3 Penny Acre Sunday, April 1st, 5:00 pm

Reserve your seat!
($15 donation to the artists)

3 Penny Acre is an Arkansas-based musical collaboration between three award-winning songwriters: Bayard Blain, Bernice Hembree, and Bryan Hembree. Fans and critics identify their unique Ozark-inspired sound as distinct, yet universally appealing. Listeners around the country hail their straight-from-the-heartland lyrics, soaring vocals, and carefully crafted acoustic arrangements steeped in roots music traditions but with a focus on fresh, new songs.

If you heard them on Kerrville’s main stage or around the campfire, you know they’ve got talent and a lot of heart. Join us for a great show as we welcome 3 Penny Acre for a rare Austin performance.

… harmonies are sweet and strong … Highway 71 is definitely … a songwriter’s and singer’s album.

—Bluegrass Unlimited

A vocal freight train.

—Jonathan Byrd

Graceful, gentle and yet spirited…

—WDVX 88.3 St. Louis

Latin Roots Rocker & Troubadour Patricia Vonne to Play Saturday, Feb 4, 7:00 pm

Reserve your seat!
($15 donation to the artist)

In the eight years since Patricia Vonne’s eponymous debut album, the lovely San Antonio born and bred singer/songwriter has built an enthusiastic following for her lyrically and stylistically multilingual sound. Described by the Austin American-Statesman as “a Tex-Mex spitfire with a rock’n'roll heart…,” Vonne was the 2009 Grand Prize winner in the Latin category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and her single “Mujeres Desaparecidas” was featured as a free download on the Amnesty International website.

Vonne appeared as Zorro Girl in the motion picture “Sin City,” and her music was featured in “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” as well as the Quentin Tarantino film “Hellride.”  She is recording her 5th album this year on her own Bandolera Records.  Don’t miss this opportunity to see Patricia’s lively show in an intimate setting.

Imagine a young Chrissie Hynde fronting the Mavericks with a little help from Calexico
–WORD

The very fine Vonne purveys a powerful, Texas styled rootsy rock ‘n’ roll.
–Time Out London

…superior roots rock from an excellent singer-songwriter …
–Uncut

A bilingual tour -de-force …
–Austin Chronicle

… confident, tuff gal vocals, sharp musicianship and smart lyricism don’t just promise the total package, they deliver the goods from the get-go.
–Texas Monthly Magazine

… hot-blooded mix of Latin rhythm and rattling bar-room rock …
–The Times

A beguiling storyteller …
–Harp

SOLD OUT Darden Smith Plays with Roscoe Beck on Saturday, Jan 14th, 7:00 pm

SOLD OUT

Darden Smith  is a man of many talents who has an eye for what’s beyond the horizon. With a songwriting career spanning 25 years and over a dozen albums, he’s highly regarded as a songwriter and performer both nationally, as well as in Europe. An innovator, Darden has composed an orchestral piece for the Austin Symphony and created a documentary for BBC Radio 2, “Songs from the Big Sky” (2006), which explores the relationship between renowned Texas songwriters and the landscape of the Lone Star State. His arts-in-education Be An Artist Program allows students to explore creativity through the song writing process, and his Solder Songwriting workshops bring together veterans and songwriters to give voice to the military experience. Darden has found a way to meld his interests in music, education and community involvement, as he explores and expands his creative process.

A singer-songwriter blessed with an uncommon degree of intelligence, depth, and compassion.
—All Music Guide

Blessed with a seemingly effortless melodic gift and one of the warmest, most penetrating vocal deliveries in American music.
—Jim Musser
Waxed

Marathon, his (Smith’s) latest album, expands his stylistic and creative horizons.
—John T. Davis
Austin American-Statesman

Michael Fracasso to Play Saturday, December 3rd, 7:00 pm

Reserve your seat!
($15 donation to the artist)

For the past 20 years Michael Fracasso has been one of the most distinctive voices and songwriters in Austin. He has shared the stage and recorded with Lucinda Williams, Charlie Sexton, Patty Griffin and Gillian Welch to name a few. This year (2011) he was shortlisted to receive the Austin Public Library award for literary achievement and has remained dedicated to his art of songwriting while influencing many younger artists; Nakia (from ABC’s “The Voice”) cut six of his songs from “Saint Monday,” his latest CD. The critics collectively acknowledge that Michael just gets better and better.

