Last night Bill and I saw a GREAT concert, Fire Relief: The Concert for Central Texas, at the Frank Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus. Proceeds benefited the Central Texas Wildfire Fund at the Austin Community Foundation. The event was hosted by local celebrity Turk Pipkin and actor Kyle Chandler from the “Friday Night Lights” TV show. 

Musicians from the Austin area and those with local ties performed for over five hours:

•  Christopher Cross played his classic song, Sailing, and one from his lastest album called Dreamers. I was reminded why I liked him back in the ’80s!
•  Terri Hendrix was accompanied by Lloyd Maines, father of Dixie Chick, Natalie.
• Eric Johnson. Cliffs of Dover. Guitar Nirvana.

• Joe Satriani is a virtuoso electric guitar player, but we’d never heard of him before last evening. According to Wikipedia, he played for Deep Purple, now has a band called Chickenfoot, and is the master of “two-handed tapping and arpeggio tapping” which he did during his performance. Very impressive. And very loud.
•  Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel play around Austin often. They performed several of their own Texas Swing songs, including crowd-favorite, Boogie Back to Texas, and then backed up the next six acts.

• Texas Tornados including accordionist Flaco Jimenez.
• Randy Rogers Band, who we had never heard of, but we liked them.
• Lyle Lovett always surprises me, even though I’ve heard him before. He’s a good performer and songwriter.

• Shawn Colvin sang the Star Spangled Banner at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Saturday, so this was the second time I’d seen her in three days. Lyle sang harmony for one of her songs and then she joined in on his catchy song, That’s Right (You’re Not in Texas).
• Willie Nelson … well, Bill and I are big fans. He sang a few of his many hits including You were Always on my Mind and On the Road Again. He also played a new song called Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die…definitely a Crowd Favorite. 

• The Avett Brothers aren’t from Texas, but they joined Willie for two songs. They had played at Stubb’s over the weekend (Bill thought about going) and decided to stay for the benefit. Good for them.
• Dixie Chicks played a great set, including Landslide, Taking the Long Way and Not Ready to Make Nice. Lloyd Maines also played in their backup band. 
• George Strait finally took the stage a little before 11 PM. Bill and I listened to a few songs and then headed home. After all, we had to get up for work in the morning!