Never Too Late for a Tribute

Alejandro Escovedo is lucky to be alive, and he plays music like he knows the value of every day. At 59, he's pretty old to still be chasing rock and roll fame and fortune, but a recent interview made it sound like he'd like some commercial success to go with the critical acclaim he has earned. I'm pretty sure that window closed a while back, but it means that he can be seen in smaller venues, always a better viewing experience. He's also got friends in high places. When he last played the Stone Pony in New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen joined him on stage for a few songs.
Escovedo played a noon in-store, which I think was scheduled to keep the store from overcrowding. The picture at the bottom of this post is from the side of the stage, since getting close up front was not in the cards. The show was great, but writing about it is just a way to get to something I've been wanting to write for more than a year. If I blogged during the school year, a post in the Spring of 2009 would have been titled, "A Sad Day in May."

Carrie and I were in the car on the way down the street to vote in the city elections when the news came on the radio. Stephen Bruton was dead. We knew he had cancer. We knew the prognosis was not good. We cried a little in the car, then went in to vote.

Stephen was not famous, but people who knew him or knew his music loved him. We knew only his music, but we knew it from up close. Most of the times that we saw him perform was at The Saxon Pub, as part of the band The Resentments. We dragged many of our friends and family to their Sunday night shows to see Stephen, Jon Dee Graham, Jud Newcomb and whoever else might join them on a given night. Great guitar work, raspy unpolished vocals and hilarious side stories were guaranteed as they traded songs. Jon Dee was the only one of them who could carry a solo show, but together, they blended perfectly. They had fun playing, had obvious affection for one another, and they let the audience in on the whole thing. And you got the sense that it worked week after week because what everybody really wanted to do was hang out with Stephen, and Sundays at The Saxon was their chance.

Stephen did some solo work and released some albums, but really he was a band member. I don't have expertise about guitar playing, but nothing I heard ever made me think that Stephen Bruton was an all-time great. But the list of people who wanted him in their bands, starting with Kris Kristofferson, is more than impressive, and includes Bonnie Raitt and Elvis Costello. Almost as much for his guitar playing, I'm sure people of that stature just liked having Stephen in the band because of the same things that we saw over and over again at The Saxon Pub. There was a light about him that drew people in, an intangible spark in his music that connected to people. He is the only musician in Austin that we had that connection with who has died.

He worked on the music for the movie Crazy Heart, which won an Oscar for Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett, so he has had some recent acclaim. Alejandro Escovedo's last song at the in-store was an instrumental, dedicated to Stephen Bruton. The famous, the not-so-famous, and just regular people like me want to pay tribute at least one more time.

After Carrie and I voted that day, we knew where we needed to go. Except for a couple of regulars, there weren't many people in The Saxon Pub at 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon. We pulled up to the bar, told the waitress we were there to drink a beer in Stephen's honor, and paid quiet tribute. A few minutes in, a group of young guys started setting up musical equipment for their matinee show. I have no idea if they had ever heard of Stephen Bruton. They said they were new in town, and this was their first time to play The Saxon. The timing had a "circle of life" feel to it. We stayed for a few songs, stuffed a few dollars in the tip jar, and walked out into the harsh daylight.

Peace,

JS4





P.S. There is a Youtube video of Bruton playing with Kristofferson on an Austin City Limits episode. It won't copy here, but if you go to Youtube and enter Kris Kristofferson Austin City Limits, it's the first one up. Not much of Stephen, but worth 3 minutes of your time.