The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has rolled the music industry keeping musicians from coming together together to create music and keeping musicians off the road and deriving them of a much-needed revenue source. Many have tackled the technical hurdles to stream performances to connect with fans and collect online tips and perhaps move a t-shirt or a slab of vinyl.
It follows that music festivals would follow much the same path. Americana Music Association’s AmericanaFest as a face-to-face event has been scrapped for their charitable and educational branch, the Americana Music Association Foundation, will hold a ‘Thriving Roots,’ a virtual festival complete with industry-focused panels and live-streamed performances.
Set for September 16th-18th the event will include guest speakers Jackson Browne, Mavis Staples,Brandi Carlile, Yola, Emmylou Harris, Ken Burns, Taj Mahal, Mary Gauthier, Rhiannon Giddens, T Bone Burnett, Rosanne Cash, and Black Pumas. Topics slated to be covered are representation, advocacy and staying true to your art, the healing qualities of music, and the business challenges and decisions faced by a developing artist.
The full agenda for ‘Thriving Roots’ will be announced in late August.
Early bird passes for conference registration are $99 and available now.
Some of my fondest memories of my 5 years in San Francisco was attending the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass roots music festival. The first weekend in October would roll around and me, my daughter and friends would pack blankets, food and plenty of water and head our to Golden Gate Park to witness some of American’s greatest legends and boldest newcomers perform under the Blue Gum Eucalyptus during a brief Indian Summer. And I could hardly believe the entire event was free! (Thank you, Warren Hellman!)
But times have changed and so must HSB.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is launching its new global and community-driven initiative “Let the Music Play On…” to bring the spirit of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to backyards and living rooms all over the world with a global broadcast taking place the weekend of October 2nd. In compliance with safety concerns and California’s statewide mandate against large public gatherings, the festival will not be taking place in its traditional setting of Golden Gate Park.
The festival, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year, was founded by Warren Hellman on ten pillars: community, joy, creativity, collaboration, freedom, peace, love, respect, gratitude, and spirituality. It was Hellman’s gift to the City of San Francisco, offering a free outdoor festival in the historic Golden Gate Park that is a celebration of American roots music.
The October broadcast will feature new performances from the expansive range of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass artists that include first-time performers to legends of American Roots music, along with archival footage from the festival’s past two decades and memories from fans, performers, and staff and priceless gems from the festival’s rich history. The HSB community is what gives the festival life, so fans are encouraged to send their favorite memories via stories, videos, and photos to memories@hardlystrictlybluegrass.org. All contributions are welcome and appreciated, and will be considered for the broadcast in October.
“While we know we can’t replace the feeling of being together physically, the safety of our attendees, artists, volunteers, and staff are our highest priority and our team has been hard at work creating a vibrant broadcast in line with what attendees have come to expect from HSB: community, discovery, and the all-time best in roots music, †says festival advisor Mick Hellman. “We’re excited to share parts of HSB that aren’t feasible in a festival environment such as screening archival footage, sharing memories, and shining a spotlight on our non-profit partners.â€
This year the festival has launched Hardly Strictly Music Relief Fund: Bay Area, a $1.5M charitable initiative to support the local music community during the COVID-19 pandemic. American roots musicians living in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, and Sonoma Counties are invited to apply for one-time, unrestricted support grants up to $2,000. The fund is also open to Bay Area music venues with a track record of presenting and supporting roots music of all kinds. Venues are encouraged to nominate themselves for the grant opportunity. From those nominations, a select number of venues will be invited to submit a formal application for up to $200,000 in grant funding for operating expenses, capacity building, or planning related to reopening, and must include funds dedicated to front-of-house and back-of-house staff.
On Monday, July 20th, a form letter was sent out to all artists currently signed to the independent Chicago-based music label Bloodshot Records that the the label is currently up for sale due to ongoing conflict with co-owners Nan Washaw and Rob Miller. This conflict has spilled over into artists and songwriters reimbursement.
Bloodshot artist Jason Hawk Harris posted today on his Facebook page some behind the scenes details:
‘Hey folks. Nan Warshaw is forcing the sale of Bloodshot Records and withholding money owed to artists. Sharing this is my decision in full and I was not prompted to do so by anyone in the Bloodshot camp.
The statement below (scroll down to read the internal statement)h was sent to all current roster artists yesterday by the non-ownership staff at Bloodshot. PLEASE read the letter below for full context before commenting.
