A Brief Musical Interlude

Patty Griffin @ Gruene Hall
The Ballerina and I went to see the Queen of the Known Musical Universe back in late April at legendary Gruene Hall. It was a great Father/Daughter date. We saw the show from several different angles and at one point even wandered outside where the Ballerina danced on a picnic table under the colored lights strung across the courtyard. Magic.



Brandi Carlile @ Gruene Hall
One month later I was back at Gruene Hall to see Brandi Carlile and The Twins strut their stuff. I'm not a huge concert-goer, nor do I stray too far off my personal beaten path (in the past 17 years, I've seen 6 shows - U2 and Patty Griffin three times each) so I felt just a little dangerous. Two shows in one month. Oh my! The video below was shot the same week as the Gruene Hall show but it is from Birmingham. This song was the highlight. The twins (the one on the left looked exactly like my friend Scott Carow) unplugged their guitars and she stepped out in front of the microphones, so the whole thing was acoustic. At the show I was at you could have heard a pin drop, everybody was leaned forward and straining to soak it all in, and when the song was over the place just exploded. It was interesting to watch my two favorite female singers back to back like that. Patty Griffin makes you want to lie back in a gondola on a darkened waterway in Venice and look up at the stars as God's grace falls upon you. Brandi Carlile made me want to smash beer bottles and dance a jig on the picnic tables.



Steve Earle @ Austin City Limits, 1986
As long as I am posting music videos, I've got to throw this one in here too. I have watched all 3 of these videos so many times, my kids probably know the words to all these songs. Steve Earle is amazing, this is not even close to his greatest song, but it is a riveting performance. I love the bass player in the background. Probably one of the greatest sad songs of all time and my favorite from Steve Earle is "Goodbye" If you've got 99 cents burning a hole in your pocket - you can't go wrong with that one on iTunes.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

I ran across a great cartoon illustrating the foreward of the Neil Postman book "Amusing Ourselves to Death". You can see it here.