Friday, October 17, 2008

Aussies in Austin


Jamie and Rich, a couple guys from Melbourne, started in San Francisco and are on their way to New York with seven weeks to drive coast to coast and top to bottom. Three weeks and five national parks into it, they hit Austin. Souvenir guru Rich came up with the brilliant idea to buy guitars in San Fran and get signatures from people they encounter in their journey. Jamie surprised us with a few songs Friday night. He asked what type of music I liked. I said lots of kinds...Ben Harper, Jack Johnson...and he whipped out four Ben Harper songs. Very impressive. After our private show, we went out to see a few other people showcase their musical stylings.


We met Michelle and Mark at Green Mesquite for some Texan BBQ and real bluegrass music - fiddles and banjos galore. Jamie and Rich got right into it and were loving the local sounds, so much so that they returned to the very same spot two nights later.


Rich, Jamie, and me at Green Mesquite. After dinner, we picked up Dan at Continental Club and headed to Broken Spoke for some country two stepping and the Willie Nelson museum. The cover deterred us from staying since we were on a tour of Austin bars. We moved onto Donn's Depot on 5th St, where we got more live music and a really mixed crowd. Michelle and Mark made some moves on the dance floor, and we left there around 12:30am. I had to work the next morning, so I dropped the guys off on Sixth Street and headed home. Good thing I called it a night because the guys kicked on until 6am.