Drink Hole Saturday Concert - Jerry Jeff Walker - "Viva Terlingua!"

Grab a beer and sit back for a while on a Saturday night for some great live singing and storytelling!

Jerry Jeff's seminal live album from the heyday of the outlaw country days and one of the legendary albums he recorded in the little town that could, Luchenbach, Texas.

Jerry Jeff's live albums are recorded more without the sounds of the audience. He wanted you to hear the mucianship of his "Gonzo" band, some of the most talented musicians ever to be assembled.

If you haven't heard this before, do yourself a favor and open that beer, turn off the lights and be swept away.

"Gettin' By" - A theme song! Autobiographical struggle with "new album" time. This is the difference between folk singers and regular folk...this is how folk singers deal with a work deadline...write a song about it.



"Desperados Waiting for a Train" - Guy Clark's song about his grandfather. Actually his grandmother's boyfriend. Bringing Guy Clark and his songwriting talent to the general public is one of the many reasons to love Jerry Jeff.



"Sangria Wine" - Awesome summertime thirst-making sing-along and shake-you-hips song.



"Little Bird" - The sensitive love song side of one of the original Texas music outlaws.



"Get It Out" - A rollicking country-rock fusion song praising the alternative lifestyle of being a country music outlaw...gotta do what he gotta do!



"Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" - Ray Wylie Hubbard's now immortal anthem, made famous by JJW first...and right here on this album!



"Backslider's Wine" - Introspective lament of a proud drunkard.



"Wheel" - Other side of the coin from "Get It Out". The knowledge that, even while living your own life, there's a time limit.



"London Homesick Blues" - A true outlaw country anthem. Rev. Will tells me that back in the day they'd listen to this refrain till the needle scracthed the label right off'n the record!



Thanks Jerry Jeff. I hope y'all like what ya heard and seek out more by this legendary working artist. Find more at his website.

Talk to you soon.

Turf Log - I Hope I Get Old Before I Die...Oh Wait...Too Late!

I was sitting at The Drink Hole having a quiet early evening beer, and over my shoulder I overheard some guy talking to the bartendress. He was using every bad, cutesy line you could imagine while trying to garner her attention and affection. And worse, he delivered them in such a hackneyed, stale, pre-loaded fashion, they sounded as canned as if Travis Bickle had spent the day in front of the mirror rehearsing them. To top it all off, he was loud. Nothing worse than sounding pre-recorded AND loud. No subtlety to his delivery at all, and he was so loud it would interrupt everyone else around's flow. You know the type. There's a difference between having a good time and F-ing up everyone else's good time.

Without even seeing the interaction, I could feel the embarrassment the bartendress ("Cookie" or "Snowflake" or "Kandi" or whatever her name was that day) had for this guy. The disdain and distaste she had for his feeble attempts at being charming.

I knew that this guy had been spreading ill-will between bartendresses and happy-go-lucky bar-flys at every bar he had ever visited. I knew that this thick layer of plastic-coated dullard had numbed my favorite bartendress (for the afternoon) from being receptive to anyone who might be genuinely spontaneous and witty who might come along.

You see...I'm not much to look at. I have what they call "a good face for radio". But when I manage to turn on the charm, I can actually think quickly on my feet and whip out the "suave and debonair".

And once I've managed to catch a girls attention, these mountain-man, haggard looks with the dour demeanor slip away as she notices that I've got the manly yet sensitive blue eyes of an "Adonis"!

As the knob at the bar rambled on and on and on and on...and on...talking louder than everything else at the bar, and laughing even louder at his own trite and uninspired attempts at being funny, I feel the lowering cloud of "ain't gonna be any fun in here tonight, thanks to this dill-weed" falling over the joint. So I decide to turn and look over my shoulder and see what this guy looks like so I can avoid him in any of my haunts in the future and move on.

I turn to see a guy in his mid-40's, just enough over-weight to look "lazy" at first glance, and what's left of his greying hair making a fast retreat to the back of his skull. With a mixture of pity and contempt I turn back to my beer and think to myself, "Geez!...I'm sure glad I'm still young and cool!" and "I hope I have the decency to stay away from this kind of thing when I get like this guy!"

And almost simultaneously as those phrases ring through my head, I turn and catch myself in the mirror.

Sigh.

But you know?

I really was something back in the day.

I'm the guy who once said this...

Ya shoulda seen it!

I was really somethin'!

Talk to you soon.

Sing us a song Jerry Jeff...Let the juke box soothe me.

Jerry Jeff Walker - Happy Birthday to a "Scamp" of the First Order

Born this day in 1942, Jerry Jeff Walker turns a happy 66 years old today!

The original "Scamp", the "Gypsy Songman", leader of the "Lost Gonzo Band", no other singer/songwriter/troubadour besides Willie and Waylon deserve props as an original country music "Outlaw" than Jerry Jeff. Right at the heart of the Austin, Texas music scene when it all started, Jerry Jeff was the epitome (and still is) of the happy-go-lucky, free-spirit, musician, partier.

He began his career with a little song you all know called "Mr. Bojangles" back in the late 60's when he was a real Greenwich Village folkie and soon found the road calling him to Texas and even more rambling and free ways. Influenced by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, contemporaries of Dylan and Willie and hero to Jimmy Buffett and Todd Snider, Jerry Jeff cuts a wide swath.

He's the man who made Luchenbach famous as his favorite hangout and recording place. While a great songwriter himself, he recorded the songs of up and coming songwriters and made them famous too, just ask Guy Clark.

The weather here is beautiful and sunny and I'm off work early and there's beer in the fridge. I can think of no better way than to enjoy this day than by listening to some Jerry Jeff and mixing some guacamole to go with that beer.

Join me? I thought you would!


"Gettin' By" a real Jerry Jeff theme:



Another Jerry Jeff signature tune, Ray Wylie Hubbard's "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother":


JJ Walker remembers Luckenbach and his old buddy Hondo. "The Pick-Up Truck Song":



Wondering why we all do what feels right instead of what they say is "good for us". And why you should be happy you did. "Night Rider's Lament"...pure gold...one of the first songs I learned how to play:



A song for when you feel it's time to slow down. "Time to Stay Home" with Jimmy Buffet and Fingers Taylor:

Thanks for all the fun and all the pretty songs "Scamp"!

Think I'll close with the classic closer, "London Homesick Blues". I could sing this one alllllll night. And I have!