New Levon Helm in June

CMT posts (and Music Fog twittered) that the follow up to Levon Helm’s 2007’s Grammy-winning album, Dirt Farmer, will be Electric Dirt. The album will be released on June 30 on Dirt Farmer Music/Vanguard Records.

Multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell produced the sessions that were recorded at Helm’s studio. Selections include covers of the Grateful Dead’s “Tennessee Jed,” Happy Traum’s “Golden Bird” and Randy Newman’s “Kingfish,” as well as “Growing Trade,” a new song written by Helm and Campbell, about a farmer’s struggle [...]

Billy Bob Thorton’s a Baby

I saw Billy Bob Thorton and his group the Boxmasters perform in Nashville last year as part of the Americana Music Association conference last year. The band played the big room downstairs at the cannery. My expectations were low. I figured a Hollywood star’s vanity project would just end up as Dogstar 2.0. But hell it’s Billy Bob Thorton and except for her uncle, Chip Taylor – who also performed at the AMA, her ex-husband was as close as I [...]