Carolyn Wonderland ~ April 10, 2010 ~ Nutty Brown Café ~ Austin, TX

Words and Photos by Joe Koch

While visiting Austin, we took in some local music. On April 10, we made the 20-minute drive outside of the city to the Nutty Brown Café to check out Austin favorite Carolyn Wonderland. This girl sings like Janis and plays the guitar like Stevie.

She was playing on an outside stage. We missed her first set, so by then the crowd had diminished as the temperature dropped. We stuck it out with her loyal fans that stayed and danced ‘til the end. She played past the venue’s curfew, but we were so far out in the woods, who was complaining?

She opened her second set with “Still Alive and Well,” a song that I was familiar with from her last album, Miss Understood. Also on stage with her was another local favorite, Shelly King. She performed the whole night with Underwood, alternating lead vocals, singing harmonies and duets.

They played a couple songs from another Texas native blues girl — Terri Hendrix. Carolyn introduced the next song by talking about her recent visit to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame where she was performing at a Janis Joplin Tribute, she was having a conversation with Susan Tedeschi and Lucinda Williams about the same songs that people always cover of Janis. This led to Carolyn dedicating Janis’ first ever recorded song “What Good Can Drinking Do,” to Lucinda and Susan.

The big news around Austin was the previous day’s verdict —outlaw country music legend Billy Joe Shaver was found not guilty of aggravated assault. Carolyn honored him by belting out the song “Innocence.”

Her guitar work on “Judgment Day Blues” was out of this world. You can find this tune on her first album, Bloodless Revolution. She ended the night with an acapella song, “Beer,” from her album Alcohol and Salvation, which she said was about how a beer can saved her life. Is there a humorous twist in there?

For more info go to: www.carolynwonderland.com/