With the 2004 edition of the Americana Music Awards and Honors behind us, the list of next year's nominees is already on my mind. There were many albums released just past this year's cutoff for nominations which are strong candidates for awards. Also, some exceptionally strong performances during this year's show leads me to believe that next year is going to be a banner year for this genre.

• Charlie Robison's Good Times is his strongest to date and features songwriting that may land Charlie a nod for best album and best song.
• Likewise, Todd Snider's heralded East Nashville Skyline is a strong candidate for both honors and in my opinion puts Will Kimbrough in position for his second instrumentalist of the year statue.
• Grey DeLisle, who I might add is one of the nicest people I've met, should be a strong consideration for best emerging artist. I hope she releases another album this year.
• Adrienne Young and Will Kimbrough are heading back to the studio together this week. Their efforts could be huge--I'm listening keenly.
• Dave Alvin's performance at the showcase reaffirmed that he is rock-incarnate. Dave is smoother than fine bourbon and rougher than the hangover it leaves. He's about as cool as it gets.
• Speaking of cool, Mavis Staples oozes cool and her duet with Will Kimbrough had to be the highlight of the evening. Their blues rendition of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" is something most attendees will be dying to get a copy of in the coming days.

These and many other fine artists appear to have next year off to a remarkable start.

The third annual Americana Music Association Awards and Honors were presented last night at the Nashville Convention Center, directly across the street from the legendary Ryman Auditorium. In more than one way, the honors were close to the famous stage of the Grand Ole Opry.

Many critics, myself included, believe that mainstream country has become a wasteland of heavily-marketed low quality music. Genuine, moving music has long since moved from the history-drenched Music Row to pockets of musical enthusiasm in places like Austin, Texas and Santa Cruz, California. It has been largely replaced by more attractive artists and music without much pride.

Last night however, authentic American music returned to Nashville. The AMA honored the best and brightest among a renegade cast of musicians determined to return the collective focus to a tradition of our past. Hosted by Jim Lauderdale, the honors were bestowed upon Loretta Lynn, Rodney Crowell, and Cowboy Jack Clement--artists long considered beyond their prime by Nashville elite. They raised toast to Will Kimbrough and Mindy Smith--two of music's brightest hopes and greatest talents even if major record executives couldn't pick them out of a lineup. The growing membership paid tribute to the outspoken Steve Earle for his longstanding dedication to freedom of speech. Each honored could arguably be said to be among the most authentic American artists today.

So why would such an invigorating and inspiring group be located across the street from the Opry and not blessed upon its stage? Are they too old? Are they not attractive enough or did they say the wrong thing? Are they just not good enough by today's standards? How could mainstream music not see the genius that the BBC sees? They recorded and broadcast from the show. Are major label executives smarter than Great American Country? GAC was there to record the show. Are these people who bestow greatness through their mighty marketing campaigns just not interested?

Something tells me that even if the AMA's ranks were not upon the Opry's stage, the silent Ryman Auditorium heard the call from across the street.

Excited to win Todd Snider's guitar? Well why not make it a pair and win Adrienne Young's Banjo? As a bonus you'll get an iPod as well!

OK, here's the deal: to win you must submit your own home remedy. That's right, dig up granny's grease recipe or write down your favorite fixins for an ointment and send them off to Adrienne and Little Sadie. The winner receives a handcrafted Ome banjo and an iPod stocked with Adrienne's tunes.

You can enter here.

Good luck!

Tomorrow night I will be at the Americana Music Conference showcase at the Station Inn in Nashville. On the bill are Todd Snider with Will Kimbrough, Grey DeLisle, and Adrienne Young. Tift Merritt is over at the Mercy Lounge but I'm most likely not going to make that show. On Friday I'll be at the Conference and afterward you can catch me at the Junior Brown/Billy Joe Shaver concert.

So I hope to meet some of you who have helped make the site such a success!

