Couple of weeks ago I went tand saw JTE at a packed out Factory Theatre in the People's Republic of Marrickville which was great but it wasn't enough so I ponied up the considerable ticket price for an intimate "secret show" at Gardel's Bar in Surry Hills. Gardel's is above Porteno, an Argentinian eatery which is the current it joint of our Harbour city (praised by Anthony Bourdain the other day.) I need to go back and eat there one day, it looked very cool going up the stairs to the bar. Finger food was included in the price and was definitely a higher class than your average party pies, the meat in the wee hamburgers in particular was deliciously smoky and richly flavoured.

The crowd definitely went with the location. I was the only one gauche enough to be wearing a JTE shirt and to turn my head when he walked through the crowd. The word "hipster" is pretty played out at this point but this is my scientific breakdown of the attendees by sartorial category.

He has come a long way in four years, that's for sure.

What hasn't changed is the presence and as usual he had everyone eating out of his heavily inked hands.

Here's a video I took.

Got a few new 8tracks mixes up ...

This Week's Mix #41: I Must Live Until Morning from flopearedmule on 8tracks.

Went to see John Hiatt at the Metro last Tuesday night. As previously lamented here that meant I had to miss Lucinda Williams who was a few blocks up the road at the State. It was a difficult choice but I chose the ability to get up the front and rock out at the Metro over having to sit and clap politely at the State. I haven't seen any big reviews of Lu but I can't possibly imagine it was anything less than sublime. So there can hardly be a higher compliment to JH to say I didn't regret missing Lu at all. It was a real greatest hits show, pulling out all the favourites (although alas not MY personal favourite 'Icy Blue Heart") and most everyone around me seemed to know all the words to all of them. I was in my preferred spot on the rail, front row centre. The vocal was a bit low up there (I always choose proximity over audio fidelity) as you'd expect but the band sounded great. It was a fantastic night.

I really wish I could leave it there but then dear old Bruce Elder had to go drop this pile in The Age/SMH and I am forced -- positively FORCED, I say -- to conduct a good old fashioned fisking. On one level it's just the usual tossed off nonsense, but on another whenever women have their existence in a public space so casually written off -- and our newspapers of record chuck it up as their official record of events -- we have a real problem.

Usual tossed off nonsense first! Bruce has a lot on his plate. He has to review books and music. He has to sniff out the pros and cons of various Southern Highland B&Bs so Fairfax readers can plan their long weekends. He is BUSY, y'all. So it's unreasonable to expect him to have a decent grasp of the canon of every act he gets paid to see. But then if you act like you do, you risk looking a fool.

John Hiatt plays music for blokes. He writes, sings and plays about those things that certain blokes relate to: electric guitars (no accident that the opening song was Perfectly Good Guitar and that for most of the 90-minute performance the band configuration was three guitars, bass and drums); the awfulness of being a male eager to escape the boredom of small-town life (Damn this Town), cars (Detroit Made and Drive South) and, when he occasionally gets around to love, it's the kind of tough love that blokes have to deal with - like the unexpected departure of his "baby" in Crossing Muddy Waters where he describes the event as "She let out this morning / Like a rusty shot in a hollow sky". Great imagery, but not exactly a sweet lament for lost love.

Jesus where to start. "Perfectly Good Guitar" is a tongue in cheek response to the habit of certain 60s/70s rock stars to smashing their guitars. Only blokes may note and wryly comment on this cultural artefact! Um, OK, whatevs.

"No coincidence the band configuration was guitars, bass and drums." Indeed it's not a coincidence since he was playing rootsy rock music and this is a common, indeed ubiquitous, rock configuration. Here's the most recent live stuff of Lucinda Williams' I can find from SXSW this year AND OH MY GOD ITS NO COINCIDENCE SHE HAS GUITARS AND DRUMS IN HER BAND. That's what rock musicians (and blues and country) do, why do I even need to say this?

"Damn This Town" is, like, not at all what he describes except in the most superficial way. Indeed the "damn this town" refrain refers to wanting to you leave your town (a peculiarly male life experience? SIGH.) but there's a line at the end "I'm 58 years old, still live at home like a kid/Damn this town/Damn this town" tips some of us off to a bit of irony happening. Maybe only "literate chicks" listen to the last verse of a song.

