CMT – Sucks Mostly, But Not Completely

I got an email out of the blue today from CMT. Some nice person by the name of “Jen” emailed to implore me to alert you, loyal Twanger, that “There is a chance that Comcast may switch CMT from its current home on the basic cable package to a digital package.” Apparently if this unspeakable act comes to pass then several markets will lose access to CMT and it will cost them more bank to get it back. Truth be told, 99% of the time CMT, and their parade of crap – The CMT Music Awards, is a arid wasteland and serves as a sterling example of what’s wrong with Nashville and hollow spectacle that contemporary country music has come to be. But they do have the Crossroads series, which is not half bad and actually on one occasion – Roseanne Cash and Steve Earle – was brilliant. And Studio 330 highlights some truly great talent at their live best. So for that 1%, I am posting this notice. If you have Comcast, and like CMT, especially you folks in Baltimore, apparently in your market the end is nigh – then call or email Comcast and give ’em hell. Or go to a “fan created site” (uh huh) commiserate with others in these dark times.

SXSW Showcase Update

An update in fun doings in Austin.

What: Guitartown/conqueroo SXSW week kickoff party & showcase
When: Wednesday, March 14, 12 noon until 9 p.m.
Where: Mother Egan’s Irish Pub, 715 W. 6th St.

11:45-12:10   Randy Weeks
12:25-12:50   Ed Pettersen
1:05-1:30   Michelle Shocked
1:45-2:10   Scrappy Jud Newcomb
2:25-2:50   Walter Tragert
3:05-3:30   Tom Freund
3:45-4:10   Jon Dee Graham
4:25-4:50   Pam Tillis
5:05-5:30   James McMurtry
5:45-6:10   Uncle Monk featuring Tommy Ramone
6:25-6:50   The Silos
7:05-7:30   The Summer Wardrobe
7:45-8:15   Patty Hurst Shifter
8:30-9:15   TBA

What:  Whatever That Is Party (sponsored by Split Rock Records)
When:  Friday, March 16th, 2:30 – 6:30pm
Where:  The Ginger Man Pub, Austin TX

2:30pm  Michelle Shocked
3:30pm  Freedy Johnston
4:30pm  Ed Pettersen
5:30pm  Uncle Monk (Tommy Ramone)
6:30pm  TBA

Oh Boy Records to Release Tom Snider’s Peace, Love and Anarchy – Rarities, B-sides and Demos

Hey Todd Snider fans, good new coming by way of Upstage: (Nashville, TN) — Though singer/songwriter Todd Snider released his last album on Universal Records, he built up a strong and loyal following during his five-year tenure with Nashville based Oh Boy Records. Oh Boy Records sifted through their archives – and with Snider’s help – compiled a collection of rarities, B-sides and demos appropriately titled Peace, Love and Anarchy (Rarities, B-sides and Demos, Vol. 1). The album, which streets on April 3, is an invitation for us to peer in and watch a gypsy whittle, and for us to whistle along while he works.

Snider, praised as a next-in-line luminary by folks such as John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver, appears onstage as a barefoot tipsy gypsy, looking for all the world like he’s stumbling into brilliance, eloquence and gut-busting humor. It’s a great act, and this is not to say that he’s not himself out there. He is, and it’s his best self. It has landed him in hallowed performance halls, on the Jay Leno and David Letterman shows and in the good graces of his heroes.

What people don’t see, though, is the fellow who wakes early each morning, picks up a guitar and works on his poems. He writes them out by hand, and at first a Snider song is something like a big block of good wood. Then the knife comes out, the wood is shaped over days and weeks and sometimes years, and he shows it to people once he’s done with it. His recordings, too, blend the inspiration of a moment with a thousand afterthoughts. They wind up on finished recordings because they are… well, finished. Even the jagged stuff is there on for a purpose.

All of which makes Peace, Love and Anarchy (Rarities, B-Sides and Demos, Vol. 1) something of a revelation. Here are Snider’s songs at first blush. Some of these compositions – among them, “Nashville,” “Feels Like I’m Falling In Love” (for co-writer Jack Ingram), “Deja Blues” (for co-writer Shaver) and “Feel Like Missing You” – grew up to become master recordings, while “Nashville” was whittled down some more before appearing on the East Nashville Skyline album. The title song of the latter album never made the album in question, and it appears here for the first time, complete with resplendent harmonica/steel guitar interplay between Snider and the legendary Lloyd Green.

