Southpaw Jones

CRUELTY is now available!
Order the CD now at southpawjones.com.
Purchase MP3s at cdbaby.com or .
Grab a copy in real time at Waterloo Records or End of an Ear in Austin.
Or buy one from me any Thursday at Flipnotics @ the Triangle.

Sometimes I get down about my “career.”

My mother wanted me to avoid the music business because of all the “ups and downs.”

Oh, how she worries to this day.

I suppose all artists have moments or even decades of doubt.

“Why am I doing this? Does anyone even care? Have I made any progress?”

You know, in times of trouble, it’s easy to get jealous of more successful musicians with their millions of dollars and throngs of fans.

Sometimes, though, you hear a story that makes you think, “Wow, I’m really happy to be who I am and where I am in life.”

REALLY happy.

This is one of those stories, from GuideLive.com:

Pat Green performed Saturday night at the Michigan International Speedway after NASCAR’s Carfax 250 race.

The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports that late in his show, he shouted, “Anyone got a beer?”

A can of suds suddenly soared from the audience onto the stage.

Then a second can from the crowd hit Green between the eyes, knocking him out.

Immediate Questions:

• Did he find this hilarious the second he woke up, or will it take a few days?

• Did the band finish the song?

• Did the crowd gasp, cheer, cry, or all three?

• Was it one of those heavy Heineken keg cans?

• Was the crowd so well-equipped that they could have served a whole fried turkey or a vat of potato soup or a hound dog upon request?

• Is the hurler of said beer guilty of a crime? Surely not, since the victim requested the blunt object via live microphone. I have to say, though, “assault with a hoppy weapon” is a lovely charge.

Obviously, Pat Green is very successful, and such success is well worth taking a watered down adult beverage to the noggin at least once.

But it’s the cumulative story that turns me a non-envious shade of green:

1. performing at the Michigan International Speedway
(What on earth makes it “international”?)

2. after a NASCAR race
(Can’t you smell the fossil fuels?)

3. drunk-as-all-get-out crowd
(Can’t you smell the pheremones?)

Beer to the head or no beer to the head, big payday or not, I would never want to perform in that situation. But that’s kind of a problem, isn’t it? If you are a live performer, but your act isn’t designed to sell beer and one-night-stands, how exactly are you supposed to make a living?

Clearly, I don’t have the answer to that question. It’s a hard road, this lyric-focused folksinger’s life of mine, where dozens gather to buy coffee for $1.

But I’ll take it over a drunken NASCAR crowd any day.

Any day.

Congratulations and get-well-soon to Pat Green, whose wish is the audience’s command.

“Anybody got a cold one?”

“We need an ice pack up here.”

as reported in The New York Times

August 20, 1908
MRS. WARDWELL FOUND.
Widow of General Evades Guards of Leper Colony for a Time.

One clue whose answer consists of two rhyming words:

For lunch today, I’m just going to have one of those cheap bowls of seasoned Asian noodles. Nothing special, just some…

Highlight here for answer: [common ramen]


Popcorn Cat

I always knew I was an artist and not the cog in some machine. To be an artist is a blessing and a privilege. Artists must never betray their true hearts. Artists must look beneath the surface and show that there is more to this world than what meets the eye.
Marvin Gaye

EVERY DANG THURSDAY
8:00 PM
Flipnotics at the Triangle
4600 Guadalupe
AUSTIN, TX
(512) 380-0097
www.flipnotics.com
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2008
Matt the Electrician & Southpaw Jones
8:00 pm
Wyldwood House Concert
4205 Wyldwood Road
AUSTIN, TX
wyldwood.startlogic.com
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2008
Celebrating the lyrics of CRUELTY!
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
AUSTIN, TX
(512) 472-5050
www.bookpeople.com