A crappy phone pic of Jason Isbell being awesome and stuff...

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of attending the 4th annual Red Dirt Round-Up hosted by Cross Canadian Ragweed in the Ft. Worth Stockyards (right next to Billy Bob’s). It was a fantastic time, and as usual, it made for some great people watching. Below are some thoughts:

• Sorry, I have tried. I just don’t get Johnny Cooper. In Texas, I am seemingly out-numbered on this. I will say that he’s clearly got some talent and his band seems to have talent as well. That said, between his insistence upon beat-boxing (this happened on at least 2 songs) and his “Hey, I’m trying to sound like a 67 year old black man, even though I just exited the akward pubescent stage of my life” between-song banter, I just couldn’t warm up to him. That makes the second or third time I have seen him live and have felt the same way each time. Oh well.

• Boots are the new sandals. Male, female, new, old, hot or really hot. I was again out-numbered when it came to my footwear. 

• Stephanie Briggs, the songstress from Oklahoma, tore it up in the mid-afternoon sun. With a shock of blue hair, Briggs didn’t let the fact that Cody Canada was playing lead guitar for her keep her from commanding the stage. Many of her songs were piano driven rock with a certain punk attitude. Her early, stellar performance set the pace for what would be a few more high-caliber performance on the festival’s “second stage”.

• The Band of Heathens showed why they are considered “emerging” by the AMA. Their effortless, expert mix of gospel, folk, rock and blues enraptured the crowd as they showcased a couple of new songs while mainly focusing on material from their self-titled debut. The show closer, “Don’t Call on Me” practically brought down the stage as a jam erupted where Ed Jurdi went nuts on the harmonica and Gordy Quist jumped on the drum kit to bang on the cymbals with his hand. Awesome.

• 100 degree heat + Beer +  random country boy without his shirt + no sense of pacing = medical cart followed quickly by police cart. Unlike other events in the past, I am not talking about myself here, for once.

• Charlie Robison. Great. As. Usual. Almost everyone on that bill likely wants to be Robison when they grow up.

• Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit was tremendous as his band mixed tracks from both of his post-DBT albums with a few of his trademark Drive By Truckers tunes. When they closed the set with “Never Gonna Change”, I had a hard time determining if I was glad that Isbell is on his own now and doing his own thing or if I was bummed that his contributions to one of my favorite bands will not be a part of their mix any longer.

• To the D.J. that introduced Isbell to the crowd, it’s I-S-B-E-L-L, not Is-A-Bell…geesh. What does this guy have to do to have his name pronounced correctly? Same goes to the D.J. that introduced Charlie Robison. There isn’t an “n” in his last name…wow.

• Lucero was pretty good. They played a song or two from their upcoming major label release. “Hey Darlin’, Do You Gamble” was particularly interesting and well-done. Sound issues hampered the experience during their set, but nothing could deny the energy of  their live rendition of “Joining The Army”. I spoke to Ben Nichols before their set, and he was pretty blown away by the size of the festival. Lucero is hitting the road with Ragweed soon, and Nichols was eager to get to know the guys better. 

I ended up skipping out after Lucero, I’ll admit. I missed Robert Earl Keen, Randy Rogers Band and the friggin’ Wallflowers, not to mention the headliners. Missing those sets could’ve been really painful had I not caught such great performances earlier in the day. Being introduced to a talent like Briggs, catching my first Isbell show and being reminded why I dig Band of Heathens, Charlie Robison and Lucero so much makes for a great day of music, regardless of who might have played later that night.

Ragweed wants you to come and join the Round-Up!

Texas has many great festivals and events that have become yearly traditions for thousands of music lovers that want to burn under the sun while they arrive early and boogie into the night while catching their favorite dozen or so bands in one area.

With the 4th edition of Cross Canadian Ragweed’s Red Dirt Round-Up coming up this Sunday, it’s easy to see that this festival has become an almost mandatory mark on the yearly calendar of the Texas Music lover. What this event does better than other “Red Dirt oriented” shows is that it showcases artists that aren’t necessarily members of the “scene”, but that fans of the “scene” will likely really be into or will get into once they are introduced to them. Past years have seen Black Crowes, Gary Allan, Drive By Truckers, Son Volt, Black Stone Cherry, Reverend Horton Heat and even the Supersuckers play to crowds that might have originally been there to catch Randy Rogers, even though many of those bands are more well-known on a national level than many of the stars of the Lone Star State. This year, along with Ragweed, Rogers, Charlie Robison, Robert Earl Keen, Band of Heathens, Brandon Jenkins, and The Gourds, we have non-Texans Lucero, Jason Isbell and yes, The Wallflowers rocking the stages as well. It’s gonna be a fun day and I’ll be there for sure.

I plan on tweeting from the concert as the day progresses and until my phone battery runs out, so if you havent made the decision to follow me on Twitter, you better get on it! Also, you can go hear to get your tickets in advance (you will save yourself $10 by hooking yourself up early).

Best Live Album EVER??? DBT at ACL.

The title here is a bit misleading. 2009 has turned out to be a really solid year for the entire Drive By Truckers group, actually. What’s really unique about this scenario however, is that DBT and Patterson Hood will end up with 1,2 maybe 3 albums on many year-end lists, all without releasing a proper Drive By Truckers album of new material. Another interesting element to this trend is that we are seeing these albums released in a short span of time – June through September – and not spread out as much over the entire year. So, if the entire year will not end up belonging to the powerhouse group from the south, the summer sure has.

Hood’s solo LP, Murdering Oscar (and Other Love Songs) kicked things off in June. I wrote about my enjoyment of it back then and had no problems calling it my favorite album of June, which was packed with great releases. Basically, Hood keeps doing here what he does so well with his main gig, and I have no problem with that.

Drive By Truckers – Live from Austin, TX is the document of their first ever appearance on the seminal TV series. It’s not a shocker to me that a band that rules the stage in a live setting had virtually no problem with ruling the storied stage of ACL. The release is a CD/DVD combo, and while that sounds awesome, something was sorely missed as the collection was put together. On the CD, we get all 11 plus, goosebump inducing minutes of “18 Wheels of Love”, which included more back story on the song itself, as told through Hood’s infectious, everyday way of spinning a yarn. The DVD of the performance had merely the 3 minutes or so of the actual singing portion of the tune, completely stealing the emotion and revelry that would’ve been great on video. That said, it’s still an amazing disc that captivates even the most ardent, longtime fan who has heard these songs a gazillion times.

The most intriguing of the releases for me, is The Fine Print.  Out on Sept 1st, a “collection of oddities and rarities“, these tunes didn’t make it onto a proper DBT release, yet what was seemingly material for the cutting room floor for them would’ve been a career highlight album for most other bands that aspire to be the next DBT. Also noteworthy is the track “TVA”, which serves as a warm, fuzzy and freshly opened time capsule for fans of Jason Isbell’s time with the Truckers. It’s a classic, predominantly acoustic tune where Isbell’s story simply and tenderly recalls a time where there wasn’t shame in looking to the government for help as the backdrop for artfully told instances of sepia-toned childhood memories. ”George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues” is the first cousin of  “Carl Perkins Cadillac”. The closing number is a rousing, all-for-one version of the Dylan classic, “Like a Rolling Stone” that rally captures their group dynamic in a way that other tunes from previous albums have failed to do.

“Pollyanna”, from Hood’s Murdering Oscar album -