1st Pachanga fest rocks

Latino rock ruled at Austin’s first PachangaLatino Music Festival, held May 31 in thecity’s Waterloo Park as the capper toAustin’s third annual Latino Music Month.Besides some of the area’s greatest Latinobands — Michael Ramos’ CharangaCakewalk, Grupo Fantasma and Vallejo (AlexVallejo and band manager Rich Garzaorganized the event) — the party (that’sAnglo for pachanga) featured a variety oftalent from Texas and beyond, includingbuzz band Girl in a Coma, from San Antonio,and Tijuana’s Nortec Collective Presents:Bostich + Fussible, a conglomeration of liveplayers, DJs and non-stop visuals.

In the spirit of the day, Vallejo coveredWall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio” and War’s“Low Rider”; Grupo worked some ofSantana’s “No One to Depend On” into“Gimme Some,” a song from the band’sabout-to-drop release, Sonidos Gold (out onJune 17). They also paid homage to“Somebody named Prince.” That would bethe guy who’s given them loads of worklately, from Super Bowl parties to Grammyshindigs, not to mention taking the band’sJewMex horn section to the CoachellaFestival and on The Tonight Show with JayLeno. Proceeds from the festival, whichattracted 3,000, benefited the AustinLatino Music Association.

We couldn’t be happier with the way theevent turned out,” said Garza. “We were afirst-year event with no brand; the atten-dance met our expectations, especially withthe scorching heat.”

BettySoo wins New Folk contestFive Texas songwriters (out of an initial poolof more than 800 contenders) made it to thesemi-finals for the 2008 Grassy Hill KerrvilleNew Folk competition, but in the end, onlyone emerged among this year’s top six final-ists: Austin’s BettySoo (aka Betty Soo Terry).The Spring native, who is featured as a

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“Spotlight” artist in the current issue of TexasMusic, wowed the contest’s notoriously pickyjudges with the title track from her 2007 EP,Never the Pretty Girl, and a brand new song,“Glass Heart.” The other finalists were DevonSproule of Charlottesville, Va.; RJ Cowdery ofColumbus, Ohio; Hans York of Seattle, Wash.,and Robby Hecht and CJ Watson, both ofNashville. The other Texas semi-finalists wereMolly Venter, Shelley King, Datri Bean andClaude “Butch” Morgan.

Country Thunder cancelledThe Country Thunder USA music festivaloriginally planned for May 29-June 1 nearDallas at Thunder Ridge Range turned outto be a false forecast. Artists who had beenscheduled to perform at the festival includ-ed Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, DierksBentley, Pat Green, Kellie Pickler and JoeNichols. Country Thunder general manager

Glenn Starnes said the cancellation wascaused by a depressed economy, low ticketsales and the financial outcome of lastyear’s festival in Texas. Concert organizerssay the decision will not affect the CountryThunder event taking place July 16-19 inTwin Lakes, Wis., which will featureSugarland, Underwood, Bentley, TaylorSwift, Miranda Lambert, Sara Evans andothers.

Jessica Simpson’s country debutMove over, Miranda, and make room on thecountry airwaves for another blonde spitfirefrom North Texas. After conquering — or atleast leaving an indelible impression on —the worlds of pop music, reality TV and theDallas Cowboys, Jessica Simpson releasedher first country music single last week.Titled “Come on Over” (Shania who?), thesong was co-written by Simpson herselfwith Rachel Proctor and Victoria Banks. Thecurious can hear a stream of the song onSimpson’s Web site — if they haven’t alreadyheard it on their local country station. Thesingle entered Billboard’s Hot CountrySongs chart at No. 41 — a record debut for asolo artist with no history on the countrychart. Simpson’s debut country album isdue out this fall.

More grief for EmilioEmilio Navaira may be on the mend afternearly losing his life in his harrowing EasterSunday bus crash, but the Tejano star isabout to face the music. According to theHouston Chronicle, two of his band memberswho were also injured in the crash, DanielSandoval and Pedro Ramirez, have now fileda lawsuit against Emilio Inc. (Navaira’s corpo-rate identity), seeking unspecified damages.Police reports say Navaira, who was drivingthe tour bus when it crashed, was legallyintoxicated at the time.

