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Month: November 2007

Jeff Griffith in Dallas Morning News – Keeping Tradition Alive

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I had this article from the Dallas Morning News forwarded to me. I love Jeff Griffith’s music, it’s like the classic sounds of Charlie Rich and Charlie Pride. It’s refreshing when someone in the business has the cajones to say something like this:

“You’ve got to stand for something, and I stand for good country music,” he says by phone from his San Antonio home. “I’m
not going to let nobody come in and mold me into what I should do. I can only sing and do what I feel. Every time I travel
and perform, people are starved to death for that traditional sound.”

He’s eager to feed.

“There are people out there loving this. It ain’t got nothing to do with the money. It ain’t got nothing to do with being a
star. It’s about Jeff Griffith being known for doing traditional country music.”

Amen, hoss. Amen…

Rolling Stone Reviews Merle Haggard’s “The Original Outlaw”

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Rolling Stone has a nice review of the new Merle Haggard box set “The Original Outlaw.”

A sample:

Merle Haggard’s toughest song may be his 1968 country hit “I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am.” Despite the title, it’s not about a working man — he sings in the voice of a hobo loner, drifting from place to place. “I keep thumbin’ through the phone books/Lookin’ for my daddy’s name in every town,” Hag sings — the way he picks up that line, cuts himself deep on it and sets it back down is the essence of his hard-boiled vocal genius. This could be the guy Bob Dylan sang about in “Tangled Up in Blue,” except he doesn’t even have a redheaded woman in his past — just empty roads. It’s the song they played at the funeral of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant, and you can still hear why.

MySpace Showcase – Rebel Syndicate

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Rebel Syndicate are a Southern-Rock band outta Jackson County, Florida that write hell raising booze soaked rave-ups (Beer Don’t Bitch) and talking-song shuffles on Southern pride (Grace of God) these guys are doing it right and keeping it righteous. Check ’em out.

Rebel Syndicate – “Grace Of God”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i85NCE8a_vw[/youtube]

Bloodshot Records Signs Justin Townes Earle – Debut Release “The Good Life” out in Spring 2008

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Chicago-based alt.country stalwart Bloodshot Records has signed Justin Townes Earle to a multi-album, world-wide deal. His debut full-length album, The Good Life is slated to hit stores in Spring 2008. Justin will make appearances at SXSW and tour with The Felice Brothers in March and April. Justin’s previously self-released EP “Yuma” will become available to wide release through Bloodshot soon.

The Good Life is produced by RS Field, who has made his mark on critically acclaimed albums by Billy Joe Shaver, Sonny Landreth, Webb Wilder and Buddy Guy. Recording is underway at House of David studios, the legendary room that has hosted sessions with George Jones, Yo La Tengo, Elvis Presley, Neil Young and countless others. Joining Earle in the studio are a cast of all-star players including longtime cohort Cory Yountes (Bobby Bare, Jr) on banjo and mandolin, pedal steel player master Pete Finney (Dixie Chicks, Patty Lovelace), bassist Bryn Davies (Patty Griffin, Guy Clark), drummer Bryan Owings (Buddy Miller, Shelby Lynne), keyboardist Skylar Wilson and fiddle player Josh Hedley.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOwaqm7Deu4[/youtube]

Beyonce Goes Country

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Houston born Beyonce Knowles, former Destiny’s Child frontwoman, current accessory for rapper Jay Z, and daughter of Mathew Knowles, owner of Houston roots and country label “Compadre Records” (home of Billy Joe Shaver and James McMurtry, made an appearance with Sugarland at the American Music Awards. Sugarland was performing a countrified version of her hit ‘Irreplaceable’ which they cover at many of their shows.

Beyonce seems to have also been greasing the wheels for her next career choice.

The R&B star has recently stated that she is currently “working an album of Country And Western songs” and is working on it with the British singer and songwriter Amanda Ghost who was the writer of the decade’s most irritating ditty, James Blunt’s hit “You’re Beautiful”

Kelly Clarkson, Bon Jovi and  Jami Fox have all recently tried their hand at country music trying to catch a bit of that Aerosmith/Run DMC genre-crossing lightening in a bottle. But the artists they choose to duet with (Kelly with Reba and Jamie with Rascal Flatts for or the bland material they choose to record (yeah, I’m looking at you Bon Jovi- you helped screw up rock, keep your pop-rock-country meat hooks off country. The Eagles are doing fine on their own.)

