Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit announce their first tour in support of their new self-titled album (Release date: February 17, 2009 on Lightning Rod Records). Presented by Paste Magazine, the tour will begin in Birmingham, AL on February 12 and continue through the band’s mid-March SXSW showcase in Austin, TX. Benji Hughes, Deer Tick, and Sons of Roswell will support select dates.

Fans can pre-order concert tickets through Front Gate Tickets from now until December 19. Pre-order ticket buyers will also receive a one-year subscription to Paste Magazine and an MP3 of “Seven-Mile Island” (You can hear the cut on Isbell’s MySpace page)   from the new album.

Pre0Order:  http://jasonisbell.frontgatetickets.com/

Tour Dates:

Thu-Feb-12 Birmingham, AL Workplay
Sat-Feb-14 Florence, AL Shoals Theater
Tue-Feb-17  Athens, GA Georgia Theatre
Wed-Feb-18 Atlanta, GA The Earl
Fri-Feb-20 Raleigh, NC Lincoln Theatre
Sat-Feb-21 Richmond, VA  The National
Sun-Feb-22 Harrisonburg, VA The Pub
Tue-Feb-24 Boston, MA TT the Bears
Thu-Feb-26 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
Fri-Feb-27 Philadelphia, PA    World Café Live
Sat-Feb-28  Pittsburgh, PA Club Cafe
Sun-Mar-01 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Mon-Mar-02 Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
Wed-Mar-04 Toronto, ONT  Horseshoe Tavern
Thu-Mar-05 Buffalo, NY Mohawk Place
Fri-Mar-06 Columbus, OH The Rumba Café
Sat-Mar-07 Cincinnati, OH Southgate House
Sun-Mar-08 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
Fri-Mar-13 Louisville, KY Headliner’s
Sat-Mar-14 Nashville, TN The Mercy Lounge
Mar 18 – 22 Austin, TX SXSW

Sons of Roswell support 2/12 and 2/14
Benji Hughes supports 2/17 – 2/ 22 and 3/8
Deer Tick supports 2/24, 2/27 – 3/14

’tis the season for giving and Ranch Twang is ready to do just that. I have a copy of Shout Factory’s Merle Haggard – Legendary Performances DVD that I will be giving away to some lucky reader.

Here’s the copy from the package:

“From the vaults of the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum, this collection features nearly two decades of Merle Haggard performances in his prime not seen since their original broadcast. Now, for the first time on DVD, experience the hits through a chronology of vintage live performances such as “Branded Man” (Country Music Holiday,1968), “Mama Tried” (Billy Walker’s Country Carnival, 1968) and “Okie From Muskogee” (The Porter Wagoner Show, 1970).”

I watched my own copy of the DVD and it’s good stuff and a must have for any Hag fan.

The DVD  listing:

“Branded Man” – Country Music Holiday (1968)
“The Bottle Let Me Down” – Country Music Holiday (1968)
“Swinging Doors” – Country Music Holiday (1968)
“Mama Tried” – Billy Walker’s Country Carnival (1968)
“I Started Loving You Again” – Billy Walker’s Country Carnival (1968)
“I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am” – Billy Walker’s Country Carnival (1968)
“The Fightin’ Side Of Me” – The Porter Wagoner Show (1970)
“Okie From Muskogee” – The Porter Wagoner Show (1970)
“Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)” – CMA Awards (1972)
“Workin’ Man Blues” – Pop! Goes The Country (1974)
“Movin’ On” – Pop! Goes The Country (1975)
“The Roots Of My Raising” – The Porter Wagoner Show (1977)
“Ramblin’ Fever” – Pop! Goes The Country (1977)
“That’s The Way Love Goes” – CMA Awards (1983)
“San Antonio Rose” – Johnny Cash Christmas Special (1983)

Extras:
Merle Haggard Interview (1981)
Merle Haggard’s Hall Of Fame Induction (1994)

Leave a post below with your favorite Hag song and I will randomly choose a winner at the end of the week (12/19). Good luck!

