blogs: brigidkaelin's blog 

"Country" is a loose term in today's music. For a lot of people, it represents annoying over auto-tuned and over-produced twang music found on radio stations with lots of commercials. I call that pop-country, and it's not my favorite type of music. Admittedly, however, behind those pop songs can often be hiding an actual good song. Other times the good song is the forerunner and songwriters sing them themselves, hiding behind very little more than a six-string or a piano. That's the country music I generally prefer. A John Prine or a Kris Kristofferson or a Patty Griffin. So when I tell you that there is something called the Louisville and Kentucky Country Songwriters Showcase, and it begins tonight, I refer to the more stripped-down raw, storytelling, and six-strings, kind of country music. Tonight's showcase at the Vernon Club (10:00pm, $5), will be a Nashville-style evening, with six different songwriters taking turns playing their original music. It's in this type of setting where great songs have been discovered, musical duos formed, and fans have fallen in love with new artists. If I weren't on the road, I would absolutely be at the Vernon tonight, despite the fact that it doesn't start until 10:00. If it were truly Nashville-style, this would be an 8:00 show, but then again, I'm pretty glad that Louisville isn't Nashville. Still, I wish the whole music community would start shows earlier. Apparently, I'm getting to be an old lady, and I like my sleep. But anyway, if you do make it out, I promise a great show. Tonight's line-up includes: John Gage, Mickey Clark, Gary Stillwell, Johnny Berry, Emily Portman and Jonathan Wood. Johnny Berry's got a new record coming out, so expect new tunes (and ask him about that awesome piano player on his new record, hee hee). Mickey Clark just made my dream record, with guest spots from John Prine, Kinky Friedman, and Jerry Jeff Walker. Gary Stillwell and John Gage always have great songs to offer. Jonathan Wood just returned from Australia. I haven't heard his originals, but he blew me away at the Townes Van Zandt Tribute, and I suspect he's got a lot more to offer. The lone lady on the bill is Emily Portman, whom I'd not heard of, but a quick Google search tells me she's been on the Grand Ol' Opry before. Should be a good night of low-key music at a cool venue. Original Country Music at the Vernon Club on Saturday, March 20th. 10pm $5 cover.

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I had intended to come to you live from South by Southwest (SXSW or SouthBy, as the regulars call it). I attended this enormous music conference for several years in a row now, sometimes playing a showcase, mostly just lolling around eating tacos and making friends. Last year I didn't plan on playing, but I ended up playing accordion and musical saw with Bob Schneider and Guy Forsyth during their gigs. You never know what will happen at SXSW. It's also nice to wander around town and run into friends from Louisville, like the guys from Wax Fang whom I swear I saw at Guero's Taco Bar at least three times. And yes, I was at Guero's at least six times. What can I say? You just can't get Mexican food like that in Louisville. Anyway, my plans for SXSW were foiled this year by a death in the family. I spent one lovely evening in Austin, playing frisbee with an industry friend, then it was off to Lubbock because family trumps career, after all. So I am in Lubbock. Lubbock is kind of the opposite of Austin, and therefore the opposite of Louisville. Friend-with-a-Truck and I decided to cook dinner for 16 family members last night -- mostly because we're vegetarians and didn't want to get stuck with lettuce for dinner. We decided on Indian food, but then spent hours looking for the spice garam masala, which is nowhere to be found. Thank goodness for iphones and the ability to google the 7 spices found within garam masala ... i managed to find a $12 cardamom pod and was able to cook my own spice. But still, even Dirty Kroger in Louisville has ethnic spices, and I can't remember the last time I had to go to a specialty store for any ingredient. And Louisville has enough vegetarian options that in my fifteen years of vegetarianism, I have never lacked for something to eat. It's never even been an issue. Honestly, I'm still confused when people make jokes about vegetarianism, or ask pointed, rude questions about osteoporosis or protein-intake. Seriously, people? It's 2010. But in the end, the Indian food was a delightful success, and all the meat-eaters licked their plates clean with surprise and only a few snide comments. My favorite is, "But where do you get your protein?" The standard answer to this, folks, is delivered with a perfectly straight face. You just act casual and tell them, "Semen." Then move on to discussing dessert options. Your meat-promoting relatives will leave you alone for then on, I promise.

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	truejager1   thu mar 18 2010 at 6:38 pm         ·  awsome answer on the protein....Here is what the first Texian I ever met told me when asked "where are you from." He replied " TEXAS, where the men are men and the sheep are nervous." I think that can explain a lot of what you have found in texas...
	brigid kaelin   thu mar 18 2010 at 7:36 pm         ·  Ha! That is hilarious. And definitely explains a lot.

