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Austin Music

The 2003 AMP Awards

From a redneck outlaw to those San Angelo blues brothers to a May-December duo, talent came in waves from all directions

By Michael Corcoran
American-Statesman Music Pundit
Thursday, January 8, 2004

Photo by Deborah Cannon/AA-S

The list of local albums deemed 2003's best by our panel of Austin Music Pundits (AMP) tells the story of an all-over-the-map year in the local scene.

We have Ray Wylie Hubbard (right), one of Waylon and Willie's "and the boys" writing his first outlaw anthem since "Redneck Mother" and hitting a career high. We have Explosions In the Sky giving us our own Sigur R�s, according to The New York Times, and keeping Austin cool until the next albums from Spoon and Trail of Dead arrive. We have a trio of West Texas vatos dressing SRV licks in brotherly harmonies to give the blues a whole new way of strutting.

Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez's "The Trouble With Humans."

Then there's the old man and the "C," Chip "Wild Thing" Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez, growing together as musical partners. (No, they're not dating.) We've got perennials and upstarts, revisionists and deconstructionists, males and females, groups and solo acts.

But we don't have Pat Green. This list also tells a tale by omission. His growing fan base adores him, but critics still don't care much for Green, who has sold nearly half a million copies of "Wave On Wave" yet finishes out of the running on the AMPs. Oh, well, he's up for a couple of Grammys next month; maybe that will help him get over the AMP snub. Also missing is hip hop or dance, but when's the last time you flipped over an Austin rap CD?

Austin's still pretty much a Marcia Ball town. We sure love us some Kacy, Patty, Toni and Marti. But there's also plenty of room for the likes of the Crack Pipes, Primordial Underground and something called Gorch Fock.

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