The Tar Heels may have fallen short of the Final Four in the NCAA tournament, but Chapel Hill's music community just made the top-four in a different countdown. Livability.com, a website that runs top-10 lists about the country's best places to live, puts Chapel Hill at No. 4 in its "Top 10 Cities With the Best Music Scenes Outside Nashville, New York City and Los Angeles" -- right between Omaha and Portland. Coming in at No. 1 is Athens, Ga.

I have to say, however, that the methodology is a bit peculiar. Rather than quote someone who actually lives in Chapel Hill or is familiar with its new-music quadrant, the piece quotes Doobie Brothers/New Grass Revival member John Cowan, apparently because he has played in Chapel Hill "many times since he began touring extensively in the 1970s" (which is probably code for, "He answered the phone when we called"). The list of acts with Chapel Hill ties is pretty dated, too: James Taylor, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Archers of Loaf, Southern Culture on the Skids, Superchunk and Ben Folds Five, all of whom go back at least 15 years.

But at least it has a picture of modern-day hitmakers The Old Ceremony, barely visible onstage at Haw River Ballroom.

Back in their mid-'90s commercial prime, Chapel Hill's Southern Culture on the Skids would log as much as 300 days a year on the road. The band still gets out to play a fair amount, including a couple of Triangle shows coming up. But those grueling coast-to-coast death marches are a thing of the past.

"We don't tour as much as we used to because we can't," SCOTS main man Rick Miller said in a recent interview. "Part of it is getting older, and part is how hard it is to be away from family. I love playing, but the travel and time away are more difficult now. Used to be we'd just make room in the van for significant others and put them to work selling merch or running sound or setting up the stage. Some relationships crashed and burned from that, and some became stronger. We were a band of gypsies. But it's not anything like that now. We used to do 12 weeks at a time, and the most we do anymore is maybe three weeks."

For more, see the story in Friday's paper.

The 2nd annual North Carolina Cuegrass Festival will be 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.

The Pit closes down the streets around its restaurant. People bring their lawn chairs to hear live music. (Southern Culture on the Skids is the headliningg act, as well as Old Habits, Jackass Flats and Sons of Ralph Duo.) Plus, you get to chow down on Ed Mitchell's barbecue and drink North Carolina beers, including LoneRider and Big Boss.

Pray for warm, clear weather.  

The 2nd annual North Carolina Cuegrass Festival will be 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, April 17.

The Pit closes down the streets around its restaurant. People bring their lawn chairs to hear live music. (Southern Culture on the Skids is the headliningg act, as well as Old Habits, Jackass Flats and Sons of Ralph Duo.) Plus, you get to chow down on Ed Mitchell's barbecue and drink North Carolina beers, including LoneRider and Big Boss.

Pray for warm, clear weather.  

(I'm bummed that I have a conflict that day or I would so be going to this event!)