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EXTRAPUBLISHER/ STEWART RAMSER

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EDITORS LYNNE MARGOLIS

CINDY ROYAL

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ART DIRECTOR TORQUIL SCOTT-DEWAR

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The girls of San Antonio’s Girl in a Coma.(Photo by Carolos San Miguel)

Eli Young Band lands dealDenton’s EliYoung Band isthe latest actfrom theregional Texasroots scene tomake the leapto the majors.In early May,the band mem-bers — Mike Eli,James Young,Jon Jones andChris

Thompson —announced that they had signed toNashville’s Universal South (home to CrossCanadian Ragweed). Their major-labeldebut, which will feature 10 new songs aswell as a remake of “When It Rains,” from2005’s Level, is due in September.

ACL Festival grids releasedLooking forward to catching both Beck andRobert Plant & Alison Krauss at this year’sAustin City Limits Music Festival? Better pickone or the other — or start seriously trainingfor the sprinting you’ll be doing from oneend of Zilker Park to the other in order tohear at least half of each set, because thetwo marquee acts will be playing oppositestages at the same time. The schedule gridsfor the Sept. 26-28 festival were unveiled atwww.aclfestival.com on June 3, along with ahandful of new additions to the lineup. Newadds include Texans Rodney Crowell, the Old97’s, the Black & White Years and Dan Dyer;also added were Blues Traveler and AbigailWashburn & the Sparrow Quartet featuringBéla Fleck.

Old 97’s, Carll twang togetherThe Old 97’s, that beloved twang-rock bandfrom Dallas, and Houston native/currentAustinite Hayes Carll are joining forces for aTexas-centric tour this summer. Carll opensthe first leg of the tour, through June 20.The band plans to trek to the Midwest andCanada, then to the Pacific Northwest andon down to California in support of theirnew CD, Blame It On Gravity, released May13. This disc has a bonus DVD edition fea-turing lead singer Rhett Miller conducting atour of the band’s old hangouts from theirDallas days, before Miller moved East andMurry Hammond went West.

Who’s going to Willie’s Picnic?Well, for starters, Merle Haggard, Pat Green,Ray Price, Los Lonely Boys, Asleep at theWheel, David Allan Coe, Ray Wylie Hubbardand Billy Joe Shaver, that’s who. And proba-bly a whole lot of other folks, too — artists,that is; it’s pretty much a given that thefans will come in droves. Tickets for the bigJuly 4 family gathering at the VerizonWireless Amphitheatre in Selma (just northof San Antonio) are on sale now.

Is Denton the next Austin?Denton band Midlake was featured in a May 11New York Times article highlighting theDenton music scene. According to the article,more than 100 bands are active in the area;the story also reported several music insidersare now calling Denton “the next Austin.” Asmall-town feel and independent spirit, com-bined with access to the University of NorthTexas’s College of Music, were among the rea-sons cited for Denton’s emergence as a livemusic hotbed. Other area bands mentionedwere Centro-matic, Mandarin and Vortexas.

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The Eli Young Band

Lakeway goes live againLakeway Resort and Spa has partneredwith KGSR-FM (107.1) to create the secondannual Live at the Lake summer concertseries. The series begins June 1 and contin-ues every Sunday through Aug. 24 (with theexception of July 6). Scheduled to performare Bob Schneider, nelo, Seth Walker,Jimmy LaFave, Band of Heathens, GuyForsyth, Carolyn Wonderland, Shawn Sahm& the Tex-Mex Experience and Fastball. Thefull schedule can be found at www.kgsr.com.

Not to be outdone ...Hill Country Galleria, the shopping and resi-dential development in Bee Cave, continuesits Outdoor Amphitheater concert serieswith Fastball on June 7 and Grayson Cappsand Jim Bianco on June 14. For more info,visit www.hillcountrygalleria.com/events.

