Category Archives: alt.country

Rachel Brooke and Lonesome Wyatt to Release A Bitter Harvest

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  • According to a post on her MySpace page Rachel Brooke will be collaborating with  Lonesome Wyatt from Those Lonely Bastards. The release is entitled A Bitter Harvest, and will be released around May, and will be available on CD and vinyl.
  • Daytrotter has three new Joe Pug cuts; Bury Me Far From My Uniform, Unsophisticated Heart, The Door Was Always Open.  Seriously,  Joe’s Pub tonight!
  • Washington Post staff writer J. Freedom du Lac reviews Willie and the Wheel. A new collaberation by Willie Nelson and Western swing preservationists Asleep at the Wheel, and he like what he hears.
  • Alejandro Escovedo’s Real Animal comes out the big winner in No Depression’s Readers Poll.

Country Acts and the Superbowl Halftime Show

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  • Bill Chapin at MLive Music is posting his “entry in my Albums of the Aughts series, highlighting 50 great or near-great albums released since Jan. 1, 2000.” Albums of the Aughts No. 5 is the old time music juggernaut from  Dec. 5, 2000 the T-Bone Burnett produced  “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack featuring Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, bluegrass legends Norman Blake and Ralph Stanley and Grand Ole Opry members Emmylou Harris and The Whites.
  • PopMatters‘ Bob Proehl posts a story on the history of the spiritual/secular divide in country music  (Hank’s Other Side: Religion, Radio, and the Roots of Country Music) and how marketing and technology (radio) helped shape tactics like Hank Williams’ Luke the Drifter character to meet the artists desire to record spititual and gospel songs.
  • The Bluegrass Blog covers Steve Martin’s hosting of Saturday Night Live (his 15th time , outlapping Alec Baldwin’s 13 times hosting SNL.) Martin plays “Late for School” from his upcoming bluegrass tinged banjo showcase album The Crow.
  • The Boss and the East Street Band did a great job for the 43rd superbowl halftime show, and it got me to thinking “When was the last time a country act had that gig?” Checking the all-knowing Wikipedia, that would be 1994’s Superbowl 28 (or XXVIII for you purists) Rockin’ Country Sunday featuring Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt and The Judds. And yes I did exclude Shania Twain’s Superbowl 32 and Kid Rock’s  Superbowl 33 .

Review – 6 Day Bender – self-titled (self-released)

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6 Day Bender began as a group of students in Charlottesville, VA playing a thing they call “Mountain Rock and Roll.” I figure there’s enough confusion with the current sub-genres already available so let’s settle with roots-rock with an emphasis on both.These neo-revivalists create, like their contemporaries Old Crow Medicine Show, The Hackensaw Boys and The Avett Brothers, a rousing blend of pre-World War II folk, bluegrass spiked with rock attitude. Imagine the O Brother where Art Thou soundtrack if it where covered by The Stooges.

Channeling the hell-raising forefathers that blazed the trail from Europe and into the American South the heat pulses off all 16 cuts. Best I Can and Devil Lets You Dance are furious, howling hillbilly speedball about love, life and happiness with no excuses. In the hands of the right person the banjo is a lethal thing and in the hands of Luke Nutting (banjo, guitar, vocals) it’s a doomsday machine.

Wartime is a jaunty little ditty on the existential view of life with boots on the ground. Hellbound is an American Beauty-style barroom recollection of a misspent life and Jail Blues is a mess of greasy swampbilly cut that sounds what the Doors might have sounded like if they had been from Mississippi instead of L.A.

Genre and time bending releases like 6 Day Bender’s feels like a rejection of canned PowerTools generated music and glib irony that pollutes so much of contemporary music. Dylan knew it, The Band knew it, Gram Parsons knew it, great bands like 6 Day Bender know it. There is emotional gold in mining history and heritage and grinding a modern edge to it.

Official Site |  MySpace |  Store

6 Day Bender – Devil Lets You Dance

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S1O9AA6Lm4[/youtube]

Miranda Lambert Headed Back to the Studio

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  • The 7th Annual 10KLF 10,000 Lakes Festival in Detroit Lakes, MN will feature Junior Brown, Kathleen Edwards and William Elliott Whitmore will join Dave Matthews Band, Wilco, Widespread Panic and much more . The festival will take place July 22 – 25, 2009.
  • In more festival news; the International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, Tenn. will feature  films, songs, stories and special events to fill the days and nights of February 18 – 22, 2009.  Slated to perform and/or speak are Charlie Louvin, Rodney Crowell, Kathy Mattea, Ray Wylie Hubbard and much more.
  • Miranda Lambert blogs that she soon will be heading into the studio to work on a new album. Lambert posts that she’s been neglecting her blog because “I’m going into the studio in February to do my third album. I’ve really been writing and concentrating on that.” Count me as a fan of something Nashville has recently got right.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss To Play Grammys

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Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are confirmed as performers at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony and telecast in Los Angeles (February 8th,2009) The backing band will include acclaimed performer and ‘Raising Sand’ producer T Bone Burnett, and a stellar cast of musicians from the Raising Sand album and tour.

