George Strait Singing Folsom Prison Blues And Snow In South Austin

• Mark Jordan has an article over on Commercial Appeal about a George Strait concert on Saturday night.
  

  After closing the main set with his own boogie woogie number “Unwound,” Strait returned for an encore that included “High Tone Woman” and a witty version of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” that featured the singer doing an uncanny Man in Black impersonation. Strait closed the night appropriately with the sagebrush benediction “Cowboy Rides Away.”

  The only time I’ve seen Strait in concert he ended is show with Cowboy Rides Away, so I’m guessing this is probably a regular thing for him. However, I didn’t get to hear his rendition of Folsom Prison Blues. I like to hear other artists covers of famous songs just to see how they make it their own. Sometimes they’re good, but other times they’re pretty terrible.

• A 30 year old indie label, Shanachie Entertainment, has decided to branch out into country music. They’ve signed David Ball, Daryle Singletary, and country rock band Confederate Railroad, all of whom I think are solid choices even if they have fallen off the map. The labels general manager had this to say:
  

  “There’s a widespread feeling that a big piece of what made country music great isn’t being highlighted these days. If the audience that wants that is being underserved, then we’d like to serve it.”

  I like his approach, and it’s not all talk either. All three artists have a new album scheduled for early this year. Singletary’s album, From the Heart is the first one that’s due out.

  “From the Heart,” due February 27, revives songs by Merle Haggard, Randy Travis and Keith Whitley, among others. Its lone original tune, “I Still Sing This Way,” was written by Singletary with Chris DuBois and David Lee. A wry look at today’s country scene, it tells the story of a manager who wants Singletary to update his image. His reply? “You can turn down the fiddle and steel guitar, try to market me like a big pop star, I’m afraid it’ll all go south when I open my mouth.”

• Tennessean.com follows up the story about Nancy Jones, wife of George Jones, and her little spat with a local radio show jockey. She doesn’t feel like she effectively got her message across and tries to clarify some things. “She thinks it’s important enough to keep saying it — not for her husband, who’s had a remarkable career, but for the young artists who will never get a chance to be heard. And she has received letters from others who agree.”
• Brad Paisley’s album, Time Well Wasted, has hit double platinum. So now he’s started working on a new album.
• It’s nice to see Jason Boland and the Stragglers getting some publicity outside of Texas.
• This Is Texas Music says farewell to the band Cooder Graw. I don’t think they ever achieved a significant amount of success, but keep your eyes open for the lead singer, Matt Martindale. He’ll be hitting the road with his own band and releasing an album later this year.

On a side note, is anyone else getting some crappy weather? The past couple of days have been slushy rain that basically shut the whole city down because people around here can’t drive when it gets a little icy. This morning it started to snow a little, which is extremely unusual for Austin. I can count the number of times it’s snowed here during my lifetime on one hand. The snow didn’t last very long, but it was kind of nice while it was here.

If you look close enough you can see the flurries in my picture.