SAHARA SMITH at Shady Grove 6-11-09

This should have been titled Jimmy LaFave at Shady Grove with Sahara opening but...we'll get to that later.
I saw Sahara a year ago at this same event, Unplugged at the Grove. She was an opening act then, also. Really liked her but hadn't seen her since. It's funny because she played a song that night that has stuck in my head ever since. It was about driving all night to Laredo. Killer song! She played it again this year and I did video it. It's called The Real Thing. See it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7C4LQYvsbQ&feature=channel_page

Last year she had Jake Owen with her playing lead guitar. This year, along with Jake (he's really good, by the way) she also had a drummer and upright bass player. The bass player had just come off tour with the BoDeans.
I remember last year she said she was working on a record and I had hoped to buy it at this show. Turns out it's still not finished. Maybe one of these days!
This show. I think she has a ton of talent. She's very young. Not sure she's even 21 yet. If you listen to her songs without seeing her you would think it's someone older writing. Very mature. Really nice voice. Sometimes I hear Sarah McLaughlin, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell in her voice. Not bad company.
So, the music was really good. She just needs to establish some kind of relationship with her audience. It was lacking a year ago and there hasn't been any progress, I'm sorry to say. If she could just develop any kind of dialogue with the audience, she'd be much better off.
Sahara was playing her last song when they pulled the plug on Unplugged. Austin is up to it's neck in music problems; decibel ordinances, a living wage for musicians, venue permits, anything and everything musically is undergoing major trauma right now. What got Unplugged was an outdated ordinance regarding decibel levels. The law needs to be changed but until it is, anybody can shut down a restaurant who has live music if they go above 70db. That is less loud than a bus going by. A riot just about broke out when the cops showed up and the music was stopped. Everybody is up in arms. We'll see what happens this week. Stay tuned.