#5 on GAC’s Top Stories of 2009 |  View all »

Country fans who listen only to the mainstream commercial outlets in their neck of the woods are missing out on some really great music, and that message was driven home in a big way in 2009. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand album, produced by T Bone Burnett, took home five trophies during the Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for “Please Read The Letter.”

The first single, “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On),” was a favorite GAC video in 2008 with its underplayed vocals and throbbing pulse. It was a unique release, but it called attention to the hip, left-of-country’s-center genre known as Americana music. Once referred to as alt-country, it’s become a sort of catch-all for roots-driven music that’s not easily categorized, blending folk-rock, country-rock, traditional country, western swing and blues music forms into a loose genre that values authenticity — warts and all — over slick perfection.

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Willie Nelson photo courtesy of Lost Highway Records.

There are plenty of ways to meet the Christmas gift wishes of country music fans in 2010: new Christmas albums from Sugarland, Richie McDonald and John Cowan; concert tickets for one of the coming year’s summer festivals; or maybe a Keith Urban fundraising calendar.

But if you want to go the extra mile — and you’ve got bucks to spend — you might want to consider something that’s been signed, or previously owned, by a country star. Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift and Johnny Cash are among numerous artists represented at auction this month, with the proceeds in most instances going to a worthy charity.

Some are online, some require you to show up in person, and the most expensive one is already completed. But here are some reasons to do a friend’s “bidding” for Christmas:

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T Bone Burnett photo courtesy of tboneburnett.com.

Producer T Bone Burnett has had a hand in a slew of important albums this decade, including the Robert Plant & Alison Krauss project Raising Sand, Elvis Costello’s current Secret, Profane And Sugarcane, plus the soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Cold Mountain and Walk The Line.

Now T Bone’s got his fingers on a picture that has pre-release Oscar buzz all over it, and the song that runs over the end credits should heighten the profile of Americana artist Ryan Bingham.

Jeff Bridges stars in the new picture, Crazy Heart, in which a formerly successful country singer grapples with life after his career has faded. Robert Duvall, who won an Oscar for a similar role in the 1983 movie Tender Mercies, is a co-producer of the new release. In an unconventional move, T Bone wrote the music before shooting commenced with co-producer Stephen Bruton, a Kris Kristofferson band member who died this year after working on the project. Much as he did when he oversaw the vocal performances of actors Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line, T Bone also produced Jeff’s performances as a has-been singer.

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