Category Archives: alt.country

News Round Up: Happy Birthday J.R. Cash

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  • On this day in 1932 Johnny Cash was born J. R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas, to Ray (1897–1985) and Carrie Cash (1904–1991)
  • The Boston Globe looks back at Johnny Cash’s pivotal and influential Rick Rubin produced American Recordings and finds the final American VI – Ain’t No Grave  the Man in Black’s most compelling.
  • Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen That Way” was the 10 billionth song sold through Apple’s itunes music store. This milestone download earned Louie Sulcer, a 71-year-old retired real estate broker, a congratulatory phone call from Apple’s chief executive Steve Jobs, a $10,000 iTunes gift card, a call from Rosanne Cash, thanking him for buying one of her father’s tunes. She then put her husband, the musician John Leventhal, on the phone to play live the winning song. (New York Times)
  • Rick Rubin Remembers Johnny Cash and reflects on Cash’s health, song choices and the just released final album American VI: Ain’t No Grave. (New York Magazine)
  • Just in time for the new release JohnnyCash.com has gotten a slick new makeover.

News Round Up: Pickathon Line-Up Announced

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  • Pickathon has announced an impressive lineup for for 12th year. Bonnie Prince Billy, Heartless Bastards, Billy Joe Shaver. Langhorne Slim, Frazey Ford, The Cave Singers, T-Model Ford, Roadside Graves, Chatham County Line and many many more. Pickathon will take place on August 6-8 at Pendarvis Farm near Portland, Oregan.
  • The New York Times follows the long road of Crazy Heart from Thomas Cobb’s 1987 novel to Academy Awards nominated movie that was nearly straight to DVD. and the post-modernist writer that was the inspiration for Bad Blake. (Bad Blake, Post-Modernist Country Crooner?)
  • The Court Yard Hounds (Dixie Chicks sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire) are taking pre-orders for their new album (Standard and Deluxe edition with extra goodies) on their web site.  Folks ponying up for pre-orders will gain immediate access 4-song download and and get first crack at tickets for their upcoming tour. The tou will include a atop at SXSW for their first live concert as Court Yard Hounds. The sisters will take the also take the stage during the Americana Music Association showcase at Antone’s on Thursday March 18th and will go on to do a string of intimate shows across the country. The CD will be released on Columbia Records, on shelves May 4, 2010.
  • In more new release news Gothic-country punkers Th ‘ Legendary Shack Shackers will release their seventh full-length album, Agridustrial, on April 13th on their own Colonel Knowledge label. Get the first single from the release below.

Th ‘ Legendary Shack Shackers – Sin Eater

News Round Up: Levon Helm Documentary Coming to SXSW

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  • The will of the late singer/songwriter Stephen Bruton, is being contested by his possibly estranged widow. Bruton provided the inspiration for the Crazy Heart character Bad Blake played by Jeff Bridges and worked with T. Bone Burnett on the movie’s soundtrack in his days of fighting cancer.
  • And for more in Crazy Heart news, the good folks at the 9513.com have a great interview with Ryan Bingham. Bingham. reflects on his Golden Globe winning and Academy Award nominated song The Weary Kind.
  • PopMatters debuts a new monthly country music column, Kickin’ Up Dust. First up? Willie Nelson!
  • The CMT blog has a nice run down of early 2010 Americana releases. Looks to be another bumper year!
  • Speaking of great 2010 releases, seminal 80’s cowpunk band, and the 2008 Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Jason and the Scorchers will release their first album in 14 years. Halcyon Times will be released in February 2010 and was co-produced by Scorcher member Warner E. Hodges and Brad Jones, and features guest contributions from Dan Baird and Tommy Womack.

