Firstly, I would like to relay a Huge Thank! You! to Texasbucfan for making me a copy of this and 12 other live shows, that I will eventually add to this site. I LOVE YOU!
Regarding the performance. The recording is clear, and hiss free. Just beautiful! Ian is in fine voice. Every song is flawless, and overflowing with soul. He talks WAY too much, but it IS a really nice insight into his personality, so, as a fan, I LOVED it. But hell it was practically murder to type out this show (hence the whinge ..hehe..)
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1. Jesus Wash Away My Troubles
"Thank you. Thanks a lot. *clears his through* Man I tell you, there's
something about that, when you get to LA, you get that gunk. Every single time,
you know, I was just up there and I'm *grunt*.
*to Chris the sound guy* You had the exact spot. I
just realized we were kind of mic'ing the audience [laughs]. Cool.
This is a
song called Room 229. It's off of And All the
Colors, which is my last
record".
2. Room 229
"Thanks you guys. I want to play, ah, I hope you guys don't mind, I'm gonna... um, having the opportunity to do these acoustic shows, for me it's an opportunity to play the material, that I don't get to play every night... so I'll be playing quiet a bit of stuff that I don't play with the live band. Some that I do... but um.... It's a little bit late to play my Christmas song, we've kind of moved well into the month of January. so I guess I'll move past that one. But I do ah, have another song like that in the same vein. I like to do this. This is... I wrote this song specifically for Willie Nelson. Um, I was a huge fan, well I am a huge fan of his, but hearing stardust was, what hit me to (George) Gershwin and Cole Porter, and you know, definitely took me onto different directions, and some of the directions I'm most interested in, as far as my songwriting. So this is one of my favourite songs that I've written, and it's for Willie Nelson. I don't think it's actually made it to him yet... but one of these days. Try to imagine his ah, that kind of tenory hollow voice that he has".
3. Beautiful Light - This is one of my absolute favourite songs. Ian has the style completely licked!! Just beautiful!
"Thanks y'all. Funny, your kid's making me miss mine. I keep all my instruments around the house for easy access, including the sitars and sarods. My son Max, who's a year and a half, climbs on them all, and I think that they've been wiped off now, we've been on the road, but basically, all my guitars have, you know, drool *laughs*, and like crayon marks on them and stuff. I came back off a long tour, and Jolene showed me a couple of pictures of Max standing on my hardenbacker (?) here, which is one of my more valuable guitars -- pulling the neck back, while he stoodd on the body against it. And she's like "is this bad for the guitar?", and I'm like *laughs* "yeah, it's pretty bad for the guitar!". Umm.. yeah, so if they are a little bit out, you know in the intonation and so forth, then that would be why, you can blame it on him. it's funny because we try, Jolene and I are what you'd call the active parents, I think that's the term, and we take in all the things, you know, we try to go see the movie, we tried to go see our friend dance, dong this modern ballet thing, and *laughs* it was a really, know you, black tie event. And we're here with Max who starts screaming and pointing *laughs*, you know.. and then we got kicked out, so.. [laughs] yeah, it's bad. Okay, I want to find this song. I played it for Susan, who we're staying at her house. I figured I should kind of, anti-stress her. She's going through the LA mill, like everybody else out here. So I played her some of my nice pleasant songs, about ruined debutantes, and cocaine. [laughs].... I have a bunch of songs that are in various states of flux, unfinished, and I'll scrap the choruses, but they're the songs that I've been playing, so I'm gonna play 'em -- so bear with me. This one is called Silver and Gold, and there is a group of junior league girls that live in Austin, Texas who are the inspiration for this song. They're moving into their social party level, when they hit their 30s, and they start throwing parties where politicians, and the people who are movers and shakers in the town come out and behave beneath themselves for the night".
3. Silver and Gold
"That was a Christmas song. I went to this Christmas party , where this
girl had flown in an English DJ to spin records, and she had a bartender, and a
driver that was gonna drive us around town, you know and everyone was gapped
out. Cocaine's made a wonderful comeback. I'm grateful for that. My drug of
choice -- I'm kidding. I'm not a big fan of that drug. I don't know what it is.
