Digging the Heat? Support our mission to keep Austin ~actually~ weird with the best of Austin-centric news and reflections. Get 20% off forever LET’S GO TO CHURCH I’m not talking about the frozen-chosen sanctuary in Denton that I grew up in but rather what was going down across town, a few miles to the east, where Rev. F.L. Haynes established St Andrew’s Church of God and Christ.  The preacher’s daughter married K.C. Stewart, and they gave birth to a son named Sylvester, who would become one of the most influential musical voices of the tumultuous ‘60s. Sly & The Family Stone, 1968 When gospel music touches the mainstream, it’s usually because someone raised in the church breaks wide with a power that leads people to ask “where did this come from?”  Think Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and of course Beyonce, Houston’s own, who grew up in the tradition at St John’s United Methodist . “I realize that Beyoncé isn’t just singing about a personal experience, she is also preaching a sermon. With as much fire and fervor that I’ve heard pastors preach with on a Sunday morning, Beyoncé is reminding Black women that our bodily autonomy is divine.” Sade Green writing about “Church Girl.”  The sanctuary, especially here in the south, was often the only place where people of color could truly shake loose, protected from prying eyes by the four walls. We bore witness to the transformative power of this experience when Bishop Fred Allen Jones Jr., on the urging of gospel historian Michael Corcoran, opened his doors to our cameras. The experience testifies to the power of shared tradition — in this case, through The Church of God in Christ, a denomination borne from our blood-soaked past.  Corcoran picks up the story.  It’s about what you feel, you dig? Take the clip below — a veteran circuit singer named James Chappell III flies into New Braunfels from the East Coast. The house band’s from San Antonio. They’d never shared a stage, but they do share a musical language. Through hand signals, nods, head taps, and eye contact everyone finds the flow in a heartbeat.  Pretty soon the entire room is moving as one. Play it large and loud and let it soak in, it’ll give a little slip to the backbone. The public face of Christianity these days is often white, conservative and mean. But there’s a whole other thing going on that carries strength. A different type of evangelism. I go back to Sade Green’s “Church Girl” essay: “Even though white people used Christianity as a tool of oppression, enslaved Africans such as Harriet Tubman , Sojourner Truth , and Nat Turner developed their own relationships with God and were inspired by the gospel to organize revolts and fight for their freedom. Later on, during the Civil Rights movement, African Americans convened at churches to organize marches, sit-ins, and other protests.” Sade Green, Elle, February 2023 As for those who are trying to tell the rest of us who we are and what we should believe, I’ll close by quoting Sly Stone, channeling a preacher’s voice in 1969’s Everyday People . I am no better and neither are you We're all the same, whatever we do You love me, you hate me You know me and then You can't figure out the bag I'm in I am everyday people.” A message of power, a message of hope, all right there just below the surface, rooted in our soil. TIME TO PLAY BALL On April 13th at The Long Time , The Texas Playboys will host a Canadian sandlot baseball team at a fundraiser for Spaceflight . Texas Playboys Founder Jack Sanders, Sports Illustrated , 2021 The informal sandlot movement includes roughly 25 teams across Austin who wear throwback unis and play by old school rules. Jack Sanders started the revival here by tapping into a tradition he discovered in rural Alabama . Directors Scott Ballew and Ben Knight laid out the rest of The Long Time’s story a few years back. So how did The Long Time come about? The field is magical, you feel the soul the moment you walk in! How did you find that? Tell me about the connection with Spaceflight. Along with the games, Spaceflight will present a concert by Chris Catalena. The combination of cowboy boots, country music, and LSD is a time-honored tradition in Austin and singer/songwriter Chris Catalena is doing his damndest to keep it going. - KUTX Sounds like a fun time! One final note about intersecting communities — Spaceflight partner Sam Douglas also directed Faders Up , the documentary about legendary KUT DJ John Aielli, produced by David Hartstein. It won the audience award at SXSW, and it’ll screen at AFS Cinema later this year. Stay posted… NIGHTTIME COMES AT NOON Monday brings us the eclipse, a state of emergency, 500,000 people descending on Kerrville, and traffic jams all day everywhere. Or so we’re told. Driven by the collective craziness of a once-in-a-lifetime event. “Think of the earth as a watery orb being pulled to the right and the left by the gravity of the sun and the moon. Eclipses amplify this effect, pulling strongly on the waters of the earth and, theoretically, the waters in our bodies. Water is the element of emotions, so it’s common for many of us to feel things more deeply around this time.” Julie Peters, The Spiritual Meaning of Eclipses The common thread in stories of ancient cultures interpreting what they saw is the making of noise to chase away whatever swallowed the sun. Want to celebrate with sound? Vampire Weekend’s playing an eclipse show at Moody Amphitheater, and The Long Center’s staging a free concert with Graham Reynolds. HONK!TEXAS “HONK! bands transform everyday locations into spontaneous stages, dissolving the line between crowd and performers and inviting everyone to celebrate the joys of music and community. A range of genres will be represented: New Orleans second-line brass, European Klezmer and Balkan, Brazilian, West African and more.“ Honk!TX website The first time I stumbled onto this in West Campus, my reaction was something along the lines of “what the hell is this?” It’s worth checking out, one of the events that actually makes us weird, April 5-7th. STILL WANNA BOUNCE?  Check out these links: Aretha Franklin, Watts, 1972. The most powerful gospel concert I’ve seen on film. Marvin Gaye singing the national anthem at the 1983 NBA All Star Game.   All about claiming space and place. Wesley United Methodist Church , founded in 1865, is right here in Austin. A decade ago, we profiled one of our city’s great stage performers, Zach Scott star Tim Curry , who chose his church on the east side for a final concert after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. We’d love to see what touches your soul, helps you feel and be real. Let us know how we can hold you up, let’s define who we are and what we’re about. Alan Berg, Publisher. Go see something, tell us about it, we’ll share more stories next week. Let’s build something together. We’d be forever grateful for your help, and an easy way to do so is by subscribing to the Happy Heat Substack. What comes in goes right back out in artist commissions and live shows. To which you’ll get to come! For the first 100 subscribers, we are offering 20% off forever. Get 20% off forever