Some things are naturally occurring, Texas Summer heat , death, taxes and Dwight Yoakam at some point in his career would release an album of covers by his mentor and friend Buck Owens.

After his fist release Dwight was soon introduced to the Texas native and they collaborated on Buck’s revived “The Streets of Bakersfield” to top the charts in 1988. The two stayed good friends until Buck Owen’s death on March 25, 2006 of a heart attack only hours after performing at his Crystal Palace restaurant and club.

Since releasing his first major label debut “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.” in 1986 Yoakam has been the heir apparent of the twangy, electrified, rock-influenced flavor of hardcore honky-tonk entitled the Bakersfield sound (from it’s regional birthplace Bakersfield, CA.) and made famous by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Like it’s mountain cousin Bluegrass, Bakersfield is the kind of music that separates the country music aficionado from the tourist. It wears it’s hillbilly roots on it’s Nudie suited spangled sleeve while also using rock arrangements and technology to move forward.

The Bakersfield sound was also a bracing counter to the syrupy country-pop being produced in Nashville in the ’60s. Yoakam was able to deftly revive the sound in the ’80s in reaction to the very same insipid country music environment.

Now comes the inevitable and precisely if obviously titled “Dwight Sings Buck.” A reprisal of fifteen of Buck Owens’ greatest releases including 11 top five hits, eight of which reached #1 on the country charts, spanning 1956 to 1967. Though there are no real stretches or deviations with Dwight’s arrangements of these familiar classics, there are some pleasant tweaks here and there.

The release kicks things off with a bang with “My Heart Skips A Beat” to let you know just what is in store. Rave up electrified guitars twang out a solid back beat. The songs melts deftly into “Foolin Around” with an even faster beat and innocent double entendres. The breadth of this release and Dwight masterful delivery of the songs reminds the listener just how influential Buck Owens was and how his Hee Haw corn-pone persona allowed people to dismiss him as the innovator he was on country and rock.

“Only You” is a cut with a noticeable difference in arrangement. It’s still a slow loping testament to lost love but Dwight starts out the song with an organ bringing to mind a church procession. The song then moves into a waltz and Dwight’s voice aches, cracks and brings out the lonely ache of wanting in the song’s lyrics.

That same ache also occurs on Dwight Sings Buck’s first released single “Close Up The Honky Tonks.” That ache that is at once lonely and comforting when you realize someone is out there putting these universal feelings to hillbilly poetry.

This Fall is shaping up to be a great one for country fans, Dwight Sings Buck is the joyous and passionate release on the top of that list.

Dwight Yoakam - Close Up The Honky Tonks

Ha Ha Tonka is a great new band from Springfield MO. newly signed to the mighty Bloodshot Records. Their album Buckle in the Bible Belt is available now.

Texas expat and roots rock legend will take time from promoting his latest album, Washington Square Serenade (9/25) and shooting HBO’s The Wire, where he stretched and portrays an ex-junkie, and heads uptown from his Greenwich Village residence (near where Bob Dylan’s Freewheeling cover photo was taken) to drop into the 92nd Street Y (1395 Lexington Avenue @ 92nd Street New York, NY) on October 9th and take a spin class….er I mean talk with music journalist Anthony DeCurtis about, what else, music and activism (tickets).

Earle joins a roster of politically active artists who have appeared at the Y including Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Tony Kushner and Alec Baldwin(!).The event probably won’t be as interesting (or contentious) as it might be if he held it in Lubbock Texas, but whether you agree with him or revile him, Steve Earle is anything but uninformed

Earle will also appear in concert at Town Hall on September 26 and also hosts a weekly radio show, Hardcore Troubadour Radio, on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Popmatters.com is in the midst of doing the contentious and thankless job of counting down the “Top 100 All-Time Best Country Songs.” As they mention:

We kept this list, in the words of Strait, pure country: No Wilco. No Flying Burrito Brothers. No Old 97’s. No alt-country—there’s a time and place for honoring those heroes, and this ain’t it.

We based this list on two things: popularity and our own opinions. Just because a song was popular, however, doesn’t mean it made the cut. Same goes for the quality of the songs; because of space restrictions, we had to leave a bunch of our faves on the editing-room floor.

Still, in our opinions, these are indeed the 100 best country songs of all time. Let the disagreeing begin.

