I'm planning a trip early April and hope to see all my Austin friends.  I miss you!!!

love,
becca

to cbgb's. it closes on october 31st and supposedly is moving to vegas.  i guess it's seen its heyday but i'm sad to see it go. the gallery was fun to play at for us not-quite punk types. audieu!

:

"If you bring forth what is within you,
what you will bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you,
what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

-from the band black rebel motorcycle club's webpage.

very jedi but i like it.

Too shy to attend the studio's opening party shortly before his death
in 1970, Smith was sitting outside when Hendrix came out and began
talking to her. He told her of his vision of bringing together
diverse musicians from around the world to Woodstock, N.Y., "to play
and play and play until they found a harmonious place and find a new
way to communicate globally through music."
But Hendrix never lived to fulfill his dream.
"All people have something special, but the artist has a specific
calling, a calling that the people need and that people are inspired
by and magnified by," Smith told the audience of nearly 200 gathered
at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel for the three-day conference ending
today.
"The artist, musician, painter or poet must tend to his own house,
must take care of himself because he's been given a gift and that
gift belongs not to the artist but to the people.
"So all of us who feel this calling must be very diligent, must take
care of ourselves and must not fall into a romantic and romanticized
lifestyle or idea of how the artist or poet or musician is supposed
to act.
"How you're supposed to act is to magnify your work, to animate God
and produce a work that inspires and informs and leads the people."
Smith, an inspiration to generations of female musicians since her
debut in the 1970s, continues to inspire today. She also brought
laughter and warmth to the room with stories about meeting some of
her own idols, about the perils of messing with another musician's
guitar and about growing up with a hard-working mom who never
wallowed in self-pity.
Smith, perhaps best known for the song "People Have the Power," drew
applause when she talked about witnessing the birth and evolution of
rock 'n' roll in her lifetime and experiencing the country's ups and
downs during the same period.
"I really believe we are in the hardest, the most difficult and -- I
have to say -- the dirtiest times I have ever seen," she said.
"They're the most demoralizing and the most exploitive of our young
people, the most corrupt. We are in a state of fear, paranoia and
disinterest."
Presented with a Rockrgrl "Woman of Valor" award dinner Thursday
night, Smith sang about a half-dozen songs with longtime guitarist
Lenny Kaye (with whom she will celebrate 35 years of working together
in February) and shared insightful anecdotes about a career that
began with the release of the watershed album, "Horses," in 1975.
This weekend, Smith celebrates the album's 30th anniversary with her
appearances at the conference, as well as a performance for
conference participants tonight at the Crocodile Cafe. (While in
Seattle Thursday, Smith and Kaye also made a "pilgrimage" to the
Experience Music Project to see the Electric Lady Studios mixing
board on which "Horses" was recorded.)
The conference, the first since 2000, concludes today with a second
keynote speech by Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde, as well as
a trade show and panel discussions on such subjects as balancing
motherhood and a music career and building a community of musicians.
One of the day's most-anticipated events is "Shop Talk: A
Conversation With Ann Wilson and Bonnie Raitt" at 2:30 p.m.
Among the dozens of performers at various clubs around town are The
Blonde Mexicans of San Francisco, Megan Slankard of Berkeley, the
Hazard County Girls of New Orleans and Kym Tuvim of Seattle.
Before Smith took the podium yesterday, James Keblas, director of
Mayor Greg Nickels' office of film and music, read a proclamation
designating Nov. 11 "Rockrgrl Day."
The conference has drawn musicians from around the world -- Japan,
New Zealand, Great Britain, Scotland and Sweden. Among them was
Austin, Texas, singer-songwriter Sara Hickman, whose next
album, "Motherlode," is due in May.
Hickman, an independent artist who has recorded for major labels,
views the conference as a chance for women artists to share ideas and
experiences unique to them.
"The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the majority
of people I work with are men," Hickman said.
"But there's something different about being around a group of women.
They're all in the same struggle."
Before introducing keynote speaker Smith, Carla DeSantis, the
conference organizer as well as editor and publisher of Rockrgrl
magazine, decried the dearth of airplay for female musicians on rock
radio, as well as the homogenization of women in all formats.
"It seems we have two flavors on the radio. We have vanilla -- and
vanilla," she said, adding there are so many sources of inspiration
for great songwriting, from politics to world hunger.
"We've got all this inspiration out there, and we're listening
to 'Oh, baby, baby, baby' on the radio."

the first time i can remember really admiring someone was when i was 22. 

"my first true hero lived underground

i would go the subway just to hear her sing

bleach blond outlaw wooed dirty strangers

but she was god's muse

that's the main thing."

 

she was mary lou lord playing a T stop in boston.