Getting ready for Austin

Really getting stoked for the Austin City Limits Music Festival at the end of September. I'll close in The Boys of Winter that Sunday, and Wednesday Sue and I will fly to Austin for some much needed and deserved rest and music.

And there, along with seeing the likes of Alejandro Escovedo, Manu Chao, The Raconteurs, Gillian Welch and a whole host of my favorite musical types, I'm also going to hook up with my old music teacher, Colleen Reilly.

I met Colleen at Jack's Drum Shop over on Boylston Street before it closed. I was just in there killing time that night, and also happened to be looking for a music teacher. She and I got to talking and it was one of those things where you say to yourself, what's to think about? All the good signs are there. I borrowed one of the store's guitars and had my first lesson with her right then and there. And that night, she sent me off with the instructions to go home and write two songs. I'd never written a song in my life, but with Colleen, it's that easy. You just do it.

Which is how, I guess, that she and Dave, her boyfriend and the drummer in her band, just up and moved to Austin.

She's working hard right now, getting out her first CD. Check it out (one of Colleen's favorite phrases; she was always saying, "John, check it out," then she'd zip through this riff or bend a note to it just screamed, and then she'd say, "You do it...lol) When Push Comes to Shove and the solo from Blood Money (hey, where are the lyrics to this one??--Colleen has a great rock voice) and tell me you can't hear the SRV influence. And what I find amazing are the other two tracks on her Myspace page. For DC and the Nardis solo are these straight, sophisticated jazz pieces so you get the idea of what a talent she is because she plays both genres equally well.