SXSW report: 15th annual Swollen Circus show.

Got home from TX yesterday morning after a quick trip down to Austin for a SXSW kickoff show at the Hole in the Wall. I had a blast, and was extra appreciative of the opportunity to play the annual Swollen Circus show this year, which was a tribute show to fine friend and musician Drew Glackin.

Thanks to Walter of The Silos, and LA songwriter Tom Freund for backing me up (drums and bass) for one of the heaviest performances ever of my song "Librarian." The Silos and Tom each played great sets of their own, and I also enjoyed seeing other personal favs of mine, including Michael Hall and Jon Dee Graham.

When I was in high school I had this picture on the wall in my bedroom. Mike Mills and Peter Buck (the dudes in the right hand column) from R.E.M. were at the show on Tuesday night, so you can imagine how surreal the evening seemed to me. Mills played bass with Syd Straw, and Buck played bass with The Minus Five. If you told me in 1988 that 20 years later I'd perform at a club in Austin, TX, and share the bill with The Silos and members of R.E.M. I think I would've passed out. It was a night I'll never forget, and at the same time it was a real reasonable, normal, and natural experience, too.

I think I'm on the world's most long and gradual on-ramp to rock & roll credibility. Slow and steady, as they say.

Thanks again to Walter and Michael for including me on the bill, and to you Drew: whenever I play "Librarian" I hear your guitar solo in my head.