Kate McDonnell at the "Camp Street Cafe"
Harris
On my trip to Texas in the spring of 07, I had specifically mentioned that I would like to catch some live music.
On our arrival at Palestine, were told that we would be taken for some live music. Jim Parsons, former judge and current lawyer, his beautiful wife Karen, Dr.Jerry and the vivacious Catherine, took us in 2 SUVs to a small town called Crockett, treated us to some fantastic steaks and then off we went to a place called Camp Street Café`. Having a conversation with Catherine was such a pleasure. Pity we didn’t get to meet her again. Probably her views on having a conversation with me didn’t mirror mine!
Camp St. Café is a small joint in a small town called Crockett run by Guy and Pipp Gillette. We reached there at around 7pm after dinner. It is really a small place, but my, what an ambience! An old saloon style place with wooden interiors with framed pictures, autographs, musical paraphernalia and so on. Just a few tables n chairs. Enough for probably 20 odd people. Small stage. I saw just 2 monitors on stage, a mike for the singer and a mic for her acoustic guitar.
The lady came on stage and started straight away. She was simple, honest and in-your-face music. No synthesized stuff, thank you! She struck a chord with me immediately.She also has a unique style of playing. She is right handed, but plays left handed, with the guitar kept upside down.
Her lyrics were amazing, simple, yet with a twist of humour. “My car broke down on memory lane…”. My dog, she “chases anything that runs” n so on. There was “Ordinary Man” and the emotional song about her brother calling her mom from a phone booth somewhere. There was also this lovely song called “Falling down” about she thinking during her childhood that her mom was so tall that if she didn’t take care she wud fall down from that height. The song ends saying that her mom is only 5’2” and she is now 5’6”! Another one of my favourites was “Don’t Fix my Faucet”, a hilarious n rollicking song where she goes into a growl at times. She did some 15 songs over all, slightly more than an hour and I was really impressed. This lady has what it takes! I bought a CD, Broken Bones and got it autographed too. She was happy to have people from India sitting in to hear her play. She says her husband comes to India often. I invited her over to play in India. She has promised to make it.
Check her out on www.katemcdonnell.com Also check out www.campstreetcafe.com
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