South By Southwest

03/21/09: Al Kapone (@ALKaponeMem) Live at the Austin Civic Center @SXSW

Austin, Bands, entertainment, events, music, South By Southwest

After breakfast at Jim’s, I picked up Al and Vince and we rode downtown for Al and Vince to do a Memphis Music Foundation interview. I wanted to go to the Austin Record Show that was being held as part of South By Southwest in the Convention Center, but it was a small show and I didn’t find much there. I did run into Missy Querry and Kim Martini, two of Select-O-Hits’ sales reps who were there with the owner of Perris Records. After the interview Al and Vince were hanging out with friends at the Courtyard Marriott, and I walked over to Z Pizza for a small lunch, running into a couple of rappers from Atlanta who were there. On the walk back I stopped by a gelato shop, and then waited in the lobby of the Marriott, trying to get updates on the University of Memphis game. When Al and Vince came downstairs, we caught the van over to the Austin Civic Center for another large rap show. The people running this event were rude, however, not wanting to allow us in the green room and not allowing anyone to do sound checks. Al Kapone’s show with a live band captured the crowd however, and those who came after him just couldn’t do anything to equal the enthusiasm that a live band brings. Vince and I went to the Magnolia Cafe afterwards for dinner, and then I drove back to the hotel. The University of Memphis won their tournament game. 

3/20/09: In Memoriam Eddie Bo/Classie Ballou and Barbara Lynn Live at the Continental Club @SXSW

Austin, South By Southwest


Al and Vince and I all went to Jim’s Restaurant for breakfast, and then Al had to go downtown for an interview. Vince and I ended up going back out to Backspin Records again, and then to a coffee bar on the eastside called Hot Mama’s. Leaving there, we got caught up in a tremendous traffic jam outside a warehouse that was selling jeans and shoes in conjunction with the South By Southwest week. Live bands were playing there, and there was a line out the door and around the building. Vince went with me to Texas Land and Cattle Company for dinner, and then we rode out to a dessert and coffee cafe called Dolce Vita, and even they had a live DJ playing out on the patio. I wanted to go to the Continental Club in South Austin to catch the Bo-Keys, Classie Ballou and Barbara Lynn, so I dropped Vince back off at his hotel, and headed down there. I had to pay for parking, and it was quite a long distance from the venue, but the weather was nice, and there were crowds everywhere, so I didn’t mind the walk. Across from the Continental Club was an old art-deco hotel called the Hotel San Jose, with a courtyard where a stage had been set up, and about a thousand people or so were out there listening to bands. The Continental Club was also packed to the rafters, but I managed to find a seat. Classie Ballou is a blues legend from Lake Charles, and he performed a number of swamp pop and blues hits, and later Barbara Lynn came on stage, performing a number of her best-known songs. The concert was sponsored by the Mystic Knights of the Mau Mau and the Ponderosa Stomp, and was being broadcast by New Orleans’ WWOZ radio, and at one point the MC silenced the crowd and announced the tragic news that Eddie Bo had passed away. I caught the Bo-Keys first set, but afterwards, it became so hot and stuffy in the little, over-crowded club that I left. The coffee bar across the street next door to the hotel had already closed, so I walked back to the car and drove back to the hotel.Â