Woody Creek, Colorado is a secret little place that few really know about and even fewer visit. It is a place where cowboys still exist and mud on your boots is just a sign that an honest day was still reality. Known best for local flavor and a place that wasn't Aspen, it is about to be the focal point of a massive marketing campaign courtesy of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Welcome to Woody Creek isn't your average album about a place as much as it is an album in a place. The guys have been hiking up to the Aspen area for years but Jimmy Ibbotson actually calls Woody Creek home. As their first studio effort since 1998 and their first since John McEuen's return, they chose Woody Creek as a spot for renewal and new beginnings. "We really consider this album to be the beginning of something for us, and I think this is how we want to make records for the rest of our career." Hanna adds that the album is a return to their sound in the 1960s and 70s, "When I listen to it, I hear the same spirit we had then, but with alot more experience and a little more maturity."

He's right fortunately because the place seems to have magically transported this album back to a more humble time when music was enough. Artful arrangements and the balanced interaction only five men who have spent most of their creative lives together could create are the keynote of Welcome to Woody Creek. Their playful sides show with the intricate room they leave each instrument as it weaves through their stories. They even tackle a bluegrass version of the Beatle's "Get Back" to much success. Altogether it sounds like five great musicians having a fantastic time with one another.

Welcome to Woody Creek is available from my pals at Dualtone on 9/21/2004. You can download the album now from the iTunes Music Store. Also, you can buy the CD from my friends at IndieCity.

So the first week of my world tour is over and I'm exausted but happy to be back in the United States. Everyone was very nice to me abroad, but there's no place like home.

While getting on an airplane many many hours ago a man stopped me and told me he loved my t-shirt: a rare Todd Snider shirt. It was really nice to have something in common with someone half a world apart from me.

Anyway, I need more sleep than I'm likely to get but will see everyone down the road in Nashville in a few days. If you're not going be sure to mark next year's calendar because the AMA show is shaping up to be one of the biggest nights anywhere for Americana music.

Updates will be thin this weekend once again but I cannot blame a hurricane thankfully. Instead I'm on the road with stops in Germany for a few days, a few days at home and then off to the Americana Music Associations Honors and Awards in Nashville.

I'm packing new music however. I'll get an update on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band while on the road. I also have the new Cowboy Jack Clement record which I'm bound to enjoy.

Once in Nashville I'll catch up with Todd Snider, Will Kimbrough and Adrienne Young for a show that's going to be really memorable. I'm going to make an attempt to find this farm that Tommy Womack and the reunited Government Cheese are playing. And finally, without getting arrested for stalking I'm going to try to meet one of my heroes, Billy Joe Shaver and talk to him for a few minutes about his new album, Billy and the Kid which is headed up the charts.

Until then kiddies, keep your socks up.

While hurricane season continues for those of us in warmer climates, autumn is just around the corner for most of the nation. The weather turns markedly more crisp and the joy of changing foilage isn't far off and a reasonable consideration is the coming winter that shall follow.

For me there is no snow but depsite contrary romanticizing it is not the sunny wonderland most people imagine. It is in fact, like a brisk fall in this part of Florida and is often overcast. There are no beach picnics or quick jaunts into the ocean.

That being said, during fall and winter here in Florida I often turn to music that reminds me of my former homes in Indiana and New York. I dig up songs that help conjure the smells of the Beak and Skiff orchard or the sassafrass candy I used to get in Rockville, Indiana. Some times it's old Billy Joe Shaver music with the sentimental and throughtful look back while others it's Jim Lauderdale and the warm down-home feelings he evokes. Bruce Robison can put me in my place when he sings about his family on "My Brother and Me." Charlie Robison's new "Photograph" does much the same for me. Son Volt's Wide Swing Tremolo usually ends up in the CD player as it recalls a late fall road trip to Buffalo in my wandering days. Roseanne Cash makes me miss my grandfather when she sings "September When It Comes" while Jimmy Buffett's "The Captain and the Kid" makes me think about everything I've messed up in life--particularly those late autumn afternoons with my grandfather. Regardless of the song, my memories rely on the music that grounds me to my past and guides me toward my future.

