Friday night we and Wells headed north to Gruene Hall to take in one of the last performances of one of our most favorite musicians - Kelly Willis. This may be the last time for a while, as her homepage states:

“I am taking a hiatus from live performances for who knows how long. Being a traveling musician with four kids may not make an extremely compelling reality TV show but it is kicking my butt.”

I’ve enjoyed listening to Kelly’s music since a former boss introduced me to it when I was living/working in Austin in the early 90’s. I’m such a big fan that in ‘99 I named my Mustang “Kelly”. I’ve seen Kelly live in concert several times, but this last time had to have been the best spot for viewing that I’ve ever had. We were front-row-center. Nothing between us but a monitor. *sigh*.

Gruene Hall is a great venue; mostly because you’re so close to the talent.  You’re just as likely to sit next to the band/singer you’re going to see that night while you dine pre-concert at the Gristmill as to run into them in the men’s or women’s restroom.   The latter happened to Amanda this time around.  I’m not sure exactly how it went down, but the end result was Amanda saying in a star-struck voice “um, that one doesn’t flush, so I kicked it.”   I’m sure Kelly was impressed.   All credit to Amanda though for turning in a semi-helpful statement.   At a show in Gruene Hall in ‘95, I ran into Kelly as I was exiting the men’s restroom and all I could come up with was “So, I hear you like cats?”  We then proceeded to have the most uncomfortable one minute conversation about cats that the world has ever seen.

Here’s two videos I took with my borrowed-from-my-mom-4-mega-pixel camera. The audio’s not all that - you’ve been warned

Heaven’s Just a Sin Away

Sweet Little One