A Baker's Dozen Perfect Records Of The Last Ten Years

Lots of great records come out every year but so very few of them are perfect. Lots of great artists go a whole career without ever even coming close to touching the sun. Perfect means you wouldn't change the songs, the order, the arrangement, the players or anything else about the record. There's something else, something transcendent about the records on this list. After one or a dozen or a hundred listens, the record is still as fresh and brilliant and perfect as when you unwrapped it from the plastic.

Here's the list of alt512's Thirteen Perfect Records Of The Last Ten Years (1999-2008).

In no particular order other than almost alphabetical:
1 Adam Carroll -- Live At Cheatham Street Warehouse
2 Scott Miller -- Citation
3 Corb Lund -- Five Dollar Bill
4 Daddy -- At The Women's Club
5 Danny Schmidt -- Little Grey Sheep
6 Fred Eaglesmith -- Balin'
7 Guy Clark -- Cold Dog Soup
8 Mike McClure -- Twelve Pieces
9 Reckless Kelly -- Wicked Twisted Road
10 The Stillwater Pioneers -- Let's Go Pioneering
11 Verlon Thompson -- Everywhere...Yet
12 Brian Keane -- I Ain't Even Lonely
13 Deadstring Brothers -- Starving Winter Report

**The two records in bold are, as far as we can tell, the debut offerings from these artists.

Some would argue for Slaid's Broke Down or Wishbones or Bingham's Mescalito or Hayes' Flowers and Liquor or the Gourds Blood Of The Ram. Alas, great records all. Perfect...close.

The Best of 2007...Live Shows In and Around ATX

I see a lot of shows. That is why we moved to Austin. And 2007 was a great year for shows in and around Austin.

Here are some of my favorites in chronological order with links to the archived show where applicable...

February 2 Mike McClure Band @ Lucy's On The Square (San Marcos)
March 16 Ryan Bingham & Dale Watson @ Hotel San Jose
March 16 Deadstring Brothers @ Yard Dog
April 13-15 Stingaree Music Festival (Crystal Beach)
May 26 Dedringers & South Austin Jug Band @ Momo's - Will Dupuy's Last Show with the SAJB
June 8 Scott Miller & The Commonwealth @ Stubb's (The Gougers opening)
July 14 Onion Creek Crawdaddies @ The Dive
June 30 Danny Schmidt @ Our House Concert
August 22 Stillwater Pioneers @ The Mean Eyed Cat
August 30 Damon Bramblett @ The Dry Creek Cafe
September 7 Terry Allen @ Threadgill's South
September 9 Ryan Bingham @ Gruene Hall
September 12 Stillwater Pioneers @ The Mean Eyed Cat

September 21 Corb Lund @ McGonigel's Muck Duck (Houston)

September 23 Corb Lund @ Our House
October 8 Mark Jungers & The Whistling Mules @ The Continental Club
October 25 Mark Jungers & The Whistling Mules w/ Scott Nolan and other Friends @ Gruene Hall
October 29 Josh Ritter @ The Parish

November 1 La Tampiquena @ Club 115

December 13 Danny Schmidt @ The Cactus Cafe

December 16 Stillwater Pioneers @ The Horseshoe Lounge
December 22 Jason Eady & The Wayward Apostles @ Gruene Hall
December 31 South Austin Jug Band @ Stubb's

The Best of 2007...Artist Discoveries

In 2007, I discovered a lot of great artists I previously had no idea about...here they are...in no particular order.

Damon Bramblett (singer/songwriter, sounds like an other-worldly Johnny Cash)
Onion Creek Crawdaddies (bluegrass/newgrass/alt-country)
Stillwater Pioneers (jamband country, great gettin' high music...if I did that sort of thing)
Rattlesnake Deer (depression country...think Chris Knight meets the Steve Earle & the Drive-By Truckers on downers)
Reid Wilson & His So-Called Friends (classic country)
The Gunhands (classic country/classic rock)
Ryan Bingham (roadhouse blues-n-country)
Hot Like Love (stripped down rock and roll 3-piece)
AJ Roach (singer/songwriter)
Dan Reeder (bluesy singer/songwriter)
La Tampiquena (mexicana death folk)
Jason Eady & The Wayward Apostles (Texas county/Americana)

The Best of 2007...Official Releases

Studio Records:
--Top 5, in no particular order:
Danny Schmidt Little Grey Sheep
Stillwater Pioneers Let's Go Pioneering
Josh Ritter The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter
The Victrolas Drop The Needle
Corb Lund Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!

--The Best of the Rest:
Jason Eady & The Wayward Apostles Wild Eyed Serenade
Max Stalling Topaz City
Rattlesnake Deer 637 Texas Rattlesnake Rattles
Walk Wilkins and the Mystiqueros Diamonds In The Sun
Mark Jungers Silos And Smokestacks
Onion Creek Crawdaddies Irons In The Fire
Larry Hooper Rust
Deadstring Brothers Starving Winter Report
Old Crow Medicine Show Big Iron World

Live Records:
Scott Miller & The Commonwealth Reconstruction(Live at the Down Home)
The Devil Makes Three A Little Bit Faster And A Little Bit Worse

Best Record Made Pre-2007 That I Got This Year:
Onion Creek Crawdaddies Barn Burners and Bathtub Bourbon (2003)
Bob Childers Ride For The Cimarron (2006)

The Stillwater Pioneers Go Pioneering For Christmas

...with a bunch of his friends at the legendary Horseshoe Lounge in ATX. This is the 4th Annual 'A Very Dango Christmas' show. The Pioneers' lineup on this day consisted of Dango, Dr. Lewis Card III, Andy 'Lunchbox' Hogdson, Scott 'The Sauce' Carlson and Kevin 'Buffalo' Hennessy. Special guests were Ace from the Freight Train Troubadors, Kevin Fox and Reid Wilson from Reid Wilson and His So-Called Friends and Reid's buddy Reid Dixon (aka 'Team Reid').

The list of covers was plentiful and included songs originally by Gary P. Nunn, David Allan Coe, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Old Crow Medicine Show, Billy Joe Shaver, the Georgia Satellites, Steve Earle, Leon Russell, Bob Dylan and Todd Snider. The Pioneers also did a majority of ther original catalog from the debut disc Let's Go Pioneering.

This is a very fun show. Enjoy it with friends. And, as always, enjoy responsibly.

http://www.archive.org/details/stillwaterpioneers2007-12-16.matrix.flac

Stillwater Pioneers Covering Dublin Blues

Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues" is one of the greatest songs ever written. There's no debating. This is a fact. Stillwater Pioneers tried their hand at it recently at the Hole In The Wall.

Check out #5.

Recommended Listening...The Stillwater Pioneers...Archive.org

One of the finest bands in Austin is the Stillwater Pioneers. Part jam-band, part outlaw country, part singer/songwriter-fare. Already a rag-tag lot with varied musical interests, they can now add to that list an absentee singer/songwriter in Johnny Dango who is moving to the coast...Corpus Christi to be exact to be a sports reporter. Hopefully, Dango can show off his reporting chops, advance and get back to the 512 in short order. They're still going to be playing around Austin but they'll most likely be expanding to include a few shows down in Corpus, Port A., and other points south.

Their new cd "Let's Go Pioneering" is easily the best cd to find its way into my collection so far this year.

This is a great little show from the Mean Eyed Cat from August 2007 where you can hear them do a bunch of great covers including Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Todd Snider, Hank Williams, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt and the Georgia Satellites in addition to a slew of the tracks from their record. There's also a great cover of the NWA classic "Automobile".

Recommended tracks: 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 22, 24, 25, 27.