idgy vaughn

my friend, recordman-raconteur-bon vivant jim yanaway was in town from austin over the holidays, a fact i twigged when i got home from the stoogeshow the other night and found an idgy vaughn ceedee in my mailbox. these days, jim is doing promo for idgy, as well as working with the nonprofit texamericana (whose mission statement thingy sez they're "a texas nonprofit corporation whose mission is to create funding for charitable and community nonprofit organizations by supporting musical and cultural diversity"). back in the day, jim usedta work for slim richey's rekkid distributorship on west vickery, and he recorded the juke jumpers, the legendary stardust cowboy, blues gtrist denny freeman and an all-star sesh that reunited ex-ray charles bandmates/metromess sax titans david "fathead" newman and james clay (return to the wide open spaces) on his amazing records label ("if it's a hit, it's amazing"). jim's also the custodian of legendary live recordings of srv at the bluebird (my first exposure to stevie, prior to moving to austin in '79) and u.p. wilson at tack's fun house that _somebody_ oughtta release.

jim's trying to hustle a gig for idgy at machenry's, a good venue with excellent sound, humane management, and a listening crowd which seems an ideal venue for the singer-songwriter, especially since they relocated to magnolia, in the same quadrant of the city as benito's, spiral diner, and panther city bicycles, a big improvement over their old locale. now, i myself am not a big fan of singer-songwriters per se; i've never been at one with the sara hickmen and roberts earl keen of this world. that said, idgy can prolly survive without my aging fort worth-'n'-noise-centric music-snob approbation; her career has already had a trajectory that's cinema-worthy (briefly: single mama songwriter, slaving as truckstop waitress, gets her debut recordings funded by a customer who hits the lottery), and she's huge in england, where they're nuts about roots-americana stuff. but her debut disc, origin story (which has apparently been re-released with new artwork), certainly has its beguiling moments, and i dig the song "attic window" (which inexplicably reminds me of bob mould's "compositions for the young and old" in places, for some reason) real much. her voice is all ache 'n' twang, and she gets points for naming the title character in her autobiographical song "truckstop waitress" kitty cat. here's hoping the smiling folks at machenry's at least give her a shot.