I want to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR and say that my problem is NOT with bloodshot. It is with the other part-owner (Warshaw), holding the company hostage after she was rightfully forced-out for choosing to protect a sexual predator over the artist he preyed on.
Rob and the staff at bloodshot have done nothing but fight for me, tooth and nail, since I signed with them a year and a half ago. I thought hard about sharing this, but ultimately decided I was not okay with Nan not having to face this publicly.
This is the crop reaped from the seeds sown by sexual assault. Take it very seriously, and please hold the right people accountable. And do whatever you can to put a stop to this kind of bullshit in your own industry/workplace.”
Last year Bloodshot Records co-founder Nan Warshaw resigned from her position at the label following allegations of sexual misconduct made Bloodshot recording artist Lydia Loveless against Warshaw’s domestic partner, Mark Panick. Warshaw’s resignation was announced in a statement from the label, which reads, “co-founder Nan Warshaw is resigning from Bloodshot. Remaining co-founder Rob Miller, along with the entire highly dedicated staff, will continue the work of Bloodshot, while ensuring that the core values of the company are consistently represented by all associated w/ the label.”(see tweet)
Co-founder Nan Warshaw is resigning from Bloodshot. Remaining co-founder Rob Miller, along with the entire highly dedicated staff, will continue the work of Bloodshot, while ensuring that the core values of the company are consistently represented by all associated w/ the label.
Bloodshot Records was founded by Rob Miller and Nan Warshaw in 1993 as an “insurgent country†record label catering to the coutry roots loving younger fans that grew up on punk and looked for a fusion of the sounds. Bloodshot was home to many of the genre’s pioneers like Ryan Adams, Neko Case, The Waco Brothers, Scott H. Biram, Wayne “The Train†Hancock, The Old 97’s, The Meat Purveyors, Robbie Fulks and Justin Townes Earle, and currently has on it’s roster Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, Jason Hawk Harris, Ruby Boots, The Vandoliers, and others.
Guess word’s out why our album isn’t coming out in the fall…
Charlie Daniels singer, songwriter, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, philanthropist and Country Music Hall of Fame member died Monday from hemorrhagic stroke in Nashville. He was 83 years old.
We all know about Daniels’ most famous for Grammy-winning cross-genre hit song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” from the 1979 Charlie Daniels Band album “Million Mile Reflections.” The song became even bigger with its inclusion on the soundtrack for the hit movie ‘Urban Cowboy,’ in which Daniels makes an onscreen appearance with his band playing along with the recorded song during the film’s dance contest scene.
Before making the leap into stardom Daniels was a Music Row session musician playing guitar, bass, mandolin and fiddle as needed for the session. often working for his friend, producer Bob Johnston whom he had befriended after meeting on the Ft. Worth club scene . Several of these Johnston-led sessions were for Bob Dylan albums during 1969 and 1970, most notably playing guitar and bass guitar on on Bob Dylan’s 1969 LP ‘Nashville Skyline’ which Danials told Billboard he almost wan’t included.
“They had built the nucleus of that studio band around him with the other two albums he had done in town, ‘Blonde On Blonde’ and ‘John Wesley Harding.’ But the guitarist they wanted [Wayne Moss] could not make the first session because he was already booked elsewhere. So Bob Johnston called me and got me to fill in for him, and Dylan liked what I was doing. I was getting ready to leave but he didn’t want me to leave and asked me to stick around and I wound up doing two more records with him in ‘Self Portrait’ and ‘New Morning.’ But it was happenstance that I was on those initial sessions for Nashville Skyline.”
Daniels inclusion in these sessions provided other opportunities outside of Country Music.
Producer Pete Drake convinced Ringo Starr to move his ‘Beaucoups of Blues’ sessions from the U.K. to Nashville by telling Starr that within a week Drake’s musician friends could produce more than an albums worth of material. Perhaps recalling those later Beatles recording sessions Ringo reportedly thought this was an ‘impossible’ feat and might have been swayed by witnessing the quickness of the sessions, which had been common for Nashville Country music sessions for years.
Daniels recalled the sessions as “pretty typical Nashville sessions. You know, three songs in three hours. It was go in, sit down and work. Here’s the songs, here’s the chords, let’s get it done. It was not a Beatles-type leisurely session. It was work.”
Starr, apparently convinced, said of the sessions, “We did the album in two nights. … I was only there three days recording. I’d learn five songs in the morning and I’d go and record five songs that night. It was really good.”
This led to the most unlikely gig in Daniels’ career, playing with Leonard Cohen.
