• PasteMagazine.com reviews the new release by ex-Band member Levon Helm Electric Dirt.

• Steve Earle headed back to his native Lone Star Sate to play a show at the Sounds of Texas Music Series in Conroe, Texas.

• Shout out to my friends, Kevin and Lisa from Memphis TN.  I met these fine folks in line for the Elvis Costello show at Amoeba Records in San Francisco and they referred me to the excellent Americana/Roots radio station out of Knoxville WDVX. They also mentioned they were big fans of Scott Miller and it only occurred to me later that I know the man and his work. Nice folks.

• HearYa.com reviews the Wilco show at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA (I saw Willie there last year, it’s beautiful.) Jeff Tweedy apparently mixed it up with a lippy fan seated near the stage (though I kind of feel for the fan, the tickets and parking are frikkin expensive.)

• If you missed the excellent VH1 Storytellers featuring that ‘lil ‘ol Band From Texas, ZZ Top which premiered last Saturday (June 27) you can watch the full episode at the VH1 site.

Portland Oregon’s Michael Dean Damron, or Mike D. as he was known when fronting his former hell-raising roots-rock band I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House, isn’t your garden variety sensitive, market tested, conveyor belt type of singer/songwriter. The emotion, fear and anger is laid out on his third solo release Father’s Day for all to feel. He’s not just singing, he’s testifying.

The youthful flame-thrower intensity of ICLASOBITH has been condensed into a focused,  welding torch constructing a dark and twisted terrain of one mans life and soul.

The lost love songs here – Dead Days, Boy With A Car and the provocatively titled I Hope Your New Boyfriend Gives You Aids (do NOT judge the album based on the title of this song, it doesn’t show up once in this beautifully heart wrenching cut.) display just as much defiance as they do remorse. Love songs are welcome, whining is not.

The specter of the Damron family patriarch is summoned and exorcised in the title track. The song tells of Damron’s father’s life as a hard, violent, and lonely one. The song is both a celebration and an unflinchingly cautionary tale. The excellent Angels Fly Up carries on the divisional theme, devils and angels, suicide and celebration- that seems to run through Fathers Day.

Tornado Song is a chugging blues-Gospel number veined with wailing harmonica and I’m A Bastard has Damron unmitigated affirmation of his place among the best of the worst in the troubadour trade.

As if the original songs weren’t enough to make this a fine album the three covers Damron has chosen to include speak volumes, fit nicely and are done with deftness and deference. Drag the River’s Beautiful And Damned is a solemn pedal-steel laced number and a ’round the campfire treatment of Thin Lizzy’s Dancing In The Moonlight are wonderful. The real courage, as with anyone willing to cover the Late Great Townes Van Zandt, comes with the inclusion of an accomplished rendition of Towne’s bleak tale of perseverance Waiting Around To Die.

Damron’s whiskey-and-dust vocals  brings to mind modern day contemporaries like Ryan Bingham, Drive By Truckers’ Patterson Hood, William Elliot Whitmore and Lucero’s Ben Nichols. The worn nature of the delivery adds another depth of ragged beauty to each of these gems. Damron sites Steve Earle, Alejandro Escovedo, Townes Van Zant and Waylon Jennings as heroes. But I believe that the true Patron Saint to his unique style of edgy storytelling, with a penchant for tenderness might well be David Allen Coe.

Sure Father’s Day is not a sunny Summer party album, who cares. It’s a great example of a  mature and excellent singer/songwriter venting his own private Winter.

Official Site | MySpace | Facebook | Buy

Father’s Day mp3

• On Thursday June 25th Americana/Folk singer/songwriter Joe Pug will release In The Meantime, five unreleased songs recorded during sessions for his inaugural EP Nation of Heat. The download will be available exclusively at www.joepugmusic.com.

• Rates for registration for the Americana Music Association Conference – AMA members $300 and Non-member $400 – will increase on June 30th. Conference registration includes all daytime events at the Nashville Convention Center, admission to all Music Festival showcases and a ticket to the much anticipated Honors & Awards show.

• Spunky riot grrrl/hillbilly gals Those Darlins will be bringing their Daisy Dukes across the East and North East to sread a good time and support thier upcoming  self-titled longplayer debut (release 7/7 on CD, vinyl and digital.) Here’s a taste :

Those Darlins – Red Light Love mp3

Ranch Twang has a CD of the new roots/Americana release by Elvis Costello Secret, Profane and Sugarcane (Twang Nation Review here)to give to one lucky poster.

Secret, Profane and Sugarcane (Hear Music) was produced by T. Bone Burnett and features Grammy winning singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale on backing vocal and guitar. The record highlights Costello’s love and respect for for the music and artists of the South and Southwest and his skill in crossing genres.

Entering the contest is easy. Post a message below naming a performer you believe has also successfully crossed from their home genre into the roots/Americana side of the tracks.

Remember when you comment to use a valid email address becuase it will be the one we use to contact you if you have won. Your info is safe with us and won’t be used for anything but this contest.

Eligible comments must be posted by 11:59 pm EST on Friday, June 26th. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced after the contest has ended.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the incredible (and FREE) San Francisco roots/Americana festival has announced a partial line up roster for the three day event.

