MY FAVORITE SONGS OF 2012 (OR, THIS IS WHERE I MENTION FRANK OCEAN)

Over the past few days, I've posted about some of my favorite albums of the year. But there were a lot of great songs that weren't on any of them, so I'm gonna do one more quick list. Ready?  Here we go:

Frank Ocean - "Thinkin' 'Bout You": I kind of feel like I have to justify why Ocean wasn't on my top albums of the year.  So here it is:  I really wanted to like his album. A vote for him seemed to equal a vote for a world where being gay is no big deal. I'm all about it. But I just don't love the album, it doesn't keep my interest at all.  And that said, "Thinkin' 'Bout You" might be the best song I heard all year. It's so moving, it gets me every time.  Just based on this song, I'll pick up his next album.  The guy is clearly talented as hell.

Solange - "Losing You": My boss turned me on to this song, and he's a tough crowd, so I checked it out. What an amazing song.  If it's possible for her to get out of her sister's shadow, this is the song that should be able to do it.  

M.I.A. - "Bad Girlz": Unfortunately, the headlines M.I.A. made in 2012 were all about her little moment of  giving the finger to the camera at the Super Bowl. It was dumb and goofy.  But at least she put out a great song, and the video for this was pretty cool too.

Santigold - "Disparate Youth": She's always interesting. This song is a bit more "new-wave-y" than her prior songs.  It actually reminds me of New Order for some reason.

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood - "Let's Go Let's Go Let's Go": I'm not very familiar with Chris Robinson's solo stuff, although I have certainly enjoyed his music with The Black Crowes. But wow, what a great song, it sounds like something that would have been on a Sam Cooke record or a very early Motown single.

Ryan Shaw - "Morning Noon And Night": Actually, I need to check out his album.  I heard his song in Starbucks, Shazam-ed it, and downloaded it.  It's one of the best things I've heard all year and also kind of Sam Cooke-ian.

Leonard Cohen - "Going Home": I can't really get into entire Leonard Cohen albums, but I do love some of his songs, and this one is a classic.

Willie Nelson - "Just Breathe": I liked Willie's album, Heroes, but not enough to include it in my top albums of 2012.  But this Pearl Jam cover was incredible.

The Beach Boys - "That's Why God Made The Radio" I'm fascinated that it even got made. And I love the fact that there's no acknowledgement of anything current.  This is a 100% authentic Brian Wilson creation.

Van Halen - "Stay Frosty": This was also an unlikely, and solid, reunion.  David Lee Roth had lots of great lines, Ed Van Halen sounds inspired and Alex and Wolfgang are solid. This song is the highlight, and actually can stand up next to some of their earlier stuff. 

The Rolling Stones - "Doom And Gloom"/"One More Shot": Basically, they kicked everyone's ass with these songs.  

Led Zeppelin - "Good Times Bad Times (live)": I could have picked any song from Celebration Day, really.  But this is the first song on the album and the excitement is tangible.  I have to do a separate post about this album, I can't believe how great it is. 

Aerosmith - "Oh Yeah": I wish I liked their album, Music From Another Dimension, more than I do.  We had to wait so long for it! But "Oh Yeah," which Joe Perry wrote, is 100% classic Aerosmith. 

Paul McCartney/Dave Grohl/Krist Novoselic/Pat Smear - "Cut Me Some Slack": Rocking.  

The Wallflowers featuring Mick Jones - "Reboot The Mission": Basically a Clash tribute.  In the best way. 

Joey Ramone - "New York City": It holds up to the greatest Ramones songs.  I love it. 

Gaslight Anthem - "45": I thought this should have been the song to bring them to the "next level." 

Iggy Pop and Bethany Cosentino - "Let's Boot And Rally": a great song from True Blood, written by the show's music director, Gary Calamar. Calamar wrote the song for them, and he told me about it. And this is where I get to include Best Coast (the band Ms. Costentino sings for; I like them, but not enough to include them on this list). 

WE WALK THE LINE: JOHNNY CASH TRIBUTE

This week, Sony Legacy released We Walk The Line: A Celebration Of The Music Of Johnny Cash. It's a live album of a concert recorded earlier this year in Austin, Texas.  An impressive group of singers joined an amazing house band to pay tribute to the songs that Johnny sang.  He didn't always write the songs he sang, but when the man took a tune on, it belonged to him.

