Hello and welcome to KXT!  I hope you have taken a moment to become a member during our spring drive. If you like this show and love KXT please make a point of supporting us. This is where you can leave your polite comments and suggestions for music for next week’s show.
Remember please, nothing too long (6min+) too loud or quiet, and NO BAD LANGUAGE , leave a link if you can to where the music can be purchased or listened to.
New to me this week: 

Wendy Rene
John Mooney

Wendy Rene – “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” (LP Version) – After Laughter
Whiskey Folk Ramblers – “Night Of The Indian Man Morning” – …And There Are Devils
Jethro Tull – “Only Solitaire” (2002 Digital Remaster) – Warchild
Soko – “I Just Want To Make It New With You” – I Thought I Was An Alien
Donna Summer – “Last Dance” – Greatest Hits: Donna Summer
Booker T. and The MG’s – “Mo’ Onions”  - Green Onions (US Release)
Bon Iver – “Skinny Love” – For Emma -  Forever Ago”
Ramones – “I Don’t Want To Grow Up” – Adios Amigos
Hares on the Mountain – “Rosemary Breen” - It Will Only Hurt Forever
Atlas Sound – “Parallax” – Parallax
John Mooney – “I’m Mad” – Comin’ Your Way
Malvina Reynolds – “Little Boxes” – Ear to the Ground
Sealion – “Dick Dale Earnhardt” – Keep the Camera Rolling
Pogo – “Cryface” – Wonderpuff
Blitzen Trapper – “War On Machines” – Furr 

Esperanza Spalding – “I Know You Know” – Esperanza
Nervous Curtains – “The Crooked Telepathic” – Fake Infinity
M83 – “Raconte – Moi Une Histoire” - Hurry Up We’re Dreaming
Bethan – “Katie K” – Chapter 1:
Brewer & Shipley – “Have A Good Life” – One Toke Over the Line: The Best
of Brewer & Shipley
Yellow Ostrich – “Hold On” – The Mistress
Hank 3 – “I Promised” – Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town
Iron Maiden – “Sun and Steel” – Piece of Mind
Tears For Fears – “The Big Chair” – Songs From The Big Chair
Richard Buckner – “Figure” – Devotion + Doubt
The Treelines Music – “It’s Not Me” – EP
Brian Eno – “The Fat Lady of Limbourg” – Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy
Wayne Horvitz – “Otis Spann – 9/8” – Otis Span & Other Compositions
Ken Nordine – “Grey” – Colors

Ben Fountain’s debut novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – about which, we’ve written here and here — had already got a very nice review from the daily NYTimes and Kirkus Reviews when it got even stronger ones from the WashPost and the San Francisco Chronicle. Over on Goodreads, it’s already got 29 reviews (4.18 stars out of 5). A nd then came the Sunday Times‘ Book Review, in which author Geoff Dyer concludes his review that the slight feeling of contrivance in Ben’s ending at the Cowboys’ game on Thanksgiving Day “doesn’t detract from Fountain’s achievement — grand, intimate and joyous.”

About the only reviews, so far, that leave a sour taste is Publisher’s Weekly’s (‘often campy writing style and canned dialogue” — say what?) and Michael Bourne’s in the LA Review of Books, with its condescending dismissals (“not the book our grandchildren will be reading 50 years from now to find out what life was like in this country during the Iraq War, but it is entertaining enough to pass the time until such a book comes along” — i.e., ‘a diverting, minor talent’) and its gripes about how long it took Fountain to write his second book (“Billy Lynn is very much the work of a writer still plodding through the formal complications of transitioning from the short story to the novel. Fountain is 53. Two or three books from now, he may be capable of turning out a work of lasting genius, but at this rate he’ll be into his seventies when he does” – a point so petty, one wonders why Bourne cares).

So, in the spirit of glossy-snappy media coverage of the Cowboys (and to save you the time to read all those reviews), we offer this highlight reel and convenient blurb tally for the paperback edition:

Washington Post: “A masterful gut-punch of a debut novel.”

