Traveling a path that has led him from his native Virginia, to NYC and Los Angeles, singer/songwriter Sharif (Myspace / Official) has honed his skills as an emotive performer that sheds all inhibitions with the vulnerable and excellent slice of pop, Kisses & Lies.

The artist known as Sharif, tip-toes a fine line between saccharine and jubilant. That said, most of the 14 songs mercifully fall into the category of the latter, on this his third studio album. Gems such as twangy album opener “Far From You”, and the equally twangy duet with heart-throb hero Rhett Miller, “Dark Side of the Dawn”, are great examples of tunes that would fall comfortably onto a Zach Braff movie soundtrack. Most of the album’s tracks lay on a bed of acoustic arrangements, augmented with sweet harmonies and an even sweeter pedal steel that gives the songs an alt-country warmth that glows.

Lyrically sticking to various forms of love, Sharif doesn’t mind ripping his heart right from his sleeve entirely and simply offering it to the listener, as is. The lack of pretense that flows through the entire record results in an engagingly organic experience.

Reckless Habits comes out of the gate burning with a New Orleans-style, swampy. roots number, One Of These Days, that could have been a Tony Jo White composition, with horns.  Other songs that get that second line feeling going are New Millenium Blues where “mommy’s got two jobs and daddy’s got three”, the John Hartford tune Got No Better, and a version of the Bill Monroe classic Big Sandy River.  The album finishes with the other half of the bookends, Parade, a cut that’s basically the sound of a New Orleans parade band coming up the street and then moving on.

Another primary musical influence in Reckless Habits is clearly Gram Parsons.  From the title cut and it’s story, “poor old Gram burned up in the desert”, to Albuquerque, NM, there’s a lot to love for fans of pedal steel, dualing lead guitars, and multi-part harmonies (think Allman Brothers).  In that same vein is American Beauty (guess who that’s a shout-out to) and Fuzzy Little Hippy Girl about the summertime festival scene.

Finally, I have to mention the musical Easter eggs.  You know, those little surprises you find hidden in an album.  Sometimes they’re from the songwriter, like the verse “wild horses singing rock and roll” about the friendship Parsons had with the Stones.  Other times it’s more of a production gift.  Listen to Cold Lonely Time and remember the first time you heard the soaring female vocal moan/scream of Claire Tory in Great Gig in the Sky.  In some ways, that’s what the whole album is about: a musical gift to today’s listeners from a number of musicians who are no longer with us, but channeled through Great American Taxi.

Rich McCulley’s (Official / Myspace) 4th album, Starting All Over Again wastes no time in establishing its identity as a catchy pop-rock record that twangs in just the right spots and even reflects without moping. “Tell Me, I’m Listening”, “Dreams Tonight” and “The Last Song” open the album with a steady tempo that rocks along and provides a proper vehicle for McCulley’s smooth, if not borderline precious, vocals.

McCulley shows off his impressive set of skills by handling an array of instruments that are featured. While the slide and acoustic guitar, along with the dobro belong to McCulley, many of his friends join in the fun as well. Grant Langston and the recently passed-away Amy Farris are among the fine collaborators who lend a helping hand. It isnt difficult for a collection of straight-forward rock tunes to seem stale and formulaic. Not to worry here, as the tight, urgent and brightly melodic arrangement of each song shares top billing with McCulley’s writing. Starting All Over Again is a great example of a Singer/Songwriter crafting an album that elevates him beyond such a benign, utilitarian label. Thanks to not only his handling of so many aspects of the album’s production, but also to his welcoming of talented and helpful artists, perhaps it would be more accurate to describe McCulley’s latest as a true performer’s record.

Hear Tunes From The New Record at Rich McCulley’s Official Site

The album begins with the broken love of “Just the Same.” On this song Collins declares “A rose by any other name is just a flower in the rain. She was born to hold your dreams back by strain.” On the title cut we get a glimpse of what he feels gets in the way of Love’s happiness, “you always said that choice was a device in a disguise. Place you bets and leave because the heartache’s in the details.” It seems we can reinvent what is good about a relationship into something entirely different. Then there is “The Island,” which uses seemingly incongruent metaphors to bring it all together in a hopeful way.

