Sweet, and ultra-talented Camille Cortinas-Neal gets her waaaaay overdue…congrats my darling darling friend…read on!

Nashville, TEXAS – March 28, 2011 – Camille Cortinas will be featured as an emerging artist during the April 20, 2011 episode of Music City Roots.

“Camille was discovered after being the voice behind the popular Texas Lottery «Lucky Day» campaign,” said Music City Roots, Executive Producer, Todd Mayo. “Her voice connected with the radio listeners of Texas and we are excited to bring her music to a worldwide audience on Music City Roots.”

“Roots is the perfect outlet for my music,” said Camille Cortinas. “Sharing the stage with Jim Lauderdale and knowing that legends like the Doobie Brothers, Ricky Scaggs, Brandy Carlisle have all appeared on this stage, makes this a dream come true.”

Show Details:
Date: April 20, 2011
Venue: Loveless Café Barn
Address: 8400 Highway 100, Nashville, TN 37221
Performance time: 7:00 pm

About Camille Cortinas debut solo album «Taken Apart»
Produced By: Eric Neal
Recorded at Sunquist Studios
Mixed and Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House Studio

Camille’s musical style uses storytelling and personal experiences to create a human connection that appeals to audiences of young and old, and her captivating voice smiles through the speakers. While her music remains upbeat, her songwriting finds its way through melancholy and melds into a hopeful and optimistic future. It’s learning to let go of the heartbreaks and find the happiness that life can bring.

For the most update tour/press information please go to www.camillecortinas.com and look for her first solo album on cdbaby and itunes.

About Music City Roots
Music City Roots has been hailed as “truly extraordinary” and “the greatest live radio in America” by journalists who have visited and artists who’ve played the Roots stage. The Nashville Scene recently named the Loveless Barn and the show as Nashville’s Best New Roots Music Venue, “akin to what the Opry must have been like 60 years ago.” The program has also established itself as a trusted curator for excellence in Americana music, with appearances by Emmylou Harris, Sam Bush, Mike Farris, Ricky Skaggs, Mountain Heart, Cherryholmes, Dex Romweber, Roger McGuinn and many more. Roots has become a trusted brand partner that has done everything in its power to extol its valued sponsors, including Nissan, Whole Foods Markets, Vietti Chili, Ascend Federal Credit Union and The Nature Conservancy.

Sarah Jaffe. A looooooooong time FineLineFave. Check the new video, es muy bueno. Keep your eyes peeled for band members who play in bands such at Centro-matic, Doug Burr, Seryn and Bosque Brown. Nice little band’o'playa’s.

Sarah Jaffe performs at the Ghost Room in Austin on September 25. See you there.

I had the fantabulous opportunity to be a part of these videos (either via puppeteerin’ or just looky-looin’…have a great weekend.

Art&Seek, my favorite place to be…just launched an absolutely fabulous new site just in time for their 2-year anniversary. Alan Melson deserves the medal of A&S….Check it out every single day.

Two of my favorite humans doing what they do bestest…

Saturday, April 3
1919 Hemphill in Fort Worth
DFW Punk – a documentary about Dallas punk and new wave in the 80′s and 90′s by Laura Tabor-Huerta
Doors at 7 – Show at 8 p.m.
Read my Q&A with Laura on Art&Seek

Thursday, April 15
Magnolia Gallery in Dallas
The End of the Beginning – An Exhibit by Photographer Dylan Hollingsworth

LaGrange: the opening night musical wrap up. Music courtesy of Slick 57

Jason Janik, along with the good folks over at Quick, put together ho…ho…holiday photos of local musicians, personalities and a chef, including Gordon Keith, Tim DeLaughter and the fam, Blythe Beck, Smile Smile and Bowling for Soup, set to a Christmas classic movies theme. You can check out the photos by picking up a copy of Quick, which can be found, like, anywhere. Plus, check out the peek-a-boo videos shot during the photo sessions. Pretty nifty stuff.

If you haven’t picked up your copy of Quick this week, drop everything and go fetch one now. I just took a stroll down to the mail room (that’s where we keep all the local print media) to read David Hopkins’ first comic strip installment of We’ve Never Met and it’s freakin’ HILARIOUS! The Fine Line gives it 3 thumbs-up!

Thursday, December 10th
AllGood Cafe
Jon Dee Graham
CD Release Celebration for It’s Not as Bad as it Looks
9 pm

Guitars by Cade Sadler

“Ocho” – Collin Herring at Ramble Creek from Todd Wiseman on Vimeo.

