David Letterman Loves the Chow in Austin (and other Music Meanderings)

I just watched the performance of Austin’s own Okkervil River on The Late Show with David Letterman. Before the band took the stage, Dave and Paul Shaffer chatted it up about how much they love Austin, or particularly, how much they love the BBQ and Tex-Mex. Dave even gave a shout out to The Salt Lick in hopes that they would send him some grub (his words).

It’s interesting seeing localish bands that you’ve seen so many times here in town start to break out. Seeing Okkervil on Letterman reminded me of when Bob Schneider got the chance to play Leno. Yeah, it was essentially because then-girlfriend Sandra Bullock put some of his songs on the soundtrack to the crappy movie she was promoting at the time, but it was still pretty cool to see a local scratching the surface of the big time.

After appearing on stage in Houston with my all-time musical man-crush last year, Alejandro seems to be breaking out more than ever.

Of course, when our local favorites don’t seem to sustain on the outside, that means we get to see them more often here in Austin and keep them more to ourselves.

It is interesting how some artists can be so hugely successful in a city/region/state but not seem to break through on a wider scale. I was recently reminded of my hometown’s own local-only hero, Michael Stanley, when my brother-in-law surprised my sister with tickets to see Michael Stanley just after Christmas. Has anyone outside of Ohio ever even heard of Michael Stanley?