2 weeks ago I took a trip over to San Marcos which takes me down I-10 past the infamous Buc-ee’s truck stop that no one can ever seem to drive by without stopping for something. I’ve been there so many times I’ve lost count and most times I can recall seeing the sign out by the road telling me that Palmetto State Park is just a few more miles south of the large truck stop. This time, however, I figured I’d just swing through and see what the park had to offer and just happened to catch the sun setting on a beautiful scenic overlook. I stopped and sat down on a rock for about 5 minutes and enjoyed the serenity that God has given us. The whole detour took about 10 minutes and that sunset was the highlight of the entire time on the road! So the next time you head out, be sure and try to take 10 minutes to see the sites… no one should be in that big of a hurry.

Promoting music through Galleywinter for the last 10 years has opened my eyes to the fact that there is a ton of music out there. The horrible part is that most of it should have never gotten as far as it has, because it is simply horrid. So how do you get out of that music rut you are in (and prob don’t want to get out of) with so much watered down music to choose from? Opening bands at concerts aren’t what they used to be and services like Pandora and other interwebs radio just seem to be hit and miss.

And despite my huge ego, I’ll tell you that listening to what I post here is not always the way to go either. My posts are mainly just random thoughts of what I’m listening to at the moment. This post is NOT about me giving you a list of 5 bands that you NEED to hear or I’m calling off our friendship. However, what it is about.. is looking into our friendships and figuring out who those people are that you TRUST to recommend new music. I’m sick of seeing the twitters and blogs and PR announcements about must hear bands. We have to realize that we can talk about our favorite bands, but not everyone is going to get it the same way. But at the same time I see blogs, twitters and posts about people talking about the same old band they’ve only been listening to for 10 years. Where is the balance?

There isn’t much I can do about the PR machine out there for bands and artists. But, what I can do… is say that as fans of music, we need to find our music mentors. People, that when a recommendation comes from them… we take it like a tap on the shoulder and give something new a chance. My “music mentors” range from a close buddy here in Sugar Land, a girl and guy in the middle of Oklahoma, the owner of a production company, a long time friend in the ATX, all the way to a lawyer in Steamboat Springs, CO. It’s a varied assortment of people that when they tap my shoulder via an email or twitter or a blog post… I give it a listen. And 7 times out of 10… I really like what they suggest.

So who are your people? Are you supporting the growth of music by trying something new?

1) If you had to pick 2 albums that you would be the only music you could listen to from now on, which would they be?

2) When was the first time you realized that music was going to be an impacting force in your life? Or perhaps a “turning moment” in your love of music.
My mother was a huge influence on my musical “upbringing”. When I was in junior high, we went to Los Angeles on vacation and we “ran into” her favorite musician – Paul Simon. Got to visit with him and have our pictures taken/autographs. It was the first time I realized that musicians were just like everyone else and very approachable. She was always the “cool” mom – all the guys hung out at my house in high school listening to HER record albums with her. I have a photo of her in a Jerry Jeff Walker tshirt when I was in high school (early 70’s). With her “genes” there was no doubt that music wouldn’t be a huge part of my life.

3) Do you have any words to live by… something written in a song or spoken/quoted from a musician?

“No one ever said this life would be fair or easy and a quick road will almost always charge a toll” ~ Dub Miller

4) Any concert/road trip/meet & greet/restaurant/hotel advice to share? Choose one…
I’d have to say that the first Greenfest, Waco, January of 2002 ranks up there at the top. That is where Jackie (my niece) and I met Emily Robinson – who became one of my best friends, fellow Clubhouse girl and road trip companion. Although I am old enough to be her mother, age doesn’t matter when you love the same music.

5) Tell us a story that sticks out in your mind when you think about all your experiences in this music scene.
There are so many memories. I remember the first time I met Ryan Bingham. It was his “cd release” at the Clubhouse for Wishbone Saloon. The next day I rode with him back to New Braunfels so he could play at Guadapalooza and we drove back to my house at midnight so I could be at work the next day at 8am (round trip was about 8 hours). We talked the entire time, never even turning on the radio. I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished since then.

