[New Orleans, LA] My favorite of the day – polished rocking bluegrass. Guitar, drum, upright bass, and fiddle. They had a distinctly Austin sound to me – maybe The Gourds with more swamp boogie – and then some songs that were straightforward rockabilly. EyesPoetic was reminded of a KUT “Texas Music Matters” show that focused on music at the border of Texas and Louisiana blending sounds from both states – a perfect description of this band.

[Denver, CO] Finally a full band. They had every instrument you’d expect in a bluegrass/jug band: banjo, dobro, accordion. Maybe six members? It was pretty standard Colorado fare, but the thing that stood out to me about them was their country leanings. They were a pretty spot on Pure Prairie League for some songs, which is a glorious thing as far as I’m concerned.

as you might imagine from their name and my locale, they’re a bluegrass band – it’s a good thing I didn’t review them after their intermission act at Move the Butte – for one, I would have complained that the upright bassist is touted as the best bassist in Colorado but never hinted at a slap, as tainted as I am by Austin – two, they weren’t plugged in and they played the same song they taught us at the Bluegrass Workshop (Sittin’ on Top of the World) – anyway, when we heard they had a proper gig lined up and, being frantic for any old sort of music, we decided to give them a shot – turns out the full band includes the guitarist and the bassist I am familiar with, as well as a mandolin, banjo, and fiddle– they’ve got amps and the whole deal so none of your mealy-mouthed bluegrass – each is a very talented musician – their fingers moved so fast, I’m classifying them as speed-metal-bluegrass – they basically reminded me of a CD I picked up in the Appalachian Mountains proper from a local bluegrass band, Blue Ridge Mountain Thunder, which is a big compliment from me, because it’s the danciest bluegrass I’ve done ever heard – as a piece of general advice, you know it’s going to be a good bluegrass song when it has “breakdown” in the title

We were pretty skerred to see our first music in Gunnison but they weren’t too bad – of course, the dobro player is our neighbor and a potential coworker – band consists of him (in his 40s) and four college kids – two sweet girls and two bored-looking (or cool-trying) boys – they played Americana of all sorts – their first song was a cover of a song from an Austin band sigh

dread-locked Papa from the Carper Family and her bearded bandmates from Arkansas – meld of bluegrass and country – Papa plays her upright bass, one guy is on banjo and harmonica, and the other guy is on guitar and kazoo (as well as a little human voice instrumentalizing) – they often harmonize – particularly liked a southern gothic song that Papa led on – they write most (or all?) of their music as well – some witty lyrics – their shows are hard to come by but they’re really really good

apparently the entire Austin lesbian scene has discovered what I already knew about Daddy Carper – she’s a smooth package of sexy bluegrass genius

they were providing the musical entertainment for a special exhibit at the Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata, an adorable example of Austin quirk – the exhibit was cave-themed and so they played old mining songs – I have become a fat sucker for Appalachian style music and this was a close approximation – I was in love forever when they explained to me that there’s a difference between bluegrass music (finger picking) and “old-time” music (hand strums more like a claw) – apparently what I like is the latter – the band consisted of three hobbyist musicians: a fiddle, banjo and guitar – I’m not sure that they play too often

[San Luis Obispo, CA] no mystery here: boys in plaid shirts and worn jeans from a coastal California town playing party-time jam band country – I would assume, with my own prejudices and on the basis of the row of fancy guitars that outnumbered the people in the band, that they’re well off kids “dropping out” for a bit before they become well-respected businessmen – they were fine musicians but just ordinary, singing songs about 12-pack time instead of 9 to 5 time – amusing part was the guy, who after dozing on the side of the stage before the show, transformed into the band’s showman, jumping into the crowd and then playing from the balcony like a wicked evil badass

A new band formed from members of The Maybelles and Jenny and the Corn Ponies with a regular Monday evening gig at the Hole in the Wall for the foreseeable future. Despite newness and fluctuating membership, they have a sound – pop-bluegrass/country – and they have a shtick of sorts. There\”s Mama on the fiddle, Sister on the guitar, Daddy on the upright bass (Ani DiFranco looking female), and a sometimes lap steel guitarist whose baby-face serves well as the little brother figure. Sister\”s voice is pleasant but is at its best when being harmonized with by Mama\”s deeper voice. Daddy\”s my favorite, though, with her genuinely twanging voice, fierce stage energy, and her own songs that blend light lesbian politics with traditional bluegrass sounds.

