This weekend was bitter cold, hitting 11 below farenheit at my house! What a great time to hibernate. I watched so much Olympic hockey, cooked, and worked on some more CDs for the Denver Art Museum project on African Music. My cat was so happy to have me around, especially after being gone the prior weekend. He's not the big hockey fan I am so he didn't seem too impressed by the Swiss upsets, nor by the US Women finally turning it around and winning the bronze medal today. Our Colorado contingent has not been faring too well, the snowboarder who should have had a gold then biffed and the CU skier/footballer who didn't turn in his best ever run in the moguls. Ah well.

I guess I never gave much review of Austin! It was great to see some of the Texan groups I know and love like the Austin Lounge Lizards and Brave Combo, but it's heartbreaking to see Brave Combo without Bubba Hernandez. We've been in touch and I am happy to hear of his new project, Los Super Vatos. Here's hoping they get an opportunity to play in Colorado.

Other highlights in Austin included the youthful exuberance of the Lost Bayou Ramblers, gypsy swing from Canada with Lache Cercel and Roma Swing, Sara Hickman being as silly and giddy and charming as ever, the lovely voice and guitar work of Juan-Carlos Formell, a little yodeling from Don Edwards, a great guerilla showcase from Po' Girl, and wonderful Scandinavian music from Harv and Svang. Of course there was so much more. As with most music conferences there were places to be before Noon and music to hear til at least 3am.

After trying to catch up on sleep for a few days, I finally braved the elements on Thursday and headed down to Denver with my friend Pamela. We stumbled on to a great tapas bar and had some great food and drinks before heading over to Cervantes to catch Dr John. This was sort of a dual birthday celebration as Pam just had a birthday and we had planned to see Dr John for my birthday last October at Tipitina's. I'd never seen him before and now I wonder why I waited so long, he puts on a fine show, drawing lots of voodoo into the air. His band was tight and enjoying the setting and the music got even more fiery when the now local Henry Butler came up on stage to join the band.

My other distraction of late was starting a myspace page. I hardly have time to keep up with it now, it was good to start in December during the quieter time. Visit me at www.myspace.com/ecerb

Elaine C. Erb. KGNU Music Director. <º))))><
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