I worked in a restaurant when I was 15, and there was a Coke front, and I used
to play darts, and I use to win. Actually, I should say I'm kind of grateful for
it, as I was winning $300-400 off those Coke-Jon-wanna-throw-a-dart-to-impress-their-girlfriends.
Alright, a couple of more new songs, we've got plenty of time. McCabe's has
assured me that they're willing to go until 2 [laughs]. I've taken this acoustic
tour down the coast, and it's so wonderful to be here at McCabe's, because this is
truly a listening room, where the default is to be quiet -- as opposed to most rooms, where you're playing an
acoustic guitar, and the
default is to show up and talk... And I almost got in a fight, when I played
this song, 'cause this is a new song that I wrote about my mum, and .. I
introduced it gas "This is about my mum, and please be quiet",
actually I said, please shut up... and not exactly the same thing, but then they
didn't and I, you know, blah, got mad. So, I'm assuming that everybody, since
it's been quiet so far, that you'll be extra quiet for this song [laughs]. This
is simply titled Susan.
*starts and stops* Oh yeah, second verse isn't
done. It's kind of funny, but it doesn't fit the song, so just keep in mind,
I'll be re-writing the second verse, and disregard it, strike it from your minds
mid-verse. [chuckles]. Actually the first bit of the second verse is cool, the
second part about the gap is going. That's out. I just haven't re-written it
yet. Don't get attached to it either. That's the other thing that happens. I
play the songs to early, everybody likes the old version, you know, "why'd
you change the words to Johnny Cash?", you know, because it was about
Johnny Cash. It was funnier that way. I was hoping I would get some mileage with
Johnny Cash coming to my shows. blah, blah. Here we go.
4. Susan
"Thank you. Thank y'all. I'm gonna do, one more new one. You know, these songs are of course, the most exciting to me, because they're new, but I do realise at certain points that doing songs you've never hear, back to back, to back, to back, you know, starts to loose it's steam, so I won't play a full set of all my new favourite songs, just a couple more. Portland winner. I live in the Northwest now. The main reason I left was ah, to have seasons. You can relate. You know, you guys think it's winter right now, "It's raining, [audience laughs] it must be winter". And I love that everybody gets depressed in the winter. I feel like Nick Drake living in Seattle. Out in the country. I need that.. what is it that he wore in the picture, on the ah.. Way Too Blue, you know with the sarap around. So I cook a lot of oatmeal. Make a lot of soup. Lots, and lots of coffee. And I write a lot. I write a lot more than when I was in Austin. 'Cause when it's nice you go outside and do something else. So here's a song about Portland in the Winter. And in particular, a couple of friends of mine, who still live at their parents house -- although they've just moved out.
5. April
"Thank y'all. I'd like to do something off my second record. This song,
we start most of our sets out with it.
[laughs at something] "From that day
on, he was the all nude acoustic guitar player".
6. Today
"Thank you. You know it's funny, we were working in my studio, which is what preceded this tour, I spent he last week before the tour, trying to put my studio up in Seattle. And we were listening to cd, after cd, you know when you get that manual labor thing, and you're just trying to pretend you're not there -- you know, sanding dry wall. yeah, tappe and float. You know everyone was just *moan*. I can't afford to pay anyone to do it, so I'm doing it myself. I was listening to this "Best of Leonard Cohen", and I was realizing that, how much I had ripped him off on And All The Colors, which I never thought about. I mean like Retablo is like such a direct rip of a Leonard Cohen song, and I just... And this one is just.. since LA is the town of "It's like this, meets this", you know in describing music, here's my "This is like ... it's like, it's like, it's like, Leonard Cohen, meets, umm, Ziggy Stardust, and Mick Ronson playing the guitar". This is a song about ah... *laughs* failed actors. You know, when they don't make it here, they come back to Austin [laughs]. They just rake through the women. Because people don't have any tolerance for failure in this town, but in Austin we love failures. We do. So if you're an out of work actor, who's not quiet making time with the women the way you'd like to, come to Austin. There's a lot of willing victims. This was one night at the Electric Lounge, watching a failed actor living in Austin, haranguing these two topless dancers. It's called Airplane.
