Exene Cervenka Thanks 'Music Warriors' for Attending SXSW

Attending SXSW can feel like a thankless job. You spend five days subjecting your ears to loud music, your liver to free beer and your GI tract to Tex-Mex, and when it's all done, does anyone give you a pat on the back? Exene Cervenka does.

"You're all music warriors," Cervenka, longtime singer for the legendary punk band X, told fans Saturday night at Austin's Red Eyed Fly. "You keep live music alive. We appreciate it. Every band that's played this week appreciates it. I know I appreciate it. You've kept me alive the last 35 years."

Since founding X in the late '70s, Cervenka has tried numerous styles of music, but these days, as a member of the Bloodshot Records roster, she's doing a variation of classic country, a genre X has sometimes dabbled in and their offshoot band, the Knitters, has further explored on two very good albums.

Cervenka didn't reach back into the vaults for any X or Knitters material, but the singer and guitarist did play a half-dozen songs from her new album, 'The Excitement of Maybe.' She got some help from four backing musicians, most notably pedal-steel player Maggie Bjorklund, who gave such tunes as 'Already in Love' their lonesome feel.

Cervenka did offer one cover, a happy little number by the pioneering female bluegrass singer Hazel Dickens.

"This one's called, 'Will Jesus Wash the Bloodstains From Your Hands?'" Cervenka said. "It's in D."