Scenes from SXSW 2011

The Wronglers, with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, get it right at SXSW

The Wronglers promotional shot
The Wronglers live at SXSW
Photo by Susan Darrow

Beloved billionaire Warren Hellman knows a thing or two about putting on a music festival. After all, for 10 years he’s been the driving force and sole financial backer for San Francisco’s free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Wednesday night, Hellman stepped out from behind the scenes into a different role, playing banjo as a featured performer at the South by Southwest Music Festival.

Hellman funds the entire Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival each fall as a gift to the city of San Francisco. An estimated 600,000 people attended last year’s festival as more than 60 acts played on six stages over three days. Past performers at “Hardly Strictly” have included Willie Nelson, Joan Baez, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, and Elvis Costello.

Hellman’s band The Wronglers — a play on Wrangler jeans, since Levi Strauss is San Francisco-based — formed, more or less, when they played at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival years ago.

“Our mantra is simple music played by complicated people,” said Hellman in an interview last year, of the Wronglers’ fusion of sweet sounds of fiddle, guitar, banjo and mandolin.

This year, the Wronglers have teamed up with legendary Texas singer-songwriter Jimmie Dale Gilmore to release the aptly named album Heirloom Music, a beautiful collection of classic songs from the '30s and '40s, due out May 3. And last night, Gilmore and the Wronglers made their first SXSW appearance together.

The period décor of the venerable venue for the South-by official showcase — the Victorian Room at the Driskill Hotel — couldn’t have been a better fit. Never mind that the hordes of SXSW celebrants traipsing down Sixth Street were clearly visible through the windows. Listening to Gilmore and the Wronglers, you could easily escape to a wonderful time long ago.

The high, lonesome sound of Gilmore’s expressive voice is a perfect fit for the “old time” music of the Wronglers. Sailing through lovely renditions of songs like “Time Changes Everything,” “In the Pines” and “Deep Ellum Blues,” the band delighted a crowd that overflowed the main room into the balcony.

Hellman, on banjo, was dapper in a sequin-spangled jacket and a tie once owned by banjo virtuoso Earl Scruggs (a gift from Scruggs’ son). The jacket, a present from his granddaughter, was emblazoned with sparkly Star of David motifs on each arm. (“Warren doesn’t wear his religion on his sleeve,” Gilmore joked.)

At the end of their set, Gilmore and Hellman traded lead vocals on a cheerful “Big Rock Candy Mountain," in which Hellman’s voice was reminiscent of the original version performed by the song’s author, Harry McClintock.

After the gig, Gilmore (and most of the Wronglers) headed down Sixth Street to catch the official SXSW showcase for his son, Colin Gilmore, himself a gifted singer-songwriter. Colin Gilmore just appeared in Houston last weekend for an acoustic set as part of a fundraiser for independent radio station KPFT Houston 90.1 FM. Wednesday night, a full band backed him as he rocked the Velveeta Room with songs from his latest release, "Goodnight Lane,"and literally had multiple Wronglers dancing in the aisles.

SXSW Continued: From the Badge-Free Zone

Over at Threadgill’s World Headquarters, Music Fog has been broadcasting great performances online all day long from artists like Guy Forsyth, Ray Wylie Hubbard and a reunion of Foster and Lloyd, who previewed new songs from their upcoming release It's Already Tomorrow. According to partner Jessie Scott, Music Fog will be streaming live every day for the rest of South-by.

More “found” music abounds everywhere. At the free 3rd Coast Music Showcase at G&S Lounge in South Austin, an outstanding line-up Wednesday included Terri Hendrix, quoting Woody Guthrie and (backed by Texas music stalwart Lloyd Maines on guitar and dobro) captivating the audience with a winsome performance. Following Hendrix, Jimmy LaFave (accompanied by a crack band featuring Andrew Hardin on guitar and Chip Dolan on keyboard) set the tone for what promised to be an outstanding evening.

No badge is required to check out Thursday night's official showcase at La Zona Rosa featuring Grammy-Nominated artist Janelle Monáe , Wiz Khalifa and B.o.B. online. The show is scheduled to be broadcast live starting at 9:30 p.m. on killerslaserspapers.com or via the SXSW website. (Alas, Cee-Lo Green is no longer able to perform at this SXSW showcase.)

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Movie Review

Sheriff Bob Odenkirk is back in over-the-top new action movie 'Normal'

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Bob Odenkirk in Normal.

Screenwriter Derek Kolstad, who wrote the first three John Wick movies, has essentially had a blank check to do what he wants in the movie landscape since 2014. In recent years that has meant writing the action series Nobody for Bob Odenkirk, who has turned from a comedian into an unlikely action star in his sixties. Kolstad and Odenkirk are teaming up again in Normal.

A film that tries to evoke Fargo in multiple ways, Normal finds Ulysses Richardson (Odenkirk) serving as a temporary sheriff for the small town of Normal, Minnesota after the previous sheriff died. Knowing he’s just a steward until a new sheriff is elected, Ulysses takes a live-and-let-live approach to the job, letting the deputies (Ryan Allen and Billy MacLellan) do the grunt work and trying to stay out of everyone’s way, including Mayor Kibner (Henry Winkler).

A bank robbery attempt by two non-citizens upsets his best-laid plans in more ways than he can imagine. Not only is he forced to confront a crime not often seen in a town like Normal, but the robbery uncovers secrets that turn the film into an all-out bloodbath. Soon, almost everyone in town becomes involved in what comes to resemble a war, along with — you guessed it — Yakuza henchmen from Japan.

Directed by Ben Wheatley and written by Kolstad, the film is a slight twist on the everyman-turned-hero character Odenkirk played in the two Nobody films. While Ulysses is in law enforcement, he prefers to use words instead of weapons, and it’s only when he’s pushed to the brink that he crosses that line. Naturally, his skills are beyond what anyone would expect of him, allowing him to match up well with people half his age.

The film is not a comedy in the traditional sense, but instead aims for laughs by catching the audience off-guard with its ultraviolence. Some characters are dispatched in shockingly unexpected ways, with one of the only natural reactions to the jarring nature of their deaths being laughter. That’s not necessarily the case for other killings, which range from blasé to sadistic, and the only reason they count as entertainment is because the filmmakers have primed the audience to accept them as such.

After a relatively solid setup, where Wheatley and Kolstad seem to take their time getting to know the main characters, the second half of the film is pure action that dispenses with good storytelling. Like many action movies, there are double crosses, surprise revelations, and more, but the filmmakers don’t seem to care about making sense of any character arcs. All they care about is delivering mayhem, and they succeed on that front.

Odenkirk has perfected the mild-yet-intimidating nature of his action characters, and it is satisfying to see him get the better of those who have done him wrong. He doesn’t run or jump like fellow 63-year-old Tom Cruise, but — with the help of fast-paced editing — he still makes for a credible action hero. The only other actors of any note in the film are Winkler, who’s a nice presence with his sardonic personality, and Lena Headey, whose small role doesn't match up with her experience.

You have to have a certain mindset to enjoy a film like Normal, but if you can abide its over-the-top bloodiness, it’s a serviceable action film. Few would have expected Odenkirk to take on these kinds of roles at this late stage of his career, but he’s making the most of his opportunities.

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Normal opens in theaters on April 17.

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