7. Airplane
"Thanks a lot. So I am assuming that any place I play, is generally
over-run with Texans, that there's a few of you out here? [Texans cheer]. I
figured! Yeah ha! You know it's funny because I definitely grew up in Austin,
and I do consider myself a Texan, but I'm not the ahh... It's difficult because
Texas is such a wonderful state to kind of lay back on. You can be Joey-lee or
whoever, and make a lot of waves being from Texas. I remember, my first record
came out and I was playing in France and I was being billed as this Blues guitar
guy from Texas. And I was doing a solo acoustic show in Paris, and I didn't
have a slide, and we couldn't find one. And I didn't really think if it, I just
broke a wine bottle and they were "Oh it's so Texan, yeah!". And they
loved it, they loved it. But the sad thing is, everybody in particular, New York
and LA, they have such an imperial sense of culture, and miss the fact that
there is a real um, great, great... Austin is not like that to me, or it wasn't
at least when I was growing up. You know, it's a university town, and it does
have a love for roots music, which is why there's so many rootsy influenced
bands that come out, but it's also a really difficult stereo type to struggle
with. I'm a huge fan of Blues and soul and appellation music, and all the
American music, you know just all the musics and I love them all. There should
be that, and then you go and you make your own music from there, as opposed to,
you know, imitating it again along the way. But with that said, I'm gonna play a
blues song.
My ex-girlfriend's parents -- here's the wonderful truth of the deep
south -- The were, a few generations back, slave owners, not, these people were
quiet a bit different. They went to California, became Liberals along the way,
and her dad was a psychoanalyst, and her mum was completely crazy. Schizophrenic, and brilliant. Was an artist, who had come up in Mill Valley,
and we used to get drunk together, and listen to a bunch of tapes --
reel-to-reel, that she had made of her and Lightnin' Hopkins
sitting around.
'Cause Lightnin' lived in Centerville, where she grew up, and they would sit
around when she was 18 years old. And you can image the scandal at that -- you
know, Lightnin' being an old black man, and that close to a virginal white
woman. And she had these wonderful tapes. Though it's not really based in his
style, I always think of him when I play this song. Him and Harry Dean
Stanton.
It's called Paris, Texas.
8. Paris, Texas
"Thank you. Thank y'all. I just started writing this song about 4 days ago, which is a Northern Californian song. Which is a style. It's the way things look. We were up above Santa Cruz for a few days. Drinking absent, and smoking copious amounts of hashish. Yeah, its not my normal day by the way. I can't deal with weed. it's not in my mental capacity. it takes me... it's so amazing, you know, some people can live on it like water -- especially musicians. They smoke pot, and it's just part of their daily routine, and when I smoke pot, it's like the world comes in on me. You know, it's a big deal. I have to rest for a while after that. You know, I'm the guy that won't shut up, that wants to talk. I'm not hungry. I can't go to sleep. I stay up all night, and my mind just starts spinning 'round. Voices get a lot louder. mirrors become endless. Have you ever done that? That's the funniest thing. I used to actually, I did this in Santa Barbara. There's a city to stare at yourself while stoned. [laughs] I was 19 years old, and in a reflective period of my life. I was at my dad's house, watching TV, and my dad was asleep... he's part of that... quiet a bit removed Ginsberg group. In other words, he knew people that knew Ginsberg, and consequently, that made him intelligent. So, he always had really, really good pot, [audience laughs] my dad did. Really good pot. So I got really stoned this one night, and I remember, I looked at myself, and I was at that age, you know where I was reading Damien. I was reading all that Herman Hez (?) crap, that stu.. you know you do that when you're that age. You know you think you're really... you know, you're drinking a lot of coffee. Wearing a beret. Experimenting with homosexuality [laughs] You know that stuff. Ha! So I'm sitting here staring in this mirror, and at first I was like, "I've gotta see the real me". You know, it's typical. And an hour and a half later, my dad came out of the room, and I was lost, I was stuck in the mirror. it was like, this bad Steven King movie where the guy can like, never leave -- That was me, and my dad, like pulled me away, sat me down and said, "You know, smoke the Mexican stuff from now on". [laughs] So, I'm done. I'm done with pot smoking for a while. I have to go back home and, be a dad and build stuff, and spatial measurement doesn't come well with me. So ah, this song, it sounds so hippie to call it this -- is a working title right now. It's called Cinnamon, but I'll change it to something a lot more, less pictorially.