OK, "Detroit Made" is basically just about cars, I'll give him that one.

But "Drive South"? "Drive South"?????????

"Drive South" is a song about automobiles in the same way "Leaving on a Jet Plane" is a song about aeronautics.

And then there's "Crossing Muddy Water." It's not expected or compulsory to know the background but this song is actually about the mid-80s suicide of his first wife. So, yeah. Now you don't need to know that but even coming to the song as a blank slate I cannot fathom a moral adult listening to it and coming away with the idea it was some kind of masculine posturing or jesus I don't even know what he's talking about. The sensibilities of a person who DOESN'T think this is a (bitter)sweet lament for lost love is to be forever questioned. I mean, LISTEN TO IT. (written lyrics)

"When he occasionally gets around to love" OHHAhahahhahahahahHAHA. Bruce, all his songs are about love. Here's the setlist cadged from a roadie after the show by my friends Rory and Jane. LET'S TAKE A LOOK!

With YouTubes so you can check my work.

Perfectly Good Guitar -not love
Detroit Made - not love
Crossing Muddy Waters - LOVE
Drive South - love
Cry Love - duh it's right there in the name, LOVE
Paper Thin -- love
Real Fine Love - love
Thing Called Love- love
Feels Like Rain - love
Slow Turning - love
Tennessee Plates - Elvis, bank robberies and grand theft auto ... because of LOVE, well OK maybe more LUST
Memphis in the Meantime - needing to get out of Nashville because everyone knows blokes hate country music
Have a Little Faith In Me- love
Riding with the King - What does this song mean? Well ever since Eric Clapton and BB King covered it it means John Hiatt gets a sweeeeet royalty cheque every year. HA HA.

I trust we don't need to dwell on this further.

Now we move from the stupid and worthless to the offensive and dangerous.

There are women in the audience but most of them are accompanied by their blokes, who sport a beer in one hand, jeans sliding down over a sagging middle-aged spread and hair that is either in short supply or turning grey.

Bruce, the Margaret Mead of Fairfax, has lit on the startling sociological insight that in our society a large percentage, even a majority, of people go to social events with opposite sex partners. (you may speculate on the projection going on in his description of the men, I am above that) I didn't do a head count; I didn't know the data would be required later to prove my existence. It would not surprise me if the demos skewed male, however I did a statistical analysis (oh, yes I did) of the "likes" and comments on the last 5 posts on the official John Hiatt Facebook page and came up with a slight majority 52%-48% of people who appear to present as female.

Perhaps Bruce is basing this extraordinary claim on some personal experience. Perhaps he knows a woman who was there under sufferance with her husband to pay him back for that one time he sat through an episode of Grey's Anatomy with her. But I have anecdotes too. Next to me front row centre were a woman I didn't know who was with her I presume male partner and knew all the words and was right into it. To my left were three women I knew, none of whom were there "with their blokes." Two are long standing Hiatt fanatics and one was not really familiar with him but left a convert. I could also tell you about standing in the long queue for the ladies loo with a bunch of women gushing to each other and counting out decades of their life's milestone by John Hiatt songs.

This is tossed off rubbish too. He's phoning it in, as they say. But as I said above there are serious cultural undercurrents to a man being able to assert so blithely the invisibility of women's experience, and to take for granted they are merely passive supporters to their men's actions. Heaven forbid they could be there as a mutual pleasure.

As above this idea John Hiatt's music is blokey blokeness for blokes is utterly laughable. If you said the same about, say, Bruce Springsteen or Steve Earle or - in particular - Justin Townes Earle I think you would be wrong but you'd have a much more arguable case than John Effing Hiatt whose stock in trade is in fact love songs that border on the soppy but which can just stay the right side of that tightrope which is why he is such a bloody ace songwriter. (I suppose actually if you are one side of a tightrope you fall off, but I can't be bothered to tighten up my similes just for goddamn fracking Bruce Elder.)