My favorite performance on the album is Lucinda Williams doing Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails classic "Hurt," which Johnny covered on American IV: The Man Comes Around. But there are a lot of great performances here.  Jamey Johnson is kind of the perfect guy to sing Johnny songs: he does "Sunday Morning Coming Down" with Kris Kristofferson, which is great.   Buddy Miller's "Hey Porter" is great, as is the Carolina Chocolate Drops' "Jackson," Shooter Jennings' "Cocaine Blues" and Willie Nelson's "I Still Miss Someone."

The most moving part of the night might have been the cover of The Highwaymen's "Highwayman."  The Highwaymen were, of course, Cash, Willie, Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.  So, this version featured Willie and Kristofferson, along with Jamey Johnson singing Johnny's part, and Shooter singing his dad's part.  I got chills listening.  Also, the arrangement is way cooler than the original from the album.

I have to give it up to the house band: Buddy Miller on guitar, Blue Note Records president Don Was on bass, Greg Leisz on slide guitar, Kenny Aronoff on drums and Ian McLagan on keyboards.  Mr. McLagan actually told me all about the show in a recent interview. He told me there'd probably be some kind of tour supporting it, with the house band and different singers in each city.  I hope that that's still on.  Hell, I don't care if they get any famous singers: just put Buddy Miller on the mic, that's good enough for me!

WILLIE NELSON AT THE WELLMONT 05/17/2012

photo credit: Maria Ives 

I reviewed this show already for my day job at CBS Local, but I wanted to share a more personal version here.

Willie Nelson is timeless.  I rated him as one of the best artists of the '00s a few years ago. That's actually one of my only issues with seeing Willie live:  he mostly ignores his recent material.  I guess that some of his albums are so stylized it would be tough to reproduce, like 2009's collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie & The Wheel. But last year's Country Music was one of my favorites of the year, and I think he could have definitely played some of those songs. He did play two songs from the past few years, both songs I really like: "Superman" and "Beer For My Horses" (the latter written by Toby Keith).  I was glad that he played some stuff from his new album Heroes (I'll review that soon as well, hopefully). "Roll Me Up" was a lot of fun: the studio version features Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson, but it was just as much fun solo. He also played his version of "A Horse Called Music" from the new album (a song he's recorded before). The version on the new album features the great Merle Haggard, but it was fine without him.

I did wish that Willie's son, Lukas Nelson, was there though:  he's such an important part of the new album, I figured they might have done more new songs if was there. I would have loved to hear their cover of Pearl Jam's "Just Breathe" (my former colleagues at SiriusXM shot a cool video of Willie and Lukas performing the song).

Of course, none of this is to say that the old songs weren't amazing.  Willie tends to barrel through his old songs in concert, and I kind of wish he'd slow down a bit.  But still, he has a lot of songs to play.  I'll never get tired of seeing Willie perform "Still Is Still Moving To Me," "Me and Paul," "On The Road Again," Crazy," "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Always On My Mind." I wonder if *he* gets tired of them. He sure didn't look tired of them at this show.  And his guitar playing is awesome.  He is such a unique guitarist, I love listening to him play. His band, of course, was incredible: sister Bobbie Nelson plays piano, Mickey Raphael plays harmonica, and there's a bass player and a drummer  who plays a single snare.

I'm so glad that Willie is still touring, and if you have the chance, do yourself a favor and catch him in concert.  He's not just an American treasure, he's also gives everyone a damn good time.

WILLIE NELSON - "REMEMBER ME VOL. 1"

Late last year, without much hype, Willie Nelson released another album, Remember Me Vol. 1. The LP sees Willie covering some of the biggest classic country hits of all time.

Which is sort of similar to what he did on his last album, Country Music, which was one of my favorite albums of 2010.  That album was produced by T-Bone Burnett, and featured lots of timeless songs.   This one was produced by James Stroud, It doesn't have the sense of occasion that a T-Bone production, but I think it's a cool album.  You really can't go wrong with Willie singing songs like "Remember Me," "Why Baby Why," "I'm Movin' On," "Sunday Morning Comin' Down," "Satisfied Mind" and even "Roly Poly." The album won't change the world or expose Willie to any new fans, but I like it.

I know that there's a Volume 2 coming out later this year, and I've also heard that he's writing new songs for a new album (his last few albums haven't featured his own compositions).  That's what I'm looking forward to: new songs by Willie Nelson.  For now, I'm enjoying this one, if not as much as some of his other great albums like Country Music and Willie & The Wheel.

