I managed to cash in some chips at work so that I can be home for Christmas.

This is going to be so awesome. It's going to be awesome spending Christmas with my family. It will also be awesome to go to Lafayette and hang out with Camille's family. Seeing friends. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

What's not going to be awesome is the live country music scene. Now considering that it will be the weak between Christmas and New Years, I don't expect much. But my last three years down there I was treated to outstanding New Years shows by Roger Creager, Bleu Edmondson, and Randy Rogers. Naturally, I assumed that whomever they got would be up to that caliber.

So excitedly I check the Firehouse's website to see what live music I will be listening to as I ring in the New Year. Instead of an anticipatory sound of a song I await hearing, I hear that of laughter. Laughter from a very, very bad joke.

Honeybrowne.

The boys of Honeybrowne are the spokesmen for the Texas chapter of Tampon Sales International. Their music, actually, isn't that bad. I bought their first two CDs, went to the trouble of compiling them into one for easier listening, and Deeper Shade of Blue [lyrics, though the site has popups and you can't go "Back", which is roughly half as annoying as what I'm about to describe] is might actually make the Top 25 Texas music songs. But as a live act, they are utterly uninspiring at best. The first time I went to one of their shows, I left fifteen minutes in - coming to $.67 per minute of entertainment. I went home and listened to their CD instead.

Their lead singer is a boy-toy with vocal chords and gestures that young ladies seem to find appealing for some reason or another (something tells me he could be flipping them all the bird while drooling uncontrollably and he would be similarly "appealing." Their stage presence ranges from passable to that of a high school band trying to be rock-and-roll kewl. Think Ben Folds's Rockin' the Suburbs [lyrics] and you're on the right track.

The second time I saw them play, I again left twenty minutes into their set (this time I got my money's worth as Phil Pritchett opened), as did my two companions (they actually left before I did). The third time I saw them they were opening for Phil and were so bad that one companion said "I swear to god, if they play one more song I'm leaving." and volunteered to sit in the car -- this was after significant improvement. They were, by this point, leaps and bounds ahead of where they were. Deeper Shade of Blue was actually recognizable. And I say all this with at least some appreciation for their music (as performed on the record).

But the lead singer is hot and knows how to shake his booty, so they remain popular with people who really should (and have demonstrated the ability) to know better. And they're getting the prime New Years Show. And the blasted joke is on me.

The entire New Years picture is looking incredibly bleak.

Blanco's appears to be going with John Evans, who is not nearly as annoying on stage as is Honeybrowne, but whose music I don't like. I've been to two Evans shows and stayed the duration for neither. The Armadillo Palace has Jesse Dayton, whom I've never really gotten in to. Maybe I should try, cause the Continental Club is going R&B and the Innkeeper is going with somebody I've never heard of.

If anyone knows of any good music shows on New Years, please let me know. I think we'd even be willing to drive to Bryan or College Station or even New Braunfels or San Marcos.

I just wanna hear some danged music. It's incredible that I got better Texas music in Idaho last New Years than I appear likely to get in Houston this one.

Once upon a time there was a singer and not-really-songwriter in Nashville by the name of Tim McGraw. Tim McGraw was a popular musician at the time, but reviled by some in the Great State of Texas as representing everything that was wrong with Nashville country music. Then Tim started performing a couple of songs written by Texas Bruce Robison and he started recording with the band that he toured with, so the bark lost some bite.

About the same time, another singer and not-really-songwriter named Kenny Chesney started to make a name for himself. The animosity that had previously been aimed at Mr. McGraw was instead directed towards Mr. Chesney. All the animosity and then some. Particularly critical of Chesney was an up-and-comer by the name of Randy Rogers. Rogers was relentless in his criticisms of Chesney and all that he represented in Nashville country music.

Somewhere along the way, Rogers started catching the attention of some of the right people and was signed by a bigger booking company. As Rogers's stature grew, the references to Mr. Chesney diminished. Then one day Rogers was big enough to get the attention of Mr. Chesney. Mr. Chesney was so impressed with Mr. Rogers's music that he decided to buy one of his songs and put it on his own record. The result being that Mr. Chesney's newest CD has a watered-down, soulless imitation of a Randy Rogers song.

Particularly surprising in all this is that, faced with this contradiction, the world's spin did not slow down or take an abrupt stop.

Scientists, I'm sure, are investigating this oddity as we speak.

And somewhere in Texas, a cadre of Texas musicians are convening secretly to determine whether Chesney is due a pass for financially assisting a genuine musician. This meeting is expected to last no longer than one-half a listening to Mr. Chesney's watered-down, soulless rendition of Mr. Rogers's original work.

... cause nothing says "authentic country musician" like moving to Connecticut.

Firehouse Schedule:
2/11 - Bleu Edmondson
2/12 - Django Walker
2/17 - Phil Pritchett
2/18 - Jason Boland
2/19 - Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen
2/20 - Houston Showcase (??)

