don't know where I'm going...

Perhaps in U.S. cultural terms, I may be headed to the exact opposite of Boulder, CO. I'm packed up and headed to Odessa, TX. Clearly not heading there for live music but rather following a job and moving back closer to family. As much as I loved living near Denver, I think this move is going to be for good.

So what does Odessa offer as far as music/culture? Great question, I'm glad you asked.

It's not all that uncommon for people to have no idea where or what Odessa is. Friday Night Lights ring a bell? Yes, that's the one. Indie icons Explosions in the Sky hail from nearby Midland. Also, Guy Clark and Roy Orbison came from Monahans and Wink, respectively, Hoyle Nix established western swing in Big Spring and all around West Texas, and of course there's Larry Gatlin, Odessa's own hometown boy. "All in the gold, in California..."

It's not hard to criticize the much lesser presence of live music in the area, but in my new home, it's all going to be about finding the diamonds in the rough. Oddly enough, I have had two great musical experiences in my life in Odessa.

The first time, on the same night that my ex was getting married (My advice - never go, even when you're invited), I took the trip to Odessa to see Modest Mouse play at Dos Amigos. The show was literally played in the middle of a rodeo arena in the back of the venue. This was around the time of Good News for People Who Love Bad News, and it was an awesome show, not to mention much better than going to a wedding you don't want to be at.

The second time, a small group of us made the trek down from Lubbock to see Anathallo and the Colour Revolt play a tiny little honky tonk called Earls II. Pretty crazy place to see two indie bands, but it's one of those places where, when the right person promotes the show, the indie kids just show up. Promoters in this area come and go, but most of the time, someone gets up the energy/courage to start hosting shows again and the shows do fairly well, because the kids want to see live music so badly. Hoping I can play a very small part in making good shows happen from time to time.

But wait, there's more. As it turns out Odessa is a bit less than 3 hours from Marfa, the tiny town in deep West Texas that has turned into a substantial artist community. Unbelievably, this little town has hosted shows by Bon Iver, Jeff Tweedy, The Secret Machines, Yo La Tengo, Califone, Yeasayer. The list goes on and on. This place truly is an oasis when it comes to music offerings in the middle of the desert. In addition, Railroad Blues in nearby Alpine has a solid regular music calendar as well.

My musical landscape is changing, not ending. The blog will probably also change a bit. Expect general interest material about the West Texas region in general. This may include, but is not limited to Midland/Odessa, San Angelo, Lubbock, Marfa, Alpine, and Terlingua. I won't make any broad and bold statements about what will come of Windfarm in the next few years, but I hope to promote arts and culture in West Texas as much as time will allow.

Any West Texans who run across this blog, please feel free to pass along West Texas music events to me.

Sometimes the world throws you a curveball

Believe it or not, Kenny Chesney will be recording a version of Guy Clark's song "Hemingway's Whiskey" for his new album, which he also plans to name after the song.

That's right, this guy:

































Since I consider Clark one of the great living songwriters, it's not surprising for this to happen really, and KC even wins a few points in my book for recording the song. I hope it does well and gets the airtime it deserves. No word yet whether Clark will return the favor by recording "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy."

Guy Clark - Denver, CO, 02/17/10

(Photo by Señor McGuire, courtesy GuyClark.com)

Last night, at the L2 Culture and Arts Center in Denver, I had the great pleasure of seeing a performance by Guy Clark, someone I consider to be one of the greatest living songwriters. While not widely famous, Clark has likely written at least one song that you know, because while he hasn't really had any radio hits on his own, many of his songs have charted for other artists such as Jerry Jeff Walker, the Highwaymen, Bobby Bare, and Ricky Skaggs.

This show was my first trip to this venue, and the cavernous church building was the perfect venue to hear Clark perform. While playing somewhat of a short set, Clark didn't play a bad song the entire night, and more importantly, he spent a good amount of time telling stories in-between and during songs. He didn't necessarily play all of his most well known songs, but he played most of the ones that people really wanted to hear, including "L.A. Freeway" and "Dublin Blues," as well as some songs from his newest album, including "Somedays the Song Writes You," "The Guitar," and "Hemingway's Whiskey."

