Wow! My family and I (the Okeh Wranglers) just got back home at 9.00 this morning from an amazing trip (and our first) to the USA. If you don't mind, I thought I'd tell you about some of the highlights - gigs we saw, and gigs we had. We arrived in Austin about 7.00 on Friday 26th March, and had our first Mexican meal (yum!) We checked out Wayne Hancock about midnight which was pretty cool, but went after about 6 numbers as we were jet lagged. Saturday we spent most of the day trying to sort out instrument hire (as we did most other days). We brought with us my accordion, Christine's Les Paul and fiddle, and Irene's steel guitar. Our gig that evening was at the Continental club supporting Damnations TX. We did a 2 song soundcheck and then went onstage about 1/2 hour later. The crowd was amazing - probably a little surprised to see an English band playing country music - and the gig went down in our books as our best ever. What a start to our trip in America. Steve Werthiemer is a really brilliant guy, and I got to meet Jim, smilin' after the show, Billy Horton, and even an English journalist for an English country magazine (Steve Taylor). Damnations TX were unbelievably cool, and amazingly tight. Their tunes were catchy, and the banjo ruled! I've never been a big fan of banjos, but now I'm converted <g> We bought their CD later in the week, and haven't stopped playing it. Sunday we saw a lovely accordion band (can't remember their name!) and a guy called Alexandros <something> at the Continental (apologies for my memory, but we were still jet lagged!!) Later in the week we saw Hot Club Of Cowtown who were really good, especially the female fiddle player, the Panhandlers, who were also good (especially the English fiddle player!) and Kim Lenz who is the rockabilly queen! On Thursday we gigged at an empty La Zona Rosa (well nearly empty) The publicity was non existent and nobody new us. The one cancellation was that a couple of guys came along to see us who were security at the Willie Nelson show the next day, and gave us free admission for his show (cool!) Friday we did an instore performance at Cheapo records store which was really nice to do. Jason Shields was really helpful, and I got to meet another P2 hero - Slim <g> Our last night in Austin was at Club 21 on Saturday 3rd April. The club is an old dancehall that looks like it has been around for ever. The crowd were kind of yokels (if there is such a thing in America) and I don't think they new what to make of us, but it was a good gig, and lots of people travelled out especially to see us. We were really sad to leave Austin. It's beautiful town, the people are laid back and amazingly friendly and we have gathered so many email addresses for people we want to keep in contact with. But, we had to check out Nashville while we were over here... Our first night in Nashville wasn't so good (ahem). We weren't sure where to go to eat, and ended up in a place called Hooters (oh dear - naive English tourists <g>) We sure didn't stay in there long. God damn it, it had a picture of an owl on the front - how were we supposed to know!! Next we went to Roberts, sat down, ordered the usual 5 Budweisers and 1 coke (Irene's only 18) got out our passports to prove the rest of us are 21, only for the waitress to kick us out because you have to be 21 in Roberts even if you are only drinking a Cola, and are with your parents (grrrr, American laws) At this point we thought Irene wouldn't be allowed in anyplace and we wouldn't be able to do any gigs at all. Bring back Austin!!! But we were OK after that. Roberts was the only place that seemed to have this rule (and we sneaked in later in the week anyway - just to spite them <g>) On Tuesday, we did a 2 song show at Exit/In for Billy Block's Western Beat Roots Revival. That was a pretty cool night. The 2 songs went well, and we had a couple of VIP's in the crowd who came up to see us after the show (instead of walking out and pretending they had never come!) We also met Lorne Rall (Robbie Fulks' bass player) He introduced himself by saying "Hi, you're friends of Robbie Fulks, aren't you?" - Wow, the highlight of the evening <g> (and that wasn't sarcastic either!) Next day we met the same VIP's who turned up the night before, for an interesting talk about the bands future.... Friday was the best night of all nights because we saw our hero (no make that our god), Kelly Willis for the first time. Her live show wasn't like her recording persona. Different, but absolutely knockout. We we're totally in awe. She did lot's of stuff from her new album, and enough of her old stuff to please us. She came across as quite strange - she seemed very fragile and not the totally confident performer I was expecting, but somehow this made her all the more fascinating. Her voice live was as powerful as ever, and she said that River Of Love was one of her favourite MCA songs (ours too!) She also said that alot of people were expecting her to feel animosity towards the people at MCA, but that wasn't true and she had friends there, and life goes on. After the show we met the drummer Rafael (and got his email address!!) Bruce (who was really nice) and Kelly, and we had our picture taken with her. Please don't let the aeroplane magnets ruin our camera film. Saturday 10th April, our last gig, and last night in America, at the Bluegrass Inn (next to Roberts) We had to do 4 hours worth (although we had breaks in the middle unlike Brazilbilly or BR5-49, heheh) and the place was packed. Great audience great gig, over $100 worth of tips - we really didn't want to go home!! But up at 5.30 the next day ready for our flight home to England. Sorry about the length, I'm still jet lagged, but boy was it worth it. Back to reality, and England, <sigh> Louise -- If you like rocking country music, check out the Okeh Wranglers web site at: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/bluesmoke
