Tim Gaitan and the Umbrella Man - Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge, Houston TX - July 5, 2012


[Houston TX] Their sound was about as diverse as their collection of instruments: a lapsteel, upright bass, accordion, and drums. And somehow it worked – it was some crazy mix of tejano, gypsy punk, rockabilly, 60s rock… sometimes they sang in Spanish. Nick Gaitan has a great soulful voice. It was all so lively, he had to tell the accordion player to “cool that accordion down.” There was one couple furiously swing dancing by the stage, the girl with a dagger tattooed on her upper arm smiled at me evil-ly, and the rest of the audience were wall-sized Latinos and gorgeous rockabilly Latinas. This show was about when I started thinking Houston isn’t so bad, and is possibly even rawer than Austin with its still burgeoning music scene, and all of the diverse people actually melding their music and making something new, instead of another rehash of the past.


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