So far the lineup includes Old Crow Medicine Show, Mavis Staples, Earl Scruggs, Hazel Dickens, Aimee Mann, Little Feat, The Wronglers, Okkervil River, Marianne Faithfull, Richie Havens, Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, Neko Case, Dr. Dog, Steve Martin with the Steep Canyon Rangers, The Del McCoury Band, John Prine, Gillian Welch, Allen Toussaint, Billy Bragg, Doc Watson, Booker T. & the Drive By Truckers, The Chieftains, World Party, Old 97′s. Check the official site for more performer to be announced soon.

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on October 2,3,and 4 2009.

In what must be the smallest tour in his musical history,  Elvis Costello launched a mini-tour with Amoeba Music today, June 22nd. At 12:00 p.m. Costello performed at the Amoeba San Francisco location then will perform at Amoeba Hollywood location at 8 p.m. Costello also signed limited amount of  copies of his new album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane after both performances.  The purchase of the CD or vinyl will include a silk screen poster commemorating the event.

Backing Costello is Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, Jim Lauderdale, who also appears on his new release.

The capacity crowd was wound around the side of the store at 10AM and once inside wated patiently for the show to start roughly two hours later. Elvis was in fine form inviting people to move in closer and to sing along with the chorus of several songs.

Amoeba will stream the Hollywood performance live on Amoeba.com at 8 p.m. pst.

Amoeba San Francisco location set list (to my recollection)

set duraton roughly 50 minutes.

Complicated Shadows
Down Among the Wines and Spirits
My All Time Doll
A new song about a convict cheating death and getting revenge.
Sulphur to Sugarcane

If you want an excellent example of what Americana, that 5 layer-dip of genres, has to offer you need to just put on Angela Easterling’s new release Blacktop Road. Easterling’s delivers neo-trad country, folk and rock in her earnestly melancholic voice betraying her Greenville, S.C. roots, and her expanded tastes and sensibilities that might have been cultivated by her stretch in L.A. She sounds like she’s be right at home in a honky-tonk or a New York supper club.

Blacktop Road was produced by Will Kimbrough (Todd Snider, Rodney Crowell, Kate Campbell, Jimmy Buffett) and the album reflects his good sense to not burdon it with studio wiazardry.

Easterling has the goods and needs little more than a mic (though here she has a crack band – Al Perkins, Fats Kaplin, Ken Coomer, Anne McCue and Dave Jacques, along with Kimbrough – backing her) to get the job done. whether it’s John Mellencamp or Steve Earle style roots rocking on American I.D., a mid-tempo piece about American multiculturalism and self-identity and the title cut (not a cover of the Lost Trailers crappy song by the same name), and decrying the encroaching suburban sprawl and the loss of a rural way of life.

American identity is again addressed in the The Picture about a woman’s relationship with her father and his involvement in the Jim Crow South. For all braying about social messages in contemporary country music they are like crayon scribbling compared to finely crafted song like this.

Better is a beautifully aching hillbilly-chamber piece featuring mandolin, dobro, cello and violin (not fiddle) as a backdrop for longing for the comfort of a loved one. AP Carter’s Blues continues the bitterweet tone and offers a fine tribute to the Carter family patriarch with excellent pedal steel accompaniment by Fats Kaplin.

The cover of Neil Young’s Helpless is done similarly as the original’s slow, woeful simmering manner that fits the song to a T without being done by rote. Stars Over The Prairie is wonderfully spirited is A Western Swing shuffle reworking of a song penned by her great-grandfather in the 40s.

Easterling’s first offering, 2007′s Earning Her Wings, was an excellent first release, and with Blacktop Road she advances her skills and confidence and has provided us a great Summer soundtrack.

Official Site | MySpace | Twitter | Buy

Drive By Truckers – Daddy Needs a Drink

Charlie Robison (along with his brother Bruce Robison) are Texas songwriting royalty. Nobody can make you feel so good about feeling bad and his new release Beautiful Day (Dualtone records) is some of his best work yet.

Ranch Twang has a signed copy of the release and will gladly fork it over to some lucky winner.  Just leave a comment telling us who your favorite Texas singer/songwriter is. Yes, it’s that easy. Thanks to Robison and Dualtone records for their participation.

Remember when you comment to use a valid email address becuase it will be the one we use to contact you if you have won. Your info is safe with us and won’t be used for anything but this contest.

Eligible comments must be posted by 11:59 pm EST on Monday, June 22nd. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced after the contest has ended.

We got a winner. Thanks for posting and check back to Twang Nation for more contests and up to date news and reviews.

• The New York Times features a great feature on Todd Snider. Snider discusses his long career of writing smart roots-folk songs, speaks to some of his fans (like Kris Kristofferson) years of struggling with addiction, and his new Don Was produced release  “The Excitement Plan” on Yep Roc records.

• Tom Russell’s new upcoming , Blood and Candle Smoke (Sept. 25), was recorded in Tucson’s Wave Lab with features members of Calexico. Head over to his MySpace page to hear Santa Ana Wind and Mississippi River Runnin’ Backwards.

• Also in  Tom Russell news, the man will be among many contributors to a new Jimmie Rodgers book, Waiting For a Train: Jimmie Rodger’s America, planned to be released in July.

• Dave Alvin Remembers his friend and Hacienda Brothers founder Chris Gaffney.
• The fine folks over at HearYa.com review The Builders and The Butchers album  Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well.

• Jay N. Miller at the The Patriot Ledger talks to Brooklyn based band Americana band Yarn.