My Thanksgiving 2025 Playlist

I had to miss Thanksgiving dinner this year but I made a playlist for our family and friends. As always, these are a mix of up-tempo songs, fun oldies and songs I played on my  radio shows this year. Here's the Spotify playlist.

We kicked it off with Red Red Wine by UB40 to acknowledge all the wine consumed with dinner.

Then a little Lost In The Ozone from Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen and Turnpike Troubadour's Ruby Ann to get the energy up and Clarence Carter's Slip Away for the groove.

Duke of Earl by Gene Chandler is one everyone can sing along to

Now for a few new country songs I've played on KOOP Radio: Searching For A Light from Turnpike Troubadours, Riding High In Texas from Asleep At The Wheel, The Day I Smoked a J With Ray from Kathryn Legendre and Don't You Ever Give Up On Love by Brennen Leigh.

Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour is for my son Gary and his husband Jason.

Heaven Passing Through by Turnpike Troubadours is my song of the year.

Brenton Wood's Oogum Boogum Song from1967 is just a fun song. Also, check out  the video of The Brothers Comatose cover featuring Tom Quell on the vocal and Greg Fleischut on the mando!

Pick up the tempo with Love Man from Otis Redding and Reckless Kelly channeling Doug Sahm on Lost Inside the Groove.

The late Todd Snider's Beer Run because that's what you do on Thanksgiving.

My new favorite songwriter, John Baumann of Austin wrote and sang West Texas Girl on The Panhandlers first album.

More new Brennan Leigh, Texas Tumbleweed.

Turnpike Troubadours' front man Evan Felker wrote On the Red River about his recovery. If you're keeping score this is the fourth song on this playlist from their fantastic album from this year, The Price of Admission, .

The Long Haul from American Aquarium is for my wife Leslie.

Ridin' My Thumb To Mexico by Johnny Rodriguez is for Cap'n Yi.

The Dead's Brokedown Palace is for my daughter Dara.

Bruce Springsteen covered Johnny Rivers' Poor Side Of Town on his 7-album Tracks 2 collection that came out this year.

Who remembers Woman, Woman from  Gary Puckett & The Union Gap from 1968?

I always include some Bob Marley & The Wailers on the Thanksgiving list. This year it's Could You Be Loved.

More John Baumann, South Texas Tradition.

1995's Windfall by Son Volt is always fun to listen to.

Oklahoma Stars is a great duet from Jamie Lin Wilson and Evan Felker.

New Waxahatchee, Right Back to It.

RIP Jimmy Cliff, whose song and movie, The Harder they Come, was "Reggae 101" for us freshman year.

My Radio Shows

11/14/25 Both Kinds of Music

Covering for DJ Salty Cracker I opened with Joe Ely's She Never Spoke Spanish to Me, played Robert Earl Keen, who influenced Todd Snider, who influenced Cody Canada, played lots of new Texas music and another from The Price of Admission.

11/11/25 Folkville

I covered some Grammy nominations for Jason Isbell and Lukas Nelson, played new songs from Asleep at the Wheel (featuring new vocalist/fiddle player Ian Stewart) and from Sunny Sweeney, and played another great one from the Turnpike Troubadours Price Of Admission, On the Red River.

10/28/25 Folkville

For this show I went back to Folkville's bread and butter, singer/songwriters mainly from Austin and Texas. New songs from Kelly Willis, Brennan Leigh, John Baumann and Lukas Nelson!

9/30/25 Folkville

This was on my birthday so I indulged in 13 songs representing my musical fan life. Rock 'n' roll, country, reggae, Texas music!

9/2/25 Folkville

I played lots of great Texas singer/songwriters in this episode, including a new one from Hayes Carll, plus great songs from Turnpike Troubadours and American Aquarium. Cover Me was a Texas classic!

