Tuesday, March 20, 2012

SXSW 2012! Part the First


That's my giddy fangirl smile


Every year it comes to town, and every year, it kicks my ass.  I start giddy with expectation and end up with a raspy voice and not much else left.  SXSW man. SXSW.

I write to you from my bed.

Well not every year. Since my babies, I've taken a very arms length approach to Southby.  I've played Ray's Birthday Party ever year and one, maybe two solo shows and then either left town with the Wheel, or simply stayed North, in the ghost town the the rest of the city becomes outside of the festival radius.

But this year I had a new project that I truly believed in, Elizabeth McQueen Meet Brothers Lazaroff.  I had the desire to play the songs with the guys who had made my songs sound so good. I had my body to myself, as opposed one which house a growing child.  I had two  hearty chidren, as opposed to infants. I had a husband undeterred by the thought of caring for two kids himself. And I had good friends coming to town to play music with.

This year, for the first time in ages, I did SXSW.

And it was a good one, maybe my best since 2004, when Dave and I got married at the Broken Spoke on the Monday before the festival started, played Ray's birthday on a Tuesday, and sailed through the rest of the fest on a newlywed cloud.

It wasn't without hiccups. I mean, ideally we'd all get to do this thing fully rested, with all our stars perfectly aligned.  But that never, ever happens. This time around I was unrecovered from the double whammy of coming home from Europe and daylight savings time. The baby got sick. And then I got sick.  And then I recovered just enough to play and then got sick again. And then Jeff and Teddy from Brothers Lazaroff got sick.  Because that's what happens during SXSW. It wears your already worn out self down, and you break a little. But you keep on going. Because it's SXSW.

And like I said, Best SXSW in a long time.

Before the music even started I got to meet two of my blogging heroes, Rebecca Woolf and Maggie Mason at an HGTV party. (Thanks Suzy!!) I've talked before about my inability to keep it cool around people whose work I respect, and I respect the hell out of these ladies, so it was such a relief that they were totally cool and open and calming to my racing fangirl heart. (I saw Maggie at Jo's earlier that week and introduced myself and literally felt like I might pass out from the excitement. What can I say? I get startstruck).  I also met some other lovely ladies at the party  (what up Lindsey and Caitlin!)

Did I mention I haven't been to a non-work related party in, like, forever? This was a nice way to re-enter adult society.

Well, that's enough for today. Tomorrow, Ray's Birthday Party, and that time I Partied with Bruce Springsteen (and by partied I mean was in the same hallway with him for under a minute. Yup! I said it!)


3 comments:

Linda's said...

Great Song ! Thank you for the down load. I will share it proudly.
I've been a fan of A sleep at the Wheel before you were born. keep rockin ~ I say :0)

Linda's said...

Great Song... thank you for the down load. I've been a fan of A sleep at the Wheel for ever. Now a fan of your's too. Keep Rockin

EMQ said...

Awesome Linda! Thank you very much for listening.