It's so WRONG that it is HILARIOUS he quotes "Well I never went to college babe / I did not have the luck / Rolled out of Indiana in the back of a pickup truck" to support his thesis of John Hiatt, Poet Laureate of Dude Nation while ignoring THE WHOLE REST OF THE SONG.

Then out of nowhere
and from nothing
You came into my life
I'd seen an angel or two before
But I'd never asked one to be my wife

Well now the babies are all sleeping
And the twilight's givin' in
She looks like you, he looks like her
And we all look a little like him
Well maybe it's just the little thing
The way I feel tonight
A little joy
A little peace
And a whole lotta light.

Fuck yeah, what a brute! I mean, really.

Returning to "Drive South" here's vid of JH doing it which I choose of the various other versions on YouTube because it has audience shots so you can see the women brazenly existing right there. Although it is at a Borders bookshop so perhaps they just dropped in to pick up The Rules revised edn and their ladybrains were ambushed by the wholly unfamiliar sounds of a form of transport being used as a symbol for freedom and renewal.

And here's noted woman Suzy Bogguss doing a version of the same song, which was so transgressive of societal norms that it got to Number 2 on the US country chart. (Oh early 90s music videos, don't go changing.)

By the way the only vee-hick-al refered to specifically in "Drive South" is "this Chevy van." This is a Chevy van. CHICK MAGNET OR WUT??

Another non-bloke who didn't get the memo is Bonnie Raitt whose biggest career hit was JH's hymn to masculinist posturing ode to romantic love between mature equals "Thing Called Love." Here's Bonnie, with Dennis Quaid a ha ha.

Eh, now I'm tired of dealing with this shit. I rest my case.

This is going to be good, Sydneysiders presented by 2MBS radio show Stormy Monday. Starts at 7pm with a film about New Orleans Mardis Gras and then Louisiana Roadshow. $20 in, Marrickville Bowlo February 18th.

This Week's Mix #38: Throwing Good Love After Bad from flopearedmule on 8tracks.

Here is my most recent 8tracks. Also here, I shall talk about some of the folk on it. Isn't St. Gabriel kind of saucy looking in this depiction?

Ndidi Onukwulu
She's Canadian (now based in Paris), sings soul. I can't help but compare her voice to Winehouse but the band is not the punchy Daptone sound. A softer more folky sensibility but still very funky and cool for that. She has a new album out called The Escape under the name Ndidi O, which I think has been released in Europe and Australia but not North America yet.

Creole String Beans
On Twitter, New Orleans music mag Offbeat was listing its 2011 award recipients the other day, one of which was Creole String Beans for Best Roots Rock. I found thave been really enjoying the album Shrimp Boots and Vintage Suits. What this is, is good old fashioned SWAMP POP. What a great genre of music.

Baloji
The album is Kinshasa Succursale - African/hip-hop out of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Guy Clark tribute - This One's for Him
I generally pass on tribute albums for artists I really love, they are largely redundant to me. This one would ordinarily be no different. But it is different in feel though since most of these artists have a personal relationship with Guy, sometimes very close and going back decades and so the friends playing loving tribute to a friend vibe of it is nice and missing from the average star studded tribute which can be fairly sterile. For that reason I find it a very warm experience to listen to, because of that intimacy. Maybe my favourite moment though is Kris K's Hemingway story.

Jo-El Sonnier
One of the best indie labels going in any genre is Valcour which specialises in Cajun and Creole. An excellent thing they've done recently is digitise performances from Festival Arcadiens et Creoles from 2002 with promise of more to come.
Jo-El Sonnier is singing about Amédé Ardoin, father of both Cajun and Creole music (ie the "whiote" and "black" versions of the same music.) I recently picked up a digital copy of Tompkins Squares' Mama I'll Be Long Gone: The Complete Recordings of Amédé Ardoin , most which feature Cajun legend Dennis McGee on fiddle (for fans of the show Treme, in the episode with Davis and Annie at the Cajun mardis gras, the rituals started at McGee's grave) . His death in 1942 (November 3, remind me to post something on the 70th anniversary) was mysterious, violent and possibly racially motivated. I wish i knew what the lyrics to Sonnier's song are saying. Guess I'll have to learn French.

