chuckago

I'll skip right to the showcases. I decided early in the day to stick to one venue (Antone's) in order to avoid wasting time going from venue to venue and standing in line. So I started w/ Sean Costello. He's a white guy singing the blues, so I didn't have high expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised. He wasn't outstanding, but he was very good. Then came Hubert Sumlin, a very old blues guitar player. He was outstanding, and I guess he is pretty idolized. Robert Plant stopped by the watch his set, as did Elvis Costello and Pinetop Perkins (a very old blues piano player). But Elvis and Pinetop sat in for a song. Next came Pam Tillis (daughter of Mel Tillis, but a country star in her own right). She doesn't do much for me though, so I thought I would check out Susan Cowsill (singer/songwriter) at Cedar Street Courtyard, which was right around the corner. I know this breaks w/ my original strategy, but it was so close and it was an outdoor venue so even if I couldn't get in I would still be able to hear. As it was, there was plenty of room. She was pretty good, but I only caught the last three songs of her set.

Then it was back to Antone's to see Jessi Alexander (a country up & comer). She was pretty good (better than Pam). Antone's was a little slow w/ the set changes and was falling behind in the schedule. So when Jessi was done I thought I would go try to see if I could get into Elvis Costello a couple blocks away. But I couldn't. There was a line for laminates (conference attendees), and although there was a guy encouraging us to stay in line because he thought we'd get in eventually, I decided to bag it and head back to Antone's. I did stop along the way and check out the Derailers (kind of a cross between early Beatles, Buddy Holly, George Jones and Ernest Tubb - they were very good for what they did - which was rockin' country). It was an outdoor venue also. So after a couple songs I got cold (it's a little chilly here) and hustled back to Antone's. Jon Randall (country up & comer) was just finishing his set. Like Jessi, he was pretty good.

The closer of the evening was Rodney Crowell (a bigtime country singer/songwriter). He rocks. Even though he played songs from his new CD which isn't released yet - they were excellent. He is a great musician w/ a great band. In fact all the bands were great musicians.

Now it's almost 4am. Mavis Staples has something going at 10am. I'd like to make it but there's no way.