Riffs: WILD LIFE Gallery and Lise Liddell

Rodney Bursiel’s WILD LIFE Gallery, newly located in the Pitzer’s Fine Arts compound at 13909 RR12, hosted a music and wine event last week that drew a crowd of photography, music and art enthusiasts eager to see Bursiel’s new digs.

For the event, singer Lise Liddell, on tour from Nashville, debuted songs from her new 2024 album, “Untrodden Ways.” Joined by her multi instrumentalist producer, she sang “One Love” and other compositions that mesmerized the crowd. Houston fans voted her “Best Songwriter” in the Houston Press reader’s poll in 2004 and she’s been delivering her brand of Americana ever since. At ease with the crowd who quickly climbed onboard to hear her visceral, hypnotic lyrics, Liddell joked and charmed guests during her two-hour set. One of them, a south Austin studio engineer, said he liked the tremolo of her voice, especially on the quiet lyrics. Others seemed to agree as they settled down to listen.

Inspired by a William Wordsworth poem about a woman whose virtues were unseen and unappreciated by the world, “Untrodden Ways” is available on Apple Music, Amazon Music and from her website, liseliddell.com.

Also debuting her newest work was winemaker Jaclynn Renée Van Sant Downes from Wimberley who brought four different wines from her Jaclynn Renée line for guests to enjoy. Begun in 2013 in California, the brand is managed by Jaclynn and husband Justin, who also catered the evening’s event.

Roams: South Austin for the Austin Salt Cave Last week my roam took me to yet another cave, but wait, before you bail, this cave is quite different from the other caves I’ve visited in the last year. On William Cannon Drive in south Austin, this cave isn’t underground, it’s above ground in a strip mall next to Gold’s Gym.

The “cave” is a large, dimly lit room layered with eleven tons of Himalayan sea salt. Some of it is in thick blocks on the walls, some of it is in boulders stacked around the perimeter, and some of it is ground up on the floor and piled several inches deep. The Austin Salt Cave seeks to recreate the climate of a natural salt cave. Natural caves are rare but some do exist. Found mostly in arid climates, there are the Malcham Cave in Israel, the N3 Cave in Iran, the Cardona Salt Mountain in Spain and the Atacama Salt Caves in Chile. The Cordillera de la Sal, or Mountain Range of Salt, in Chile is quite possibly the main salt karst zone in the world, generating more than 50 caverns along a ten-mile stretch.

When breathed in for a period of time, the air in salt caves is said to help with ailments from the effects of allergies like blocked sinuses, congestion, asthma, bronchitis, and with ailments like COPD and wet smoker’s coughs. It is also good for skin ailments, they say. Recreated salt cave environments, like the Austin Salt Cave, add halotherapy, a treatment in which purified salt air is pumped into the room and gently breathed by patients during relaxing hourlong sessions.

The practice of halotherapy started gaining attention in Europe in the 1960s and then spread around the globe. While halotherapy is considered an alternative therapy, the claim is that the drying effects of salt air reduces moisture in swollen respiratory tissues. About 40 minutes into my cave visit, I felt my sinus and nasal passages dramatically constrict. Other claims that Himalayan sea salt produces beneficial negative ions aren’t backed up by the folks at Web-MD, but the cave’s zero gravity chairs, superb meditation music and dim lights certainly gave me a boost, especially after hours of prolonged screen time. Hour-long sessions go for $35 and for those with issues, three to five sessions are recommended.

Raves: Oro Bianco coming to Wimberley For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to visit Oro Bianco Italian Creamery in Blanco, you can relax. You no longer have to saddle up to sample the astonishingly delicious Italian-style gelati and sorbeti made from water buffalo milk or cheeses that they make there. According to Ryan Hildebrand of the newly-opened Hildees on the Square restaurant, Oro Bianco has plans to move in next door. Not only does the creamery sell ice cream but they have a line of buffalo milk cheeses made by hand. They have a fresh spreadable Blanco Fresco that is similar to chèvre; a bufaletta, a Feta-inspired cheese marinated in Texas Extra Virgin Olive Oil; and the Bluebonnet, a creamy bleu cheese.

In Southern Italian cuisine, Buffalo milk is considered a superior foodstuff. Americans aren’t generally familiar with it, but it has many benefits over cow’s milk. For one thing, it doesn’t contain a protein found in cow’s milk to which many people are allergic. It also has 43 percent less cholesterol, 58 percent higher calcium and high levels of the natural antioxidant, tocopherol, than cow’s milk. The milk comes from a herd of grassfed water buffalo in Floresville.

Once Oro Bianco has opened, make it a point to order an “affogato,” a scoop of vanilla gelato with espresso coffee poured over it. You won’t be disappointed.