Author Archives: Baron Lane

Watch Out – Aoife O’Donovan Covers Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska”

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Aoife O’Donovan - Nebraska

Springsteen’s “Nebraska” is a far cry from the more commercially engaging follow-up “Born in the U.S.A.” It’s a 4-track DIY stark study of rust-belt existential ennui some consider (I count myself as one) as his most personal work.

The title cut is a particularly dark tale of adolescent alienation as Springsteen employs acoustic guitar and harmonica to plumb for some glimmer of humanity surviving within the infamous Charles Starkweather, who at 19 went on a murder spree with his 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Fugate. In all the couple killed 11 people across Nebraska. This captured the attention of the nation and reflected it’s unease of the new rebellious rock music sweeping youth culture in 1958.

Though it breaks no new sonic ground Aoife O’Donovan’s rendition carries that very same somber beauty with her forlorn soprano and gently picked acoustic guitar.

The track will be featured on “In The Magic Hour Solo Sessions,” a six-song acoustic EP out November 1 which will include four songs O’Donovan latest “from In The Magic Hour” and a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Turn Me On

Of the work O’Donovan’ said “In 2011, I did a residency at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC, says Aoife. “Each week was a different set, and while planning for the month, I decided to learn the album “Nebraska” from start to finish. Originally released in 1982, the year I was born, the songs are timeless. The sadness and depravity in the title track urge us to look a little bit deeper into ourselves. “I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.”

This Friday, October 4, Aoife will perform at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, singing on MPR’s Live From Here and performing with Kronos Quartet.

Aoife will embark on the Songs and Strings Tour in spring 2020, performing with a string quartet featuring Jeremy Kittlel on violin – a full list of dates is below. As the first Artist-in-Residence at this year’s FreshGrass Festival, Aoife performed with two different string quartets.

AOIFE O’DONOVAN SONG AND STRINGS TOUR
March 11 – Old Saybrook, CT – Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center
March 12 – Cambridge, MA – Sanders Theatre
March 13 – Vienna, VA – The Barns at Wolf Trap
March 14 – Richmond, VA – Modlin Center For the Arts
March 20 – Stoughton, WI – Stoughton Opera House
March 21 – Skokie, IL – North Shore Center For the Performing Arts
April 16 – Carrboro, NC – The Arts Center
April 17 – Paducah, KY – Clemens Fine Arts Center

Sturgill Simpson on the Joe Rogan Podcast – 6 Things We Learned

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Sturgill Simpson and band took his latest “Sound and Fury” on the road by playing the storied
Troubadour club in Los Angeles and it sounded like a great show.

Simpson band must have gotten up at the break of dawn to it in on the always entertaining Joe Rogan Podcast. Heres some highlights.

– Sturgill had Justin along with his band. Justin is a military medic that lost his legs in combat. He relaid his heart-wrenching tale of war and drugs involved with his recovery. He was representing the Special Forces Foundation that helps Gold Star families.

– Simpson had two home invasions twice by the same burglar. The second break-in he had the invader lined in his rifle scope but let the guy escape out the back instead of shooting him in the back.

– Sturgill might sing about Waffle House but he used to work at iHop.

– There was a rightful mutual admiration of Patrick Swayze and the movie roadhouse.

– Sturgill recalls opening for Dwight Yoakam early in his career (“it felt like we had broken through”) at a show in McAllen, Texas. A post-show trip to a Mexican dance club. The club DJ introduces the guys as “Dwight Yoakam’s Band.” Then a fight broke out involving bottles of Grey Goose as weapons which hasted the band’s exit.

– They recount the incredible “Bluegrass Conspiracy” tale that involved the Kentucky politics all the way up the the Governor’s office. A Lexington, KY cop crashed his plane while carrying cocaine. He ejected out with the code strapped to him but still died. Then a bear ate the coke and died as well. The bear is stuffed and mounted on display in Lexington

Check the interview below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OW6fYFCxAg

Fresh From The Fields – Americana and Roots Music Releases – September 6th, 2019

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Fresh From The Fields - Americana and Roots Music Releases

The Highwomen – self-titled

Terri Hendrix – ‘Talk To A Human’

Crystal Gayle -‘You Don’t Know Me’

Paul Cauthen – ‘Room 41’

NRBQ – ‘Turn On, Tune In’

Amy Speace – ‘Me and the Ghosts of Charlemagne’

Fresh From The Fields – Americana and Roots Music Releases – August 30th, 2019

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Fresh From The Fields - Americana and Roots Music Releases

Here’s some of the choicest sections of Americana and roots music for August 30th, 2019.
Titles are linked to a source to purchase that may contribute to this site and help us keep doing
what we do. Enjoy the great bounty shared by these fine talented folks.

