so this happened today....

It had been too long. A free Todd Snider show at Sundance records today. Hard to pass up. The guy is the reason after all that I decided to attempt to write songs. I decided I wasn't going to record anything until he started playing one of my favorite songs of his. Then I decided I was going to record. Great folk music.



Here's a Billy Joe Shaver tune he sang with the help of HalleyAnna.

one square mile

Here's an interesting little film about my favorite part of Austin. If you are a fan of Austin I would suggest taking 15 minutes of your time and checking this out.

One Square Mile - Austin, Texas from Carl & Betsy Crum on Vimeo.

slowdown and check out slowtrain

Finally saw that some updated footage of Slowtrain has been placed online. I saw them play a while back at Club Deville in Austin. Great show. Great tunes. Great vibe. Check them out when you get a chance. You will not be disappointed.

Highlights from the 2010 UT Football Season

luckily there is only one football play included in this video

Ms. Gimble

So if you know or don't know..... Emily Gimble can sing. Emily Gimble can play piano. I once spoke of Warren Hood on this here blog which i'm pretty sure featured Emily singing a song. I even wrote about some jazz singers and somehow left off Emily. So now she's getting her own feature blog entry. I could go on and on about how great of a singer and piano player she is but I will just show some videos and let you see for yourself. Plus I don't want her getting a big head or anything.

and another one

And of course here's some Marshall Ford Swing Band footage:

And also get ready for a song featuring Ms. Gimble on the future album I've been working on for about 31 years now. soon it will be done.

Also Happy Birthday week to Mr. James Gwyn! see you both tomorrow night at the soiree!

singer/songwriter:

Pearl

she's nearing on two years old. just in case you've never seen the video i made a while back this is your introduction to the animal we call pearl.

Can't a guy just drink a beer at work while driving a skyjack?

Promise of the Real

So I knew that Willie Nelson had several kids. I was unaware that he had a 21 year old son that was playing Leno tonight and is a pretty damn good blues player. Willie Nelson is one of my all time favorite musicians, singers, and guitar players. Even if his son was a crappy musician living off his dad's coat tails I'm pretty sure I would be a fan. But this kid is talented. Lukas Nelson is his name. The Promise of the Real is his band. I've just discovered him myself about 30 minutes ago. Listening to him sing you can tell he's Willie Nelsons son. Watching him play guitar you can tell he was influenced by Jimi Hendrix, and SRV among others. My favorite guitar player of all time is Mr. Stevie Ray. So I just discovered the son of my favorite singer can play guitar with a SRV vibe at times. He's coming to Austin in February. I think i'm going to have to be there. Here's some of the clips I watched. and his myspace page has some tunes you can listen too also. http://www.myspace.com/promiseofthereal

Mr. Brown comes to town

Since about 1998 i've been listening to Greg Brown. He is a musician I believe originally from Iowa. His songs are incredible and his voice is one of a kind. He is one of those artists that you have to see live. Once you do you will be a fan for life. I was already a fan and was able to see him a year or two ago at the Cactus Cafe. He is returning in two weeks. It was an amazing show last time and I've been spending the last couple days trying to come up with a good reason not to go again. It was cold then and should be cold now. He sounds the best when it's cold outside. Since the experience is worth more then money I can't come up with one.

As my wife and a couple lucky friends can attest if you go to a show with me you tend to get there early. When we saw Mr. Brown before we got there early and got an awesome seat right up at the front. I would have to say it was well worth it. I've gotten better about getting to places early lately, but I had been waiting for 10 plus years to see Greg play live so I was going to be there early regardless.

Greg Brown is one of those artists that has a limitless amount of songs. I had been listening to him for over 10 years and purchased several albums along the way. My Library of his songs consist of about 40 songs or so. At the show I attended he played maybe 5 out of 20 plus songs I recognized. And they were all good. He started the show by playing a song called "Laughing River" which I had never heard and has since became one of my favorite songs. He told a story about how he was out at a recording studio that day with Robert Earl Keen and he was going to record it (and did) so it was fresh on his mind. Turns out the studio he was at was The Zone recording studio which is right were my wife and I got married, and I've been to several times.

After the show as we were walking to our car there was a man sitting by himself outside in the cold smoking a cigarette. Turns out it was Mr. Greg Brown himself. I couldn't help it and struck up about a 1 min. conversation with him trying my best not to be awkward. I'm pretty sure I pulled it off. He couldn't have been a nicer guy and hopefully I'll make it back out to see him.

There were not many quality videos of him that I could find but here's a couple to check out if you are interested.

all these songs below I had never heard until today.