Back to Dallas

Hi y'all.

This blog is well overdue. Haven't used this much at all.

I'm just back from the amazing South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. I feel lucky to be here writing this actually as we were caught in flash flooding on the way back to Dallas from Austin to catch our flight home. Bloody scary stuff. Police cars floating by on the freeway etc.

South By Southwest (SXSW) was pretty incredible. Never seen so many musicians in one place before. A musicians Mardi Gras. Every single free space seemed to be turned into a venue. Aswell as playing a few shows myself I was lucky enough to see some amazing stuff. Ray Willie Hubbard, Trish Murphy to start with. I was invited to Ray Benson from Asleep At The Wheel's birthday bash. He played the whole night with a great band and a whole host of amazing guests icluding Steve Bruton, Dale Watson, Bob Schneider among many others. We ended up hanging out and drinking with the mayor of Austin Will Wynn (how's that for a name for a polititian!!) Fun night.

I was Will Kimbrough's guest at an amazing gig featuring first off the fantastic Eliza Gilkyson, then Tom Russel, followed by Rodney Crowell with Will and then to top it all off - Lyle Lovette. Not a bad show eh!!

I played a couple of gigs at a great little place called Opal Divines and one at a new place in town Cafe Caffeine, plus I took part in South By Soup Fest. This involved playing for the homeless of Austin at Caritas Soup Kitchen. Quite a humbling experience. It was my birthday the day I played and they all sang happy birthday to me.

Spent some time and money in the famous Waterloo Records store. Got the new Tones Van Zandt documentary DVD and a few other things. Dangerous place for me the record store. Spend, spend, spend!!

That's all for now. Gotta get on with finishing some songs for the new record.

Also just got the new Josh Rouse record. Sounds good.

Spring is almost here.

Cheers
Dean.