I went to Antone’s last night to catch a living legend.  At 96 years of age Pinetop Perkins may not be exactly spry, but he still got that mojo workin.  Wearing an orange suite and a pimpin hat he took the stage with a local hodge podge of musicians that included Chris Layton on drums.  Pinetops distinctive  old Mississippi swinging piano blues was wonderful to hear from the only master still alive.  I considered it an utter privileged to have been able to meet him and watch as he played.  Yes I am a lucky man.

After Pinetops early set Dirty Bird took the stage.  I had seen these guys before, but man they sure have been working hard.  They sounded completely tight and singular in vision.  Clayton Colvin sings and plays guitar in a way that demands attention.  JT Holt on lead guitar is extremely well rounded, switching between hard rock blues and lap steel with great proficiency.  With a style that blends the best aspects of  hard rock, blues and that Central Texas voodoo county vibe, I expect big things from this band as they continue to work the wall on their way to the big time.

Speaking of big time…  Next up was the effervescent Carolyn Wonderland.  She seemed completely at ease at Antone’s this night, like it was a home coming.  She has been touring the world with back breaking scheduling, but she always delivers the goods.  It was very nice to see her back in Austin again.  I was particularly touched by her rendering of Jimi Hendrix’s Castles Made Of Sand solo on the mandolin.  Awesome!

All in all it was a great night at Antone’s.  I was reminded that I still have to work very hard at times to get my photography done.  I was also reminded that I love Bullet Bourbon as I drank perhaps a little to much. 

It was a rainy Saturday in April when Larry Seiler’s Los Senderos Ranch inaugurated its opening concert season with Walt Wilkins , Tina Mitchell Wilkins, and John Greenberg.

Fans gather with Walt (third from left) and Tina (second from right) after the opening night.

It was a cool and clear weekend in November when the season drew to a close with a rollicking concert provided by Last Call from Mission.

The end of show picture with Last Call, Nov 15, 2009

With only one month off for the wedding of Larry’s niece, it was a full season of wonderful music. Along the way we learned some valuable lessons and relearned some that were long forgotten. The first thing we learned was that in the hills between Johnson City and Blanco the wind blows and keeps the air in perpetual motion. We rediscovered that a Texas sunset in July is hot because the good Lord apparently thinks we need to see the sun up close to appreciate its grandeur.

We learned that the weather at noon is no predictor of the weather at dusk, and then found once again that musicians are fun to be around. On the day Pauline Reese visited the ranch, the weather in the morning was brilliant. By show time at 7 p.m. the drought broke with a vengeance. Without exception all of the musicians who visited the ranch were gracious and thankful. Even if they felt something else, then never let on.

We learned that if you build your stage out of two by twelves and ½-inch plywood decking that it will be heavy even if you build it in sections and that two relatively old men are no match on occasion for that much weight. We repeatedly witnessed how much people like live music and the artists who perform for them. They believe, as Eric Burdon sang, “If you wanna find the truth in life don’t pass music by…”

It was a good season of music at Los Senderos and with a winter of rest the shows will pick up again in March. Larry is already talking about improvements he wants to make. I suspect none of them will be earth-shaking, but should contribute to the continuing development of Los Senderos ranch as a venue where the local gentry will feel comfortable bringing their friends and family for a night us music under the setting sun.

I love those evenings when you’re blissfully rocking along with not much to do and lots of time in which to do it. I also love it when that sort of evening turns in to something really special without even seeming to really try.

It started off simple enough. I got home from work, ate a couple of toasted cheese sandwichs, with Velveeta because it makes the nice creamy sandwich, and then headed out to Anderson Fair. Got there without much trouble which is always a good sign in Houston because I think DOT destroys roads around here as a recreational pastime.

That was when I got the first good surprise of the evening. Abi Tapia was playing with Beth Wood on Wayne Wilkerson and Ken Gaines regular Thursday night gig. I realize this shouldn’t have been a surprise, since we sell tickets at yourtexasmusic.com for Anderson Fair, but it was so I accepted it. I was sad when Abi moved to Massachusetts and it was nice to have her back in Texas.

Now a nice thing about Anderson Fair is that the sound is so good you can sit anywhere in the building and still hear really well. So, I decided to give in to my inexplicable urge to eat some popcorn. I got a bag, a bottle of water and settled down in the little library just off the main entrance.

At this point, I’m happy. The popcorn is buttery and salty and the music is drifting in putting a nice feel in the air. Thourgh all of this I’m watching the people walk up to the bar to buy their beer, wine and coffe, when I realize one of the patrons who just walked up is Don Sanders.

Don and I go back further than each of us would like to admit, to the days of Sand Mountain, Liberty Hall and the Jester. He is lovely person, a great singer and a talented songwriter. I’ll never know why the gods of success didn’t bring him a bigger portion.

He joined me in the Library where we visited and listened to the music. He declined my popcorn offer but I wasn’t offended. Not many people like to dip into someone else’s bag of popcorn.

So now the evening has gone up two notches in quality and I’m thinking I’m a pretty lucky guy, when in walks Leon Beck. Leon is a country music icon in Houston. He made his name working at Gilley’s doing their in-house magazine, the proceeded to branch out. He publishes Texas Hot Country Music, and has made or helped to make his fair share of stars. We knew one another from our days at the Daily Cougar at the University of Houston.

I introduce Leon to Don and we get to talking about why Leon is there and he says he’s come to interview Jim Post who is in town to do a Mark Twain show. Jim’s first claim to fame is the song, Reach Out In the Darkness that he wrote and performed as part of Friend & Lover.

Then Don allows as he’s there to see Jim as well because Jim is from Houston and the two of them have known one another for 40 plus years. All of these coincidences are pretty amazing in and of themselves, but then I got to hear Jim sing.

I have to say for a guy who is 70 he still has great pipes and when we spoke afterwards he admitted that he felt blessed to be able to continue to perform at a high level at his age and he thanked me for coming out.

At this point all us old guys said goodnight because our old guy alarms go off at around 4 a.m for some damn reason even when we’ve stayed up past three and all of us had something to do in the morning. All except Leon who is younger and had more clubs to attend for his magazine. God bless him.

I left Abi, Beth, Wayne and Ken to finish off the evening singing to their attentive masses and made the blessedly quick drive home and to bed.