'Broadcasts Vol. 14' showcases the best in Austin music.
By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Recorded the Cowboys' game against the Colts last Sunday, with plans to watch it late at night, zooming through the "man law" commercials and the halftime blather. But I made the mistake of going online for something and I saw the score and, just like that, my night was wrecked.
Sitting right in front of me was the 14th incarnation of KGSR's "Broadcasts" CD, so instead of watching Tony Romo transform into TB2 — the second coming of Tom Brady — I listened to a double disc live CD that's basically a documentary about the radio station that wouldn't be the same if it were anywhere else. Yeah, they call KGSR "the Geezer" and wonder aloud just what sort of incriminating dirt  Elyza Gilkyson has on Jody Denberg, but all 107.1 has ever been about is the song that changes the day — if only for three and a half minutes.
I sat there in the dark for about two hours and heard 38 artists strum their guitars and sing for housewives cleaning the kitchen and drivers stuck on MoPac Boulevard and folks at their computers and it was just all quite delightful. Either songwriters have gotten better over the past 14 years or I've become firmly entrenched in the KGSR demographic, but this is my favorite "Broadcasts" CD so far.
Even Death Cab For Cutie, a band that's always bored me, hits deep on "Soul Meets Body." Spoon's "I Summon You," meanwhile, makes me fall in love with that group all over again. As always, Patti Griffin is the sweetheart of this radio rodeo; her "Icicles" warms the room.
This bargain-priced album, which annually tops the local best-sellers list and raises more than $200,000 a year for the SIMS Foundation, is a good way to get versions of all those songs KGSR tattoos into your subconscious with relentless play. "Oh, that song" cuts include Brandi Carlisle's "Closer To You," KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" (as if we ever need to hear that one again), David Gray's "The One I Love" and Susan Tedeschi's "Tired Of My Tears."
But it's the unexpected turns — just like at a football game where you don't know the outcome — that make "Broadcasts" so engaging. Teddy Thompson's "I Should Get Up," "Song For You" by Alexi Murdoch and "Be Here Now" from Mason Jennings are wonderful calling cards from emerging singer-songwriters, while "Ice Cream Man" by Tony Joe White shows Mr. Polk Salad can still wrap a nasty groove around a ditty like no one this side of J.J. Cale.
By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
By Melanie Haupt
AUSTIN CHRONICLE
By POLLY ROSS HUGHES
Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
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