T-BONE BURNETT - "THE PRODUCER"

Musician Joseph Henry Burnett is more well known as T-Bone Burnett, but I've been calling him "Him Again." He has produced so many of my favorite albums of recent years, including Gregg Allman's Low Country Blues, Steve Earle's I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, Willie Nelson's Country Music, and the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss collaboration, Raising Sand, as well as the soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski and Crazy Heart.

A neat new compilation that I bought at Starbucks (but I don't believe it's exclusive to the chain) collects lots of the cool music he has produced over the years.  T-Bone himself writes about all the songs, which is really cool.  The collection does a good job of hitting many of his recent high points, although it omits the Willie album.  Still, definitely worth getting, particularly if you don't have a lot of these records.

GRAMMY WATCH: BEST AMERICANA ALBUM

Out of all the categories in this year's Grammy Awards, the most difficult for me as a voter was the Best Americana Album category. All five of the albums are incredible.

First is Rosanne Cash's The List, which came out in early 2010. The title is a reference to an actual list that her father, Johnny Cash, made for her of some of the greatest songs of all time, like "Long Black Veil," "Motherless Children" and "I'm Movin' On." It's mostly a solo album, but there are duets with Bruce Springsteen, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Tweedy and Elvis Costello. It's a really great and moving album (and kind of seems made for the Grammys, I was kind of surprised it didn't get more nominations, but the fact that it came out so long ago probably worked against it).

Los Lobos' Tin Can Trust was one of my favorite albums of 2010, I've written about it before. I'll just say that Los Lobos never seem to get their due. I love this album, I love the band. In 2011, I'm planning on completing my Los Lobos CD collection. I've never seen them live, this year I hope to change that. It shouldn't be hard, they seem to tour very frequently.

Willie Nelson's T-Bone Burnett-produced Country Music was another album that I loved, and I'm sorry that it didn't get more attention. I guess part of Willie's problem is that he is so prolific, people can hardly keep up with all of his albums. Country Music really was great... of course, it wasn't "country" in the current mainstream Nashville sense, but it did have great songs like "Dark As A Dungeon," "House Of Gold," "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down" and "House Of Gold." Willie and T-Bone's regulars cooked up a great brew (among other things, probably) of amazing music.

Robert Plant's Band Of Joy was another of my favorite albums of 2010. I listen to it all the time, and am still amazed by it. Also amazing is the strength of his vision and his commitment to it. At this point, he's not only turning down lucrative Led Zeppelin tours to do his own thing, he's turing down the follow up to his multi-Grammy winning collab with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand.

Ultimately the album I loved the most was my second favorite album of 2010, Mavis Staples' You Are Not Alone... the title track was my favorite song of the year and one of my favorite songs of all time. Also - I don't vote based on this - I was surprised to learn that Mavis has never won a Grammy! This is a career record for her, and I'd love to see her get the recognition, so here's hoping she wins on Sunday.

WILLIE NELSON - COUNTRY MUSIC - TIE FOR #11

One album that I felt was really overlooked and underrated in 2010 was the latest from Willie Nelson, Country Music. Produced by T-Bone ("Him Again") Burnett, The name of the album may seem odd or obvious, as Willie is kind of synonymous with country music, but he often makes excursions into other genres: in 2009, he released an album of standards (American Classic) and Texas swing (Willie & The Wheel, a collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, which I loved). So, in one regard, it's a return to classic country music.

But the title can also double as a reminder to Nashville that this is country music. The Nashville establishment respects Willie, but don't ever support his new music (the same is true for Merle, it was true for Cash and Waylon during the last few decades of their lifetimes).

Actually, "country music" may be a bit deceptive, unless you consider the roots of the genre, which were tied to gospel music. The album features some old gospel numbers like "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (coincidentally, former Burnett client Robert Plant covered it on his latest album, Band Of Joy), "Satisfied Mind," and Hank Williams' "House Of Gold."  Other country classics include Merle Travis' "Dark As A Dungeon," Doc Watson's "Freight Train Boogie" and "You Done Me Wrong," written by Ray Price and George Jones. The album isn't some gimmicky marketing project though, it is a collection of well-chosen songs that Willie takes and makes his own.

Willie Nelson is so prolific it can be hard to keep up with all of the albums that he puts out (I am a huge fan of his more recent music).  This album isn't a stretch into different waters for him, as (you could argue) his forays into standards, blues, children's music or  reggae have been.  (Let's forget that reggae album ever happened, actually.) This is a master artist picking songs that are classics but not overplayed, and he actually brings new life to all of them.  Highly recommended.