I was hoping to be taking my trip to Houston a little earlier in the year, but the mandatory overtime we got at work in January but a nix on that. Once I got word of when the mandatory overtime would end, I started looking up tour dates to make plans for my return trip home. While I couldn't find the two artists I was looking for in a single weekend, but I did find them back to back in February. So my trip became longer than I had originally planned.

Since then, I've been looking religiously at the Firehouse and artist websites. I forgot how tentative show dates are. Phil Pritchett was bumped from his 2/18 show at the Firehouse and panic ensued until he was resheduled for the 17th. Not only do I get to see Phil, but Jason Boland replaced P2 so I get to see him as well. Bleu Edmondson, the other artist, also got rescheduled from Saturday night (2/12) to Friday (2/11), but still while I'm down there.

Whew!

Randy Rogers magically appeared, rounding out three of my top five Texas country musicians plus Phil Pritchett!

So, to make a long story short, I couldn't have picked a better stint musically if I'd tried. The only artist I'd really love to see that I'm going to miss is Mark David Manders. He'll be playing in New Braunfels on the 12th. I may be able to make a trip up there, but I nailed down plans with someone for that evening anticipating Bleu playing that night, so it's unlikely.

But six great shows over the course of 11 days ain't bad!

The show in Hailey went quite well. One of the funny things is that were it not for the snow falling outside, it felt - however briefly - like I was back in Texas. Perhaps most telling was that all of the concert stereotypes were there:

The Middle-Aged Guy - He's in his forties. Generally seems like a relatively nice man and not-bad-looking. The problem is that he is in the middle of a war against Father Time and every girl in that bar twenty years his junior is collateral damage of that war. The girls are wanting to dance alone, with their girl_friends, or some boy that might be roughly their age. Instead they're confronted with this forty-something year old guy who starts dancing in front of them so they have to go to the trouble of relocating so that he doesn't get the mistaken impression that they're dancing with him.

The Show-off Pros - Yes, we get it, they can dance. You've taken classes or maybe even taught classes. Hooray for them. Must they really take up half the dance floor so that they can swing dance to a slow slong?

The GNOers - GNO stands for Girl's Night Out. They're a bunch of mostly married women that go out together without their husbands in large part just to prove to themselves that they can have a good time without their significant others. They're generally just one step past their "prime" (or subconsciously see themselves as such) and, like The Middle Aged Guy they spend some time dodging on the dance floor, part of them is just trying to move the hands of time back just a bit to prove that they can still be rockin' little girls.

The Guy/Girl That Looks Like Someone Famous - This time it was Jason Lee.

That Weird Guy Who Always Goes To Shows Alone, Hides Himself in a Corner, and Dances To Himself While He Sings Along - That's me, because God forbid I ever meet someone at one of these things. It's so much easier to make snarky remarks... :)

In Houston, I had the good fortune of The Firehouse Saloon's annual New Year's Eve show/party. The first couple of years it was Roger Creager and last year it was Bleu Edmondson. Obviously this time around I can't make it, but it's just as well as the Idaho native Braun brothers are bringing their bands (Reckless Kelly and Micky and the Motorcars) up to the Gem State. This will be the second time I've seen Reckless Kelly since coming up here and I wanted to see Micky and the Motorcars..

There are only two problems:

The tickets are a bloody $75!!!!!

I don't know if they're going to sell out.

The second problem is bigger than the first. Honestly, $75 was two months worth of shows in Texas and since the Brauns only come up every few months it's worth whatever the price.

The problem is that the show is in Hailey, a few hours away in Idaho's dissident county. I don't mind making the drive, but would hate to do so if I can't go to the show. Especially when I factor in what's almost certainly going to be over $100 in hotel expenses.

So I'm mulling it over. I'm going to try to call the bar tomorrow and hopefully I'll get an idea of what my odds are of getting into a show. Even if I can't get in, they also have a (presumably cheaper) show in Boise on the first.

Sure would be awesome to spend an Idaho New Years with one of Texas's best bands, though.

Update: I'm officially going to Hailey! I called the bar and made reservations last night. I also found a really really cheap hotel called (this is not a pseudonym) Hitchrock Gas, Food, & Motel.

Whenever a radio station goes under, you can count of just about everyone to suggest that the radio station could have been saved if they'd only played exactly the kind of music that they wanted from a radio station. There's some talk over at Kuff's place about what might have been done.

I never really listened to KLOL, so I don't feel particularly qualified to say that if they'd mixed Ben Folds with Phil Pritchett and They Might Be Giants they would have been successful (though I'm sure they have!), Houston Press music critic John Nova "Texas Bowel Movement" Lomax puts in his two cents about KLOL and the last major format changed station KIKK.

