Month: November 2020

Six years ago, Mark Fuller asked me to drive into town and catch a show at Fitzgerald’s. I was no stranger to Fitz, it was a Houston live music staple for up and coming bands. It was literally a tinderbox with questionable engineering where the main stage was upstairs with an even more questionable balcony. But damn, was it the most intimate Houston venue… Everything was up and close. Anyone trying to blaze a trail in Houston Texas made their way through Fitz. Stevie Ray Vaughan played Fitz on the regular. James Brown cut his teeth in Texas at Fitz. Bonnie Raitt. Los Lobos. It’s rumored that Elvis played a late night private show there after an appearance at the Astrodome Rodeo. I was blessed to climb those rickety stairs and see many shows at Fitz, either supporting my friend’s local bands, or seeing bigger touring acts for the first time before they got big. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald’s was demolished and succumbed to corporate growth. I think the plot of land is scheduled to be new condos or something of the sort. But on 2014-11-16, my buddy Mark Fuller convinced me to check out a new artist that I had never really heard of but was intrigued. I never go to a show without my microphones and recorder, so I packed a light bag and we headed out. Got to the venue, talked to Sturgill and asked if I could record – “Well hell yeah!” This was the last show I ever recorded at Fitzgerald’s before it was demolished. It is also the first show Sturgill Simpson ever played in Houston (to a packed house, I might add). He went from a 200 capacity venue to a 6,500 for his next Houston show. This is why we cary thousands of dollars of gear to every show, no matter how small or unimportant it may seem. You never know when you might record history. I’m including dropbox downloads for 24bit FLAC and V0 MP3 files. I’ll leave them up for a week. Please, feel free to share how you see fit.

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i918wah0r6ysnsa/AACudEbnC0zG6d4fceifQVaya?dl=0FLAC

24bit: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tkv7fr9d0hqucyy/AACf0cYoi3y3gBwMjrIY0VOBa?dl=0