It was quite a treat for me to see Willie Nelson perform under the Saratoga stars the other night. The Texas Yoda and “the family” played the beautiful Mountain Winery to an a rousingly adoring crowd.  At one point he traded his signature red bandanna for heavy worn and button adorned straw cowboy hat that an elderly gentleman on crutches offered at the foot of the stage.  I can now claim to have seen Willie on all three coasts (Texas, New York and California)!

The fine folks at the 9513 brought my attention to a great piece by Chris Willman, author of the excellent book Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music, on the use of the formally exclusive use of Brooks & Dunn’s “Only In America” by the Democrats to cap Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention. Whatever your political stripe, it’s interesting to watch all parties vie for the cultural pulse and show love for the Twang.

Rosie Flores “The Rockabilly Filly” turns 58 years young and will be celebrating this Wednesday, Sept 10th at Antone’s in Austin. Playing the celebration will be the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash (8:00) James Intveld (9:00) the lady Rosie Flores herself (10:00) and Two Hoots and a Holler (11:00). Doors open at 7:00

Justin Townes Earle’s excellent release “The Good Life” is available today a vinyl limited edition of 1000 from Bloodshot Records.

• The Americana Music Association has released an initial list of arists that will be playing around Nashville during their music festival and conferencethis September 17-20 2008. Some of the performers will be: Jim Lauderdale, Mike Farris, Kane Welch Kaplin, The everybodyfields, The SteelDrivers, Tift Merritt, Jason & the Scorchers, Joe Ely, Malcolm Holcombe, Rosie Flores, Band of Heathens, Laura Cantrell, Cross Canadian Ragweed, James McMurtry, Jason Isbell and much much more.

• The drop date for Chris knight’s new album, Heart of Stone, has been pushed back to September 2nd due to “production issues.” Guest musicians on Heart of Stone include Mike McAdam (Steve Earle, Radney Foster) on various guitars, Keith Christopher (Georgia Satellites, The Yayhoos) on bass, Tammy Rodgers (The SteelDrivers) fiddle and vocals, mandolin and banjo, and Michael Webb (The Wreckers, Allison Moorer) on B-3 organ, piano and accordion. Producer Dan Baird also contributes on guitar and vocals. Knight says of Heart of Stone “It might just be my best. For some reason, there’s a cohesiveness here that’s not like anything I’ve done before. But at the same time, it’s not real predictable. There’s a lot of texture to it as well, but it’s a simple record. I don’t know how that happened. But I know it when I hear it.”
• The documentary “Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music” will air on PBS stations tomorrow night. The film is directed by Robert Elfstrom and is a “cinema vérité look at Cash.”  PBS produced the documentary almost 40 years ago (!) Robert Elfstrom also takes some time to answer some questions for the the Tennessean (via the 9513)

Looking for a cool place to get a tattoo, see some pin up girls, check out some classic cars, get married on the Queen Marry and catch some great Americana music this summer? Then head over to the Iron-N-Ink Tattoo and Kustom Culture Festival in Long Beach, CA June 6-8.

On the bill is Wayne Hancock, The Blasters, Dale Watson, Rosie Flores, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Junior Brown, The Lonesome Spurs and much more.

The Austin Chronicle has a nice write up on Austin, Texas’ honky-tonk sweetheart Rosie Flores.

Rosie talks about her childhood in San Antonio, her early band - Rosie & the Screamers, featuring the Band’s Rick Danko brother Terry Danko on bass and getting to wear the pants Gram Parsons wore on the cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ Gilded Palace of Sin. Rosie is also quite forthcoming about her mother’s death and how she started taking pain pills and sleeping pills to deal with the grief.

Rosie Flores-You Tear me Up