Daniels recalled in his biography ‘Never Look At The Empty Seats.’ “When Bob Johnston brought Leonard Cohen to Nashville to record an album, I have to admit that I knew very little about him and was completely unfamiliar with his music.Leonard was a totally different kind of artist than any I had ever worked with. His music was sensitive and haunting, and the imagery of his lyrics was abstract and poetic, like a Georgia O’Keeffe painting. … When I first heard ‘Bird on the Wire,’ I didn’t know what to think. Here was a truly unique artist, and his songs were so delicate that one out-of-place guitar lick could bend it out of shape. When you worked with Leonard, you had to listen closely and get in sync with what he was trying to convey. You had to interpret it in the same musical frame he was operating in. Sometimes it only called for a well-placed note or two, sparse but meaningful. I know that sounds philosophical and stilted, but so was Leonard’s music. You needed to be in a certain frame of mind, and it was a challenging but satisfying experience.”
Following the release of the album, ‘Songs From A Room’ (1969), Cohen invited Daniels to join him on tour. “I was asked to be part of the backup band that would be called The Army. It was a different kind of band, mostly acoustical instruments with no drums. We needed to surround Leonard with delicate, genteel sounds. For a bang, slam, redline graduate of thirteen years of honky-tonk and rock and roll, it would be a learning experience.”
Daniels went on to help found the Southern Rock sound that then influenced bands like The Drive-By Truckers and Blackberry Smoke
Though the Americana and roots music community never really warmed up to Daniels, mainly due to his outspoken conservatism and the communities general liberal slant, in 2006 Charlie Daniels received the First Amendment Center / Americana Music Association “Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award” at the 5th Annual Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium ceremony.
Remember alt.country? The Old 97’s and their legions of fans worldwide haven’t. And those fans will be rewarded when the Dallas’ stalwarts deliver their 12th album, ‘Twelfth,’ on August 21st.
To drive home the title even further the cover features the most famous #12 of them all, the legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach airborne and in fine form.
The band began recording ‘Twelfth’ in Nashville’s Sputnik Sound Studio last spring, just as tornadoes ripped through the city as they watched from their rented condo.
Though The Old 97’s records and live performances are rollicking fun with a debauchery chaser, the new release will reflect singer and principal songwriter Rhett Miller’s newfound sobriety (five years this summer.) Though the topics might be more clear-eyed and focused if the newly releaseD cut ‘Turn Off The TV’ (see the Liam Lynch directed video below) is representative of the rest of the album, it’s still sure to be lots of fun.
‘Twelfth’ track list:
– Confessional Boxing
– Diamonds On Neptune
– I Like You Better
– Happy Hour
– Absence (What We’ve Got)
– Turn Off The TV
– This House Got Ghosts
– Why Don’t We Ever Say We’re Sorry
– Belmont Hotel
– Bottle Rocket Baby
– Our Year
– The Dropouts
Austin, Texas, the self-professed “lLive Music Capital of the World” has announced “A Night For Austin,†a television and streaming event to raise money for the community of Austin in reaction to the closures and loss due to COVID-19 shutdowns. Produced by Luck Productions. “A Night For Austin†is the brainchild of Grammy legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the two hour, commercial-free telethon-style broadcast will start at 8 pm Central on June 10th at anightforaustin.com and twitch.tv/luckreunion. The program will also air locally on CBS Austin (KEYE). A Night For Austin will be powered by Brightcove, the world’s leading video technology platform.
“The coronavirus has completely upended live music in Austin, which is why we must come together to support the industry that makes our city special. Austin Community Foundation is honored to work with Paul Simon to bring much-needed relief to those who rely on the music scene for their livelihood. The funds raised through A Night For Austin will go to nonprofit organizations equipped to help musicians, producers, venue owners, and others persevere through these difficult times,†said Mike Nellis, CEO of Austin Community Foundation.
Neo-trad Texas troubadour Charley Crockett just gave us another reason to look forward to summer. He’s just announced his next studio album, “Welcome To Hard Times,” will be released July 31st on Thirty Tigers.
“Welcome To Hard Times” is produced by Mark Neill (The Black Keys, Old 97s) with songwriting contributions from Pat McLaughlin (Steve Wariner, Tanya Tucker, Delbert McClinton) and Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), “Welcome To Hard Times” is described as a “genre-bending mix of classic country, psychedelic spaghetti western and rhythm & blues. It may draw on heritage sounds, but this aptly-named collection perfectly fits these troubled times.”
