Why does a Chicago based, blues/bluegrass/punk, Bloodshot Records band Devil in a Woodpile cover classic Zeppelin? Because they’re damn good at it!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcfOMmVod10[/youtube]
Category Archives: alt.country
Bloodshot Records CMJ Showcase
If you’re in the New York City area for the CMJ be sure to head out to Union Pool in Brooklyn next week for the Bloodshot Records showcase. No invites or badges needed, but you will need a ticket. $8 advance / $10 door, free w/CMJ badge – come early for FREE beer & tacos – Sponsored by Blurt Online & Oskar Blues Brewery.
Saturday Afternoon, October 25
Union Pool – 484 Union Ave. at Lorimer in Brooklyn
12:30 doors
1:00 – 1:40: Dexter Romweber Duo
1:50 – 2:30: I’m Not Jim
2:40 – 3:20: Ben Weaver
3:30 – 4:10: Ha Ha Tonka
4:20 – 5:00: Cordero
5:10 – 5:50: Charlie Pickett
6:00 – 6:40: Justin Townes Earle
Lucinda Williams to Release Protest EP
- Hot on the heels of her new release “Little Honey” Lucinda Williams will release “Lu in 08,” a digital-only EP of protest songs just before the presidential elections (Oct. 28.) The EP will feature four live tracks, three of which are covers: Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War,” Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” and the Thievery Corporation/Wayne Coyne collaboration “Marching the Hate Machines Into the Sun.” The fourth cut is the Williams original “Bone of Contention,” which was originally intended for inclusion on “Little Honey.” Williams is currently on the road in support of “Little Honey.”
- Sure Ryan Adams can be a pretentious dick (I hate, HATE, country music), but he’s an undeniable talent especially live. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals will play a hometown Halloween show Oct. 31 at New York’s Apollo Theatre. The groups next Lost Highway album, “Cardinology,” will arrive Oct. 28. Fans who pre-order through iTunes will receive an immediate download of first single “Fix It.”
Hang Jones and Band of Annuals at Hotel Utah, Earl Pickens and Family to Perform “The Country-Fried Joshua Tree”
It’s Friday night and I’m still sober so I’m gonna get a couple of show announcements out here before things take a bad turn…
My good friend Hang Jones (AKA Stephen Grillos) will be playing Hotel Utah here in beautiful San Francisco Tuesday next 10/21st at 9pm. Hang will be sharing the stage with Utah’s Band of Annuals. This is a show not to be missed so grab the Missus, crank over the Fury and head on into town to catch this.
This next show seems so brazen that I was sure it was going to be a car wreck, but the YouTube video convinced me otherwise. Earl Pickens and Family will perform “The Country-Fried Joshua Tree” Saturday, November 1st at Cherry Alley Cafe (c’mon Cherry Alley! Get a damn web site I can link to!)Â in Lewisburg, PA at 7 PM. Jessie Yamas, Bruce W. Derr, Bob Albin, Jake Kline and Earl will perform an acoustic, countrified rendition of the classic U2 album The Joshua Tree, in its entirety. Yeah, I know that’s what I thought…
Cherry Alley Cafe
21 N. 3rd Street / Lewisburg, PA
Tickets $8, $5 for students
tickets available at Cherry Alley Cafe
You out-of-towners can buy tickets for the Country Fried Joshua Tree show by mail if you so desire. Send a check, made out to Earl Pickens, to PO Box 82, Lewisburg, PA 17837. Shoot Earl an email at earl@earlpickens.com letting him know that you’re ordering by mail.
Earl Pickens and Family – Where The Streets Have No Name
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tin4_L9WLCE[/youtube]
Johhny Cash’s America on The Biography Channel
A new documentary on country music legend “Johnny Cash’s America,” will air on The Biography Channel on 10/23. It examines Cash’s life, music, and influence on 20th century American history. It’s already premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival.  Commentary from as diverse a collection as Al Gore, Bob Dylan, Snoop Dogg, and Merle Haggard are featured in the film.
The Biography Channel also offers a nice section of it’s web site outlining Cash’s life.
Johnny Cash’s America
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dr8rabYlUE[/youtube]
Tim McGraw is Apologizing to Fans for Latest Release
- PopMatters.com has a nice posting on Lucinda Williams’ new Lost Highway release “Little Honey” and on Columbus, Ohio’s Two Cow Garage.
