Austin City Center

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Now that the Austin City Limits show is now pretty much relegated to bands who are the darlings of NPR (My Morning Jacket, Deat Cab, et al), I thought I'd take everybody where the action is, Austin City Center.

I started listening to Charlie Sexton back at the dawn of the MTV era when his one big hit "Beat's So Lonely" came out. His career has been pretty quiet since then, but he has put out some really great stuff all along.

I recently added Charlies band Arc Angels. I just found out about them, I don't know how I missed them all these years. They formed shortly after the the death of Stevie Ray Vaughn. It's basically Chris Layton (drums) and Tommy Shannon (Bass) of SRV's Double Trouble with Charlie Sexton and Doyle Bramhall II on guitars and vocals. It doesn't get much better than that.

Storyville is another great Austin band with the Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton rhythm section treatment, and another of my very favorite guitar players, David Grissom. Grissom is a hero of mine, his hybrid picking style is really unique and beatiful. You don't hear it that much where you've heard him the most, on John Cougar Mellancamp records. Grissom has also toured as a member of the Allman Bros Band. I love his lead playing but he has an industry rep as one of the most solid rythm players around.

Excellent! The genome threw in David Holt, Storyvilles other guitar player. I didn't know he had solo stuff out.

Storyville's lead singer, Malford Miligan, gets a little too busy with his vocals for my taste. Less is more Malford! I think he needs a guitar in his hands, it would give him more to think about, less energy to throw into vocalizing. But hey, Storyville is pretty much Miligans band, he's a John Handy award winner, he can do whatever he wants up there. That's my only personal taste downside for Storyville. It makes the Arc Angels win my vote for best post SRV (may he rest in peace) SRV band, even without David Grissom. Man, if the Arc Angels only had Grissom...wow, too much to ask for.

http://www.myspace.com/storyvi l l e a u s t i n t x

Storyville had their own station, but I'm going to combine it with this one which used to be called Charlie Sexton radio.

I could have included so many other great Austin artists from other genres, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, Monte Montgomery, Fastball, etc., but they fit in better on other stations. I was going for the SRV, Double Trouble, Antones house band sound. All the artists here have strong ties to SRV and the Vaughn brothers.

A really cool testament to Pandora, I have been listening to this genre for awhile, but have learned some things I never knew about it just by starting this station.

In memorium: Chris Whitley, died of lung cancer, Nov, 20, 2005.