In a city renowned for its original music, Michael Fracasso has distinguished himself as an artist of uncommon brilliance.

—Robert Fraser
Texas Monthly

Fracasso remains one of Austin’s most distinctive voices.

—Jim Caliguri
Austin Chronicle

Saint Monday is the album of Fracasso’s career.

—Michael Corcoran
Austin 360.com

Fracasso is an extraordinary rock songwriter, and his sublime vocals are beyond compare.

—Robbie Woliver
Examiner

On the exuberant Saint Monday, Fracasso’s penchant for penning hook-laden melodies wed to engaging lyrics remains intact, making it for sure one of 2011’s ‘must buy’ albums.

            —Arthur Wood
Maverick-Country

Bob Livingston to Play Lydia Street on Sunday, September 25th

Veteran singer songwriter and master storyteller Bob Livingston  played an integral role in creating the music that first earned Austin the designation of ‘Live Music Capital of the World.’ He’s still got his game on with a new CD, Gypsy Alibi, that was named Album of the Year at the Texas Music Awards in July 2011.

Known by many as a member of Austin’s legendary Lost Gonzo Band, Bob has performed and recorded with such musical visionaries as Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Traveling since the 80’s as a Music Ambassador for the US State Department, Bob demonstrates again and again the unique power of music to build bridges between peoples of the world. As Livingston says, “When all else fails, music prevails!”

Bob Livingston

Sunday, September 25, 2011

5:00 – 7:0 pm

Lydia Street House Concerts

$10 donation

Reserve a Seat

Read below what people are saying about Bob Livingston.

A marvelous piece of work…..I’m stung. This CD just blew me away. Ed Miller,  “Folkways” KUT, Austin

Livingston’s always been a songwriter of the first order…he’s got a master’s way with words and music. Margaret Moser, Austin Chronicle

Bob Livingston is no newcomer, however his time has arrived to take center stage! Bruce Kidder, Program Director KHYI, Dallas

This record combines the energy of a young musician just discovering his voice with the integrity of a veteran that knows how to use it.  Mattson Rainer, Program Director of KNBT, Americana ‘Station of the Year 2004’

Johann Wagner Plays Lydia Street House Concerts

Johann Wagner is a highly regarded songwriter who has been recorded by such notable musicians as Gregory Alan Isakov, Victoria Williams, Shannon Wurst, and 3 Penny Acre. With a new CD (Disappear) receiving high praise, and summer shows booked in Alaska, Arkansas and New Mexico, catch him while you can at the upcoming Lydia Street show.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

5 pm

$10 donation

We’re a small venue; it’s really important that you reserve a seat.

Here’s what people are saying about Johann.

“J Wagner has John Prine in his heart, Bob Dylan in his head, and Woody Guthrie in his DNA.”

Paolo Carù, Buscadero

Call him folkie, call him Americana, this top shelf singer/songwriter would be right at home in any generation standing toe to toe with the best and brightest of the time.

Chris Spector – Midwest record

” The plaintive call of the open road echoes through the new CD by J. Wagner, “disappear”, featuring 11 songs that are intimate yet expansive, lovely and open-ended. This is my Outskirts Featured Album of the Week.”

 Rustin Thompson – KBCS 91.3 fm Bellevue/Seattle

Manuel “Cowboy” Donley

Sunday, March 6, 5-7 pm
RSVP Required
$10 donation

Manuel Donley started his first band at age 18 and has been playing for over 60 years. The accolades are many for this pioneer who laid the groundwork in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s for today’s successful Latino musicians. Remarkably, at age 83 he thinks of himself as “work in progress.” Come join us as we honor a legend.

• Member of the Tejano Music Hall of Fame,
• Honoree on the Trail of Tejano Legends alongside Town Lake
• Recently featured in a lengthy front-page feature in the Austin-American Statesman

“The Latino music scene is … now recognized on a worldwide level. Manuel Donley had a huge hand in that”

—Michael Ramos
Austin-American Statesman

In a city overflowing with stellar musicians, Donley might be the coolest cat of them all, and one of the most enduring and influential. In an extraordinary career that caught fire in the late 1940s in East Austin cantinas and Central Texas dance halls when he carved out a new Tejano sound, Donley is still performing.

—Juan Castillo
Austin-American Statesman