8/25/25 Both Kinds of Music

I was subbing on this show for DJ Salty Cracker. I kicked it off with Born to Run on the 50th anniversary of that album's release, then played songs from all the artists at the big Boys From Oklahoma show two days earlier in Waco, including Turnpike Troubadours' Heaven Passing Through, my first Song of the Year candidate. Cover Me was all Texas.

6/24/25 Folkville

This was my first time on Folkville, a new show, so Nathan Moore, the Folkville lead, joined me. We talked about the club Folkville - an Austin singer/songwriter haven in the 80s that Nathan used to frequent - that serves as an inspiration for the show. I played new Lukas Nelson and War and Treaty, used a Folkville regular - Townes Van Zandt - for Cover Me and wrapped it up with Dock of the Bay. The show is just an hour and we talked a lot so I only played 12 songs.

5/22/25 Lonesome Stranger

This was my last Lonesome Stranger show so I played two hours of my favorite songs from the last two years, including songs for both my kids. I started with Can I Be Country Too?, which has been an excellent "mission statement" for what I have tried to accomplish on the radio!

5/15/25 Lonesome Stranger

We celebrated the wedding of our son Gary to Jason Sweeten with Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour, their first dance, honored our friend Jeffrey Korman who passed this week, and played lots of Texas and Oklahoma music.

4/10/25 Lonesome Stranger

This was my brother Paul's 72nd birthday so I played a lot of songs for him. My daughter Dara was in town so she joined me and played a set including from her LA friends Rett Madison and Lauren Ruth Ward. I added more California songs from the Buffalo Springfield and had a fun Cover Me featuring a great Texas singer and songwriter who I have never played before on the radio!

3/6/25 Lonesome Stranger

This was one of my favorite shows. I played all California country music, mainly from the 60s and 70s, but also new Dwight Yoakam as my 10 am energy music. I kicked it off with Commander Cody, traced Gram Parsons' journey from the Byrds to the Flying Burrito Brothers to his solo stuff with Emmylou Harris, played two songs with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel and, of course, lots of Merle Haggard!

2/13/25 Lonesome Stranger 

This show coincided with the 100th anniversary of the birth of my mom, Phyllis Jaffe, so I started the show with songs for her, then played my 2024 Songs of the Year, Sierra Ferrell's American Dreaming and Kasey Musgraves' The Architect, both of which won big at the Grammys. We went to Alabama for Cover Me and then to Oklahoma. for some Jamie Lin Wilson and Turnpike Troubadours.

1/30/25 Lonesome Stranger

We played The Housefire by Turnpike Troubadours for the victims of the LA fires, Indigenous music from Jim Young and Marty Stuart, and songs from bands I saw at Mile0 Fest in Key West the previous week. The second half of the show was dedicated to an interview with John Baumann, a great Austin singer/songwriter and member of the Panhandlers.

12/26/24 Lonesome Stranger

The show was mainly my favorite songs from 2024, starting with the new John Baumann cover of Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 and ending with my Top 5. So many good songs came out this year that I had to cut out several favorites to fit within two hours! We started with one of my late friend Gary Stein's favorite songs, Charley Pride's A Shoulder to Cry On. 

11/14/24 Lonesome Stranger

I kicked it off with the classic Gram Parsons song, The Return of the Grievous Angel, followed by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit's cover of Tom Petty's Room at the Top (from GP to TP), then played new Reckless Kelly, Flatland Cavalry, Sunny Sweeney and American Aquarium. As always some Black Opry - The War and Treaty, Julie Williams and Amythyst Kiah. Cover Me was a classic covered by one of the best voices of our time. 

10/3/24 Lonesome Stranger

We started with tributes to Kris Kristofferson and JD Souther, had new ones from Reckless Kelly, Morgan Wade, Lainey Wilson and Zach Bryan, had some songs from the great soundtrack to Twisters, plus Jason Isbell's and Mickey Guyton's songs from the Democratic National Convention, new Black Opry and Ishkode (Indigeneous) material, previewed Chris Stapleton's and Sturgill Simpson's upcoming appearances at the Austin City Limits Fest, and had a classic Cover Me.