8. Cinnamon (working title)
"Thank you. I sure like that song. With all the rain, it's felt real nice playing it. You know, watching people drive down Melrose terrified. Actually you know what I'm gonna do first... *trails off*. It's all quiet. [laughs] Tom and I were joking about this. Like when he walked from the piano to here, it's very nerve racking. It's wonderful having people listen like this but.. Maybe they could have like, white noise between songs, like watching the jak... You guys are intently watching, "wonder will the jack go in the..". [laughs] Okay. I don't want to come across like a dug addled musician, *laughs* but ... I know, it's really funny, because I am really kind of the least interesting, least rock'n'roll of all of my friends in Austin. I mean, they're the people that are out staying up all night and having ménage et tois, and orgies and all that stuff and you know, I missed it all. I always had my eyes closed. [why?]. No it's not. I'm not leading into "and then anyhow they were both at Hooters, and they were fucking amazing. Viagra, you know it was like..". No this is just, the way my dad would always suggest, hashish was the eat it. That was how I took it. And what happens when you do that, as opposed to having a high fall on, it bulldozes you, and it really will hind-side you. And this was right around my second record. We'd been on the road non-stop. 333 days of the year. No breaks, and everyone was kind of losing it. Everybody's relationships were breaking up. All of our friends in Austin hated us, 'cause we weren't communicating with them. We were just bummed out. So, we were touring a lot, and you know, partying more I guess, 'cause that's what you do, when you're not feeling as good. I decided that, on this long drive -- we were driving.. like Detroit to Lawrence. It was one of those amazing routing things, where you know, the booking agent's at home, and we're going, "why are we going there? Why not Kansas City to Lawrence?". But they had some great explanation, as they sit at home watching HBO. I'm in the back seat, I, me, and this big piece of hash, and I'm watching everything go by. Amish farmers, McDonalds, and truck stops. Things are groovy. And all of a sudden it hits me. I'm floored. I'm on the floor. I'm so unbelievably out of control. freaked out. The universe is compacting around me. I'm kind of having a nervous breakdown in the back of the seat, in the back of the van, but I'm too scared to tell anybody [laughs]. 'Cause I'm so stoned, that if I tell them, something bad will happen. And so I'm back there, and I start thinking about my relationship, life, and all this crap. *rrrr..* in my head, my head, my head. And I just realized, that I'd broken up with my girlfriend, like a week before, and I'd totally screwed everything up, and it hit me and, I'm bawling in the back of the car. Meet the Beatles, is on in the front of the car. So it's kinda like *sings/strums* "whenever I.." wrong key, but *sings/strums* "I... gotta do is kiss you". Which you'll notice are the chords to Now You're Gone. So, I wrote this song, and went to Lawrence, Kansas, and it was all better. [laughs] And this is on Green Grass. This is on Green Grass. This is my ah, little bit of vernard to Roy at the Inn. I'm never going to get happy after this, alright. I'm sorry to take you to Tom Foreign (?) land. Drag you through this sad forlorn songs. This is kind of a, kind of a French country song.
9. Now You're Gone - Another of my absolute favourites. Pure heaven!!
(segue)
10. Elephant Tears
"Thank y'all. How many more songs do you guys want me to play? [20 -- crossroads. laughs] That's so old, even the joke's getting old man. That's ah.. the only version of that, that's worth hearing is the Butt Hole Surfers. Actually, that's not true. I take it back. I love seeing the lead singer of that Leonard Skynard, the new one, tremble and look down and read them from the stage, realizing that if he screws the words up, he'll be lynched. Ah, I think I'll do it in a sec. No worries man! I picked that one up in the North West. it's kind of an Alaskan Saying.
11. Ain't Feeling No Pain -- Very cool. Towards the end, he messes up the solo, and goes "ah crap!" It's very cute. Later then he goes, "I have a lot of respect for Doc Watson. That's all I have to say. Woo!". Then he finishes off beautifully!!
