On this night, Branan wasted no time showing off his Malcolm Holcombe-like finger picking skills with the set-opening Tall Green Grass. Instantly, you could feel the ears and the eyes in the room go directly to the stage. Everyone listened intently as Branan told his stories through the songs.

At the conclusion of Tall Green Grass, Branan let everyone know his mind was in no shape for witty stage banter. Too many months on the road and a long weekend had left him with but a guitar and some songs. That is, until he tore through Sour Mash and saw the shots of whiskey begin coming to the stage. About three shots in, the tales started coming, as well as the jokes.

With the 4th shot came the declaration that this was NOT a Lucero show, so to not expect him to drink anything people threw at his feet. This brought on a roar from the audience, who came out in force for a Sunday night gig at Rudyard’s. Just when I was giving up on the Houston faithful after some great, yet sparsely attended, gigs on Sunday evenings, they came out for Branan’s show.

With his first album in six years, Mutt, being released in the past few months, Branan had lots of new songs to put on display. Survivor Blues seemed to bring Branan to life as a tense storyteller weaving between back-alley scenarios and longing sadness of the antagonist. The mood was lightened by Bad Man and the dancing couple that spent a majority of the evening spinning each other around the floor for the upbeat numbers and slowly swaying through the slower songs.

Not to be content with just songs he’d released, Branan even went through a couple of new songs that were not yet finished, but one could not tell outside of his declaration as such. They were both dedicated to his fiancée, who was tour with him. One of the funnier moments of the night was hearing how much better touring was with her. No longer would he spend the off-days on tour sitting outside the next venue trying to get people to come to the show, now he had someone who pointed out they could go to the beach or do something fun. Something the was mindblowing to a guy who lives music all day, every day.

After about 90 minutes of songs, Branan closed with a solid 1-2 of The Wreck of the Sultana and A Girl Named Go. Within those two songs, you got the picture of Branan as a songwriter. The Wreck of the Sultana is a tense tale of the worst maritime disaster in US history that was overshadowed by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln while A Girl Named Go is a straight rocker to leave people on an up note.

Branan got the audience he deserved on this night and those who came walked away saying “Wow!” to themselves.

A very important part of that “Wow!” was the opener, Audra Mae.

I had never heard anything from Ms. Mae and when the sweet, unassuming looking girl took to the stage with a floppy hat, vintage looking dress and a Little Martin, I was not sure I should expect much of anything. But with the beginning of Ne’er Do Wells, her voice blew through the PA and I was a fan just like that.

The next song, The River, which she said was about feeling the pressure of small town opinion before you realized everyone makes mistakes, absolutely made me fall in love with her sound and songwriting. It captured the hopeless feeling of the most pedestrian of mistakes when you are faced with the judgmental people in a small southern town.

Songs like Smokin’ The Boys showed a bit more rock n’ roll edge to her songwriting while others like Snakebite showed the country-influences. This girl had it all, to be honest. The entirety of the southern music spectrum came alive in her 45-minute set despite it just being her and an acoustic.

For a tour that features 2 people, 2 acoustics and 2 sets, I think you would be hard-pressed to find a better display of music from people still on the upswing of their careers. It was an easy decision to brave exhaustion and starting Monday pert near empty for a show like this. You should be sorry you missed it, if you did.