6/27/24 Lonesome Stranger

I kicked off this one with Steve Earle's Satellite Radio, then played my usual combination of new songs with a few classics. I highlighted the first release from Black Opry Records, Jett Holden's Backwood Proclamation, and included Allison Russell's contribution to My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall. Cover Me included two versions of a song by great Texas songwriters, with the listener invited to figure out who wrote it.

5/16/24 Lonesome Stranger

I started this one with a tribute to Dickey Betts, then did some 4/20 songs, a few new ones from Zach Bryan, Morgan Wade and Brothers Osborne, some Muscle Shoals rocknrollcountrysoul from Etta James and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, two Beyonce songs from Cowboy Carter, a few Texas songs, and my two candidates for my Song of the Year, Kacey Musgraves' The Architect and Sierra Ferrell's American Dreaming.

4/4/24 The Lonesome Stranger

My first show back on the air in several months, I reviewed the Grammy winners, played the new one  from Sierra Ferrell, American Dreaming, and played songs from Rhiannon Giddens and Adia Victoria from the new My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall. I followed Kacey Musgraves' journey through weed and included a couple of songs about country folks raising contraband.

Rocknrollcountrysoul #1

This is a homegrown roots music show made on my PC without a great mike. I may eventually try to do this show on the radio on a regular basis. I played a lot of great soul music from Macon, Memphis and Muscle Shoals, mixed in some classic country, and played some tunes that blur the boundaries between roots rock, country and soul. I finished up with my Song of the Year, I Remember Everything by Zach Bryan and Kasey Musgraves.

11/30/23 The Lonesome Stranger

Many of my favorite Country and Americana  artists, that I have been playing all year, like Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell and the War and Treaty were nominated for Grammys so I played them all. I played tributes to two college friends we lost, Gary Stein and Adrian Sanchez, and played a bunch of new stuff.

9//7/23 The Lonesome Stranger

This may have been my best show yet. I started with Will Hoge and the Black Opry's Can I Be Country Too?, played a lot of new music including Rhiannon Giddens' You're the One and Zach Bryan and Kasey Musgraves' song of the year, I Remember Everything. I paid tribute to the late Ian Tyson and finished up with Luke Combs' cover of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car.

6/15/23 The Lonesome Stranger

This was the week Jason Isbell released Weathervanes as well as the 10th anniversary of Southeastern so I played songs from both albums. Then Mary Beth, a new apprentice, came on and played a few sets including Blaze Foley's Clay Pigeons, which John Prine covered. For Pride Month I played songs from Brandy Clark, Brothers Osborne and Allison Russell. I played a few songs from the new album of country Stones covers, Stoned Cold Country, had Grammy winners for both song and performance in Cover Me, and played a bunch of Texas country songs. I did a set of songs (Alabama Pines, My Tennessee Mountain Home and What I Like About Texas) that illustrate why a sense of place is so important to me in southern music, and finished with Anniversary Song for my wife Leslie!

5/11/23 The Lonesome Stranger

I had a co-host, Saint Annie, who is apprenticing with KOOP, for part of the show. She was fantastic and the music she played, Wilco, the Nude Party, Neko Case and others definitely complemented the music I played. I started with Jason Isbell, who is in town this week, had two women singers in Cover Me, played some Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens, and then a lot of Bruce Robison's songs including some of his Next Waltz projects. The show finished with a shout out to the Big Squeeze, Texas Folklife's youth accordion contest, and then some Red Dirt music from Oklahomans Cross Canadian Ragweed, Turnpike Troubadours and Jimmy LaFave.

