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Last night I went to the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo and caught the mutton busters and trick ropers, followed by the very special musical guest James Brown. The Godfather of Soul stopped through Austin on his "Seven Decades of Funk Tour," commemorating his 70th year on this planet. Mr. Brown played on a revolving stage set in the middle of the dirt rodeo arena, as you can see from this map. Thanks to the motion of the stage, all of the fans had an opportunity to see the hardest working man in showbiz work his magic, but Matthew and I had particularly good seats, sitting in section EE, which the band faced for much of the show. Although we were in the back row, I felt that our view compared favorably with seats I've had in concert halls.

Seeing James Brown perform at a rodeo was nothing short of a priceless experience, outstripping even George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars at the Home of Bob Wills, in terms of cultures colliding. Yet it came at the low, low price of $20. I frankly wondered why they would pair a rodeo show with a James Brown concert. Are people like, "James Brown is coming to Austin? Hmmm, twenty dollars seems kind of steep. Wait, you said there's gonna be calf ropin'? Well, damn, that makes all the difference!"

Props to Kim for alerting the Austin blog community to this event.