And where some artsists can genre jump with grace and dignity and comes out looking pretty damn good (the recent collaboration of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss comes to mind)

Beyonce has said ‘She’s a fan of country music and thought that would be an interesting and exciting way to go.” Being a home girl from Texas gives me a glimmer of hope, but Beyonce’s choice of music in her R&B career and her choice of a Brit to pen the tunes on her upcoming country release makes me think I can put it up there with Cowboy Troy’s.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbCdQS2tqM8[/youtube]

Dolly Parton to Lead Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

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November 19, 2007 — Dolly Parton will take her new single “Better Get to Livin'” to the streets of New York City when she kicks off the 2007 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, November. 22.

Dolly will be on the lead float to perform the song live and on television during the morning parade. “Better Get to Livin'” is the first single from Backwoods Barbie, her first mainstream country album in more than 17 years due out February 5. She wrote nine of the songs for the album and produced the CD with bandleader and guitarist Kent Wells.

“I’ve always dreamed of doing the Macy’s parade,” Dolly said. “I guess I don’t get to watch it this year though…I’ll have to tape it!”

Dolly plans to tour in the U.S. starting in February, then hitting Europe in the summer before returning to the U.S. for dates expected into December 2008.

New York Times Writer Champions Country Music for Insight Into America

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Kurt Campbell who’s bio states that he’s  is an expert on Asia and security issues who is now chief executive of the Center for a New American Security and served in the Pentagon in the Clinton administration, in charge of Asia/Pacific issues, and earlier taught at Harvard. Mr. Campbell writes over at that mouthpiece for the Blue Sate agenda, The New York Times, that country music is a  place to gain a”…deeper insights into the soul of America even without leaving the obvious attractions of Blue State life.”

As a person enjoying the educational, cultural, culinary and economic booty of the bluest of states (New York) I agree with Mr. Campbell when he writes:

Yes, even with its love for the vehicular and alcoholic, country western is the best place to start to learn a little something   about what it means to have a family, to struggle making ends meet, to own a gun or a pickup truck, to support our troops     unquestioningly, to enlist in the military and fight our country’s wars and to generally be very proud of what America stands  for — and to profess confusion over just what all this fuss is about when it comes to our foreign policy choices.

But I urge Mr. Campbell to also pick up recent releases from Steve Earle, James McMurtry or Darrell Scott and many others to hear great country and roots music with a clear insights into foreign policy.

Review – Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raising Sand (Rounder)

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Country music has some great male/female duos – Tammy Wynette & George Jones, Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner and now… Robert Plant and Alison Krauss? No really, let me ‘splain.

While Mssr. Plant and his partner in sonic larceny Jimmy Page spent most of their time pilfering Robert Johnson’s crossroads they never left the dirt roads to traverse the back woods and smokey mountains where Americana, country and roots music flourished. In plant’s own words “I completely missed a whole other area of amazing American music.”

The collaboration between the blonde bluegrass angel and blonde rock god was set in motion seven years ago when the two sang together at a 2004 Leadbelly tribute concert. The conduit to the to bring the project together came in the form of producer and musician T-Bone Burnett (‘O Brother, Where Are Thou’ and ‘Walk The Line’.)

The result is a moody hushed world where sepia tinted country, fringe-folk and swaggering rockabilly fuse into a surprisingly cohesive whole. Like an unlikely collaboration between Angelo Badalamenti and Sam Phillips the alchemy on these thirteen sparsely-arranged cover versions is raw and mesmerizing – Krauss sings like a shimmering Nightingale, and sets a perfect counterpoint to Plant purr and growl. In tandem, they frequently reach moments of true transcendence last heard when Plant dueted with Sandy Denny on Zappelin 4’s (or Zoso) haunting mandolin-driven folk ballad “The Battle of Evermore.”

As you might expect of a recording of this pedigree the musicians are top of the line. Burnett’s hired guns Marc Ribot (guitar), Dennis Crouch (bass), Jay Bellarose (drums) and Norman Blake (acoustic guitar) are solid but restrained. Burnett has a knack for perfecting the early country and roots high lonesomeness that conjures hard fate and hone-spun menace that can only be labeled dark Americana.

The covers are picked with care with attention to diversity and songwriting mastery. Doc Watson’s “Your Long Journey”, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s “Trampled Rose”, Gene Clark waltz “Through the Morning, Everly Brothers’ “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)” and, most impressive, a discordant rendering of Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothing”and a Plant and Page number Please Read The Letter.”

Krauss and Plant trade solo and duet in deliriously beautiful harmony. I haven’t heard a duet release this good since Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell’s 2005’s release “Begonias.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5KF4dKq-6I