The Tonewheel Collective: Another Reason To Love Thursdays

*Update: this post has been revised after receiving some very helpful feedback.

For a while now, we've been hearing good things about the Tonewheel Collective, a bi-weekly acoustic happy hour show on Thursdays hosted by members of some of Austin's best bands. Two weeks ago, we finally had the opportunity to experience it for ourselves. And, to put it succinctly: wow.

Members of Tonewheel include Jared Van Fleet (Voxtrot, Sparrow House), Martin Crane and Mark Ashworth (Ink), Nathan Stein (The Early Tapes; Tacks, the Boy Disaster), Red Hunter (Peter and the Wolf, and owner of local label Whiskey and Apple Records), Josh Permenter (Peel), and Bill Baird (Sound Team).

"The idea ... began to formulate with the band The Press, which even played under the name "Tonewheel" for its first show," recalls Jared, who currently plays in Voxtrot and has a promising solo side project by the name of Sparrow House (think Andrew Bird, sans professional whistling). "As that band split and we all began to concentrate on other things, the name Tonewheel seemed to stick for the group of musicians left in its wake."

Then, late last December, the lovely Rosa Madriz, proprietress of booking agency Green Potato Ventures, approached Jared, Martin, and Mark with the notion of collaborating on some sort of happy hour. Naturally, there was a perfect fit: the bi-weekly gigs not only were the perfect showcase for the growing collection of solo material that each had been writing yet never performing, but also brought this disparate group - each quite busy in his or her own right - back together.

Jared describes the attitude behind Tonewheel, which lacks an "official" membership, as one of "mutual respect and an equal partnership... King Arthur and all that nonsense," which we saw in exemplary form last time. Various members of half a dozen bands were periodically shuffling on and off-stage, depending on the needs of the current song being performed. Subtly sneaking in some mathematical magic, Jared abstracts, "Tonewheel, as it currently exists, is a very new thing, so I really don't see much of a difference between older or newer participants. It's kind of like we're all these big circles, and Tonewheel is the part of the Venn Diagram where those circles overlap. And in that space, the circles are squared, even."

Despite - or, perhaps, owing to - the wide spectrum of music available every evening, solo/acoustic gigs are a relative rarity in the late nights here, short of the occasional gigs you might catch at Flip's on Barton Springs. But a happy hour, as it turns out, is the perfect outlet for such a thing: post work, particularly towards the end of the week, all Austinist wants to do is share a few beers with our equally exhausted friends and unwind with something that'll take our minds away from the minutiae of the corporate workplace. Something, ideally, with a mellow banjo versus a driving bassline.

Every two weeks, the collective performs a fresh selection of material that includes original works and covers of old folk and country/blues songs obscure enough to render them unrecognizable to us, but conjuring to mind the likes of Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, and Bob Dylan. References, though, are pointless in this case: Tonewheel is something you have to experience for yourselves. Check it out tonight -- we're pretty damn sure you'll leave with a smile on your face.

[The Tonewheel Collective]

The Tonewheel Collective
Beerland
Thursday, Friday 16th
7pm
FREE