Bump-ing aroundAustin’s resident closest-thing-to-a-Rolling-Stone, Ian McLagan, signed a deal with UKlabel Proper Records to handle theEuropean release of his new album, NeverSay Never, available stateside on his ownManiac Records. Faces/Small Faces alumMcLagan and his Bump Band — guitaristScrappy Jud Newcomb, bassist Mark Andesand drummer Don Harvey — celebrate theirfourth anniversary of Thursday happy-hourgigs at Austin’s Lucky Lounge on June 26.

Here comes Li’l Cap’n TravisRetro-pop alt-country band Li’l Cap’n Traviscelebrated the return of singer ChristianBraafladt with a gig at Austin’s ContinentalClub on May 31. Braafladt spent the pasttwo years in Durango, Colo., before realiz-ing, like many before him, that there’s noplace like Austin. When asked for a com-

ment about his sabbatical from the CapitolCity, Braafladt cryptically replied, “I ateeverything on my plate.” The reference is toa favorite tombstone epitaph he had onceseen on a gravesite near Amarillo. It’sunclear whether he meant he was obedient,like a child, or that he took advantage ofevery opportunity he could — or whether hedid everything he wanted to and simply gotdone. Whatever. Welcome back to Texas.

The Braun BunchWhy settle for one Braun Brothers releasewhen you can have two? Hot on the heels ofReckless Kelly’s upcoming release,Bulletproof, will be a new album from Codyand Willy Braun’s younger brothers’ band,Micky & the Motorcars (featuring Micky andGary Braun). As previously reported,Bulletproof hits stores June 24, and theMotorcars’ Naive drops July 29. Fans of bothbands looking for late-summer road trip canstart making plans now to attend the BraunBrothers Reunion Festival Aug. 7-9 in Challis,Idaho. In addition to Reckless Kelly and Micky& the Motorcars, the festival will also featureRobert Earl Keen, Cross Canadian Ragweed,the Randy Rogers Band, Jason Boland & theStragglers and many more. For more infor-mation, visit www.braunbrothersreunion.com.

Air guitarists, start your fingersThe 2008 U.S. Air Guitar Championshipstour will strum its way to Austin sometimein July, according to sponsors US Air Guitarand TouchTunes. The date and venue arestill TBA. Though some of us can’t under-stand how this phenomenon spread andwouldn’t be caught dead playing air guitar,others take the event every bit as seriouslyas, well, breathing (air, that is). Sign up orget tix at www.usairguitar.com.

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1-7/13International Festival Institute at Round TopFestival HillRound Topwww.festivalhill.org

6American Bank of Texas Frisco Grooveswith Terri HendrixWarren Sports Complex Friscowww.friscogrooves.org

7Accordion Kings & QueensMiller Outdoor Theatre, Hermann ParkHoustonwww.texasfolklife.org

Hill Country Galleria OutdoorAmphitheater Concert Serieswith FastballHill Country GalleriaBee Cavewww.hillcountrygalleria.com/events

8KGSR Live at the Lake with neloLakeway Resort and SpaAustinwww.kgsr.com

11Comal Country Music ShowCivic CenterNew Braunfelswww.nbsenior.org

KGSR Blues on the Green with Asleep at the WheelZilker ParkAustinwww.kgsr.com

13American Bank of Texas Frisco Grooveswith South Austin Jug BandWarren Sports Complex Friscowww.friscogrooves.org

13-14Overton Bluegrass & Gospel MusicFestivalOverton City ParkOvertonwww.overtonbluegrass.com

13-15Texas Folklife FestivalUTSA’s Institute of Texan CulturesSan Antoniowww.texasfolklifefestival.org

14Texas Blueberry FestivalDowntownNacogdocheswww.texasblueberryfestival.com

Hill Country Galleria OutdoorAmphitheater Concert Serieswith Grayson CappsHill Country GalleriaBee Cavewww.hillcountrygalleria.com/events

15KGSR Live at the Lake with Seth WalkerLakeway Resort and SpaAustinwww.kgsr.com

J U N E

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calendar

Get your motor running withJohnny Winter June 14.

