Model Week

After SXSW, it was so nice to have a “regular” week. For me that meant working 3 different day jobs, hosting open mic, running to meetings and lunches, and playing two gigs. But there were also hours when I got to be at home and follow my own schedule. Ahhhh.

I had big fun playing at Poor David’s Pub in Dallas on Saturday. Even though the club has only been in that location for a couple of years, it already feels full of history and good juju. You a sense that the audience is super comfortable, but also has a reverence for music that keeps them open and listening. So cool and so rare. Yay!

Today I had to play model. I don’t know if that’s really what I was doing, but I felt like I was some kind of modeling school drop-out, who suddenly had to pose for Vogue. OK, maybe the stakes weren’t that high, it was just the photo shoot for my album cover. But I just get so self-conscious in front of the camera; all I can think to do is smile. Sometimes I wish I was back at 14 and taking pictures for the Seventeen cover model contest. I used to really get into it, I loved posing and thought I was going all the way. Oh, teen-age dreams!

I’m sure you’ll see all sorts of pics from today eventually, but check out the photographer, Todd Wolfson. He's got a super website. We took some photos outside Rabbit’s bar on E. 6th 

street where there is a great wall of peeling paint. Rabbit and some of his friends were hanging out

 watching and I was kind of scared that they would be annoyed or mad at us artsy posers. But at the end of the shoot, Rabbit came up to me and said, “If I give you a T-shirt from my bar, will you wear it?” Heck yeah! And I’ll even go back for a beer.

My personal highlight for SXSW was signing my recording and publishing deals with MoonHouse Records. Wahoo! It’s been in the works and the legal departments for a long time and we didn’t really plan for it to happen this week, but SXSW is full of unexpected surprises. So Christine and I went out to the parking lot of Artz Rib House after my Wednesday night set and signed the papers. Yes, the parking lot. No cameras or champagne, I'm

 sure we'll get to that later, but right now we're all business. There's a record to put out! Then I got to walk around for the rest of the weekend feeling sorry for all the poor saps working it on 6th street, trying to get a record deal. Ahh, those were the starving years, I remember them fondly….last Tuesday. Now we’ve got lots of work to do, meeting with the graphic designer this week. Yay!

Aside from my own shows, I saw a wide variety of music, some

 good, some forgettable. There was the hippie string band, the Argentinian DJs, a smoky-voiced Brazilian beauty,  nerdy dance rockers, and singer-songwriters galore. The strangest transition was from hearing country star Deana Carter sing “Strawberry Wine” (can’t help but love it) at the fake Texas bar in the Direct TV studio, straight over to a tiny hot sweaty real Texas bar where The Golden Dogs from Toronto swept everyone up in their loud, driving, catchy rock. Whew! I loved them both, and I might be like 1 of 3 people who can say that. 

It was also so fun to catch up and make new memories with my friends from Heloise and the Savior Faire. I was lucky enough to score them an apartment in my complex, so they were close by and we got to escape the downtown craziness together, plus I got to show off some of the treasures of the East Riverside neighborhood. Best pollo in town! Their show at the complex pool was an emotional highlight of the weekend. I couldn’t be there, but just hearing the stories of the trashy, beautiful debauchery that took place makes me jump for joy. I think it was probably the best day of this property's life. In this pic, we are celebrating the reveal of their brand new CD. It's soooo fun and I think "Downtown" is my new power song for the treadmill.