this little roadside shack that had a little 10” square
window to
order from and staffed by what was obviously to us the Mexican family
who owned
it. There was a couple of old picnic tables out front and we proceeded
to enjoy
what I will always consider the best Mexican food I’ve ever tasted. The next year we returned they had made
substantial improvement to the building – yet the food was still just
as good.
This year the place is the shining star of Manchaca, Texas
and STILL the food is the best. The Best. They are too good for a
website: http://www.yelp.com/biz/mi-ranchito-taqueria-manchaca
Friday for lunch: I had a beef
tongue burrito at the nearby
Taqueria Arandas. There is 4 of these
joints in Austin. You eat good, you eat cheap. Not fancy,
usually find them in a strip mall…. Very authentic.
Friday night is the big Party at
the FlamingO Ranch and
Studio in Austin. This is the second year in a row we’ve played
here – I’d say it’s becoming a tradition! Wicked
good time, lots of happy dancing people under the
stars, a
beautiful evening indeed. Last year when
we played a HUGE thunderstorm swept through town. It’s widely known the
The
Honky Tonk Kind has a certain ‘sway’ over threatening weather
situations…so we
simply ‘willed’ the rain away. Seems it
hasn’t rained since – caught a little hell for that!
Still – did real well with the
tip jar. Thank you Stephanie for having us!
Whataburger on the way back to
SJ’s …just because it’s
there.
http://www.flamingoranch.com/
http://www.whataburger.com/
Saturday. Saturday we have no
gig. A day of rest. Not exactly. SJ’s latin band Las Gabacha-cha’s is
participating in the “Dia de los Muertos Procession” in downtown Austin. That’s
“Day of the
Dead Parade” to you and me – a Mexican/Central American tradition
that’s been
around for about 3000 years, near as I can figure.
I’ve been assigned the job of driving the
truck (thank you, thank you, thank you) that pulls the float/trailer
containing
the band thru the streets of Austin. We were told to report to Lisa’s house by
4:30 pm and then drive the band gear down to the parade set-up area. We dropped SJ off at Lisa’s at 3pm and
quickly ascertained that we did have time to run downtown and catch the
Saturday Free Matinee Show at the Continental Club! Usually hosted by
Tele-master Redd Volkaert – however Redd is predisposed and the great
Cornell
Hurd Band is there instead. We also see
Mike & Liz (Not Exactly Nashville) Trynosky there! Cornell Hurd is
honky
tonk greatness – we have time for 2 Lonestars and head back to get SJ
and Las
Gabacha-cha into the parade. The parade
was really something. Sue took many pictures, I drove the truck, Paul
and Tom
handled the PA system and generator in the back of the truck, the band
played
and really sounded good echo-ing off the concrete canyons of downtown Austin. Quite an
experience! When the parade was over we
made our way back to the staging area and packed away the band gear,
etc… It’s now dark - ‘thing
is the trailer we used did not have
any lights (taillights, etc…) so I suggested we leave all the parade
lights on
it and keep the generator running to get it back to Lisa’s – no brakes
lights
but at least it’s visible. We almost
made it back before I noticed the roof rack of an Austin Police car in
my
mirror. He was not amused with our
not-quite road legal set-up… The honky
tonk God smiled once more as he decided there were more important
duties to
attend to and handed me back my license. He
said “you understand these lights do not meet the legal
motor
vehicular requires for trailer lights?” I said, yes sir….and he let us
go. We ate something somewhere and headed
to the
Evangeline Café for more good music. This time its Ted Roddy
& The
Hitkickers. Great Texan honky
tonkin’. I was hooked the first time I
heard “Hell yes, I Cheated”. Look him
up: http://www.tedroddy.com/ go
to the
media page and play the video.
Sunday Sunday Sunday: Had to get
up in time to make our 12
noon show @ Counter Culture. It’s a food
trailer on the north side of Austin.
