Photos, Video and Notes from SXSW 2014

My day job sent me down to Austin for a good chunk of SXSW, but I managed to catch some great tunes along the way.

American Songwriter’s two-day Billy Reid Shindig had the best lineup in town (and was tons of fun) with acts like Hurray for the Riff Raff, Benjamin Booker, St. Paul and the Broken Bones and Robert Ellis. Many Americana fans also shot out to Luck, TX on Thursday for Willie Nelson’s Heartbreaker Banquet – a pretty epic event with acts like Shovels & Rope, Willie Watson, John Fullbright and Noah Gundersen. The elder Willie also performed. I took off on Friday, but on Saturday a number of our good friends performed in a jam packed lineup at the Brooklyn Country Cantina.

Also of note were a number of performances by Typhoon and the Americana Music Association’s Wednesday night showcase at St. Davids where Wanda Jackson, Willie Watson and John Fullbright performed one right after the other. Fullbright’s powerful performance in a gorgeous sanctuary, possibly my favorite of the week, drowned out the sirens and chaos surrounding the festival’s widely covered tragic accident that left two dead and many more injured, just two blocks away.

Check out some of my instas and a few videos from others, including a special one that captures the story of a surprise hospital concert for one of the accident’s victims by one of her favorite Austin bands, Jared & The Mill.