Austin Power – let the music do the talking!

Trying basses in the Guitar centre, Austin

The criminal events that have punctuated our week here notwithstanding, I have to take this opportunity to champion Austin’s greatest treasure – its Music Scene. From their homage to a fallen son, Stevie Ray Vaughan to the gargantuan SXSW festival, upcoming in March which showcases hundereds of bands from all over the world, and often features surprise sets from stellar acts, this city oozes music from its every pore.

I chat with Pee Wee after his show at Nuno's

Sixth street is the hub of all this activity, where most nights you can catch two bands to a venue, all playing for tips, generally with no cover charge. It is a feast for the ears.

I have seen at least three great blues guitarists within two days, including Chris Ruest, whose album we bought. the talent here is real, and legion. The fabulous PeeWee in Nuno’s last night had a voice to die for.

The Chris Ruest band

It was a poignant moment for me to visit the statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan. My late friend, the drummer Keith Webb, came out to Austin to rehearse with Stevie for a month, when the blues rock prodigy was just 17. “Even then, ” said Keith to me a few years ago, “I knew he was special”.   It has also been strange to hear Keith’s drumming regularly on a TV ad here – Donovan’s “Any trick in the book” airs often in a car ad, and I often think of Keith when I hear his drumming on the track. Perhaps he’s here visiting Austin with us, in spirit.

Me and SRV.....

I’ll leave Austin with great musical memories, and try to forget the crime.

Kev Moore

Shaking hands with a living legend

Pinetop Perkins - Living Legend

Our trip to the States has been full of amazing happenstance – being in the right place at the right time on an amazing number of occasions. (Or in the case of this morning, the wrong place, as a plane crashed into a building here in Austin a few blocks away!!!)

But last night, we wandered into Nuno’s on the famous 6th. street, and found ourselves sitting next to Pinetop Perkins who, at 96 years young, is pretty much the oldest living bona fide Delta bluesman. I introduced myself, and shook his hand. It was akin to touching history. Here was a man who was there at the beginning, played Piano for Muddy Waters, Sonny boy Williamson, BB King, the list is endless.  I bought a CD, Pinetop Perkins and friends, recorded with the likes of Eric Clapton, and amnazingly, recorded when Pinetop was 94!  – and he kindly signed it for me. 

But more amazing than that, he took to the stage last night. That grand old man of the blues, joined the house band and proceeded to take us back in time with half a dozen classics, such as Down in Mississippi, and Pinetop Boogie.   I leaned over to Miki and whispered, “We are so privileged to witness this.”

My respect and affection for this man knew no bounds. The term ‘living legend’ is bandied about with vulgar regularity in this shallow era, but here was a man who embodied it.

Who would have thought, when I signed the guitar in Helena at the studios of King Biscuit time, and noticed Pinetop’s signature, that I would meet him some weeks later?  Life, as I had often suspected, is amazing.

Kev Moore