Rebirth Brass Band
It's almost Mardis Gras and the RBB have a new record out. It's really good, naturally.

A round up of stuff I've seen in the last few months.

Let's start with my friend JD Love's album launch supported by 49 Goodbyes in November at the Rose, Erskineville. JD is a bona fide rock star mix of Mose Allison meets Hank Williams. He has a new record out now called Two Days, the LP version of which was pressed at Abbey Road.

Here is JD with up and comer out of Melbourne Georgia Fields (also happens to be his daughter) in a particularly twang moment:

Opening for JD were 49 Goodbyes, and they are just great. They describe themselves as Gram and Emmylou except with two girls (and a guy on guitar). One of the leads is Emma Swift who has the excellent "In the Pines" Americana show on FBI Radio in Sydney every Tuesday night (you can listen online nationally.)

More of them later.

The next thing I went to see was Joe Pug and the Wagons at the Vanguard. I don't mind the Wagons or anything but I also wouldn't go far out of my way, but for Joe Pug I would ... willingly experience some inconvenience. He was only opening so it was a short set but divine as he always is. He came out in the encore of the Wagons (they have quite a following it was pretty packed for them) to do "Long Black Veil" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money", both of which I got videos of. I also got a photo. ;-)

Then, I went to see the mysterious Frank Fairfield at the Basement. But first, to my surprise 49 Goodbyes was the support act. Win. This is them doing "Wrecking Ball" (Emmylou Harris via Neil Young). 49 Goodbyes has an EP out, all the tracks are listenable to here. (I believe that is Emma's own YouTube page so it's artist-approved streaming.)

I went to Frank Fairfield with a friend who didn't know him (I have his albums -- which are on the great, eclectic Tompkins Square label -- but never seen him live) and we ended up having a deep not really sober conversation about Authenticity. We both basically hate the concept, so that helped. For Frank Fairfield is a creation of another age (turn of century - 20s folk tunes) and for sure "acts" the part, the clothes, the stage manner and such. I have mixed feelings about performers who attempt to "faithfully recreate" another era, the revivalists. There are some well known ones that leave me cold. I admit a lot of that comes down in the grey area of the Very Subjective. I love old time music, as should be obvious if you read this blog, but I also don't listen to music to get a high school play type presentation of The Cartoonish Past. (And I also feel uncomfortable with lifting cultural forms out of their context when that act is a form of white privilege blithely appropriating the culture of black or other colonised people. That's a much bigger issue .... ) I don't know, as I say a lot is very subjective but too much affectation is not conducive to good music, in my experience.

However, I really like Frank Fairfield. I think there is something just so resolutely anti-commercial about every thing he does that it can't be a marketing ploy (not that I object to artists using marketing, but you don't get to have it both ways). It is so studied, intense and internalised it kind of transcends the trend of revivalist retro. I think he's just basically weird, in the good sense, in the old weird America sense. I didn't even bother trying to get a video since he sits so far back from the microphone even to sing, there would be no point. I like that he makes the audience WORK to get their quota of hipster approved depression-era jollies, dammit.

Here is a short (1:22) video about him

He did consent to allowing the new fangled iPhoto-O-Matic 2000 to imprint his and his Civil War Moustache's visage on its devilishy digital mercury.

Then I guess the next thing was Hanggai, who are a Mongolian/Chinese band who play traditional Mongolian music with a distinct punk edge. They were also at the Basement and they were super amazing. The Basement was rocking and sweaty that night (and, vastly less Anglo than usual). I can't find anything on YouTube to really recreate that, most of the videos are from polite world music festivals. This one from Woodford last month is OK. Woodford has always had good music but the overall vibe of it always made me fear I'd have to smother a hippy within 20 minutes of being there and inviting the really quite evil anti-vaccination loon Meryl Dorey to speak this year really just turned me off it forever.