About 10 days ago, someone ran into Friend-with-a-truck's truck, rendering it undrivable. Heretofore he will be known as Friend-without-a-Truck, or perhaps Friend-with-a-Ridiculous-Rental-Car. (For the Mojo-readers who are new to my blog, you should know I give monikers to all my friends ... originally to protect their identities from a few crazies, but now mostly just because it's fun. Friend-with-a-Truck is a long-time cast member here.) I've never been one to care much about cars. I've got an unhealthy obsession with Volvos, perhaps, but really I don't care about colors or ugly wings or engine size. My car is really a rather unattractive, rusted, tiny Volkswagen, but fortunately, I don't have to look at it while I'm driving. And it works, except for all those times it breaks. Luckily, I don't drive often, I guess. Anyway, yesterday, Friend-without-a-Truck pulled up in this rental car the insurance company provided, and I just started laughing. It's one of those Old-Timey looking cars, sort of like the PT Cruiser, but it's the Chevy version. Don't get me wrong, folks, I actually like those cars. They remind me of flappers and Duke Ellington and Al Capone. They remind me of good music. But this one is comic book red, and I scoured SteinMart this morning looking for a bright yellow trenchcoat so he could complete the Dick Tracy look. I've already got a violin case he can borrow. Anyway, we're trading it back in soon for another one. I was actually kind of looking forward to cruising down the highway listening to big band music and evading the police. But there is a mysterious migraine-inducing odor within, as if someone smoked inside, and the rental car place tried to cover it up with weird chemical spray. It's not the kind of car you can spend 16 hours straight in, and we're headed to Texas for some family stuff, as well as music business stuff at SXSW. Too bad. I have a flapper dress in the same cherry red. It would have been perfect. Whatever color it is, I hope it's big enough to transport my keyboard to tonight's show at the Monkey Wrench. I don't think my little VW is up for the task today... See you this evening at the Monkey Wrench's 5-Year Anniversary party? I'm playing a set at 9:00. Good times!

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Last year it seemed like I had a new, crazy story every day for this blog. Now, well, it occurs to me that maybe you have to go have a crazy active social life in order to collect stories. I haven't gone out much at all in the past several months. It's been cold, and as I learned last year, those cocktails add up. It doesn't take too many credit card statements before you start screaming, "I spent HOW much at the Monkey Wrench last month???" And then comes the spending moratorium. I have learned a few things from my social hibernation, however. The main one, however, is that I desperately want a dishwasher. I lived my entire life without a dishwasher. (Well, that's excepting the 2-3 years I was a live-in nanny in New York, and the family I lived with had one. But like any self-respecting New Yorker, I never cooked, so the fancy Bosch dishwasher was mostly for show.) My parents STILL don't have one, and my house doesn't either. It's never bothered me before. I mean, I don't mind doing the dishes. It's not like I ever had very many of them. Well, now, I can't STAND it. I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten out this year -- a travesty, I know -- and that means several dishes for every meal. I've baked my own bread, crackers, and tortillas all year long, and I've even been regularly using the food processor. Did you know that the food processor ALONE fills up the kitchen sink???? I've had it. Forget saving up for a new record, I'm saving for a dishwasher. I'm sorry, blog readers. Can you believe that my crazy story for the day is a diatribe about wanting a household product? I promise 2010 will be more exciting than this ... next month, I'll come to you live from Atlanta, Birmingham, and the Derby Festival ... and in May, I'll be blogging live from Europe ... and in June, more adventures await. Is it wrong that what I'm looking forward to most about my upcoming tours is eating in restaurants? And not doing dishes?

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	Black Gladiator   wed mar 10 2010 at 10:22 am         ·  I share a house with my sister and we have no dishwasher. Her current boyfriend does our dishes. We like different sports teams but he's a keeper if you ask me.
	Steve Coomes   wed mar 10 2010 at 5:50 pm         ·  Oh, the line about self-respecting New Yorkers not cooking ... a gem! I never had one growing up, and didn't get one until I had my second apartment, and we didn't cook enough to justify it. Now I have a home, a past life as a chef and a wife and son who like my cooking. And what do I hate more than anything? Washing dishes. I"m a clean cook and there's still too many of them that don't fit into the dishwasher.
	Karma13   thu mar 11 2010 at 9:57 am         ·  I love it..great blog...lol..I can relate.
	Beverly Bartlett   thu mar 11 2010 at 10:46 am         ·  Sadly, I have a dishwasher and my kitchen still looks like this. (Well, not the big slab of meat or the Sponge Bob cup.) ;-)