RENEE AUSTIN BOWS OUT WITH DIGNITY...

I got up this morning like every other, of course with it being Christmas/New Years break for my daughter she was planted in front of the TV and ready for her breakfast, I do love to cook her breakfast so once she was good and eating, I headed up here to my computer to check my email, my myspace page to read messages, bulletins and the like and try and get a little bit of work done.
As I was settling in I got a notification in my main email and went and checked it out; it was sent from the ‘archangel’ on behalf of one of my dearest friends and one of the best singers I have ever heard, the following is the body of that email:

(from Reneé Austin)
I want to start by thanking all of my friends, family, fellow musicians, and fans for all the love and support you have given me over the years. As most of you know I released my second CD with Blind Pig Records “Right About Love” on August 16th. It is a piece of me that I am very proud of and a culmination of lots of hard work from many people.

As some of you know I had to have surgery on September 13th to remove a lump on my thyroid gland. I feel blessed to be able to tell you that I am doing fine and the lump turned out to be cancer free. I regret to inform you all that as a result of the surgery my left vocal chord has been left paralyzed and is not working. The result of this is I can talk softly but I cannot sing.

In the last couple of weeks after lots of medical opinions and various hospital visits my condition has been diagnosed as likely permanent. This means that I probably will never be able to sing again. I am working hard with a speech therapist to see if I can beat the odds and God willing raise my voice in song once again someday. Until that time comes I must say goodbye to you all as a singer and thank you again for all of the love and support you have given me.

I thank God for the opportunities He gave me to live out my dream even if only for small window of time. I trust that He has a plan for my life and whatever that is, I will put my heart and soul into it just as I did my music.

From the bottom of my heart – please know I thank all of you for your kindness to me and I will remember it always. May God Bless each of you.

Stay Soulful,

Reneé

As I read my heart broke, it felt as though I had been punched in the stomach and I cried a bit.
I met Reneé nearly 10 years ago here in the Twin Cities and immediately fell for her, and in the time since she has earned my undying admiration, respect and love as one of the truly finest people I have ever encountered on this planet, She is a genuinely compassionate spirit, filled with joy and love for every one she passes.
A few years ago when my daughter (then about 2 and a half) was in the hospital for 8 nights and 7 days, Reneé came by to have lunch with us one day and wound up staying nearly 6 hours going into the play room, finger painting, using the play dough, playing with the Lego’s, the kitchen toys and countless other things simply taking some of the stress off of me. My daughter loves her very much, they’ve spent time playing Barbie’s together, She is one of her very favorite baby sitters and good friends. We planned her 4th birthday around a show Reneé did here in town at an all ages venue and every one had a wonderful time.



As a performer Reneé is amazing; sweet and sexy, with a voice that could peel the paint off the walls as it lulls you into submission, she would capture you in her spell as she weaves in and out of styles, blending seamlessly, R&B, Blues, Soul, Gospel, Country, Rock and more, she’d dance, sway, flirt, play guitar, piano, tambourine all the while wowing nearly every person in every venue she ever performed with her nearly 5 octave range. She won hearts and ears town by town, stage by stage, and all the while stayed down to earth and when she’d return home would be eager to get together for lunch or to just chill, go to the park with my girl (her ’netters) or maybe just chat on the phone telling me stories of being on the road, driving ‘round in that Econo-line with the boys in the band, and with her success that traveling got more intense and stressful, now I don’t know what caused this lump in her throat, if it was just one of those things or if she over stressed it singing, or what, but I do know that the music world has (it seems) lost one of it’s brightest up and coming stars, thankfully we, (me and my family) still have one of our dearest friends.

I ask you if your reading this, show Reneé Austin your support, she has a little page in myspace at www.myspace.com/reneeaustin that you can send her your well wishes, or you can go to my web store to check out and maybe purchase and item with her image on it (any proceeds will go straight to her) at www.cafepress.com/blueswearetc . And for sure visit amazon.com or one of the other Cd sites and pick up one or both of her Blind Pig releases, Google her and look over some of the great press she’s received in the past few years since the release of her first Cd on Blind Pig (which by the way got her nominated for a WC Handy award - the Grammy of the blues world) I promise you won’t be disappointed.
My Friendship with Reneé Austin has made me a better person and after reading that email, I sent her one then I called her on the phone we talked for a bit then after we hung up, I cried a little bit more, they say these things happen for a reason and Reneé is looking forward to discovering the reason for this challenge in her live and take it on full force. If you don’t know about her, do some research and find out, she truly is one of the very finest people on this earth and I for one am privileged to be able to share it with her…
WE LOVE YOU RENEE…

A Girl Guitar Slinger?

