Its been a while I know…  I thought I would dust off my laptop and let you good people know what is going on up in Pflugerville.  We recently had our Deutchen Pfestival.  Carolyn wonderland was on hand to provide entertainment for the patrons.  Deutchen Pfest is half carnival complete with cotton candy and carnie games and crazy rides meant to separate you from your lunch as well as your wallet, and part artisan stroll with everything from custom jewelry and hash pipes to photos of the grand canyon.  All of this goes on under the watchful eye of pflugerville’s finest.   Like any good German heritage festival, there are plenty of beer and sausage vendors to keep the mood light.  For the last 4 years I have been going everyday to the festival right down the street from my house.  This year Saturday got rained out as buckets of the good stuff fed the grass in my back yard, and the creek that flows year-round behind it.

I took my wife and child down for some friendly games and some crazy food and good beer.  I knew that Carolyn Wonderland had just returned from 14 nights on the road in, Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands.  The very night before the Pflugerville gig they played to great applause at the House of Blues in Dallas.   Lets just say that being a working band means, well lots and lots of hard work out on the road away from family and friends.  So it was that this gig in a park here in my back yard seemed like a home coming.  In consummate professional manor, these road worn musicians knock our collective socks off.  Miss Understood was not only understood, but greatly appreciated in the hearts of this small town just on the north eastern edge of Austin.  I was glad to see my friends home safe, if a little tired from their efforts.  Thanks Carolyn, Lefty, and Cole.  Thanks for everything.

Arnold Wells

What do you get when you add one part classically trained vocalist (grew up singing in the choir), one part 80’s avant-garde synthpop influenced guitarist (think ‘Art of Noise’ and others), and one part classically trained violinist (who plays for the Austin Symphony)? If you said ‘The Hudsons’; an Austin based trio whose sound is best described in the words of John Greenberg as Austin Folk Funk, you’d be right. What you’d also get is a sound that truly can be called Americana and it was on display on Tuesday in Marble Falls.

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The following is from the Austin City Limits website around press credentials.  I’ve highlighted the areas to explain why we probably won’t be covering the festival unless Arnold can finagle his way in some how.

Several things to note:

The vetting for credentials is being done by a California Company.

They don’t like photographers from college papers or websites.  I don’t suppose they’ve noticed the trouble print media is having these days. To shut out websites is to ignore the world. To ignore college papers is to ignore the future. So, no photographer from the Daily Texan will be allowed to cover the festival in its hometown? Wow. (more…)

In the music world venues often promise you special times with special talents only to have them fall flat and prove not only to be not special but to be painful. However, every now and then there are those times when you know you’ve encountered something very special, and one of those evening occurred tonight at TexAmericana Tuesday at the River City Grille in Marble Falls, Texas. (more…)