Perhaps the cooler seasons cause this with Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD for short. Yes, it's a real disorder according to the various doctors that tend to our collective mental health. Maybe SAD is to blame for all the blue songs that end up on my playlist. Maybe SAD causes me to seek out all the heartbreaking tales of dispair that seem to percolate to the top of my stack of CDs. Yes, it's that damn SAD that does it.

Anyway, Jimmy Buffett calls this his songline--the thought that particular songs relate to times, places, and moods and together tell the history of each person. My songline is well-set for the coming months.

Jay Farrar once implored us to look for a truer sound on the AM dial, to look for a time and place when DJs picked the platters and the only thing that mattered was the music. Lost between that place and today is a generation of Americans and genres of music that serve few other than the corporate machines that pump out the pedestrian music on our airwaves.

This morning I'm listening to the fine folks at 1510 KCUV radio in Colorado who lays down Americana music all day long. While the crackles and pops are missing, it stays true to the AM format--renegade music for people looking for more.

It has me thinking about my favorite Americana stations like KPIG in Freedom, California, WMNF in Tampa, and WDVX in Knoxville. Stations like these are few and far between and while not always AM, they often are somewhere down at the low end of the FM dial--relegated to the unknown spots between Spanish-language radio and NPR. Still, they labor on becoming local and sometimes regional legends.

Someone out there tell me their favorite Americana station. Maybe we'll start a directory of great stations or something....

Music is largely about having a good time, whether the mood is upbeat and fun or a melancholy reminder of the past. So naming your first effort for a new label Good Times can be a bit misleading unless you happen to be Texas maverick Charlie Robison. In Charlie's case, there is never a dull moment but rather a string of good nights that have resulted in what is clearly the best record of his his renegade career.

Robison, both spouse to the Dixie Chicks' Emily Robison and judge on televisions "Country Star", is actually best known for his smartass smile and ability to put together a hell of a party. It shows in what he calls the album he's "wanted to make for a long, long time." His good-timing nature is both one of revelry and quiet recollections of better times. In every sense of the word this is the most authentic album of his career.

His strength, like that of his brother Bruce, is in the honesty of his songwriting. At one moment he's telling a story of indecision and booze on the Mexican border and the next he's recounting how a photo album makes him smile. Either way his sincerity is only trumped by his ability to convey the stories as if he's lived them even if they are mere tales.

After the first five cuts on Good Times I expected a bit of a hangover--after all there aren't many songwriters who really can put together an entire disc of top-notch material. Pleasantly suprised, the record is complete; there is something worth having in each song and with each listen I think you'll find something with which to relate.

Overall, the album is a preliminary candidate for next year's Album of the Year with "Photograph" and "The Bottom" potentials for Song of the Year. Good Times indeed lives up to it's lofty title.

Good Times is available from Dualtone on September 21, 2004.

You can pre-order this CD from IndieCity.net or download the album from the iTunes Music Store

Now that we have regained phone and power I should take the time and give you a few tips before Ivan arrives. Seems to be a neverending saga here on the sandy beaches of Florida!

• In case I don't manage to do Charlie Robison's first disc with Dualtone justice, be sure to pre-order Good Times. It's going to be a contender for album and song of the year. Charlie really has created a wonderfully sentimental album while retaining the fun side he's so known for.
• Will Hoge continues to amaze me. If you don't own The America EP you should pick one up before voting. It's one of the best theme albums I've heard in a long time.
• The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has always been one of my favorite acts. Their new disc is set to hit shelves soon and at first glance I really like the work.
• Todd Snider persists in the Americana chart's top 5. His album has really turned some heads--it's about damn time somone took him seriously.
• Speaking of taking Todd seriously, please take the time to go visit the little flashing ad on the right side of this website. You really can win Todd's guitar by picking up a bumper sticker between now and December. All the proceeds benefit the legendary Kent Finlay of the Cheatham Street Warehouse. Kent has worked his entire life to make music that people care about and we wouldn't know most country artists today without him. Check out the contest here.
• My pal J.B. at Good Morning Americana continues pumping out the good tunes on Saturday mornings--well when we actually have power in Florida. Stay tuned to 88.5 FM or listen online for the best Americana on Saturday mornings from 10 to noon.
• The Americana Music Association added Mavis Staples to their lineup for the upcoming Honors and Awards show. If you don't have tickets for the best show in Nashville, visit their website today. If for nothing else, see Mavis--her voice is absolutely sublime.

