Old Settler’s Music Festival 2012

Jan 20, 2012 by Eggs

Old Settler’s 2011 – photo by HashBrowns
Festival season is still a few months away, but now is the time of big decisions. Artist line-ups are dropping every single day, and with that we all have to figure out just where and when we’ll be traveling based on how good or bad the roster of bands are. Wakarusa just dropped their full list of bands, and it’s looking pretty nice, but another local festival was announced kind of under the radar. Old Settler’s Music Festival, which takes place south of Austin at the Salt Lick Pavilion, will feature a slew of great Rock, Americana and Bluegrass over the weekend of April 19-22. Headliners include indie folksters Iron & Wine, big-voiced singer songwriter Amos Lee, southern rockers Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit and newgrass champions Railroad Earth.

A bunch of other bands will also be making their way down to the 25th anniversary of the festival. Check out the full line-up after the jump.

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Chris Gray Day In Photos

Jan 17, 2012 by Eggs

This past Saturday, I headed down to the Main Street “Island” around 6 in the evening to enjoy some solid local music, hang out with a bunch of good friends and to help support my good buddy and boss at the Houston Press Chris Gray. I got there just in time for the start of Hayes Carll‘s set, who chose to perform stripped down with only an acoustic guitar and his voice box for a 45 minute romp of originals and covers. After Hayes finished up, we converged to the patio where we took over a table and started in on some good conversation. I jumped around inside Continental Club and Big Top to snap some pictures of Spain Colored Orange, Changoman, Electric Attitude and a host of other bands mostly playing a bunch of covers, but continually made it back out to our table of rotating cast members. After a while, we took to Big Top to catch great acoustic sets from both Benjamin Wesley and Joe Mathlete before the Wild Moccasins rained down their brand of indie dance pop on the growing crowd in the Continental Club. By the time Buxton hit the stage after the Moccasins, the crowd had surged, their energy being instantly transferred to the group onstage. They served as somewhat of a headliner that night, so it was fitting for them to round off their set with a cover of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” which was the perfect dedication to the man we were all celebrating that day.

I took a whole bunch of pictures from the event, which you can check out after the jump.

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Chris Gray Day

Jan 12, 2012 by Eggs

This upcoming Saturday, Houston’s first festival of the year is going to take place in the Main street compound of The Continental Club and Big Top Bar from 10 in the morning all the way until they close their doors at the end of the night. The festival is a benefit concert for my good buddy and boss at the Houston Press Chris Gray, who suffered a major heart attack back in late October, and is now dealing with a heap of growing medical bills. Gray has made it back to his full music loving self, and plans to return to his post come February, but for now we can celebrate his health with a walloping day of music this weekend. Tons of great bands have stepped up to play this event which Gray partially curated, including a recent addition of the one and only Hayes Carll who we caught not long ago at House of Blues.

The tickets are a minimum donation of $20, and you can pick those up either here or when you arrive at the door on Saturday. Remember to get there early to try and bid on one of several great auction items which will include signed pieces of merch from the likes of Willie Nelson, Wilco, Steve Earle, Local Natives and Charlie Louvin as well as a bunch of other great music related stuff.

It should be a great day of music which you can start planning with the full schedule that you’ll find after the jump.

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Buxton – “Boy Of Nine”

Jan 11, 2012 by Eggs

Houston has seen an influx of bands on the rise in the past year, and one of the frontrunners for Houston’s biggest band comes in the form of five of the nicest guys you could meet and one great little lady. Buxton has slowly yet surely made a name for themselves in Houston, and with the help of their new album, Nothing Here Seems Strange soon to be released via New West Records, they have a great opportunity to become known in a lot more markets than their hometown. Recently touted by Esquire Magazine as one of their 2012 artists to watch, Buxton seem to be already gaining a whole heap of new fans several weeks before Nothing Here Seems Strange even hits shelves.

I’ve had a hold of the album for a while now, and have had the ability to truly let it sink in. The ten track effort brings the songs I’ve loved live to a whole new world with beefed-up instrumentation, precise mastering and mixing and an overall haunting feel to the entire album. I’ve been saying these guys were going to be big for quite some time, so it’s been really great to see their rise from a couple of fresh-faced kids from Podunk, Texas to a national touring act on the verge of breaking into the big time.

New West released Buxton’s first video from the new album which features the song “Boy Of Nine.” The video takes us through the lyrics of the tune, handwritten in front of our very eyes, as well as a flashing array of past tour footage and still frames of the band looking ever so serious.

I took a bunch of pictures of Buxton at their recent New Year’s Eve celebration that took place at Houston’s Fitzgerald’s. Check those out, as well as a video of them covering Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” from the same night after the jump.

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