You never know what you’re going to get when you speak to a musician for the first time. Talking to Ben Sollee last week was like talking to an old friend. Easygoing and thoughtful, the cellist from Louisville, Ky., interrupted a couple times only because his young son was banging on a banjo.

Although she's been less active than her international fanbase would like, Kelly Willis remains one of Austin’s most revered singers. She’s taken the past few years off to raise a family with her husband Bruce Robison (Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, George Strait, Dixie Chicks), but the couple makes one of its periodic appearances Friday at the One World Theatre.

Despite the myth that I hate everything, I’ve been making these mixtapes for years. The past few have come semi-annually, usually with 20 to 40 of the songs I wanted to remember and share with friends.

If Lyle Lovett ever tires of writing and singing songs, he has a future as a talk show host. That was apparent Tuesday, the first of two sold-out nights at the Paramount Theater, in which the 2011 Texas State Musician shared the stage with John Hiatt for two glorious hours, wielding only acoustic guitars and the occasional harmonica between them.

When I walked into the Moody Theater Tuesday night, my ears were still ringing. Twenty-four hours earlier, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears put on the show of their career with a taping for Austin City Limits, nearly two hours of unremitting energy that left everyone gasping for breath. I wonder how they’ll distill such a beast to 25 minutes.

They call Nashville home, but the Greencards still have a warm spot in their hearts for Austin. Now a quartet, the band originally came together here early in the last decade, and is celebrating the release of The Brick Album with an in-store at Waterloo Records today, 5pm, and a show at Threadgill’s World HQ Thursday evening.

MilkDrive is one of the bands that formed after the South Austin Jug Band splintered, as Dennis Ludiker, Brian Beken, and Matt Mefford joined up with old friend Noah Jeffries from Jason Boland & the Stragglers for expeditions along the boundaries of acoustic music.

Do the Cars still matter? That question comes to mind with the release of Move Like This, the band’s first album since 1987.

From his time with the Drive-by Truckers, it was obvious Jason Isbell possessed some special talents. They're in full effect on his latest, Here We Rest, a combination of sharply defined character studies and rugged roots rock that more than a few have declared one of the best albums of 2011.