Adam Lee Davies at Time Out London has reviewed Graeme Thomson’s Bio of Willie Nelson “The Outlaw” and given it 5 out of 6 stars. I’ll review the book myself once I get my hands on it.

The New York Time has an article featuring interviews with ex-Jayhawks and Golden Smog member Gary Louris and Tift Merritt about the demise, or the actual existence ever, of the “alt.country” genre. I think the article leans far too heavily of the Jayhawks as symbols of the genre rather than looking at the whole environment as an alternative to pop country, but it’s still a good read.

One of the appeals of country and roots music is it’s feeling of time-worn familiarity. The rough croon about lost love and bottomless whisky glasses feel like a well worn leather chair. But sometimes someone comes along and fucks the whole thing up. Yeah all the bits are there, fiddle, crooner, stand up bass, dobro – but things are well, all askew. These guilty parties dwell in the lands of country and some hyphenated shadow region – electonica, jazz, and (shudder) rap. Jim White, Buck 65 and Hank III are examples of these genre straddlers, now they have company with Suger Hill recording artist Casey Driessen. The 27-year old Chicago native is a top notch fiddler (he got his first fiddle when he was six) a Berklee College of Music grad, toured China on an embassy sponsored excursion, and recorded on the soundtrack for the Johnny Cash movie Walk the Line and appeared with Steve Earle’s Bluegrass Dukes – needless to say this guy is not your run of the mill fiddler’s fare.

The styles on his newest release “3-D” are all over the place – Irish jigs, complex jazz arrangements, swamp folk and western swing – and it all works in spite of itself. There’s something daring and dangerous about the music – taking something so solid, so defined and turning it on it’s ear all without a net.

Let’s hope that “3-D” injects new life into the roots and Americana genre like Mile’s Davis’ “Bitches Brew” and the Allman Brothers “Eat A Peach” changed everything that came after.

There’s a nice article at Popmatters chronicling the Atlantic recording sessions (Shotgun Willie and Stages and Phases) that established Willie Nelson as a legend in the outlaw country movement and led to a great three CD retrospective of the sessions.

Scott H. Biram is Austin’s dirty old one man band who delivers the gospel of the First Church of the Ultimate Fanatacism brimming with whisky and muddy holy water. Graveyard Shift, Biram’s new release on Bloodshot, sounds like a man screaming primally from the abyss (which Biram has stared into after being hit head-on by an 18-wheeler at 75 MPH on a Texas highway). This is mangled gut-bucket blues, outlaw country and punk rock conjuring a monster so hideously original and yet so….familiar. Biram channels these tunes from the musical past with his squalling ’59 Gibson electric hollow-body and thay arrive wholly original, soulful and , often, frightening as hell. The lame is cured, the blind see and shitty music is dispatched off this mortal coil.