ACL Festival is finally here! Have fun this weekend and enjoy the cooler weather. Hopefully the ACL preview series has been useful in helping you plot your path this weekend. Remember to bring plenty of sunscreen and be kind to your fellow festivarians and don’t forget to check out guitar god Richard Thompson. He’s appeared on hundreds of records from REM, Bob Dylan, Los Lobos, Blind Boys of Alabama, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt and tons of others. He’ll be playing the Clear 4G stage on Sunday at 7pm and he will do things on the guitar that you didn’t know were possible.

If you dig soul music as much as I do you won’t want to miss Detroit musician Mayer Hawthorne. Hawthorne was a sensation at SXSW 2009 and SXSW 2010. In a SXSW 2009 interview Mayer Hawthorne describes his success:

Well, I got signed to Stones Throw last November, and the album came out in September, so it hasn’t even been a year. “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” was the first song that I ever wrote. And then when I got signed to Stones Throw, I had only ever written and recorded two songs, that was it, that was all I had. They put those two out on the red heart shaped (vinyl) single and then they were trying to hold off and build some buzz while I recorded the rest of the album. I had to write a whole album and record it, and I did everything myself. I wrote everything myself, played all the instruments, sang everything myself, arranged, produced and recorded everything by myself in my bedroom. You know, it’s a long process. I was lucky enough that the songs kind of kept coming to me.

Mayer Hawthorne & The County will give you a soul filled trip down memory lane at 3:30 on Saturday. He’ll also be playing a show on Friday at Antones.

Get a good heaping helping of delicious garage rock at ACL fest this year from the San Diego band The Soft Pack. They’ve got a great low-fi, catchy sound to them that is reminiscent of many of the recent west coast indie rock bands. Originally playing under the name The Muslims the band was changed their name to The Soft Pack due to “ignorant and racist” comments. In addition to their ACL fest performance on Friday at 1pm they will be playing an after show on Saturday at Antones. They are certain to crank their amps up to 11 and rawk!

The Very Best got a ton of exposure this year through their awesome collaboration with Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend. It’s a collaboration between Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit and a fusion of electronic dance beats and tradition East Africacn Malawi music. Get your fix of world beats and booty shaking on Budweiser Stage on Saturday at 12:30.

Of all the headliners at ACL 2010 the one that I’m most excited to see is The Strokes. After being on hiatus since 2006 The Strokes are back with an album scheduled to be released early next year. They’ve been touring through Europe and Australia this past spring/summer and made their first US appearance in almost four years at Lollapalooza 2010 where they lit the festival up like a roman candle. They’re back with renewed energy and they’ve got their sights set on world domination. The battle field for the second coming of The Strokes will be Zilker Park on Friday October 8 at the AMD stage. Consider yourself warned!

The Strokes BBC Radio 1 Sessions:
The Strokes – Heart In A Cage (Radio 1 Session)
The Strokes – Life’s A Gas (Radio 1 Session)
The Strokes – Reptilia (Radio 1 Session)
The Strokes – You Only Live Once (Radio 1)

If your music library has any Black Sabbath, Wolf Mother, Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin you won’t want to miss The Sword. Hailing from Austin, TX The Sword pumps out some of the finest metal in all of the lone star state. It will get ugly and you may walk away with some broken bones and missing teeth. It may be the first mosh pit that you’ve been in since 1998. Don’t be suprised if someone bites the head of a bird. Bottom line, it will rawwwk! Check them out on Friday at 5 pm at the Zync Card stage.

The Local Natives are one of the more well circulated acts that have been previewed on cuckoobird.net. The vocal sensibility of this LA band is one of the things that makes them so great. They play the Austin Ventures stage on Sunday at 4:45.

What do you get when you add a park, some heavily electrified instruments, a catchy indie pop rock band and 50,000 music fans that are slightly deranged from three days of rocking? You get a perfect storm of pure insanity. Portugal. The Man will rock your face off on Sunday Oct 10 in Zilker Park at the Budweiser stage.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are an indie rock band from the east coast. They’ve got some very catchy tunes and their shows are legendary. They are playing the Budweiser stage on Sunday at 12:30.

If you are into bluegrass you’ll definitely want to add Ruby Jane to your schedule. She’s a 15 year old fiddle prodigy from Austin who at ten years of age became the youngest person to play the Grand Ole Opry. Ruby Jane has toured with Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel and played with Rhonda Vincent, Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen. She’ll be playing on Sunday at 11:15 AM at the BMI stage.