What a kick in the nuts. Jerry Jeff was a classic - one of those immensely talented songwriters who not only wrote a song that is now a standard - "Mr. Bojangles" - but also wrote an absolute stack of amazing lyrics. And it felt like he belonged to me, in some weird way, because of his connections to Austin and the way that some of his music sound-tracked significant times in my life. The last time I saw him play a concert, you could tell that he was heading downhill - he pretty much just sat on a stool to play the whole show, barely dancing for a short bit at one point - but his lyrics were still as vital as ever.
Easily, my favorite album is Viva Terlingua. I listened to that album about 1,000 times while in high school and college. I used to sing "Little Bird" as one of my lullabies to my kids when they were small. "Up Against the Wall, Red Neck" (while not written by JJW) is an absolute classic. "Wheel" is full of beautiful, sad imagery. "London Homesick Blues" (also not a JJW-penned tune) is perfection. Second favorite album is Ridin' High. Even the cover of it is amazing. "Jaded Lover" is my favorite track from that one, but "Coat from the Cold" is amazing too. I think my favorite tune overall from his catalog is "Desperados Waiting for The Train," although yet again that isn't a JJW original, but a Guy Clark tune. Also loved Clark's "L.A. Freeway" as done by Jerry Jeff. "Navajo Rug" is good, "I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight" or "The Pickup Truck Song." "Pissin' in the Wind" is solid. He's got a ton of tunes that evoke good memories of times and places I've been, and the friends who were with me as we listened. Always love him for that reason alone.
You can go read all sorts of tributes to the man - Austin American Statesman, Texas Monthly, etc. - are all churning them out. But I just felt like telling a good story or two to reminisce about the guy and his effect on my life. Which may not be interesting to you at all, but whatever, you clicked on this blog!
For my eighteenth birthday, a group of friends had decided to throw a party at a friend's apartment. I don't recall how or why, but a fellow high school friend had their own apartment over on West campus, and so we descended on that place as the staging ground for a big time. As part of that, I had requested that we make some sangria wine - I had sang the recipe for it for years through JJW's iconic tune, but had never tried it myself. The thing about that is, if you go back and listen to the song, you'll note that the recipe doesn't mention actual portions/amounts. So all you know is that you start with some wine, add some apples and brandy and sugar, and then everclear is added to the wine sometimes. So, being the idiot high schoolers that we absolutely were, we show up at the apartment with the fixings, and realize that we don't have a huge container for the final product. Solution? "Clean" the sink "really well," plug it up, and then dump two giant jugs of el cheapo wine into the sink, a whole bottle of brandy, a whole bottle of everclear, a sack of sugar, and a bunch of cut up apples. Stir that mess around and get to scooping it into cups. Hours later, my best friend was drunkenly sprinting laps on the deck outside the front door of the apartment, and I was chucking up the King Ranch chicken my mom had served for dinner, before finding out that my girlfriend had cheated on me and crying for a bit. HUGE SUCCESS!
Also, JJW's daughter went to Austin High, a few years behind me, and so while I did not know her, we definitely used that association as a badge of pride. One night, I may have already been in college by then, we heard that she was having a birthday party at the Driskell Hotel on 6th Street, and supposedly her dad would be there playing music. YOLO, right? A group of us went up there and wandered around the hotel (hello, security?) until we found a room full of drunk high school kids. No Jerry Jeff. Super awkward. Hell, might not have even been Jessie's party for all I know. Grabbed a beer and wandered somewhere else.
Spent Saturday of this last weekend listening to the classic albums over and over again - they still hold water. I'm glad we still have all of those, even if we don't have the man himself.
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