With all the recent high-profile celebrity and political deaths it completely escaped me that one of my favorite authors, Elmer Kelton, had died on August 22, 2009 of pre-leukemia in San Angelo, Tex. Kelton wrote award-winning western novels about real people in real hard times.
The 9513.com features an excellent piece on singer/songwriter Radney Foster and his upcoming release Revival [Radney Foster’s Revival]
USA Today has a post on the addition of the new Americana music category by the Recording Academy for their 52nd Grammy Awards which will take place in late fall. I especially like the inclusion of “twang” as part of the new categories “carefully worded category definition.” (Grammys will be putting Americana on the map)
Twangville is holding a contest to win a signed poster from the Bloodshot Records BBQ in Boston and is signed by many of the artists who performed – Graham Parker, Bobby Bare Jr., Ha Ha Tonka, The Deadstring Brothers, Charlie Pickett and Justin Townes Earle.
Nathan Chavez from Phoenix Country Music Examiner has your Hank Williams 101.
And once more for all you folks emailing me why I don’t talk about Swift, Underwood, Cheney, Keith, etc. I respect your zeal for these performers, and there are hundreds of online/offline sources for you to learn exhaustive details about their lives and work-out tips, but I personally think they suck.