All of these conceptual twists and turns have an underlying edgy beat that moves them along. The groove is consistent among the songs, but it is not monotonous. There is an undertone to the music that makes it one of those albums you can play over and over again. Give it a try. I bet you’ll listen more than once.

Shoulda Been Gold is the fifth Hawks album.  The title is a reference to it being an album of their greatest hits, which, if you subscribe to the Nashville or Variety way of counting, they don’t have.  Gotta love the sarcasm.  If you’re a long time fan, or just new to the Hawks, though, this is a good sample of some of their best work, with some new tunes thrown in for good measure.

Take for example I See Hawks In L.A., the eponymous track about being a free spirit in a town built on beauty and a perceived ideal.  Similarly The Salesman explores selling hope in the guise of con men and televangelism.

As you can imagine, the Hawks can be master story-tellers, accomplishing political commentary with a tale about a place or time and how it affects someone.  One of my favorites is Humboldt, the northern California county where “I’d be glad to plant corn in the ground, but corn don’t go for three-thousand a pound.”  They also included Raised By Hippies, which is about exactly what you think it’s about.

Depending on how you count, there are 5-6 new songs on this greatest hits collection.  Sexy Vacation is the one I’d tag as being the closest to a classic ISHILA tune.  But the one I like better is the live version of Mystery of Life.  It’s an a cappella, old-timey version where the boys harmonize it’s “each man’s destiny to face the mystery of life…alone.”  And so it is.

For a guy from Dallas, I will admit to feeling pretty lucky about the great music I have available to me throughout the Dallas, Ft. Worth and Denton area, no doubt. I will also admit that I sometimes get twinges of jealousy of the music lovers in my state’s capitol. Austin is obviously home to so many great bands, clubs and festivals, that I am not breaking news here in any way by saying that Austin is quite the place for awesome tunes.

The most recent band that has made me feel that sickly shade of green are The Texas Sapphires (Official / Myspace). Their upcoming sophomore CD, As He Wanders (Ike) is an absolute gem (get it? Sapphires, “gem”…yeah, I’m hilarious). The vocals and harmonies between Rebecca Lucille Cannon and Billy Brent Malkus are reminiscent of fellow Austin co-ed honky-tonk harmonizers Josh Zee and Teal Collins from The Mother Truckers, especially on the opening track, “Nashville Moon”. While not as rambunctious as the Truckers, the Sapphiers possess an old school ethos as many of the album’s tracks would feel at home on some of the sparsely produced greats from 1970’s Red Headed Stranger-era Austin. In fact, after listening to the album a couple of times, I felt as though the band itself would also feel rather at-home in that era, gigging at the World Armadillo Headquarters perhaps.

“Riddled Days” displays a spry and sweet simplicity while the pedal steel elevates many of the songs as it dances ever-so spiritedly through the up-tempo numbers and then wafts lightly as it cries through the slower tunes. Hey, two of the players here also play with Dale Watson, so that’s awesome and needs no further explanation. While the label “Honky-Tonk” has been overused, this band’s sound is tailor-made for shuffling around a dusty floor with a brew in one hand and a pretty lady in the other.

#9 Michelle Shocked.  Many successful singer-songwriters have the ability to tell stories and talk to the audience like you’re in a friend’s living room and they just decided to pick up the guitar and play a couple of songs.  Michelle’s show at Yoshi’s in San Francisco was a prime example of that as she previewed her new album and played many of her (and the audience’s) old favorites.

#8 The Lovell Sisters.  I didn’t walk away from their set at this year’s Old Settler’s Music Festival thinking these young women were going to make a best-of list.  But I found myself checking back during the year hoping they would do a tour swing to the west coast.  Their enthusiasm was contagious and they have some serious bluegrass chops.  Unfortunately, the oldest sister has now left the group and gone off to college, so that may have been my last chance to see them live.

#7 The Gourds.  I know, these guys are kind of a ringer in this category.  After all, they’re a live act that sometimes does recordings.  But expectations can be pretty high when you have that reputation, and The Gourds set at the campground at Old Settler’s met and exceeded the hype.

#6 Fred Eaglesmith.  Fred’s show last January at the Little Fox was a gem.  He shared insight into what his songs were about, talked about his beloved old guitar, made the usual amount of smart-ass political commentary, and just generally entertained the crowd with a couple of classic sets of his work.

