The sounds of fury, dust and passion fly from New York’s punk-roots band Sixgun Republic. A rockabilly soul and a country heart defines the sound of this bad-ass band. Check ‘em out.

Country legend Charlie Louvin (of the great Louvin Brothers) is set to release his first new album in more than a decade. The self-titled 12-track set will arrive Feb. 20 via New York’s Tompkins Square Records and be supported with an extensive tour.

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello and George Jones are among the artists pitching in. Louvin, who turns 80 in July, recorded the album earlier this year in Nashville with producer Mark Nevers. Also contributing to the sessions were Will Oldham, Tom T. Hall, Bobby Bare Sr., Marty Stuart, The Clean’s David Kilgour and members of Lambchop, Superchunk, Bright Eyes and Clem Snide.

The repertoire encompasses Louvin Brothers songs plus tracks long associated with the Carter Family, the Monroe Brothers and Jimmie Rogers. The album also includes a Charlie-sung tribute to his late brother and collaborator, Ira.

The Louvin Brothers remain a towering influence over country music; a Universal South tribute album, “Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’ — Songs of the Louvin Brothers,” won the 2004 Grammy for best country album.

Here is the track list for “Charlie Louvin”:
“Must You Throw Dirt in My Face,” featuring George Jones
“Great Atomic Power,” featuring Jeff Tweedy
“Blues Stay Away From Me,” featuring Bobby Bare Sr., Tom T. Hall and Marty Stuart
“The Christian Life,” featuring Eef Barzalay
“When I Stop Dreaming,” featuring Elvis Costello, Mac McCaughan and Pete Cummings
“Waiting for a Train,” featuring George Jones and Marty Stuart
“Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea,” featuring Alex McManus
“Worried Man Blues,” featuring Bobby Bare Sr., Kurt Wagner and Marty Stuart
“Grave on the Green Hillside,” featuring Marty Stuart and Tift Merritt
“Knoxville Girl,” featuring Will Oldham and Marty Stuart
“Ira,” featuring Marty Stuart
“My Long Journey Home,” featuring David Kilgour

The News & Observer reports that country chanteuse Tift Merritt is no longer a Lost Highway Records recording artist.  After a two-album run that included a 2005 Grammy
nomination for best country album reports that she and  Lost Highway (which is also home to Willie  Nelson and Ryan Adams) have parted ways.

Excert: “We are in talks regarding a new home and we are  really excited about our next step,” Merritt wrote  in an e-mail message Saturday (while taking a break  from watching the UNC-Kentucky basketball game).  “Looking forward most of all to getting into the
studio early next year.”

After being lucky enough to see an amazing, funny and soulful Merritt open solo for Dwight Yoakam last October in New York City. I’m here to say it’s Lost Highway loss.

Listen up pilgrams. There’s a lady by the name of Michael Ann out of Los Angeles by way of Missori. She has a background in music theatre and can belt out songs dipped in country soul and smokey roots-rock. Check her out ya’ll. Steady as She Goes(mp3)

I’ve had a running list of rock stars already straddling the fence of rock and country and
could probably make a pretty great straight-up country release (Tom Waits, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey)
and then there’s those that you never considered for that list but when their name come up to
do something in that vein you say “Hmmm, yeah that could be cool.” This story from Nashville
newspaper, The Tennessean falls into category 2.

Robert Plant (ex-Led Zeppelin) and bluegrass diva Alison Krauss are the collaborators in question.
After Plant was spotted at several “see and be seen” Nashville restaurants and clubs in recent days,
columnist Beverly Keel started sniffing around and discovered that the seemingly unlikely pair have
been in the studio, recording an album of duets under the watchful ear of producer T Bone Burnett.
Release date for the album has yet to be announced.

The two have recently become label-mates, as Rounder Records Group has just released Plant’s first
ever live performance DVD, Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation, from a 2005 PBS Soundstage
production.

Twang note - for a great Zep cover from a great band check out Devil in a Woodpile’s cover of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp(mp3) on their release In Your Lonesome Town

From the press release:

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Loss and loneliness are at the core of Lucinda Williams‘ largely down-tempo album, “West,” the singer/songwriter’s first release since 2003.

The disc, slated to be released February 13 via Lost Highway, finds the Grammy winner coping with another painful breakup and the passing of her mother, whom she reminisces in songs like “Mama You Sweet” and “Fancy Funeral.” In such songs as “Come On,” “Learning How to Live” and “Everything Has Changed,” Williams again deals with heartbreak.

“The songs deal with a chapter in my life and they definitely tell a story,” Williams told Billboard.com. “It’s probably been the most prolific time in my life as a writer. I’d been through so many changes — my mother’s death and a very tumultuous relationship that ended badly — so obviously there’s a lot of pain and struggling, but it ends with a look toward the future.”

Featuring the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, celebrated drummer Jim Keltner, longtime Bob Dylan bassist Tony Garnier (both of whom played on her “Essence” disc) and Williams’ longtime guitarist Doug Petibone, “West” was co-produced by Williams and Hal Willner, whose credits include Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Bill Frisell, who also guests on the “West.”

But “West” is not a completely somber affair. “Mama You Sweet” is upbeat and “Come On” is a nasty, almost raunchy kiss-off, musically akin to “Atonement” from 2003’s “World Without Tears.”

She injects doses of hope and light in tracks like “What If,” in which she imagines a world where the president wears pink and a prostitute is a queen.

“I get tired of people looking at my songs and feeling that they’re all sad and dark,” she said. “There’s more to them than that. Some people might read Flannery O’Connor and see that as simply dark — and it is dark and disturbing — but there’s a philosophical aspect, even a comical aspect to it as well. I think that’s all there on this album. It’s a full circle, like I’ve come through a metamorphosis.”

There is an interesting article in todays Wall Street Journal about how EMI and Blunote
will allow a single,”Thinking About You,”  from the upcoming Norah Jones album to be bought from Yahoo Music in the MP3 format. This has so far been a contested move for the major labels because MP3 files have no inherent anti-piracy qualities and can be easily shared with friends.

The labels are late the game in this. They’ve allowed Apple years of market lead time
to satisfy an obvious market demand and now they, like Microsoft with the clearly  inferior Zune, are too little too late.

EMI is hedging the piracy concerns on the older demographic of Jones. The thinking goes they are less likely to steal or share music. They are either more ethical or more technologically ignorant.

The concept of containing a song in a physical form and therefore controlling the distribution is long gone. The labels need to figure out a way to bring better music to more niche markets (Like Twang!) and incubate their eggs in many baskets instead of continuing with a model that is obviously dead.

EMI and Bluenote are calling making the MP3s available an “Experiment.” I call in desperate.