Ezra Reynolds' "Cranes of Austin" calendar documents the changing Austin skyline.

About 18 years ago, some friends and I drove to Houston to see the Beastie Boys on their “Check Your Head” tour. They were playing in an old grocery store that had been converted into a fairly decent indie rock venue. For whatever reason, the Beastie Boys didn’t schedule an Austin show on that tour, so a bunch of Austinites – including me, Eric and Curtis  in my school bus yellow Volvo stationwagon – made the drive. Those were really good times. Spontaneous road trips were easy to make when gas was so cheap.

It was at that Beastie Boys show that I got the digits of a girl that had just graduated from McCallum High School (keep in mind I was only two years older than her). We’ll just call her Mary (although that is not her name). It’s very tempting for me to go into great detail about the circumstances of how we met, how I ended up falling for her best friend and just how much fun the summer of 1992 ended up being. I mean, it was the year after punk rock broke into the mainstream for Christ sakes. But there is no need, nor time, for a lengthy history lesson on these pages.

Anyway, anyway, anywho…the whole reason I bring this all up is because Mary introduced me to a bunch of super-cool McCallum High graduates. Super smart, super laid-back children of ex-hippies that settled in central Austin.

One of those kids from that McCallum crew was a very talented musician named Ezra Reynolds. He still plays keyboards and is well known around Austin for his skills. Back in the day, he played in a band called Breedlove for a while with Tyrone Vaughan (Jimmy’s son, Stevie Ray’s nephew). Breedlove was doing quite well for a while…and the truth is much of the band’s soul emanated from the way Ezra caressed the  keys and Hammond B-3s.

These days, Ezra is splitting time between Austin and Chicago. We ran into each other the other evening at Rio Rita, the cool bar opened by the owners of Beerland.

After Ezra and I caught up, he gave me a copy of a really cool 2009 calendar he created called “Cranes of Austin.” The bilingual calendar features photos of the numerous construction cranes that litter Austin’s skyline. Artfully photographed, the calendar has the same heart and soul that Ezra puts into his music. The little calendar has the perspective that only a native Austinite like Ezra could give it. Ezra has made them very affordable…and by ordering one you’ll be supporting an old school Austin musician.

Dig it: http://www.myspace.com/cranesofaustin