Crockett’s vision for the record seems fatalistic if hopeful, “This record is for the folks who feel like everything’s fixed. If you think you’re playing a rigged game, you’re right. If it seems like all the cards are marked in advance, they are. But you still gotta roll the dice, even when you know they’re loaded.“
Crockett released the album title track, and it’s accompanying video, co-directed by Crockett and Bobby Cochran, which premiered today with American Songwriter Magazine.(watch below) Shot on location in the Sierra Nevadas, it will feature as part of a series of videos Crockett is shooting and directing over the next month, where he will play the same character walking alone through isolated landscapes in the American wilderness. Discussing the video concept, Crockett stated, “Whether it’s out of admiration or fear, the whole world contemplates what the west means. When folks ask me what I’m really after, I guess that’s it. Just to drift through it all my days. I’m making films that visually represent this land just as my music describes it in sound.â€
Crockett is no stranger to hard times. In early January 2019, while at a routine doctor’s checkup. Crockett was diagnosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome, a congenital heart condition, as well as Aortic Valve disease, and he had to immediately undergo life-saving heart surgery. Crockett believes that this experience inspired him to make the record that he truly wanted.
Crockett stated, “I look at that scar and all I can think about is the limited amount of time I’ve got left, I wanted to make an album that would try to reclaim the conversation about country music.†Crockett added, “My entering country music has been controversial, to say the least but I believe country fans have more eclectic tastes than they are given credit for. My country music is inspired by what I played in the subway car so I could eat, in the French Quarter in ragtag bands. I sat in pastures on farms across this country putting it all together into my own sound. I don’t like labels but if that ain’t country I don’t know what is.â€
Crockett grew up in poverty and spent time living homeless and busking making his way from New Orleans to the subway platforms of New York City. Crockett also lost his sister to addiction and he is a twice-convicted felon and was falsely implicated in his own brother’s crimes, “I’ve gotten more than my fair share of raw deals in my thirty-six years. But I don’t let hard-luck own me.†Crockett stated, adding, “I’ve been fortunate enough to see things that a person from my background is never meant to see, and that’s worth something. It turns out that a wandering boy can learn a whole lot out there getting in trouble. Especially if he learns from his mistakes. I wouldn’t take anything back that’s happened to me. I’m not the best and I damn sure ain’t the first. But I’m different, and in music, that’s everything.â€
In spite of these challenges, Crockett has remained steadfast and persistent in his music career, releasing a catalog of critically respected self-released albums including “The Valley” and “Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza”, which garnered critical acclaim.
Without the support of a major record label deal, Crockett has established himself as a breakthrough independent artist and the master of his own success. Generating over 36 million total streams across his song catalog, growing a grassroots following from his sold-out shows across America and Europe and making debuts at Stagecoach Festival, the Grand Ole Opry, and Newport Folk Festival.
Welcome To Hard Times was recorded in Valdosta, Georgia at Mark Neil’s studio. Mark shared Charley’s vision to make “a dark gothic country record.†Neil stated, “It was a pleasure to have been involved in what I believe to be the best gulf and western country record ever made.†The album was recorded with a studio band consisting of Kullen Fox, Colin Colby, Alexis Sanchez, Mario Valdez, Nathan Fleming, Billy Horton and Mackenzie Rosser.
Welcome To Hard Times tracklist:
Welcome To Hard Times
Run Horse Run
Don’t Cry
Tennessee Special
Fool Somebody Else
Lily My Dear
Wreck Me
Heads You Win
Rainin’ In My Heart
Paint It Blue
Black Jack County Crain
The Man That Time Forgot
The Poplar Tree
It is an unfortunate and unforeseen turn of events that one of the most anticipated albums of the year would be released during a worldwide pandemic that has put the entire music industry on its heels.
B.J. Barham, principal songwriter, frontman and the last original member of North Carolina’s American Aquarium,
has been tilling the thematic fields of adversity and resilience over the band’s 15-year existence. Historical hardships of beleaguered farmers at the mercy of king tobacco, disappearing jobs, and a flood of opioids used to chemically salve the indignity. Demons of doubt, drink and destruction have yielded a bitter fruit who’s popularity with fans proves a trope of country music. Misery loves company.
But for many (most?) of the fans, this has been misery by proxy. But no more.
We now find ourselves in strange, troubled, and tribal times. Politicians exploit our fears and confusion for personal agendas, the media baits us to rage click-and-shares in a culturally corrosive model that, while momentarily lucrative, undermines the very foundation of a free press. Then there’s big tech holding the puppet stings of both.
In all this ‘Lamentations’ is delivered. The quasi-title track opener “Me + Mine (Lamentations)” is a bleak recap of Barham’s aforementioned themes. Had times, harder people, and the hollow futility of looking to God or the American Dream for remedy.
There is a momentary ray of hope in the blue-collar romance of “Before the Dogwood Blooms” and the boot-stomping bootstrapped “The Luckier You Get” celebrating self-reliance and grit resulting in a better day.
But the clouds return on “Six Years Come September” with its pedal-steel yearn telling of a family tragedy. “The Day I Learned to Lie to You” is a piano-led lament of regret that marches toward a horn and organ swell like
a Crescent City funeral.
Unfortunately, all that populist goodwill get’s pissed away with one song. “A Better South,” the most politically charged track on the album takes aim at the very same people the other cuts other songs empathize with by rendering then into one-dimensional caricatures.
“Down here we’re still fighting for all the wrong reasons
Old men still defend these monuments to treason
To the right side of history, we’re always late
Still arguing the difference between heritage and hate”
Where the earlier songs set up a context why a proud people being stripped of their dignity might reflexively cling to heritage as a weapon against cultural elimination, “A Better South” ditches all that goodwill and takes up an adolescent’s “okay boomer” argument.
“I’m sick and tired of listening to Daddy’s generation
The byproduct of war and segregation
Still thinking they can tell us of what to do
Who can live where and who can love who”
Sure it’s not easy to plumb the depths of humanity and tell it in a song, but Barham has shown on many occasions that he could be just the man to do it. Instead, he gets caught in what Patterson Hood coined as “The Southern Thing,†the existential friction of confronting the past and excusing or even justifying the darker elements by wholesale that an, in this case, surrender to the contemporary mobs that would be just fine erasing the Mason-Dixon blemish as longs the gourmet BBQ trucks stay open.
Legendary Minneapolis pop-roots band The Jayhawks have announced their new album XOXO will release on July 10 via Sham/Thirty Tigers. Reportedly their most diverse and wide-ranging group of songs to date, XOXO marks a new era in collaboration, with songwriting and lead vocal contributions from all four longtime band members – Gary Louris, Marc Perlman, Karen Grotberg, and Tim O’Reagan. Along with the announcement, The Jayhawks have released a new video with Louris performing a stripped-down version of “Living In A Bubbleâ€, a timely song of the current lockdown era that laments the problematic nature of our ratings, click=bait driven “news” environment.
“Living In A Bubble’ lyrically is a reaction to the 24-hour news cycle and how the media can fan the flames of fear if one lets it,†says Louris. “It is also a commentary about data collection, Big Brother, and our obsession with devices, while never being truly present in the here and now. Musically it is an homage to the great Harry Nilsson, and is driven by the amazing piano playing of Karen Grotberg.â€
Recorded over two weeks holed up together at the secluded Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, MN, as well as at Flowers Studio, founded by their friend and Minneapolis music stalwart the late Ed Ackerson.
With XOXO The Jayhawks camaraderie is at the heart and soul of the 12 songs, bringing an injection of confidence and energy to The Jayhawks’ signature harmonies, infectious melodies, and masterful musicianship.
“It was time to open things up,†explains Louris. “The Jayhawks are a true band, one where everyone’s equal, and we wanted to make a record that really reflected that.†Elaborating on the process, Perlman says, “Some songs we molded together from scratch, but others had been fully written by one or the other of us. We didn’t worry too much about who penned what, because after all these years of playing together, everything we do just naturally comes out sounding like a Jayhawks song.â€
The loss of singer/songwriter John Prine due to complications associated with COVID-19 has hit fans and members of the Americana community hard. Few artist of his stature were as generous of spirit and touched so many lives.
His death has created a vacuum in this world where an unlikely ex-mailman and towering talent once existed.
Members of the Americana and country music community aired their grief in the best way possible. They paid testament in covering Prine’s songs.
Brandi Carlile – “Hello In There”
Jeff Tweedy – “Please Don’t Bury Me”
Lukas Nelson – “Lonesome Friends of Science”
Ani DiFranco – “Angel From Montgomery”
BJ Barham – “Paradise”
https://www.facebook.com/americanaquarium/videos/2866668576702331/
Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires – “Angel From Montgomery†“Clocks And Spoons.†“Illegal Smile.â€
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxwJ2qQs4ZE
Andrew Bird – “Souvenirs”
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-uw1SzD3g8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Ryan Bingham – “Illegal Smileâ€
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-vNUJoBS9x/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
