Page Two

Lecture time here: We are currently running the Austin Music Poll Ballots in this issue and the next. This is your chance to let the world know what you think of the Austin music scene. The results are published in the special Chronicle Music Awards issue, which is published during South by Southwest week (so it really is the world that reads it). By voting in the poll, the Austin music lovers and fans - the ones who go out to the clubs, buy the music, and support the bands - get to offer their opinions on the scene.

Read over the last decade-and-a-half of polls. They really represent the flow of Austin music history as written by the voters. The club-going readers know what is going on and the polls over the year reflect their sentiments. Help write the history of the present scene: Vote. This is your chance to be heard.

All this activity climaxes at the Austin Music Awards, on Wednesday, March 18 at the Austin Music Hall, kicking off this year's South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival.

The old white dry-erase board is out. There are lists of names on it. Margaret Moser and I sit and stare at the board. Occasionally, we talk or make noises or erase something and write something new. Then we make phone calls. Moser makes a lot more phone calls than I do - she coordinates the event. The machinery is now creaking into place. It is not very noisy. Mostly, there is a room, a board, lists of names, and some conversation.

Running alongside, underneath, and throughout this is the accumulation of Music Poll ballots. The mail is slow at first, with anywhere from two or three to a couple of dozen envelopes a day. Then it builds. The last week there is a rush.

The office staff working on this operation is equally amazing, under Moser's command but Kate Messer's leadership and direction, a staff works on entering and tabulating information. Ballots are opened, stacked, checked, entered, and added. The Music Awards staff awakes and appears amid the preparations, shaking itself out for yet another show. The old customs revisited, the ancient rituals revived.

All this activity climaxes at the Austin Music Awards, on Wednesday March 18 at the Austin Music Hall, kicking off this year's South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival. I said that before but I want to say it again, to firmly establish this goal. This year's lineup features Asleep at the Wheel with special guest Don Walser. More acts, guests, details, and conference information to come.

Musicians: It is Musicians Register time. While the fans are voting in the Music Poll, the musicians can describe themselves and/or their group in 35 words or less, including a limited discography. The Musicians Register is published in Austin on February 27th but extra copies are distributed at SXSW. The register, of course, will also be available at the Chronicle website at http://www.auschron.com.

Copies of the Register are consulted all year by music professionals in Austin, in Texas, and in the country. The listing is free (you can buy a photo or logo). All of this, of course, is building toward SXSW Week featuring Film, Interactive, and Music conferences, festivals, and trade shows, beginning March 13. But don't forget to vote.