Who should I ask these questions to next?
I elect Donovan Dodd. Donovan and I met years ago at the Gypsy Tea Room. He “protected me” from some jerks that were infringing on my space :)
He is very knowledgeable about music and I’m sure has MANY stories he can share with the Galleywinter readers.

Previously, 5 Questions for Lori Allen, Josh Nichols, Ryin Jones, Heather Jank, Meg Ruffing and Suzy Johnson.

My friend Matt said it best so I’ll just quote him.

“I mourn your childhood that caused your insanity, but I celebrate your wonderful, wonderful, contribution to music.”

I’ll most remember Michael Jackson in the early years of MTV and being captivated by how smooth his dancing was and how his music flowed so well. My favorite video/song by MJ was Smooth Criminal about a woman named Annie, who has been attacked in her apartment by a hitman. Here you go:

I went through and cleaned up some of the tags and got it all tracked out right. Here’s a few for your immediate listening pleasure and a link to download the entire set. Enjoy!

Download Full Set Here

Dublin Blues (Guy Clark song)

Wishing Well (acoustic version blows me away)

Can’t You See (Marshall Tucker Band)

Friday night started off with an acoustic song swap with Randy Rogers, Hal Ketchum (yes… that Hal Ketchum), Kevin Welch, Adam Hood and Adam Carroll. What was amazing about this lineup is that these aren’t guys you ever see on the same stage at one time. Each person there, is at a vastly different point in their career… but what each person brought to stage was a phenomenal gift for song writing and performing. Following the songswap, in usual fashion, a Q&A session popped up with questions for each artist about their songwriting. This is a great experience for the fans to hear more from the musicians and they responded by respectfully hanging on every word and every answer.

Next up on stage was Modern Day Drifters, which is a fairly new band on the scene, but the crowd seemed to really love the set and didn’t wander out the door just because the big names had left the stage. Closing the night was The Trisha’s, which put the crowd into 2 categories… people that have never heard of them and people that came only for them. They are a band that was put together from 4 girls that each are easily some of the most talented musicians I’ve seen on their own.. much less all on the stage at once. Watching them onstage was refreshing… much like cold water quenching a throat that I didn’t even know was dry. I may have even “allegedly” helped 2-3 fans sneak into some of the empty preferred seating because they couldn’t stand to be that far away from The Trishas when they were singing and playing. All our crew stuck around till the end shuffled out the front gate to our shuttle that would take us back to camp.

That’s right, I said camp. The Sake Of The song festival is about so much more than just going to a venue to see music. For us, we make it an annual event, rent some cabins, float the river, listen to music, cook BBQ, catch up on life and laugh like we’ve never laughed before. After a late night of swimming in the Campsite/RV Park/Cabin Area’s pool we woke up bright and early-ish and headed for the river. Trying to organize 20 people, in tubes can be a mess but we eventually got on the river and had a long slow float in 100+ degree weather in some of the coolest water in Texas. There is very little that is more rejuvenating than floating with with 20 or so friends and turning off the outside world for a few hours. It was completely relaxing… that is until we realized as we stepped out of the water that is was 6:00 and we had to be at the venue at 7:00 to see Jason Eady. (To keep this clean, I’ll just omit how aggravated I was to have to miss The Gougers that played at 4:00).

With more laughing, joking, showers and eating a few chips to tide us over… we were back on the shuttle to Whitewater Amphitheater in time to see Eady setting up. With a quick introduction by Randy Rogers, Jason Eady dropped the hammer and had the early crowd moving and swaying to both his old and new stuff. Following Eady was Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights, who put on a good show and kept the crowd engaged and rowdy as daylight turned to dusk. The darker it got, the thicker the crowd became… all cramming in to get an up close view of the RRB set. It’s been January since I’ve seen the RRB, so I was really looking forward to catching the show and see more of what I’ve been reading about for the past 6 months. And they did not disappoint one bit. It’s no wonder they’ve made it as far as they have… they just have flat out, all around, talent. The sold out crowd was in full effect and with the backdrop of the Guadalupe River, the RRB closed the show in perfect form.

