New San Antonio-based magazine Texas Music Times debuts this week with a cover story on Mike McClure and features on artists like Micky & the Motorcars and Keith Davis. Pick up a free copy at music venues, or you can subscribe to get each monthly issue delivered.

The print magazine is new, but the website has been live a few months now with occasional features and reviews, plus the great concert photography of Steve Circeo's T4TX.

It should be interesting to track the success of this new entry to the increasingly crowded Texas/Red Dirt music mag scene, which already includes Texas Music, Mavrik, Best in Texas Music, The Stars of Texas, and many others.

Tickets for the Rolling Stones' Oct. 22 show in Austin's Zilker Park go on sale to the general public at 10 am this Saturday. While the show promises a bigger bang, it also comes with a big price tag — $95 for lawn tickets, up to $350 for bleacher seats.

The Austin-American Statesman has hosted a spirited discussion on the expectedly high ticket prices, with comments like this gem: "One is suffering laryngitis. One fell out of a fricking coconut tree? I got $95 says they may not be able to field a team by Oct!"

Or as my wife put it to me earlier this week: "Are you sure you want to go through the trouble of trying to get tickets for October? One of them could very well be dead by then."

But it's a legendary band, playing just a couple miles from our house … what to do?

This week's Austin Chronicle profiles Michael Ramos, the longtime sideman (the BoDeans, John Mellencamp, Patty Griffin, and now Los Lonely Boys) who has also released two electronica-Tejano albums with side project Charanga Cakewalk — Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge (review) and this summer's Chicano Zen (review).

Chicano Zen isn't so much a star-studded affair, although if you're a fan of great singers, having Ruben Ramos, [Lila] Downs, Griffin, and Martha Gonzalez on the same LP is awe-inspiring as it's a reflection of Michael Ramos building a community around his concept. It's not a stretch to compare it to a group of musicians who gathered around that ultimate studio band, Steely Dan, in its heyday. Charanga Cakewalk is in its own way just as singular, the music it plays equally intricate and engrossing, not to mention inviting.
 
Read the full profile.

Hmm, I'd argue that it is a stretch to compare Charanga Cakewalk to Steely Dan (*shudder*), even in passing — but that's just me.

Halloween is sure to deliver its share of tricks, but this year there's at least one sure treat. Willie Nelson's Songbird, produced by Ryan Adams, is set for an Oct. 31 release on Lost Highway.

The track list, reported by Billboard and Pitchfork, among others:

• Rainy Day Blues
• Songbird
• Blue Hotel
• Back to Earth
• Stella Blue
• Hallelujah
• $1000 Wedding
• We Don't Run
• Yours Love
• Sad Songs & Waltzes
• Amazing Grace

Pat Green and Best in Texas Music Magazine are hosting a listening party tomorrow night for Cannonball, due in stores Aug. 22. And it's not just any listening party, but possibly one for the record books.

Approximately 50 venues across the state will be participating, and attendees will be eligible to win CDs, t-shirts, and even a "golden ticket" that will get the winner into any of Green's shows in 2007. Organizers hope to get the event certified as a new Guinness world record.

The Californian, Bob Schneider's long-awaited new album, will finally hit stores next Tuesday on his own Shockorama label.

Schneider's MySpace page says he's completed three additional albums, including The Electric Monkey.

Condolences to Ian McLagan for the loss of his wife, Kim, in an auto accident yesterday morning.

A former London model, Kim married the Who's Keith Moon in 1966, divorced nine years later, and then married Ian in 1978. She owned and ran the K.M. Skincare salon in Smithville.

For more on Kim's life and passing, see Michael Corcoran's article in today's Austin American-Statesman.