more from SXSW

Amy Winehouse, Cold War Kids and all the 'old guys' were the stories coming out of SXSW for me this year. Turns out my search for the 'new Supremes' came true in UK star Amy Winehouse--she has that old fashioned STAR POWER, great voice and solid songs. On stage, she's a bad girl too --you just can't take your eyes off her. Oddly, the title track from her new album is a Baby Love rip off. Check her out tho! SXSW is generally all about new artists and debuts but this year the old guys did it for me. Stax Records Revue, Lee Scratch Perry, Public Enemy, Emmylou Harris, Iggy and the Stooges, Rickie Lee Jones and Vashti Bunyan to name a few.

Stax and Lee Scratch Perry broke a long stretch of white guy rock and it was liberating to actually dance and enjoy the groove of music. Talk about groove--Booker T and the MG's! It was good to see Isaac Hayes too altho he was looking a bit frail. Williams Bell did Private Number and then Eddie Floyd came out. Wow! It was so cool to see these guys too (OK, DISCLAIMER HERE--BEWARE ELITIST STATEMENT COMING:) in a setting of music lovers and critcs as opposed to a casino or on some greatest hits/olides tour. I wonder if that matters to them. One thing is for sure, they probably make more money at Foxwoods.

Speaking of greatest hits tours, Rickie Lee Jones is NOT on one. She is def on her own trip and groove these days and i am so moved by her new material and her love of it. I caught her a few times live and even on the radio once at KGSR. Which, btw, is a really good commercial station with the occasional really bad song. You'll hear Prine, Townes, and Dylan but then get thrown off by Shattered or I'm Goin Down or bad Squeeze. But they had Rickie on for like 30 minutes just playing live and talking. I was glued to the radio and that usually only happens back home for me!