GENUINE GUITAR SLINGER.
Review by MARK FREDELL

originally prineted in the paper Blue Monday January 2006 issue

It was a rather normal cold December night (the 10 to be specific) there was a bit of snow on the ground and the air temp had finally crawled up from the arctic freezer to near normal temps (right around 25 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit) so as I headed out to catch some live music I was able to grab my usual jacket rather than my north pole parka, I had my comfortable gloves instead of the ones designed to save your fingers in case you freeze to death so they can print you for identification, along with a standard stocking cap in place of the fur lined Elmer Fud looking head gear suitable for mushing across the tundra in the Iditarod that had adorned my head for the previous week of frigid weather; okay you get it had been cold and if your reading this you already knew that, after all this is Minnesota and we are a hardy lot used to this kind of thing; right? So I headed out at my usual time right around 8:00pm off for another night of blues at famous Dave’s the was some stiff competition in town on this particular night for the blues entertainment dollar however with both BB King and Tab Benoit make quicker than usual return visits to the cities. Mr. King of course was here back in March and Tab had been here earlier in the year as well, anyhow I was headed to Dave’s to see one of the few female guitar masters on the scene today, Miss. Joanna Conner, billed with one of Chicago’s newly rediscovered legends Jimmy Burns, unfortunately Joanna told me when I arrived that Jimmy had to cancel the afternoon before so it would be a full night of her and her rock solid band. A bit disappointed as I have not seen Mr. Burns in person yet, I settled in and got ready for the show. Joanna who moved to Chicago from New York at the age of 17 learned her rough and tumble blues at the feet of some of the masters, playing with the likes of JB Hutto, Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks and countless others, she plays guitar like one of the boys, no apologies, no compromise just full tilt aggression, attacking the fret board with power and skill weather pulling out a fiery BB or Albert King riff, a blazing Buddy Guy style solo or working her slide like a player possessed with the sprits of Elmore James, Bukka White and Dwayne Allman simultaneously. Joanna can play and as the band tore into their first number she and the guys had the thin though enthusiastic crowd in the palm of their hands. Starting off with a pair of instrumentals the band was able to showcase what they had in store for the night whit fierce solo’s from all and then the solid vocals from Joanna who is an effective and emotive singer, add to this the fireball that is Quintus McCormick on second guitar and vocals and this band is capable of devastating any room and denigrating all comers in a head cutting contest While Joanna is rock solid weather playing lead, slide or rhythm, Quintus is like a stick of Dynamite ready to go off when you least expect it, he sings with pure intensity and his playing is subtle yet explosive at the same time and the pair together are a volatile combination. As the night went, on the first set ended with standing ovations and then of course the inevitable thinning of the crowd, and as the band retook the stage for set 2 they continued to play their hearts out while the audience grew more and more disinterested making it hard for them to keep the energy up on stage, they however did a more than respectable job of it with Joanna inviting a friend that had made the trip with the band from Chicago to join then on stage and lend some vocals to a couple of classic soul tunes, all the while the band maintained a mastery of the music and total domination of the stage, of course the crowd continued to thin, some people drifted in as others flowed out yet Miss. Conner’s and company never gave in they played with 110% from start to finish ending the night at about a quarter to 1:00am. And as we said our goodnights Joanna assured me she’ll be back as soon as they’ll have her and once more , leave no one untouched by her own brand of rock laced hard driving urban blues.

RUMBLE ON LINK WRAY!!!

LINK WRAY,
THE ORIGINAL RUMBLE!!!

Link Wray Dead at age 76...
I just got word this weekend that rock guitar pioneer Link Wray has passed away earlier this month (November 5th 2005) at his home in Copenhagen Denmark. For those that aren’t aware, Link Wray is one of the most identifiable and influential guitar players in the history of Rock & Roll, even though he’s not a household name his sound has been an inspiration to legions of players since the late fifties. Often called the first heavy metal guitar player Links sound was different than anything that had come before filled with shrill squeals and rhythmic bravado he set the pace for the underground players of the 60’s & 70’s the likes of the stooges, the MC5, and even a lot of what Richards (with the Stones) and Townsend (with the Who) were doing. Wray was a ground breaker mixing Rockabilly, Blues, Jazz and even Surf among other styles into his sound you might remember his memorable guitar instrumentals featuring prominently in the film Pulp Fiction. He was an awe inspiring live performer and though it was quite unfortunate that I was un-able to see him on his last stop in the Twin Cities; as it happened it was February 18th 2003 when he was scheduled to perform at a club called the Fine Line when his opening act managed to set the club on fire with some flash explosives as a part of their set, thankfully no one was hurt though the club suffered nearly a million dollars in damage, and all this just 3 days before the tragic night club fire that killed 119 people in Rhode Island ( we here in the cities that were in the club at the time definitely count our blessings) But I did have the chance to see Link perform a few times in the late 70’s when he was playing with Rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon as well as 2 times in the 80’s solo with his own band, every time he hit the stage he poured himself 100% into every note he played. Link Wray was the original BAD ASS GUITAR MONSTER and there are guys today that can only dream of touching a small fraction of his intensity.
Rest well Link and keep that band up there rockin’!!!!