Upcoming Shows

9/7 - Radney Foster at the Firehouse Saloon
9/7 - Dana Cooper and Annika Fehling at Anderson Fair
9/7 - Miss Leslie and her Juke Jointers at Blanco's
9/7 - Blaggards at the Continental Club
9/8 - Terry Allen at the Mucky Duck
9/8 - Wayne Hancock and Sean Reefer at Fitzgerald's
9/9 - Jack Saunders at the Mucky Duck
9/13 - Druha Trava at the Mucky Duck
9/15 - Ray Wylie Hubbard at the Mucky Duck
9/15 - Sideshow Tramps at the Proletariat
9/20 - Henry Rollins at Meridian (spoken word)
9/22 - The Gougers at Anderson Fair
9/25 - John Evans at the Mucky Duck
9/27 - Junior Brown at the Meridian
9/28 - Greg Trooper at the Mucky Duck
9/28 - Bleu Edmondson at the Firehouse Saloon
9/29 - Shake Russell at the Mucky Duck

Rodney Crowell

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Wednesday night I went to see Rodney Crowell perform at the Mucky Duck.

Rodney played two sold-out shows. I was able to make the late show (which was packed) with the standing-room only crowd spilling out the back door onto the patio.

Rodney was joined on stage by Will Kimbrough. Will expertly accompanied Rodney on guitar and added some strong harmony vocals as well. He was even called on to channel Johnny Cash on Crowell's hit song "Walk the Line (Revisited)". Kimbrough really shone, however, when he offered up a few of his own songs mixed in during the set. His new song "Hill Country Girl" is definitely a keeper.

The "Houston Kid" and "Brother Kimbrough" played a great set that featured a number of hard-driving and rocking tunes as well as some intimate and introspective songs.

Highlights from their set included: "Telephone Road" (preceded by a humorous introduction from Rodney detailing his childhood memories of attic fans, Houston heat, mosquitoes and DDT fumes), "I ain't living long like this", "What Kind of Love" (a song Rodney completed from a fragment left by the late Roy Orbison), "I Walk the Line-Revisited", "Fate's Right Hand", "It's hard to kiss the lips at night that chew your ass out all day long" (a song that Rodney co-wrote with Vince Gill...while it may not be "the perfect country and western song" it certainly has some of the funniest lyrics), "Preaching to the Choir", and a rocking version of "Wandering Boy".

All in all a great show. I'm looking forward to the next time that the "Houston Kid" comes back to town.

Randy Weeks

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"Randy Weeks is the number one most underrated songwriter in this country. He writes amazingly well crafted, beautifully melodic songs and delivers them with his own brand of laid back vocals and surfboard cool, very hip approach." - Lucinda Williams

Randy Weeks rocks.

This fact was confirmed for me after hearing Randy and his band play last night at the Mucky Duck.

What a great show!

I had missed Randy the last time he played at the Duck so I was determined to see him this time around. I had to brave some heavy rain and flooded streets to make it to the show but the effort was well worth it.

Randy was backed by a terrific band featuring Eric Danheim on lead guitar and Jack Saunders on bass. This was probably the loudest show I have ever heard at the Duck. Randy and Eric delivered some unbelievably smoking guitar riffs on a number of songs.

The Houston Press music blog has a good post that covers the details of the show.

I am still new to Randy's music so I picked up a copy of his first cd during intermission.

I definitely will be checking out the rest of his catalogue and will be sure not to miss his next show the Duck.

At the Continental

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Over the weekend I was able to make it over to the Continental Club to see The Gougers perform.

They were opening for The Weary Boys who were performing their last show ever in Houston.

Before the show started I wandered next door to Sig's Lagoon and picked up this gem of a cd by Brennen Leigh. I had heard about this cd a couple of years ago but had never actually been able to find a copy before. It is a classic.

Back at the Continental I enjoyed a great set from The Gougers. It was definitely the loudest set I have ever heard them play.

The Weary Boys also put on a great show...and it went well with all the Lone Star. : )

Christian Girls Kidnapped in Pakistan

In Pakistan two young Christian girls were recently kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam and then forced to marry Muslim men.

This article from Asia News has more details.

This is hardly surprising behavior from the so-called "Religion of Peace".

After all this is the same religion that brought us the Janissaries.

Forced conversions are also common in Islam.

Good News/Bad News

Here is a humorous post from the Law Blog of the Wall Street Journal on a plaintiffs firm that sent out some good news/bad news letters to their clients.

I got a kick out of reading this since I used to work for a plaintiffs firm that handled asbestos cases.

I would routinely have to talk to clients who were upset that their x-rays came back negative for asbestosis or silicosis.

One of my former co-workers and I sat down once and came up with a "You might be an asbestos client" list along the lines of Jeff Foxworthy's routine.

One of the lines we came up with was:

"If you've ever gotten mad when someone tells you that you don't have cancer....you might be an asbestos client."

Russian Church to Honor English Saints

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From Interfax:

Russian Church to annually honor early British Isles saints

Moscow, August 21, Interfax - The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church instituted a holiday to honor Christians who lived on the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and were canonized before the 1054 schism that divided Christendom into the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The holiday will be an annual event observed on the third Sunday after Pentecost in the Julian Calendar.

The Synod, which met on Tuesday, also ordered that these saints' names be included in the Menology after their Christian exploits have been studied.

The Synod's decision follows an appeal of March 3, 2007, in which the diocese of Sourozh, a Russian Orthodox diocese having the islands of Great Britain and Ireland for its territory, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, and its Holy Synod to institute a holiday for pre-1054 British and Irish saints.

Celebration of the Restoration of Unity in the Russian Orthodox Church

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A delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church, including the Sretensky Monastery Choir, will be touring dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia next month.

The delegation will participate at services throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

The delegation will also bring the wonder-working 'Reigning' Icon of the Theotokos for veneration.

The Sretensky Monastery Choir will also be performing at major concert halls throughout the tour. They will be performing a program of "Masterpieces of Russian Choral Music".

More information on the delegation's visit and itinerary can be found here.

Memorial Cross Marks Anniversary of Stalinist Purges

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A 40-foot high memorial cross from Solovetsky Monastery has been installed outside of the new cathedral at Butovo.

The cross is part of the memorial observances of the 70th anniversary of the Stalinist purges.

This article has more details on the memorial services held at Butovo.

Procession with Wonderworking Icon in Russia

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Here are some photographs from a procession of a wonderworking Icon of Christ the Savior in the town of Tutaev located in the Yaroslavl region of Russia.

Russian Paratroopers Day

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Members of the Russian Airborne Troops take part in services marking the commemoration of the Prophet Elijah.

More details can be found here and here.

As one of the articles states:

'"We've had this tradition of celebrating the second of August together with the Russian Orthodox Church for five years now. And the major reason for this is that the Saint Elijah is considered to be the patron of the Russian paratroopers," explained Aleksandr Cherednik, Head of the VDV Press Office.'