Music Trip to Austin -September 2012

Sam Broussard, Johnny Nicholas, and David Greely at Hilltop Cafe

Johnny Nicholas and Dave Greely at Hilltop Cafe

Starting in at the first of August, Dan and I  made a trip to Austin and Fredericksburg,  Texas to chase Golden Triangle. We caught their CD release party at Hilltop Cafe out of Fredericksburg on a Thursday night.
The Hilltop Cafe is a small gem in the middle of nowhere owned by Johnny Nicholas and his wife, who is the chef.




This place is an old service station from the 40's revamped and decorated with a lot of memorabilia Johnny collected when he toured with the band
 Asleep at The Wheel. (Dan and I followed Asleep at the Wheel around for a few years over 30 years ago.)  This was a unique dining experience, paired up with the incredible show performed by Johnny Nicholas, David Greely, and Sam Broussard, also known as the Band Golden Triangle. Previously, I posted a song performed by two of the performers at Chickie Wa Wa. Check it out to see what you think. Sam was unable to make that Chickie Wa Wa show show, but the performance  still stands up extremely well. Dan and I were the first to purchase their CD that night at The Hilltop and they autographed it on the spot.

Patty at Luckenbach

The next day  kicked around the countryside and visited Lukenbach Texas and then caught Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys  and Golden Triangle on a double bill at Antone's in Austin. C C Adcock sat in with Steve's band. That was a very good show. Dan and I started dancing and got the whole place up and going.







After the show, C C told us that Jimmy Vaughn was at The Continental Club Upstairs and we went there when we left. We were able to catch most of a set Jimmy Vaughn  put on, which was sort of a Jazzy Blues mix.

Steve Riley At Antone's

Patty and Jimmy Vaughn

C C Adcock At Antone's

We went back to The Hilltop that Saturday  night for another spectacular dinner and show by Steve Riley and his band, of whom one of the members is Sam Broussard. Sam is an exceptional guitarist, I might add. 



After visiting with Jimmy Vaughn after the show Friday night, CC also  invited us to go to the Fuck Cancer benefit held the next day (a Sunday) at The Continental Club , which was a benefit  for guitarist Nick Curran, who was riddled with cancer at the time. (Nick passed away two weeks ago-RIP.)

Patty and Dale Watson

The list of performers that played that day were:
Dale Watson
Dave Gonzales and Stepahnie Marlar
The Wyldwood Four
The Horton Brothers
The Bellfuries
The Sniffs
The Modern Don Juan
C C Adcock and The Lafayette Marquis and of course
Nick Curran and The Flashboys




Nick was very sick, could not speak, yet he played a blistering set of high powered punk. Dan got a poster and had all of the performers autograph it. I don't think I will hang it with the "F" word on it, but we will treasure it anyway.
I am posting  a photo I took of Nick's hands. I will not post a photo of him the way he looked that day  out of respect. He looked terrible and I don't want anyone to re-post a photo of him in that state and take it out of context.

Nick Curran's hands at the Fuck Cancer Benefit

The concert ended at 7:15 that evening and I had to jump in the car and drive back to Louisiana to be at work the next day at 7:00 am. I was an hour late to work, getting there at 8:00, after making a hellish ride back though the night which included getting lost in Houston due to a badly marked detour. It was worth it.
I went to work the next day  with the stamp on my hand in red  ink that read "Fuck Cancer." I wore it proudly. After all, I lost both my parents to cancer and it just did not seem right to wash it off.

Patty and Nick Curran in 2009  at The Blue Moon-Lafayette LA