The Best Of 2008...Artist Discoveries

If you're gonna check out any of these folks, make it Dustin Welch, Justin Townes Earle and Joe Pug. They're all kind of at a similar point in their careers where very good things are going to happen for them / to them soon. Make no mistake, all of these artists are worth your time but a few of them don't have records out yet so just be patient and go see them live.

Leo Rondeau (myspace) Country/Folk/Americana
Joe Pug (myspace) Singer/Songwriter
Roger Alan Wade (myspace) Singer/Songwriter moving effortlessly from touching to ribald
A.A. Bondy (myspace) Singer/Songwriter
Tim Hus (site) Canadian Cowboy
American Graveyard (myspace) Alt-Country Rock
Flatcar Rattlers (myspace) large band 21st century bluegrass/jamgrass
Dustin Welch (myspace) high energy Americana Rock
Justin Townes Earle (myspace) Singer/Songwriter with a flare for the nostalgia of the past
The Diesel Kings (myspace) Rockin' Country

The Best Of 2008...Live Shows In and Around ATX

Mark Jungers & Friends @ Gruene Hall 2008.02.28
Eleven Hundred Springs @ The Continental Club 2008.02.29
Mike McClure @ The Star Of Texas Fair And Rodeo 2008.03.04
Stoney Larue & Ray Wylie Hubbard @ The Star Of Texas Fair And Rodeo 2008.03.04
The Railbenders, Texas Sapphires & Fundamentalists @ The Scoot Inn 2008.03.11
Eddie Spaghetti & The Railbenders @ The Mean Eyed Cat 2008.03.12
Hayes Carll & Scott Nolan @ Stubb's BBQ 2008.04.08
Todd Snider & The Cheatham Street Warehouse Band @ The Cheatham Street Warehouse 2008.04.16 Max Stalling @ The Cactus Cafe 2008.04.30
Austin Homegrown & The South Austin Jug Band @ Momo's 2008.05.09
Ryan Bingham @ Threadgill's 2008.06.22
Roger Alan Wade @ The Saxon Pub 2008.07.02
Roger Alan Wade @ The Mean Eyed Cat 2008.07.03
Roger Alan Wade @ The Saxon Pub 2008.08.13
Corb Lund @ The Cheatham Street Warehouse 2008.09.02
Guy Clark @ The Texas Union Ballroom 2008.09.18
Deke Dickerson @ The Continental Club 2008.09.20
Reid Wilson @ The Mean Eyed Cat 2008.09.25
The Gougers @ The Cheatham Street Warehouse 2008.10.25
Brock Zeman @ Gruene Hall 2008.11.16
Austin Homegrown @ Donn's Depot 2008.12.06
Mike McClure & Scott Miller @ The Cactus Cafe 2008.12.10
The Gunhands @ The Mean Eyed Cat 2008.12.11
Justin Townes Earle @ The Cactus Cafe 2008.12.14

The Best Of 2008...Official Releases

Alt512's Top Seven:
Justin Townes Earle The Good Life
Tim Hus Bush Pilot Buckaroo
Brock Zeman Hundred Dollar Difference
Joe Pug Nation Of Heat (EP)
Hayes Carll Trouble In Mind
Adam Carroll Old Town Rock N Roll
South Austin Jug Band Strange Invitation

The Best of the Rest:
Jason Boland & The Stragglers Comal County Blue
I See Hawks In L.A. Hallowed Ground
The Gunhands Country Strange
Todd Snider Peace Queer (EP)
A.A. Bondy American Hearts
Justin Townes Earle The Good Life
Reckless Kelly Bulletproof
Fred Eaglesmith Tinderbox
Peter Cooper The Mission Door
Scott Miller For Crying Out Loud
Eleven Hundred Springs Country Jam
James McMurtry Just Us Kids
Mike McClure Did7
The Dedringers Sweetheart Of The Neighborhood

Last Stand of the South Austin Jug Band

Sort of. They have one other show in town on New Year's Eve but odds are you might already have plans...