OK, NOT EVERYONE LOVES JOHNNY CASH'S AMERICAN RECORDINGS

I thought that Johnny Cash's series of American Recordings albums, produced by Rick Rubin, were universally loved classics.  *I* love them. But a few months back, I read an interview with Bob Dylan who said he really didn't like those albums, and in a recent interview in Uncut, Willie Nelson says that "Aw, I could probably do that one of these days, do my morbid album. My wrist-slashing music. No, they weren't my favorite Johnny Cash albums." OK! Well, I'll still maintain that those albums are great, and Cash and Rubin's partnership was a pretty cool one.

P.S. I love Willie's new album, Country Music. It is one of my favorite albums of the year.  Last year, his album with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie & The Wheel, was one of my favorites too. I'm just glad that so many of the artists that I love are able to make great music after they are AARP eligible. 

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: ARE YOU READY FOR THE COUNTRY

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. This week I will be talking about country music.

At the risk of sounding like I'm pimping the company I work for, I should mention that most of this music is stuff that you can hear on the SIRIUS XM channel Outlaw Country, which was one of the reasons why I subscribed in the first place (before I even worked there!).

Elizabeth Cook, in fact, is a DJ on the channel. She's a great reason to wake up in the morning: she is so entertaining to listen to. Add that to her music, and she's a star in the making. So listen to her now, so you can brag to your friends when she's a big star next year! Really, though, her music is great. She reminds me of Loretta Lynn or maybe Dolly Parton. She's able to do total ass-kicking songs that are funny ("Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman") and then heartfelt ballads that really hit you ("Heroin Addict Sister"). Her new album, Welder, comes out next week.

Reckless Kelly is a band who, like The Drive-By Truckers, I would not have gotten into without Outlaw Country. Great, great southern rock band. Their new album, Somewhere In Time, is a tribute to a songwriter named Pinto Bennett -- all the songs were written by him. There are just so many great songs on the album. They are so catchy, you can almost hear them on a mainstream country format (but not quite).

Willie Nelson's new album is called Country Music, and was produced by T-Bone Burnett. My opinion? It's another great (or maybe classic) Willie album. But you know I love Willie. By the way, while you can hear him on Outlaw Country, you can also hear him on his own channel, Willie's Place. Tomorrow night, Willie's Place will broadcast - live - Willie's concert from the Manhattan Center. At this show, and this show only, he'll be backed up by T-Bone's guys, who played on Country Music, as opposed to Willie's usual "band of gypsies."

I'm not sure what else we'll get to.  I have one track from Merle Haggard's new album I Am What I Am (I gotta be careful after the Johnny Cash American VI album didn't go over well a few weeks ago). A couple of tracks by Dallas Wayne, another Outlaw Country DJ who is also a singer/songwriter, The Court Yard Hounds (sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire of The Dixie Chicks), and The Drive-By Truckers again: what can I say, The Big To-Do is my favorite album of 2010 so far.

CONGRATULATIONS LEVON HELM

No secret that I'm a huge fan of Levon Helm, and I'm glad that his Electric Dirt album won the first ever Americana Grammy. Tough category: he was up against two of my other favorite albums of 2009: Bob Dylan's Together Through Life and Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel's Willie and the Wheel. Lucinda Williams and Wilco were also nominated. It's Levon's second Grammy, his first was in 2007 for Dirt Farmer.

MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2009

Yeah, every single magazine, website and blog has already posted their "Best of '09" list already.  I was just waiting for them to get out of the way, so mine doesn't get lost in the flood. I'm not great at this. It takes me a few listens and sometimes a few months to really come to a decision on this kind of thing, but as of now, here are my favorite albums of the year that was. They're not really in order... except for the first three.

Bob Dylan's Together Through Life, and not Christmas In The Heart, is my favorite album of the year. It's like if Bob took a Tex-Mex band to the Chess Records or Sun Records studio in the late '50s. If it was Sun, the air conditioning was broken. If it was Chess, it was in August, and the air conditioning was broken. "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" is one of my favorite Dylan songs (ok, that list is over 100 songs long, but still).

The Cocktail Slippers' Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is the one album you should buy on my recommendation, if there was just one. They should be the biggest thing, and no one knows who they are! I have to thank Little Steven Van Zandt, who signed them to his Wicked Cool label, produced their record, played on it, and plays their records on his Underground Garage channel. They would be great without him, but I have heard of them thanks to him.