See the full Wanted! – Notable Americana and Roots Music Releases for 2019 list here.

Sheryl Crow – ‘Threads’

Sara Evans and The Barker Family Band (Live from City Winery Nashville)

Ana Egge – “Is It the Kiss”

Joan Shelley – ‘Like The River Loves The Sea’

Martin Simpson – ‘Rooted’

Fresh From The Fields – Americana and Roots Music Releases – August 23rd

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Fresh From The Fields - Americana and Roots Music Releases

Here’s some of the choicest sections of Americana and roots music for August 23rd, 2019.
Titles are linked to a source to purchase that may contribute to this site and help us keep doing
what we do. Enjoy the great bounty shared by these fine talented folks.

See the full Wanted! – Notable Americana and Roots Music Releases for 2019 list here.

Tanya Tucker – ‘While I’m Livin’ ‘

Vince Gill – ‘Okie’

Dalton Domino – ‘Songs From the Exile’

Jason Hawk Harris – ‘Love & the Dark’

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys – ‘Toil, Tears & Trouble’

Michael Cleveland – ‘Tall Fiddler’

Esther Rose – ‘You Made It This Far’

Leslie Stevens – ‘Sinner’

Croy and the Boys – ‘Howdy High-Rise’

Erin Enderlin – ‘Chapter Three: Whatever Gets You Through The Night’

Seth James – ‘Good Life’

Midland – ‘Let It Roll’

First Aid Kit Pay Tribute To David Berman With Lovely Original + Silver Jews Cover

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First Aid Kit - Random Rules
In tribute to the memory of singer/songwriter David Berman Swedish roots duo First Aid Kit has released two songs; the original “Strange Beauty” and their rendition of Berman’s band Silver Jews’ “Random Rules.”

In speaking about David Berman and their homage to his life and legacy, Klara Söderberg says: “I think a lot of people were as shocked as I was upon hearing the news of David Berman’s passing. It didn’t seem real. It left me completely devastated. So I wrote the song ‘Strange Beauty’ to try to make sense of my feelings.” She continues, “‘Random Rules’ is a long time Berman favorite of ours and a song we always thought we would record if we ever made a cover album. It holds some of the greatest lyrics ever penned and shows the genius of David Berman. We hope the songs can be some kind of comfort.”

After struggling for years with addiction Berman died by suicide on August 7, 2019, in Brooklyn, New York.

Hear the solemn and sparse “Strange Beauty” and their rendition of “Random Rules” swell as Silver Jews’ below.

Cody Jinks Announces New Album ‘After the Fire’ Coming This Fall

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Cody Jinks

Insurgent country artist Cody Jinks will release his next independent LP ‘After the Fire’ on October 11th, the album is the first to be released via the Texas songwriter’s own label, Late August Records.

Last April Jinks posted photos from West Texas’ Sonic Ranch studio, where he recorded his last three albums – Adobe Sessions, I’m Not The Devil and Lifers – teasing new music on the way.

This is one release Casa Twang will be looking forward to this coming fall.

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Day 3 at Sonic Ranch!

A post shared by Cody Jinks (@codyjinks) on

‘After the Fire’ tracklist:

After the Fire
Ain’t a Train
Yesterday Again
Tell ’em What It’s Like
Think Like You Think
William and Wanda
One Good Decision
Dreamed With One
Someone to You
Tonedeaf Boogie

Watch Out! Kelsey Waldon – “Sunday’s Children”

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Kelsey Waldon

Kelsey Waldon has released a lyric video for “Sunday’s Children,” he second single from her upcoming Oh Boy! Records release “White Noise/White Lines.”

The song is a Southern-fried soul-song urging awareness, unity, and understanding and to accept each other’s differences and look for “universal truth.”

It’s a cool song and Waldon pulls it off without beating the listener over the head with an overt partisan sermon. That’s a rare thing in these times.

The first single from the album, “Anyhow,” was released in early July.

Pre-order “White Noise/White Lines.”

