Mercury is in Retrograde, and I am feeling it… and so the timing of Austin City Limits opening weekend could not have been better. As Danielle LaPorte ’s Truthbomb earlier this week reminded me, music is soul food. And my soul was hungry. The first show I saw (thank you Ric B. and Rick B. for the recommendation) will probably be the best of the weekend: Leon Bridges, a young gospel and soul singer from Fort Worth. Before being discovered less than a year ago, Bridges was working as a dishwasher and singing at open-mic nights. His is a rags to riches story, an American dream story; a story that reminds us that great things happen to great people. At 4 pm yesterday, dressed like Nat King Cole, Bridges delighted a crowd of thousands singing about Mississippi kisses, about his mother, and about dancing (a song inspired by his grandmother’s long legs). It was soul music. It was music for the soul. Music that made me think of the 50s, of proper manners, of families sharing Sunday night dinner together, of whiskey cocktails. Music that reminded me that Mercury in Retrograde is just a phase, that this too shall pass.
