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By the time I got to Momo’s tonight, there was already excitement in the air. I had just missed Deann Renee and her hot band, but got there in time for the Jean Synodinos CD release show, which to my great surprise featured Bruce Hughes on bass, Chip Vayenas on drums, and Charles Rieser [Jean's main man!] on guitar. Mo McMorrow was in the house with camera in hand [she also took Jean's CD photos!], along with Jessica Shepherd, Stefanie Fix, B. Sterling Archer, D. C. Bloom, and a zillion other musicians waiting with bated breath for the sultry song stylist to start. [OK maybe some of the entourage slipped in mid-set?] Bruce and Charlie had played on”Girls, Good and Otherwise” — but not together as a band until earlier in the day. [It's Rob Hooper on the record, with guest appearances by Red Young, Redd Volkaert, John Pointer, Charles Sosa and Katie Gosnell.] I will get to the record later — let me just say this was one ROCKIN’ set (and that was a very good thing, given what was about to happen next!). One major highlight was Jean’s take on the Bobbie Gentry classic, “Ode to Billy Joe.”
The night brought back memories of my first encounter with Jean’s music .. right after the release of her CD “Lucky” (which got huge kudos from John Conquest!) in a songwriter circle with Catherine Berry, Jenny Reynolds, and Kerry Polk.  Then there were the nights at Club 115 (now Skinny’s Ballroom), and other times as well … This is one amazing woman, gritty and soulful yet down to earth as you can get.  [And, yes, she too is a breast cancer survivor who has also embarked on a three-year odyssey to work her way through the badges in the Junior Girl Scout handbook [see her blog, 

OK, on Amanda Cevallos’ new CD, “Country Music Turns Me On,” she ONLY does “Luxury Liner” that Gram actually wrote, but who else has NEIL FLANZ — who toured with Gram and Emmylou in the Fallen Angels Band (you know the live recording from New Jersey at least!) — as her pedal steel player? PLUS Gram and the Burrito Brothers did maybe the best version ever of “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Loud, Loud Music,” and she has Neil Flanz.
Amanda, who has been performing as Loretta Lynn of late (and looking and sounding quite lovely, and whipping out those Conway and Loretta duets with guitarist Will Dabbs), contributed four of her own songs to this fine collection, including the title cut, a paean to playing at the Broken Spoke on Tuesdays for Happy Hour. She also covers Tanya Tucker (“When I Die”), George Jones (“Why Baby Why”), Leon Russell (“Truck Drivin’ Man”), and the Oakridge Boys (“Elvira,” and I gotta luvit!).
Did I mention that the whole band — and yes this is a live recording done by my very close friend Jason Richard of Clockright Studios “at a church in South Austin” — sounds crisp and tight? Dabbs has a fine touch; Chris Trafton is on drums, Ben Eisenberg is on bass, and Grammy nominee Jorge Herada plays acoustic guitar. At her live shows, it’s Robert Maas on drums.

Maybe my favorite song on the record (starting with Dabbs’ opening guitar licks interspersed with the pedal steel) is “Think I’m Goin’ Crazy,” as Amanda sings, she used to think he was “the one,” but now, she tells him “…I’m thinkin’ maybe, you’re just a son of a gun.”