Terri Hendrix performs at Frisco Grooves June 6.

Republic of TexasBiker RallyAustin, June 12-15

“The Live Music Capital ofthe World” is never louderthan it is when a few thou-sand bikers roll through town— and we’re not talking aboutthe Lance Armstrong type ofbiker. The forecast calls forheavy metal thunder June12-15, when thousands ofHarley enthusiasts will roarinto Austin for the Republicof Texas Biker Rally. Andwhere there’s Hawgs, youbetter believe there’s goingto be rock ’n’ roll. This year’sheadliners include Texas leg-end Johnny Winter, MollyHatchet, Canned Heat andthe Charlie Daniels Band —along with tons of equallyrockin’ locals like Joe Ely andHonky. June 12-15. Variouslocations, Austin; For fullschedule and more info, visitwww.rotrally.com.

Seth Walker performs at Live at the Lake inAustin June 15.

THE MOTHERTRUCKERSLet’s All Go to Bed(Funzalo)June and Johnny, Dolly and

Porter, Tammy and George, Sheryl and Kid... Teal and Josh. Meet the latest couple towear the country duo crown. Fronted bymarried couple Josh Zee and Teal Collins,the Mother Truckers mix country and blueswith guitar rock, sharp vocals and cleverlyrics. “Dynamite” kicks things off with aburst of energy. Zee rocks on “Streets ofAtlanta,” and Collin’s sweet and spicyvocals set off “Kaki’s Song” and the BillyJoe Shaver cover, “When I Get My Wings.”The title track is a rousing hoedown aboutthe ironies of life (“life is like a map to theplace you’re gonna die ... let’s all go tobed”). If you’ve been waiting to hear thesound of new country, this is it. CINDY ROYAL

CRAIG MARSHALLPoint of View(Big Ticket)You might know Austin’sCraig Marshall as the leadsinger of the jazz quartet

Lucky Strikes. But, did you know he’s got aknack for the pop tunes, as well? Point ofView flaunts a range of influences, from’60s pop to steel-guitar infused country.Marshall delivers what we all love aboutpop music: catchy hooks, dark lyricswrapped in happy melodies, jangling tam-bourines — it’s all there. Several tunesscream for airplay, the most obvious being“Radio Girl,” a lilting number in the spirit ofFastball/early Elvis Costello. Begging thereturn of a favorite on-air personality, thesong fades in and out with a radio-frequen-cy effect that desperately attempts to tunein the female voice. CINDY ROYAL

BRENT ADAIROstrich(www.brentadair.com)In a city where talent runslike tap water, and a

singer-songwriter can be found at everystreet corner, coffee shop and hipster’ssofa, it’s hard to stand out. With Ostrich,Austin musician Brent Adair not onlystands out, but shines. Adair’s secondrelease is full of lush imagery, depicting lifeand love, restlessness and renewal, traveland settling down. Producer Billy Harvey(Bob Schneider, Kacy Crowley) adds a play-fulness that nicely complements Adair’ssensitive lyrics and melodies. Tapping intomodern influences like Death Cab, BrightEyes and M. Ward, Adair’s songs are acces-sible and familiar, yet distinctive and fresh.From the bouncy ballad “Time Away” tothe quirky, funny “If I Could Sleep,” Adairdemonstrates a breadth of musical andlyrical versatility. “Superman” blends atouch of punk with rollicking country and achorus reminiscent of early Eagles,America or Ryan Adams circa Gold. Thehaunting keyboards on “Arctic” accompanylyrics that are poignant and honest (“Youcame crashing in, and poured right out ofme”), yet not overly sentimental. A simple,acoustic arrangement delivers the inquisi-tive ache of “Inside Me.” And, like the noteon the table in “Untied,” Adair has a knackfor words “eloquent, balanced, and sweet.”The CD closes with the instrumental“White Fingers,” offering a chance toreflect, make sense of it all, and write yourown ending. Ostrich, with its focused andcrisp arrangement, represents significantgrowth from Adair’s first effort, 2004’sPieces, and firmly establishes him inAustin’s exceptionally prolific pool of talent.CINDY ROYAL