Merle Haggard Signs With Vanguard Records, Drive By Truckers Announce Dates

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  • Merle Haggard has penned a deal with independent label Vanguard Records- home pf Levon Helm – ans will release hos label debut I Am What I Am, his first album on April 20. The project, featuring 12 new songs he has written, was co-produced by Haggard and Lou Bradley.
  • Six members of Willie Nelson’s band and crew were cited for misdemeanor possession offenses after of marijuana wafting from the window of a The Texas Yoda’s tour bus led to six members of the country singer’s entourage getting busted in Duplin County for possession of marijuana and three-fourths of a quart of moonshine. Nelson later that day canceled a North Carolina concert due to a hand that was husrting him – what may be a result from carpal tunnel surgery in 2004 – according to a posting on his Web site.
  • The mighty Drive By Truckers have announced tour dates to suppert their upcoming release The Big To-Do (March 16, 2010 – ATO Records) DBT and ATO Records are also offering up the first single, “This Fucking Job”, from The Big To-Do for free: Drive By Truckers – This Fucking Job

News Round Up: Ryan Bingham and T. Bone Burnett Win Golden Globe

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  • One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Haiti’s history has caused catastrophic destruction in the hemisphere’s poorest country. The leading humanitarian group, AmeriCares  is rushing emergency aid to the survivors across the country. Please help if you can.
  • As previously reported, two-thirds of the Dixie Chicks – guitarist-banjoist Emily Robison and her sister, fiddler Martie Maguire — have been working on a project on thier own. It appears that they have  recorded an album on their own under the name Court Yard Hounds (a reference to the best-selling novel City of Thieves). The album was recorded mostly at Maguire’s home studio in Austin, and is reported to be the intimate pop-folk album features Robison’s first-ever lead vocals and songs inspired by her recent divorce from country act Charlie Robison. The sisters insist the Chicks haven’t disbanded, though  they admit they rarely see the other 1/3 of the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines, who lives in L.A. (Rollingstone.com)
  • Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett beat out both Paul McCartney  (I Want To Come Home from Everybody’s Fine) and U2 (Winter, from Brothers.) won Best Original Song at the 67th Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles Sunday night for ‘The Weary Kind,’ the theme song from the film ‘Crazy Heart’ starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Burnett accepted the award on behalf of both songwriters but was looking for Bingham to com up onstage (he was MIA). This is the first Golden Globe win for both musicians. Jeff Bridges won his first Golden Globe for the starring performance in the movie.
  • The new album by Willie Nelson and T. Bone Burnett now has a title  label (Rounder) a release date (April 13th) and a title that defiantly reclaims a misused label, Country Music. (AntiMusic.com)
  • Country Music Hall of Fame Member and former husband of June Carter Cash, Carl Smith Died died Saturday (Jan. 16) at his home in Franklin, Tenn. at Age 82

News Round Up: Dixie Chicks Split For New Album

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  • Sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison (born Erwin) will record an album together without their Dixie Chick partner Natalie Maines. Manine’s father reports that the split is “temporary.”
  • It appears that the appearance at Ft. Worth’s Bass Hall of Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson on February 17th won’t be a solitary outing. The two legends will also appear at in  Houston, TX on Norman, OK on the 6th, Norman, OK on February 18th, Bossier City, LA on the 19th, Robinsonville, MS on the 20th and Chicago, IL on the 21st.

News Round Up: New Johnny Cash in February

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  • The big for fans of the Man In Black is that Rick Rubin’s American Records will release American VI: Ain’t No Grave, the final volume in the American series that  helped revitalize Johnny Cash’s career beginning in the early 90’s, after he was unceremoniously dropped from Mercury Records. February 26 would have been Cash’s 78th birthday. (New York Times)
  • The economy may be for the dogs but it seems like it’s every week I find out about another ,usic festival cropping up. This time it’s Austin’s Americana focused Old Settler’s Music Festival (April 15-18) who have just released a partial line up list: Joe Ely, Patty Griffin, The Travelin’ McCourys, Fred Eaglesmith, Buddy Miller, Peter Rowan, The Lee Boys, The Gourds, Band of Heathens, Radney Foster, Blue Highway, Mindy Smith, Alison Brown with Joe Craven, The Infamous Stringdusters, Bearfoot, Solas, The Special Consensus, The Wronglers, Elizabeth Cook, Ruby Jane. Sounds like a winner. Grab those tickets, this one will fill up fast.
  • I was lucky enough to catch Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard as they headed out to a brief 4 city tour, the first time they had appeared on stage together.  This legendary dup will appear once more for one show (as far as I can tell) at Ft. Worth’s Bass Performance Hall on February 17. (Pagasus News)
  • If you missed it today on NPR, you can head over to the Fresh Air site and listen to T. Bone Burnett discuss the creation of the Crazy Heart soundtrack.

