Stadium Blitzer, The Gourds. Not my favorite Gourds album, but then again, I probably haven’t given it a fair shake yet.

Shinebox, The Gourds. Excellent bluegrass cover of Snoop Dogg’s Gin & Juice. Shockingly enough to my friends at work, I had never actually heard the original. I’ve since corrected that.

Near Truths & Hotel Rooms Live, Todd Snider. If you’ve never seen a Todd Snider show you should. He’s an extremely talented songwriter and pretty hilarious in-person. The CD captures a bit of what that’s like–great songs and funny–sometimes lengthy–stories in-between. A bunch of us recently got together to go see him at Club Dada but that night there was a huge storm. Todd was trapped in Houston. We made the best of it, though. The road manager sold me a copy of his new one, East Nashville Skyline, and we convinced the sound guy to throw it in. I had already listened to my pal Jim’s copy so I already knew the words to greats like The Ballad of the Kingsmen and Iron Mike’s Main Man’s Last Request. I, along with a good chunk of his loyal Dallas following, had planned on singing along with Todd but the weather and the Wright Amendment put an end to that.

White Blood Cells, The White Stripes. I think I like Elephant better, but it is hard to go wrong with the White Stripes. It’s a nice change from my usual alt-country fare.