Jess Klein – Backstage

Flew to Nashville at the last minute for the AMA Conference this weekend (Americana Music not American Medical).  Met lots of cool artists, and most favoritely, not only the wonderful Brian Keane, who co-wrote the song of the year, “She Left Me for Jesus” with Hayes Carll, but, even more exciting, the woman who inspired the song – I don’t really know if I’m supposed to say whom (sorry to be coy) but we hit it off and cracked each other up right away.

The other thrill was a late night party at the home of Gail Davies, who produced dozens of top ten and top twenty hits in the 80’s and seems to have played with everyone – you can look her up online for that stuff, but it was just so nice to be welcomed into her home for wine and salad and sit around playing songs til the wee hours.

Here’s a pic of her son, Chris Scruggs, his girlfriend Andrea, and myself on the couch listening to Bonnie Bramlett sing her heart out on the stereo.

Doing my self-promotional best here – my friend Mark Addison and I recorded a cover of Shwayze’s Corona and Lime and now it’s up on iTunes – tasty!  Download it  now!  (That’s me on the distorted bass!)

Ok, am I sounding redundant?  I love this town.  Last night I went to my first ACL taping – Aimee Mann.  I’ve seen this show on tv so many times.  When my friend and I walked into the set, after being handed free beer (so Austin) I was reduced to a giggling teenager.  “I’ve seen this set on tv so many times!”  I squealed.  The skyline of my new hometown in the background, lit up, even – as a tribute to the building that seems to go on here non-stop – a little lit up crane (!), something I imagine the set designer throwing in as commentary – reminds me of the TX license plates which are mostly a western scene – cactus, coyote, cowboy, starry sky, and then  – oh! – the space shuttle. I always think, the government insisted on that part…

Aimee and her band were stellar, the best moments were when she made fun of the people leaving between songs to go use the bathroom; “Pee-ers”, she said.  She also had a great moment of explaining to us how f*ing nervous she was with the one-eyed monster moving cameras in her face the whole time – brilliant candidness.

The taping ended at ten p.m. and the night was still young by Austin standards, so my friends and I rolled down to the Saxon, which I’ve probably mentioned in ten other blogs because it’s my favorite club ever, not just because it has a weird olde english vibe and name, and a gigantic Knight in armour out front by the side of the road, but because it’s always my friends and neighbors onstage, playing the kick-ass-est music ever.  Last night was Bruce Hughes and the All Nude Army, who would be great even if they just had the name and nothing else, but they were really throwing down, and as always at the Saxon, whenever there’s a beat, people were dancing right in front of the stage. It was hard to sit still!

Here’s a pic of the ACL soundstage.

Last night was contemplating life, yurts, Larry McMurtry and other assorted topics with my neighbor out on our sidewalk, and enjoying the lighter side of Hurricane Gustav – a cool breeze under the stars – when one of many neighborhood cats, a big white siamese named Si Baba, skulked up, a tiny curling tail hanging from its teeth.  “What did you bring me?”, I said.  My neighbor (far more evolved than I) encouraged Si Baba to drop the creature so it could live.  “You can let him go”, he coaxed.  Once it was out of Si Baba’s teeth, we saw it had been just a tail, wiggling alone.  I bent over and saw a little tail-less lime-green gecko a few inches away.  Ok, said my neighbor, I’ll hold the cat, you pick up the lizard…yeah, right – this isn’t something we do in NY, dude – but I thought, maybe this little fella’s life is at stake, so okay…but I half-picked him up with too little confidence and then he fell.  I couldn’t find him until I felt something in the leg of my jeans!  The little guy was holding onto my shin for dear life.  For a few moments I kept trying to either gently squeeze or shake him out without anyone getting hurt.  I kept saying, “Um, ok, um, ah!  I don’t know, um, ok…”  I was just about to go inside and try to carefully drop my pants when he scooted out.

This time Jud held the cat back with one hand and scooped up the gecko with the other and delivered him safely to the shrubs.  He pointed out that the tail would grow back quickly.  Also that I could tell my friends in NY about the incident, so I guess I’m not fooling anyone – but I think next time I’d be prepared and scoop up the lizard as opposed to trying to use my fingers like a crane!  I’m learning!