I didn't expect to love Rancid's Let The Dominoes Fall as much as I do, I didn't love their last two. But it's just great. I remember a few years ago, VH1 did some documentary on punk rock, and the interviewer asked Lars Fredericksen if punk rock was dead, and he nearly flipped out. He was like, "I live punk rock, punk's not dead!" These guys bleed punk rock, they are the real deal and they are one of my favorite bands.

Speaking of "the real deal," Levon Helm's Electric Dirt is another great album. Whether it's blues, gospel, R&B, rock, country or anything in between, this guys sings (and plays) it with total authority. But it ain't a museum piece: dude rocks the party.

Speaking of rocking the party, check out N.A.S.A.'s The Spirit Of Apollo. It's two DJ/producers: DJ Zegon and Squeak E. Clean (aka Sam Speigel, also known as brother of Where The Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze, which explains the sick guest list). It's like a party on a spaceship that has been boarded by Tom Waits, Method Man, M.I.A. and John Frusciante (to name some of the many contributors to the album).

Also rocking the party, albeit in a more old school way: Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel on their collaboration, Willie and The Wheel. It's party music, but from like 60 or 70 years ago. It always amazes me that Willie Nelson keeps coming up with new things to do, and they work (not always, but when they do work, they work well).

Another great collaboration is the long-standing (and very inspiring) one between married couple Buddy & Julie Miller. I love their Written In Chalk album. It's a real shame that more people don't know who they are. But No Depression did (rightfully) name Buddy their Artist Of The Decade.

The Dead Weather's Horehound... well, I guess it's no secret to No Expiration readers that I'm a huge fan of Jack White's various projects. Part of it is his talent: but a big part is that he is a great collaborator. It works with Brendan Benson in The Raconteurs, and it works with Allison Mosshart (also the singer for The Kills).

Laughin' and Cryin' With The Reverend Horton Heat may not make anyone cry, but it can make you laugh, and at some points, it makes you think (but without realizing it). Check out "Rural Point Of View." Nice reality check for us progressives. Like with Rancid, I didn't love the last few albums by The Rev, but this one knocked me out.

Ben Harper making an album with a new group, Relentless7, and going back to the clubs was a big gamble, right as he was starting to play big venues. But it worked out. It took me a few listens, but I really dig his latest, White Lies For Dark Times. It is his most "rock" album ever, and it's a great one. Well done, Ben.

Muse. The Resistance. Get it. This will be their year. They're huge all over the world, rightfully so, and this should be the album to make it happen here. They opened for U2 in stadiums, and acted like they owned the stage. They definitely kept U2 on their toes.

Four honorable mentions that I feel I have to add: Miranda Lambert 's Revolution, Florence & The Machine's Lungs, Pearl Jam's Backspacer and Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown.

A few more: Rosanne Cash's The List, The Avett Brothers ' I And Love And You, Norah Jones' The Fall, Maxwell's BLACKSummer's Night, Them Crooked Vultures' self-titled debut, Alice In Chains' pretty great comeback Black Gives Way To Blue, and Care Bears On Fire 's debut Get Over It!

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: THE GRAMMY NOMS (or, MAXWELL IS ABOUT TO GET A SALES BUMP!)

I’m going on OutQ again tomorrow on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick to discuss tonight’s Grammy nominations. Last year, I really liked the way the Grammys panned out, with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss winning five for their classic album Raising Sand. I loved that album, and felt it deserved all the recognition it got. It was a victory for art. Sorry Lil Wayne. I don’t feel as enthused this year: Beyonce leads with ten nominations and Taylor Swift has eight. I enjoy songs by both ladies, but I’m not passionate about either. I was, however, glad to see Maxwell with six for his BLACKsummer’snight album. Some people didn’t even know he was back! His album came out in July and debuted at #1, but that doesn’t mean what it used to, and anyway, it didn’t seem to make an impact on the culture at all, and it disappeared pretty quickly. So, I’m glad that this will help him out. The Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West both got six also: I enjoy both artists, but I don’t like either of their new albums. Lady Gaga got five. I don’t object to her, but I’m not passionate about her music either. In fact, I don’t feel very opinionated about any of the “big four” categories. I was hoping that Willie Nelson would get more nods than he did: he got just three. I thought he would do better than that, given that he released two very different and very good albums, Willie & The Wheel and American Classic. My favorite album of the year, Bob Dylan’s Together Through Life, got two nods.

I don’t have huge opinions about the Pop field, and I probably won’t vote in Dance. I usually skip Traditional Pop, but I may vote there this year, since Willie has a nomination there.