PopMatters.com’s Jill LaBrack posted a thoughtful review of the recently released  Hank William Box Set The Unreleased Recordings. Also at PopMatters Michael Metivier posts an equally thoughtful and culturally insightful review of country muisc legend Charlie Louvin new release Charlie Louvin Sings Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs.

The Drive By Truckers never use a set list in their shows but they are giving some lucky fan an opportunity to bid to create a dream set list that the band will play on their January 15th show Athens Georgia’s legendary 40 Watt. The winner will also get handwritten set list of the show signed by the entire band and get to attend a private meet and greet with the band and be given access to the VIP section (with a guest) for the show. All proceeds to the show will go to benefit Nuci’s Space.

The Sounds of Texas Music Series tickets are on sale. The show will take place at the  historic (and completely restored) Crighton Theater on the square in downtown ConroeTexas.  the 2009 series line-up includes: Los Lonely Boys with Del Castillo (Jan. 24); Chris Knight with Mark Germino (Mar. 28); Guy Clark with Jubal Lee Young (May 9); and the Flatlanders (June 6). Tickets are $168, individual tickets $47. They can be purchased from the Crighton Theater box office, 936-441-7469, ext. 201. For more information, see www.SoundsOfTexas.com.

Postings have been slow going here at Ranch Twang. The holidays have me running like a headless chicken and my trips to Washington DC on my solid-gold private plane to ask for a bail out. Since I’m the only employee of Ranch Twang I’m none too happy about my audacious behavior while my job hangs in the balance. That check better be in the mail or Christmas presents are going to be as rare as hen’s teeth. But of the bail-out..er..rescue comes in time here, dear Twangers, is my shopping list:

At Folsom Prison Legacy Edition – Johnny Cash’s 1968 watershed concert is given the Legacy treatment with the inclusion of both of the days performances, One show at 9:40 in the morning and another at 12:40 in the afternoon – the first show was exclusively used for the official record. The performance was like an old-style showcase and all the performers are present – Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, Radio DJ Hugh Cherry and the Carter family. Also included is a documentary DVD featuring interviews with Roseanne Cash, Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart, and several former inmates who attended the famed concert.

Merle Haggard: Legendary Performances – A Shout! Factory and the Country Music Hall Of Fame produced DVD of many of the Hag’s vintage live performances such as “Branded Man” (Country Music Holiday,1968), “Mama Tried” (Billy Walker’s Country Carnival, 1968) and “Okie From Muskogee” (The Porter Wagoner Show, 1970).

Country Music: The Masters by Marty Stuart – A breathtaking scrapbook by singer/songwriter/musician and country music historian Marty Stuart has created the closest thing  to pressing the wild and beautiful soul of country music between two covers – Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe and more are candidly featured in Stuart’s own photos that span his 40 year career. The book somes with a CD including the song “Dark Bird,” an unreleased cut dedicated to Johnny Cash and written by Stuart after Cash’s death. There’s also a nice introduction from Boxmaster’s front man and actor Billy Bob Thornton.

Classic Christmas by George Strait – Who better to deliver your yule tides then the man with the pipes that could wrench away Bing Crosby’s hold as the voice of Christmas? “We Three Kings,” a playful “Up on the Housetop,” classics like “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing,” “Deck the Halls,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” Aa great album to listen to by the fire while putting a little whiskey in your egg nog.

And last, but certainly not least, premier roots and alt.country record labels Bloodshot Records (Justin Townes Earle, Ryan Adams, tge Old 97s) and Hyena Records (Dale Watson, Grayson Capps) and legendary alt.country/roots magazine (now web site) No Depression are all having a blowout holiday sale. Go clean ‘em out!

For all of you on the naughty list, look for the full Rascall Flatts catalogue in your stocking.

My fist trip to Berkley since moving to the Bay Area was a great introduction to the town. After the beautiful, if congested, drive over the Bay Bridge at dusk, I headed to the Berkeley branch of Texas-based Half-Price Books where I purchased a used copy of Gail Folkins’ excellent Texas Dance Halls: A Two-Step Circuit. I took this as an omen.

