Upcoming Shows

09/02 - Teribus @ McGonigel's Mucky Duck
09/03 - The Del McCoury Band @ Dosey Doe Coffee House
09/04 - The Belleville Outfit @ the Mucky Duck
09/04 - porterdavis @ The Corner Pub (Conroe)
09/04 - The McKay Brothers @ Blanco's
09/05 - Bruce Robison (in-store) @ Cactus Music
09/05 - Bruce Robison @ the Mucky Duck
09/05 - Jack Ingram & Shooter Jennings @ The Showgrounds
09/05 - Cory Morrow @ Big Texas (Clear Lake)
09/05 - Band of Heathens @ Continental Club
09/06 - Blaggards @ Dan Electro's Guitar Bar
09/06 - Sisters Morales @ the Mucky Duck
09/09 - Brennen Leigh/Shotgun Party @ the Mucky Duck
09/09 - 09/11 - The Eagles @ Toyota Center
09/10 - Kelly Joe Phelps @ Anderson Fair
09/11 - Dustin Welch @ Continental Club
09/12 - Randy Weeks @ the Mucky Duck
09/12 - Mark Stuart & Stacey Earle @ Anderson Fair
09/12 - Tish Hinojosa @ Dosey Doe's
09/12 - Hamilton Loomis @ Last Concert Cafe
09/12 - Miss Leslie & Brennen Leigh @ Main Street Crossing
09/13 - Bob Schneider @ the Mucky Duck
09/13 - Jesse Dayton @ Armadillo Palace
09/13 - Lisa Novak @ The Big Top
09/13 - Clay Farmer @ Dosey Doe's
09/14 - Dertybird @ Rudyard's
09/16 - Ramblin' Jack Elliott @ the Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe
09/17 - Nanci Griffith w/ Guy Clark @ Verizon Theater
09/18 - Joel Stein w/ Liz Dannemiller @ the Mucky Duck
09/19 - Gary P. Nunn @ Dosey Doe's
09/20 - John Evans @ the Mucky Duck
09/20 - Paul Geremia @ Anderson Fair
09/20 - Flaco Jimenez @ Continental Club
09/20 - Santana @ the Woodlands Pavilion
09/20 - Billy Joe Shaver @ Dosey Doe's
09/21 - Amos Lee @ Meridian
09/21 - Robert Cray @ Warehouse Live
09/24 - The Drive-By Truckers (in-store) @ Cactus Music
09/24 - The Drive-By Truckers @ Meridian
09/25 - Paula Nelson @ Armadillo Palace
09/25 - Sean Reefer and the Resin Valley Boys @ Blanco's
09/25 - Flogging Molly @ Verizon Theater
09/26 - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss @ the Woodlands Pavilion
09/26 - Jimmy LaFave @ the Mucky Duck
09/26 - Spiritualized @ Meridian
09/26 - Shake Russell @ Anderson Fair
09/26 - Ian Moore @ Continental Club
09/26 - The Hudsons @ Dosey Doe's
09/26 - Jason Boland @ the Firehouse Saloon
09/27 - Opie Hendrix @ Continental Club
09/27 - Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet @ Dosey Doe's
09/30 - The Black Keys @ Meridian
09/30 - Mary Cutrufello @ the Mucky Duck

still here

So I'm still here. I haven't posted much for awhile. My job has kept me pretty busy of late. I did manage to make a few more shows in the last month including: Wild Sweet Orange, Dustin Welch, Kevin Welch, Lyle Lovett, and Corb Lund.

I don't have the time or inclination to post any reviews of these shows right now...but here are a few YouTube clips to give an idea of what these artists sound like:

Wild Sweet Orange on Letterman:



Dustin Welch and friends play "Green Badge":



Dustin's dad Kevin Welch and Kieran Kane performing "Anna Lise Please":



Lyle Lovett wishes he had a boat (among other things):



Corb Lund pays homage to the eternal spirit of the horse soldier:

Jubal Lee Young

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"Open Letter to Steve Young: Hey man, your boy rocks!"- Kevin Welch

...and Kevin Welch, as the father of Dustin Welch, knows something about having a boy who rocks...

I caught Jubal Lee Young at his first ever Houston appearance last Wednesday night at Under the Volcano.

It was a small (but very enthusiastic) crowd that turned out for the show. I think the regular bar patrons outnumbered the handful of us that actually showed up to hear him play. It didn't matter though because Jubal Lee won over everyone that stayed to listen.

The Houston Press music blog was also represented in the small crowd. They were impressed as well...as can be seen in their post on the show.

I can't really add much more other than to say it was a great show. The highlights for me were the Jubal Lee Young originals: "Greed is the Creed" ,"Greedy Old Men With Fountain Pens", "Streets of Caen", "The Window Song" and his excellent covers of David Olney's "The Way I Am" and his dad's song "East Virginia".

You can check out more of Jubal Lee Young's music here and here.

Here is a video of Jubal Lee Young performing David Olney's "The Way I Am" from a recent European tour:

Funeral of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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Funeral services for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn were held this week at the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.

Thousands of Russians came to pay their respects both at the public viewing held at the Russian Academy of Sciences as well as at the funeral and burial services at the Donskoy Monastery.

Excerpts from a letter of condolence of Patriarch Alexei II can be read here.

A letter of condolence from Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia can be read here.

Photos of the funeral and burial services can be seen here.

A video with scenes from the funeral and burial services can be found here.

A video of the complete burial service can be viewed here.

Scruggs Reports to Prison

From the Associated Press:

ASHLAND, Ky. — Anti-tobacco lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs has reported to a federal prison in eastern Kentucky.

Prison spokesman Larry Whitman says Scruggs entered a federal prison in Ashland this morning. He is beginning a five-year sentence for conspiring to bribe a judge with $50,000.

Scruggs was one of two people to plead guilty to the charge. Prosecutors say Scruggs wanted a favorable ruling in a dispute over $26.5 million in legal fees from a settlement of Hurricane Katrina insurance cases.

In the 1990s, Scruggs used a corporate insider to take on tobacco companies in lawsuits that resulted in a $206 billion settlement. That case was portrayed in the 1999 film "The Insider" that starred Al Pacino and Russell Crowe.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

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"We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life." - Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Address (1978)

"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" - The Gulag Archipelago - Part I, The Prison Industry, Ch. 4 "The Bluecaps"

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died today at the age of 89.

An obituary from the New York Times can be read here.

Solzhenitsyn was a famed Russian novelist and historian who wrote a number of critically acclaimed works.

He was also one of the most important dissidents of the Soviet Union. He was sentenced to the Gulag prison system beginning in 1945. He was imprisoned in various hard labor camps for ten years. After he was released from prison he was forced to live in internal exile for the remainder of his years in the Soviet Union. His experiences in the Gulag led him to write his greatest work: The Gulag Archipelago, which is one of the most important historical writings of the 20th Century.

Other important Russian artists and writers (including Mstislav Rostropovich and Yevgeny Yevtushenko) attempted to aid and defend Solzhenitsyn from the persecutions of the Soviet government. They, in turn, were persecuted as well.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970.

He was formally stripped of his citizenship and exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974. He settled in Vermont and lived there quietly for almost twenty years as he continued writing.

He returned to Russia in 1994. He was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation for his lifetime of humanitarian work in 2007 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

May his memory be eternal!