5/5/23 Pearl's General Store

This was a fun show. I started with some duets from Gram and Emmylou and Johnny and June, then played First Aid Kit's fantastic song Emmylou, which namechecks all of them. Lots of Don Williams, some Merle, some Cojo, and Tex-Mex from both the Tiarras and Selena for Cinco de Mayo. In the second hour I had a great set of Miranda Lambert, some local Austin women, music from Crazy Heart, and ended with the Clint Black classic A Better Man.

3/30/23 Lonesome Stranger

On March 30 I did my first show on the Lonesome Stranger. It was delayed 45 minutes due to technical difficulties but I was able to get a few sets in. Then we brought in Shakey Lyman, a musician from Philadelphia that I didn't know beforehand, to play some songs. This was a good experience for me to handle live music. I finished up with Cover Me at about the 1:02 mark.

3/17/23 Pearl's General Store

On March 17 I took over Pearl's General Store for two hours of country and Americana music including the first Cover Me, where I play a great song and then a great cover and ask you the listener to let me know which one you prefer. Since it was St. Patrick's Day I played some Irish music. Also the rodeo was in town and the Luck Reunion at Willie Nelson's ranch was taking place that day so I played some music from both.

My Song of the Years

Every year for the past few years I have designated a single song as my "song of the year" or SOTY. Just one song, which is why the title of this piece is "My Song of the Years" rather than "My Songs of the Year". I figured I would write them down before I forget them.

2024 Sierra Ferrell, American Dreaming, and Kasey Musgraves, The Architect

I couldn't choose this year so you get two great songs! When I heard both of these songs, in March and April, I immediately considered them SOTY candidates. In American Dreaming Sierra Ferrell talks about the upside and downside of reaching for her American dream. The video shows her playing to larger and larger crowds, as the song builds to a crescendo. Spotify link. The song and album Trail of Flowers won Grammys for Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song, Best Americana Performance. Sierra also won Best American Roots Performance for Lighthouse.

 In The Architect, Kasey Musgraves ponders

Does it happen by chance? Is it all happenstance?

Is too late to make some more space?

Can I speak to the architect?

This also has a cool video. Here's the Spotify link. And it won Country Song of the year at the Grammys!

2023 Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves, I Remember Everything

Like Just Like That, when I first heard this when it came out in August I immediately said "that's my song of the year" and nothing displaced it. This is a co-write between Bryan and Musgraves with such powerful images! "Labrador hangin' out the passenger door" evokes an exact picture of  Bryan's character. The clincher is "I wish I didn't, but I do, remember every moment on the nights with you". This won a Best Country Duo/Group Performance Grammy.

Spotify link

2022 Bonnie Raitt, Just Like That 

When I first heard this poignant song a year ago I immediately tagged it as my SOTY and nothing else came out last year to displace it. When she won the Grammy for Song of the Year in the General category for this song, beating out songs by Adele, Beyonce and Taylor Swift, no one was more shocked than Bonnie Raitt herself!

Spotify link

2021 Allison Russell, Persephone

Outside Child was my favorite album of the 2021 and either Persephone or Nightflyer could be my SOTY. Nightflyer was nominated for Grammys in Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance. In the Americana Music Awards, Persephone was nominated as Song of the Year (losing out to Brandi Carlile's Right on Time) but Outside Child won Album of the Year.

Spotify link

2020 The Panhandlers, West Texas in My Eye

This supergroup of Texas singer/songwriters (Josh Abbott, William Clark Green, John Baumann and Cleto Cordero of Flatland Cavalry) came together at Bruce Robison's Next Waltz studio in Lockhart to record my favorite record of 2020, written by Charlie Stout. It comes with an excellent video.

Spotify link

2019 Hayes Carll, Jesus and Elvis

This true story about Lala's Little Nugget bar in Austin has some great lines like "the King of Kings and the King of Rock 'n' Roll".

