Live from SXSW 2009 (3/18)

The music portion of SXSW kicks off today in Austin, TX and I’ll be in the midst of the mayhem, bouncing from venue to venue, trying to take in as much music as I possibly can. In the process, I’ll attempt to keep y’all updated on what’s going down wherever I happen to be via my cell phone. I hear T-Mobile brought in mobile towers to help out with the demand on their network, so we’ll see how things go, and if this works out, we could be bringing you live updates from festivals all over the country! Check back throughout the day for updates and leave some comments so I know y’all are reading.

9:43 – Brady: Itinerary: check
Cell phone: check
Notepad: check
Camera: check
Money: ouch (free is the word of the day)

10:21 – Brady: And I’m on my way…

10:31 – Brady: Well, I didn’t make it far. Gas light came on, so I’m makin’ a pit stop. Cruisin’ to some JT Earle this morning.

10:58 – Brady: Rodney Hayden finished off the trip. Everyone should go check out “Silverado Boys.” It’s required listening.

11:04 – Brady: Holy schnikees, a $5.25 ATM fee! I’ll just buy a taco and get some change for parking. There goes free…

11:48 – Brady: Missed the first show, but I made it to Fado Irish Pub to catch David Serby and get some leftover green beer.

12:05 – Brady: Must be the green beer keeping everyone away this afternoon. Not many people in the pub.

12:18 – Brady: Talked to David a bit and got a copy of his new CD. He digs the site! Go check him out on Myspace if you like straight up honky-tonk with a lot of twang.

12:24 – Brady: Oh, and he’s a super nice dude.

12:42 – Brady: David just finished up a few songs inside and Gurf Morlix is starting up outside. The place filled up once David started. He tells me he was gonna take SXSW off this year, but came out for this one show. Glad I caught him while he was in Austin.

12:48 – Brady: Morlix’s album has been on my ‘check out’ list. I’ll have to bump it up after hearing a couple of great songs live.

13:11 – Brady: Discovered Dave Insley last week and just met him. I plan on catching one of his shows later this week.

13:15 – Brady: Ditchin’ the pub and walkin’ a couple blocks to Opal Divine’s to catch a little Charlie Shafter and Darryl Lee Rush.

13:43 – Brady: Lost Immigrants are playing instead of Charlie Shafter and the Gnomes. Dunno why, but cool! What is ‘baptized by Texas’ supposed to mean, though?

13:51 – Brady: And why isn’t the lead singer an old guy like the one on their first CD cover?

13:56 – Brady: DLR just jumped on stage to help finish of the Lost Immigrants set with “Judgment Day.” It sounded pretty dang cool.

14:10 – Brady: DLR is sounding good. Just so y’all know, he’ll be in the next episode of our podcast, which is hosted by the famous Kelly Dearmore. Look for it in the next few days.

14:17 – Brady: 80 degrees in March. I got to walk 10 blocks to catch Joe Pug at Paradise. Sucks! Anyone out there in The 9513 land?

14:19 – Brady: Greenpeace wanted me to help them save the planet.

14:47 – Brady: Finally made it to the HearYa party billed as the ‘Stimulus Package’ at Paradise. Waitin’ for Joe Pug. He’s not country, but totally worth checking out. Listen to “Hymn 101.”

14:53 – Brady: They’re raffling off tennis shoes???

15:27 – Brady: Pug is still on and he’s awesome. That’s all I got to say about that. Paradise has a pretty nice listening room upstairs.

15:55 – Brady: Went downstairs to grab a bite and wait for Justin Townes Earle. Kinda weird to hear them playing Randy Travis, Tim McGraw, and Willie and the Wheel downstairs from the folkie Chicago stuff.

16:18 – Brady: JT Earle just came sauntering through with his guitar, banjo, and mandolin. Can such a tall, lanky dude do much more than saunter?

17:45 – Brady: Had connection issues during Earle’s set, which is prolly a good thing because of the sound issues. Sound guy finally worked it out and Earle and Cory Younts put on a great show. They pulled out a killer song that was too new for the latest album and even threw in a Carter Family cover.

18:10 – Brody: Finally made it downtown to join Brady for some Hayes Carll. Everybody is wearing suits. It feels like prom.

19:42 – Brady: Caught Hayes Carll at a gig for the state music agency something or the other. Kind of a weird gig, but he put on a rockin’ show. It was probably smart that he didn’t play “She Left Me For Jesus” for the governor.

19:58 – Brady: We made our way over to Waterloo Icehouse in time to catch the end of another DLR set. Lots of acts are playing in multiple places throughout the day.

20:08 – Brady: Talked to a nice feller from UMG and he said they wanted to get Jamey Johnson to SXSW but he had too much goin on back east. Too bad, I would have paid good money to see that show.

20:06 – Brody: Darryl Lee Rush just got a standing ovation after leaving the stage to perform “I Believe In the Sun” in the audience sans mic. The band backed him with hand claps. Very cool. Two Tons of Steel up next.

20:47 – Brady: The DLR deal was easily the coolest moment of the day. It wasn’t something you’d expect to see at SXSW.

20:48 – Brady: Two Tons of Steel is up now. They hail from San Antonio, TX and bill themselves as countrybilly. Buddy Holly’s influence is readily apparent.

21:50 – Brady: Well, that about does it for today. Still some great music going on, but we took off to see Corb Lund at Threadgill’s and the schedule was different, so we called it a night. Hope you guys enjoyed the updates. Let us know if you’d like to see more events covered this way or if there’s anything we can do to improve the experience.