Don't Mess With Texas: SXSW 2011 New Music Sampler, A Free Taste of SXSW

For a music person, the South By Southwest Music Festival is the ultimate music immersion experience. This year's festival wrapped up last night and those of us who could not go are left with only news, reviews, and videos to describe the proceedings. Once you've gone, not going leaves you a very empty feeling this time of year.

On a routine visit to Amazon yesterday, I found that they offered the above sampler as a free download. Based on my previous experience at the festival, it is a large job to go through the thousands of bands who play there to find the ones you want to hear. Listening to this sampler today, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear twelve interesting and varied tracks that are well worth a listen.

While there's no way that any one sampler could give a complete or authoritative picture of this huge festival, this free sampler does a real nice job in giving you the quirky flavor of the event. The collection has all kinds of music but nicely avoids the sort of noisy indie bands that sometimes seem to dominate the SXSW schedule.

I expected that all of the bands on the sampler would be unknowns, and they are with the exception of Chris Bathgate, who I just happened to see at SXSW 2008. He did a good set then and he sounds equally good here. For a nice taste of the SXSW experience, this sampler is just the ticket.

Download Amazon Sampler Here.
Official SXSW Music 2011 Website.

Chrissi Poland Update - New Videos and a Really Big Show

Next week Chrissi makes her debut at New York City's famed Metropolitan Room, Wednesday October 21st at 7:30pm. If you are anywhere in the NYC area, make it a point to come out to this show. Come hear Chrissi and her amazing band do songs from her forthcoming album Songs From the Concrete; Chrissi, songs, and band are all road tested and at the top of their game. This is big - advance promo copies of Songs From the Concrete will be available at the show.

Meanwhile, check out two new live videos from Chrissi's most recent show at New York's City Winery. Enjoy.


"Yours Is the Love", Live at City Winery, 9/21/09.


'Angel Weep For Me", Live at City Winery, 9/21/09.


Click here for a preview of Songs From the Concrete, Chrissi's debut album, due out soon.

Chrissi Poland's myspace.

Courtney Jaye - "Don't Tell a Girl"

Here's a very cool video for Courtney Jaye's "Don't Tell a Girl" from her forthcoming full length CD, The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye, due on iTunes October 13th.



I already love this song from a preview EP that Courtney released last year. I'm looking forward to catching Courtney at Next Big Nashville this week. More soon.



Courtney Jaye's myspace.
Courtney Jaye's website.

Rosanne Cash - The List (2009)

Rosanne Cash has made a delightful new record that tributes her dad with a collection of songs selected from a list that Johnny gave her when she was eighteen; a list of the 100 essential country songs that he felt she needed to know. The Listcomes out Tuesday on Manhattan Records.

Listen to "I'm Movin' On"


The combination of a great voice and great songs is a can't-miss proposition, but in this case Roseanne's voice is like silk, and the songs are all gems that cover a wide range of styles, every one loaded with history and context. The production by Rosanne's husband and longtime producer/musician John Leventhal is absolutely perfect for the material start to finish, and the musicianship is likewise stellar throughout. Leventhal's guitar work especially makes a number of songs sound extra cool, like on these first two preview tracks.

Listen to "Take These Chains From My Heart"


In addition to some of New York's best session musicians, The List features some guest vocalists of note, like Bruce Springsteen who sings with Rosanne on "Sea of Heartbreak", the Don Gibson classic written by Hal David & Paul Hampton. Elvis Costello sings on Guy Mitchell's "Heartaches by the Number", written by Harlan Howard. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright also sing with Rosanne on The List..

Rosanne describes the list as being so wide ranging stylistically and historically that it's more like the essential songs of American music, not just country. Rosanne includes the folk standard "500 Miles" here in a beautiful version. And while the list did not include songs written by her dad, it does include Bob Dylan's "Girl From the North Country" the duet that Johnny sang with Dylan on Nashville Skyline.

Listen to "Girl From the North Country"


Rosanne Cash records are usually as notable for her songwriting as for her singing and the excellent production, but as a followup to her last record Black Cadillac which was a beautiful and intense song cycle about the loss of her mother, father, and step-mother, The List could not be a more welcome or more well done next chapter in Rosanne's career.

Rosanne Cash website.

P.S. Another superbly sung and produced album of old school country covers was released by Martina McBride (who also produced it) in 2005 and stands as one of the best country records I've ever heard. And while the production styles are a little different, I'd consider both Timeless and The Listas among the best such recordings you're likely to ever hear.


Martina McBride - Timeless (2005)