With the year drawing to a close, it's time to list our picks for the best of 2005:

1. Hayes Carll, Little Rock
2. Collin Herring, The Other Side of Kindness
3. Robyn Ludwick, For So Long
4. Eliza Gilkyson, Paradise Hotel
5. Jimmy LaFave, Blue Nightfall
6. Milton Mapes, The Blacklight Trap
7. Reckless Kelly, Wicked Twisted Road
8. South Austin Jug Band, Dark and Weary World
9. Brian Keane, I Ain't Even Lonely
10. The Greencards, Weather and Water

See why these made the top 10, as well as 10 more that just missed the list, at our Best of 2005 roundup.

Here's the readers' top 10, based on site traffic from January 1 through today:

1. Eli Young Band, Level
2. Cross Canadian Ragweed, Garage
3. Eliza Gilkyson, Paradise Hotel
4. Macon Greyson, Translate
5. Robyn Ludwick, For So Long
6. Cory Morrow, Nothing Left to Hide
7. Mando Saenz, Watertown
8. Deadman, In the Heart of Mankind
9. Reckless Kelly, Wicked Twisted Road
10. Pilotdrift, Watersphere

The Adored (Los Angeles CA), Annie (Bergen NORWAY), Arctic Monkeys, Belle and Sebastian (Glasgow UK), The BellRays (Los Angeles CA), Be Your Own PET (Nashville TN), Blockhead (New York NY), The Boy Least Likely To (Wendover UK), The Brokedown (Los Angeles CA), Calexico (Tucson AZ), Neko Case (Tacoma WA), Cat Power (Atlanta GA), clap your hands say yeah (Brooklyn NY), Clor (London UK), Jason Collett (Toronto ON), The Cribs (Wakefield UK), Cuff the Duke (Toronto ON), Jamie Cullum (London UK), Dashboard Confessional (Boca Raton, FL), Death In Vegas (London UK), Death Vessel (Brooklyn NY), Dengue Fever (Los Angeles CA), Destroyer (Vancouver BC), Die! Die! Die! (Auckland NEW ZEALAND), Dirty Pretty Things (London UK), Jorge Drexler (Madrid SPAIN), Dr. Spock (Reykjavik ICELAND), The Duke Spirit (London UK), The Earlies (Manchester UK), Echo & The Bunnymen (Liverpool UK), Editors (Birmingham UK), The Eighteenth Day Of May (London UK), Elbow (Manchester UK), Empire Dogs (Stockholm SWEDEN), Erase Errata (San Francisco CA), Faker (Sydney AUSTRALIA), Flogging Molly (Los Angeles CA), Forward Russia (Leeds UK), Giant Sand (Tucson AZ), Gogol Bordello (New York NY), Jose Gonzalez (Gothenburg SWEDEN), The Go! Team (Brighton UK), Headphones (Seattle WA), The Hellacopters (Stockholm SWEDEN), Clarence Frogman Henry (New Orleans LA), The Juan Maclean (Dover NH), Kaki King (New York NY), Kalas (Oakland CA), k-os (Whitby ON), Sharron Kraus & Christian Kiefer (London UK), Lady Sovereign, The Like (Los Angeles CA), Los De Abajo (Mexico City MEXICO), Luminous Orange (Yokohama JAPAN), Barbara Lynn (Beaumont TX), The Magic Numbers (London UK), Magnolia Electric Company (Chicago IL), Serena Maneesh (Oslo NORWAY), Mates of State (East Haven CT), The Morning After Girls (Sydney AUSTRALIA), The Most Serene Republic (Toronto ON), Mystery Jets (London UK), My Summer as a Salvation Soldier (Reykjavik ICELAND), Neon Blonde (Seattle WA), Nickel Creek (Carlsbad CA), n0 things (Brooklyn NY), Of Montreal (Athens GA), Beth Orton (London UK), Peaches (Berlin GERMANY), The Plimsouls (Los Angeles CA), Robert Pollard (Dayton OH), Ramblin’ Jack Elliot (New York NY), Saves the Day (Princeton NJ), The Secret Machines (New York NY), Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives (Hendersonville TN), Tarantula A D (New York NY), Susan Tedeschi (Jacksonville FL), Towers of London (London UK), KT Tunstall (London UK), Two Gallants (San Francisco CA), Tom Verlaine (New York NY), Vetiver (San Francisco CA), The Whigs (Athens GA), Witch (Brattleboro VT), Wolfmother (Sydney AUSTRALIA)

Courtesy of the lovely and talented Cindy Chaffin and TexasGigs.com.

"Austin City Limits" closed taping for its 31st season on public television with perhaps its biggest star ever — Coldplay. And the show also will feature the quickest turnaround in the show's history, with just 8 days between recording and airing.

Seeing Coldplay in the cozy confines of Studio 6-A was an incredible experience. I saw the band from a mile away at ACL Fest this summer and came away disappointed, but this time it proved impossible not to feed off Chris Martin and company's hyperkinetic energy.