I found the venue, The Freight & Salvage Coffee House, and parked on a nearby street. While heading to the space I had the good fortune to stumble on Everett & Jones Barbecue, where the wait is worth it and the hot sauce really is. I had the brisket plate. Then on to the show. The Freight & Salvage Coffee House has the DIY vibe of an 60′s coffee house where patrons would sit wired on Italian coffee and listen to songs about the coming revolution blowing in the wind. The capacity crowd this night might be a bit grayer and less primed for rebellion, but they still came to hear songs steeped in authenticity and passion.

At 58 Tom Russell looks like a younger version of the actor James Caan, and like his Bronx born doppelganger Russell has a workman-like delivery of his art. There are few performers more uniquely authentic than the Los Angeles native and El Paso resident. As a founder of contemporary Americana music songwriter Russell defies rigid genre boundaries to create work shaped by many sources -country, folk, Tejano – that lead to great, rather than a correctly formulated, songs. Like his contemporaries Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Willie Nelson, you do a disservice to the man by applying a label to him.

Russell has true Renaissance instincts that have shaped his music as well as his life – right out of the University of California Russell taught school in Nigeria during the Biafran war, he’s has published three books and is currently showing his paintings at Austin and Marfa Texas based Yard Dog galleries.

During the two-plus hour show Russell recalled great stories about friends, lost love, musicians, beat poets, songwriting, border politics and hearing the Doors’ “People Are Strange” on a seedy Mexican cantina juke box. The bartender smile a toothy smile when he say Russell’s amusement and states  “Las puertas son las mejore!” Is it any wonder this all results in such great songs.

San Antonio’s Michael Martin provided intricately dazzling guitar and mandolin workto counter the hard tales Russell sang of illegal Mexican workers (Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall?) grappling with mortality (The Pugilist at 59) and the pain of love (Down the Rio Grande and Navajo Rug.) Many of the songs are autobiographical and the gritty roads and and tequila soaked rendezvous are all palpable. If Willie Nelson is Texas’ Django Reinhardt then Russell is the states’ adopted Jack Kerouac.

As the attentive crowd sat rapt Russell then focused on the plight of Native Americans through a selection of songs including a stirring version of Peter La Farge’s lament of the Pima Indian who was one of the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima, The Ballad of Ira Hayes.

Russell closed out the show with an encore featuring the somber prison song Blue Wing and put a fine finish on my introduction to Berkley. As learned and  unorthodox as I could have hoped for.

Tom Russell -  Gallo del Cielo – Freight and Salvage, Berkeley CA

• The fine folks over at the 9513 drew my attention to some good stuff this AM. LaundroMatinee has several videos from a Joe Pug live performance, including the unreleased songs “Not So Sure” and “Bury Me Far From My Uniform,” and there’s a video for “Old Enough,” a new bluegrass-inspired single by the The Raconteurs featuring Ricky Skaggs, Ashley Monroe and Twang Nation friend Mark Watrous on fiddle.

• As an early Christmas present Dar Williams is giving away some cuts from her Ann Arbor show at The Ark on September 17, 2008 (Hank Williams Sr’s birthday!) – “It’s Alright” “Buzzer” “Easy Way.”

• The Grammys nominees will be unveiled tonight, and No Depression has a few words on some of the nominees. I typically tune in to check out the music to avoid.

• Last but not least, RIP to legendary singer Odetta.

Radio again shows it’s short-sightedness and it’s allegiance to money over music or fans. Los Angeles’ terrestrial radio station Indie 103.1 has unceremoniously canceled the roots/Americana music focused “Watusi Rodeo” show. The show was hosted for nearly three years, their anniversary broadcast would have aired Sunday, Dec. 7, by Chris Morris. “Watusi Rodeo” was just one of a number of specialty show casualties at Indie 103.1  to make way for a more commercially viable format.

A post by Morris to fans can be found on his MySpace page; As a stroke of luck, Scion Radio, the online outlet of the Scion auto line, has offered Morris a monthly Web country/rockabilly show which is currently in negotiations. If things go as planned a  February date is possible. You can also read Morris ‘column “Sonic Nation” in LA CityBeat every other week.