- If you’re in Nashville this Friday October the 17th totally blow off mall-country teeny-bopper Taylor Swift’s show and head down to see Justin Townes Earle with Caitlin Rose and Chris Scruggs at the Exit/In. Rose’s mom, Liz, has penned a few of Taylor Swift’s biggest hits so it’ll kind of be like being there but without the crappy music (Rose’s mom’s cuts excluded, of course.)
- As if that weren’t enough Junior Brown will bring his guit-fiddle wizardry to Nashville on the same night (9/17) at the Station In.
- Tim McGraw is apologizing to his fans for the labels decision to put out his third greatest hits collection. “I am saddened and disappointed that my label chose to put out another hits album instead of new music. I’ve only had one studio album since my last hits package. It has to be just as confusing to the fans as it is to me. I had no involvement in the creation or presentation of this record.” Hey Time, now how about apologizing for the rest of the crap you’ve put out in your career (excluding the cuts penned by my uncle, of course.)
- The Times Colonist of Canada has a nice write up of Kris Kristofferson’s show at the McPherson Playhouse in Victoria, British Columbia “…last night, before an adoring sold-out crowd at the McPherson Playhouse, a huge dose humility is what worked best for veteran singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. The native of Brownsville, Texas, opened his Victoria debut with Shipwrecked in the 80’s, which he delivered in a plainspoken manner befitting of a folk singer. Dressed in black jeans with a black shirt, an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder and harmonica rack around his neck, Kristofferson, 72, cut quite a figure. The giveaway to his country past? Dusty cowboy boots. Pure Kristofferson.”
Record Review – The Moonshine Sessions – Solal (Indent Series)
Much of my wayward youth was spent journeying through various musical genres. Like the geographical type, musical travel helps impede bigotry, in this case musical bigotry. This experience has helped me to look at the music I hear more fully and not to reflexively dismiss something just because it doesn’t for some rigid idea of what I should like.
One genre (sub-genre really) I still love is, for lack of a better term, World electronica. Old world sounds mixed with laptop beats that meld into a surprisingly great thing. One artists that did this melding particularly well was the tango/electronica focused Gotan Project stewarded by dj, producer and Frenchman Philippe Cohen.
If you mentioned to me that this Parisian was now not only jumping genres by another border altogether by packing up his laptop and heading to Nashville I would have told you it was a recipe for disaster, and I would have been dead wrong.
Cohen had solid instincts to hire some of Nashville and Texas’ best – Jim Lauderdale, David Olney, Sam bush, Melonie Cannon and Rosie Flores to name a few – and to hire Bucky Baxter (Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams) to co-produce. Like with the Gotan Project works, the songs here are lush and custom made for early morning brunch or relaxing late night listening, but the soul is still intact and beauty undeniable. Atmosphere is scattered throughput the songs in the form of musicians chewing fat, crickets and distance dog barking and train whistles. What could have easily been ham-handed is an outsiders’ loving snapshot of country music and culture.
From the pedal steel and banjo flecked opener of Jim Lauderdale sung “The Academy of Trust” to the unlikely covers of
Abbas “Dancing Queen” (featuring Melonie Cannon) and the Sex Pistols “Pretty Vacant” (featuring the amazing Rosie Flores.) All this with the warm, organic production of a front-porch guitar pull with the slightest tinge of electronic wizardry.
Cohen has proven himself to be a true connoisseur of sound and annihilator of boundaries with this fine release.
Moonshine Sessions Main Site |Â MySpace
The Moonshine Sessions – Luna’s Song
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-CLoJYs2s[/youtube]
Ray Wylie Hubbard – Screw You We’re From Texas
As good as it gets….
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPbogQZV9Vc[/youtube]
Kid Rock Y’all!
When did Kid Rock, the wanna-be rapper, cowboy and on-again-off-again Mr Pamela Anderson, become the new face of the National Guard and NASCAR? For crissakes the man is a YANKEE! Didn’t he do enough damage by ruining Sweet Home Alabama? Birthright aside this song blows.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2j6j-vf6Ks[/youtube]
For sheer ass-kicking patriotism I’ll take Hag’s “The Fightin’ Side Of Me.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAFmFsb9XM[/youtube]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 8
Just a few shots from the excellent Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 8 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. A tip of the hat to investment banker, banjo player and member of the Bluegrass band The Wronglers Warren Hellman, who finances this gift to San Francisco every year and offers some of the greatest roots performers in the country. I don’t know how or why, but I was taught to never look a gift horse too closely in the molars. Thanks!