Way back on May 11th <a href="http://www.thisissomewhere.com/2009/05/11/t-bone-burnett-to-produce-the-next-grace-potter-and-the-nocturnals-record/">the band released news</a> that T-Bone Burnett would be producing the next record. While it appears that the record was actually recorded and finished I've heard a GPN rep say that it was "put aside for now". A big part of the reason the record was put aside was the change in band personnel. As I understand it the <a href="http://www.thisissomewhere.com/2009/12/18/2009-in-review-4-of-5-bonnaroo/">Bonnaroo performance 
</a> actually cemented the idea that the next record should in fact be the "new band" in its current configuration. 

While the T-Bone collaboration would have certainly brought lots of positive press (witness the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-tbone-burnett21-2009dec21,0,5259051.story">raft of press about T-Bones's latest project</a> "Crazy Heart"), we're hoping for a few things here:

1) The Mark Batson produced record makes a big splash.
2) The T-Bone record eventually sees the light of day.
3) They aren't just <a href="http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=237538">experimenting with new packaging materials that only monkeys can open</a>.

Any way you look at it the churn surrounding the record release was #2 on my list of moments for 2009.