Austin nonprofit organization Attendance Records does the important work of teaching high school students about music, its industry and its creation. This includes everything from album artwork to songwriting to recording. With ever increasing cuts to arts programs in public schools, Attendance Records seeks funding to step into high schools where their internal programs are lacking.
To undertake this monumental task, the organization relies on help from the Austin music and arts industry itself. This past Thursday night, a solid bill of three Americana bands, RF Shannon, El Campo, and Hello Wheels, performed at Holy Mountain to benefit Attendance Records.
I arrived late, and missed RF Shannon, but you can read any number of our many live reviews of their recent shows. Rest assured, we love them, but you just can’t catch all the shows in such an active city. El Campo began playing shortly after I showed up, weaving banjo-tinged folk tunes for the crowd. Americana has become an incredibly popular genre in the last decade, and the result has been a difficulty in carving out a niche for oneself. El Campo finds that in their hopeful lyricism and vocal harmonies. Many of the songs contain three-part harmonies that give the songs a classic folk feel. The group will soon be releasing a 7” flexi-disc on Punctum Records to be followed by a full-length later in the year.
Hello Wheels headlined the night with a set of rollicking folk pop that incorporates brass into the arrangements. The group, like El Campo, eschews some of the slicker pop elements of modern folk rock as their sound harkens to an earlier era of Americana music. The group puts on the kind of live show that challenges the audience not to stomp along to the beat. This effect is thanks in large part to the excellent drumming of Marmalakes’ Josh Halpern who acts as a core for the Hello Wheels’ songs.
It’s great to see musicians helping to raise awareness and funds for a program that will unavoidably give rise to new, young musicians. Encouraging artistic voice at a young age is an important task that ultimately sustains the music industry.