June 3 Lisa Loeb Camp Lisa (children’s album) Furious RoseJune 3 Mother Truckers Let’s All Go to Bed FunzaloJune 3 Pinetop Perkins Pinetop Perkins and Friends TelarcJune 3 Lockboxx Drop Shop CharacterJune 3 Centro-Matic/ Dual Hawks Misra

South San GabrielJune 3 Neal McCoy The Real McCoy RhinoJune 10 Alejandro Escovedo Real Animal (vinyl only) Back PorchJune 10 Kimmie Rhodes Walls Fall Down SunbirdJune 10 Sisters Morales Talking to the River LunaJune 10 Carla Olson & the Textones Detroit ’85 — Live & Unreleased Collector’s ChoiceJune 10 Carla Olson & Mick Taylor Too Hot for Snakes Collector’s ChoiceJune 10 Chip Taylor New Songs of Freedom Train WreckJune 17 Susan Gibson New Dog, Old Tricks Smith MusicJune 17 Honeybrowne Mile By Mile Smith MusicJune 17 Rob Roy Parnell Let’s Start Something Blue RocketJune 17 Heybale The Last Country Album Shuffle 5June 17 Houston Marchman Naked: The Best of ... HoustonMarchman.comJune 24Reckless Kelly Bulletproof Yep RocJune 24Alejandro Escovedo Real Animal Back PorchJune 24Ian McLagan Never Say Never ManiacJune 24Mark Chesnutt Rollin’ with the Flo Lofton Creek/Big 7July 1 Los Lonely Boys Forgiven EpicJuly 1 Willie Nelson Stardust (Legacy Ed.) Columbia/LegacyJuly 8 Willie Nelson Two Men with the Blues Blue Note

& Wynton MarsalisJuly 15 Eric Hisaw Nature of the Blues SaustexJuly 15 Pauline Reese Rolling Stone Smith MusicJuly 29 Britt Lloyd Band The Ink Smith MusicJuly 29 Micky & the Motorcars Naive Smith MusicAug. 5 Carrie Rodriguez She Ain’t Me Back PorchSept. 2 Rodney Crowell Sex & Gasoline Work Song/Yep Roc

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Rodney Crowell to peddle Sex & GasolineHouston-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell returns Sept. 2 with Sex &Gasoline. Produced by fellow Americana music veteran Joe Henry, this is Crowell’s debut forWork Song/Yep Roc Records, following a five-year (2001-2005) comeback run on Sony thatproduced the albums The Houston Kid, Fate’s Right Hand and The Outsider. All three ofthose releases were met with considerable critical acclaim, though Crowell says that his ses-sions with Henry, recorded last year in Pasadena, Calif., resulted in “some of the best per-formances I’ve given to date.”

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Mother Truckers

Talk about some busy Mothers. With therelease of their newest CD, Let’s All Go toBed, a tie-in with the adult film Roller Dollz,and a summer tour that will take them coastto coast, the Mother Truckers are on the rise.Fronted by the husband and wife team ofJosh Zee and Teal Collins, the band originallymet and formed in California. They relocatedto Austin in 2005 and quickly gained a localfollowing by playing weekly happy hours atthe legendary Continental Club. They werenamed the Best Roots Rock Band at theAustin Chronicle’s 2007 Austin MusicAwards, in a city teeming with competitionfor that honor. They’ve honed a distinctivesound that wraps rock and pop into a coun-try package and ties it with soaring vocalsand high-energy performances. Texas Musiccaught up with Teal and Josh after their CDrelease and in-store performance atWaterloo Records in Austin.