It’s our second year playing the trailer – people stop by, some stay
and eat,
some watch from a safe distance. Dos
Equis on ice is provided to the band and, 2 of our Austin fans Terri & Terry drop of
a 12 pk
of Lonestars - we’re lovin’ life. We play one big set then an Austin
black-n-white rolls up an put a lid on
the party. Well, at least we got a set in and were fed some great food
(thanks
Sue). Apparently there is a crazy neighbor nearby that makes life
difficult…
lots of funny stories – but I’ll save that…
It’s Sunday so we head down to
Ginny’s Little Longhorn for
chicken shit bingo and $2 Lonestars. Weldon
Henson is playing and sounding real good. That
show ends at 8pm. Next is the 10pm show
at the Continental Club. Heybale! We
meet Dale Watson’s steel player Don-Don Pawlek and his drummer Mike
Bernal
outside the front door. The joint is
packed. Half way thru the first set Raul
Malo (Mavericks) shows up and sings 3 songs. Beautiful.
I can sleep now.
http://weldonhenson.com/
http://www.countercultureaustin.com
http://www.heybale.com/
Monday morning after several
cups of hand ground Rata Maya
coffee at SJ’s (we live good down here) we head downtown for a little
window
shopping and snooping around.
First stop: The Snack Bar, a
very cool retro 60’s joint with
intriguing entrées. Also,
local
beers on tap. Had one, don’t know which but it was tall, cool and good. Also had the pork belly BLT sliders, my God
what a way to start the day. Did a bunch of window shopping ‘til we
ended up in
front of another café. Cold beer? OK. Got word from SJ that
apparently there
was a left-over case of Coronas at the Flamingo Ranch that needed
rescuing –
we’re up to the task. Night approaches and we’re hungry for some BBQ. A phone call that somehow involves Paul Dutra
winds up with us hunting down Sam’s BBQ on 12th Street. Hmmm, this place has got a little ‘character’
for sure. Hand painted slogan across the front of the building reads
“You don’t
need no teeth to eat my meat!” Sure,
they’ve had a few run-ins with the law (but who hasn’t:).
More of a Memphis
style joint I’d say but, wow – what a
feast. We leave there barely able to
walk. Can’t find a website for this
place – but there’s plenty of news articles out there….
Where are going now? Donn’s
Depot! A Honky Tonk dive bar
over on 5th
Street
made up mostly of old railroad cars – it used to be a railroad museum. Real interesting. Really, just when you think
you’ve seen it all. I love the place and
would probably spend a lot of time there if I lived in Austin. Good music 6 nights a week.
Chris
Gage was on the piano that night. Crowd
was building nice but we had other obligations – Dale Watson plays
every Monday
at 10pm at the Continental Club, $5 cover, $2 Lonestars….
We were given sad news on Monday
as we learned that Gene
Kurtz, one of Austin’s
greatest had passed away the night before. We had known Gene as Dale
Watson’s
bass player for 7 years and had met him last year at Ginny’s Little
Longhorn
where he could be seen playing every Tuesday with the Conclusion
Jumpers. He had co-written “Treat Her
Right” which
climbed to #2 on the hit radio charts in 1962. That
said he was a heckuva nice guy and will be sorely missed
in Austin. Dale’s show that night was a tribute to Gene,
lots of stories and fond memories, I felt lucky to have been there – a
unique
night indeed. Earl Poole Ball (John
Cash’s piano player of 24 years) made a guest appearance too as well as
various
musician who had played with Gene throughout the years.
To top things off the fiddle player, Kurt
Baumer, tore up the joint while dancing on the bar. Check out this link
for
more info on Gene Kurtz: http://www.genekurtz.com/biography.html
http://www.snackbaraustin.com/
http://www.donnsdepot.com/
Tuesday. Tonight
is
our show at Ginny’s. A very big
deal. We play the 9 to 10 slot to an
audience that loves ‘our kind’ of music. Did I say I’m very proud of my
band?
I’m very proud of my band. The
Conclusion Jumpers played the second set.dedicated to Gene Kurtz. Lot’s of Austin’s best musicians stop by and
sit in.
Sue could tell you who’s who… I just hand the keys to Paul – I can see
where
this night is headed… The Honky Tonk
Kind sit back and enjoy. The night wraps
up with Mark Rubin and the Texas Dance Hall Kings playing an incredible
set of
honky tonk music…www.markrubin.com for something different. We get back
to SJ’s
in time to see Toe off for his early morning flight.
Wednesday. One
last
Mexican lunch @ Taqueria Arandas. We
pack up our stuff and our friend Lisa
drives us to the airport. Flight is
delayed about an hour. Take off about
6pm heading north. Soon, one last
glimpse of a incredible sunset over our shoulders at 39000 feet.
It’s been a great week.
