The lady is one of the nicest and most sincere persons I’ve had the pleasure of meeting when visiting A-Town. Leeann is originally from South Carolina and has carved herself a nice niche in Texas. One hard workin’ sumbitch is she. I’m fired up for anybody who works hard to do “their thing” in life and to Antherton, it is music first and foremost.  She quit her regular job like 14 months ago. Good for her.  Rose & I had met her probably 5 years or so ago while in town to see Toni Price.

While visiting Maria’s Taco Xpress (a regular Friday spot now for LA) Leeann was passing out hand made invitations to that evenings Barn Dance featuring Toni Price. So we jumped at a double dip of Toni Price and headed over BYOB and a bag of viddles from HEB. $10 donation and then we just strapped on a feed bag and enjoyed 5 hours of intimate music in a sloping backyard that works really neat for this sort of gathering. BB-Q pits smoking and 3-4 tables lined up for folks to put their goodies on and enjoy.

Well, recently we headed back at the invite of Leeann and much had changed. A full on dance floor is installed along with a cool ass stage. Antherton had told us the “full moon” back drop to the said stage had just been done by the lady herself the day before. They even had some church pews to sit on and enjoy the festivities. You can see the full on charm of this woman by being able to coordinate such a big deal with the help of volunteers only. The crowd this go around was a lot more than what we’d seen before. The word is obviously out on this bad ass deal in the music rich area of Austin. This night was no different.

Guy Forsyth and porterdavis were the headliners, but there was plenty before them. The evening was special, too because Leeannie’s parents and son were in attendance!  Open mike goes from 4-6pm. Then Leeann took the stage and smoked with her full band, featuring killer dude Kevin Carroll. The list of folks who have graced the backyard blow outs is impressive. The likes of Shelley King, Carolyn Wonderland, Tommy Womack, The Mother Truckers and Randy Weeks are just a few.

In today’s tough economic times, we are all reaching and searching to stretch our dollars. This is a bad ass way to do it folks. It is like a huge house concert if you will. Tags like “Queen of South Austin” don’t get thrown around to just anybody. This guitar strummin’,  harmonica blowin’ and heartfelt vocal beltin’ gal is the real deal. When visiting Austin, make a point to look her up “somewhere”. Woman plays like 4-5 days a week. TC’s on Thursdays is killer kids. Been there and done that. Hope to do it again soon…The world is a better place because of folks like Leeann Antherton. I’m damn glad we’re part of her gig…AUSTIN RULES.