Butch Jam, Wednesday, 12/28 with Jonathan and Merrily Weeber

Butch just sent over details about this week's guest line-up for Wednesday night:
Jonathon Fox & Merrily Weeber

Jonathon Fox is a 12 year old blues guitar prodigy who plays way older than his years. Come and see this fresh young talent, untarnished and unspoiled.

Merrily Weeber sings with the warmth and spaciousness of her native San Antonio, Texas.
Her roots extend deep into the mother lode of American song. When she sings, formal categories are blown away like so much tumbleweed. Blues, folk, jazz, country, rock- it's all Merrily music.

And the music has carried her on an extraordinary journey. She has toured as an opening act with Willie Nelson and also opened for both Waylon Jennings and John Sebastian. She sang on an album by Jerry Jeff Walker's group, The Lost Gonzo Band. She toured extensively in Japan. And in France, she performed for an international audience at the Midem Music Festival and recorded an album with her band, Joker Moon.

Merrilyís talents have also been discovered by television. She's been the featured vocalist for various songs in the hit sitcoms 'Third Rock From the Sun' and 'That Seventies Show' and sang the opening theme song for Candace Bergen's talk show on Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen Network.

Currently, Merrily is developing a reputation as a world-class songwriter. She has co-written with Jack Tempchin, who penned the Eagles' hit 'Peaceful Easy Feeling.' She also writes extensively with pianist-composer John Barnard. Eleven of their compositions can be heard on Merrilys CD, Voodoo Love, which Barnard produced. In addition, her song Hard To Say, written with Dan Marcus, appears on the critically acclaimed debut album, Anyway,by Amy Farris- produced by Grammy winner and roots music legend Dave Alvin.

But live performance remains the heart and soul of Merrily's art- her striking originals interspersed with selections from the great American songbook. Each night she proves that music and magic can indeed be one and the same.

Casbeers January Schedule

Tue 1/3 The El Orbits
Thur 1/5 Mark Jungers and the Whistling Mules
Fri 1/6 The Elana Fremerman Trio (Elana is formerly of Hot Club of Cowtown w/Beau Sample and Luke Hill)
Sat 1/7 Patrice Pike and The Black Box Rebellion
Tue 1/10 Rusty Martin
Thu 1/12 The McKay Brothers
Fri 1/13 Teri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines
Sat 1/14 Wayne Hancock
Sun 1/15 Gospel Brunch w/ The Earfood Gospel Orchestra
Tue 1/17 Open Mic w/ Glenn and Kim
Thu 1/19 The Small Stars
Fri 1/20 The South Austin Jug Band
Sat 1/21 Rev. Billy C. Wirtz Cd and DVD Release Party
Tue 1/24 The Desperate Houseflies
Thur 1/26 Albert and Gage CD Release Party
Fri 1/27 The David Holt Band
Sat 1/28 The Iguanas
Tue 1/ 31 The Crimson Jazz Orchestra

2/2 Dave Alvin (solo)
2/3 Last Train Home
2/9 Darden Smith
2/10 The Bluerunners
2/26 The Small Stars
2/23 Troy Campbell CD Release Party
3/3 Susan Gibson and Adam Carroll

Cheers & Casbeers!
Joe B.

The BLAST ORIGINAL RECIPE CONCERT Live CD recording

Butch has been typing up a storm. Claude Mrgan and the Blast will record a live CD at Casbeers on Thursday, 12/22. Here's the skinny:

Thursday Night at Casbeers will be a BLAST TO THE PAST when the Original recipe 3 piece band The Blast, Claude "Butch" Morgan, Robert "Robar" Adams and Steve"Go Go" Hartwell take the stage and play a full show of those original great BLAST songs, such as "I Wonder Where The Girls Are", "I'm A Student" "Beach Party" "STYLE" " There's Something Phoney About You" and many many more, and it will all be recorded live.
With an original song list of well over 100 tunes, they will deliver about 40 of the best known (actually they will do the ones they can remember the best)

Bring your Blast memorabilia and come on down to Casbeers. A limited edition BLAST CD will be available for sale as well as a few of the 10 inch BLAST EP's.
The show will Blast off promptly at 8:30 and runs to 11 p.m. This is a must see for the crowd of die hard BLAST fans who have been itching for the old days. Don't be scared, You can still get BLASTED. Come and help celebrate the fact that we all made it through to the other side.

