1990s Austin regular Toni Price died in November of a brain aneurysm at age 63. Price had a 15-year "Hippie Hour" gig at Austin's famed Continental Club. (Which I never once went to!)
https://michaelcorcoran.substack.com/p/the-continental-cult-of-toni-price
https://michaelcorcoran.substack.com/p/the-continental-cult-of-toni-price
At an outdoor gig in Austin, she once beckoned to me, standing near the stage, to fetch her some water. (My platonic male companion, seeing my "say what" face, performed the task in my stead. Sorry, but I think the only performer I'd fetch water for on command is Joan Crawford. Or George Jones. That's about it.)
Aside
from asking me, a stranger, to bring her water, I was also irritated by her and her
band always sitting down during their gigs---like they were
blues-masters or something, which they were decidedly not.
Another Austin music-scene side-note: At one point in the early '90s, Price was dating Rick Broussard (whose band "Two Hoots and a Holler" I adored, and went to see every Monday night at Black Cat on 6th Street---I also had a crush on him for a few years. He bent down to tie the laces of my shoe once in a club parking lot; we kissed once; I went over to his house once, where he went off to a back bedroom to shoot up while I chatted with his male roommate in the living room). Price and Rick, while dating, got into a FIST-fight at the Continental Club---after which Rick was permanently banned from playing there.
https://michaelcorcoran.substack.com/p/rick-broussard-shadow-man-jumps-into?s=w
So, no, as a member of Team Rick, I was never a Toni Price aficionado. This song, though, is really beautiful. And she was definitely a presence around town for decades, and part of the background tapestry of my Austin music-clubbing youth. (BTW: I did a YouTube search to try to find any Price songs nearly this good---nothing at all. You can't be considered a "great" if you only have one great song.)
Another Austin music-scene side-note: At one point in the early '90s, Price was dating Rick Broussard (whose band "Two Hoots and a Holler" I adored, and went to see every Monday night at Black Cat on 6th Street---I also had a crush on him for a few years. He bent down to tie the laces of my shoe once in a club parking lot; we kissed once; I went over to his house once, where he went off to a back bedroom to shoot up while I chatted with his male roommate in the living room). Price and Rick, while dating, got into a FIST-fight at the Continental Club---after which Rick was permanently banned from playing there.
https://michaelcorcoran.substack.com/p/rick-broussard-shadow-man-jumps-into?s=w
So, no, as a member of Team Rick, I was never a Toni Price aficionado. This song, though, is really beautiful. And she was definitely a presence around town for decades, and part of the background tapestry of my Austin music-clubbing youth. (BTW: I did a YouTube search to try to find any Price songs nearly this good---nothing at all. You can't be considered a "great" if you only have one great song.)
And I'm also kind of freaked out by people I was once young with keeling over lately! I'm 59, Sandra was 66 when she died last February, Price was 63...
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