Calling all New York City hillbillies and cowgirls! Zane Campbell will be performing with Kid Davis and the Bullets backing at the Rodeo Bar (corner 27th St/3rd Ave) tonight, Saturday night, 7/21, @ 10 P.M. See you there!

A first-ever release of a performance by the Man in Black at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey on July 27, 1990 will be released as “Johnny Cash - The Great Lost Performance” (Island/UMe), released July 24, 2007, debuts nearly 17 years to the day of the original concert.

The nearly hour-long CD features the classics - “I Walk The Line,” “Hey Porter” and “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Ring Of Fire,” but will also feature duets with wife June Carter Cash on “Jackson” and “The Wreck Of Old ‘97.” The CD will also feature Cash’s first performance of his original “What Is Man?,” and his only recorded version of country gospel’s “Wonderful Time Up There” and “A Beautiful Life,” and his only concert version of “Life’s Railway To Heaven,” whose studio version by Cash
was released only posthumously.

Props to the 9513 for the heads up!

The Dirty Old One Man Band from Austin, TX, Bloodshot Records recording artist and friend of the House of Twang here, Scott H. Biram is taking time away from working in the studio and raising his chickens to bring his First Church of The Ultimate Fanaticism to a town near you. The tour includes a gig with fellow Texas hero Dale Watson at the Rhythm Room Phoenix, AZ. and a show with Nashville Pussy in Asbury Park, NJ.

Check the man out, and tell him Twang Nation sent you.

Tour Dates & Newsletter Summer 2007

Jul 21 2007- Riley’s Tavern Hunter, Texas
Jul 24 2007- Rhythm Room Phoenix, Arizona w/ Dale Watson
Aug 3 2007- Hole In The Wall Austin, Texas
Aug 8 2007- Martin’s Downtown Bar and Grill Roanoke, Virginia
Aug 9 2007- Ottobar Baltimore, Maryland
Aug 10 2007- Asbury Lanes Asbury Park, New Jersey w/ Nashville Pussy
Aug 11 2007- Luna Lounge Brooklyn, New York
Aug 13 2007- Mohawk Place Buffalo, New York
Aug 14 2007- Smiling Moose Bar Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Aug 15 2007- Beachland Ballroom Cleveland, Ohio
Aug 16 2007- Lager House Detroit, Michigan
Aug 17 2007- Schubas Chicago, Illinois
Aug 18 2007- Deep Blues Fest River Falls, Wisconsin
Aug 19 2007- 7th Street Entry Minneapolis, Minnesota
Aug 20 2007- The Waiting Room Omaha, Nebraska
Aug 22 2007- Davey’s Uptown Kansas City, Missouri
Aug 23 2007- Off Broadway St. Louis, Missouri
Aug 24 2007- Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack Little Rock, Arkansas
Aug 25 2007- Rubber Gloves Denton, Texas
Aug 31 2007- Continental Club Austin, Texas
Sep 1 2007- Continental Club Houston, Texas

The Drive By Truckers built their reputation on the fine Southern tradition storytelling. In the Truckers tales the noble and notorious inhabit the homes, streets and woods of the deep South America living life and dealing with hardships and, many times, just getting by, or if situations arise just getting even. Using what country artists call “three chords and the truth” the DBT distilled it all down with a potent tri-axe attack mixer by way of Rossington/Collins to create great genre-bending music that challenged all “Southern-rock” assumptions.

Part of the fun of telling tales is swapping, and many times trying to top, your friends in the process.  Greenville, Alabama guitarist and songwriter, Jason Isbell’s five year stretch with the Truckers gave the other principles Patterson Hood (Vocals and Guitar) and Mike Cooley (Vocals and Guitar) a run for their imaginative money.

Arriving just after the Truckers critically acclaimed Southern Rock Opera, Isbell’s freshman effort with the band resulted in one of their most focused efforts, The brilliant “Decoration Day”, in which Isbell penned and sang the title track as well as the askew but honest ode to Southern family values “Outfit.”

After Isbells abrupt but amicable split with the Truckers earlier this year (which may, or may not have had something to do with his divorce from Trucker bassist Shonna Tucker, Jason has now decided to step up and face the music as a solo artist. Isbell’s work seemed exude a sense of authority and confidence, and his new release “Sirens of the Ditch” (New West) emanates that same power and has given Isbell the room to streatch as many of these cuts you could not imagine on a DBT album.

