Category Archives: alt.country

Dale Watson To Release “Cradle To The Grave”

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Good news Dale Watson fans. Dale is preparing a new release for 2007 and coins yet another frikkin genre description for the music we know and love. Dale provides this post from his website.
SXSW will find us releasing a new record , From The Cradle To The Grave on Hyena Records. It’s a compilation of songs I wrote and recorded at the log cabin that once belonged to Johnny Cash, but now belongs to my friend Johnny Knoxville. The CD is much different from my previous releases in the way that they were written without Honky Tonks in mind. Obvious Cash influence throughout , but I feel the entire vibe came from the cabin. The release will be in late April, but will have an advance release during SXSW in Austin.
Also, we have the European CD Live From Newland, NL as well as the DVD of the same name available at the Truckstop Mall. Also now at the Truckstop Mall are new T-shirts designs. A week in Australia will be a tour called “Seven Year Itch Tour” ( since it’s been 7 years since I’ve toured there) scheduled Febraury 24 thru March 5th. A west coast swing will happen this year as well. Thanks to another actor friend, James Denton, of Desperate Housewives, I’ll perform in LA on a package show with his band and my band. James is a picker himself and has done so much to support my music. He is a welcome ally and a mighty kind soul.
And finally….the name for the Genre……. I’ve been trying to come up with a name the best describes this music that me and folks similar do. When folks ask I hesitate, down right embarrassed really, to say country. I didn’t used to be, but with the change in country, the term doesn’t mean the same as it used to. If you say traditional, or old, or western swing most folks think “retro” and dismiss it without hearing it. I wanted a name that didn’t say country anything and didn’t give anyone a preconceived idea. I came up with ..

Ameripolitan. I even put it in Wikipedia defined as- Original music with “prominent” roots influence.

I hope yall like it. Let me hear from you. Hope to see yall soon.
Thanks for your kindness thru the years.
Dale

Willie Nelson and Rick Rubin Are Nominated for a Grammy

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Typically I could care less about the Grammy’s. I mean COME ON! Hootie & the Blowfish, Milli Vanilli and Culture Club! Yeesh! But because because of a flash of musical perception, odds, or whatever…they sometimes get it right. This year the folks at the Grammys have a couple of winners..if they actually win that is.
Willie Nelson’s You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Album and Rick Rubin has been nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classicalfor his work on Johnny Cash’s album American V: A Hundred Highways and the song “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”. He is also nominated in the same category for his work on albums from Neil Diamond, The Dixie Chicks, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Lucinda Williams – Radio City Music Hall (3/23)

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Yeah I know. It’s starting to sound like all Lucinda, all the time here at planet Twang. So what? Who am I to deny the power of Lu? (or her publicity machine at Lost Highway – how about some backstage passes for all this, huh?) Ms. Williams will be coming to the Big Apple on March 23 at Radio City Music Hall. Oh how I wish for a Rockettes choreographed rendition of “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.”

Tickets go on sale this Saturday 1/13. See you there.

Lucinda Williams – “West” Cover / Samples

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Here is a glimpse of the cover of the forthcoming release from Goddess Lucinda Williams “West” (2/13). You can also hear samples from the CD at AllMusic.com. Keep checking in to Twang Nation for any more Lucinda news on the CD and tour info. I said it before and I’ll sy it again, Faith Hill and Sheryl Crow should be lick-shining the Luccheses of this lady.

Legend Porter Wagoner Signs to Anti-

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Fifty years into his legendary music career, Grammy winner and Country Music Hall of Famer Porter Wagoner has been signed to LA-based Anti- records, and is soon to release a Marty Stuart-helmed project celebrating his five decades as one of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry’s best-loved performers.

Wagonmaster, as the project is now titled, will mostly feature songs written by Wagoner himself– the same tunes that have earned him a place in Americana music history, as well as numerous industry awards and accolades. But one song in particular, while not penned by Wagoner himself, holds a special place on the album’s roster.

Twenty-five years ago, after Johnny Cash took an interest in some of Wagoner’s early recordings, he wrote “Committed to Parkview,” about a stay in a mental asylum not far from Nashville, where Cash and Wagoner both spent time. Cash gave a cassette recording of the song to bandmate Marty Stuart, who was instructed to pass it along to Wagoner, which he did– two and a half decades later.

“I never got around to it until we started collecting songs for this project,” Stuart explained in a statement. “I searched mywarehouse and found the envelope with ‘Committed to Parkview’ on it, with a note from John to Porter. Twenty-five years after I was supposed to and three years after his death, I did what I told John I would do. I delivered the song and Porter loved it.”

Wagonmaster is slated for release in May 2007. For more on Porter Wagoner, check out his official website, PorterWagoner.net.

Anti- is home to such artists as Tom Waits, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Neko Case.

“Everything But Country” at Pitchfork

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Over at Pitchforkmedia.com Stephen M. Deusner has written an article titled “Everything But Country” which is overtly a review of Shout! Factory’s box set “Legends of Country Music: Classic Hits  from the 50s, 60s, and 70s” and is more subtly is past and present country music’s place in the American cultural landscape and Nashville’s role in inadvertently cultivating great alt.country acts. The title of the piece is taken from the typical response to “What kind of music do you like?” which is “Everything but rap and country.” Nice, thoughtful stuff.

An excerpt: Mainstream hip-hop has been filtering into indie culture for a few years, but contemporary country music has been slow to take root beyond safe alt- holdovers. Perhaps it’s because the music as played by corporate radio stations is perceived to be simplistic, jingoistic, and sentimental– which is true to an extent– or simply because Arcade Fire fans don’t want to be associated with NASCAR fans and Wal-Mart shoppers. As a result, indie faves Neko Case and Jenny Lewis are considered to be merely dabbling in country, and Tim McGraw covering “Stars Go Blue” doesn’t mean Ryan Adams is the new Kris Kristofferson. Instead, older country music gets a pass, and artists like the Carter Family, Dock Boggs, and Bob Wills are perfectly acceptable to indie ears, perhaps because there was no rock’n’roll to compete with at that time or because they’re so far removed from our current music climate that they don’t register as country anymore. Even the next few generations of country artists have found an audience among younger listeners: Willie Nelson is a favorite due to his ceaseless experimenting, Loretta Lynn found a new audience working with Jack White, and Johnny Cash is more popular with the indie (and every other) crowd dead than he was alive.

Adam Klein – Mo’ Pickens House of Satisfaction (1/8)

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Hey, all the New York City hillbillys. Do yourself a favor and head down to Mo’ Pickens House Of Satisfaction tomorrow night (1/8) and check out the Athens, GA based troubaudor and friend of Twang Nation, Adam Klein performing for your entertianment pleasure. Yeah I know it’s Monday night , get off your whiney ass and catch this great show. You can thank me later.

Hellwood

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Hellwood is a gothic roots-rock group featuring Jim White, Johnny Dowd and drummer Willie B.(Neko Case, Sally Timms). Recorded in a cabin in central New York, in a room with walls covered in newspaper clippings of musician obituaries, Hellwood’s “Chainsaw of Life” beings the minimalist approach of Johhny Dowd, the honky-tonk trip-hop of Jim White and the intricate percussion of Willie B. Hellwood wrapped up a Europeon tour late last year and the band is planning a tour of America this year.