Herb Steiner Quartet - Evangeline Cafe - Austin 11/13

[Herb Steiner]

From 7 to 9pm on Tuesday, November 13, your humble correspondent will be fronting a swinging aggregation featuring Billy Curtis on fiddle/sax, Charlie Irwin on bass, and Ron "no relation" Erwin on drums. The venue is the most excellent Louisiana Cajun restaurant and a flagship of S.Austin music rooms, The Evangeline Cafe.

Repertoire will be B.Wills, Sinatra, Ellington, Darin, R.Price, Mercer, C.Porter, H.Williams, Thompson, et al.

There might be a chanteuse or two, and perhaps some other pickers, sitting in for some numbers as well.

And the food, all Loozyanna cajun/creole specialties, is the best in town. Try the Oysters Contraband on the appetizer menue. To die for.

The Evangeline Cafe is at 8106 Brodie Lane, Austin TX.

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

Sounds like a great band Herb. I wish I could be there to see you.

[Billy Gilbert]

Last night, Nov. 9th, I saw Herb Steiner play at a theater in Georgetown to a sold out crowd. The show features a Patsy Cline lookalike (and singalike) and a very good Country band. From my perch in the nose-bleed seats I had a bird's eye view of the top Of Herb's cowboy hat. Herb proved once and for all that a steel guitar can be played in the dark.

[Herb Steiner]

Billy
Hey, thanks for making the long haul from SA up to Georgetown for the show! It's gotta be 150 miles one way. I wish I'd known you were there so I could come out front and hang with you for a short while after the show.

Playing on a blacked out stage is a problem, no lie. I had the show memorized by then so reading the book wasn't an issue, but accurately seeing the frets is a challenge. In stage lighting, the chrome fretboards on an Emmons are very nice looking, but for theatre work I prefer the white-line fretboards. So for that work I use a PP that has the white frets.

Hope to see you soon, my friend.

[Gene Jones]

Playing in the dark and not being able to see your guitar sounds like a nightmare Herb.

I haven't experienced a completely darkened stage, but, I have worked a weekly television show where the producer didn't want to see any amplifiers on camera, so they were placed behind a stage curtain.

I can't imagine a worse situation, not being able to see your guitar, or not being able to hear it.

[Herb Steiner]

Not a nightmare, Gene, more like a momentary need for concentration. I still have my ears working and it's not a pitch black situation, just a darkened stage. Again, white frets to the rescue.

The gig at the Evangeline went fantastic. I had a good, enthusiastic crowd and my worthy bandmates played their asses off. I look to be doing more quartet and quintet dates in the future. "Cocktail steel" might be a growing thing around here.