Anyway, Hanggai:

Hanggai get two videos because they are awesome. This is "Xiger, Xiger" (pronounced "Shigga Shigga") which is more traditional that the above but it gets stuck in my brain for days. I dare you not to get enthralled. I mean, check out Batubagen who is throat singing and playing the morin-khuur (Mongolian horse-headed "cello" type instrument). He'd sing, then another person would sing and I'd look around the band to see who the new singer was but ... it was Batubagen and that whole throat singing thing. And of course Ilchi , the bare-chested front man who IMHO joins a very select group of genuine, charismatic top tier front men. Amazing and ROCKING.

Then I went and saw Cambodian Space Project at the Vanguard. They are a Cambodian/"Western" fusion in the manner of the much better known Dengue Fever ie dudes with guitars backing a Khmer female singer. CSP are based in Phonm Pehn, though. I enjoyed it although I thought that the guitars were mixed up WAY too high, drowning out the singer Srey Thy who is quite great. (I also thought some of the between song banter was a bit condescending towards her.) Her voice is more than worthy of singing those classic Ros Sereysothea songs.

I mean, what's the point? If this band was just the indie rock dudes, no one (no offence) would care, it is the Cambodian aspect that is the reason they have the gig. I can listen to dude guitars anywhere. Still, they had cute t-shirts for sale. Here is how they are meant to sound:

And that is that!

Direct link here. Only 13 songs so some major culling but it'll do.

And who'd have thought, after all
Something so simple as rock'n'roll would save us all?

I snuck another into here which makes my top ten a top twelve.

Bei Bei and Shawn Lee -- Into the Wind
Another "world fusion" offering that works, this time with guzheng (Chinese stringed thingy) and doofy doofy beats.

Buddy Miller -- The Majestic Silver Strings 'Surple" still makes me laugh.

Lydia Loveless -- Indestructible Machine She's 21 or something ridonkulous.

The Sweetback Sisters -- Looking For a Fight The Sweetback Sisters are quite hilarious, as well as lovely to listen to. My favourite song on the album is "Too Many Experts" because it basically sums up the entire Internet. (this video is not that)

Brennen Leigh -- The Box Just super good country music, we still like that round here.

Tedeschi Trucks Band -- Revelator Susan and Derek, bluesing it all up in you.

These are my top ten eleven in two instalments. Dave Alvin is pretty clearly number one. Rest much of a muchness. I'll do another post or two with the other music I enjoyed most this year.

Dave Alvin -- Eleven Eleven
This record is on the short road to being one of those where I can say I know every word to every song. Perfect balance of styles and a host of memorable characters, sketched in bluesy economy, brought to life by Dave's rumbling baritone and propelled by many a memorable lick. Here's one of my favourite songs, "Johnny Ace is Dead."

Gillian Welch -- The Harrow & The Harvest
Do I need to explain? No? Super.

JuJu -- In Trance
JuJu is Justin Adams and Judeh Camara who play the electric guitar and the Gambian ritti (one string violin) respectively. Their previous album made my Favourites list last year, and their albums will I suspect keep making the list as long as they do them. It is approaching banal these days to talk about the connections between western rock n roll via the blues and African genres, but just sticking the two traditions together is not guaranteed to produce anything interesting. These guys make it work perfectly.

The Bo-Keys -- Got to Get Back
Memphis funk super group (including the only survivor of the plane crash that took Otis Redding). Just what it says on the box.

Frank Turner -- England Keep My Bones
Well now. I had never heard of this bloke until someone included him on an early Best Of list back in November and now here we are. A punkier Billy Bragg? A more sarcastic Springsteen? Well, whatever I like every song on this album. I like the hookyness of every track, I like the acapella ditties about 1066, I like the atheist singalongs, I like the name checking of Johnny, Dylan, Jerry Lee and Dostoyevsky.

Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers -- Starlight Hotel
Do I need to talk about the attitude, the voice, the band and the lyrics? Or do I just need to say that it has a song on it called "If I Can't Trust You With a Quarter (How Can I Trust You With My Heart?)"

December 2011! Time for some favourites from the year, I guess.
Starting with these ....

