I watched a movie about Bill Murray stories on the bus down to Austin on Monday afternoon. There are a lot of stories about Murray participating in random events with folks and doing kind things. This is a good documentary and included my favourite story towards the end about Bill Murray driving a taxi in San Francisco so that the owner of the taxi could play his saxophone for him in the back seat.
I dropped my bag in the rental car at the Hyatt and walked to the Continental Club on South Congress (SoCo) to enjoy the free show by the Peterson Brothers. This was less than a 10 minute walk and so will be easily accessible from the new apartment.
South Congress is a really interesting area of restaurants and different shops. It’s gentrifying very quickly and sadly will likely lose some of it’s unique character. I hope it doesn’t become just like everywhere else.
I had read that the Peterson Brothers were the next big band in Austin and about to make it big. They put on an excellent show that was a gumbo of soul, blues, jazz and funk. Imagine Weather Report, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Miles Davis and Al Green mixed up in a band and that’s a bit of what they sound like.
The brothers are Glenn Jr (21) on guitar and vocals and Alex (19) on bass. Alex is a real virtuoso on the bass and reminds me of Jaco Pastorius (of Weather Report fame). They have opened for many of the big names in blues and jazz and played in several high profile festivals. I’ll be surprised if they’re playing a free Monday night set at the Continental Club for too much longer. Here are a couple of videos of their performance of “Don’t You Lie to Me” – the first is the early verse and the second an extended jam with entertaining dance moves towards the end. I love the fact that the brothers have smiles on their faces while they play and exude huge amounts of positive energy.
I stayed at the Sonesta hotel in Bee Cave which is about a 20 minute drive from SoCo and from the office since the Hyatt and other downtown hotels were very expensive this week. It’s a nice hotel close to an outdoor mall with good restaurants and a particularly good new breakfast place that I found – Elle’s Cafe.
I visited Elle’s twice – having a beans and greens bowl the first time and an omelet with turkey sausage the second. Both were delicious with very fresh ingredients and great flavours. I laughed when the chef brought me the omelet – I was in the middle of doing the crossword and was timing myself on my phone so that when she arrived I paused the timer. “Were you timing me in the kitchen?”, she asked.
Will spent the weekend in Lake Tahoe, snowboarding at Heavenly. He had to wait until Monday afternoon to drive home due to all the new snow that fell over the weekend and on Monday morning. No need for a dance floor on top of the Durango in this weather.
I had a pretty late lunch on Wednesday and tried a new Mexican place on Barton Springs road – El Alma. Wow – this is my new favourite Mexican place, knocking off the Blue Goose in Dallas. The relleno stuffed with shrimp and crab was delicious with an excellent sauce. I look forward to returning after it warms up a little to enjoy the rooftop patio.
On Wednesday night, I tried out a new experience – my go to Austin radio station has a local music showcase at Guero’s taco bar each Wednesday night. I like the vast majority of the music that Sun radio plays and so thought I would enjoy the event. Both bands were very good and the setting was great.
I caught the bus back up to Dallas on Thursday afternoon and Diana and I met at the Neighborhood Services restaurant on Lovers Lane for dinner. We both really enjoy this restaurant and the speakeasy style, understated location. Do you think Diana got enough fries with her steak frites? I loved my redfish with gorgonzola grits and the amazing voodoo sauce.
The weekend was nice and relaxing with workouts, coffee and crossword sessions, and time for reading. We had a nice late lunch at Toulouse in Legacy West on Sunday. This is the place that Diana and Anne visited for champagne and steak tartare on their visit in October. We started with steak tartare and then we both had great salads. My whipped goat cheese and beets salad was delicious.
I read the book “At Home with the Armadillo” by Gary P. Nunn this week. This was an excellent review of the Austin music scene in the 1970s and 80s. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the stories about all the characters involved in developing the Texas music movement. Nunn played in the bands of both Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Martin Murphy in the 70s and tells a great story about opening for Elton John at the Palmer auditorium, a building that I drive by every day on my short commute to the office each morning. Another story I enjoyed was of Nunn seeing a very young Joe Ely play in Lubbock and thinking that he was going to be a big star. He worked to arrange Ely’s first record contract with MCA. It’s interesting that we just saw Joe Ely last weekend (in his seventies now) and I’m reading this week about how he got his first recording contract.
In researching Joe Ely music last week, I came across a project he was involved in called Los Super Seven. They recorded a song called “Learning the Game”. I thought it sounded very familiar and ultimately realized that it was originally recorded by Any Trouble on a record I enjoyed in University. Here are both versions.
Gary Clark Jr has a new album due in March, and based on the advance single it seems he is ready to share his frustration with the current state of affairs in our country:
I’ve been enjoying Gary P. Nunn’s biography this week and here’s his classic song that has been the intro to the Austin City Limits TV show for many years:
And here’s some songs from Michael Martin Murphy that Nunn references in his book that I’ve also enjoyed this week: