Margaritas and Queso – Welcome to Austin.

Pass #1 for the night…

The set list for the evening. I was super pumped to see “Yer So Bad” and “Handle With Care” included.

Road warriors.

Pass #2 for the night….

Me and my new most prized possession

In a complete music blogger fail I really don’t like taking many photos or videos during the actual show. I think it’s distracting and selfishly, I’d just so much rather watch it than document it. So sorry about that, but here’s 10 whole seconds of video I took, just to give you a tease :)

What have these 50 years of Bob Dylan meant to me? Well, considering I was born in that less than magical window between Infidels and Real Live and didn’t really come into my own personal connection with Dylan until Love & Theft I’ve had to play quite a bit of catch up. But I’ve seen him live ten times now, and yes I get it Baby Boomers – I’ve only ever seen the grizzled, snarling, growling, version of Dylan live. And maybe that’s why I defend his live shows so staunchly, short of Michael J. Foxing my way into a DeLorean I’ll never be able to see anything else. But that doesn’t diminish the magic I feel every time I’m at one of his shows. He’s the most important artist in my musical universe, and today is quite the marker of his prolific career.

Whether or not you buy into the “magic of Dylan” I think a milestone this significant deserves to be applauded. 50 years of album making, and no sign of slowing down. Hats off to you Bob and thanks for the music.

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This classic all-star jam is from the celebration marking the 30th Anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan.

So while I don’t have anything substantial to post today I had to share with y’all this face melting live take of  CSNY’s “Almost Cut My Hair.” A good friend sent it to me the other day and I’ve pretty much been playing it on a continuous loop ever since, I’m sure you’ll understand why. Cheers!

Amnesty International has just released a 4-cd album of Bob Dylan covers. Chimes of Freedom features renditions by everyone from Joan Baez to Maroon 5. (Sidenote: Maroon 5 should be on musical timeout until they can think of a way to apologize to the world for “Moves Like Jagger”) The album is a fundraiser for Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary so the music is for a great cause, even if it is all over the place.

There are a few real standouts for me. Mark Knopfler delivers a quietly gorgeous “Restless Farewell.” Jackson Browne doesn’t mess with a good thing on his fairly faithful take of “Love Minus Zero/No Limit.” Adele’s version of “Make You Feel My Love” shouldn’t be new to many but it’s quite lovely. Brett Dennen’s jubilant “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” works well. Throwing a Joan Baez cover in the mix is like letting Baryshnikov compete on So You Think You Can Dance. But her “Seven Curses” is fabulous, obviously. And I love the posthumous collaboration between Johnny Cash’s studio outtake and the Avett Brothers on “One Too Many Mornings,” Johnny Cash has always known his way around a Dylan tune.

But there are plenty of misses among the hits. Lenny Kravitz doesn’t sound nearly high enough for “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” and the sped up tempo feels like there should actually be a jack-in-the-box popping out at the end of the song. Silverstein’s punk take on “Song to Woody” is a terrifying non sequitur. I couldn’t even make it all the way through Silversun Pickup’s overworked “Not Dark Yet.” Maroon 5’s “I Shall Be Released” rings incredibly hollow.

Admission: When I first heard that Miley Cyrus was going to contribute to this album I was, ahem, less than enthusiastic. But she shocked me with her not-terrible, stripped down, country take on “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” It isn’t a musical revelation but it’s a serviceable, and dare I say, endearing cover. Typing that isn’t easy for me, but it’s important to admit.

The majority of the songs plod along through middle ground, being neither a disaster nor a triumph. There’s a lot of music on these CD’s and, unfortunately, a lot of it is forgettable.

Chimes of Freedom is available for purchase and can also be streamed via Spotify.

2011 was the year of the Milk Carton Kids for me. After discovering them at a Joe Purdy concert in April I spent a good chunk of my year listening to their music, going to their shows, and writing about them on this site. It’s exciting to find new artists that I feel so passionately about. And even though I’ve played their albums to absolute pieces they still manage to sometimes just stop me in my tracks.

The Milk Carton Kids’ two albums – Prologue and Retrospect would definitely land in any kind of list of favorites for my year. As would Adele’s blistering smash 21, Ryan Adams’ triumphant Ashes & Fire, Paul Simon’s masterful So  Beautiful or So What, The Black Keys’ down and dirty El Camino, and hometown heroes Blitzen Trapper’s American Goldwing. My totally-not-biased-at-all favorite album of the year would be my sister’s, the eponymous Sea Bell (but you don’t have to take just my word for it)

Bob Dylan turned 70 in May, and celebrated with a European tour opened by Mark Knopfler. Martin Scorsese hit another music documentary homerun with George Harrison: Living in the Material World. Rock & Roll triumphed in Rolling Stone’s Choose the Cover contest when grizzled Southern (Canadian) rockers The Sheepdogs took the grand prize. Longtime holdout Bob Seger began a gradual release of his catalog to iTunes for download. The Beach Boys offered up a comprehensive reissue of the great unfinished Smile sessions. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee class included Leon Russell, Darlene Love, Neil Diamond, and Dr. John.

