Scott Nolan & Joanna Miller Live At Sam's Town Point 2011.03.19

Scott Nolan (site) and Joanna Miller don't come to Texas from their Winnipeg homes nearly enough. They were here for a few weeks playing shows around with Adam Carroll culminating with a show at Sam's Town Point on Saturday March 19th as part of South By Sam's Town Point. That was the first time at Sam's Town since 2007, if memory serves. The time away didn't hurt them as they rolled in and didn't disappoint playing a large selection of new tunes from Scott's new record Montgomery Eldorado.

The do a particularly blistering version of "Bad Liver And Broken Heart" as well as my new favorite Nolan comp "Silvertone."

Here's the setlist:

01 You Rock We Roll
02 Famous In Texas
03 Banter
04 Poor Man's Holiday
05 My My Hey Hey
06 Banter
07 Bad Liver And A Broken Heart
08 Banter
09 Life Could Be A Dream
10 Chrome Black And Steel
11 Montgomery Eldorado
12 Banter
13 Clay Pigeons (Blaze Foley)
14 Banter: Adam Carroll's Birthday Card
15 Silvertone
16 Banter
17 No Bourbon And Bad Radio
18 Banter
19 Sometimes

If you missed it, never fear. Archive.org link to MP3s and FLACs and stream below. Enjoy.

http://www.archive.org/details/scottnolan2011-03-19.bluemikey.flac

The Best Of 2010...Official Releases

2010 was an interesting year for us here at the alt512. Lots of our favorite traditional OKOM powerhouses are in between records (some moreso than others - Slaid, Hayes, Corb, Charlie Robison) which really allowed us to focus on some more of the truly independent and self-produced music that came out this year.

Our favorite individual track was a toss up between Roger Alan Wade's "Deguello Motel", JTE's "Harlem River Blues" and Josh Ritter's "Folk Bloodbath". Great fucking songs.

It's hard for us to narrow the best of 2010 down to a single favorite because all of these records are so good but Hyland's Celestial Navigation really blew us away.

Alt512's Top Eight:
James Hyland & The Joint Chiefs Celestial Navigation
Shinyribs Well After A While
Red Eye Junction Better Days
James Keyes Ruminations
Sara Petite Doghouse Rose
The Fox Hunt Long Way To Go -- Late addition to the list, like 12/31 late
Tim Harwill The Wander Man Revisited
Mike & The Moonpies The Real Country

The Best Of The Rest:
Roger Alan Wade Deguello Motel
Buchanan Suit Of Lights
Josh Ritter So Runs The World Away
Various Artists Broken Hearts And Dirty Windows: Songs Of John Prine
Tim Hus Hockeytown
Justin Townes Earle Harlem River Blues
Overmountain Men Glorious Day
Adam Carroll & Michael O'Connor Hard Times
The Tallest Man On Earth The Wild Hunt

Some Upcoming Shows Around The Austin Area

We've got a few good shows coming up over the next week or so here in Austin.

Thursday 4/8 - Saturday 4/10

Thursday, the 8th, we'll be checking out our favorite bluegrass (?) band in Austin, the Flatcar Rattlers, at Jovita's from 8p-10p.

If that isn't your thing, you could always check out Lucero and Shooter Jennings at Emo's Thursday.

Friday night, April 9th, the Alt-512 gang will be hitting up The Triple Crown in San Marcos for Mark Jungers' monthly happy show before heading to the Broken Spoke for the rarest-of-the-rare full band show by Chris Wall.

Saturday, the 10th, Mark Stuart and The Bastard Sons (née the Bastard Sons Of Johnny Cash) will be holed up at the Mean Eyed Cat.

I think we can all agree that's quite a three-day stretch. Well, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Next week, for the middle of April, has a bunch of great shows that aren't to be missed.

Sunday 4/11 - Saturday 4/17

Alt-512 perennial favorite Roger Alan Wade will be playing Poodie's on Sunday 4/11, the Saxon on 4/13 and the Mean Eyed Cat on 4/14.

Monday night will feature sort-of-odd-couple Cory Branan and Mike Herrera's Tumbledown at the Mohawk.

Gruene Hall will feature three of our favorite songwriters in the round on Tuesday: Mark Jungers, Adam Carroll and Owen Temple.

Ben Kweller and the Old 97s will drop by Stubb's on Wednesday night.

Stubb's will again be busy with Charlie Robison and sister-in-law Kelly Willis on Friday the 16th.

Finally, Saturday the 17th will find Chris Knight at Gruene Hall and Danny Schmidt at a house concert in Austin.

If you need info on any of these shows, we've got the calendar right above which has more info on set times and venue addresses than I'm inclined to include here.

Three other notes:

(1) Southern Culture On The Skids starts their five-night stand at the Continental tonight at midnight.

(2) Old Settler's Music Festival starts April 15th and has an amazing lineup, as always.

(3) Junior Brown is in the midst of a series of Sunday shows at the Continental Club that seems to run on-and-off until the end of May. Check the Continental's schedule for more details.

