Category Archives: alt.country

Elvis Costello Secret, Profane and Sugarcane Contest

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Ranch Twang has a CD of the new roots/Americana release by Elvis Costello Secret, Profane and Sugarcane (Twang Nation Review here)to give to one lucky poster.

Secret, Profane and Sugarcane (Hear Music) was produced by T. Bone Burnett and features Grammy winning singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale on backing vocal and guitar. The record highlights Costello’s love and respect for for the music and artists of the South and Southwest and his skill in crossing genres.

Entering the contest is easy. Post a message below naming a performer you believe has also successfully crossed from their home genre into the roots/Americana side of the tracks.

Remember when you comment to use a valid email address becuase it will be the one we use to contact you if you have won. Your info is safe with us and won’t be used for anything but this contest.

Eligible comments must be posted by 11:59 pm EST on Friday, June 26th. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced after the contest has ended.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Partial Lineup Announced

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Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the incredible (and FREE) San Francisco roots/Americana festival has announced a partial line up roster for the three day event.

So far the lineup includes Old Crow Medicine Show, Mavis Staples, Earl Scruggs, Hazel Dickens, Aimee Mann, Little Feat, The Wronglers, Okkervil River, Marianne Faithfull, Richie Havens, Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, Neko Case, Dr. Dog, Steve Martin with the Steep Canyon Rangers, The Del McCoury Band, John Prine, Gillian Welch, Allen Toussaint, Billy Bragg, Doc Watson, Booker T. & the Drive By Truckers, The Chieftains, World Party, Old 97’s. Check the official site for more performer to be announced soon.

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on October 2,3,and 4 2009.

Elvis Costello Amoeba Records San Francisco

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In what must be the smallest tour in his musical history,  Elvis Costello launched a mini-tour with Amoeba Music today, June 22nd. At 12:00 p.m. Costello performed at the Amoeba San Francisco location then will perform at Amoeba Hollywood location at 8 p.m. Costello also signed limited amount of  copies of his new album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane after both performances.  The purchase of the CD or vinyl will include a silk screen poster commemorating the event.

Backing Costello is Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, Jim Lauderdale, who also appears on his new release.

The capacity crowd was wound around the side of the store at 10AM and once inside wated patiently for the show to start roughly two hours later. Elvis was in fine form inviting people to move in closer and to sing along with the chorus of several songs.

Amoeba will stream the Hollywood performance live on Amoeba.com at 8 p.m. pst.

Amoeba San Francisco location set list (to my recollection)

set duraton roughly 50 minutes.

Complicated Shadows
Down Among the Wines and Spirits
My All Time Doll
A new song about a convict cheating death and getting revenge.
Sulphur to Sugarcane

Angela Easterling – Blacktop Road (De L’Est Music) Release Date 7/14

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If you want an excellent example of what Americana, that 5 layer-dip of genres, has to offer you need to just put on Angela Easterling’s new release Blacktop Road. Easterling’s delivers neo-trad country, folk and rock in her earnestly melancholic voice betraying her Greenville, S.C. roots, and her expanded tastes and sensibilities that might have been cultivated by her stretch in L.A. She sounds like she’s be right at home in a honky-tonk or a New York supper club.

Blacktop Road was produced by Will Kimbrough (Todd Snider, Rodney Crowell, Kate Campbell, Jimmy Buffett) and the album reflects his good sense to not burdon it with studio wiazardry.

Easterling has the goods and needs little more than a mic (though here she has a crack band – Al Perkins, Fats Kaplin, Ken Coomer, Anne McCue and Dave Jacques, along with Kimbrough – backing her) to get the job done. whether it’s John Mellencamp or Steve Earle style roots rocking on American I.D., a mid-tempo piece about American multiculturalism and self-identity and the title cut (not a cover of the Lost Trailers crappy song by the same name), and decrying the encroaching suburban sprawl and the loss of a rural way of life.

American identity is again addressed in the The Picture about a woman’s relationship with her father and his involvement in the Jim Crow South. For all braying about social messages in contemporary country music they are like crayon scribbling compared to finely crafted song like this.

Better is a beautifully aching hillbilly-chamber piece featuring mandolin, dobro, cello and violin (not fiddle) as a backdrop for longing for the comfort of a loved one. AP Carter’s Blues continues the bitterweet tone and offers a fine tribute to the Carter family patriarch with excellent pedal steel accompaniment by Fats Kaplin.

The cover of Neil Young’s Helpless is done similarly as the original’s slow, woeful simmering manner that fits the song to a T without being done by rote. Stars Over The Prairie is wonderfully spirited is A Western Swing shuffle reworking of a song penned by her great-grandfather in the 40s.

Easterling’s first offering, 2007’s Earning Her Wings, was an excellent first release, and with Blacktop Road she advances her skills and confidence and has provided us a great Summer soundtrack.