News Round Up: New Johnny Cash Recording in February

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  • The big for fans of the Man In Black is that Rick Rubin’s American Records will release American VI: Ain’t No Grave, the final volume in the American series that  helped revitalize Johnny Cash’s career beginning in the early 90’s, after he was unceremoniously dropped from Mercury Records. February 26 would have been Cash’s 78th birthday. (New York Times)
  • The economy may be for the dogs but it seems like it’s every week I find out about another ,usic festival cropping up. This time it’s Austin’s Americana focused Old Settler’s Music Festival (April 15-18) who have just released a partial line up list: Joe Ely, Patty Griffin, The Travelin’ McCourys, Fred Eaglesmith, Buddy Miller, Peter Rowan, The Lee Boys, The Gourds, Band of Heathens, Radney Foster, Blue Highway, Mindy Smith, Alison Brown with Joe Craven, The Infamous Stringdusters, Bearfoot, Solas, The Special Consensus, The Wronglers, Elizabeth Cook, Ruby Jane. Sounds like a winner. Grab those tickets, this one will fill up fast.
  • I was lucky enough to catch Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard as they headed out to a brief 4 city tour, the first time they had appeared on stage together.  This legendary dup will appear once more for one show (as far as I can tell) at Ft. Worth’s Bass Performance Hall on February 17. (Pagasus News)
  • If you missed it today on NPR, you can head over to the Fresh Air site and listen to T. Bone Burnett discuss the creation of the Crazy Heart soundtrack.

News Round Up: New Roky Erickson/Okkervil River in April

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  • The Rick Rubin produced American recording done by Johnny Cash near the end of his life featured some inspired covers (most famous being the cover of Trent Reznor’s Hurt on 2002’s album, American IV: The Man Comes Around) Paste.com lists 10 songs they wished  Cash had lived to cover featuring works by Joe Strummer, The Silver Jews and  Ryan Adams. Though I’m sure a list like this could go on and on I have to take exception to a couple of the entries on the Paste list; Bob by the Drive By Truckers could be their worst song and I doubt that the mighty Cash could make it better (and there are tons of better DBT songs for him to cover; Cottonseed perhaps?)  and Death Cab For Cutie?! Really?! (via the 9513.com)
  • Aquarium Drunkard posts a fine ode to the greatness that is Jerry Jeff  Walker.
  • Legendary Austin musician Roky Erickson returns on April 20th with his Anti Record’s release True Love Cast Out All Evil, his first new album in fourteen years. Producing the release is Will Sheff and his band, Okkervil River, backs Erickson.

News Round Up: Willie Nelson Wraps Up T-Bone Burnett Produced Album

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  • WillieNelson.com posted that The Texas Yoda has wrapped up his newest, as-yet-untitled album,  recorded live in Nashville in four days and produced by prestigious Americana producer T-Bone Burnett. From the post “Some folks have mistakenly called it bluegrass,” says Burnett. “It’s actually pre-bluegrass. It’s some of the songs Willie’s been singing his whole life.” The material ranges from 1920s to 1960s.” The album features a string section, Buddy Miller on guitar and Mickey Raphael on harmonica, includes “The Man With the Blues,” which Burnett says is the first song Willie ever wrote. Other tracks include covers of “Dark As a Dungeon” by Merle Travis and “You Done Me Wrong” by Ray Price. No release date has been set.
  • The 11th Annual Musicfest at Steamboat concludes today at the Steamboat Colorado ski resort. Seriously, people, next year someone at the event needs to hook a blogger UP!