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Austin’s Asylum Street Spankers have been around since 1994, playing a crafty blend of folk and roots rock. Lead by Christina Marrs, the Spankers have become legends within the Austin music scene.
Sadly, the band has decided to call it a day and tonight’s stop at The Sons of Hermann Hall will be the last time The Asylum Street Spankers makes its way to our fair area.
Before this final show at Sons, Marrs took some time to reflect on her band’s history and to talk with us about the band’s decision to call it quits. She also touches on the way Austin’s music scene has changed over the years, and how the hell she expects to fill up her days now that the band is coming to its end.
Check our conversation out in full after the jump.
Why is tonight’s show the final time the band will play Dallas?
We are in the midst of our farewell tour which will take us through the
end of March or the beginning of April. It was time to go around the
country and say goodbye to all our fans. Tonight will be the final
Dallas show.
Why end the band now?
There were numerous factors. We’ve been playing music for 17 years and
it’s time to do something else. It’s been rough the last couple of
years. The economy has definitely impacted us. It’s tough to be a
touring band right now. The only way to make a living is to be gone all
of the time. People are picking and choosing what shows they are going
to and they are not buying as much merchandise. People aren’t buying CDs
anymore. For bands like us, that’s a big part of what we do, a large
source of income. Plus, it’s more expensive to be on the road. It’s been
a long, long run, but it’s time to do something else.
What’s next for you?
I don’t have anything specific in the works. I have been talking about
some other projects that will keep me closer to home. I will probably
put together a project with some of the current Spankers. For me, The
Spankers were taking up so much of my time, the better part of a decade
and a half. It’s been impossible to work on other things. It will be
kind of cool to check out a few other things because I won’t have to
worry about being gone half the time. That will be cool. I have to keep
playing music because I am pretty unqualified to do anything else.
Is Austin the perfect place for your music?
I don’t know that it is anymore. I am so out of touch with what is going
on musically in Austin. I don’t know if it’s the perfect place. There
are other cities in the country that have more of an acoustic music
scene than Austin. Austin’s changed. Places change. For one thing, the
population has doubled in such a short amount of time. We’ve had a huge
wave of people in the technical industry. These people came from
California with a certain different influence. You started to see all
these expensive little boutiques popping up everywhere and all these
condominiums. People bring with them different tastes. When I started
the band, I was 20 and now I am 40 and I’m married with two kids. I’ve
changed as well.
Even if you band stops touring, can’t you still release albums?
There is a possibility that we may make one last record. There are some
songs that have been written in the past year and some that have already
been recorded. We might do one last record. As far as keeping the band
together around Austin, I don’t think that’s going to happen. We will do
this last tour, maybe put out a record and that will wrap it up.
I understand that there have been over 30 former members of the
band. Do you ever go out and see someone and think that they may have
one time been a member?
I do run into ex-Spankers all of the time. We were in Nashville a couple
of days ago and I ran into a guy who used to play fiddle for us. There
are enough of them out there that we definitely run into each other. Thirty may actually be a little on the low side. I think there may be
more than that.
The band’s music has been described as progressive folk, jazz, blues,
ragtime, roots rock and comedy rock. Care to add anything else?
I could probably add a few things. We’ve definitely played just about
any kind of American roots music that exists. And lots of other stuff,
too.
Asylum Street Spankers perform tonight at Sons of Hermann Hall
