It’s a gorgeous, sunny afternoon here in Houston, about 70 degrees and holding for the Spring Break week. Tomorrow, I’ll be driving to Austin for the biggest music conference in the world in my new Dodge Challenger—red with the chrome wheels and hemi—compliments of one of my music sponsors who’s asked to remain anonymous. What fun! I’m really looking forward to feeling the freedom of the open road again and putting this fabulous machine through its paces. This will be the first trip in the Challenger, so it seems especially important to figure out just the right music to take along for the annual pilgrimage through the land of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush that line the yellow brick road from the East to the West.
AUSTIN HIGHLIGHTS:
I’ve been invited by a friend at ASCAP-Nashville to attend a lovely event that he’s hosting at the Four Seasons hotel with boat rides on Lady Bird Lake. What should I wear?
I’ll be lodging with my college roommate, Tara, who taught me to play the guitar (on her vintage Martin, mind you) in the Underwood dorm at Texas A&M in College Station and who now lives with her husband, Brad, and wheels and deals in the heart of Austin!
And I can't imagine the SXSW week without playing my favorite perpetual event in “the music capitol of the world”—the Big Kev Radiothon, which has become a tradition for so many regional and national Americana artists, such as Junior Brown, Chuck Meade of BR-549, Marcia Ball, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Hayes Carll, Slaid Cleaves, Bonnie Bishop and many more who stop by to see Big Kev and play for free in this intimate, air-conditioned, sit-down café with a no-charge, dedicated parking lot during the week of SXSW in Austin. This year the Derailers will have the slot right after mine and the Guy Schwartz band (from Houston) will play the slot before me. I'm especially pleased that Greg Henkel will be accompanying me on his impressive viofiddle, too. I know a lot of you on this list will be in Austin this week. Write this down now before you forget:
Saturday (March 16) from 12:45-1:45 p.m.
Big Kev Radiothon @
Opa! Wine and Coffee Bar
2050 South Lamar
Austin Texas 78704
512-326-8742
http://www.opacoffeewine.com/
And y’all come!