Year in Music 2009

I had another great year of music – seeing lots of great bands in Austin, traveling and catching some acts and starting my interview show, Sessions at On That Note. Of course, you could spend hours on the site, going through all my pix and footage, but I thought I’d pull together some of the outstanding highlights of the year. It features lots of great stuff including Patty Griffin, Ben Kweller, Wilco, Okkervil River, Fastball, Old 97’s and Rhett Miller, Travis, Barenaked Ladies, Better Than Ezra and much more.

Normally, Texas Music asks contributors to name their Top 5 TX albums of the year, but since this is the end of the decade as well as the 10th anniversary of the magazine, the lists were decade in review. But, giving 2009 it’s due, here are my favorite TX albums of the year:

Rhett Miller
Little White Lies – Fastball
El Payaso – Johnny Goudie
Constellation – Salim Nourallah
Changing Horses – Ben Kweller

And some close runners up – Lovely Creatures – Bob Schneider; The Weather Here – Buttercup; The Everlasting War – Billy Harvey.

The interesting thing is the way that many of these projects interrelate. Rhett Miller’s album was produced by Salim Nourallah. Salim also produced the last Old 97’s album and is gearing up to produce the next. Billy Harvey produced Salim’s album, and he played on Rhett Miller’s and Bob Schneider’s. And Salim also produced Buttercup. And, I found out in my interview with Salim that he played in a band with Bob Schneider when they were teenagers. It’s been quite a lovely thing for me to get to know members of this talented collective.

Check out the January 2010 Texas Music for their decade in review coverage.

I look forward to seeing you at a show in 2010! Happy New Year!