Danny Barnes "Caveman"

I hesitate to bring this up so close to the holidays, when pigging out is de rigueur, but have you heard about the Paleo Diet?  You eat only what a caveman might have eaten.  Fruits, veggies, nuts meat, fish, with no processed foods.  I think there is merit in this theory.  Actually, for all our advancement, civilization, and sophistication, I don’t think our bodies have actually morphed into a space where we digest the crap that lines the shelves of our supermarkets. Shop the perimeter, that’s where the fresh stuff lives. I have a pact for Christmas this year; eat luxuriously, but don’t eat junk. Wish me luck. Here is the deal with the Caveman Diet.

Danny Barnes evidently concurs with his song “Caveman,” though he isn’t talking about food, he postulates that we haven’t changed from those days of yore. BTW, Danny put out a new album last month called Rocket. And you know he does rock it. Whether it is solo, band, back during his days as a Bad Livers, or playing on stage with the likes of Robert Earl Keen, Tim O’Brien, or the Dave Matthews Band. In his blog, he addresses ‘playing nicely with others.’ We filmed “Caveman” at Americana Fest in 2010. It is not on the new album, but can be found on last year’s Pizza Box. I recommend both albums highly, actually, along with the rest of his ever engaging and arresting catalog.

-- Jessie Scott

Jude Johnstone "Wounded Heart"

I heard that a friend of mine is getting remarried. He turned 80 last year. I am entranced by the idea that he has fallen in love again, even more so, that he is looking forward. What a wonderful thing to want a new chapter in your life, especially at that age. It just goes to show that you can’t keep the human spirit down. It can fly free, no matter when, and no matter what the odds are against it doing so. Not that it is always so. There is a curse on many folks that I know; those that have previously given their hearts and souls only to have them crashed on the rocks along the shore. Turbulent seas make for gun shy singles.

Jude Johnstone came to see us during the filming Music Fog did back in May at the Cherokee Creek Music Festival outside Llano, TX. Jude dug in for a song that was originally released on her debut album Coming Of Age, in 2002, “Wounded Heart.” She played this most heartbreaking song, of damage impossible to repair. Sometimes the wall is just too hard to scale. If it sounds familiar, it is because it was featured in the Lifetime/ABC television series Army Wives, but the sentiment is not relegated to just one sector by any means. If there is one thing I wish you as we approach the holidays, it is this. Let your heart be light. Allow for the possibility of love in your life. It will thaw you, it will make you feel like anything is possible, it will make you whole. Let love in.

- Jessie Scott

Roger Creager "Turn It Up"

Turn it up. Your life, your energy, your enjoyment. I'm sitting in Austin where the usually mild weather has been replaced by a cold snap, and our first freeze. Coming off the heat of this past summer, it seems impossible to believe that the temps have dropped so low. This summer it was way too hot to drive with the radio cranked and the windows open, and now it is just too cold to do it. That doesn’t take away from that great American tradition of driving down the highway listening to the tunes, even if it is in your mind’s eye for now.

I have to laugh, 32 degrees isn’t really that cold. I talked to a friend of mine in Montana a couple of nights ago and it was 12 and snowing in the mountains there. Now we are talking winter!

Photo Credit: Jack NewtonWe revisit last year’s snowy MusicFest in Steamboat Springs, Colorado for today’s video. I secretly watched MusicFest videos this summer, in the hope that I could remember what cold felt like when it was 105 here in Austin, but I digress. Today, we have a sweater-swathed Roger Creager for you. His new album Surrender comes out next month, and you can preorder if you like directly from his website. “Turn It Up” is the first single from the new album, in advance of its street date of January 17th. Roger’s shows are joyous celebrations. Catch him tonight at the National Rodeo Finals in Vegas, baby! Here is a tantalizing taste.

- Jessie Scott