True Love Will Find You In The End

Shakey Graves & Jess Williamson: “True Love Will Find You In The End” (Live at Longhorn Cavern)

When it comes to natural landmarks, Texas is absolutely teeming with them. From meteor craters and sinkholes to canyons, rivers, forests, mountain ranges, lakes, and caverns, our vast landscape offers a ton of variety to make up for those long car rides. And none of that Earth-born beauty could be conserved as well as it has been without the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation, who just celebrated the centennial of Texas State Parks last year.

If you missed it, TPWF recently teamed up with KUTX favorite Walker Lukens to produce Texas Wild, a collection of iconic Texas tunes performed by some of the Lone Star’s finest to commemorate that hundred-year legacy of astonishing state parks. That eleven-track vinyl packs a wallop on its own, no doubt, but because everything’s bigger when you’re here, the Texas Wild team just had to make some extra hay for this salute.

So, alongside the KUTX Multimedia Crew, Walker, The Bright Light Social Hour, Shakey Graves, and Jess Williamson took a field trip out to Longhorn Cavern State Park in Burnet to bask in the ancestral acoustics and primal reverb that only an eon-old limestone cave can provide. Their chamber-filling rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You In The End” can haunt any home stereo, but to fully immerse yourself in this one-of-a-kind space, you gotta check out the video. Because like witnessing all-star set of stalagmites suddenly come to life, with outward reverence for their surroundings and instruments at the ready, it’s a visual treat that plants you into a truly magical habitat, one you won’t want to leave when the music’s over.

Parker Woodland: “True Love Will Find You In The End”

First thing’s first. Parker Woodland isn’t a person; it’s a band. More accurately, it’s an Austin-based indie rock collective captained by activist/singer-songwriter Erin Walter. And although Walter, guitarist Andrew Solin, and drummer Keri Cinquina comprise the group’s core trio, Parker Woodland always welcomes a revolving cast of contributors both in-studio and on-stage for inclusive arrangements that complement the band’s hefty emotional weight. Between their placement at Rock the Park and as of last weekend, The Breakfast Boogie, clearly Parker Woodland’s earned their keep as a KUTX favorite and a can’t-miss curator of the Austin Music Experience in 2023.

As for next year, the gang’s been working towards the full-length follow-up to their February 2021 debut EP The World’s On Fire (And We Still Fall In Love). And as Parker Woodland passes the half decade mark of their run, we’re positive that this LP will leap off streaming services and warm hearts citywide. In the meantime, to wrap up this month, you can get a taste of the live portion with an all-ages, stage-filling affair 8PM this Thursday at The Mohawk with Sabrina Ellis and Sheverb. Sure, Live from Love Hill offers an honest representation of Parker Woodland’s in-concert chops, but obviously, the in-person experience is the real deal.

Fingers crossed we get a fuller preview of this new record, whose tunes like the Daniel Johnston folk-punk re-work “True Love Will Find You In The End” have already promised the inevitability of affection and adoration for listeners of any kind. To the naysaying loners, just try not to feel warm and fuzzy after pressing “play”, because this indie-folk fleur blossoms with gorgeous harmonies and optimistic orchestral flourishes before a final-minute sprint into punk-rock-inspired passion.

Dog Island: “True Love Will Find You In The End”

If you take your pooch down to the free section of Barton Springs, you’ll recognize that Austin’s a pretty dog friendly town. You could also pick that up from show bills, considering we’re home to groups like A Giant Dog, Dog Beach Rebels, The Ghost Wolves, and the now-defunct Growl. There’s also Dog Island, the pet project of multi-instrumentalist/producer Dave Hanson, who moved here from Florida four years back. That move lined up with the release of Dog Island’s last record New Breed (2019), but the subsequent pandemic and the pain it caused provided Hanson with some new, deeply emotional songwriting fodder. The result is Only By Love, an eight-track penned in Hanson’s home studio that keeps a leash on Dog Island’s experimentation and synth work but also invites previously-untapped orchestral elements into arrangements. Only By Love dropped this morning, and Dog Island celebrates with a free, all-ages release show 7-9PM tomorrow night at Cloud Tree Gallery. Now, full disclosure, Dog Island won’t actually be playing, but they will be releasing a one-of-a-kind zine alongside performance art, installations, and an ambient electronic set from Jared J. Standish. So go ahead; tear into Only By Love, fall for Dog Island’s idiosyncratic style, and admire the optimistic curiosity captured in the Daniel Johnston cover “True Love Will Find You In The End”.