Dreaming of ACL

The Austin City Limits music festival is upon us. Although I've never been, I've always been a follower of the event and have been interested in seeing how they do things down there.

First of all, let's not compare the Real. Texas. Festival. with Austin City Limits. It's just too apples to oranges.

ACL is produced by the same outfit that produces Lollapalooza -- perhaps the grandfather of the modern day music festival. Modern day ... please don't shout me down all of you Monterrey Pop Festival and Woodstock enthusiasts.

Austin City Limits has hundreds of bands performing all over the city.

However, I really like their diversity. There really is something for everyone at Austin City Limits (if you want to fight the traffic, which is awful anyway let alone when there are 70,000 people trying to get around for a music festival).

If you want Texas Red Dirt, check out Robert Earl Keen, Ryan Bingham, Carolyn Wonderland and Band of Heathens.

Want to check out some good old 90s alternative? Go see The Verve Pipe or the Flaming Lips.

Like some 2000s nu-rock? There's Muse, Switchfoot, Silversun Pickups and the Black Keys.

There's even artists on the bill from the lighter side of things such as Norah Jones, Pete Yorn and Blues Traveler. And, there are mainstream pop country rock hit makers such as The Eagles and Pat Green.

Or, if you want to attend a two-hour show and hear five songs, you can check out the Phish show -- maybe one of the greatest jam bands of all time.

The point is that music is such a subjective thing. Sure, some think Pat Green is a sell out ... he's forgotten where he's from and is not part of the Red Dirt scene anymore. He's all Nashvilled-out and over produced.

But for everyone who thinks that about Pat, there may be five other people who think Pat Green is absolute greatness. The argument can be made the Pat's career has evolved ... that he's grown as an artist and is comfortable doing what he's doing.

Same can be said for Green Day for that matter. Personally, I'm not a fan of Green Day. But I appreciate the contributions those boys have made.

I applaud Austin City Limits for being so eclectic with their line up. We've always maintained there's more to Texas music than the Red Dirt scene. Sure, Red Dirt has become a tremendous calling card for Texas music.

But there's also a large rap contingent in Houston (Mike Jones). The blues scene is still alive and well (Jonathan Tyler and Northern Lights). Texas music is also Celtic (The Killdares), Tejano (Jay Perez), metal (Hell Yeah), ska (The Rude Kings), western swing (Asleep at the Wheel or the Lightcrust Doughboys), hard rock (The Toadies), Pop Rock (Bowling for Soup) and R&B (Beyonce).

It is our hope the RTF can feature great diversity in its concert line up. And, we're certainly working toward that end. We will be making some line-up announcements this winter so get ready.

We may certainly never be as diversified as Austin City Limits, but it's a nice target at which to aim.