Itinerary:
20th March 2010: Early flight from London - Austin via 3hour lay-over at Atlanta, Georgia.
Atlanta - Austin flight, arriving 9pm.
22nd March: Austin - Tucson via Amtrak train
24th March: Tucson - Phoenix via Greyhound bus
24-28th March: Phoenix - LA in an orange convertible, via Grand Canyon, and various kooky towns along Route 66 - Williams, Seligman, Kingman, Oatman, Ludlow (not strictly a town as we discovered!), Needles, Barstow etc.
29th March: arrive back in London & straight to work for the afternoon

Brief reportings from a flying visit to SXSW Music Festival 2010, Austin, TX:

Having…

Jess Larrabee is neither graceful nor particularly eloquent as she arrives on stage, stumbling up the steps while chatting ingenuously about quite how exhausted they are from their recent European tour. But when she opens her mouth to sing, this surprisingly huge sound pours from her effortlessly, each note vibrating with a raw, almost visceral power around the packed venue.

Almost as if she had just created these powerful but effective lyrics on the spot and added in these simple, repetitive melodies to bolster them - simple but beautiful songs, perfect vehicles for this incredible voice.

She Keeps Bees, yet…

I love reading music blogs. To an obsessive, geeky degree. And sometimes even non-music blogs too, just to branch out. Big news and information filled blogs about latest bands, trends, technology. Also our homepage at work is crammed full of latest music articles, as is my daily 'Record Of The Day' mailout.

I absorb so much information about music, digital developments, new releases/trends/genres, the state of the business, its demise/rise etc, that I don't even know which way is up or across or sideways anymore. I don't know what to think basically. Working within a major label you would think…