It was a heavy internal dilemma for, oh, perhaps 72 hours — where was my return to South by Southwest going to occur this year? On Thursday afternoon, I finally decided to cheer myself up[…]
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Category: music opinion
Austin Music Awards 2022: The return of the Dive Bar Grammys
Yes, I did miss this. Two years away from the ragtag, buttons-loose, buzzing, not-even-faux-formal feel of the Austin Music Awards made the heart grow fonder. The AMAs, which I’m christening the Dive Bar Grammys as[…]
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Ear Traffic’s top tracks of 2021: The Local 20 and the HI-35
(Photo of James McMurtry by Nicole Berlin Photography) In my ranking of my 10 favorite albums of 2021 (for historians, Ear Traffic’s first year-end album ranking), I mentioned how difficult it was to narrow[…]
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Ear Traffic ATX’s top 10 albums of 2021
Maybe it’s overly typical to remember a year glowingly in year-end review material. Still, I’ll say it without devolving into broad fawning: I really enjoyed the music of 2021. Picking my 10 favorite albums of[…]
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On Jackie Venson’s all-Black Blues on the Screen, and Blackillac’s music of the moment
(Photo by Nicole Berlin Photography) Blackillac released a blistering tribute to being Black in 2020. Jackie Venson, the always-smiling queen of guitar, put that trademark joy on the shelf and took a principled stand. And now,[…]
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Local album reviews while social distancing: Pure X self-titled, Pike & Sutton – Heart is a Compass
So much is unfolding socially this week that’s bigger than music, although it will inevitably become inspiration for music in short order. I believe that soon, commentary on the issues and unrest of this turbulent[…]
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