First SXSW show of the year !!!!!! – (although this was a daytime in-store and he isn’t even here for an official SXSW showcase) – the crowd was already delicious and probably exactly what Austinites hate (why? why?): vain self-aware rocker dudes, serious Europeans with totes and badges and indecipherable conversations, and (at least at this old Austin record store) some old drink-weary hillbillies throwing “y’alls” all over the place – 10:1 male:female ratio and free homemade gumbo, cheap sodas and finally Shiner – I, not having adapted yet to music-time, was annoyed that the show was some 40 minutes late – but all was okay when I caught sight of a shrunken ancient black man with round cheeks and a big white smile (surely false teeth) being led in by a biker-punk and a shaggy-Comets-on-Fire- t-shirt guy -he circled the entire cramped store and shook people’s hands – he sat down, tuned his guitar that had tacky stickers spelling out “T-Model Ford The Taildragger,” smiled big and said “It’s Jack Daniels time!” – whiskey was produced from somewhere, he took a little swig and started playing – he’s just the real deal – I discovered him on my internet radio stations and took note because I was always pleasantly struck by his sound – Delta blues roots but all electrified up and fast – approximates Scott Biram, Possessed by Paul James, etc. but is their forefather in reality – he wasn’t so fast today and eventually said his fingers were stiff – he’s 88 and playing another gig tonight at Emo’s! – he finished his first song and drawled, “It’s Jack Daniels time” – he flirted with the girls in the front row – he had a trick of making his blues-par-excellence voice drop into a quick growl and then could make it swoop up into a tenorous “whoooo – eee” – he was darling and not just in the way old men can be to younger girls

there is absolutely no record of this band, played two jumpy blues songs with the morphed voice to make him sound old and black so basically a total Scott H. Biram rip-off though he does have a whole band to back him, I think he\”s the guy who used to have a tidy little Mohawk and a cute girlfriend whom he was an ass too, the third song was of course rockabilly and then I left

I love him more everytime I see him – big crush – “An impassioned multi-instrumentalist unleashing a brutal cacophany with the fury of someone whose check from the Devil finally cleared. Half dirty blues, half underground punk, half honky-tonk, half revival meeting… oh shut up about the math. You’ll see the light.” Dayna Papaleo, Rochester City News

I think I do have a crush on him, dark shadowed face and face scruff with the low hat, he has a knack for picking the beautiful songs (unless he writes them?) and then scruffs them up with a voice distorter that makes him sound like an old black man and by speeding/roughing up the music itself, did I mention he\”s a one-man band?, guitar/drum pedal/voice/harmonica, Rockboy thought the schtick got old but I thought his songs choices were interesting enough that it didn\”t