City Stages Video Wrap Up

For all the hype Bonnaroo receives just a few hours south, we had a pretty good festival in Birmingham last weekend. For those whoa Aren't familiar with City Stages, it used to be one of the better festivals around. However, years of bad weather and debt trouble hurt the event and made it a shadow of it's former self. But Stages booked a deal with a national booking agency that also books for Bonnaroo and things turned for the better this year. While still not what it used to be, it had a great lineup this year. Here are some highlights of the weekend:

FRIDAY

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - I'll let a quote from my son Charlie be the review here. "Daddy this is cool. It is so loud I feel like I have 2 hearts." In other words he rocked. Also, he gave me one of the best memories ever from a music festival. When they played the DBT song "outfit" and Jason dedicated it to his father and all fathers, my son crawled in my lap and said "Daddy I love you. You are a good dad." Folks it doesn't get any better than that.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - ''Grown,'' live at City Stages


Old Crow Medicine Show - It was late and already way past my son's bedtime so we had to miss OCMS but I heard they were good.

SATURDAY

I had unavoidable family obligations on Saturday. So I missed my 3rd day of Stages in the 18 years I have lived in Birmingham. I will share some video instead. I heard Grace Potter was the best act on Saturday from a couple of people the following day.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - live at City Stages

Griffin House at City Stages

OCMS


Ben Harper on Saturday


SUNDAY

The lineup on the Songwriter stage was: Elizabeth Cook, Pieta Brown, Hackensaw Boys, Shooter Jennings and Robert Earl Keen. Not one of those artists disappointed. Elizabeth Cook got it started with her country flair and Keen closed it out as you would expect with his typical Texas showmanship. However, The Hackensaw Boys may have put on the best show and they certainly picked up a bunch of fans in the Magic City.

All that being said the Flaming Lips generated the biggest buzz of the entire weekend. I ran into a couple of freinds after the festival ended and received rave reviews from them.. Amazingly enough thay weren't even that familiar with their music. Howwever, in order to see the Flaming Lips I would have needed to skip Robert Earl and that would have been sacreligious.

The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips - live at City Stages

More Flaming Lips:

Settin' the Woods on Fire- This Week's Charts

This is a bi-weekly feature in which I post on AWT the top albums and debuts in the airplay charts from Americana Music Assoc., XM Cross Country and FMQB Non-Commercial Adult Alternative chart. Links to all of these charts are found to the right in the AWT favorite links list.

Americana Music Association - Airplay Week of November 5th
1) Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
2) Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
3) John Fogerty - Revival
4) Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer
5) Various - Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino
6) Dwight Yoakam - Dwight Sings Buck
7) Lyle Lovet and His Large Band - It's Not Big It's Large
8) Kane Welch Kaplin - Kane Welch Kaplin
9) Emmylou Harris - Songbird
10) Shooter Jennings - The Wolf

Debuts
32) Will Hoge - Draw the Curtains
33) Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II
39) Iron & Wine - The Shepherds' Dog

XM Ch.12 Cross Country - Cross Checking week of Nov. 5th
1) John Fogerty - Revival
2) Emmylou Harris - Songbird
3) Shawn Camp & Billy Burnette - The Bluegrass Elvises
4) Cross Canadian Ragweed - Mission California
5) Kane Welch Kaplin - Kane Welch Kaplin
6) Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
7) Toni Price - Talk Memphis
8) Lyle Lovet and His Large Band - It's Not Big It's Large
9) Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
10) Korby Lenker - King of Hearts

Debuts
45) Shooter Jennings - The Wolf
46) Blue Rodeo - Small Miracles
47) Miles from Nowhere - Bloodline
48) Matt Powell - New Kind of Something

FMQB AAA Non-Commercial - Airplay Week of Nov. 5th
1) Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
2) Bruce Springsteen - Magic
3) Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
4) John Fogerty - Revival
5) Mark Knopfler - Kill to Get Crimson
6) Ben Harper - Lifetime
7) Iron & Wine - The Shepherds' Dog
8) Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquest
9) Various - Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino
10) Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight

Debuts:
17) Neil Young - Chrome Dreams
19) Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer
27) Ingrid Michaelson - Girls & Boys