"It's good to be back in Texas," yahooed Phil Pritchett as he began his Aardvark show last week. Perhaps out of consideration for HearSay's short attention span, Pritchett started his set with three odes to the Lone Star State, interspersed with many amusing anecdotes -- storytelling, it's called -- of his misadventures in Nashville. Just as HearSay was wondering why this singer/songwriter wasn't headlining at the Texana Grill instead of at a college dive, he launched into "Down and Out on Cloud 9," from his '97 album, Phil Comes Alive. Since one has to listen to all the words (like "Mary Jane's never been a friend of mine") to know this is not actually a pro-pot song, the young crowd went wild.

Pritchett's influences range from the Beatles to Robert Earl Keen to Elvis Costello, and his sound incorporates folk rock, Texas roots, and eclectic pop. Thus the rest of the evening was rather confusing to HearSay, but in a pleasant, thought-provoking way. Good to have you back, Phil.

Brad Thompson and the Undulating Band opened for Pritchett. HearSay has a new life goal -- to be bassist Aden Bubeck -- and the same old rhetorical question: Why isn't Brad Thompson a huge international star already?

When Fritz Schwalm's buddy Mark Fearing needed money to fix his van, Schwalm responded like most musicians would: He organized a benefit concert. But this isn't for your typical auto repair bill.

Fearing, a former snowboard enthusiast, lost his arms and legs in a near-fatal battle with bacterial meningitis in 1995. As a result, he needs a specially equipped van to get around, and his present vehicle is on its last gasp. So Schwalm, of the Denton-based uber-eclectic Band Schmand, called a few of his friends.

The result is a one-day shindig that kicks off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Denton's North Texas State Fairgrounds on University Drive. Everything from the police security to the music to the system it's being played on is being donated, so that all proceeds (suggested donation: $10) will go directly to Fearing. Things start off with a touch of the classical from guitarist Polly Maynard and banjo master Gerald Jones, followed by Centro-matic's Will Johnson and Scott Danbom, the ever-more-popular insurgent Baptist General, Band Schmand, and the guitar-driven Jimi Tunnel Trio. Brave Combo wraps things up at 6 p.m.

"No one person can do very much for Mark, but together in a variety of ways, we can all help a little," says Schwalm, who credits Fearing as being "the first person I drank a beer with when I moved to Texas in 1983."

Dan Mojica, best known as the name behind the gone-but-not-forgotten Dan's Bar, is lending a sound system to the mix, and when that's over, it'll go in his new venture, Silverleaf, on Industrial Street in Denton. Look for those doors to swing open by early May.