 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
|
SXSW 2001:
The Way It Was
by Tawnya LoRae
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
SXSW is a strange mix of inspiration, affectation, exhaustion, and
trepidation. Kim and I went down there as the Brenda Kahn Band and
met up with her old pals Tawnya LoRae and Rob Halverson who sat
in as our guest bassist and guitar player respectively. It was by
far my best SXSW experience, embarking on a five-day voyage into
the great sea of the Austin, TX music scene. The girl that made
it all work for us? Tawnya LoRae. - Brenda Kahn |
|
| |
|
March 20, 2001
SXSW 2001
is forgotten. A blur on last week. One event follows another if
you choose to dive in ... and as the days wear on you go from not
being able to stop the locomotion to just getting tired of smiling
and nodding ... and so happy it's happening and then so relieved
to sleep.
Highlights for me were:
First and foremost ... meeting and playing with Brenda
Kahn was a blast ... I'm crazy about that girl and her songs.
Thank you Kim
[ Powell ] and Brenda for making it a year to remember!
Wed Night: Played my own singer/songwriter showcase with
Rob Halverson
who's an amazing songwriter in his own right ... at 9 pm Welcome
to SXSW! here we go ... a good crowd, decent sound for a room that's
not usually a club. Then played with Brenda Kahn! ... we literally
had 2 hours between sets to unload the gear from my show ... wheel
it down the street to a rehearsal place ... set up ... go through
the songs ... wheel the stuff back to the club, set up and rock.
It was great and it all worked. Rob and I switched instruments with
him on guitar, me on bass and the irrepressible Kim
Powell on drums. The Rock 'n Roll spirit was alive and well.
Our last set started at 1 am so that was it for Wed.
Thur Day: First I meet up with Kim and Brenda at the convention
center because Brenda & Kim are going to record a couple songs for
Spin.com
which happens in an isolation booth that looks like a big refrigerator
or like the orgasmatron from Sleeper. It's soundproof. Then as luck
would have it, a local guy, Eric Zappa is putting together a compilation
tribute CD of Elvis Costello tunes and asked Brenda to contribute
a song, so we took our new little rockin' outfit over to Brian
Beattie's studio and recorded "Watch Your Step". If you're
not familiar with Brian he is an incredible musician and producer.
He's played with a ton of bands one of the most notable is Glass
Eye. He also produced the Daniel
Johnston CD Rejected Unknown. Brian's studio is in
back of his house and is a wonderland of cool gear. Vintage amps,
mics, etc. ... His wife Valerie is a painter and one of the rooms
we recorded in was full of her huge bright paintings of flowers
on folding screens ... dreamy and the perfect setting to record
an Elvis tune.
Thur Night: After we recorded, Kim and I hit the road for
her family's ranch in Bosque Country a couple hours north and spent
the night in the middle of nowhere. I think I will from now on find
a way to check out one night of the festival for rejuvenation. It
was incredibly relaxing out there ... an almost impossible thing
to achieve if you stay around the beehive. Brenda opts to hit the
convention center Friday and Rob sticks around to finish recording
with Brian on Friday.
Fri Day: Waking in the morning to a country breakfast and
a walk to a little pond where Kim showed me some of her new songs
... wow ... life is just great. Heading back through Bush country
(yeah that one) in Crawford Texas ... took a couple pictures of
cows.
Fri Night: This was a night to remember ... Kim, Brenda and
I are now all together again ... still high from playing on Wed,
trying to coordinate all the stuff we want to see and still stick
together ... first 8 pm Smitty from NYC ... excellent instrumental
stuff 9pm Skywriter
also from NYC a cool dude with songs that will sound incredible
with a full band ... then over to Tom
Freund also at 9 pm and we caught the last 3 songs or so.
Tom's now in LA relocated from NYC and his stuff is soulful & mesmerizing
... Keep in mind that as we're going to see people, we're also collecting
them into our gang and moving through the city like a 5, 6, 7, or
8 headed monster depending on what point in the evening we ran into
things ... We now have Brenda, Kim, me, Rob, Tom, and Abra Moore
... On to the New Pornographers 10 pm ... which we didn't stick
around for because we decide to head back for
Ron Sexsmith
11 pm who turns out to be a big surprise of the festival for me
because I hadn't heard anything of him before. What an incredible
songwriter. Roy Orbison & Nick Drake come to mind
immediately. A really moving performance. We pick up Dave of Skyrider
into our posse, but we can't be bothered with hanging about after
as we're now headed for Lucinda
Williams 12 am with the vague hope we'll get in ... and
we did ... it was a big venue ... we stayed for about 4 Lucinda
tunes ... all new and really beautiful but kind of lost in such
a big place. After seeing Lucinda in intimate settings in the past
you just get spoiled and don't want to see her any other way ...