The Singing Mailman Delivers - John Prine Double CD of demos and live from 1970, a year before his first studio release. If you know Prine you'll find it worthwhile and if you don't it's actually a great place to start.

Late Late Party 1965-67 - Charles "Packy" Axton Anthology of cuts from the various bands of this Memphis sax player. Largely instrumental, just super funky in a smooth sort of way.

Beautiful Rivers and Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound of South Korea's Shin Joong Hyun 1958-1974 - Shin Joong Hyun The "Godfather of Korean Rock", absorbing the music of the US troops, and adding elements of Korean music, jazz and soul until being "unpatriotic" got him banned from music.

Joe Pug and Randy Newman both put out live albums (and accompanying DVD in Randy's case) in the last few weeks, I hardly think I need to spruik them given how much of that I've done in this forum. I will however say, once again, Joe Pug's Live at Lincoln Hall is only $5 to download and is sensational.

Tickets for Byron players' side shows have started going on sale, and so the Easter bottleneck shuffle has begun.

I haven't experienced any great angst with my schedule the last couple of years but in 2012 Lucinda Williams and John Hiatt are playing Sydney the same night, Tuesday 3rd April. What to Do!!!???

Actually the dilemma was not a big one in the end. My devotion to both is equal, really I can't split them. I've seen both live in the last couple of years and neither seem likely to give up touring or recording in the foreseeable future. So it comes then down to the venue, and that is, as the young folk say, "a no brainer." John is playing the Metro and Lucinda the State. The Metro: smallish, general admission where you can get up the front with a bit of rock and roll in the air versus the State where your only option is to sit and clap politely. Lucinda's ads say "One Show Only" so that is sad but man I am looking forward to "Walk On", "Slow Turning", "Tennessee Plates" etc etc in that venue.

Speaking of no-brainers Justin Townes Earle is at the Factory the night after. Never miss him live.

Steve Earle is going solo at the Factory the following week, through an early offer I got some front row seats and Steve solo is still a worthwhile proposition despite my mostly indifference to his last decade of output.

Also at the Factory in March is Charles Bradley, the latest retro soul revelation from Daptone.

I gather Trombone Shorty is also playing at the Metro but tickets aren't on sale yet. I'll also check out Bettye Lavette and Nick Lowe sideshows to see if I can fit them in.

Before all that in January I'll be seeing the Cambodian Space Project at the Vanguard and Hanggai at the Basement. Cambodian Space Project traverse the same general territory combining Khmer pop and western rock as the better known Dengue Fever. although CSP are actually based in Phnom Penh.

Hanggai play Mongolian folk music with electric guitars and a punk attitude. I find them quite enthralling.

Phew.

Couple of good new Cajun releases I'm listening to.

Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys - Grand Isle Stalwart (he's part of Lil Band O Gold too but wasn't in the line up when they were out here last), plus CC Adcock on as producer for the familiar sounds plus an intense rocking-attitude.

There are a couple of songs (apparently, they're in French) about the Gulf oil spill, this being a major theme reinforced by the oily bird on the front cover. Embarrassingly, I didn't recognise it was an oiled-up bird until I read it in an interview; I just thought it was Artistic. My only disappointment was the version of "Non, je ne regrette rien" which I thought they could have done more Cajun-y thingswith; but again I read in an interview it was a deliberate attempt (even getting in vintage equipment) to recreate a 50s sound. So, what do I know.

Jesse Lége, Joel Savoy, and the Cajun Country Revival - The Right Combination
I am really loving this one, a mix of old guard (if you're surname is Savoy or Landry you're basically obliged to be a Cajun player I think) and the Calebd Klauder country band to create a loose and rollicking Cajun sound which emphasises the connections with Gulf Coast honky tonk. You can listen to some here; I really like that version of "Corrina."

(NB if you google them, there is another "Cajun Country Revival" which is a Creedence tribute band rom Queensland .... )

iTunes (Australia) has the rather essential "Down Every Road 1962-1994" box set of 100 (one hundred) songs for $19.95.

