58 September 21 - 27, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER contents | shopping & services | Arts & entertAinment | Food & drink | sports & recreAtion Best Local Compilation Sounds of Deep Ellum by Deep Ellum 100 Nonprofit Deep Ellum 100 started as a way to help the musicians, businesses and workers of the entertainment district affected by the pandemic. A year or so later, it took on an incredible musical project: updating the Sounds of Deep Ellum album from 1987. Among hundreds of applicants, Deep Ellum 100 selected the 10 definitive musical acts that represented the sound of the time and helped keep music at the heart of the neighborhood. Together with a team of local producers and artists, the group recorded a live showcase at Trees that yielded a compilation album of performances by Lorelei K, Skinny Cooks, Memory Shivers, Maya Piata, Cure for Paranoia, Stone Mecca, Flower Child, Chilldren of Indigo, Ducado Vega and Labretta Suede and The Motel 6. It’s now on vinyl, serving as an archive for the era. deepellum100.com/sode Best Country Single Vincent Neil Emerson, “Bloody Mary Morning” The next time you feel a mean hangover coming on, pour yourself a bloody mary and crank up this song. Vincent Neil Emerson serves up some juicy, twangy goodness in this cover of “Bloody Mary Morning,” one of Willie Nelson’s essential drinking cuts. Emerson’s version of the tune makes for the perfect first song on the album One Night in Texas: The Next Waltz’s Tribute to The Red Headed Stranger, which also includes renditions by legends Ray Wylie Hubbard and Shinyribs. Best muSical multitaSker Robert Ellis Houston-born and, lately, Fort Worth- based Robert Ellis is a maelstrom of musical output. The singer-songwriter, a part owner of Niles City Sound (and the studio-affiliated label, Niles City Records), just released a superb new solo LP, Yesterday’s News, to the same sort of acclaim he helps acts like Jamestown Revival and Thomas Csorba earn via his work as a producer. Ellis also finds the time, somehow, to tour extensively across the United States and Europe, both on his own and as a support act for artists like Ben Kweller and Belaver. robertellis.website Best in a category all Her own Erykah Badu What is Erykah Badu up to now? When it comes to Dallas’ High Priestess of Cool, the better question to ask these days is what isn’t she doing? Seemingly every day, news of another fascinating Badu endeavor ricochets around the internet: Her collaboration with cannabis entrepreneur Berner; her appearance at this year’s Met Gala; her arena-headlining tour with yasiin bey — hell, by the time you read this, she’ll probably have done 12 more awesome things. Given her current ubiquity (did we mention landing the covers of both Vogue and Elle Brazil in the span of three months?), there’s a sense the world has possibly caught up to the woman who has long been ahead of us all. facebook.com/erykahbadu Andrew Sherman BEST IN A CATEGORY ALL HER OWN Erykah Badu
