Typically I could care less about the Grammy’s. I mean COME ON! Hootie & the Blowfish, Milli Vanilli and Culture Club! Yeesh! But because because of a flash of musical perception, odds, or whatever…they sometimes get it right. This year the folks at the Grammys have a couple of winners..if they actually win that is.
Willie Nelson’s You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Album and Rick Rubin has been nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classicalfor his work on Johnny Cash’s album American V: A Hundred Highways and the song “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”. He is also nominated in the same category for his work on albums from Neil Diamond, The Dixie Chicks, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Yeah I know. It’s starting to sound like all Lucinda, all the time here at planet Twang. So what? Who am I to deny the power of Lu? (or her publicity machine at Lost Highway - how about some backstage passes for all this, huh?) Ms. Williams will be coming to the Big Apple on March 23 at Radio City Music Hall. Oh how I wish for a Rockettes choreographed rendition of “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.”

Tickets go on sale this Saturday 1/13. See you there.

Here is a glimpse of the cover of the forthcoming release from Goddess Lucinda Williams “West” (2/13). You can also hear samples from the CD at AllMusic.com. Keep checking in to Twang Nation for any more Lucinda news on the CD and tour info. I said it before and I’ll sy it again, Faith Hill and Sheryl Crow should be lick-shining the Luccheses of this lady.

Fifty years into his legendary music career, Grammy winner and Country Music Hall of Famer Porter Wagoner has been signed to LA-based Anti- records, and is soon to release a Marty Stuart-helmed project celebrating his five decades as one of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry’s best-loved performers.

Wagonmaster, as the project is now titled, will mostly feature songs written by Wagoner himself– the same tunes that have earned him a place in Americana music history, as well as numerous industry awards and accolades. But one song in particular, while not penned by Wagoner himself, holds a special place on the album’s roster.

Twenty-five years ago, after Johnny Cash took an interest in some of Wagoner’s early recordings, he wrote “Committed to Parkview,” about a stay in a mental asylum not far from Nashville, where Cash and Wagoner both spent time. Cash gave a cassette recording of the song to bandmate Marty Stuart, who was instructed to pass it along to Wagoner, which he did– two and a half decades later.

“I never got around to it until we started collecting songs for this project,” Stuart explained in a statement. “I searched mywarehouse and found the envelope with ‘Committed to Parkview’ on it, with a note from John to Porter. Twenty-five years after I was supposed to and three years after his death, I did what I told John I would do. I delivered the song and Porter loved it.”

Wagonmaster is slated for release in May 2007. For more on Porter Wagoner, check out his official website, PorterWagoner.net.

Anti- is home to such artists as Tom Waits, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Neko Case.

On Saturday, January 6, pedal steel guitarist and Emmy-winning  visual effects artist “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow died at the age of  72 from Alzheimer’s complications, according to a Reuters report. Kleinow  was born in South Bend,  Indiana but a California resident at the time of his death.

Kleinow was a founding member of the Flying Burrito Brothers,  along with country-rock pioneers (and former Byrds) Gram Parsons  and Chris Hillman. The band’s music has been highly influential  since their debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, was released in 1969.

Kleinow also contributed as a session musician to albums by John  Lennon, Joni Mitchell, and Fleetwood Mac. He founded a new group  called Burrito Deluxe (named after the title of the Burrito Brothers’  second album) in 2000, and his last public performance was in October  2005 at a Parsons tribute festival.

When he was not playing music, Kleinow also  made his mark in the TV and film industries as a multi-faceted visual  effects artist. His credits include The Empire Strikes Back, The Right  Stuff, both Terminator films, Gremlins, “The Outer Limits”, “Land of  the Lost”, “Gumby”, and miniseries “The Winds of War”, for which he shared an Emmy.

I can’t explain it and readers of thois blog know I would’nt anyway. I can’t wait the debute if the Naked Trucker and T Bone Show on Comedy Central (1/17). Yep, like a taste for pork rinds, slim Jims or Mountain Dew it’s hard to explain, if you don’t get it, you just don’t get it. I think this show will sweep the Emmy’s. Remember, you heard it here first.

Over at Pitchforkmedia.com Stephen M. Deusner has written an article titled “Everything But Country” which is overtly a review of Shout! Factory’s box set “Legends of Country Music: Classic Hits  from the 50s, 60s, and 70s” and is more subtly is past and present country music’s place in the American cultural landscape and Nashville’s role in inadvertently cultivating great alt.country acts. The title of the piece is taken from the typical response to “What kind of music do you like?” which is “Everything but rap and country.” Nice, thoughtful stuff.

An excerpt: Mainstream hip-hop has been filtering into indie culture for a few years, but contemporary country music has been slow to take root beyond safe alt- holdovers. Perhaps it’s because the music as played by corporate radio stations is perceived to be simplistic, jingoistic, and sentimental– which is true to an extent– or simply because Arcade Fire fans don’t want to be associated with NASCAR fans and Wal-Mart shoppers. As a result, indie faves Neko Case and Jenny Lewis are considered to be merely dabbling in country, and Tim McGraw covering “Stars Go Blue” doesn’t mean Ryan Adams is the new Kris Kristofferson. Instead, older country music gets a pass, and artists like the Carter Family, Dock Boggs, and Bob Wills are perfectly acceptable to indie ears, perhaps because there was no rock’n'roll to compete with at that time or because they’re so far removed from our current music climate that they don’t register as country anymore. Even the next few generations of country artists have found an audience among younger listeners: Willie Nelson is a favorite due to his ceaseless experimenting, Loretta Lynn found a new audience working with Jack White, and Johnny Cash is more popular with the indie (and every other) crowd dead than he was alive.

Hey, all the New York City hillbillys. Do yourself a favor and head down to Mo’ Pickens House Of Satisfaction tomorrow night (1/8) and check out the Athens, GA based troubaudor and friend of Twang Nation, Adam Klein performing for your entertianment pleasure. Yeah I know it’s Monday night , get off your whiney ass and catch this great show. You can thank me later.

The new year is off with a twang with some great shows comng up right around the bend.

Jerry Lee Lewis (the legend) at BB King’s 1/19
Robert Earl Keen at BB King’s 1/22
James McMurtry and Dave Alvin at the Bowery Ballroom 2/2
Ralph Stanley at BB King’s 3/18
Doc Watson at BB King’s 3/30
Guy Clark and Said Cleaves at BB King’s 4/10