Brave Combo at The Live Oak Listening Room....

Well it's October and in the polka world that means going to a Brave Combo gig is a good way to spend an evening which is what we did last night at the Live Oak Listening room. The show was hosted by the Texas Folklife Salon Series, pot luck was on point, the band was great, John Lomax III opened with cowboy songs, the slide show projection added much to the atmosphere, I saw lots of friends and I met an internet friend.   

Brave Combo plays a mash up of polka, cumbia, salsa, jazz, rock and more. They have contributed music to films by David Byrne of Talking Heads fame, PBS shows and appeared on the Simpsons. I probably saw Brave Combo for the first time in the 1980s. I have made it a point to see them every time I could for the last decade or so as I feel like they are a national treasure.  

I met one of my internet friends in the band the tubist Carl Kleinsteuber. He's a famous guy playing with many ensembles. I guess we became facebook friends because it's easy to be such in the tuba universe but I also note that hailing from Denton, Tx as he does we have another friend in common, Jim Hardy, who I knew from the dorm at SFASU way back in the day and who taught at University of North Texas  in Denton which would be the connection between him and Mr. Kleinsteuber.  

The photos don't do the projection show justice. Pat Casey is the man behind the art form and it really added much to the show. I hope we see more of it at performances in the future.  

John Lomax III is the grandson of the great folklorist John Lomax who recorded obscure American folk music for the Library of Congress before the encroachment of modern life disappeared those cultures. He sang Acapella and you should catch his Lomax on Lomax show if you treasure folk music. Cathy sang along with all his songs as they were the tunes her mother sang to her when during her childhood and when she was learning guitar. You will know them also. 

Thanks again to the Live Oak for hosting a wonderful show.