Austin

September 27, 2008



White Ghost Shivers at Emo's

Jamie Lidell

Austin



Thanks to the largesse of our friend Nadene and her friends at BMI, Kathy & I are back in Austin, Texas to attend the annual and amazing Austin City Limits Music Festival. Nadene organizes the wonderful Key West Songwriters Festival and as a perk she is able to score coveted 3 day VIP passes to the ACL Fest. This year our group included Nadene & her boyfriend Trevor along with our friends Melissa & Rhett and Kathy & myself. It’s always more fun traveling with a group of friends and this trip was no exeption.

Kathy,Nadene, Trevor & Melissa

After driving to Miami, catching a flight to Dallas, it was on to Austin where we checked into a downtown hotel and soon headed out to sample the vaunted Austin night life. On our previous visits here, we pretty much stuck to the festival itself, mostly because it is so physically exhausting that we never felt much like going out afterwards, We pre-determined that this year would be different and we started straight away in testing our resolve.



Our first stop was the famed Stubb’s Barb-B-Que where we partook of a great meal of tasty barbeque while listening to the thumping of Manu Chao who was playing an ACL pre-show on the outside stage. After a tasty meal, we headed over to nearby Emo’s for the official ACL Kick-Off party. Once again, Nadene had scored us spots on the VIP gust list and there was a full range of bands playing that included Mates of State, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Bobby Bare, Jr., Dan Dyer, Thomas Function and our favorite- Austin’s own White Ghost Shivers.

Stubb's



The Shivers performed an eclectic, funky set that really needs to be seen to be appreciated. One might pass them off as a novelty if they didn’t sound so good, Check out the youtube video below for a sample. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to the 6th Street bar scene that is part of Austin’s charm. Key West should learn a lesson from the blocking off of the street at night which creates a huge outdoor party atmosphere along the length of the street, which is lined with countless bars.

Melissa & Kathy

Despite stumbling home late, Kathy, Nadene & I managed to get up bright and early to head over to another insider function as a local radio station was broadcasting a live ACL preview show in the lobby of the Four Seasons hotel with live on-air performances from a few of the festival acts. We caught two good ones, Christopher Denny and the dynamic Jamie Liddell. It was a small intimate setting and a perfect way to kick-off the weekend.

Christopher Denny at Four Seasons

Jamie Lidell




White Ghost Shivers Site

Jamie Lidell site

Stubb's