Kristen’s Playlist

My Austin Education: SXSW 2007

I was at SXSW Interactive in the City of Live Music- Austin! It was a fun show. I had to be there for work, but it’s hardly work to hang out in a party town for weekend.

Coincidentally, Chris Pierce was playing in town that weekend. Naturally, I had to check him out. He played at the Lucky Lounge, which I highly recommend visiting. It’s a really cool venue with swanky lighting, cushioned chairs and couches for performances and a great bar!   Chris was rocking as usual. He should have a new album out before summer, so check back here for that review.

I finally got to see a live performance at Stubbs in their backyard stage. Lucinda Williams played there and she was awesome. Unfortunately, their sound system seemed a little quiet, so we had to move closer to really hear everything (and it’s not that big of an area).  She performed songs from her new album West. If you haven’t listened to Lucinda before, let this be the album that brings you into her world of blues. The songs are beautiful and bewildering.

I had a blast, though I forgot to bring a camera you can check out all the photos tagged with “SXSW 2007” on flickr to get the picture.

Best Local Music Scenes

I was recently talking with a friend about checking out Coachella this year. It’s a local music festival outside of LA, closer to Palm Springs. As we were debating if we should go (which I think I will), we began comparing the show to other festivals, such as:

Austin City Limits

South By Southwest

Chicago’s Blues Fest

New Orleans Jazz Fest

My friend then wondered if there was a site that featured all the cool, if not smaller, local music festivals.  I haven’t really tried searching online but thought I’d start the blog post here and ask if any of you have recommendations.

Do you have a favorite local music festival? Perhaps it’s only one day or it could be a weekend. Any kind of music is welcomed- blues, country, alternative, live, gospel.

Let me know!