Jerry Jeff Walker - Moody Theatre - September 12, 2015

Straight up, Jerry Jeff is an old badass.  I've enjoyed his songs since high school (and yes, I'm well aware that I was like the third generation to get into him in high school and that my brother probably saw him play, for free, three hundred times, with Willie and Waylon and Johnny and Kris, back in the 70's), but he still brings it for a show.  He only stands for about 30 seconds of the show, but the man is 74 years old.  If I'm still packing a room at that age for anything, then I'd be pretty psyched.  Here he is (in 1984 !!!).

For the most part, no surprises at all in the show.  He opened with "Gettin' By," just like both Viva Terlingua and Viva Luckenbach.  And it is such a great song to pump up the crowd.  I'd be lying if I said I liked the fact that he changed the song up to riff on the day's weather, etc., but it was still a great start.  He then went on to play my personal favorites like "Pickup Truck Song," L.A. Freeway," and "Little Bird," as well as the big crowd pleasers like "Red Neck Mother," "Mr. Bojangles," "Trashy Women," "Navajo Rug," and "Sangria Wine."  Like "Gettin' By," he changed up the lyrics to Sangria to make it clear that he is a cool mofo and smokes the ganja with the kids.  I'm not on board with switching up the lyrics.  He also mentioned Uber about 4 times during the show, at random intervals.  It was kind of weird.

He played one new tune that I hadn't heard before, and I liked it quite a bit.  All about how he had always thought he'd live in Northern California or Colorado, but love happened in Texas and he never left.  No clue what it was called, or if it is on an album, but it was a really nice song.

Great show.  I think the tickets were $60 a piece, so it was a little spendy, but the wife and I had a fun night going out downtown and then hitting up the show.

We also got there in time for the opener, and I'm really glad.  I'd never heard of her before, but it was a gal named Carson McHone, who said she was from Austin.  I've grabbed her album on Spotify and plan to listen some more, but she was a pretty gal with a strong voice and a handful of good songs.  The two I remember were "Ain't You Lucky I Love Being Lonely," and "Dram Shop Girl."  You should go check her out.

In addition, I happened to know the guy playing guitar for her, which was super cool.  Scott Davis, used to play with Hayes Carll, more recently has been touring with the Band of Heathens.  Really fun to see him and catch up, and especially cool to sit there and enjoy him making some really great music for a band he'd never played with in his life.