Life On The Ranch

Down in Austin, we had the night of our lives with the Theatre at the Ranch gang, enjoying an after the show hootenany with some of the best folks we've found.

Our first Austin show was a benefit for POPWORKS, which is "a new venture created for raucous, mind-bending, foot-stomping, heart-breaking artistic events and media. POPWORKS is always looking for creative, ambitious, enthusiastic accomplices to help realize our particular brand of practically impossible performance."

And--I guess to prove their point--they turned their driveway into a concert hall, their yard into a bourbon-lover's paradise and at least one bedroom (Thanks, Sam!) into a five night sleepover spot.

"I'm so happy," Jemison beamed somewhere in the night that included David Garza strumming and playing in the living room and driveway, with me, Georgiana and a stand-up-bass-slapping Douglas Snead joining along for a song or two. Chris Searles was there as well, getting us two thirds of the way to a full on Twang Twang. A few days later David was inducted into the Austin music hall of fame, so it was mighty kind of him to drop in. (By the way--Twang Twang makes their New York debut at joe's Pub next week.)

After the Balthrop set, Reese tickled them ivories like he meant to break a land-speed record and Westen played every instrument he could reach down and get his hands on while Adriene sang like a depession era angel. It was about as fun as fun can be.

We aim to go back because once you've seen fun as fun can be, you've gotta go back, you've just gotta. Mad thanks to Sonnet and Sam and Adriene and Westen and Reese and David and Chris and everyone else who made the stay so hard to leave!