Spotify link

My Thanksgiving 2024 Playlist

This year's Thanksgiving Playlist is a mix of up-tempo songs to keep us energized during Thanksgiving dinner cleanup plus lots of new songs that I played on my radio shows. Here's the Spotify link. I've been doing these playlists for about 20 years and rule #1 is never to repeat a song although I broke that rule for American Girl after Tom Petty died.

My wife Leslie suggested we start with Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones. Somehow I've never thought of that!

Next is the badass Bruce song, Man's Job, featuring both Sam Moore and Bobby King on the backing vocals.

I have always loved Jennifer Johnson & Me from Robert Earl Keen and Heard It in a Love Song by The Marshall Tucker Band.

How 'bout some new Reckless Kelly? Keep Lookin' Down The Road.

Joe Ely's Fingernails will bring the energy level up. Keep those air piano-playing fingers high!

Of all the great songs from the Twisters soundtrack, I keep coming back to Wall of Death by Wilderado, Ken Pomeroy and James McAlister. You can see the three of them playing it in the scene where a bunch of storm chasers are hanging out by a camp fire, grilling, throwing a football around. 

Morgan Wade's new album, Obsessed, contains the powerful Time to Love, Time to Kill.

Next are two from Sierra Ferrell's Trail of Flowers album, nominated for the Grammy in Best Americana Album, I'll Come Off The Mountain and Lighthouse, which was nominated for Best Americana Roots Performance. There is more Sierra Ferrell to come.

I had never heard of  Jesse Malin until I heard his haunting Broken Radio '22, dedicated to his late mother who died when he was a teen. This song was originally released in 2007 and features a voice you will recognize. Watch them play it here. And I recently read that Jesse Malin is recovering from a stroke and Springsteen and others have put together a tribute album of his songs called Silver Patron Saints.

Texas Tornados - Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, Flaco Jimenez and Freddy Fender - tear it up on (Hey Baby) Que Paso, with Augie singing the lead.

The classic Volver, Volver from Los Lobos is for my son Gary, who wrote a paper about these guys for college!

Californian John Stewart was a member of the Kingston Trio and sang on Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign. His, July, You're A Woman has always been one of my favorites and now is a favorite of my California girl Dara!

Just Outside Of Austin, by Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, refers to his dad Willie's ranch on the Pedernales River, where Leslie and I have been to several of Willie's Luck Reunions. "It ain't so bad a place to raise a kid". Check out the video and while you're at it, check out Lukas's video for his dad on Willie's 90th birthday.

Austinites The Band of Heathens and former Austinite Hayes Carll are touring as Hayes & The Heathens. Here's Nobody Dies From Weed, which also has a fun video.

Let's stick with Hayes Carll for a minute with Nice Things. "This is why I gave you empathy".

Billy & Beau is a beautiful song by North Dakotan Brennen Leigh. "The heart wants to go where the heart wants to go".

The late Chris Wall wrote the great song, I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight. Jerry Jeff Walker had a great version of it. Here's Sunny Sweeney's.

I can't get enough Turnpike Troubadours. I saw them this year at Georgetown, TX's Two Step Inn Fest, which is rapidly becoming my favorite music festival. Here's Whole Damn Town and Every Girl.

Next come three of my candidates for 2024 Song of the Year.

Sierra Ferrell's American Dreaming, also from Trail of Flowers, has been nominated for Best Americana Performance and Best American Roots Song (co-written with Melody Walker). (Don't ask me to explain how the Grammys differentiate between "Americana" and "American Roots"!).  I think this record is best appreciated from the video which shows her playing the song starting in her tour van to bigger and bigger audiences as the song builds to its crescendo. Yes, she's been majorly successful in chasing her American Dream but she reminds you of they price to be paid. I got to see Sierra at the Luck Reunion last year and at both the Two Step Inn Fest and at Stubbs in Austin this year! 

Kacey Musgraves' musings on life and free will, The Architect, was nominated for  Best Country Solo Performance,  Best Country Song (written with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne) and the album it's from, Deeper Well, Best Country Album.