Those Darlins aren’t so darling anymore – they done went and grew up into proper rock stars and will probably continue on to implode like real rock stars – these three girls and a drummer sing deceptively simple and fun sing-along songs about being slightly trashy and Southern – their music’s actually not so simple though it’s rooted in authentic country, honky tonk, Southern rock and even some blues but performed (especially tonight) with rock ‘n roll and even garage rock swagger and snarl – they confessed midway through their set that they’d performed and drank beers earlier in the evening at another Austin venue and it was pretty clear that they were still feeling the effects – the blonde one with long curls was slit-eyed and repeating herself – her performance was most affected – the resident “bad girl” with the husky sexy voice eventually spewed beer on the crowd and bit pumpkin meat from a jack o lantern on the stage and spewed that too – the smallest one with the short curly black hair and the Janis Joplin maleish voice had changed the most in appearance (more bold) but was the best behaved – they opened with an instrumental surf rock song – they sing about getting drunk and eating a whole chicken, being a “snaggle-toothed mama” in a trailer far away, and warning her boy that he knew she was wild one all along – they made me nostalgic for my 20s, when being a wild one was only fun, but then they made me remember that I’m happy to be in my 30s – I still really like this band but, as their senior, I am worried for them

I loved this show and so did the crowd -I think this band is basically the foundation for slam-grass and the gypsy punk movement – impossible not to dance to a rowdy accordion – and then the old Irish ballads communicate a sense of warmth and companionship – although not always the vocalist, Shane McGowan was the center of the show – the band wouldn’t be half as interesting without his slurred snarling vocals – having just watched the movie biography of his life (Should I Fall From Grace), I was firstly amazed that they were charging so much to see a man who was such a high liability for not showing up or not being able to perform and secondly felt a kinship with him like I kind of knew him – I figured he must have sobered up if they were touring like this – not a bit – his spoken words were so unintelligible (partly because of his accent but mostly because of intoxication) that a band member would translate what he was saying for the audience – funny and horrifying all at the same time – like the irresistible draw of looking at a car wreck – he frequently left the stage between songs and progressively relied more on the microphone to hold him up – despite all of that, his singing was mostly on target-it was disturbing or touching that his band members accommodate him as he is so that he can perform and that his fans almost celebrate his self-destruction – part of his mystique – oh and he’d gotten his first set of false teeth recently but didn’t wear them to perform. someone said the movie about his life should be shown to kids to terrify them into sobriety – “hghgthzzz” as Shawn would say

the more that I understand the sound of Texas swing, the more I appreciate this band – they elaborate on the sound and play intelligently and creatively – always based in country but sometimes leaning more toward the bluegrass then toward a solid swing song and then a waltz and then almost jazzy – they\”re very good musicians and make the song their own while maintaining its integrity – Jeremy, the lead singer\”s, voice might not be remarkable but what is remarkable is his deft management of the band and dedication to the music he loves

this band was my favorite from a wealth of SXSW fantastics and I was even more impressed this time, some bands strike the personal chord and this band is one of them for me, the singer\”s voice is a tremendous creening wail and the fiddler fiddles like a mad genius and the whole band has the fierce energy that sets a crowd to dancing without their full consent, the drummer was on top of his drumset several times, they paint traditional bluegrass/country-type-songs black and then hype them up with a gypsy punk undertone, inspiring as recordings and even moreso live

mix of psychedelia and folk in an indie style – reminiscent of Grateful Dead and Neil Young , many band members, we enjoyed them