Unreleased Lee Hazlewood out This Fall

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Lee Hazlewood

Light in the Attic Records continues its Lee Hazlewood archival series with 400 Miles From L.A. 1955-56, a collection of previously unknown demo recordings that reveal the talents of the late songwriter, producer, and artist from a very early stage in his career. (out Sept. 13th on CD/vinyl and digitally),

Lost for over 60 years, these recently unearthed recordings find Hazlewood in Phoenix, AZ, honing his songwriting skills as he shuttled himself back and forth on a Greyhound bus to Los Angeles in hopes of landing a hit song. These early sketches and unheard gems further expand on Hazlewood’s influential recorded history, adding a new first chapter to his legacy that comes a full decade before his song “These Boots Are Made For Walking” became a smash hit for Nancy Sinatra.

A songwriter by trade, Hazlewood kept for himself the songs that weren’t snatched up by larger-profile artists (such as “Houston” by Dean Martin and “This Town” by Frank Sinatra), yet never quite achieved the success in his own time that others had with his compositions. He would go on to be discovered and recognized by latter-day champions in Beck, Sonic Youth, Jarvis Cocker and Spiritualized, who appreciated Lee for his unique sonic gifts as a producer and writer.

A natural wanderer, Lee lived a big life, serving for the U.S. Army in the Korean War, working as a radio DJ in Phoenix, Arizona, setting up Viv Records in the ‘50s, producing hits for Duane Eddy and Sanford Clark, working as a big-shot L.A. producer in the ‘60s, signing Phil Spector to his Trey Records label and prematurely announcing retirement in the wake of the mid-‘60s British invasion. He didn’t: Nancy Sinatra came along, the hits started flowing and he continued producing characterful solo albums into the ‘70s.

Starting in 2012, Light In The Attic became the official custodians of the Lee Hazlewood musical legacy, launching their archival series with The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes & Backsides (1968-71). In 2015, they garnered a GRAMMY nomination for Best Historical Album with their release of There’s A Dream I’ve Been Saving: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1966 – 1971 (2014).

The LP and CD packages contain new liner notes by Hazlewood guru Hunter Lea, featuring an interview with Arizona music historian John Dixon. The Light In The Attic Online Exclusive Bundle (available only at LightInTheAttic.net) is pressed on colored vinyl and includes a treasure trove of Hazlewood collectibles created especially for this release: a travel journal, 18”x 24” silkscreen print, shot glass, and a set of “Labels of Lee” drink coasters, all crafted in cooperation with the Hazlewood estate.

Pre-order Lee Hazlewood archival series “400 Miles From L.A. 1955-56.”

Track Listing:
1. Cross Country Bus
2. The Woman I Love
3. Five Thousand and One
4. Lonesome Day
5. A Lady Called Blues
6. Five More Miles to Folsom
7. Fort Worth
8. The Old Man and His Guitar
9. Peculiar Guy
10. Long Black Train
11. I Guess It’s Love
12. It’s An Actuality
13. Buying On Time
14. The Country Bus Tune
15. Long Black Train
16. Run Boy Run
17. Big Joe Slade
18. Son of a Gun
19. Georgia Chain Gang
20. Look At That Woman
21. Peculiar Guy
22. The Railroad Song
23. Six Feet of Chain
24. Trouble Is A Lonesome Town

Sturgill Simpson Announces New Album and Anime Tie-In

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Sturgill Simpson (photo by Semi Song)
Sturgill Simpson (photo by Semi Song)

Few artists are less willing to rest on their laurels than Sturgill Simpson.

In his latest gutsy move, Sturgill Simpson announced last weekend at San Diego’s Comic-Con that his upcoming new album, “Sound & Fury,” will be paired with an anime film of the same title to be released simultaneously on Netflix. The anime
is written and directed by CG studio Kamikaze Douga founder Jumpei Mizusaki.

Simpson emerged as part of an outlaw country resurgence the release of his second LP, “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.” Much like the original outlaw country pioneers, Simpson was taking control of the trajectory of his career resulting in fans and media accolades as the mainstream country radio did what they always do and shied away from the risky weirdness of “Turtles All the Way Down.”

Simpson doubled-down on following his contrarian muse with 2016’s “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth,” a loosely assembled concept album with songs inspired by his time in the Navy. The album moved further from the jet-fueled honky-tonk that defined his early career and embraced his love of rock, soul, and psychedelia. ironically Simpsons’ least country album went on to win the 2018 Grammy for Best Country Album.

With this latest announcement, Simpson remains (place genre here) most interesting agent of disruption. He steadfastly refuses o play by Music City rules or typical music career rules in general.

We will all be able to hear and see the latest stop on this sailer’s (pirate’s?) journey when “Sound & Fury” is released in September.