Out of gas and needing food we wandering back to the camp for some late night snacks and recounting of everyone’s stories of the weekend. There were some guitars out and some familiar voices ringing throughout the campsites as even the artists got time to kick back and sing some songs together till the early hours of the morning.

It’s for the sake of the Song that sparked this festival to be born 4 years ago. It’s the Song that is the common bond the binds us all together as friends. It’s no wonder that when the Song is the central theme to a festival that we have the most fun as fans and friends. I just can’t wait till Dickson turns it into a 3 day festival so I can have more of an excuse to extend my mid-summer vacation. See everyone next year!

By some miracle (I’m assuming Christy was listening to it) the tribute CD was in my player, cued exactly to the spot where Chris Knight took the stage and did justice to one of the better songs REK ever penned. With those lyrics and Chris Knight’s knack for cutting deep, this song radiates the meaning of a country song. With lines like “Seems you been fightin’ every day of your life”, “You love the night but you hate the dark” and probably the most cutting “You’d kill yourself but you hocked your gun” will truly take you on a journey of what it means to be at rock bottom and not sure that climbing out is even an option. This song reminds me what it’s like to be in those places and to keep my eyes open because there are people out there living this song looking for a way out.

“Undone” performed by Chris Knight (written by Robert Earl Keen)

Fire one up and you toss one down
Everybody knows you been downtown
Been downtown late last night
Busted your head in a barroom fight
Fightin’ with your brother fightin’ with your wife
Seems you been fightin’ every day of your life
Can’t stand still, still can’t run
You put it all together but it came undone

Your soul is junk, your brain is dust
All your memories are eaten up with rust
Your nightmares real, dreams too stark
You love the night but you hate the dark
Your mother your daddy little sister too
Told you a secret they were countin’ on you
You were dying to tell but your dad said son
Button your lip but it come undone

So they turned you out when you turned them in
They told you don’t come back again
Now the years stack up like old beer cans
Dead end jobs payment plans
Broke down trucks welfare checks
Child support and back-seat sex
You’d kill yourself but you hocked your gun
You built a noose but it come undone

So you’re livin’ in a shack but you wanna be rich
And you would if it wasn’t for the sonovabitch
The sonovabitch the dirty old whore
The butcher the baker the grocery store
You hate them they hate you
What in the world are you gonna do
It ain’t your fault but they need someone
To blame it on when they come undone

Now the storm’s comin’ in the sky’s turned black
It’s too late now you can’t turn back
Lightnin’ strikes on the telephone wire
You’re drunk as a skunk your shack’s on fire
The wife took the baby and the other two kids
The dogs are a-howlin’ and the chickens are dead
It’s your last night out and you’re gonna have fun
They’ll read it in the papers when you come undone

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water. ~Ray Charles

1) If you had to pick 2 albums that you would be the only music you could listen to from now on, which would they be?
I decided to take everything I’ve fallen in love with in the last 5 years out of this equation because y’all are pretty familiar with who I love the most now. So the answer pre-Pat Green:

2) When was the first time you realized that music was going to be an impacting force in your life? Or perhaps a “turning moment” in your love of music.
Ummm at the first breath of life… seriously it’s always been the proverbial rock in my life.

If there is a moment, it was July 25th,2004 at the Sidecar Pup in Houston, TX. It was the first time for me to see Stoney and it was a Stoney & Bleu song swap. Stoney did what he does… but more importantly it was the first time I heard him sing Into the Mystic. I was still so new to this genre and these artists but he sang a song that had meant SO much to me in my life and he let me fall back in love with it because I wasn’t able to hear that song for a million different reasons for a period of time before that night. It was that same weekend, that I was giddy going Southbound 35 to George’s Bar and I called my Meg because she was in the car in front of us and to hear the same kind of love, excitement and passion on the other end of the phone that I was feeling. Before that I’m pretty sure I had never felt like anyone truly ‘got’ me. That weekend was pivotal in all that has become my life since.

