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Now it is 2012! Wasn’t it just New Year’s Eve at The Mucky Duck in Houston to bring in 2011! Folks! Time is just slipping by too fast. I don’t seem to remember time going by quite so fast before. By the way, the Trio will be back at the Duck on February 25. We had a great time at the 4th Annual McGonigel’s Mucky Duck New Year’s Show! A great sold out crowd of friends and fans!
Seriously, I have been blessed and really busy this past year. I am playing with my trio, Mike Roberts on bass and vocals, and Doug Floyd on mandolin and vocals and with my old buddy Michael Hearne of Taos, NM and Nashville, TN. And, speaking of Michael Hearne, he is moving back to Texas as we speak and will be playing more shows with me and the trio. Michael has joined the trio on several occasions playing for our good friends Pam and Greg Leitner at the “Race for the Cure Relay for Life” cancer benefits in their home in Alvin and in Ann Templeton’s studio up in the Hill Country in Driftwood, TX. We just did a songwriter swap at the Leitners this past Sunday with Hearne, Susan Gibson and myself. 75 in the audience really enjoying the music. I attended the Folk Alliance, held in Memphis, TN., in February of 2011 and performed there with my good buddy Michael Hearne and laid a set with a great songwriter from Pittsburgh, PA, Brad Yoder. I saw some old friends and acquaintances while there and met and heard several new young pickers. You may rest assured there is a whole young wave of singers and songwriters of the folk music movement heading your way. The future of live acoustic folk music is very bright, alive and well, indeed! I know because I heard it in Memphis! I also attended the Texas Heritage Songwriter’s Hall of Fame Awards Show in March that was held in the new Austin City Limits Theater/Studio in downtown Austin. Bruce Channel, Delbert McClinton, LeRoy Parnell, Gary Nicholson and legendary songwriter Cindy Walker were inducted in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. Many great stories were told and we listened as the Texas greats jammed together on all their greatest hits! “Hey Baby! I Want to Know, Will You Be My Girl?” Quite a night! And, in just one month, The Texas Heritage Society will be inducting more great singer/songwriters, our good friend Lyle Lovett along with Robert Earle Keen and finally, TOWNES VAN ZANDT! On March 5th, during the celebration of Texas Independence, I had the experience of a lifetime performing on the hallowed grounds of the Alamo. K.R. Woods asked me to be part of his "Fathers of Texas" presentation and concert being performed on that Sunday afternoon. It was great fun! Descendents of Davy Crockett and Sam Houston were there too. Back in the 80's when K.R. was putting this work together and recording it he asked me to sing on a couple of the songs on the CD project. I sang a duet with Rusty Weir on "When Are We Gonna Fight?" and sang on "Remember the Alamo". ''Fathers of Texas" is a fine album that captures the spirit and independence and the commitment which the State of Texas was founded. I'm honored and proud to have been a part of it. We have been playing all of our favorite places like McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, thank you Rusty and Teresa, we have been blessed with several standing room only crowds. Anderson Fair, thank you Tim and the volunteer crew, The Old Quarter Acoustic Café in Galveston, always so much fun with Wrecks and Janet, out in The Woodlands at Dosey Doe’s, gracias Mike and Steve, up in Dallas again at David Card’s Poor David’s Pub or playing out in Plantersville at the Bernhardt Winery with our wonderful friends and hosts, Jerry and Jeri to as many as 400-500 out on the lawn for a sunset concert. The house concert venues are growing month by month and we enjoy playing in an intimate setting and doing “Up Close and Personal” shows and meeting all the new people, making new friends. These are shows where people come to listen and hear the story behind the songs and to find out how and why I learned to play the guitar upside down and backwards! We are adding more house concerts all along the way. |
We played one house concert down in the Lake Houston area with the Currins for 100 people out on their lawn. We now play annually for the Golden’s, my long time friends from Houston now living the good life out on Canyon Lake. This year will be their third anniversary celebrating with us. We have grand new friends, Alex and Mary Martinez, reuniting with old fans for Alex’s birthday party, Jim and Paula Rieker, in Spring Branch, TX, also on the south side of Canyon Lake and we have played there three times! There are two in Spring, James and Sandy Carroll, great fans and friends who just happen to be the ones designing and creating jewelry from my re-cycled guitar strings. Yeah, I’m in the jewelry business! Really! Also friend and fan, Lisa Braganley Whaley, also of Spring, TX, Tom and Barbara Shallue of Jonestown, TX, Bob and Lisa Newlin’s charity event held at the Hobby Museum in Houston, at Rick and Delma Schriver’s home twice now as well as twice for their office, the Point Venture Concert Series out on Lake Travis near Lago Vista, Rawhide Trail Concerts in Southwest Austin and the “Urban Campfires Concerts series in San Antonio, Third Coast Studio in Port Aransas, and can’t forget the Burning Bush Coffee House in Corpus Christi, TX. If you are interested in doing a house concert and finding out more information, please contact us here. Have songs, will travel! Let us bring the music to you! We played the 40th Annual Kerrville Folk on Sunday evening, June 5th and had a great time with Michael Hearne joining us on stage. We shared the evening with Bob Livingston, Ray Wiley Hubbard and Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel. A night of folk, rock and Texas Swing! In July, I attended the Texas Music Academy Award Show in Linden, TX and I was honored to win “Entertainer of the Year” for 2011, my third time to win this great award. How does an introverted singer, songwriter even get nominated as Entertainer of the Year, let alone win? Thank you Academy, Jinelle and Lucky of My Texas Music, my band mates, Doug and Mike, Dee who keeps the business organized, managed and booked, my musical mentor John Vandiver, and all of you folks who come out night after night, month after month, year after year, and support live music here in Texas. The trio also won “Vocal Group of the Year” last year. We are proud of our accomplishments as a Texas Tight Trio. Come on out and hear us! Let’s have some fun! We played a number of shows on Lake Travis with Kevin Harney out at the Iguana Grill. It’s always fun to play there. Then we returned to the Saxon Pub in Austin. Back to Tomball’s Main Street Crossing and then on to Galveston to see our friend and one-eye pirate, Wrecks Bell at the Old Quarter. He is a fine American! We traveled to Taos, NM on Sept. 8, 9 and 10 to perform at Michael Hearne’s Big Barn Dance. Each year it gets better and better! For more information, go to Michael Hearne’s website. Join us next year, ouch, September of 2012, for the festival of music and dance under the stars and with the mountain magic all around you. It’s an all good, good feeling time! Also of note is the award winning documentary “For the Sake of the Song, Anderson Fair the Movie”, is available now on DVD. Produced by Bruce Bryant and Jim Barham, it is a beautiful, informative history of a legendary music venue, deep in the heart of Houston, as told by the numerous singer, songwriters who crossed the stage such as Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Nancy Griffith, Lucinda Williams, Robert Earle King, Townes Van Zandt, Eric Taylor…………oh, yeah, I’m in there too, as well as the trio. To order, go to the website. We were blessed to play a live show on Houston’s PBS, the debut of the movie in Houston with Lyle Lovett. Check out Gary P. Nunn’s latest CD “Taking Texas to the Country” and his version of “The Girl Just Loves to Dance”. It’s a killer country version with pedal steel guitar. It is just made for two-stepping. And, Jerry Jeff Walker’s recording of “The Dare of an Angel” on his latest CD, “Ocean Child”. Besides all o the traveling and playing, I’m also working on new music for my next project “At the Speed of Love”. I have several new ones down and finding inspiration to write the rest. Let me know what songs you would like for me to record. I welcome your feedback. Hope to see you up the road. Peace,
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