Does it happen by chance? Is it all happenstance?

Do we have any say in this mess?

Is too late to make some more space?

Can I speak to the architect?

This life that we make, is it random or fate?

Can I speak to the architect?

The beautiful duet between Raul Malo and Sierra Ferrell, Moon & Stars, from The Mavericks new album, rounds out my candidates for 2024 Song of the Year. Sierra's soaring vocal makes this song for me. 

Room at the Top is right up there with American Girl as my favorite Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers songs. Then there's this classic from Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stop Draggin' My Heart Around!

Your taste of Jason Isbell is If It Takes a Lifetime.

I keep on showing up

Hell bent on growing up

If it takes a lifetime

The Bob Marley biopic, One Love, came out this year. Kingsley Ben-Adir is incredible as Brother Bob, and bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett's son plays his dad. Here's Family Man's biggest moment: Stir It Up. Kacey Musgraves recorded Marley's Three Little Birds on Deeper Well.

We lost a great songwriter, singer and actor, Kris Kristofferson, this year. Here's his To Beat the Devil.

My Thanksgiving 2023 Playlist

Here's my Thanksgiving 2023 playlist. This year I started DJing on KOOP, an Austin volunteer-run radio station, where I try to bring the best of new country, Americana and roots rock to my listeners, so many of these songs appeared on my radio shows. Here's the Spotify link.

We'll kick it off with Marcus King's cover of  Can't You Hear Me Knocking, from the album of country folks covering the Stones, Stoned Cold Country. I just love the energy of the song, with Marcus saying, "Feels good!".

Keeping the energy level high is Brennan Leigh's I Ain't Through Honky Tonkin' Yet.

With all the political back and forth this summer on country radio, with what you can and can't do in someone's small town, Will Hoge and Black Opry had the best response with Can I Be Country Too? Be sure to check out the video!

In a similar vein is A Better South, from Raleigh's American Aquarium. "Still arguing the difference between heritage and hate".

Rhiannon Giddens put out a fantastic album this year, featuring songs in multiple genres. Listen to her soaring vocal on You're the One.  Her album of the same name was nominated for the Grammy in  Best Americana Album.

Luke Combs had a huge country hit this summer with his cover of Fast Car, making Tracy Chapman the first Black woman to write a #1 country hit. Here's her version from 1988. Luke Combs' version was nominated for a Grammy this year for Best Country Solo Performance but Tracy Chapman was not nominated for Song of the Year due to a Grammy rule that a song can't be nominated twice. In 1988 she lost to Don't Worry, Be Happy if you can believe that!

Tyler Childers, the hillbilly from Hickman Holler in eastern Kentucky, put out another great song and video this year, In Your Love, about the love between two coal miners in the 50s. This song was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song and the album was nominated for Best Country Album.

My song of the year is Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves' co-write and duet, I Remember Everything.  It was nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Country Song and the album Zach Bryan was nominated for Best Country Album.

I wish I didn't, but I do
Remember every moment of the nights with you

How 'bout a little Cojo? I love this Cody Johnson song from 2016, Wild As You, written by Jeremy Spillman, Trent Willmon and Michael Connors.

Next, the smooth whiskey voice of Don Williams, doing I Believe in You, followed by more Cojo, Monday Morning Merle.

Let's switch gears for a little Ripple, the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter Dead classic from American Beauty, 1970.

We always need a little Bruce at Thanksgiving so here's Last Man Standing, which he played solo acoustic when we saw him in Austin in February.

I've played The War and Treaty often on my radio shows including a song they do with Zach Bryan on his new album. This year they were nominated for Best New Artist despite the fact they've been around 10 years, and Blank Page, from their new album, was nominated for Best American Roots Song.

Let's pick up the tempo with Soy Chingona (I'm Cool) from The Tiarras, three Hispanic sisters from Austin, and then Sierra Ferrell's Silver Dollar.

