Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get admission to Pearl Jam’s Austin City Limits taping back in October. The episode airs tomorrow night at 7pm on KLRU locally. Check your own listings on your local PBS station of you’re outside of Austin. The ACL people have posted a time lapse video of the day’s taping. If you’ve never been to an ACL taping, it gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the elevator up to the studio and the hallway to the studio where they pass out the free Ziegenbock and Budweiser on the way in. You can also see the historical marker that was added recently on the end of the bleacher risers on stage right. I’m pretty sure that’s part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame declaring ACL a rock and roll landmark. It wasn’t there when I was in the studio in June for the Okkervil River taping. I’m definitely going to miss the old studio when they move the operation downtown in a couple of years.

Here’s a couple of reviews of the taping that were posted right after it happened from Austin 360 and TwoFeetThick along with an outtakes addendum from Austin360 as well.

Speaking of ACL tapings, if you’re a fan of Pearl Jam, set your calendars for February 13th when the Them Crooked Vultures taping will air.

My Bloody Valentine at the Austin Music Hall

You can view the whole set here.

The house I lived in before this one was built around a tree. The tree was enclosed in glass, and inquisitive nocturnal creatures such as raccoons could be seen nightly. There was a sleeping porch atop the back shed and carport. In the carport was an upright piano. And it was in tune. And, until that day when it vanished sometime between morning and evening, at least once a month, at around three in the morning, someone would come and play beautiful music on that piano. Some of the music owed a debt to Thelonious Monk; some betrayed evidence of serious training in the classical repertoire.

I love those evenings when strains of melody are borne on the breeze from afar. This happens more often at night than in the daytime. Some people don’t love it at all, of course, thinking of it as noise, and I myself prefer the full range of sound, from the lowest bass to the most delicate treble. Unfortunately, it’s the bass and percussion that seem to be the last to decay over distance.

This weekend brought accomplished music from somewhere nearby. Had it not been so late, I would have been very tempted to track the music to its source, which must have been very close at hand. Avatars of Django and Stephane were playing, along with all proper accompaniment.

Long ago, I worked in a converted rooming house that was reputed once to have been home to Janis Joplin. Back when certain neighborhood structures were communes, some of them were musicians’ establishments. Even now, there are many working musicians nearby, but they practice elsewhere. I had never heard this particular aggregation before, but I certainly hope to hear it again, and often.

I was very fortunate to attend an Austin City Limits taping on Sunday evening. This was my third in the past ten years. I saw Roky Erickson last November and got to see Hank Thompson & Ray Price with Junior Brown in 1999. I seem to have a knack for catching legendary musicians late in their careers.

This time it was “Pinetop” Perkins and Bettye LaVette. Ninety-five year old Perkins was up first. He arrived at the stage in a wheelchair and was helped up onto it by an ACL employee. He made it across the stage on his own and seated himself at the piano wearing an impressive red suit and hat. The backing band consisted of many local veteran musicians including Chris Layton, Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff, Gary Clark Jr. and also included another Blues legend, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, on harmonica. “Big Eyes” has played with “Pinetop” Perkins for many years both on drums and harmonica. I didn’t know this until I started checking him out after the show, but they were both in Muddy Waters band and formed their own Legendary Blues Band, appearing behind John Lee Hooker in The Blues Brothers. Wikipedia claims he’s the only other musician shown clearly on camera in that scene. Time to go check out The Blues Brothers again. KUT did an award winning documentary on Perkins last summer. It was kind of hard to hear Perkins over the band. They turned up his mike after the first song. He’s definitely showing his age, something to be expected at 95, but it was definitely a honor to be able to see him play, one of, if not the, last boogie woogie piano players. In a really weird coincidence, “Down in Mississippi” came on the stereo in the coffee shop where I’m working this morning.

Here’s the set list:

CHICKEN SHACK
DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI
HOW LONG
BIG FAT MAMA
MOJO

Bettye LaVette was up next after a long intermission between bands.

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