Kicking things off with “A New Kind of Actress” is the kind of sloppy-pop song that is reminiscent of the Replacements at their best work and highlights Isbell’s excellent slide guitar work.

“Down in the Hole” is a slinky-blues piece a la Junior Kimbrough about a man that rises to power in a small town and “Try” is a loping rock monster about woman troubles (you can’t tell her nothing she don’t know/ she’ll chop down every living thing you grow.) Nice!

“Chicago Promenade” is a cheerful piano driven song reminiscent of a Faces’ Ronnie Lane compositions and would fit nicely on a Sunday morning. 

“Dress Blues” is the most powerful cut of the album. Given the current climate of war in the Nation the theme of a hometown boy dying too young and “Sleeping in your dress blues” will make even the hardest heart weep.

“Grown” is an excellent work reflecting on adult life and love and “Hurricanes and Hand Grenades” channels George Jones by way of Ray Charles for a honky-tonk bluesy barn-burner. “In a Razor Town” a dobro laced song of small town heartache that brings to mind vintage Steve Earle.

Though I was initially bummed that the man that penned the brilliant “Danko/Manuel” was leaving the Truckers, “Sirens of the Ditch” is a fine first solo effort that does ease some of the misery and show sign of great things to come.

Just got back from seeing the family in Dallas for the 4th. While tooling around in Mom’s Merc I checked out the local flavor and tuned into Lone Star 92.5, the Clear Channel radio station I previously had posted on. Sure I could stream them online and enjoy the tunes here in Manhattan but it’s not the same as cruising around the rain soaked streets of my youth.

I one sitting I heard The Allman Brothers, Dylan, Reckless Kelly, Johnny Cash, The Drive By Truckers and Todd Snyder. This, in my mind, is heaven.

On the plane home we too AirTran Airlines. They are always good and, from my experience, mostly on time. Most importantly, the servers on board are always nice to my daughter and they get major points for that.

The airline offered XM Radio on board the plane and while my daughter was absorbed in Miyazaki’s superb animation feature Spirited Away, I checked out what XM had to offer. I stayed a while at “Willie’s Place” and was pleased to hear the old school outlaws represented – Merle, Ray, Leftie – legends you don’t hear enough of on commercial radio. I then headed over to X (cross) Country and it sweetened the deal with John Prine, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle. I was sold. When I get out of the city and buy and truck the very next day I’m getting XM Radio. But when I drive it through Dallas, it’ll take a back seat the Lone Star 92.5.

Rock and country singer/songwriter Steve Earle has readied his New West Records debut, Washington Square Serenade, for its September 25 release date. Produced by the Dust Brothers’ John King, the 12th studio album for Earle features his cover of Tom
Waits’ “Way Down In The Hole,” a track that doubles as the theme song for HBO series The Wire, on which Earle guests. And speaking of guests, singer/songwriter Allison Moorer, Earle’s seventh wife to date, makes an appearance on second-to-last track “Days Aren’t
Long Enough” while Brazilian fusion sixtet Forro In The Dark modernize “City Of Immigrants.” Unfortunately, the two won’t be joining Earle for a handful of solo acoustic performances scheduled for the late summer and fall.

“I guess I felt like it was time to do something different,” Earle says from the set of The Wire. “As far as the actual recording process goes, I guess I did everything different—but then in the end…it still comes down to the songs.”

A true Dylan tribute, the album will also be made available in deluxe edition form with a bonus DVD that includes a tour of New York City’s Greenwich Village with Earle as the guide.

Tracklist For Washington Square Serenade:
01. Tennessee Blues
02. Down Here Below
03. Satellite Radio
04. City Of Immigrants
05. Sparkle And Shine
06. Come Home To Me
07. Jericho Road
08. Oxycontin Blues
09. Red Is The Color
10. Steve’s Hammer (For Pete)
11. Days Aren’t Long Enough
12. Way Down In The Hole

Tour Dates For Steve Earle:
07/20 - Dolgellau, Wales - Sesiwnfawr Folk Festival
07/22 - Brampton, England - William Howard Centre
07/27 - Cambridge, England - Cherry Hinton Hall
07/28 - Westmeath, Ireland - Midland Music Festival
09/02 - Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot Festival At Seattle Center
09/15 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits At Zilker Park

www.steveearle.com
www.newwestrecords.com