SXSW Day 2 - Thursday

After logging 12 hours the previous day listening to bands, I took it a little slower on Thursday.  I was able to talk my wonderful wife into joining me for the official SXSW Americana Music Association showcase at Antone’s.  We arrived at the legendary club around 7PM to catch Amy LaVere’s set.  This was my first time to catch Amy’s live show. She came out in a long flowery dress holding a bit upright bass while drinking a Guiness throughout most of the performance. She put on a great live set and was clearly excited to be part of the show.  After her set, Mike Farris took the stage.  I had heard a lot of praise for Mike but knew none of his music so I was excited to see what this was all about. He brought on stage what seemed to be a dozen other people complete with a three piece horn section, back up singers and more.  Mike Farris was part of a popular band known as the Screaming Cheetah Willies back some years ago.  Anyway, I kid you not when I say a star was born that night at Antone’s.  Mike put on a show of a lifetime which had me in awe for the hour long set.  This guy is amazing and I’ll be picking up his album this week.  After Mike, we were treated with an acoustic performance from the legendary, Joe Ely and Joel Guzman.  This was a great set which included bringing on Ryan Bingham for one of his songs as well as a tribute to Townes Van Zandt from the two.  I was thrilled to see Ryan Bingham as this is a guy that Don Henry Ford alerted me to earlier this year. His album Mescalto is an amazing piece of work from this singer/songwriter from New Mexico.  Having someone like Joe Ely bring you onstage never hurts either After Joe Ely’s set, we were treated to the always fantastic Buddy Miller. Buddy always amazes me with his seamlingly effortless guitar playing. This guy is so smooth and has such a wonderful voice.  He has a new CD coming out in the next few months so we were treated with a few songs off that.  The interesting piece of this set was the fact that he had two drummers on stage wailing away to back up Buddy.  As Buddy joked, he booked two just in case one didn’t show up We left the show prior to James McMurtry and Marcia Ball coming on stage.  I hated to miss my favorite McMurtry but by this time we were starving and needed some grub.  The AMA did a great job of lining up this year’s show.  I’d have to say Mike Farris stole the show but everyone was terrific.

Author: Gregg Geil