While Jason Isbell was in Oklahoma filming his role as Bill Smith in Killers of the Flower Moon he wrote this tough song about opiod addiction, King of Oklahoma.

Robert Earl Keen has always been a favorite of mine and my son Gary's so here's Crazy Cowboy Dream from 2004.

Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings contributed Listen to the Radio to the Nanci Griffith tribute album, More Than A Whisper: Celebrating The Music Of Nanci Griffith.

Allison Russell's sophomore record, The Returner, picked up several Grammy nominations, including Best American Roots Song for the title song.

Ian Tyson left us this year but here are two of his classics: Judy Collins' cover of Someday Soon and Navajo Rug (which he co-wrote with Tom Russell) by Jerry Jeff Walker.

Some more RIPs:

Tina Turner was beaten and exploited by Ike and Phil Spector turned out to be a murderer but their 1966 collaboration on River Deep, Mountain High is one of the high points in Rock and Soul history.

Charlie Robison, Bruce's brother and onetime husband of Chick Emily Strayer, gave us My Hometown in 1998.

And if you like true stories you won't find one better than Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald!

May and June Radio Shows

In May and June I did three shows on KOOP, one on Pearl's General Store and two on The Lonesome Stranger:

5/5/23 Pearl's General Store

This was a fun show. I started with some duets from Gram and Emmylou and Johnny and June, then played First Aid Kit's fantastic song Emmylou, which namechecks all of them. Lots of Don Williams, some Merle, some Cojo, and Tex-Mex from both the Tiarras and Selena for Cinco de Mayo. In the second hour I had a great set of Miranda Lambert, some local Austin women, music from Crazy Heart, and ended with the Clint Black classic A Better Man.

5/11/23 The Lonesome Stranger

I had a co-host, Saint Annie, who is apprenticing with KOOP, for part of the show. She was fantastic and the music she played, Wilco, the Nude Party, Neko Case and others definitely complemented the music I played. I started with Jason Isbell, who is in town this week, had two women singers in Cover Me, played some Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens, and then a lot of Bruce Robison's songs including some of his Next Waltz projects. The show finished with a shout out to the Big Squeeze, Texas Folklife's youth accordion contest, and then some Red Dirt music from Oklahomans Cross Canadian Ragweed, Turnpike Troubadours and Jimmy LaFave.

6/15/23 The Lonesome Stranger

This was the week Jason Isbell released Weathervanes as well as the 10th anniversary of Southeastern so I played songs from both albums. Then Mary Beth, a new apprentice, came on and played a few sets including Blaze Foley's Clay Pigeons, which John Prine covered. For Pride Month I played songs from Brandy Clark, Brothers Osborne and Allison Russell. I played a few songs from the new album of country Stones covers, Stoned Cold Country, had Grammy winners for both song and performance in Cover Me, and played a bunch of Texas country songs. I did a set of songs (Alabama Pines, My Tennessee Mountain Home and What I Like About Texas) that illustrate why a sense of place is so important to me in southern music, and finished with Anniversary Song for my wife Leslie!

More Radio Shows

I did my first two solo shows on KOOP radio in March (see my previous post on the sets I did while in training).

3/17/23 Pearl's General Store

On March 17 I took over Pearl's General Store for two hours of country and Americana music including the first Cover Me, where I play a great song and then a great cover and ask you the listener to let me know which one you prefer. Since it was St. Patrick's Day I played some Irish music. Also the rodeo was in town and the Luck Reunion at Willie Nelson's ranch was taking place that day so I played some music from both.

3/30/23 Lonesome Stranger

On March 30 I did my first show on the Lonesome Stranger. It was delayed 45 minutes due to technical difficulties but I was able to get a few sets in. Then we brought in Shakey Lyman, a musician from Philadelphia that I didn't know beforehand, to play some songs. This was a good experience for me to handle live music. I finished up with Cover Me at about the 1:02 mark.