The event will mark both the first trip to the awards and first performance for Robert Plant, who says: “I’m looking forward to being in Los Angeles, but musically — and spiritually — I expect we’ll be somewhere halfway between the Mississippi Delta and the Clinch Mountains.”

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Black Country Woman

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-EKgCctit8[/youtube]

The Country Music Hall of Fame Needs $1.1 million

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The Country MusTwang Nation › Edit Post — WordPressic Hall of Fame and Museum has announced a $1.1 million fundraising campaign to pay a $750,000 bankruptcy settlement to keep Bill Monroe’s Gibson F-5 Loar mandolin, Maybelle Carter’s Gibson 1928 L-5 guitar and Johnny Cash’s Martin D-35 acoustic guitar. Monroe’s musical legatee, Grand Ole Opry star Ricky Skaggs, will lead the national appeal to music fans.

As a nod to Monroe, who was fond of passing out quarters to his fans, Skaggs will encourage fans to contribute to the Precious Jewel Fund in increments of 25.   “This is an equal-opportunity challenge to the greatest fans in the world,” he said. “Twenty –five cents is as significant as a gift of $25,000. The important thing is that we all stand up and be counted. After all,” he laughed, “we’ll want to have something to report when we run into Maybelle, Monroe and John R. at that famous gate down the road.” Persons interested in making a tax-deductible contribution may do so online, by mail and by telephone.

Bill Monroe – Uncle Pen

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2XT9u7iw9o[/youtube]

Drive By Truckers News

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The Drive By Truckers are just off their start to 2009 with 3 sold-out shows for their Athens GA 40 Watt Club Homecoming, they next will be playing this weekend,  with opener Bloodkin, in Knoxville at the Valarium (Thurs Jan 29) and two nights at Asheville’s historic Orange Peel (Fri Jan 30 and Sat Jan 31). Next month they have a few more dates including a two night stand in DC at 9:30 Club and a few dates with Texas’ Hayes Carll.

On Feb. 5th Drive By Truckers Front Man Patterson Hood will play an annual benefit for Athens, GA’S The Robert Osborne Classic Film Festival.

On Feb 7th, PBS will be airing the episode of Austin City Limits starring Drive By Truckers and Ryan Bingham. Check local listings for exact time and date of airing.

April will see the DBTs backing the legendary R&B and soul and funk pioneer Booker T. Jones ANTI- Records debut Potato Hole. The band will be backing Booker T. in some dates including thier first ever New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival appearance on Friday April 24th.

The Drive-By Truckers with Kelly Hogan – I’m Your Puppet

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrUMbHhsoC8[/youtube]

Robert Plant Meets Brenda Lee

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Alison Bonaguro over at the CMT.com blog attended a party for Nashville-based Grammy nominees and was taken by the site of genres being erased for the love of music, country music legend Brenda Lee hobnobbing with Rock Legend Robert Plant. Lee is receiving a Grammy for lifetime achievement and Plant, along with Alison Krauss, has been nominated multiple categories, all deserved.

The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash are slated to release a new album, Bend In the Road, this sometime year. The album will be comprised of 10 originals and  covers of Billy Joe Shaver and Steve Earle. (via The 9513)

Let’s all do John Rich a favor and ignore him.

Or, The Whale at Hotel Utah

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  • For one week only you can download honeyhoney‘s song “Brahm’s Lullaby” for FREE! honeyhoney’s “Brahm’s Lullaby” was featured in an Anti-Smoking campaign commercial in California (titled Grim Reapers.) Beginning Tuesday, February 3rd – honeyhoney’s “Brahm’s Lullaby” will be available for purchase on iTunes.
  • ACountry.com is giving away tickets to the city to your choice of Robert Earl Keen’s scheduled stops between February 11th to April 4th. 2009 marks the 20th Anniversary of Robert Earl Keen’s “The Road Goes on Forever” and will be the subject of a live tribute album to be released on Jan. 6, 2009 as well as a new book The Road Goes On Forever The Music Never Ends… which will be released in March, 2009.