Official Site | MySpace | Twitter | Buy

Charlie Robison Beautiful Day Contest (Signed CD)

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Charlie Robison (along with his brother Bruce Robison) are Texas songwriting royalty. Nobody can make you feel so good about feeling bad and his new release Beautiful Day (Dualtone records) is some of his best work yet.

Ranch Twang has a signed copy of the release and will gladly fork it over to some lucky winner.  Just leave a comment telling us who your favorite Texas singer/songwriter is. Yes, it’s that easy. Thanks to Robison and Dualtone records for their participation.

Remember when you comment to use a valid email address becuase it will be the one we use to contact you if you have won. Your info is safe with us and won’t be used for anything but this contest.

Eligible comments must be posted by 11:59 pm EST on Monday, June 22nd. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced after the contest has ended.

We got a winner. Thanks for posting and check back to Twang Nation for more contests and up to date news and reviews.

Todd Snider in the New York Times

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  • The New York Times features a great feature on Todd Snider. Snider discusses his long career of writing smart roots-folk songs, speaks to some of his fans (like Kris Kristofferson) years of struggling with addiction, and his new Don Was produced release  “The Excitement Plan” on Yep Roc records.
  • Tom Russell’s new upcoming , Blood and Candle Smoke (Sept. 25), was recorded in Tucson’s Wave Lab with features members of Calexico. Head over to his MySpace page to hear Santa Ana Wind and Mississippi River Runnin’ Backwards.
  • Also in  Tom Russell news, the man will be among many contributors to a new Jimmie Rodgers book, Waiting For a Train: Jimmie Rodger’s America, planned to be released in July.
  • Dave Alvin Remembers his friend and Hacienda Brothers founder Chris Gaffney.
  • The fine folks over at HearYa.com review The Builders and The Butchers album  Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well.
  • Jay N. Miller at the The Patriot Ledger talks to Brooklyn based band Americana band Yarn.

Band Roundup – Ruby Jane

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Just when you needed more evidence that you’re getting old and aren’t accomplished very much I give you Ruby Jane.  Ruby is a 14 year old native Texan (born in Dallas, now resides in Austin) and is a premiere junior fiddler and a fast-rising star in country and bluegrass-Americana music scene.

She has shared the stage with Marty Stuart, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Asleep at the Wheel, Rhonda Vincent, Mike Snider, Jesse McReynolds, Jim Brock, James Monroe, Carl Jackson and Big & Rich (hey, a girls gotta make some bank!) In true old-school country entrepreneurial style  Ruby even has her own pancake mix for sale!  When not sawing wood and hawking flapjacks Ruby Jane is also an actress and a model Kids today and their virtuoso Blugrass playing!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esH2793eoIA[/youtube]

premiere
junior fiddlers and a fast-rising star in country and bluegrass-Americana music. With
deep familial and cultural ties throughout the South, especially Mississippi, where she
lived after her birth until she was 12 years old, she now resides in Austin, TX, with her
mama, when not traveling as a musician, actress, or model.

Band Round-Up: The Builders and the Butchers

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Portland, Oregon by way of  “hey! There’s Russia!” Alaska The Builders and the Butchers play a burgeoning fringe style of Southern Gothic music reflected in bands like vets Those Legendary Shack Shakers, newcomers  O’Death and Hank Williams III favorites Those Poor Bastards. Imagine O Brother where Art Though as performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds or Iggy and the Stooges and you won’t be far off.

This aesthetic is a favorite of mine and I think a natural progression of people’s, not just kid’s, demand for authenticity and passion in music. Kids reared on punk, metal and hip-hop reach back into their own heritage come up with music that feels real and reflects the outsider status of all these genre’s early practitioners as well as their passionate and unhinged performance style. Great stuff!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-cZEod_gRU[/youtube]

Band Round-Up – Dirty Sweet

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Do you like your rock with a side of sleaze? Then San Diego’s Dirty Sweet might sate your hunger. Their name is taken from T. Rex’s 1971 Glam-rock classic Bang a Gong (Get It On), but the band comes off as less Electric Warrior and more Faces mashed-up with The Outlaws.

Sure there are the lazy Black Crowes comparisons (especially with Ryan Koontz’s 70’s classic rock wail), but the Black Crowes were themselves a pretty linear derivative of sources they now take pains to distance themselves from. Dirty Sweet wears their influences on their sweat-stained sleeves and make you yearn for a time when rock was hard and exciting.  Is there Twang? yeah, in the Slithering Southern Rock of Marrionette, the hot licks in Goldensole and in the lyrics of Kill or Be Killed, but the real treat with thier sound is, like many bands they obviously worship, they just take off the break and gun it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtQMjInGtpA[/youtube]

Ryan Koontz