Janet Maslin, NYTimes: “a gripping, eloquent provocation. … The effect on readers … will be just as devastating.”

Adam Langer, San Francisco Chronicle: “A bracing, fearless and uproarious satire of how contemporary war is waged and sold to the American public … The book’s not merely good; it’s Pulitzer Prize-quality good, so much so that readers might find themselves wishing it had been published last year so that the Pulitzer committee could have saved themselves the bother of a hung jury, and just given its damn award to Fountain.”

Kirkus Reviews: “War is hell in this novel of inspired absurdity.”

LA Review of Books: “This spectacle-heavy, elongated short story shouldn’t really work as a novel, and for long stretches it doesn’t . . . In the end, as smart and funny as it is, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is the literary equivalent of a particularly good Jon Stewart routine on The Daily Show. Is it a pleasure to watch? Oh, yes. Are the jokes laugh-out-loud hilarious? At times, hell, yes. But if you don’t already agree with the authorial stance, will it make you rethink your views?”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Interesting book. A bonus: The Bears beat the Cowboys.”

Art&Seek presents This Week in Texas Music History. Every week, we’ll spotlight a different moment and the musician who made it. This week, Texas music scholar Gary Hartman introduces us to a pioneer of barrelhouse piano who started his career underneath the house.

You can also hear This Week in Texas Music History on Sunday at precisely 6:04 p.m. on KERA radio. But subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss an episode. And our thanks to KUT public radio in Austin for helping us bring this segment to you. And if you’re a music lover, be sure to check out Track by Track, the bi-weekly podcast from Paul Slavens, host of KXT’s The Paul Slavens Show, heard Sunday night’s at 8.

• Click the player to listen to the podcast:

• Expanded online version:

Robert Shaw died on May 16, 1985. Born in Stafford, Texas, on Aug. 9, 1908, Shaw was not allowed to study piano as a child, since his parents thought that was not appropriate for a boy. Undaunted, the young Shaw hid underneath the house and listened while his sister practiced her piano lessons. By the 1920s, Shaw had become an accomplished player of the barrelhouse piano style, also known as boogie-woogie, which combined blues, jazz and the syncopated rhythms of ragtime.

Robert Shaw toured the country throughout the 1930s, before settling in East Austin, where he operated a grocery store for many years. During the 1960s, he was rediscovered by a younger generation of fans and soon was performing on stages throughout the world. Shaw was a dynamic performer who helped lay the foundation for Austin’s live music scene long before the city was known as the “Live Music Capital of the World.”

Next time on This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll learn about a record label that was a real feather in the cap of the Texas recording industry.

Let’s be honest – our comfortable outside days are numbered. Saturday’s temperature should top out around 88 – call it the brink of bearable. So spending a little time outside this weekend is probably a must.

A solid option is Arts Goggle. The celebration of all things arts happens Saturday from 4-10 p.m. at Near Southside. The free event features food and drink as well as a chance to see a slew of visual artists all within a comfortable walk.

“You’ll find a really cross mix of performing arts, art arts, street bands, really good jazz bands and it’s really sort of a celebration as opposed to an exhibition,” says Marshall Harris, and artist participating in Arts Goggle for the first time. An exhibition of his photo-quality drawings will be held at 407 S. Main St., with beer from Fort Worth’s Rahr and Sons and tacos. Harris says that part of the point of Arts Goggle is to switch up the traditional gallery setting for viewing art.

“As opposed to an office that’s opening up their space, putting art on the wall, having some wine and stuff, we’re really creating a space where you can either start Arts Goggle here and come back or you can be within this vicinity the entire evening if you chose.”

There’s also art for the ears on tap, with Whiskey Folk Ramblers, Sally Majestic, Fish Fry Bingo and others slated to perform. For additional information, check our calendar listing and this recent dfw.com post.

Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back weekdays at 1 p.m. for another one.