Rock has some good stuff: Best Solo Rock performance pits Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Prince and John Fogerty against each other. (I will vote for Dylan). Other rock nods went to Green Day, AC/DC, Alice In Chains, Metallica, Pearl Jam (glad to see “The Fixer” get props), U2 and overrated band of the year Kings Of Leon. The thing is, I have to admit I was ultimately not blown away by Bruce, U2 and Green Day’s albums. They were all solid, but not as good as their prior albums. I will probably skip the alternative field, which features David Byrne & Brian Eno (zzzzz…), Death Cab For Cutie, Depeche Mode, Phoenix (who I can’t stand) and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

R&B will require me to buy a lot of new music, there’s a lot of not-well-known-by-the-mainstream artists in the field, including Melanie Fiona, Lalah Hathaway, Ledisi, Jazmine Sullivan, Anthony Hamilton, Musiq Soulchild, Robert Randolph, as well as Beyonce and Maxwell.

Rap is pretty good this year. It surprises me to hear myself say that, because I’m not a huge fan of contemporary hip-hop. But I really actually like Jay-Z’s songs, “Death of Autotune” and “Run This Town” (with Kanye West and Rihanna). I also really like nominated songs by The Beastie Boys with Nas, Kid Cudi with Kanye and Common, T.I. with Justin Timberlake, and Mos Def. And Lonely Island featuring T-Pain. I was really glad to see Q-Tip’s super-underrated The Renaissance getting a nod as well.

I don’t have a huge opinion on this year’s country artists, but I was glad to see nods go to Miranda Lambert, Jamey Johnson and Patty Griffin (!).

My favorite category overall is Best Americana Album. Three of my favorite albums of the year are nominated: Dylan’s Together Through Life, Willie’s Willie & The Wheel and Levon Helm’s Electric Dirt, along with Wilco’s Wilco (The Album) and Lucinda Williams’ Little Honey. I’ll vote for Dylan.

While I’m not a huge fan of Bruce’s Working On A Dream album, “The Wrestler” was probably my favorite song of last year, and I’m glad it is up for Best Song from a Movie. But that will probably go to A.R. Rahman’s “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire.

I guess there are some things I'll be "rooting" for: Pearl Jam's "The Fixer," Bruce's "The Wrestler," Q-Tip and Willie, but there's no way I'll be as into it as I was last year. I do hope Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye peform "Run This Town." It would be great to see Rihanna have a triumphant return to the Grammys after last year's horrible mess.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ I GO OUTLAW

Very often on OutQ, I talk about being a big fan of Little Steven's Underground Garage, and the kind of music that they play on the channel. Tomorrow, I'll be talking about the kind of music they play on Steven's other channel, Outlaw Country. I don't know if I'll get to all of it though, there's lots of great new music to talk about.



First off, new albums from the great Willie Nelson, who, in my mind, is one of the best artists of the '00s. Willie's collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie And The Wheel, is one of my favorite albums of 2009. It is a fun, rollicking, party album - kind of the way that Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions album is. He also has released American Classic, an album of traditional standards, which is a nice album, but not as good as Willie And The Wheel. I'll be talking about both albums. Willie gets played on Outlaw Country a lot, but of course he has his own channel, Willie's Place. He actually calls in to a live show on the channel every Wednesday.



Willie's longtime buddy Kris Kristofferson has a new album, Closer To The Bone, which is pretty close to the bone, in that it is quite a stripped down album, with very little other than Kris' grizzled voice and guitar. I've only recently gotten into Kris' music, and it's a revelation how great he is.



I meant to talk about Levon Helm on the show a few weeks ago, but it didn't work out. Hopefully we get to it tomorrow, Electric Dirt is one of my favorite albums of the year, and "When I Go Away" may be my favorite song of the year. I think Electric Dirt and his last album, Dirt Farmer, have (maybe) done for him what Raising Sand did for Robert Plant: helped him to finally escape the long shadow of an awesome former band.



Rosanne Cash's new album, The List, is based on a handwritten list that her dad gave her decades ago. It was his 100 "essential" country songs of all time. This album sees her covering some of the songs on that list, some as duets with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Rufus Wainwright.




Finally, one of my favorite DJs, and the lady who I listen to nearly every morning, Elizabeth Cook. She is the weekday morning DJ on Outlaw Country (the weekend lineup is equally awesome, including Shooter Jennings, Steve Earle, Don Was, Cowboy Jack Clement and even WWF legend Hillbilly Jim who has great taste in music), and a great artist in her own right. I'm going to write more about her in the future, she deserves your attention. I think the OutQ crowd will enjoy her song "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman."