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Story courtesy of North Texas E-News Tom Bean - They say if you want to see Guy Forsyth in Austin, you better get there early. Saturday night, thanks to the good folks at Beanstock, all you needed was a lawn chair to get a front row seat under the stars in Tom Bean. |
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The Beanstock Spring Acoustical Music Festival wrapped up the night with Tom Prasado-Rao and Cary Cooper harmonizing around the campfire while Butch Morgan laid down the lead guitar licks. Mixing humor with wonderful vocals, Prasado-Rao and Cooper were a nice touch to end a fine day of music in North Texas. |
| Saturday kicked off with performances by Alma Squillante, the New Hokum Boys, Butch Morgan and Doug Burr. Burr is a top notch singer-songwriter from the Dallas area and he usually sings with The Lonelies. Saturday night he was all by himself, but his obvious talent showed in original songs with catchy lyrics and melodies that seemed like old friends. Songs like Dark is the Night, from Burr's gospel project worked well with the tunes that The Lonelies play, and they were all thought provoking. When he introduced the song, Ballad of Job, Burr poked fun at the heavy nature of most of his material by saying, "Boy, there's another fun one!" |   |
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Following Burr was Tracie Merchant, by now a regular at Coyote Ridge Ranch. Merchant put on an entertaining set by showing off her potent vocals and bringing Cary Cooper onstage to sing soft harmony on one song. Butch Morgan joined Merchant to play lead guitar on several songs, too. |
| Up next was Austin blues man Guy Forsyth. and he was obviously captivated by the location for Beanstock. "You may be from around here and sit out under the stars all the time," Forsyth told the crowd, "but down in Austin you can't see the stars like this." Forsyth drifted from traditional Texas blues to Bob Dylan to brilliant original material. He even brought out the saw to play Somewhere over the Rainbow. |  |
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The evening wrapped up with everyone abandoning the stage for the warmth of a campfire. So, with a pack of coyotes howling down the ridge, Tom Prasado-Rao and Cary Cooper sang the first night of Beanstock to a close. |
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