I was sort of laughing at myself a couple of days ago when I realized that I had missed my “7-years of music blogging” anniversary last month. I wasn’t laughing at the fact that my dead braincells are multiplying, rather that the main staples…really, the only staples, of my car CD player are the following:

The Lonelies EP
Macon Greyson Uneasy
Collin Herring Avoiding the Circus
Deadman Paramour
Joyful Sinners EP
The Happy Bullets Blue Skies and Umbrellas
Salim Nourallah Polaroid
Thrift Store Cowboys

These are the CDs I listened to years and years and years ago that made me fall in love with the local music community, and all these years later, I’ve never tired of a one.

However, I do get really excited when these bands and artists put out new albums. I found the above video over on Collin Herring’s site. It’s really awesome and features some great Texas-based musicians and producers and songwriters and brilliance.

Collin Herring is releasing his latest album, Ocho, pretty much as I type. The above video was shot at Ramble Creek, featuring a behind the scenes peek into the making of this record. Collin Herring and his dad (and bandmate) Ben Roi Herring are folks I consider to be my friends. I’ve known ‘em forever. I’ve loved ‘em forever, and neither one has ever played or sung a note that I didn’t absolutely adore.

Ocho was recorded out in the sticks at Ramble Creek and features such other FineLineFaves as Ben Roi Herring, Will Johnson, Keith Hanna, Roberto Sanchez and of course the great Britton Beisenherz (The Monahans, Milton Mapes).

The Ocho festivities kick-off on Monday, when Collin will appear on KXAN in Austin and on KLBJ 93.7..wait, there’s more…

Tuesday, November 17th
Waterloo Records (Austin)
Live in-store – 5 p.m. – Free

Thursday, November 26th
The Moon Bar in Fort Worth – 10ish

Saturday, November 28th
The Ghost Room in Austin

HOME? from Willie Baronet on Vimeo.

Whew! KXT 91.7 launched this morning and it’s absolutely music to my ears…literally. It feels like Austin up in here. It’s so fun over-hearing folks ’round KERA talk about Sarah Jaffe and The O’s and all things local and regional. It’s a historic day for the DdFW airwaves…drink it up like a fine wine…hiccup…you don’t even have to get up—listen live from right where you be.

In-studio performances all this week, include Sarah Jaffe, The O’s, Rhett Miller, Little Black Dress and lots more! Check it out here.

Last night was quite pleasant. Kettle Art Gallery had an exquisite li’l shindig….above is a snippet of my gallery-going pleasure. Click here for more more more…

Photographed by Jason Janik

Super-dreamy Rhett Miller is performing at the Granada Theater on November 14th, and he’s tagged some other dreaminess to perform as well…here’s why…

The CF Concert Series aims to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis with an emphasis on adult research. It started as a small effort, organized by a few local music fans who have personal stock in helping to find a cure for this life-threatening disease. Last year, the concert raised $30,000 toward CF research. This November, they hope to do even more.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening, genetic disease affecting approximately 30,000 children and adults in the United States. The goal of this event is to help raise not only awareness of the disease but funds allocated for the great strides being made towards CF research.

I have a pair of FREE TICKETS for the first one to email me with a subject line that reads, “you look really nice today.”

November 14th
Granada Theater
Rhett Miller / Salim Nourallah / The O’s / Shibboleth
Purchase Tickets
Emcee: Gordon Keith
7 p.m.-Midnight

If you are interested in film and video, then you might like to know that the 27th Annual Videofest is just about a week or so away. Click for details. Bart Weiss, director of the Video Association of Dallas, wrote a nice little piece on Art&Seek and I think you should read it…m’kaaaaay…

…This year for the festival I tried something completely different. A few years ago I met with a young filmmaker named Ryan Kline and was very impressed. He had a great attitude and was very ambitious for a kid. (When I first met him he was too young to drive.) I then saw him at the workshops in Maine, where I teach teachers in the summer. He was taking an intensive film (as in not video) workshop. So I thought, why not have him do the intro? It was a bit of a risk, but I was really happy to try it. Ryan needed help, and we got lots of help. Bill Schwartz, one of Dallas’ best directors of photography, agreed to shoot it. And he did way more than shoot it – he arranged for so many people and so much equipment it was amazing. For those who this means something to, it was shot on the Red camera. As we moved along, Bill was impressed with Ryan’s talent and his ability to know what he wanted (something not all directors have).

Quickly this shoot got big, with a crew of about 20, a nice cast and way too much for Bill and Ryan to produce by themselves. So I called Amy Lou Abernathy at AMP Productions, who put Mariana Denke on it, who did a great job. Steve Franko did color correction, Post Asylum edited it and James Neel did the music…READ THE REST.