"Thank y'all. Thank you."
12. Satisfied: I LOVE this song, and it looses nil effect acoustically, simply because the melody is so strong, and Ian's voice is unbelievable.
"Thank y'all so much. I'm gonna do a couple of more songs. I've spent a lot of my career playing entirely too long. Not according to me, but generally, the constructive criticism from the knowledgeable folks in the music industry [boo, boo] -- oh come on now.... has been to, you know, the great thing is to leave them wanting more. [...] I'm actually pretty hungry. I didn't really have time to eat. [burger] Yeah, that wouldn't be too bad. Hey you know what? Tomorrow night, the end of the tour for us, is going to be in Joshua Tree. I'm pretty psyched about that. We're doing a small club. It's called Beatnik (Café). Of course the obvious thing being that Gram Parsons, his ashes were scattered there -- which is a little bit of cool rock mythology. It's not mythology but mythology has grown up around it. The guy that was destroyed by The Eagles. He was an LA guy, kind of. I mean he made his sound up here. Lots of beautiful music. So here's my LA song. Joe said, LA is a city that only shines at night, and ah, my song is kind of going from there. My LA is a call girl.
13. Angleyne
"Thank you guys. Hey Terry. No, it's alright. Everybody has to pee sometimes [laughs]. My next record that's coming out, is a live record, that we did over the holidays in Texas. One night from Houston, that we're putting out as a record. The next night from Austin, which is going to be a video. Kind of a companion video. And I did it because I wanted to catalogue the band. 'Cause hopefully we're ready to move onto something new. We've been kind of doing a similar thing for a while. Kind of doing this ambient , um, shadowy rock. Whatever it is -- for a while, and it's kind of a cool sound. A lot of people didn't get a chance to unfortunately see us, with And All the Colors, because it was a very difficult time to tour, with gas prices and stuff. It was a tough few years man. Not a lot of people going to see live music, and not a lot of touring bands. But we'll try to get out here, and do some of the stuff, because I want to do it before I get to the next record Because then you're going to have a totally different sound. A totally different scene. And I like this one. So the record's gonna come out in April? Maybe May. Sometime in the Spring, and hopefully we'll tour a little bit. It's similar to And All the Colors, but faster! 'Cause that record is SO SLOW! God! I heard it on the radio yesterday, I didn't this interview, and it's like, it's so funny. You go into the studio, and it's just, everything's so slow. Like everybody's paranoid. I was listening to Elvis Costello's record, and it's so fast and cool, and nobody told him "everything's too fast". Whenever I go into the studio, everybody says, "You gotta play it slower, more low end". So all the records sound kind of sluggish and slow. So my next record's going to be crisp and fast. Lots of high end. Real fast songs. So I'm going to end tonight with a song. I wrote this when I was out with Joe Ely, so you'll note the ah... I don't know, do all artists ...? I'm just gonna all it.. all the ah.. where I ripped off the song. If you were a bluebird kind of Jan! Is that you? No Jan, she's all, "Don't point me out. I'm behind the scenes. I'm a manager". You know it's funny though Jan, but Chris & I were talking about.. I go to a thrift store. I'm the artist. I'm the guy that makes my money, basically on my flesh, selling it, you know, on a slab. I spent $20 bucks. How much have you spent in the last few days Jan? [laughs] I'd be willing to bet $500 bucks. I've got the best looking manager in the world. You know what? I need some money! I'm tired of going to thrift stores. I'm tired of having to be creative with my wardrobe. I want to start going into those, the male version of Betsey Johnson. I'm going to be styled down the next time you guys see me. 'Cause I'm tired of this thrift store bullshit. [laughs] I just thought I'd tell ya. So 90s. We're in the new millennium. I actually, I've taken to wearing suits these days. Shark skin. yeah. I look pretty good, I gotta say. Before you go to a show, I'm always thinking to myself, you know you're pretty self-conscious. But for New Years, we all were wearing suits. I was watching the video, and I thought, "That's a handsome band". [laughs] Smartly dressed. Of course Bukka, Bukka's the keyboard player, you guys probably know. It's like, we all wore suits, and Bukka wore jeans and a sport coat. It's like, you're missing it man. We're supposed to be sorta mod. We're going for that kind of kinetics thing. Bukka's like, got a cigarette in his jeans, and a sport coat. Doing his best Terry Allen impersonation on the piano.