Anyway...Tonight, December 17th, at Momo's at 10p. I reckon it's going to be crowded with all the SAJB fans out to get a final helping. Get there early.

Merry Christmas From The Gunhands

Check out the Gunhands' (site, myspace) Christmas tune "Pepe Claus" (mp3).

Or check out the whole show here: http://www.archive.org/details/gunhands2008-12-11.matrix.flac

Stream from Archive.org

Robert Earl Keen "Marfa After Dark" Free Download

From REK's site, recorded in Marfa, TX back in January of 2008.

http://www.robertearlkeen.com/index.php?page=marfa_download

01 Intro (Ms. Chloe Keen).mp3
02 Jesse With His Long Hair Hanging Down.mp3
03 Willie.mp3
04 Marty and Bill Intro (talking).mp3
05 Ride.mp3
06 Border Intro (talking).mp3
07 A Border Tragedy.mp3
08 The Annux (talking).mp3
09 Long Chain.mp3
10 Rich Intro (talking).mp3
11 Lonely Feeling.mp3
12 Tom Intro (talking).mp3
13 Mariano.mp3
14 A Joke (talking that is funny).mp3
15 The Great Hank.mp3
16 Panhandle Intro (talking).mp3
17 Panhandle Rag.mp3

Thoughts On The End Of The South Austin Jug Band

I am going to miss the South Austin Jug Band. I missed the old SAJB when Will and Willie left the band in the middle of 2007 and now I'm going to miss the new SAJB.

In any form, I was never let down by a SAJB show whether there was a hundred people in the crowd or fifteen. I can't say that about many bands.

The "South Austin Hug Band", although gone from the newer lineups, always maxed out the value for your entertainment dollar. I don't know if the guys in the band care about their legacy, but like other Austin bands that were gone from the scene after a prolific run, their legacy of great songs and great players will live on in my cd player and iPod for a long, long time.



In case you're interested, there are thirteen live shows housed in the Live Music section of archive.org. Enjoy.
http://www.archive.org/details/SouthAustinJugBand

My favorites are http://www.archive.org/details/sajb2006-11-04.sbd.flac from the Nutty Brown and http://www.archive.org/details/sajb2007-05-26.sdb.flac from Will's last show.

South Austin Jug Band Hangs 'Em Up

	from	South Austin Jug Band
date		Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 2:55 PM
subject		End of an Era

End of an Era

It’s been almost a decade of my life. I remember how it formed. I had a weekly gig at Momo’s on Sunday nights with James Hyland and the Half Ass Band (that really was our name, we rocked 50% of the time). The drummer and bass player quit and I had to scurry to put a band together to play my weekly gig. I loved playing Sunday nights at Momo’s and I was determined to keep the gig and make it work. Sunday nights? Are you serious? Who goes out on Sunday night? I really believed in the ole “if you build it, they will come.”
The first call I made was to Will Dupuy. We had never hung out at this point, but he gave me his phone number at one of my weekly gigs. It was written on the back of somebody else’s business card and it was hardly legible. I’m glad I held on to that card. I called him up and asked if he could play Sundays and if we could get together and go over the songs. I had been using punk rock bass players who were “learning” country music, now, Will was steeped in country music. It was the first time I played with a real country bass player and it was very refreshing. We had a lot in common and got along very easily. My previous bass player would often mix up the order of his 1-5 progression and it was pretty awful at times. Will was a great find.
An early review of my first band described me as “gangly and self-assured” and looking back I couldn’t agree more. We were starving and awful, but damn we were determined, and we were having fun trying to learn and get better. We had Champ Hood at our fingertips, Toni Price, Derek O’Brien, Scrappy Jud, Rich Brotherton, Casper Rawls, and the Walter Hyatt catalogue. We had a deep well of talent to listen to and learn from, all in Austin, TX. I took full advantage.
Will took the gig. He sat in at Momo’s on a Sunday Night and played city bass. (That’s what I call the electric bass) He was great, he told me he had an upright bass and thought it would work great. He also mentioned that he was staying on the sofa of a musician named Matt Slusher. Matt was just learning the mandolin and Will thought he should sit in with us. Do it.
So that was the first formation of the South Austin Jug Band. Willie Pipkin, Warren Hood, (both from the half ass band, they were the good half…), Will Dupuy, Matt Slusher, and myself. Looking back and counting, there have been 7 different configurations of the jug band. 7. Here they are in order.

1. Matt Slusher, Willie Pipkin, Warren Hood, Will Dupuy, James Hyland

2. Matt Slusher, Willie Pipkin, Dennis Ludiker, Will Dupuy, James Hyland

3. Brian Beken, Willie Pipkin, Dennis Ludiker, Will Dupuy, James Hyland

4. Brian Beken, Willie Pipkin, Dennis Ludiker, Matt Mefford, James Hyland

5. Brian Beken, Dennis Ludiker, Matt Mefford, James Hyland

6. Brian Beken, James Gwynn, Dennis Ludiker, Matt Mefford, James Hyland

7. Brian Beken, Robb Kidd, Dennis Ludiker, Mat Mefford, James Hyland

The point of all of this is to announce that we are turning the page and putting to rest the South Austin Jug Band. Our last Austin show will be New Year’s Eve, and then after a short tour through Colorado we will be taking a well-deserved rest. So in the spirit of Obama and change and anything else, we all enter into an exciting new part of our lives. What will we all do?

Nothin’. For a little while…

I can only speak for myself but I have to let ya know I have no other skills than writing songs and performing them, so I imagine that’s what I’ll get back to doing…

Thank all of you for your openhanded support. And Thanks to all of the musicians listed above, they are all gallant knights. I have witnessed some of the most amazing things in my life because of music. I got to play on stage with two of my biggest heroes, Lyle Lovett and Todd Snider, I watched Lance Armstrong’s children dance around him at our feet, I saw a man die as I sang “Live Forever”, I got to climb mountain tops, I saw Willie Nelson play at Red Rocks, I saw Richard Thompson sing 1952 Vincent Black Lightning at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, I shared a dressing room with Dale Watson in Amsterdam, had the Mayor of Austin designate April 12th as South Austin Jug Band day, played the Kennedy Center, Golden Gate Park, sent songs into outer space through XM radio, played 5 Austin City Limits Music Fests, played Golden Gate Park, wrote an album in the Chelsea Hotel in NYC, played that album in NYC with my Dad in the audience, and got to record vocal tracks with Willie Nelson’s microphone.
Nobody ever told me music wouldn’t take me anywhere, and I want to thank my family and everyone around me for that. They were never discouraging, ever. But nothing came easy, there was so much sacrifice. We always kept our integrity. Integrity doesn’t pay, but damn, the sleep is great and the respect of my peers is priceless.

Here’s our final shows

Dec 10 Momo’s Austin, TX 10pm
Dec 11 Continental Club Houston, TX 10pm
Dec 12 Cheatham Street Warehouse San Marcos, TX call for start time

Dec 17 Momo’s Austin, TX 10pm
Dec 18 Dan’s Silverleaf Denton, TX 10pm
Dec 26 Poor David’s Pub Dallas, TX call for start time

AND THEN

DECEMBER 31st New Year’s Eve Momo’s Austin, TX w/ Dustin Welch

Paul Oveisi, I would like to publicly warn you that I will be purposely trying to get this crowd DRUNK and to please have the bar staff stocked and the cabs ready to take people home. ☺ You the man.

And Thank you to Momo’s, I got this gig because my brother was the bartender. I want to thank him, and John Korioth who hired both of us and Paul for not firing me once he bought the bar, he let us grind it out and build something and to him I am eternally grateful. And thanks to my Mom and Dad for life! Alright, I’m done.

Thank you.

James Hyland

I Love Everybody.


And Colorado, we’ll see you in January. Get your tickets to SkiJam 2009