OK so don't miss this one. Not only perennial FEM hearththrob Andy Baylor but a bunch of other great acts covering yer roots spectrum. Blues with Continental Robert (of Dynamic Heptonics fame), singer-singwriter soul with Tracey Miller and Pia Andersen bringing the vintage heat. So, hello? See you there.

PS get the new Baylor Brothers disc here.

Neglectful as I've been, I've accumulated a lot of music worth mentioning. So, here they are from the first 4 months of 2011. I've done an accompanying 8tracks of selected tracks. I'll do some more ... later. (I started the draft of this on March 18th, gimme a break.) All of them I recommend - I wouldn't mention if I didn't - but if I had to pick a couple to particularly force on you it'd be Colin Gilmore, Buddy Miller and representing non-country/folk Justin Adams.

Billy Eli - Hell Yeah
Texas country-rock on the looser side of Steve Earle circa 1990 which is fine since I haven't dug much ol Steve's done since 1990 (the new record is OK but dull, I might have more to say once I've settled on that as my response). Got into them when I heard "Cheese Enchiladas" on Freight Train Boogie, that's a fun song.
Video of Tore Down in Texas

Colin Gilmore Goodnight Lane
Quote from Sylvie Simmons's four-star Mojo review quote on website:

I've described him before as a West Texan Nick Lowe for his songs structures and their instant sing-along quality (Circles In The Yard; Goodnight Lane; Hand Close To Mine). But deep Texan roots show here on the fine Llano, a mature piece of country songwriting.

I'd say the Texas roots show through it all but yeah.

Bit of a children of other people whose CDs I have theme to this list. Colin is Jimmie Dale's son.
Video of Running Circles in the Yard and Black Vines

Lukas Nelson Promise of the Real
This guy's dad is named Wiliie, you've probably heard of him. Heck, given the number of collaborations the Red Headed Stranger pumps out you've probably done a duet with him. Lukas, like Colin, is making his way playing in dad's band but also striking out with this own thing. His voice can be kind if startling, undeniably you can hear Willie in there but it's a funhouse mirror version or the slight differences that catch you out with a twin. But anyway, it's a very good album in its own right.
Here's a video of Four Letter Word but you know me, I love the ballads and I LOVE LOVE LOVE "Want Me Around" so here it is: Want Me Around.

Yvette Landry Should Have Known
Yvette Landry is part of the most excellent all-female Cajun outfit Bonsoir Caitin and this is her first solo album of excellent country, cajun influenced for sure but more straight ahead country singer songwriter sound. Her crisp voice has the ability to be both sweet and worldy, like an old friend but one you know will cut you down if you need it. The songs are all terrific, as is the accompaniment, as you'd expect since she's quite a hot player herself.

Very professionally shot "Can't See Me Without You" (so wish the sound was better), ditto Too Tired More upbeat is 120 Proof. This is kinda a dodgy video (people: use your iPhone HORIZONTALLY when videoing for Bob's sake) but I have to draw attention to it since it features not only Bil Kirchen but my favourite recent songs on his of the great, great "Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods" album of a few years ago.

Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara Tell No Lies
Another cross-cultural excursion that gets it right. Lots of good vids at the above link. I think what really hooked me was the righteous Bo Diddley beat snaking through the thing without sounding like a forced "hey I know! Let's put traditional African and African American music together, hey cool." It works on a higher level on from novelty, and has melodies you can't argue with.

Bei Bei and Shawn Lee Into the Wind
Another for the "world fusion" fans. Shawn Lee is a doof doof guy who did an album of christmas carol remixes which I like to pull out that time of the year. Bei Bei is "an internationally acclaimed Gu Zheng (Chinese Zither) performer." Its got that late night SBS movie soundtrack cool thing and like the combination. Video of "Into the Wind" and "The Master Room"

Buddy Miller Majestic Silver Strings
This was one of the Big League of Americana discs due out this year along with Steve, Emmylou and LUcinda (I like the latter two quite a lot) and it doesn't disappoint. It's sort of redundant with Buddy Miller and that line up to have to do much spruiking. The high point for me is the mesmeric "Dang Me" - I've become quite obsesed with the word "surple."