Mega-talent Amy Winehouse joined the tragic pantheon of musicians gone at the age of 27. And the world lost some true musical luminaries with the passing of bluesmen Pinetop Perkins, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, and Hubert Sumlin, soul crooner Dobie Gray, songwriting powerhouse Jerry Lieber, and The Big Man himself, the incomparable Clarence Clemons.

Looking forward, 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year for music. Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and The Black Keys – some of the best live acts around – will all be hitting the road for U.S. and international tours. Rumors abound about a possible Rolling Stones reunion to mark their 50^th Anniversary. If I were the praying type I would certainly be including that in my nightly appeals.

My parting gift of 2011 is this video from the transcendent Joe Purdy/Milk Carton Kids tour. Enjoy!

All of us (me) here at That Mercury Sound thank you for reading and wish you a very Happy New Year! 

There’s also a special Twitter event tomorrow afternoon that you don’t want to miss. Tom (@tompetty) will be on Twitter from 2:30 to 3:30 PT to answer fan questions. Use hashtag #tompettyTCS to follow or join in on the conversation.

Here is the complete list of dates:

April 19: 1st Bank Center, Broomfield, CO

April 21: Verizon Arena, Little Rock, AR

April 24: Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, NM

April 26: INTRUST Bank Arena, Wichita, KS

April 28: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA

April 29: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA

May 1: Germain Arena, Estero, FL

May 3: Amway Center, Orlando, FL

May 5: Frank Irwin Center, Austin, TX

June 3: Mile One Centre, St. John’s, NL

June 7: 02 Arena, Dublin, IR

June 8: The Marquee, Cork, IR

June 10: 02 World, Hamburg, GER

June 12: Open Air, Horsens, DK

June 14: The Globe, Stockholm, SWE

June 15: Norwegian Wood Festival, Oslo, NOR

June 22: Isle of Wight Festival, UK

June 24: Hallenstadion, Zurich, SWI

June 25: Lanxess Arena, Cologne, GER

June 27: Grand Rex, Paris, FR

June 29: Piazza Napoleone, Lucca, IT

June 30: SAP Arena, Mannheim, GER

Get pumped y’all.

This summer I was out to lunch with my parents and their friends (another musically inclined couple) and my dad posed the question to the table: what bands are on your bucket list? They spent the next several minutes batting around their choices, and reminiscing over some of the truly great shows they’ve seen, while I sat there stewing in jealousy. I generally feel an innate envy of everyone over 50 because their concert records are more often than not the stuff my dreams are made of.  But it got me to thinking – who is on my list?

So after some thought, I came up with the Top Three on my “Must-See Concert Bucket List”

1. The Rolling Stones
2. Dolly Parton
3. Mark Knopfler

If the inclusion of Dolly Parton at the number two slot offends any rock & roller readers of this site I would encourage them to reassess their life. Dolly’s a hell of a songwriter, performer, and all around human being who I would adopt as a surrogate grandmother in a heartbeat. Mark Knopfler, who I personally think was slighted by Rolling Stone – coming in at just #44 on their recent Top 100 Guitarists lists, is someone I’ve wanted to see for a very long time. My heart was breaking a little this fall when he was touring Europe with Bob Dylan and I was stuck in the Midwest with zero funds available for a hop across the Pond.

Of course my dream concert list would be miles longer, and filled with bands and performers that are no longer around. There’s not much I can do about that, sans time machine. I’m fortunate enough to have seen just about everybody I love who is still touring but if I could catch these last three at some point I will be a happy girl. (Ya hear that Stones?) So what about y’all, who’s on your Bucket List?

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  “One of These Days” – Neil Young (seen him, thankfully)

Photo by Michael Putland

I’m a couple weeks late to this party (just started a new job, playing a bit of catch up) but The Rolling Stones have released the audio of their epic 1973 Brussels concert for download. I wrote about this concert last year, when I streamed it for the first time from Wolfgang’s Vault and it legitimately knocked my socks off. It really is vintage live Stones at their finest. And now, the Stones have opened their online vault and are releasing this fantastic scorcher of a concert for download. The mp3 version is only $7.00 and FLAC is just $2 more. The concert has been  a popular bootleg for years but the audio quality on this official release is really stellar. And I can’t think of many cooler things you can get for $7. Ease the post-Thanksgiving weekend transition back to reality by downloading it today, and start your week rocking.