14. Blue Sky / Abraham, Martin & John
"Thank you guys! Thank you McCabe's. Thank you for having me. Tom, thank you as well."
ENCORE
"It's always a little embarrassing. I really do appreciate it. I
just never know when... you know if you gloat too long, you feel like an ass.
But I just really, really appreciate it. It's been really great doing these
shows, and getting to play with people like Tom, and some cats I played with in
San Diego. A bunch of people. Whole different slew of folks that you meet
when you do an electric tour. It's been great, and as you guys know, I like to
talk. [laughs] You know they always said I was good at that when I was a kid.
You know the other things is too, is that I do play electric so often, and any
time I try to describe any of these songs is... the way I write is, I don't like
to do the whole picture. I like to really just kind of paint the periphery,
and leave a lot of stuff pretty ambiguous. And to talk about these songs, helps
me a lot to, kind of fill in some of the blanks -- but when I try to do that at
an electric show, it's just a dismal failure [laughs]. People are so loud and
just so amp'd up. Well, it's a bit trite to do this here, so I really don't
care... The record Blood on the
Tracks, was a big, big record in my life -- my
whole life, way before I played guitar anyhow. And it's one of my dad's
favourite records, and was kind of my break-up record. I'd always pull it out
whenever I'd get my heart broken when I was a kid , and I'd listen to this song.
So I recorded it for Green Grass. It's a Bob Dylan song. it's called You're a
Big Boy Now. *starts into intro* Man I gotta say [audience laughs] I just hate
like, every musician, it seems like, in the world.. as well as myself. It's not
that I think I have it all together, it's the same things that I find with
myself. I look at Bob Dylan, and this man, I see him, he's getting old and he
just refuses to become a parody of himself, but that's such a great thing. I
mean, even people like Neil
Young, are starting to repeat themselves, and Tom
Petty's repeating himself. Some people are just blatant fuck all sellouts, and
it's just humiliating to their career and their legacy. I saw Bruce Spr... ah,
Bob Dylan I'm sorry, recently at The Gorge, which is a wonderful venue outside Seattle, an outdoor venue, with Paul Simon -- and I'm a big Simon & Garfunkle
fan. I love Paul Simon's writing. But when I saw Paul Simon I was like, yeah,
this is good, this is good, whatever, but when Bob Dylan came on, it wasn't just
a pre-disposition to like him, it was that he earned it. He really went up
there, and he did all those things that I respect in an artist. He didn't cave
into his audience. He led 'em. in a good way. In a benevolent way. Played
interesting songs, and didn't play the arrangements the same way. He had Charlie
(Sexton), and whatever that other guy's, Dan or the other guy. Two great guitar
players, who took every solo. *laughs* and That Dylan solo, that one where he
goes *demonstrates*, and plays the same note over the chord changes, then they
eventually become right [laughs], and it was so, it was so, it was so beautiful,
and I haven't had a moment like that at a concert in years. I haven't felt like
that... he was playing a song of of his last record, about dying. The sun was
going down. There was a bald eagle flying over the gauge, and I'm watching Bob
Dylan -- on stage! My brother in-law's playing guitar with him, and it was just
.. fucking great! Fucking great, and I love him. Just great. I mean there's
people that earn your respect.. damn, I mean, you know what I mean? There's so
much crap. There's just so much fuckin' crap, . So many people that don't give a
shit, and so many people that pretend that they do. Play the game... and he
always, always, consistently gave a shit. Even when nobody liked what he was
doing. You know, and all of the young artists, we're all kind of waddling behind
him like ducklings, trying to figure out how you keep that amount of integrity
and mount some kind of career. It helps if you're brilliant, but still..
*laughs* Anyway, this is, this is a Big Girl Now.
15. You're a Big Girl Now
"Thank you. Thank y'all".
16. Please God
"Thank you guys. Thank y'all. Thanks a lot for coming out. Thanks very much".
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