Author Archives: Baron Lane

William Elliott Whitmore Interview at HeroHill.com

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A nice conversation with banjo picker and soul and whiskey voiced William Elliot Whitmore. An excerpt:

HH:: You have very diverse musical influences. Most people wouldn’t expect someone who plays the banjo to be into Minor Threat and Public Enemy. Are there any artists you still hope to play with?
WEW:: There’s lots of great music to soak up isn’t there? I’ve had the good fortune of having been exposed to a wide variety. Everything from Ralph Stanley to The Coup. The Coup’s new record is great. Another one of my new favorites is that Lupe Fiasco record. I would love to play shows with him. My dream list of bands to tour/collaberate with would be; The Evens, Lupe Fiasco, Animal Collective, Mike Watt and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

Jerry Max and Jeannie Lane in the Dallas Morning News

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The Dallas Morning News did a nice write up on my dad, Jerry Max Lane and his wife Jeannie for their song which was included on the soundtrack for the new Naomi Judd movie “Come Early Morning.” From the article: After more than 20 years together, Jeannie and Jerry Max Lane are singing a new tune.

The south Irving couple is celebrating the release of their new song on a movie soundtrack that also includes popular country artists Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson.

“It’s a love song, and I think the melody draws the listener’s ear to the lyrics,” said Mr. Lane, who noted he wrote it in about 15 minutes.

Titled “What’s Done Is Done,” the song is featured in Come Early Morning, the recently released independent film written and directed by actress Joey Lauren Adams and starring Ashley Judd. In the film, Mrs. Lane can be seen performing the song with a house band in the background while Ms. Judd dances with co-star Jeffrey Donovan.

“I love her [Jeannie’s] voice; it’s so powerful,” said Ms. Adams, well known for her roles in Big Daddy and Chasing Amy. “Their song sort of sums up the movie without being too much.”

Troy Lee Gentry Kills Teddy Bear – Admits He’s a Talentless Hack

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Okay, that last bit was me reading Gentry’s tiny mind. What does a wanna be country singer do for a hobby? Why play at being hunter and kills a captive bear named Cubby. I don’t think barring him from hunting is really punishment since he’s not a fucking hunter in the first place. I say they drop him in a hungry grizzley den greased up with bacon fat.

From CMT: Country singer Troy Lee Gentry admitted Monday that he shot and killed a domesticated black bear in a 3-acre penned area and not in the wild, as he had claimed when he registered the animal with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Gentry pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Duluth to the misdemeanor crime of submitting a false hunting registration form after killing the bear.

Gentry, 39, of Franklin, Tenn., a member of the country singing duo Montgomery Gentry, had been scheduled to stand trial starting Monday but reached a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He agreed to pay a $15,000 fine and forfeit the mounted bear, the bow he used to kill the bear, and all hunting, fishing and trapping privileges in Minnesota for five years.

The singer admitted that he set up a hunting stand in a 3-acre pen that was surrounded by an electric fence. [U.S. Attorney Michael] Dees told the court that Gentry had registered the bear as being shot in the wild six miles east of Sandstone.

The Silverado Ranch – Irving Texas

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If you’re in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and want to see some great Country or Tejano music in front of a full scale replica of the Alamo (with 9 foot standing armadillos no less), want to enjoy great food, or want to rent a great Western place or rent Western themed props for your event then give the Silverado Ranch in Irving a call. The Siverado Ranch is located in old Irving out by the train tracks at 101 N. Rogers Rd. Irving, Texas 75061 – 972-253-5555. Ask for Arnold and tell ’em Twang Nation sent you. And if you live in Irving, TX. give the city council a call and tell them to let this great venue have a liquor license!

Dear Larry the Cable Guy – Blow Me

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I got an email today that Larry the Cable Guy is coming to the Radio City Music Hall. Larry the prick guy is both the Amos and the Andy of Southern comics and makes Southerners look like slope-browed hick idiots. As a resident of New York City and a Native son of the South I’d like to take a moment to send a big fuck you to this wanna-be piece of crap and his lame grandma fart jokes. Ron White has more talent in his whiskey sippin’ hand than Larry the idiot guy has in his entire fat body. Git “this” done, bitch!

Happy Thanksgiving

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Just a quick note from my family’s home in Dallas wishing all my readers a great thanksgiving (yeah it’s late, but what else is new?). Go celibrate by heading to your local bar, tavern or honky-tonk and supporting the working musicians that are still sweating it out and bringing you the best damn music that the major lables try and make you forget about. Hoist a pint or shot for the passion, beauty and heartache that music can bring and flip a bird to the machine that trys to put out the flame. 

Jack Parks CMA Review – Funny Meanness

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Listen up hillbillys, it’s time for Uncle Jack Sparks to rant and review of the Coutry Music Awards. Always a heaping helping good time of meanness at the expense of Nashville’s conveyer belt country products and insight into acts that really should get the awards.

An excerpt: The only list you’re going to read grounded in twang reality. If you’re new to this exercise, and you think what you listen to on stations like K102, KEEY is country music, or even worse, you think it’s good, you should stop reading now. As always, this will end up being an indictment of the Nashville system of picking singers and music based on delivering a demographic for the advertisers who sponsor country radio and should not be taken as an insult to the extremely talented and hardworking studio musicians, the real artists of country music, who’ll never get recording contracts because they can’t get botox injections, braces for their teeth, or saline bags for their boobs.

Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard – Pitchfork Review (8.8)

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Pitchfork has a fine review of Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard.

an excerpt:As an introduction to Haggard’s music– or even to  the Bakersfield sound that he helped popularize– Hag may be  unparalleled. Born in Bakersfield to transplanted Oklahomans,  Haggard was at heart a California artist, reared on 1940s and
50s country and influenced by Bob Wills, Tex Ritter, and Spade Cooley. You can hear their influence– especially Wills’– in songs like “Living with the Shades Pulled Down”, on which Haggard calls out his band members to solo, adopting a falsetto much like his hero’s. It’s an original tune, but it could very easily be a Wills cover.

Hag recently collaborated with another Country legend, George Jones, on the release ”
Kickin’ Out the Footlights…Again.”