Yeah it’s the list is littered with pop-country drek like Garth, McGraw and the Judds but with #45 bing Jerry Lee Lewis’ “39 and Holding” and  # 64 being Emmylou Harris’ & Gram Parsons’ “Love Hurts” it ain’t all bad….so far

September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953

George Grantham, drummer, vocalist and founding member of the seminal 70’s West Coast country-rock band Poco  (”Crazy Love,”  “Heart of the Night”), recently suffered a severe stroke.  The stroke took him off the road permanently–making him incapable of enjoying or continuing his music career.

John McEuen from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Timothy Schmit, Kentucky Headhunters, Scotty Moore, Steve Wariner, DJ Fontana, Don Henley, Richie Furay, Chris Hillman, Graham Nash, the band Orleans ands others have all joined Grantham’s daughter Gracie to begin a campaign Putting Heads Together to raise money for her father by contributing items for an eBay auction and to establish a fund to pay for George’s medical and living expenses.

For the latest news, to donate cash, something to sell or want to buy something from the auction visit the Putting Heads Together  site.

“It Burns When I Pee” displays their fine upbringing by dedicating their episode #0006 to an 84th year birthday tribute to the legend Hiram “Hank” King Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953).

The episode features such great interview with Beth Birtley from the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. IBWIP also plays some of Hank’s song preformed by the likes of Joey Allcorn, Hank III, Andy Norman, Hank Cash, and Jake
Penrod and by Hank the the man himself. They also feature Jared Morningstar on the show and he will be reading an essay he wrote about the late great Hank Williams.

Head over to the Section 86 store for all your “It Burns When I Pee” merch.

Hank Williams Sr.- Honky Tonk Blues

Today is the 4th anniversary of Johnny Cash’s death at 71 years of age while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. I just had to put on Johnny Cash at San Quentin really loud and post this reminder. There will never be another Man In Black.

Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line (1959)

The good folks at the country music blog 9513.com are giving away tickets to the Big State Festival. Now I lived in Texas most of my life and never heard of the Big State Festival. Well turns out this is the first year it’s being put on.

The Festival is held on October 13 & 14 at the Texas World Speedway; Bryan-College Station, Texas (Gig ‘em!) and will have more than 50 country music stars on 5 stages over 2 days as well as stock car racing as (this is my favorite part) a Barbecue Showdown. The performers will include Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, Drive-By Truckers, Leon Russell, Billy Joe Shaver, Charlie Louvin , Gary Allan, Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert, Bruce and Charlie Robison, Luke Bryan, Kelly Willis, Sunny Sweeney and more. Head over to the official Big State Festival website to see a full lineup.

The festival will benefit the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation.

So the Country Music Association and the Americana Music Association have recently released their nominees list for their respective awards and in an attempt to figure what passes for country music nowadays and what the heck “Americana” means I am going to compare a category they share…sort of.

CMA Entertainer of the Year
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
Rascal Flatts
George Strait
Keith Urban

CMA Male Vocalist of the Year
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
George Strait
Josh Turner
Keith Urban

CMA Female Vocalist of the Year
Alison Krauss
Miranda Lambert
Martina McBride
Reba McEntire
Carrie Underwood

AMA Artist of the Year
Joe Ely
Lucinda Williams
Patty Griffin
Todd Snider

Being good, progressive minded folk the Americana place the boys and the girls in one “artist” category. The CMA naturally plays it like a broken record with Chesney and Rascal Flatts nominated for the millionth time. I have a question, to qualify for EOTY shouldn’t you be entertaining? And I don’t mean in a comedic sense. And what is the difference between “Entertainer of the year” and Vocalist of the year” I mean all the nominees are vocalists,that’s what they do to entertain, sing. Is the CMA rewarding acrobatics, ripped biceps and hair gel as a separate category?

I like George Strait and think his 07 release “It Just Comes Natural” is good but not great. I like Brad Paisley somewhat but think he’s choosing the corn-ball and schmaltz cuts that are beneath him and his fine guitar playing to chase the dollar. I think Miranda Lambert is the best thing to happen to country in a long time and she has the good sense to cover excellent songwriters like Gillian Welsh. Alison Krauss is the one crossover artist here but she had to soften her bluegrass roots and get a make-over to get acceptance by the CMA crowd. Britney 2…er..I mean Carrie Underwood has the pipes but not the soul or courage to be interseting.

Joe Ely is a Texas legend and should when in any category he’s in. And even though I love Lucinda, I think “West” was a weak effort and shows that moving to L.A. will kill even a dignified soul.

I will use the CMA boy/girl dichotomy and ignore the useless EOTY category and play nice and not add other deserving artists like Elizabeth Cook and Wayne Hancock into the mix, and say:

Male Artist of the Year: Joe Ely

Female Artist of the Year: Miranda Lambert