Artist Spotlight - Ray Wylie Hubbard on Kevin Russell

Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Reel 2 Reel 4 Real grooves with grit (“Cassette Mix Tape”) and grace (“El Diablo Esta Ganando”). We recently spoke with Hubbard about past collaborations with Shinyribs’ Kevin Russell and their mutual friend George Reiff.

“I met Kevin when we were doing a big whoopty do that KLBJ had in Austin,” Hubbard says. “Kevin was playing with his band the Gourds back then and we were all doing Bob Dylan songs. The Gourds did ‘Idiot Wind.’”

Alt-Country Specialty Chart: Describe how the Gourds did on ‘Idiot Wind.’

Ray Wylie Hubbard: Well, they started off in the wrong key and it was a complete train wreck onstage, but I was mesmerized because Kevin and the guys were so cool. Someone had the capo on the wrong fret. They were laughing and playing and just smoked. I had heard of them before, but that was the first time I saw them play. Kevin would make a valium nervous because he had so much energy.

Did you play with the Gourds much?

Not much, but I did another show with them at the old Threadgill’s on Riverside. They just had that low-down, cool Austin following. The Gourds were old school Austin with the vibe and great music. I saw them play a few more times around town.

They were playing Threadgill’s regularly in the 2000s. Describe Threadgill’s.

Threadgill’s had incredible food for one thing. The people who ran the place were so cool. Threadgill’s had the Austin hippie music vibe of the old Vulcan Gas Company and Armadillo. The sound was always great. The place was an oasis of cool, but I don’t know how they made that sound great (outdoors). You just weren’t aware of the traffic besides every once in a while you would hear a police siren. The Gourds played a couple of Roky Erickson’s Ice Cream Socials there at Threadgill’s.

Explain how you came to record with Kevin on your album A. Enlightenment. 

Kevin came over to George Reiff’s place and played mandolin and sang on my song “A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment, Hint: There Is No C.” He fit so perfectly because it was such a raw song with muted strings on the guitar. We put a four by four on a couple bricks and beat with our shoes on it. Then he came in and played mandolin. We did that in George’s living room. He didn’t have separate booths so everything was pretty much open.

Kev was doing Shinyribs by then. Have you seen them play live?

We did Mile 0 festival in Florida the first time I saw Shinyribs do their conga line. Shinyribs is like a showbusiness revue band. You go, “What? What is this?” You wouldn’t think that Austin would accept that because it’s such a guitar driven town. Now you have this band with girl singers with dance steps like Soul Train, but it works. Kevin is so good. Such incredible musicians. They had the whole street going nuts at the Mile 0 Fest with that conga line. Shinyribs makes the night like New Year’s Eve every time they play. Then you watch Kevin play Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary” on he ukulele and you go, “What the hell? Why would anybody do that?” Well, because he can.

- Brian T. Atkinson