“Cheatham Street Warehouse” is a full-on rock ‘n’ roll tribute to a favorite Texas haunt, with Snider’s tough-as-the-blues electric guitar duel with Tommy Womack in the middle and Green’s searing steel solo dominating at song’s end. “Combover Blues” is a slice of poignant wit, and Snider can’t recall precisely why it was left off his original Oh Boy recordings. “I Will Not Go Hungry” is a weather-beaten spiritual reach, while the “Dinner Plans” haiku is all red wine reality.

“Stoney” is taken from the much-bootlegged but never-issued Todd Sings Jerry Jeff album that he recorded over a few nights in East Nashville as an aural thank-you note to one of his inspirers. He sat in a chair with eyes closed and played the songs from memory: Todd Snider knows Jerry Jeff Walker songs as well as he knows anything in the world, including but not limited to rolling paper techniques, lighter fluid methodology and San Francisco Giants baseball. “Some Things Are” is another openhearted endeavor, as is “From A Rooftop,” Snider’s postcard from the right side of town.

Peace, Love and Anarchy is not a post-contract, drag-the-lake affair. It is a carefully constructed collection, and a testament to the potency of a catalogue built during Snider’s five-year tenure with the small-but-stout Oh Boy Records family.

Todd Snider – Austin City Limits- This Land Is Your Land

Scott H. Biram – Country Fried Poster

Keith Neltner is a Kentucky boy known for his dark, macabre Southern-Gothic aesthetic and his work for Hank III (posters, skateboards, T-shirts, merchandise and album artwork), he has also gone on to design for other musicians such as Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, The Kentucky Struts, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Robert Plant, and Superjoint Ritual, and the resulting poster art led him to be featured in Art of Modern Rock. Recently Keith did a brilliant illustration of that “dirty old one man band”, Scott H. Biram for a music/art/film magazine in Austin called ISSUE. Look for this as a silkscreened poster as well possibly debuting in Austin at SXSW.

Note To Willie – Just Say No!

Willie Nelson is a friend of mine. Truth be told he’s a friend of may dads from their drinking and tom-catting days in the 70’s. The man is an icon. A legend. And yes, a serial collaborator. For every brilliant collaboration – Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Ray Price, Emmylou Harris, Ray Charles – there are the WTF ones – Julio Iglesias, Toby Kieth, his upcoming producer Kenny Chesney, and now this- Mariah Carey has enlisted Willie Nelson to co-write a song for her upcoming movie role, a waitress and aspiring songwriter. Not only does Mariah Carry not deserve to kiss Willie’s Luccheses, after “Glitter” she should never be allowed to do another movie again that does not involve her removing the little amount of clothing she hasn’t removed so far.

Spicewood Seven – Kakistocracy

The simple-minded view of country music as a soundtrack to the religofasict faction of red state America completely ignores the poor, working class roots of country music and the and the multifaceted, complex great artists that created it. Sometimes a release reminds you of all of that and does it in spades.

Texas’ Spicewood Seven brings us Kakistocracy (rhymes with democracy), meaning “government by the incompetent and corrupt, and in the midst of the current Bush administration I’d say that’s about right.

Keeping up the tradition forged by the likes of Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson. Loretta Lynn, Steve Earl and many others Kakistocracy is a condemnation of the corruption of American values by the powerful elite. Great music has always been created in response to war. From Woody Guthrie to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – the horror of war cries out for artists to address it.

Led by lyricist Luke Powers and multi-instrumentalist Tommy Spurlock (a longtime stalwart of the Austin music scene who’s recorded with everyone from George Jones to Shania Twain), the Spicewood Seven include guest shots from a variety of names both well-known (Garth Hudson of the Band adds organ) and some less-so – Leon Rausch, Brennen Leigh, David Hearne, Elana Fremerman, Jimmy Karstein, Rosie Flores, Jane Bond. All songs were written by Tommy Spurlock and Luke Powers, the disc was mixed and produced by Tommy Spurlock for Austin Records.

