@ZackTeibloom It’s Thanksgiving, and even though I’m spending the holiday alone at my desk with $20 worth of BBQ from Rudy’s, I really do have a lot to be thankful for this year. I have the coolest, most supportive, loving dad and sister in the world, a wonderful extended family, incredible friends in Austin and Chicago and all over the festival world and my life is full of music. I’m a lucky boy. Since I won’t be at a table making awkward thanksgiving toasts, I wanted to count my musical blessings here with you.

I’m thankful to be living in the “live music capital of the world” where festival season runs from March’s epic SXSW (where bars I’d never set foot in turn into three stages worth of rock) through November’s Fun Fun Fun. It’s Where ACL lives to bring Dave Grohl and Jack White to me with a new band every year. Where Fun Fun Fun happens on my birthday and is short a few hundred funs in its title. Where Stubbs has brisket tacos to go nicely with everyone (from Andrew Bird to Metallica to TV on the Radio to Animal Collective to Spoon) and there’s so many colored wristbands I can collect, I don’t have to pay for one show. Where Mohawk has the back door always propped open just enough for me to crash. Where Emo’s lets me get on stage to sing with Bang Camaro. Where Scoot-Inn lets me dance on stage with Neiliyo and The Hood Internet. Where everyone I know is a DJ or concert photographer or blogger or thinks they are. Austin, I love you.

I’m thankful Phish is back. Not just back for a reunion show one-off like Led Zeppelin. Full-scale new album, multi-part tour-with-mind-melting-performances-at-every-turn-and-so-much-more-to-come” back. Phish 3.0 is bigger and stronger than ever.

I’m thankful for Jack White and his climb to the top of rock’s elite. I saw it coming in March of 2008 when he was “only” anchoring The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, but he’s become a Zappa-level workaholic, never resting between recording, touring and constantly finding new bands and projects to wet his insatiable appetite for rock. The chemistry he has with Alison on stage with The Dead Weather makes me jealous of both of them and his solo’s, even though he’ll only play a song or two a show, just melt me. He’s producing Nashville legends and turning down Slash. ”It Might Get Loud” finally inspired me to get a guitar. He’s being nominated for artist of the decade on everyone’s lists. He’s finally becoming who I always knew he was.

I’m thankful I own a guitar and am following a dream I got from Jack in It Might Get Loud. My fingers are littered with blisters from playing “Seven Nation Army” until my roommates hate me and it feels incredible. There hasn’t been blood yet, but I haven’t gotten nutty with my glass slide yet. I can barely keep it in tune and I can only play half a song, but I daydream about it constantly. That’s gotta count for something.

I’m thankful for Hippiesexclusive, better known as “Hippie Sex,” a 6-man Gmail group of music fans who e-mail each other 100 times a day to talk music from Chicago, Austin, New York, and Amherst. Every morning I wake up to 20+ e-mails from these guys who feel like older brothers on my iPhone on everything music and everything else. Even though I can’t convince them to get into Radiohead or Passion Pit, they get me into everything my history of rock education didn’t teach me. You need older brothers in your music loving life.

I’m thankful for BC and Merch’s radio show. Every Wednesday night at 10 I jump in the chat and rock to Merch’s Mash-up, the throwback jams and even a fresh new version of “Party in the USA.” Trust me it was good. Ranch_Dressing good. I’m thankful for Laura’s radio show too when she remembers to tweet about it and plays some Jack for me. More than her radio show, she’s a true festival warrior. You need young music fans in your life.

I’m thankful to all of you who share a show with me. To @Den_mom for understanding triangulation and attacking a festival like I thought only Andy and I could. To @whitd for understanding that my joking is an elaborate series of joke moves.  To @chrisinaustin for taking pretty pics when his fat wrist doesn’t get in the way. To @robcheid and @supercooleric for being easy to spot in a crowd, bringing headbands back and shielding me from the sun. To @doctorcollins for the sandwiches. To Bryn for getting down to Austin and doing it up big with me. It’s trigga. It’s always trigga. Extra mention for @MikelaFloyd for hooking us up with stuff for contest, @Snoogans913 and @Rchodgkinson and @jordanlipshutz for being super fans and wise for their ages. To @samifest for having so much rock sauce in her heart and being a true Festival Crasher in NOLA. I love all of you. I do this for you.

I couldn’t do it without Andy, my partner in crime, who overcame screws in his foot to festival when I couldn’t this summer, for bringing FC to the west coast and doing photo/writing duty. It’s harder than it looks. Trust me. I’ve tried other photographers. The four-year plan is in full effect.

I’m thankful for the festivals. God damn I love them. They can be uncomfortable as hell, like Bonnaroo and its four exhausting days and sleepless nights. They can be heavenly, like Rothbury and the hammocks in the Sherwood Forrest (pictured above.) No matter the conditions, festivals become a part of you. The only place I can truly be myself in all ways. They are everything that’s right with the world. I’m incredibly thankful for every one of them. I wish they never ended.

It’s after midnight and that means it’s officially Thanksgiving and I’m still sitting at my desk. I guess I’ll end with a scene from the movie that got me into music writing. From the bottom of my heart, I’m thankful. I love you all.

What am I thankful for? ”To begin with, everything.”

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