Year in Review

 Sunset @ LJT Festival 2007.  One of the “pre-baby” high-points.

I could do a “Best of 2007″ or even a Top Albums of the Year kinda thing, but it probably wouldn’t be that great.  Why?  Just cuz, I guess.  In fact, I am not even reviewing the entire year, but only the part of the year that I have been blogging up in this mutha, which would be since May 1st.  So, you wanted a woefully incomplete and illiterate retrospective on the partial year that was (you did, I heard you ask)???  Well unwrap this little present below (no special order or progression, this review is as out of order chronologically as it is incomplete):

• Bleu Edmondson, Adam Hood, Ryan Bingham, Drew Kennedy

Proof that The Texas/Red Dirt is as fertile now as it was when the only “Green” we knew was Gruene Hall.

• Ned Van Go, Band of Horses, The Beauty Shop, Ted Russell Kamp –

Non-Texans that continue to expand the boundaries of Alt-Whatever.  These folks aren’t just being Country, or just being Rock, or just being Indie, they’re just…being (being pretty awesome).

• Wilco, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Cross Canadian, Ryan Adams –

Big names, big record releases.  While these twangy favorites produced solid, focused and tight albums that had various flashes of brilliance, they each fell a tad short (some more or less than others) of some of their previous works that provided them with their big names.  What most bands wouldn’t give to have an offering as strong as these discs as their second, third or fourth best productions in their catalog. 

• Great Concerts in My Great State-

Between great in-store gigs, seeing old faves, getting up close and personal with legends and jammin’ on a patio with the sun beating down, I was able to get my concert fix in before a delivery from the stork would alter my fall concert plans just a tad.

• Porter Wagoner (1927 - 2007)

The Wagonmaster rides out in style.  The Thin Man from West Plains astounded and confounded me with his “don’t call it a comeback” album that gave us a riveting farewell simply by reminding us all where he had been.

• Entertainer of the Year:  Cash Dearmore –

My Baby Boy (Sorry, I had to, go read Country Weekly if you don’t like it).  July 23rd saw my life change forever, and there isn’t a concert or CD in the world that could entertain, delight and make me smile the way that Little Cash does.