Favorites of 2010 So Far: February

1. Joe Pug - Messenger

2. Kasey Anderson - Nowhere Nights

3. Retribution Gospel Choir - 2

4. Great American Taxi - Reckless Habits

5. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

6. Tim Barry - 28th & Stonewall

7. Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave

8. Reckless Kelly - Somewhere in Time

9. Ray Wylie Hubbard - A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C)

10. Butch Walker and the Black Widows - I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart

11. Carolina Chocolate Drops - Genuine Negro Jig

12. Freedy Johnston - Rain on the City

13. Rogue Wave - Permalight

14. I See Hawks in L.A. - Should've Been Gold

15. The Brothers Comatose - Songs from the Stoop

16. Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here

17. Whispering Pines - Family Tree

18. Spoon - Transference

19. Vampire Weekend - Contra

20. The Honey Dewdrops - If the Sun Will Shine

YouTube Gems: Rodney Hayden

Seems only appropriate on Rodney and Johnny's birthday (and mine!):

You know those annoying ads on the side of most blogs and sites?

Here's the countryfied version:

Songs Illustrated #14

John Rich's Songwriting Tips #30

Don't sell out. Set your writing principals right up front and stand by them. Believe it or not, this one's set in stone for me. I will never compromise myself from the belief that you should only write schlock, dreck, trite crap... whatever it takes to keep them royalty checks filling up your gold-plated mailbox at the end of your dogwood lined brick driveway. No way in the pit of Hades would I stoop to writing story songs, Americana, alt-anything or something with literary references. Porn references maybe. Live by this creed: Dance with the bitch that brung ya.

*Not actually written by John Rich.