Could the likes of KIKK and KLOL have done anything to ensure their survival in light of all these factors? "Yes," and "probably not," respectively. As for KIKK, their stab at a Texas country format was half-assed and ill conceived. Alongside their Waylon & Willie and Pat & Cory, they played way too much Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tim McGraw and Shania. They should have spun more Steve Earle, Hank, Guy Clark and Johnny Bush instead. There are quite a few stations in the Hill Country that have thrived after doing just that.

Mr. Lomax said much of the same when KIKK changed its face a while back and some people he interviewed agreed.

I disagree.

For a several month span during the rise and fall of its Texas Country period, I listened to almost nothing on the radio except KIKK 95.7. I was there when they jumped head-first into the Texas Country pool and when they started inching their way back out.

The problem was not that they did it half-assed, it's that they were rigid and in a way, went too far with it (and in another way didn't go far enough). For my part I loved the fact that they started playing only Texas Country music from 5-10pm on weekdays.

But there simply wasn't (and isn't) enough familiar music coming out of Texas to carry a station during peek hours. But because they roped it off as only allowing Texas music, they had to fill that time anyway. So they started replaying songs with greater frequency than even ClearChannel-owned 93Q. Robert Earl Keen is great, but not four times on the hour every hour.

They could have started digging deeper into the CDs of the ones that took immediately, but even after you play everything on Bleu Edmondson's or Jason Boland's CD, you're going to run out of material. On the national scene, there's always more artists to branch out to in order to avoid repetition or you can go back to an earlier CD put out by the artist. Bur Roger Creager had only two CDs, Dub Miller one, Bleu one.

They kept tweaking with it and started using a more generous definition of "Texas Country" playing George Strait, Mark Chestnutt, and Chris Cagle's one-hit over and over and over again.

The 5-10 slot and their affection for country music more-or-less ended at the same time.

But for the most part, Shania and Kenny weren't really the problem. I would go weeks without hearing either. Except that on the weekends they'd both get a heck of a lot of play because the weekends were roped off for national acts - or so it seemed.

The problem was that they viewed Texas Country Music as Texas Country Music (5-10pm), Nashville Country Music as Nashville Country Music (weekends), and classic country music as a non-entity (except when playing Willie & co. to fill the 5-10 slot).

If they'd been less rigid, they could have really tried to blend Texas acts with their inspirations (Johnny Cash, Hank, etc.), and even have thrown in some local alt-country (CCR and TGD) and better yet acts outside of Texas that fit within the mold (Tim Easton, Matthew Ryan, etc.). They honestly could have even thrown in select Nashville stuff to round it out and provide a bit of more familiar stuff.

Of course, that's me saying what kind of music station I would want, falling into the same trap that I noted above. But whatever they'd done and however they'd mixed it, I would have prefered something mixed so that when I turn on the radio I wouldn't have had to look at my watch to find out what I was going to hear.

Maybe that wouldn't have worked. Maybe a market like Houston is simply too big and full of non-natives for that sort of thing to work. Unfortunately, because KIKK screwed it up I'm not sure we'll get the chance to find out.

Before concluding, I should repeat that despite the mistakes I believe that they made, the contribution that KIKK did make while it existed cannot be overstated. In a six month span, I saw the Firehouse go from usually empty to sometimes so crowded that I had to leave. Artists that couldn't get 50 people to show up in Dallas were playing to large and enthusiastic crowds in Houston.

More's the pity that it didn't work out.

A girl that I dated in 2002 has Phil Pritchett lyrics on her AIM profile.

I must have done something right!

Lex:

A friend writes: "Because some friend of [my daughter's] backed out at the last minute, I'm stuck with a $60 ticket to Kenny Chesney. Because I'm too freakin' cheap to waste it means I'm going to Kenny Chesney tonight.

"Tell me again your evidence that God exists."

and the friend writes again in the comments section:

Actually, it turned out to be not so bad. The music was only part of the entertainment. Mostly it was buff young men, on a stage, wearing tight blue jeans that they were sewn into, swiveling their hips (I know dogs get hip displacia, can humans?), and beer, lots and lots of beer. A good time was had by most, and by most I mean the 40+ year-old women who were out for a "girls night out." I would also venture the husbands were the ultimately beneficiaries later that evening.
Anonymous | 04.26.04 - 9:54 am | #

Yeehaw.

Phil Pritchett has just released his seventh CD is about as many years, Cool & Unusual Punishment. It's his third live CD if you count the "October Stages" bootleg one.

Unfortunately there aren't any new songs on this one, though it's a solid collection of previously recorded stuff as well as a few good covers. It'll be good to have live versions of "Colorado on Trial" and "Bruising Sheetrock."

The covers look to be inspired selections. They're songs he's frequently played live, such as Cross Canadian Ragweed's "Suicide Blues" and Sublime's "What I Got."

Now if we could just get him to put "Texas Ain't As Big As It Used To Be" or "My Girlfriend's Getting Married (But Not To Me)", then we'd have it all set.

(on a side note, Phil's web coder really needs to make the site Netscape/Mozilla/Opera-friendly, which it used to be but hasn't been since the redesign)