Book review: Oliver Gray “Austin Healing – Cautionary Tales From 20 Years Of SXSW”

Oliver Gray should be known to AUK readers as our regular Austin correspondent having reviewed the annual SXSW Festival for us over several years. He is, of course, not an Austinite, nor even American. He is in fact, as this writer stated in a review of one of Gray’s previous books, the quintessential Englishman abroad. A teacher by profession, Gray has been immersed in live music since first seeing his heroes The Hollies in the 1960s and began writing about music for the student newspaper at the University Of East Anglia in the early 70s, attending gigs by and interviewing acts such as Pink Floyd, Free, Marc Bolan, Fairport Convention and, indeed, The Hollies.  He has been promoting live music in Winchester for many years and has published several books about his various musical adventures.

“Austin Healing” is his account of 20 years attendance at SXSW, compiled from his reports for various publications (including this website) adding contemporary notes and venue reviews written for the book. Much as he did in his previous book, “Banjo On My Knee“ (which found him attending Nashville’s Americana Festival), Gray captures the experience of attending this annual jamboree quite excellently -the seemingly endless lists of gigs, the lengthy queues for the bigger acts, the amount of shoe leather worn out – but much of the joy of the book is to be found in the personal experiences and adventures he gets up to, the first of these being the tale of how Gray and his long time buddy, Paul Dominy came to attend SXSW in the first place. Realising it would be an expensive outing Gray managed to get press credentials, reducing much of the cost. Dominy seemed doomed to having to pay his way, however, when the press office asked if Gray had a photographer on hand, Dominy was instantly promoted into said post and has since provided pictures for all of Gray’s annual reviews.

The book opens with a brief CV of Gray’s music critic credentials and a record of his first visit to Austin, accompanied by his wife, in 2001. It’s in 2003 that he and Dominy kick off their annual visits, armed with their press credentials, and he dutifully reports on each and every year in separate chapters all of which include a “venue spotlight,” Gray’s pen portrait of some of the more iconic venues (some splendid, some downright nasty) he has visited, along with a list of all the acts he experienced in that year. Early on Gray admits that “South By Southwest is famously impossible to review because, at any one moment, scores of bands are playing concurrently in different places.” It’s tempting then to see the pair as a less unhinged version of Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo as they sip and slurp their way through acres of margaritas and beers in their quest to find the true spirit of SXSW but, in essence (and remembering the spirit of his English reserve) a more likely comparison is to imagine Alan Whicker (for those old enough to remember him) chasing after the likes of Chuck Prophet while explaining the quaint customs of the natives of Austin.

SXSW is not strictly an Americana festival and as such Gray sees a host of acts such as The Arctic Monkeys, The Charlatans, Mystery Jets, Lilly Allen, Primal Scream, Jimmy Cliff and Ed Sheeran, the last of which he has to issue a denial that he fell asleep during the red headed mopster’s set. He’s not afraid to call out those who sucked and those who surprised and he admits that many acts he predicted would soon be stars were never heard of again. But, year after year, there’s a host of AUK-friendly names who have appeared, far too many to mention here, but Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires (who play 11 shows in four days in 2018), Centro-Matic, Alejandro Escovido, Peter Bruntnell and Chuck Prophet are hardy perennials. Gray and Dominy, fed up deciphering the SXSW schedules opt at one point to follow Prophet’s Mission Express tour van from gig to gig with Gray pondering if Austin has any laws on stalking.

Along the way we read of the pair (accompanied by John Murry) seeing Peter Bruntnell’s band playing in a roadhouse called The Sahara Lounge, all of them fuelled by the venue’s speciality brew called Devil’s Piss. We also learn that it’s not a good idea to get all hopped up on tequila and head to Allen’s Boot Store to buy a selection of Western shirts which remain ensconced in Gray’s wardrobe to this day, never worn once. Such anecdotes are dotted throughout this extremely entertaining book which is as much about social history as it is about the music. SXSW should give Gray an access all area life pass for his endeavour, despite the apparent anglocentric pun in its title.

“Austin Healing” is available here.

Proof that he was there, Oliver Gray has several videos of bands he’s seen at SXSW on Youtube, here’s a 2010 clip of Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express.