It's not every day you have a chance to win an Americana star's guitar but that's the deal of the day. You can buy a nifty Todd Snider bumper sticker and instantly be entered in a drawing to win his famous Epiphone J-200 that was recently retired upon receipt of his new Pawless guitar. Still better, all the proceeds benefit Kent Finlay, legendary propiertor of the Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, Texas. Kent gave rise to such artists as George Strait, Bruce Robison, John Arthur Martinez and Mr. Snider.

Please, pitch in to help out a heck of a guy and take a chance at winning a piece of Americana history.

You can find more information here.

Sharkbitten Evil Lair World Headquarters has regained power but due to a lack of telephone or other connectivity service we will be running an abbreviated publishing schedule this week.

Until then kiddies, please buy some CDs and support your local musician.

There's little humor left in this hurricane season and the uncertainty is really intense. Regardless, I have to tell you that the biggest bummer so far is that they cancelled garbage pickup and I have a week's worth of nasty stuff in my garage.

Regardless, here's a few things to occupy you while I'm away:

1. Look up your local Americana station and make a request. I was a recent guest on Good Morning Americana and I'm convinced that these local DJs are the best thing going
2. Give some money to Sweet Relief. These folks help support musicians struck by health problems. Musicians often have no health insurance and this group does a great job in helping out
3. Look up Cowboy Jack Clement and Roger Creager who each have a new album coming. These Dualtone artists each have contributed so much to music over the years and their new work deserves a listen
4. Mark November 9, 2004 on your calendar. That night you'll have to suffer through Brooks and Dunn hosting the CMA Awards but it will be worth it--trust me. Kris Kristofferson will enter the Country Music Hall of Fame during the broadcast and if I have to endure those clowns to see it I will.

Stay high, stay dry!

Billy Joe Shaver is perhaps the most tormented soul in country music. His life has been constant turmoil since his arrival on the scene. He lost fingers in a sawmill accident, was swindled for his earliest work, and receives much less credit for the genre's success than the guidance he's provided.

Billy's greatest test began in 1999 when both his mother and wife died within months of each other. Shaver's career was enjoying great success due largely to his high-octane partnership with slicing guitar player and son Eddy. Together they weathered the untimely departures but it was only a taste of the pain to come. On December 31, 2000 Eddy tragically overdosed on heroin, a habit he had fallen prey to, leaving Billy alone in a world.

Billy's pain was evident on his first release after their deaths, Freedom's Child. The album, a brave step into the unknown, was both sweetly appreciative and sadly accepting of his loss. "Day by Day" features Will Kimbrough and Billy alone in front of a microphone in what may have been Billy's most gut-wrenching performance ever.

Eddy had left things undone and after finishing his own album, Billy sat to finishing an album Eddy had begun. Released last week, Billy and the Kid is a both a tribute to his son's memory and a fine work. It recaptures some of the exciting work that he and Eddy had broken country music with during the Shaver days. It also features original material Billy has written about Eddy.

Reinvigorated in many ways, Billy sounds best during "Eagle on the Ground" which is somewhat melancholy but incredibly reminiscent of Eddy's spirit. My favorites are the last two tracks. First "Step On Up" combines Eddy's guitar-inspired blues and Billy's gruff voice perfectly. The follow-up "Necessary Evil" was included on Billy's last album and features Eddy at his finest. The song never gets old for me and shows why many people felt that Eddy was destined to be as big as Stevie Ray Vaughn before his death.

This album is a fitting farewell to one of alt-country's first acts accepted by the mainstream.

Billy and the Kid is available from Compadre Records.