Family day for Taylor & Rodriguez

It's getting late on Wednesday and I'll have to shut down soon to get ready for my flight to Charlotte for MerleFest. There are a lot of Old Settler's items I'm not going to get to today. Hopefully, I get back to posting on many of these topics overlapping with my upcoming MerleFest content.

* report on the Vassar Clements tribute
* Peter Rowan interview
* Austin prodigy Sarah Jarosz
* interview with Mike Phelan of Marley's Ghost
* impressions of Todd Snider
* Sharon Gilchrist does double duty
* Kat Edmonson is the cat's meow
* campground vignettes, more

I did want to get in one more report on Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez, since they'll be playing again Friday and Saturday at MerleFest. They played the last set of the festival on Sunday afternoon at the campground stage. It was a family affair for Carrie, as her grandmother, novelist Frances Nail, and other members of her family watched the talented fiddler and vocalist put on a very entertaining set of music.

Taylor and Rodriguez showed off their duet vocals on "Sweet Tequila Blues" and others, Carrie's feisty solo on "Never Gonna Be Your Bride," great lead guitar from John Platania, and Taylor's greatest hits including "Wild Thing." Rodriguez is an Austin native and Taylor had considerable success locally as a part of the Armadillo scene in the 1970s. Also, their set included a number of Austin-related songs, so the whole thing had a homey, Sunday afternoon feel to it.

I sat down with Chip for a quick interview before leaving to make my flight out of Austin. We agreed to pick up the conversation at MerleFest. Which is also where I am going to pick up the conversation on this blog beginning Friday morning. MerleFest has a real press facility on site and I expect to be able to file reports throughout the festival. See you then.