Alt-512's Monthly Album Reviews & Recommendations

Recently started getting some records to preview (and subsequently review) from ReviewShine. Given the amount of records to preview/review from ReviewShine, a full write-up is out of the question. I guess that means that I'll just write up a few records each month (or so, as time permits). So, we gotta start somewhere. And that somewhere is...

The first record up to bat is Kevin Anthony's North Star (buy). I enjoyed the feel of this record. Had a bit of a cajun feel with the snare drums and fiddle starting out with "Hurricane Ike". The second track, more straight up country fare, "Texas Skies" was a bit peculiar to me in that it's a song about leaving Texas (gasp!). I really found the ending odd in that there's an uncertainty about returning to Texas (Anthony now calls Minnesota home). An odd twist on the ages-old theme of loving home and longing to return there. Worth a listen or download of a few songs from iTunes.

The next record that caught my ear was Tim Harwill's The Wander Man Revisited (buy). Harwill's tag on his site is "too folk for country, too country for rock 'n roll." That tagline really sets the tone for his music. The whole time I listened to this record, I was trying to determine who or what it was reminding me of. There are lots of elements, musical and thematic, that remind of a less country version of Merle Haggard or Dwight Yoakam. The thing that it most reminded me of was a full fledged country version of Jimmy Buffett. Imagine if Jimmy Buffett has stayed on his country path and never gone to Key West with Jerry Jeff back when. I imagine it sounds a lot like this. Having just seen Crazy Heart (and listened to the soundtrack), it strikes me that many of these songs would fit right into Bad Blake's catalog. Get this record. For now, I gotta go order Tim Harwill's other records.

While so not well known States-side, Manchester's Buchanan offer a solid piece of traditional country fare with Suit of Lights due out in February. With traditional, straight-ahead classic country of this sort, the comparisons are often obvious. This record lives up to many of those would-be comparisons while at the same time preserving it yet, somehow, without going into too many of the age-old themes. Something about this record really grabbed me in a way that this sliver of OKOM doesn't normally. I particularly enjoyed the history lesson of Jim Todd's Blues. Buy this record.

I'll throw in a few other notes on the new records from Ray Wylie Hubbard, I See Hawks In LA and Adam Carroll & Michael O'Connor.

--If you enjoyed RWH's Growl or Snake Farm records, go get A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) (buy).

--I See Hawks In LA's new record Shoulda Been Gold (buy) pulls together some of the bands' best tunes from the last decade as well as several new/unreleased numbers. This is a great record for old fans and new fans alike. It strikes a great balance that old fans will feel like they're getting their money's worth with the remastered and remixed older tunes and of course the new tunes also rock.

--Adam Carroll & Michael O'Connor have a new record out called Hard Times (buy). I caught the streaming version on bandcamp and so can you. This is a really enjoyable record about the denizens of Texas Gulf Coast and the particular kind of people you find there.

--Finally, the soundtrack to the Jeff Bridges film Crazy Heart has some outstanding originals penned by Ryan Bingham, T-Bone Burnett & Steven Bruton. This one is also worth your money.

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.

Gary Floater...WTF?

www.garyfloater.com

Check this out. It's a tribute to a fake country star put together by two of my favorite Texas artists, Owen Temple and Adam Carroll. The cd is more of an ep but the songs are funny, poking fun at some classic country staples. Well worth your 25 minutes.

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

The Goings-On in The ATX This Week

Monday and Tuesday are looking slow but then the rest of the week rolls around and there's no shortage of good stuff happening.

Wednesday 9/10
Adam Carroll, Mark Jungers and Danny Santos are playing a song swap at Threadgill's North from 8-10p.

Thursday 9/11
Woodsboss is playing the happy hour (630-9p) slot at the Continental Club.
The Fundamentalists are playing at Threadgill's North from 8-10p.

Friday 9/12
Cross Canadian Ragweed is playing at the Nutty Brown Cafe waaay out in far southwest Austin.
Christian Kjellvander and the South Austin Jug Band are playing at the Parish on 6th starting at 9p.
The Lost Bayou Ramblers are at the Continental Club at midnight.

Saturday 9/13
The Mean Eyed Cat hosts it's 4th year anniversary gig with Texico (8p) and Austin Homegrown (930p).
Mario Matteoli and the Lost Bayou Ramblers are at the Continental Club starting at 10p.

Mark Jungers And Friends @ Gruene Hall

Here's a nice show from Mark Jungers and the Whistling Mules from last week at Gruene Hall. There's a bunch of tracks on this show where he and the band turn on the electric guitars.

After they close the show with a rollicking cover of "Powderfinger" featuring special guest Scott Nolan, they get a few special guests to play some songs. Namely, Adam Carroll shows off two of his new tunes "Oklahoma Hustler" and "HiFi Love" before launching into a cacophonic cover of "Werewolves of London". Duncan Walters also does a pair of his own tunes before Mark rejoins the gang for a few more to close out the night.

Thoroughly enjoyable all the way around. Enjoy.