
You may have never heard of Earl Poole Ball, but you've probably heard Earl Poole Ball. For more than 20 years, he was Johnny Cash's pianist, and he has played with Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, Linda Ronstadt, Rick Nelson, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, among others. Remember the song "You're Still On My Mind," from the Byrds' 1968 country-rock classic Sweetheart of the Rodeo ? That's Earl playing piano. Earl's lived in Austin for many years, and he divides his time between two bands - Heybale, a great country outfit [...]

Heybale named their latest record The Last (Great) Country Album without a hint of irony or sarcasm. That's saying something. Heybale is a group of Austin's finest pickers and players led by the timeless Redd Volkaert. I wrote about the band here first when their record came out. They'll be playing both Friday and Saturday night but you should probably try to catch them at the Continental Club, it's their home away from home. California Wine Bonus song [...]

Once again, it's time to clean out my backlog of songs that I liked but don't really have time to do a full post about. These songs have absolutely nothing to do with summertime, so those looking for "the" soundtrack for summer 2008 need look elsewhere. Those looking to curb their appetite for a hip-hopping, honky tonking good time, please see below. For everyone else, enjoy! Oh yeah, alot of these songs came from payplay.fm whose "fresh tracks" rss feed has apparently went the way of the dodo. So now I'm having to listen to other music blogs [...]