Georgette Jones Slightly Used Woman No prizes for guessing her father, Tammy Wynette is her mother. Even without the pedigree, being on Heart of Texas record label (Amber Digby, Justin Trevino) you'd know she was selling a solid traditional style of country. And so it is. All eyes will be on "You And Me And Time", a duet with dad and it is a poignant country confessional, and the rest is, well, solid traditional country.

You know, it's funny. Back in the day Garth Brooks was the Anti-Christ to every right-thinking traditional country fan, forever ruining our twangy paradise with his riffs lifted straight from Journey and his Aerosmith covers.

But you listen to Garth Brooks now ... man, Garth Brooks is the reincarnation of Lefty Freakin' Frizzell compared to what tops the Country charts in 2011.

In any event this is one of the songs (the Double Live version, which I assume is recorded in Denver since that gets a stadium-wide holler when he says the word) I keep permanently on my iPhone and like to blast out walking through city streets every so often.

Nice johdpurs, cowboy.

No, not together - although lucky folk in Freo and Melbourne will get some joint shows next week. A week apart, at the Annandale and Notes Newtown for my fourth and second times respectively.

JTE continues to deliver each gig, this time he was accompanied by on fiddle by Josh Hedley; seems like JTE has a new sideman every tour here adding something different each time. Josh added sensitive harmonies and judging by these videos can put on a damn fine show, solo. Oh and they did a great "Racing in The Street." Somehow I was way right at the back on the Annandale which was a terrible place to be though. Someone smart enough to get up the front got this heartfelt "Christchurch Woman"

Joe Pug : much better turnout at Notes than his first visit here last November and I know of at least half a dozen people who've been converted to him during this tour. So, yay.

Here's "Nation of Heat" from that gig from Deadflower67 on Youtube:

I want to tell you about Mike Stinson. (I strongly disapprove of crappy flash websites which play music at you automatically, which his is but on this occasion you should totally listen before closing the tab in horror.) Telling you about "Mike Stinsons" is basically the entire narcissistic purpose of having a blog.

I'm a late comer, discovering his latest record towards the end of last year. It still made my end of year list but I don't think I conveyed how absolutely, totally, frigging ga-ga I went over the dude.

According to last.fm which basically records every song I listen to Mike Stinson has overtaken Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash and a bunch of others as my most listened to artist ever. (Last.fm says its from 2007 when I signed up but there about 2 years in between then and now when I didn't use it so the results are somewhat skewered by that.)

Oh, I got it bad.

And then when eMusic asked for subscribers to submit "what I'm listening to picks" to go with their regular editorial staff choices, I volunteered, got February (scroll down) and naturally chose Mike Stinson. I think his most recent 2010 album The Jukebox in Your Heart is his best but that's not on eMusic and his previous albums Last Fool at the Bar and Jack of All Heartache are worthy choices too.

I think what I love about him is the serious twang in topic and sound but with a unique songwriting voice amongst the genre pieces; as I said in both my blog best of and eMusic write-up a Dwight Yoakam meets John Prine, which basically combines my favourite streams of twang/traditional country and folk. It won't be for everyone but I reckon a lot more people will love it than have heard it so far.

The second video below is "Square With the World" which is off his newest album, and is completely beautiful. Play it at my funeral, please.

Despite all the consternation changes at eMusic have caused over the past year, I can't quit. At least not while I keep finding treasure troves there like a bunch of CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) releases. I got The Best of Coloured Stone, Playing with Fire by Frank Yamma and Piranpa and the four volumes of CAAMA 25th Anniversary Collection.I'll certainly be back to get more, particularly want a Deadheart album or two. A treasure trove, as I say, in a wide variety of styles. Some big names like the above, the Warumpi Band, Warren H Williams and Roger Knox etc but far more these downloads have allowed me to hear for the first time. So here's an 8tracks of 10 songs, appropriately for Survival Day perhaps but I've been meaning to do it more months so its more slackness than symbolism.

The wonders of The Johnny Cash Show to be had on YouTube never cease to amaze and delight. I think Col Joye was pulling his leg with that definition of jumbuck tho ...