Angel Adrienne

Tammy: Adrienne, I wanted to start by telling you thanks for agreeing to be the first Honky Tonk Angel! You were the first person who I thought of when I decided to start this zine. TheHonky Tonk Angel concept covers many facets of the club, the audience, the band, and how they're all connected. You are the embodiment of that connection at the Continental Club on Tuesday nights when Toni Price plays her legendary Hippy Hour [we all laugh together]. When I first started going to Hippy Hour I didn't know you - you were just that girl who always stood up front in the same spot every week - totally enthralled with the music, obviously one of Toni's most loyal and expressive fans and friends. Tell me Adrienne, when did this all begin? How did you first come to hear Toni Price and her band?

Adrienne: I have two friends, both named Jennifer, who both went to high school with me. One of the Jennifers' aunts is Deb who is Toni's good friend. So that Jennifer invited me and the other Jennifer to come. So we started going for break [we all get a big laugh over this!] We would get there for two songs before break, stay for break, stay for a little while after break, and then leave. The two songs that actually got me hooked on Toni were ‘Coffee' because she used to play it right before break, and ‘Throw me a Bone'. Those were the two songs that I learned the words to first.

Tammy: I had a discussion one time about the meaning of the lyrics "Are you going to throw me a bone tonight?" Someone tried to tell me it meant that you weren't going to get the real thing, that you were going to be lucky to get the vibrator [the girls both moan with me over this interpretation]. So I was confirming whether this was right or not, with another friend and he told me "No, no, no, you were right the first time!".

Adrienne: But anyway, so yeah that's how it started. My sister just happened to be the waitress at the Continental Club for happy hour.Tammy: So how many years ago was this?Adrienne: This was six years ago when I was 17.

Tammy: And we just had the 8 year anniversary of Hippy Hour, so you've been there for most of it.

Adrienne: All but the first two years. When I first started going Rich Brotherton was playing with her and that's who I first fell in love with - guitar wise- he could change the guitar string faster than the speed of light! Man! He would break a string in the middle of the song and by end of the song he would be playing with her. Like seriously!

Tammy: So how long did it take before you started going to all of her shows?Adrienne: By summer of ‘95, I was hooked. I remember my 18th birthday the cast members of the play I was doing would always tease me "That Toni, Toni, Toni, Toni,...". I wasn't old enough before then, so I couldn't go to any of the places that she played, so that's why I didn't really follow her around. I just stuck to the Continental Club because I could get in - my sister worked there and I knew the owner!

Tammy: So you go to all of her out of town shows and everything?

Adrienne: I try to. I really try to, yeah! I've been to Alpine four times. I go to the San Marcos shows and just recently for the first time I went to Houston. Toni needed a ride so I was the roadie!

Tammy: Have you ever missed a Tuesday night?

Adrienne: Yes, because of theater. I'm an actress and when I have rehearsal, I just can't be there. I'm starting a theater company with my friend Lisa, she is a Toni fanatic as well. We have vowed that we will never have rehearsal on Tuesday night! [understanding laughter] So that's our night off, and now I've kinda gotten around the whole ‘can't be there because of rehearsal thing'.

Tammy: Can you try to explain what it is about Toni that keeps you coming back? The thing that you get from the musical experience?

Adrienne: Oh, it heals my soul. It heals my soul! And I don't know how else to put it, you know. There's something about those four souls together, you know.. even three, even when Scrappy is not there it's magical, but when Scrappy is there, it's beyond magical! They know each other so well. All four of them know each other so well and they play with each other so well, and not just play music, they play with each other! They poke fun at each other and they have fun! Scrappy, Champ, and Casper poke fun of each other through their music.

Tammy: Like after they've played their turn at the lead and they are passing the lead on to the next person, it's like ‘take that!'

Adrienne: There was one time, I wasn't actually there but I heard about this. Casper was playing and he put the guitar behind his back and was playing behind his back and right on cue, during the time that Casper would usually do that, Champ and Scrappy looked at each other and put their guitars behind their backs and started playing! [hysterical laughter] it was - oh man I wish I had been there! But it's things like that - that they are just so happy and they love each other's music so much.

Tammy: I've had people tell me they can't understand why I go every week to hear the same songs and to see the same people. Have you had people ask you this? Adrienne: Ab-so-lute-ly! Absolutely, especially in the beginning when I first started going all the time. Some of my friends in high school would be like "Oh, let's go do this" and I'd be like "Not tonight, I have to go see Toni!". They'd be like "Aren't you tired of those songs you just heard 3 days ago? You're driving 10 hours to Alpine?". But to me it's not the same songs every Tuesday because they're different, they're different every time. Because of the way she sings them subtly, different, and the way they play them. Sometimes there are songs they just completely go off on and the songs are so different from how you've heard them before, and it's like - Wow! - you know. So it's not really the same. I mean it might be the same words and the same basic melody, but it's not the same songs.

Tammy: That's what I've been telling them too! [we giggle] It's become a joke with some of my friends wh are there every Tuesday with me. I have a friend who is in the music business here in Austin, he books European tours for musicians from Texas. He'll say, "Are you going down to hear the same ol' songs and to see the same ol' people?". And I'm like "Yep, gotta go!"