Song themes run from the Iraq war (“Crawford, Texas,” and “Going Down the Road to Baghdad”) and the blight of methamphetamine on rural America (“Crystal Time”). Protest music succeeds or fails by the same standards all music does, is it boring? Spicewood Seven makes music that speaks to your mind but also moves your ass.

Much fuss was made a couple of years ago when Green Day released the punk-opera”American Idiot” in response to the buffoons in Washington. Kakistocracy makes American Idiot sound like easy listening.

(I’m Goin’ Down to) Crawford Texas(mp3) 

Going Down the Road to Baghdad(mp3)

MySpace Showcase Tuesday – The Fuelers

MySpace on Friday! What the heck? Lay off! I have a cold and started a new job! Now on wid it….

Today all the way from Australia I bring you The Fuelers. The Fuelers (On fender electrical guitbox Blindboy Murray. On traps, there’s Thingamy Bob. On Bullfiddle, that’s Caltex Star and on fiddle, it’s Steel City Su.) serve up a potent brand of Dieselbilly that has you tapping your toe and slam-dancing all at once. Check ’em out, ya hear?

Charlie Louvin Plays New York City

I won’t be making it back home to South By Southwest this year and one of the things that made that a crappy deal was missing Charlie Louvin the surviving half of the legendary Louvin Brother when he plays there to support his great new self-titled which was produced by Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Calexico, Candi Staton) and Charlie Louvin, and was recorded in Spring/Summer 2006 in Nashville. It features guest performances by Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy, Will Oldham, Tom T. Hall, George Jones, Bobby Bare Sr., Tift Merritt, Marty Stuart, David Kilgour, and members of Bright Eyes, Lambchop, Superchunk, Blanche and Clem Snide, among others.

Well it seems My Louvin will be making a stop in New York City (see the banner above and click for details) just to quell my sadness. Catch this elder statesman while you can!

Terry Flynn – Again Tonight

When I was at the one of the Mercy lounge showcases for the Americana Music Conference I was in the upstairs room waiting for Marty Stuart I ran into a frietndly fellow with a chair right near the front. We chatted for a while, shared a beer. He said his name was Terry Flynn and he handed me his CD, Again Tonight.  “I hope you like it” he said before I lost him in the crowd. I’m here to say I do.

Atlana native Terry Flynn has a country-soul voice like Ray Price for Elvis in his early hillbilly years. His songs about love found lost and found again. Sorrowful hope. Atlanta is a lovely song to his home state and a woman returning from New York. “Still In Love With You” is a slow burning rockabilly tune that delivers and the title song begins with a Spanish style guitar into and then kicks into a full rave. This is a great release from a fine and genuine artist.

RIP – Kirk Rundstrom, Split Lip Rayfield

I never got a chance to see Split Lip Rayfield live and I’m more the poorer for it today. From a Bloodshot press release:

On February 22nd, Kirk Rundstrom, the singer/songwriter/guitarist for Split Lip Rayfield and Scroat Belly, passed away after a lengthy and heroic battle against cancer.

Kirk was, without debate, one of the most dynamic and passionate performers we have ever seen. To see him on stage was to see a man totally focused on, totally POSSESSED with, the music of the moment. He never ever took his audience for granted and delivered the goods with a ferocious energy that flowed through the room. I had personally seen him play some 75 times and it was never boring, it was never phoned in and it was hard to take my eyes off him. If you left a show of theirs without sweating, without losing yourself in the joyous abandon of music, it wasn¹t from his lack of trying. Standing still at a Split Lip show just wasn’t an option. His gift was the ability to let rock and roll well up from its purest emotional state and give it to the room in all its liberating glory.

When Kirk was diagnosed last spring, he was given just a few months. It is a testimony to his incredible spirit that he was performing into this month.

The fans that came out during this time filled the venues with palpable love. To have played a part in this accumulation of affection, in this tight knit community of Split Lip lovers, over the years is truly a humbling honor. He loved playing and it showed, and the fans loved him back.

Kirk is responsible for a lot of people having a LOT of fun over the years; if everyone could have that on their resumes, the world would be a much better place.

He is missed already.

Bloodshot Records