Casbeers Campfire Songwriter Showcase 12/21

Butch Morgan has the skinny on Wednesday's Campfire Songwriter Showcase with Russell Clepper and Bob Livingston:

Wednesday night at Casbeers Campfire Songwriter Showcase we will feature the great songwriting talents of Bob Livingston,Russell Clepper, and Claude"Butch"Morgan. Morgan will play host on his regular Wednesday night at Casbeers as the Happy Campers take the night off and songwriters become the focus, and the three of them song swap the night away. Up close and personal with three Texas Originals.

BOB LIVINGSTON has never been a traditional Texas country musician living the Honkytonk life, even though he has spent more than his share of time on the roadhouse circuit with some of Texas' more colorful musicians. Livingston moved to Austin in 1971 with Michael Martin Murphey after they recorded the album Geronimo's Cadillac for A&M Records.

Livingston quickly hooked up with Jerry Jeff Walker and he sang and played on some of Texas' quintessential progressive country rock albums including Jerry Jeff's 1973 classic, Viva Terlingua! Livingston, Gary Nunn and John Inmon were a gonzo trio if there ever was one founded the Lost Gonzo Band.

Livingston has been called a 'cosmic cowboy' for good reason. He has looked into the music and mysteries of other cultures and has toured India, Pakistan, Nepal, Morocco, Sri Lanka and the Middle East. He played with great local musicians and they brought together a diversity of themes and influences, mixing instrumentation and insights from both east and west. Ragabilly! Country 'n Eastern? Inspired by these experiences, Livingston and Lloyd Maines produced a CD, for Vireo Records called Mahatma Gandhi & Sitting Bull that is infused with the music and color of his experiences and travels.

Livingston is promoting his CD around the country with a series of solo shows and he still records and tours with Jerry Jeff on occasion. He's put together a group of musicians from Texas and India called Cowboys & Indians that plays country and eastern music!

Russell Clepper has garnered attention and respect in San Antonio , the Texas Hill country, and many other places across the state of Texas . Clepper is "A lyricist's lyricist." Oil fields, Texas rivers, desert landscapes, beachfront barrooms and the characters that live, lurk and love in all those places, get woven into his creations. Striking imagery, subtle symbolisms and unexpected word choices have won Russell Clepper an appreciative audience wherever he has played.

At the 2004 Kerrville Folk Festival, Tish Hinojosa swapped song's with Clepper's daughter, Emilie Clepper, and him in the campground. She asked them to perform on main stage a few days later and the three of them delivered a performance that turned out to be one of the highlights of the festival. Other highlights in Clepper's career to date include opening a house concert for Texas country-folk legend Shake Russell and sharing stages at various events with artists such as Susan Gibson and the Sisters Morales.
With three independently produced and released full length CD projects completed in the last five years, Russell Clepper has performed all around Texas , from Port Aransas to Alpine, with the San Antonio group, The Trebelmakers, and the Trans-Texas combo, Pipe Creek Rebellion.

Clepper's is also supporting his last Solo record, Son of a Farmer, released in 2000. Along with his most current project, Clepper Pair George going on the road this summer 2005. Please check http://www.clepperpairgeorge.com/ for schedule updates indeed.

Claude"Butch"Morgan has been writing songs for more years than he can count. He has recently written a hand full of new songs that he will be debuting on this evening. He was also a finalist at this years Kerrville Newfolk Songwriting Contest. This promises to be a great evening. The price, Nada. ($0)

12/14 Butch Jam update

This just in from Butch about the Wednesday night Jam this week:


Wed Line Up:
Tompkins & Adamson .. Great male/female duo from Austin Texas. Lots of jam time available this night. Bring your instrument and "Come On Down"...
http://www.tompkinsandadamson.com/

Dave Alvin alert!

Subscriber Jeff Chinni wrote in last week:

Hey Dave Alvin is in Houston on 2-4 any way your people can contact his people and see if we can do dinner and a show with Dave again. He was last there [at Casbeers] on 10-3 of 04.

I forwarded that on to Steve at Casbeers and got a quick response:

It's already done. Dave Alvin will be at Casbeers 2-2-2006.
Hope to see you there.
Thanks for the input.

So there you have it. Dave Alvin will be back at Casbeers on February 2!

Casbeers Campfire Songwriters Showcase, 12/21

Butch Morgan hosts an open mic at Casbeers every Wednesday. Things just got more interesting since he moved his Campfire Songwriters Showcase to Casbeers. He will host the songwriter in the round session every third Wednesday of the month. His guests on December 21 will be Bob Livingston and Russell Clepper., and there is still no charge, just like every Wednesday (and Tuesday) at Casbeers.