Adrienne: Exactly! See ya later! [more laughter]

Tammy: I've seen you bring glitter to put on people and bubbles to blow, and for the past few months you've been bringing star stickers, can you tell me how you got started on doing that and what it means to you?

Adrienne: Toni used to have pixie dust and that's how it started. She had this little bag and she would spread pixie dust around. So I went and got some pixie dust and was sprinkling it on me, but that loose glitter doesn't stay on very well. There's a girl Marganita, who one night had this orange glitter on her eye lids, and I thought that was a really cool place to put glitter. She said there was a gel. It was around Halloween and I found this Elvira glitter - Elvira Do Gel Glitter! It is this specific color that I can't find anywhere else. That's what I wear every Tuesday. It's a greenish glitter. I love green.

Tammy: What about the stars?

Adrienne: The stars? I was shopping and I saw them and I love the colors, they're shiny you know. I'm a shiny, sparkly, kind of girl [much giggling].

Tammy: Remember that song, ‘Happy Shiny People'?

Adrienne: Exactly [laughs], they were only like 2 bucks, not even, so I went oh that's cool, I want some of those. I'd been wearing little stickers on the side of my eye. I think I saw my sister do it one night or something. I was always looking for little stickers to wear, and stars, those are perfect. People would ask me "Hey, where did you get the star?", and I would say "Here, you can have one". It really started that way.

Tammy: It really has become a thing now!

Adrienne: It has! I remember one time I had them, but I didn't have them out and I didn't wear one. Someone came up to me and said, "Where are your stars? I feel naked without my star!" So I said, okay - I guess this is the start of an era - spreading stardom.

Tammy: You already told me about two songs when you first started listening to Toni that were influential to you. So, I wanted to ask you, if there are some other songs that have a special meaning for you personally?

Adrienne: Yes, it's going to make me cry [her voice is wavery and a tear slides down her cheek from under her glasses as she talks]. ‘Tumbleweed', because it's my friend Christine's favorite song cause her mother passed away in ‘97 and it was a big - uhm - it was very unexpected cause she died in a car accident. I always think of Christine. And ‘Angel From Montgomery' because that's the song I asked Toni to sing to get to her. Also, ‘Tumbleweed' has a lot of meanings actually. It really reminds me of Scrappy and really makes me miss Scrappy when he isn't there because he does this certain riff that is very distinct that no one else can do. ‘Tumbleweed' has a lot of meaning for me because it is also another one that I fell in love with in the beginning, that was a Rich song. Rich, he played the mandolin, guitar, and did vocals. And the song ‘Lucky' because - and I don't know if anyone knows this - but the reason whenever she says "cause I'm just shoody loo", and we all say, "so true" is because Rich would say that over the microphone. And I believe he would say, "Ah you know, it's so true". And so whenever he left, we started saying "so true" in tribute to him and in memory of Rich. That's why all the old Tuesday regulars always say "so true" after "shoody-loo."

Tammy: I know you're more than a fan, you are also one of Toni's friends. Is there anything about Toni as your friend, a story of something that's happened, or something she said or did, that has a special meaning for you and that you would like to share?

Adrienne: Well, it's not just one thing. You know just little things that she does. She lets me know little bits at a time about her in special little moments. She teaches me every single time she let's me know about herself. She's very much a teacher of mine in the spiritual, goddess aspect. She's very in touch with her own beliefs and her own way of doing things, and every time she shares a little bit of that with me - it is a very special thing. Her aura and energy is so - I don't even know what the word is - it's so - it embodies everything: calming, soothing, funny, happy, rebellious. She's just such a - I don't know, I can't even think of the word - renaissance soul, she is one of those souls that embodies every good, positive, light aspect of humanity.

Tammy: I guess I first got hooked on Toni cause I had this dream. I had just started to come hear her, not every week but often. I was really getting to the point where I looked forward to Tuesday all week long. I was feeling really lonely and just kinda like things weren't quite going how I wanted in my life - and just blue - I had the blues - bad. I started going down there and just feeling like she could hook right into that sorrow that I felt in my soul. She could see it and she could feel it. She was doing a lot of the slower songs then and it was like every one of them went straight to me. Then I had this dream. I was down on this dock by the water and I wanted to get in the water and swim, with all of my heart I wanted to. There were dolphins and sea turtles swimming by and I knew the water was freezing cold, so I didn't jump in. Down saunders Toni right past me and just jumps into the freezing water. Then these two dolphins, a mother and her baby, leap into the air and the sea turtles are swimming right beside Toni. I guess I must have woken up sometime after that and I had this gut wrenching feeling of I wish I could have jumped into that freezing water. I started realizing then, that a lot of stuff is about fear and I started thinking about how my attitude towards life and my behavior was from a fearful kind of stance. I had never had any interaction with Toni, never even said hello to her up until that point. But after the dream, I was reading the liner notes to her latest recording "Low Down and Up", and there was a poem titled "it's all jazz" by Alyce Guynn and it read " on a high hill, or lonesome valley, dancing to the fiddle, or praying on our knees, it's all jazz, and we're all together, with our song men, singing "shine on", soaring with the eagles, swimming with the dolphins, it's all jazz". I thought, this is one of those moments they talk about that is not just a coincidence. It's one of those kind of special moments when all these things that seem like a coincidence come together because they were meant to. And I thought to myself, I've got to do something to symbolize this, cause this is a pivotal moment in my life. So I wrote her a note about the dream Then I bought her this pin which I guess was not the kind of pin you would want to wear around every day. [laugh]. But it was a dolphin, damn it! It was pink with that enamel kind of shiny paint. It was in the summer time and she had on this pink sun dress. I gave the pin to her when she got there, and later when she got up on stage and she had the pin on - I just thought - this is my night! [we all laugh].