#5 Great American Taxi.  Born from the ashes of jam band legend Leftover Salmon, Great American Taxi utilizes that live experience in their shows.  But this group isn’t about long stretches of instrumental solos.  Instead, they use that improvisational ability to tweak and mold their songs to the event so every performance is different, yet keeps a common thread.

#4 Belleville Outfit.  You have to love it when a group takes inspiration from their setting.  It’s why live music can be so thrilling.  These Americana hipsters from South Carolina took their western swing and country-folk songs, jazzed them up even more for the setting at Yoshi’s, and transported the audience to a New York or Kansas City jazz club circa the 1940’s.

#3 Ben Sollee.  Ben’s set at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival was as much an education as a performance.  I don’t mean he lectured, but that he gave a lesson in how an instrument can take on so many voices.  Ben’s background playing the cello stretches from classical to bluegrass, and his performance was a masterpiece that combined many genres.

#2 Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women.  Starting with a lineup of superstar session players, Dave Alvin has melded the Guilty Women into a group whose sum is far greater than their separate parts.  Their set at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was a jaw-dropping example of how a tight team of soloists can be just as amazing together as they are individually.  The groove they were laying down…oh my!  It was hard to believe this isn’t a band that’s been playing together 20 years.

#1 Booker T & the Drive-by Truckers.  Live music is at its finest when it conveys a sense of time and place such that you know the performance was so good it could never be repeated simply because the circumstances will never be the same.  That’s what happened at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park when Booker T Jones and the Drive-by Truckers teamed up.  Their set was great, but they finished up with Booker T reminiscing about his time with Otis Redding, the last time he’d been in San Francisco, and then diving into a performance of “Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay”.  One hundred thousand people whistling along in the right places.  It was magical.

So there you have my favorites.  Go catch some live music this year and we’ll compare notes this time next year.

I came across a few tracks from Quiet Life (Myspace) a while back. I really enjoyed them and looked forward to hearing more sometime. Well, that time has come with the release of their newest EP, California Vacation.

As with the last batch of songs I listened to, the tracks here are a fun and loose collection that shows signs of California canyon-country, folk and a dash or two of Whiskeytown thrown in the concoction. “Downtown” is a raw, swinging and barn-burning hoedown, while “Games People Play” successfully shimmies in the Golden State sunshine. Call me crazy, but I think that the “Laurel Canyon Vibe” has become perhaps my favorite musical theme, when done effectively. The warmth of such a retro-fitted sound has served many great albums well as of late. A reworked “Cave Country” subtracts the jangly acoustic folk-rock in favor of a stripped down and more sparsely arranged version that meshes with the overall sonic theme. The vocals possess a vulnerable echo and are properly lo-fi and also suit the EP well as a whole.

“Arms & Legs” is an inspirational tribute to love built around a brilliantly simple conceit, “if you wanna know what love is, these are my arms, these are my legs, these are the thoughts running ‘round in my head, I wanna be where you are, I wanna do what you do, ‘cause nothing really matters but you.”

“Flowers” is a potent reflection on the challenges of politics and modern society, accompanied by a plea for compassion. “Death starvation exploitation, helpless, homeless, curious, mass confusion, disillusion,” sings Hunter, “sometimes flowers ain’t enough.” Here’s hoping that we heed the call.

Ridiculously Beautiful, Bob Walkenhorst & Jeff Porter (from the self-released No Abandon)
You’ll first be captivated by the enchanting melody. Repeated listens, however, will illuminate the depth of the lyrics. Walkenhorst is a songwriter of tremendous grace and maturity.

Audio Download: Bob Walkenhorst & Jeff Porter, “Ridiculously Beautiful (live)”

What Are You Willing to Lose, Lucero (from the Republic/Universal Records release 1372 Overton Park)
I cycled through a bunch of the Lucero’s latest through the back half of the year, finally settling on this as the stand-out of the bunch. The unbridled raw energy, punctuated by the knock-out horn accompaniment, sealed the deal. Then, of course, there are Ben Nichols colorful lyrics. “So what if all my heroes are the losing kind? Well we ended up with nothin’ but we put up a fight, and most of it was choices we never asked to choose, the rest of it was luck and now we’re out of that too.”

Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For This, Justin Townes Earle (from the Bloodshot Records release Midnight at the Movies)
The melody is soothing but the lyrics are anything but serene. Earle’s apparently autobiographical depiction of a romantic break-up perfectly captures the combination of resolution and regret.

Yesterday’s Make Up, Michelle Malone (from the SBS Records release Debris)
Malone turns a walk of shame into a jubilant love song.

Audio Download: Michelle Malone, “Yesterday’s Make-Up”

Poetry of the Deed, Frank Turner (from the Epitath Records release Poetry of the Deed)
I just love the fact that beneath the surface of this infectious rocker is an equally outstanding folk song. “Life is too short to live without poetry, if you’ve got soul, darling now come on and show it me.”

Covers of the Year
Faithfully, Matt the Electrician (from the self-released Animal Boy)
Matt the Electrician has always been a distinctive singer-songwriter. Listening to him reinterpret the Journey classic only serves to put an exclamation point on the statement.

Audio Download: Matt the Electrician, “Faithfully”

Can’t Hardly Wait, Justin Townes Earle (from the Bloodshot Records release Midnight at the Movies)
A mandolin transforms the Replacements’ classic into a country tune without losing any of the energy.

View Part 1 of Mayer’s Best of 2009 (the songs) here.

Audio Download: Willie Nile, “Give Me Tomorrow”

Good, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit (from the Lightning Rod Records release Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit)
I still find it amazing that, even 10 months after its release, I still break out into a smile when I hear the opening guitar blast of this furious rock track. Perhaps less surprising is the adrenaline rush that persists for the next four minutes and forty-five seconds. Isbell continues to amaze.

Car Bomb Times, Gretel (from the self-released The Dregs)
From the striking lyrics to the magnificent harmonies, this song is simply stunning.

Audio Download: Gretel, “Car Bomb Times”

Chalk, Buddy and Julie Miller (from the New West Records release Written in Chalk)
Buddy and Julie Miller have the magic touch. Their broad musical talents – his aching voice, remarkable guitar-work and superb production; her breathtaking songwriting – converge on a song guaranteed to send a chill down one’s spine. I’ll stand by the words I wrote earlier in the year: If there is a more heart-breaking song this year, I haven’t heard it.

Cry, Slaid Cleaves (from the Music Road release Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away)
Cleaves employs a generous vocabulary to write songs that are filled with lyrical imagery. The gentleness of his voice and the wistfulness of his songs only accentuate the contemplative feel of his songs. “There’s no poison like a dream when it all comes undone, don’t you know that in the end you’re not fooling anyone.”

I Can’t Get Out, Session Americana (from the self-released Diving for Gold)
While it may seem a bit ironic that the least “Americana” sounding track on this release was the stand-out, it is really a testament to the band’s musicianship. Both music and lyrics fall somewhere between haunting and beautiful. “Confessions and regrets make whispers and goodbyes, you’re leaking all the daylight along the path behind.”

Audio Download: Session Americana, “I Can’t Get Out”

Smack You Back, PorterDavis (from the self-released porterdavis)
The only thing more biting than this song’s lyrics is the killer bluesy riff. This Austin trio of harmonica, guitar and modified drum kit knows how to pack a punch. “Smack me and I’ll smack you back, I’m running away, ain’t never comin’ back.”

Audio Download: porterdavis, “Smack You Back”

55 Pictures, The Damnwells (from the self-released One Last Century)
Singer-songwriter Alex Dezen has a knack for winsome rock-and-roll. His catalogue abounds with immaculately crafted songs with immensely hummable melodies, few more so than this gem from the band’s latest release.

Audio Download: The Damnwells, “55 Pictures”

Why Modern Radio is OK, Roman Candle (from the Thirty Tigers release Oh Tall Tree in the Ear)
There are any number of songs on Oh Tall Tree in the Ear that illustrate the intelligent, organic pop of Roman Candle. I always fall back to this one that marries a primer in American music with a tale of broken romance, as told by two old friends meeting in a bar.

Last One to Die, Rancid (from the Epitath Records release Let the Dominos Fall)
The LA punk band rocks with a fury that bands twenty years their junior should envy. “We got it right, you got it wrong, we’re still around, last one to die,” said with a sneer.