3) Do you have any words to live by… something written in a song or spoken/quoted from a musician?

“…some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic
But I had a good life all the way…” ~ Jimmy Buffet

4) Any concert/road trip/meet & greet/restaurant/hotel advice to share? Choose one…
Just GO and don’t be shy… don’t worry if you know anyone… (ok wait not so much the meet n greet, I suk at them) But if you think you don’t know anyone… you’ll find friend. One of my BEST friends I didn’t even really know at all and a friend had to bail on a road trip… “but Deidre can go.” Well alright, I knew of her but hadn’t spent any kind of real time with her. One of my most favorite road trips ever…

5) Tell us a story that sticks out in your mind when you think about all your experiences in this music scene.
I’m blessed with so many stories. Before I moved here every time I came to visit I left with a new one and swore that my heart was going to just burst because of all the love that I’d received time and time again. When I think about all of my trips ~ Memorial Day Weekend/Birthday Weekend 2005 is probably my favorite.

There isn’t a specific music memory although sitting on the couch with JP & Meg… Joc leaning against my legs while Walt made us feel more emotions in an hour than I had felt in a lifetime up to that point was pretty intense. What I think stands out the most about that weekend… loading up in Joc’s truck to head off to the airport so that I could get back to California and Meg could head back east. We all got in, shut the doors and realized we weren’t ready to leave. After four days of being together, laughing too much, smiling too much, probably drinking too much, definitely not sleeping enough… we still weren’t ready to leave each other ~ if you find friends like that… whatever the draw to each other is… don’t EVER let them go because it’s rare and special. So Meg moved to Texas… then I moved to Texas and the best is yet to be…

Who should I ask these questions to next?
Miss Joni because she is a fan that I admire and one that really does all she can both to support these artists and to really get them heard.

Previously, 5 Questions for Josh Nichols, Ryin Jones, Heather Jank, Meg Ruffing and Suzy Johnson.

After listening to a lot of Townes recently it’s become very clear that he didn’t write songs within any certain genre of music. I guess if I had to classify it or explain it to somebody, I would say country or folk would be close, but I don’t think those “boxes” actually do it any justice. His music is not that sugar coated, have a good time, let’s party kind of music, but rather it’s something that you really have to listen to and think about. Which, as shameful as it seems, is probably why he never took off as a popular musician.

Townes died in 1997, but less than 10 years later I began being influenced by his music and only vaguely knew it at the time. I had always known the name “Townes Van Zandt”, but wasn’t saavy enough to pull it out of a set list when i heard it. Then artist after artist, that I respect, started adding a Townes song to their set and strangely enough, some of those songs were my favorite ones! As I began to listen more and more I went out and picked up the originals that Townes sang and then that bled over into being a true fan of Townes to the point that when I hear one of his songs I just about have to stop everything that I’m doing and listen intently.

So thank you to all the musicians that have played a Townes song and I never knew it. Thank you to musicians like Jason Eady, Ryan Bingham, Pat Green, The Band of Heathens and Robert Earle Keen that were never afraid to drop a Townes song in a set where they were trying to prove their own songwriting and performance. Especially during times when it’s hip to throw a Cash or Waylon song in for the crowd.

It’s been 12 years since the death of Townes Van Zandt and it seems like his name is finally becoming more common place in the circles I run in. When you get time or the inclination… go check out his music, check out Steve Earle’s latest album titled “Townes” or go check out the documentary “Be Here to Love Me”. It uncovers alot of who Townes is (for instance he was given shock therapy as a child that affected his memory his whole life) and I’d actually like to get a group together at some point to watch it, if anyone is interested.

I’ll leave you with a song that I’ve been listening to this week. Pat Green originally covered it and put it on his album back when only about 100 people probably knew the name Pat Green, let alone knew that he was covering a song by Townes Van Zandt called Snowing on Raton.