not as dirty (“music for the unwashed and well-read” as they say) as I remembered them “darling curly haired middle-aged member still smoked on stage but nobody else did” think the vision I have of them all living together in a trailer in a incessant jam session is just that (a vision), easy to pick out the member who sang on the cover of Gin and Juice with his highish irreverent voice, had them classified in my head as hard bluegrass but totally inaccurate, covered a huge range of styles on a generally “rootsy” (as they said) foundation, started off with strong twinges of Cajun but depending on who sang veered toward British invasion, Southern rock, etc. etc., they’re a more countrified Grateful Dead, you should know that guitars, mandolins, bass, accordions, keyboards, drums, fiddles, banjos, lap steels are employed

a fat man and a little boy on guitar, mandolin, banjo, etc., old timey bluegrass

young whippersnappers with too little cred (in music or life) to be as cocky as they were in their silly sunglasses and tidy little mohawks, had a huge college-hippie crowd, they do mostly covers (I believe) of bluegrass/country, grudgingly acknowledged that they sounded the tiniest bit like O\”Death but don\”t take that too seriously

one-man band playing violin and singing in a way very reminiscent of my local hero Scott H. Biram but not as punk nor as tight, turns out they\”re touring together soon

Rockboy was all enthused about this band now that he is officially a member of the anything-rootsy scene in Austin, I was bored silly by this band initially – western swing but it sounded like lounge music to me, and lounge music basically takes good songs and sucks the character out of them, BUT as the set went on for hours they went into their bluegrass selections and some moody wailers and the three are the fantastic musicians that they are purported to be: French jazz guitar, Elana James as lead vocalist and fiddler and then the thumpiest upright bass player I\”d ever seen (he seemed to bounce his hand as he slapped so getting more out of each motion), the drummer is not always with them and did not seem to be having as good of a time as the rest of them, Rockboy heard about them through Shotgun Party connections and though Elana sometimes sings in a similarly old-timey cute girl fashion her voice is no match for her violin playing or Shotgun\”s voice, the happy hour bands at The Continental are generally high quality, they\”re heading out for a three week tour in Australia next week

some amalgam of the Weary Boys, Weary Boys are super popular in Austin but have always struck me as a little too audience-pleasing, I enjoyed this group though, five or six people on stage playing in jam-fashion on a variety of instruments, Grateful Dead with a little more bluegrass

several old men huddled in a corner of the restaurant, disappointing after hearing what the young people can do with a fiddle but charming and cozy

kept thinking it was Dueling Banjos but it was one guy wailing along to his banjo, he was okay for about 1 minute, got better when a guitarist joined him, took himself way too seriously

The woman is bizarrely ON – either on drugs or no separation between stage self and reality. She plays the sultry Southern bad girl. I did enjoy her voice, as well as the looks of her man or at least her co-vocalist. His voice, though, was average. Rockboy thought they were ‘vanilla,’ but I think they had a nice repertoire of oldish country stuff. They were recording this show. Jane Bond was a local show, but she is fairly established in the city.

the gal pal of WT Special, the sound was so off for their set I almost couldn\”t discern her effortless beautiful tang of a voice, good rockabilly, better than WT by far, the sound was really bad

very bland country rock and bluegrass, a crowd pleaser I guess

mix of the two bands we saw on the 6th, two bartenders have not seemed sure of the band(s)’ name(s), Rockboy is big on being a regular, me…not so much

hot fiddler girl and guitarist with Social Distortion tattoo played disappointingly boring bluegrass-country

rocking bluegrass, screaming women, I kind of love them by now

raucous bluegrass, covered Ratt, very fun, very speedy guitar work, WomanWithAMandolin is always right in the end

the first band recommended to me in Austin and the one I have never seen, walked by them twice and quite enjoyed the quality rocking country and bluegrass I heard

I really really liked them, all quality musicians-note the 7-string bass and the tear-wrenching beauty of Mary Hartigan’s (?) fiddle, music ranged in sincerity from Lou Reed lows to cheesy Pretenders-like (only egh) to salsa to bluegrass to psychedelic, frontman is married to Mary and his sister is lead vocalist

bluegrass, felt I’d seen them before most certainly, sound was awful-tinny and brassy-so unfair to judge them