Billy Joe Shaver 

Better Days 171 : A Gathering

The city of Austin, Texas, plays host to the fifth
Mickey Newbury Gathering from June 17th to 19th.
There is also a special concert at the U of Texas on
June 20th with some of the Gathering's headliners,
including the venerable songwriter, Billy Joe Shaver.
These gatherings, which have become annual events
since Mickey Newbury's death in September, 2002,
bring together friends and fans of the great songwriter
as well as some very fine music. Some of the artists
slated to appear this year are:

Jonmark Stone http://www.jonmarkstone.com
Marie Rhines http://www.marierhines.com
Billy Joe Shaver http://www.billyjoeshaver.com/
Cowboy Johnson http://www.cowboyjohnson.com
Steve Fromholz http://www.stevenfromholz.com/
Fred Eaglesmith http://www.fredeaglesmith.com
Laura Shayne Newbury
Waylon Payne
Egbert Meyers
Joe Newbury
Kacey Jones
Toni Jolene Clay
Jon Rutherford
George Ensle
Chris Gage
Christine Albert-Gage
Jon Emery

The following link out to navigate you right past the
gates at the Newbury website to the Gathering info.

Mickey Newbury Songwriters Gathering V
http://www.mickeynewbury.com/board/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=18

I attended and performed at Gatherings III and IV in
2003-04 in Austin, and there is not only a variety of
scheduled performances, but all-night guitar pulls
as well. Last year, around 3:00 a.m. for instance on
the Saturday night, there must have been over 100
people in a double hotel room as about 20 players -
including a steel guitarist! - shared songs until the
Texas sun came up. It's a good time, and the quality
of people in attendance is top drawer.

Last summer, featured performances were recorded
in multi-tracked digital quality. After a long winter
consisting of listening, selecting and mixing down the
music, two separate recordings are being released
at this summer's Gathering. Following the event, they
will be made available for general sale via the Newbury
website cd store at www.mickeynewbury.com

One recording is a two-cd set of performances from
Gathering IV. The other is by Jonmark Stone and
Marie Rhines, two masterful musicians who played
with Mickey Newbury, Jonmark as a studio sideman
and Marie as a violinist on some of Newbury's later tours
and recordings. The Stone-Rhines collaboration will
be called When I Heard Newbury Sing, the title
of a song Jonmark wrote in Mickey's memory.

I'm not certain of the title of the double-set, but I've
been blessed to receive an advance copy. It'll form the
heart of my final Better Days program before taking
the summer off in Europe and leaving the show in the
hands of my guest hosts. The performers on this fine
double-set (more than two-and-a-half hours of
music) include:

Chris Gage http://www.moonhouserecords.com
Christine Albert
Cowboy Johnson
Andy Polk
Egbert Meyers
Kacey Jones http://www.kaceyjones.com
Jimmie Mac
Kevin Johnson
Marie Rhines
Jonmark Stone
Laura Shayne Newbury
Susan Newbury
Chris Fraser
Mike Beck http://www.mikebeck.com
Butch Morgan
Elton Noel
Doug Lang

Free Downloads:
You can hear samples of Jonmark Stone and Marie
Rhines at www.jonmarkstone.com and a couple of
my own Austin performances are available to download
at http://www3.telus.net/billybob/dougCDs

As well as featuring music from the advance copy
of the Gathering IV and Stone-Rhines cds on the
June 9th show, I'll start the show with a feature
on Suit Yourself, the great new release from
singer-songwriter, Shelby Lynne.

I'll be looking for you at www.coopradio.org on
Thursday, June 9th, 10:00 pm to 12:00 am PDT.

That's Better Days, heard around the corner and
around the world, on CFRO 102.7 FM.

DL