Most importantly (to me), Clark played "Desperadoes Waiting for a Train" about halfway through the set, a song written about a man ("his grandmother's boyfriend," as he says) that he spent a lot of time with during his childhood in Monahans, Texas, and who taught him a lot about life. Now I'm not here to try and make this song mean something to you if you've heard it and never thought much more of it. However, for me personally, growing up in rural West Texas, this song is maybe the most eloquently worded description of the type of character this man was, and everyone knows a few of them if you grew up in the area, that could ever be put to music. Any song after it that tells that story will just be a take on Clark's song. Guy Clark is a man of words, and seeing him last night, it was clear how he has made his living all of these years off of that exact thing.

I was also quite pleased that he played another one of my personal favorites -- "Out in the Parking Lot," remarking that it was "another song about Texas, but I guess it could really be about anywhere." He was accompanied on guitar and harmony vocals by Verlon Thompson, whom I presume is a long-time sideman of his, and who was the perfect accompaniment to Clark's singing and playing. Thompson played a few of his own songs as well, while Clark took a break, and he took the time to tell a few stories about what it's like to tour around with someone like Guy Clark.

The crowd was an odd mix of older folk fans and younger americana fans. If you haven't been to a Swallow Hill show, it's an interesting experience. They are an association with membership fees, and thus, the members get various benefits such as having the best seats reserved for them and getting to cut in line for the bathroom when the wait is too long. The most unfortunate moment of the night, that really made me wonder who the hell these people were, was when one person yelled out for Clark to play "Homegrown Tomatoes," which he played, and as soon as he finished, people began yelling from all corners of the theater for songs they wanted to hear. Now maybe this is just a soapbox of mine, but if he didn't specifically ask for requests, then don't start yelling at him to play something after his second song. If you want to hear a song, go listen to a CD; if you came to hear an artist perform, then shut up and let him do the job he's been doing all his life. Luckily he was able to put the kibosh on the requests with a polite yet firm statement that said not explicitly, but in so many words, that "I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing up here."

Still a year away from his 70th birthday, Clark is still visibly slowed by the leg he broke back in 2008 (that he referred to as "an old songwriting injury"). This fact didn't hurt the performance, but his slow and deliberate steps onto and off of the stage left everyone holding their breath just a little bit. Clark's genuine demeanor makes you believe that every word he sings could be true -- maybe the truest mark of a great songwriter. If you've not seen Be Here to Love Me, it contains some great accounts from Clark about his time with Townes Van Zandt, as the two were quite close, having come up in the same folk scene in Houston in the 1960s.

I've heard it said that the people who write the best songs often haven't actually lived the hard times and can speak about them because they can see them from the outside, while the people who have lived the hardest times can't write about them well because they can't see outside of them. Somehow it seems that Clark has made it through the hardest times and still has the ability to describe them in a way that can literally bring tears to your eyes. If you haven't had the chance to hear him live, or if you haven't heard his latest album, I highly recommend them both. Clark is one of West Texas' greatest sons, even if half the people there wouldn't know him if they saw him face to face. It is Clark's words that people know, which is appropriate, because that's what he is best at.

I know it's tough out there,
Good news is hard to find,
Living one word to the next,
One line at a time.

Now there's more to life than whiskey,
There's more to words than rhyme,
Sometimes nothing works,
Sometimes nothing shines,
like Hemingway's Whiskey...

--Guy Clark, "Hemingway's Whiskey"

Since you're not likely to hear these on the radio today

This clip has some of my favorite songwriters on stage together, but something is just a little off with the performance - I think maybe it's not the ideal key for everyone to be singing in. Nonetheless, it's still an amazing song. And in case you didn't know, Guy Clark will be in Denver on Feb. 17th.



This has nothing to do with any of the above songwriters, and has nothing to do with any upcoming shows. However, it never hurts to break out the Don Williams every so often. And also, my new mission is to revive the greats of 80s country. Did someone say Vince Gill? Rodney Crowell perhaps?