Tales From Austin

Tales from Austin
Current mood: grateful

Of all the years that I’ve been coming to Austin, TX to play music, this year was the busiest, the strangest, and the most enjoyable! This was a special trip filled with new experiences, old friends, and hundreds of guitars! I’ve also come to a place in my life where I have buckets of gratitude to spare. It helps me create time, space, and awareness for the people and events I encounter every day.

We flew into Austin Thursday with nary a glitch...and Woody Harrelson was on the flight...a good omen! We found our driver at baggage claim holding up a sign that read “Michelle Malone Banned”. People may have thought he was protesting!

He whisked us to the hotel where we found each of our rooms to be satisfactory…it wasn’t the The Four seasons, but it wasn’t the Motel 6 either. Disaster averted.

We headed into town for some authentic Tex Mex at Guero’s on South Congress. The cab ride was memorable – the driver had an affinity for really loud smooth jazz. It was like a Rave in an elevator in a dentists building. 3 hours later, or so it seemed, we were pleasantly stuffed with award-winning soft taco’s, chips, and the most flavorful mellow green sauce I’ve ever had. That was the extent of our big night out -We had an 8am call at the Video Ranch the next morning!

Our driver comes back for us at 7:30am. I think that’s early for anyone, but most especially us! However, it wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be. We go to the old Austin airport that’s been converted to sound stages and film offices. Apparently we just missed the Cohen Brothers by a week. The Video Ranch’s staff is friendly and helpful and the coffee is black and strong. The crew sets up the furnished gear and guitars our good friends at Gibson sent over (THANK YOU, GIBSON and Brandon DeMaris). We’re waking up and getting comfy when up walks an older man-child in a red plaid shirt and a knit cap. He introduces himself to me. “Hi. I’m Michael Nesmith.” I was taken aback. I said, “What did you say?” He said his name again. I wish I could’ve seen my face. He’s a frickin Monkee!! I have very distinct and fond memories of watching him on TV as a kid. He’s also a songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist. This virtual environment on the internet that produces these 3D web cast concerts is his brainchild. If that’s not enough, he toured with Hendrix. Stick a fork in me.

A. Whitney Brown from Saturday Night Live is the host/MC., and he’s funny, polite and the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. He introduces us, and we launch into Tighten Up. The 3D Concert was a great show, if I do say so myself, not only because we had a good time and played well, but also because we were playing for a virtual audience of cartoon avatars! There a huge screen set up in front of our stage, so we could see those signed in to watch the show. There were flamingos, snowmen, aliens, naked dancers, pigs in glasses – you name it! It was truly the strangest most diverse audience I’ve ever played to. In between songs, a canned clap track was piped in, so it had the feeling of a real show…as long as we didn’t really think about it too much! I did make the mistake of reading the comments on the screen once or twice, and immediately forgot the lyrics to whatever I was singing at the time. That NEVER happens!

At one point I looked up and my 8th grade boy friend was there at the show. In the flesh. Seriously! Talk about distracting. We do see each other once every decade or so, and I had called and invited him to come down and watch, but I didn’t think he would really come!  We pick up where we left off very quickly. It leads me to believe that we never really changed that much at the deepest level. Whatever we had in common as 13 year olds, we must still have…or that we’re still essentially 13…quite likely a combo platter of the two.

We shot stills with “the Nez” and A. Whitney, had some great lunch at catering, and moved on. I drove into town with my old pal Griff in his hybrid Ford to meet his wife and see the 5 Star energy efficient "green" home they lovingly and painstakingly built.  It has solar panels, repurposed materials, and helps sustain the environment- I have the coolest friends!  I wont go into more detail, but you’ll see it soon in architectural digest.  He’s built a great life for himself, and that made me soooooo happy! Don’t you love to see your people happy?!

We worked in some time for BBQ at Iron Works (always, ALWAYS make time for it), an hour at the Texas Guitar Show (thousands of cool vintage and new guitars, gear – plus I got to meet the makers of my beloved Porchboard), and it’s back to the hotel to wait for our next driver to our next show, Mr. Fire himself, author Joe Vitale!

Now Joe is a man who means business. I don’t think he ever relaxes. He’s always writing, reading, and rockin! We’ve become good friends, as this is the 4th time I’ve performed for him in his home. Did I mention that he collects cars? He picks us up at the hotel in his brand new Rolls Royce Phantom. Seriously?! It has the capability to go 200 mph! It floats on air! The doors close by themselves! It is the smoothest, most comfortable ride I’ve ever had. The ride was over an hour, so we had a quality visit and rich conversation. Jonny concluded that we all somehow resemble our first cars…you may or may not appreciate this theory!

Me, Jonny and Phil are invited to play any and all of Joe’s guitars – he has quite the collection. He has special made one-of-a-kind guitars we’ve never even heard of! We pick up a few priceless models that include a pre-war Martin, a hand- made Lame Horse (the maker is a veterinarian by day) and a Robert Taylor and head for the living room where we jam for an hour and make some new friends. We played The Gathering for the first time since 1990.

Afterwards, Joe reveals his latest, his Alien Guitar. It’s otherworldly! It’s a fantastic, artistic, and, of course, one of a kind. Look for it on Letterman soon! Joe and I are discussing a CD project of positive solo acoustic songs… We both agree that the world could really use a break from the negativity everywhere. Stay tuned for that, as well!

I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to be playing music for living. Indeed, it’s all I’ve done for 20+ years. To have the opportunity to perform again with my friends and band mates Jonny Daly and Phil Skipper is heavenly. Nothing like traveling with old friends! Sometimes I feel 21 again as if we stepped into a time machine… though we spend a lot of time trying to remember details of our former incarnation known as Drag the River…t keeps us laughing! We know each other jokes, can finish each other’s sentences, and the music feels and sounds right. It feels as comfortable as my favorite pair of boots…yea, those brown one’s I bought in 1992 that I’ve had resoled 10 times…though the 3 of us have been playing together longer that that! It’s familiar and safe. I don’t have to worry. I can finally relax, because I know that we have each other’s backs. I’ve got my big brother’s back! And last but certainly not least, let’s not forget our young gun Katie Herron on drums, born the year DTR formed. We’re teaching her the ropes of band brotherhood, i.e., treating her like the little sister we love to poke at and kid! She seems to love it, and is as quick with a come back as any of us. I love them all as much as any blood relative, and I feel blessed to have them along.

Back in the Rolls, back to the hotel…sleep through the raging deluge outside…another driver, another airport…another show….I’ll be solo at Eddies Attic in a few hours. It’s a wild and wonderful ride of a life!
Thank you for sharing it with me ;-)