Annie Clark talks about some musical firsts with the folks over at chartattack.com. You can see those influences on display two weeks from today at KXT’s Summer Cut.

Hassan El Amin, Chris Hury, Christie Vela, Sally Nystuen-Vahle in God of Carnage. Photo: Karen Almond

The Dallas Theater Center is staging the regional premiere of God of Carnage. The show won a Tony for best new play and was made into a film released earlier this year. It’s a comedy, but one that explores some of the darker elements of our humanity.

• KERA Radio story:

• Online version:

God of Carnage begins with music by the Italian ensemble New Trolls. It gives us the idea that the two couples we’re about to meet are sophisticated and refined. In fact, they are so civilized they’ve agreed to meet at one of their apartments to discuss an incident involving their sons. One of the boys injured the other with a stick.

But it doesn’t take long before the adults have their knives out, tearing each other to shreds – through their words.

In the Dallas Theater Center production, Hassan El-Amin plays Michael, who is hosting this get-together with his wife, Veronica, played by Christie Vela. During one of the many derailments from the business at hand, he is forced to defend himself for the way he handled his child’s pet hamster. His guests, Alan and Annette, have little sympathy. Read More »

OFFICE SPACE: All the talk in the Dallas Arts District of late has been focused on the Nasher/Museum Tower dustup. So consider this some good news to balance things out: The plot of land on Flora Street across from the Meyerson may finely have a purpose. Developer Craig Hall is finalizing plans for a 16-story office building and a 29-story high-rise apartment building. “We are unanimous in the Arts District that we really want that site developed,” Arts District executive director Veletta Forsythe Lill tells dallasnews.com. “We feel Craig Hall will be respectful of the neighborhood.”

AND A NEW ARTS SPACE: Today, the team behind Fort Worth’s brand 10 art space opens a second gallery – andX art space – at Interstate 30 and Montgomery Street. The idea of the noncommercial space is to allow artists to experiment and be bold. “We’re giving them a chance to make things that may or may not be marketable, but we find a way to show it,” Christine Bisetto, one of the organizers of andX, tells dfw.com. The Santa Fe duo known as Scuba will be the first to display work there.

ON THE RISE: Congratulations to Myrtò Papatanasiu, who was voted the Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year by Dallas Opera subscribers. The Greek soprano made her American debut at the Winspear in April playing Violetta in La traviata. “I can’t say that I am the least bit surprised that Myrtò has won this year’s award for debut artist of the year,” Dallas Opera artistic director Jonathan Pell said in a news release. “She is an amazing performer, possessing a stunning combination of physical and vocal beauty, profound musicality, remarkable theatrical instincts and the uncanny ability to be both incredibly strong and heartbreakingly fragile simultaneously.”

Sacha Baron Cohen and Ben Kingsley star in The Dictator.

This week, Art&Seek’s Stephen Becker and Dallas Morning News movie critic Chris Vognar review Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest, The Dictator. Then in the second segment, we have a discussion about the rise of texting in movie theaters – why it’s happening and what should be done about it. And we finish the week with a look at other new films coming to theaters as well as the news of the Alamo Drafthouse coming to North Texas. Be sure to subscribe to The Big Screen podcast on iTunes. Stream this week’s podcast below or download it.

It’s Thursday! That means tomorrow we will draw the winners for this week’s Big Deals.  Don’t forget, to be eligible to win you have to be an Art&Seek e-newsletter subscriber.

If you’re feeling a little bit Broadway then be sure to sign up for tickets to see Kristin Chenoweth on May 24^th at the Winspear.  Perhaps you and a date would enjoy a spirited battle of the sexes where everyone wins.  Then you’ll want tickets for Fort Worth Opera’s production of Lysistrata on June 3.  And who isn’t looking for a Happy Funtime?  Then sign up to win tickets to KXT’s Summer Cut Fest on June 1.

Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back weekdays at 1 p.m. for another one.

We use ‘em all the time – now understand how those images are captured.