Written by Daniel Barker
Mar 12, 2011
ImageI always keep an eye on the Baskery tour schedule. The three Swedish sisters have been coming to the states for a few years now and I never want to miss them when they come to Houston. SXSW in Austin usually leads to a bleed over gig down our way so I was amiss when I clicked on the US tour schedule this year. No Houston date. I was going to Austin and I chose the opening night in town where the girls were playing with Porterdavis at The Saxon Pub for only $10 – no typo $10. You could not catch either group in Houston for less than $15 each.

In a nice turn of events, I came to find out that Houston’s own True Roots Union was going to be playing a gig the same night at The Parlor for FREE. Looked like a double-dip for HMR in A-town. The weather was great on Saturday for getting a nice massage and heading out to a nature preserve before some great shows in The Live Music Capital of The World.

The Parlor was an interesting place that I can only describe as a pizza place for death metal hipsters. It was not the sort of place I would expect to catch a folk act, that was for sure, but in this town nothing fits the mold. True Roots Union is a three piece band that includes Huke Green, Samuel Barker and Tommy Worley. They play original folk music in a song swap fashion as Huke and Samuel take turns featuring the songs each have written respectively while playing acoustic and electric guitar, lap steel, mandolin and harmonica. Tommy is mainly an accompanist on guitjo and acoustic guitar but has been known to bust out a tune or two.

TRU was able to pull some people in from all over and had a nice little crowd. We were only able to catch the first set but these guys were not saving the best for last. Huke played the homeless drama “Holes” and Sammy busted out “Kansas”. Samuel Barker is my brother and was kind enough to treat me with a Barker two song set. He played a song he wrote after visiting me in a treatment center for my alcoholism. I told him I had been given an assignment to write a Dear John letter to the booze. “Goodbye Letter” is a touching tribute. He also played a song we penned together recently titled “Elysian Falls”. All this with Tommy laying it down – I say turn it up Tommy!! What a kick ass start to this night. My little brother playing these songs in Austin – doesn’t get much better than that.

ImageOff to The Saxon Pub for one of my favorite groups – Baskery. When we pulled up Porterdavis had wrapped it up and the girls were making their way to the cubby hole. The Saxon has a great stage similar to our Mucky Duck but with a little different set up in the way of seating and space. The girls got set up and went straight from sound check to their set. A new album is in the can and due out in the US sometime this year and they pulled several tunes from it. It was cool as hell to see Sunniva bust out the electric – nice. Stella always holds the backbone steady on standup and there is not much you can say about the amazing Greta. I think everyone who loves live music needs to see this girl do her thang.

I have to say I was disappointed that the girls only played an hour. There was zero down time for the girls because as soon as they finished they were tearing it down for the next act. They did not even set up their merch. They did manage to >squeeze< in my two favorites “One Horse Down” and “Why Donyt Ya”. We did manage to catch the girls loading up their truck to let them know we want them back in Houston ASAP. Hopefully, they oblige soon. Until next time, I will see you out supporting live music.