Adrienne: She is a teacher, she really is.

Tammy: Yes, she's very wise. I often feel there is a bigger message beyond the lyrics, beyond the drink and merriment - a message about a way of living - a philosophy of being - that Toni is trying to convey to us. Do you feel this too, and if so, could you help me try to put into words what that message may be?

Adrienne: Well it is basically do what you feel, do what you know is right - for you, and fuck everyone else. If what everyone else is saying you know is right, is wrong - don't listen to them. The simplest form of that is - do what you want to do. Do what you want to do and not what anyone else wants you to do. That's basically what Toni has done in her life, and has done in her music. When she's had trouble with producers and managers and air brushing [big chuckle, Adrienne lifts up her arm and points to her underarm].

Tammy: They air brushed her hair?

Adrienne: Her arm pits, yes! On the ‘Hey' cover, they air brushed her arm pits off without telling her and she was furious! She was furious! Do what you want to do, you know? And don't worry about what everyone else thinks is right, if you know it's right - it's right. Like Grandma said! [knowing chuckles, reference to the song ‘Grandma Gave Me Some Good Advice'].

Tammy: I wanted to ask you about your spot on the floor, who did that and what is the story behind that..

Adrienne: I'll start with how it came about. There was one Tuesday, I got there late and there were these two couples camped in my spot all night long. And I asked them, "I'll buy you all a drink if you let me stand there", and they were like - "No, these people are from out of town." I wasn't up front the whole first set. I remember at one point during a song, Toni like found me in the back and she was like what are you doing back there? I was like, well I can't get up there. But during break - someone- while I was standing with Toni, made the comment that they didn't think they had ever seen me anywhere but the front row. He said you should get a spot painted on the floor, put a star there with your name. Toni was like, "that's a good idea!, Like the Hollywood walk of fame, the Continental walk of fame!". Toni said "I bet Steve will let you do it." (Steve being the owner of the Continental Club). I laughed and said "Yeah, that's pretty cool!". I was going to go tell my sister about it and ask her if she thought Steve would let me do it. I walk into the waitress station and it's just my sister and Steve standing there. I was like - okay, I'm going to ask him right now. So I put my arm up on his shoulder and I was like, "Steve, guess what?". And I told him what happened and he chuckled and laughed and he was like "Yeah, yeah, I don't care". I knew I wanted a melting moon cause that's the name of the theater company I want to start here in Austin. It's Melting Moon Arts Incorporated. So I wanted it to be a melting moon that said Adrienne's Spot. So I thought who could paint this? And I thought Rob, who works the front door Rob does a lot of the art work around the club, and he designed the t-shirts with the flaming devil girl. Rob spray painted it freehand and did all the letters freehand with paint pens. But, the thing is - I wore it out. I wore it off, it is hardly there anymore. Rob came up with the idea of putting it on a piece of Masonite and screwing it to the equipment door on the front of the stage, so it would be right in front of me and I wouldn't be standing on it. My friend Saffron is painting it now.

Tammy: Is there anything else that you would like to say? This is your chance to say anything that you want to ‘get out there'.Adrienne: Like about anything?

Tammy: Yeah, about anything.Adrienne: I don't know, several things come to mind but it would take too long for me to explain. There is one thing: the energies of the planet are naturally going from male dominant to female dominant right now and I think that it's time for the women to - not to take over - but to take charge [laughs]. And not the women - but the female energy - the mothering, soothing, calming - not war, fighting, aggressive energy. The whole planet needs it for healing.

Tammy: I feel the same thing. I guess how I see that happening right now for me, and what I try to do and be a part of, is to acknowledge other women's sacredness. Because I think that as a society, as more people see us honoring each other as women, it becomes a natural value of our culture. In the past I've seen women not be nice to each other and I've been one of them. It's like a competitive kind of thing. It's been a re-learning experience for me to get past all of that and to know that most women are getting bomb-barded from every side, attacked for the very essence of what they are. This is not to say that there aren't women who do not possess the female qualities that we are speaking of - so I am not saying that women should be honored for the mere sake of being female - but that women who do possess qualities such as, unconditional love and pure of heartedness, that we should recognize their sacredness. And so it is time for all of us to quit attacking, to not only acknowledge that women have these qualities, but to move past acknowledgment to a state of honoring.