Congrats on the new CD. How does it com-pare to your previous two albums?J: I had grown up playing rock all my life. Ireached a point in my life where I wanted todo something different. My second favoritewas country, so Teal and I started this county

Q&A band. Over the last two albums, each albumbecame progressively more and more rock.That rock ’n’ roll background eventually creptback in. This album reflects that we are a mixof everything. We grew up listening to rockand country and blues, and just about everyother thing, too. We finally found the perfectmix of all our favorite music.

The album cover is Teal in bed in the mid-dle of a field by herself with her guitar. Theflip side hilariously features the rest of theband, three guys, snuggled up in the samebed. How did you decide on that concept? T: The way we came up with it was by brain-storming. It went back to when we were inthis cool old hotel in Tucson called the HotelCongress. There was this old bed in the room,and Josh took a few pictures of me in it andthought that would make a cool album cover.And, the “Let’s All Go To Bed” thing, youalways want to have something kind ofcatchy-sounding, and boy, everybody gets alittle chuckle, which I like.J: It’s the bookends aspect of it that makes itfunny. It’s the fact that it’s great to have agreat-looking gal on the front of your CD, butit’s when you turn it over that you get the fullstory. And hopefully, you get a little chuckleout of it.

Teal, how do you feel about being alone onthe cover? T: That didn’t occur to me until we had fin-ished the artwork. Because when you areworking on the artwork you see every singlepage of the art. But now it’s a little bit weird,because we’ve never done that. But anybodythat knows the band, knows that it’s anabsolute partnership. We sing; we write allthe songs, Josh and I.

How did the tie-in with the Roller Dollzfilm come about? J: One of the main guys at Adam and EveProductions, which is one of the biggestadult entertainment producers in the world,saw us at SXSW. I guess he must haveenjoyed our set, and then he talked to ourmanager. They were doing a movie calledRoller Dollz, and it’s just really that simple.He liked our music, thought it would be goodfor the movie. And as a cross-promotionalthing, they said they would film a video forus. So we enlisted the help of Austin’s ownHotrod Honeys roller derby team to comedown. They were in our video, the girls in thefilm were in the video, our fans were in thevideo. We should get a rough edit back in acouple of weeks, and hopefully it will hit theairwaves as soon as possible.

And how far are you willing to take thistie-in? Are you prepared to strap on theskates and pads?T: I thought you were going to say strap on adildo. I’m not willing to take it that far! But Ihave my own roller skates that I broughtdown for the video, and I strapped those on.I love roller skating.

I know Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheelhas been a mentor of sorts to you. What'sthe best advice anyone, Ray or otherwise,has ever given you? T: Yeah, Ray’s in our corner. The best advice Igot from Ray was, “move to Austin.” J: The best advice I ever got was, “do untoothers as you would have others do untoyou.” That’s just something you kind of over-look, the real simple things sometimes. Butthat, to me, says it all. CINDY ROYAL

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Americana

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CHARTS:myspaceTW LW Artist Points1 — Reckless Kelly 16,9922 — Bob Schneider 16,7053 — Los Lonely Boys 16,2434 — Patty Griffin 15,2245 — Lucinda Williams 9,5996 — Old 97’s 8,0347 — Ryan Bingham 5,7498 — Hayes Carll 5,1299 — Todd Snider 4,61610 — Billy Joe Shaver 4,59911 — James McMurtry 4,59012 — Steve Earle 4,45313 — Charlie Sexton 3,07514 — Lyle Lovett 2,63315 — Abra Moore 2,20316 — Alejandro Escovedo 2,06517 — Kelly Willis 1,82118 — The Greencards 1,50619 — Sorta 1,46520 — The DedRingers 1,44821 — Carolyn Wonderland 1,411 22 — Guy Forsyth 1,32723 — Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash 1,13724 — Bruce Robison 1,00625 — Ruthie Foster 988

Rankings for the MySpace chart are determined by a point system factoring in the number of profile views, song plays and friends on the artists’ official MySpace pages.