Most of the setlist was unsurprising, drawing heavily from X&Y ("Speed of Sound," "Talk," "Kingdom Come") but featuring a few earlier hits as well ("Yellow," "In My Place"). But there was one surprise — about a half-hour into the set, Coldplay brought Michael Stipe onto the stage to cover "In the Sun" by Joseph Arthur and REM's own "Nightswimming."

The music was good, but the banter was even better. Martin interacted with the 400 or so audience members between just about every song. He took special interest in a couple 10- and 11-year-old boys standing up front, dispensing advice for pre-adolescents, handing them lyrics sheets, and occasionally self-censoring his cursing. He also jokingly called out a clearly-embarrassed young man watching the band with arms crossed, and saluted Austin mayor Will Wynn for joining the studio audience.

This was my first ACL taping, and it's going to be difficult to try to top it. Celebrity doesn't necessarily presume greatness, but there's no question the world's biggest band delivered a great performance. And the experience itself was great as well, with the audience dotted with local celebrities like Lance Armstrong, Sheryl Crow, and Charlie Sexton, and ACL's first-ever live simulcast to a capacity crowd gathered across the UT campus.

See it yourself Saturday, Dec. 17 on your local PBS station.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the Austin premiere of Margaret Brown's new documentary Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt, hosted by KUT and the Austin Chronicle.

The film features an abundance of archival interviews and concert footage, as well as recent interviews with the likes of Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson sharing memories of Townes the man and Townes the songwriter (the two, though related, are not necessarily the same). Segments are tied together with beautiful on-the-road scenes captured by Brown and cinematographer Lee Daniel, and then altered to match the aged color pallette of the archival stock.

Every scene is suffused with emotion — sometimes humor, more often sadness, and occasionally anger. And nothing is more emotionally charged than interviews with Townes' children. J.T. recalls what it was like to have an unavailable yet brilliant father. Teenager Will confesses the only way he can go to sleep is if he's listening to his father's music. Pre-adolescent Katie Bell innocently sings along to an old recording and relates a mournful dream. One's heart can't help but to go out to each of the children, as well as the three ex-wives, who could still see Townes' beautiful humanity despite his drink- and drug-darkened depression.

Townes Van Zandt has been gone nearly a decade, yet Brown brings him back to life through his music, his family, and his friends. It wasn't always a pretty life, but it was lived the only way Townes knew how.

The film, which screened earlier this year at SXSW, begins its official Austin run today at the Alamo Drafthouse South.

Watch the official trailer.
Read Anne S. Lewis' interview with Margaret Brown and Lee Daniel.

If you're looking for ways to ring in the new year in Austin, check out the New Year's Eve Spectacular hosted by the White Ghost Shivers and the Small Stars.

Doors to Blue Genie open at 9. Revelers will be sated with beer and champagne and entertained by "stilt walkers, fire twirlers, vaudevillian villains, Reno outcasts, tattooed clowns, Brazilian martial artists, giants, magicians … circus freaks galore!"

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Handsome Joel Foundation, which also will arrange cab rides for partiers who enjoy themselves so much they are unable to drive.

Tickets are $35 in advance, $45 at the door.

This morning I drove back from Dallas after attending Cindy Chaffin's excellent TexasGigs.com Christmas party last night. I left around 9, hoping to make it home around noon, but also hoping to get within KUT's signal in time for David Brown's special on Townes Van Zandt.

I stopped for gas just south of Waco, pulled back onto the interstate as the clock struck 11, and switched my car stereo from CD to FM. The signal was staticky but sufficient.

And thankfully so, as "In Other Words, Townes Van Zandt" helped guide me home. Featuring interviews with the likes of JT and Jeneane Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Joe Ely, and John Kruth, the program presented Townes in all his complexity — brilliant songwriter, deeply flawed human.

Listen to the outstanding "In Other Words, Townes Van Zandt."

Stephen Holden of the New York Times reviews the Townes Van Zandt documentary Be Here to Love Me, directed by Margaret Brown:

Here, as in so many other documentaries about troubled musicians, the word genius is casually tossed around. But does every unstable, self-destructive artist defiantly living on the edge qualify for that description? In Van Zandt's case, maybe yes.

Read the full review.

The film has toured the festival circuit for months, but finally begins its theatrical run on December 9. KUT and the Austin Chronicle will host a preview on December 8, followed by a tribute concert featuring J.T. Van Zandt, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and more.

Back in October, David Brown of KUT's "Texas Music Matters" invited me into the studio to talk about two Texas nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: soul singer Joe Tex and the Sir Douglas Quintet.

It turns out neither made it into the class of 2006 inductees — not surprising, really. But, as they say, at least it was nice to be nominated.

Listen to the "Texas Music Matters" segment with David Brown and guests Joe Nick Patoski, Ed Ward, and yours truly.