The Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson, Arizona is truly one of the most magnificent places in the world for music lovers. As local legend Al Perry would say, it's always a pleasure.

The folks in Europe are keen to the sonoran sounds, since that's where Tucson's finest tour during the summer. We've been paying attention to the extraordinary albums coming out of WaveLab studios the past 10 years or so... examples? Two enduring desert classics we'll mention are Giant Sand's "Chore of Enchantment" and Calexico's "The Black Light." Or try Richard Buckner's "Devotion and Doubt", which is really about the Ozarks but is classic WaveLab.

The Old Pueblo is an inventive atmosphere. Calexico is at it again right now at WaveLab Studios, laying it down on giant reels of tape. We saw Howe Gelb, the esteemed instigator of high desert goth, who records constantly and plays locally. Desert surf (dry country?) is alive and well in the personage of the immeasurable Al Perry. Hip hop is flourishing here too. With the low overhead, Tucson certainly is a place where bands and artists can prosper once their work is worthy of export.

So on a recent Saturday night we were staying in our favorite room at the Hotel Congress and the headliner -- Low -- cancelled w/ hours to spare. There was a scramble for talent. They conjured up a fine assortment, beginning with an older country gentleman with a guitar who had never played a nightclub before and delighted everybody w/ some Hank.

I must describe this "regular" crowd -- core of the congress -- call it w i d e s c r e e n incarnate! There are literally people with horns. 2 horns, right there on the head. And allow me to mention the fine ladies in tantalizing desert goth garb. It goes on from there, but everybody was as friendly as can be. It was the perfect setup for a From Dusk Til Dawn moment.

The oddest character in the bunch was this short, bearded hippy dude walking around w/ a bottle of Bud, seemingly alert to all goings on, but he couldn't move his head. Not from side to side, forward or back, or up or down. When he took a swill of beer, he sorta swung his arm up from the elbo injecting the beer into the upper end of suddenly slanting inflexible form. In order to peer around, he had to turn his entire body.

In time, a new band is sets up and he's up there setting up guitar and mics, only distracted by regular full-body swigs of Bud. And I'm thinking all along he's setting up for some other crazy character yet to make it down from his mountain hide-away or whatever.

The set starts and he's in the middle and he's playing guitar and he starts to sing and if it wasn't one of the most damned amazing voices I've ever heard. Make me throw out a name, I'll say Van the Man because of true white blues delivery. He sang some of the most soulful music I've heard in ages (aside from Al Green!!)

I knew it was a great moment, at least for me. The Hotel Congress crowd was basking in it, and you get the feeling this happens often. With room to move. In an establishment like this, music really means the most to people.

We brought back home Al Perry's latest Always A Pleasure. There are some gems here! The new version of "Dreaming" with the trumpets is an amazing song, and the closer "We Got Cactus" gets a lot of play in THIS house (in Coastal Cali). "99 Pairs of Shoes" and the instrumentals please us a lot too. Let's call it thoughtfully restrained country surf punk, w/ bursts of killicaster.