but the band of course was great ... and it's already time to head
for Vic Chestnutt 1 am. - this was my tie for best thing
at the conference. As much as I love his music, I had never seen
him live. The harmonies, the truth and the stories. I still can't
believe it. We all talked and hung out until the end of his set
and then just as we were leaving I run into an old friend from Minneapolis
who both Brenda and I know who invited us to a hotel party and off
we go. We lose Tom, Rob and Abra but Kim, Brenda, Dave and I are
game. We spend the rest of the night hanging out, talking, looking
for the pool which is on the first floor and locked up tight and
finally give up around 4. Gotta save some for tomorrow!
Sat Day: We spend some time at Brian's studio listening to
the Elvis mix and it sounds great! Rob had put some other parts
on it and Brian had come up with a cool mix. Then we head to Alejandro
Escovedo's all day fest at Maria's Taco Express. We catch
Patricia
Vonne a recent transplant from NYC with her rocking country/tejano
tinged outfit. And we see Tel
Ray a complete rock n' roll package. We also hit the SXSJ
(South by San Jose) party which featured outdoor music all day and
across the street Mojo
Nixon hosted his yearly "Real Men play Real Music"
day at the Continental
Club. We got there in time to see
The Paladins
a little but just missed Jon
Dee Graham. We saw Tift Merrit at the San Jose and
just tried to split the difference between inside and outside.
Sat Night: Got a quick bite to eat after the day time stuff
and realized it was almost time to go out again. I was determined
to see John
Hammond this time as he's one of my all time favorites and
I've never seen him live either. So I was back at the Continental
by 9 and what a show! This was my favorite tied with Vic Chestnutt.
John Hammond has recently recorded an album of Tom Waits
tunes with Tom Waits producing so you can imagine how good it is.
He had Augie Meyers on accordion and the rest of the band
was so fine. But once again I've got to hurry and find Kim. Brenda
decided to bag it that night, so Kim and I headed downtown to try
and see David Byrne which turned out to be a bust because
we spent an hour trying to park and missed it. We did see Magwai
while waiting for Steve Malkmus. Steve Malkmus and band were
fun. Tight, rockin, kind of crazy. By this time it was all I could
do to stand ... so on any other night I'm sure I'd have been dancing.
Sun Day: It's all I can do to get up but if I don't I'll
miss my one chance to hang out with my friend Tom Herbers
a recording engineer/producer from Minneapolis. So I go pick him
up, have breakfast and take him to the airport. It's raining and
cold all day which makes the annual SXSW softball game probably
canceled. After dropping off Tom, I head to another restaurant to
meet Kim, Brenda and Karen for lunch before Brenda goes to the airport.
People are looking much more tired and weathered today. hehe ...
I spend the afternoon with my friend Sheridan of the bands
Kitty
Gordon & Tel Ray and we trade some stories from the weekend
... then I try to rally myself up for another evening. I go to the
Hole in the Wall for the last ever Free4All hosted by Paul Minor
and can only make it from 9:30 until 10:00 before I bail and go
home. The Free4All will not die however as Tel Ray will take over
duties starting next Sunday. Kim tells me later that Chuck Prophet
at the Continental was great and the True Believers didn't
do a reunion because Javier Escovedo couldn't make it. So
Alejandro played the night out. All would've been good if I'd only
had some sort of nap.
Mon Day: Unbelievably trying to wake up and click back into
gear ... I get my coffee and head for the studio ... still whirling
and exhausted ... just a day later, it disappears until next year
... bye rockers |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Former guitarist for all-girl, all-rock Austin band Morningwood,
Tawnya LoRae has struck out on her own in recent years as an accomplished
songwriter and guitar player. She makes beautiful soulful music,
and her newest release, "The Bear Claw Incident," is due
out in May and will be available at the WOMANROCK MUSIC SHOP.
The CD is CO-produced by Tawnya LoRae and Rob Halverson. |
|
| |
|
_________________________________
Find out more about Tawnya LoRae at:
http://www.tawnyalorae.com
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
_________________________________
SPOTLIGHT SXSW 2001
interviews with:
Me First
Blaise Pascal
Marilyn Rucker
Basya Schechter
Sexfresh
The Dishes |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
