Category Archives: alt.country

James McMurtry on Popmatters.com – New Release “Just Us Kids” 4/15

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PopMatters.com has an excellent 20 question with Ft. Worth native and alt.country gadfly James McMurtry – who Stephen King has called “the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation” (Entertainment Weekly) – From the feature:

You want to be remembered for…?
Oh, perhaps…not screwing up my son any worse than I was screwed up. Of course, we don’t get remembered for what doesn’t happen on our watch.

During the waning years of the Carter presidency, Israel invaded Lebanon. The often portrayed as spineless Jimmy Carter told the Israelis to go home if they still wanted spare parts for their jets. The Israelis pulled back and waited for Reagan, who let them roll into Beirut and create one unholy mess. Reagan sent in the US Marines as a “symbolic presence”. Over 300 of those Marines died when a truck bomb blew up their barracks and a few more died from sniper fire.

When Walter Mondale suggested that perhaps the intervention had been a bad idea, since the troops had been sent in more or less for the hell of it with no clear military objective, he was accused by the Reaganites of saying the troops had “died in vain”. Anybody remember what didn’t happen under Carter?

In case tyou were wondering what to do with those tax returns, McMurtry’s latest release, Just Us Kids, drops April 15.

Scott H Biram Spring Dates

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That “Dirty ol One Man Band from Texas: Scott H. Biram will be wheeling his First Church Of The Ultimate Fanaticism selling his brand of sanctified chicken-fried country blues music this spring and will be over in the UK in late May with some possible central Europeon dates in Early June.

Check him out at a chicken coop near you if you dare!

Fri 3/21/08 Riley’s Tavern Hunter, TX

Sat 3/22/08 Red Eyed Fly Austin, TX

Sat 3/29/08 Double-Wide Dallas, TX

Thu 4/10/08 Rhythm Room Phoenix, AZ w/Hillstomp

Fri 4/11/08 Plush Tucson, AZ w/Hillstomp

Sat 4/12/08 Casbah San Diego, CA w/Hillstomp

Sun 4/13/08 Safari Sam’s Hollywood, CA
w/ Wayne Hancock, 50 Cent Haircut, Hillstomp (SHB plays 3rd)

Tue 4/15/08 The Crepe Place Santa Cruz, CA

Wed 4/16/08 Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, CA w/Hillstomp

Thu 4/17/08 Axe & Fiddle Cottage Grove, OR w/Hillstomp

Fri 4/18/08 Dante’s Portland, OR w/Thee Loyal Bastards & Hillstomp

Sat 4/19/08 El Corazon Seattle, WA w/Hillstomp & Bob Wayne & His Outlaw Carnies

Mon 4/21/08 The Filling Station Bozeman, MT w/Hillstomp

Wed 4/23 Bar Deluxe w/Hillstomp

Fri 4/25/08 Bender’s Tavern Denver, CO w/Hillstomp, Rev. Deadeye

TBA (Possibly Lincoln, NE)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX6-G5uHFHk[/youtube]

Lone Star 92.5 – Full Throttle Garage

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Dallas based terrestrial roots-music/classic-rock/country-music radio station Lone Star 92.5 offers some great live performances by the likes of Steve Earle, Chris Duarte, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jason Isbell, Back Door Slam, Todd Snider and Billy Joe Shaver on their feature the Full Throttle Garage.

Quick Shots Reviews – Ashton Shepherd, Dawn Landes

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Quick Shots - MusicReviews Graphic

Ashton Shepherd – Sounds So Good (MCA Nashville) – Like her Texas counterpart Miranda Lambert, Alabama native Ashton Shepherd serves up a gritty remedy for the sugary pop-confection emanating most recently from Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. Like Gretchen Wilson (without the goofy Muzik Mafia taint) Shepherd is a hell raising gal that calibrates good loving and a good time. Sure the release has producer Buddy Cannon’s Nashville sheen ladled over it like he does Kenny Chesney’s slop, but Shepherd shines through it with bad-ass glory. “Takin’ Off This Pain” puts all the cards on the table as a testament to women’s love woes. “I Ain’t Dead Yet” is a lovely Texas waltz about yearnings for good times in spite of domestic and maternal obligations. “Old Memory” is a slow burner that dwells on lost love that makes you forget the lady is only 21 years old. This is unabashed country music gold!

Dawn Landes – Fireproof (Cooking Vinyl) – Brooklyn by way of Louisville, Kentucky native singer/songwriter/producer Dawn Landes travels the same quirk-folk roads as her contemporaries Feist, Joanna Newsom and Chan Marshall (Cat Power) and like them she makes music that is both bold and subtle. On her second album, Fireproof, Landes hit a spot between the traditional and the contemporary. Like T. Bone Burnett producing The Breeders.

Singing with a voice that reflects a whispery-fragile grace reminiscent of Hem’s Sally Ellyson (some of the members of Hem appear on the release as well as members of The Earlies) and Suzanne Vega. Landes also plays everything from guitars, Optigans to bells and uses her experience as a producer to blend and fade between styles while preserving an overall mood of beauty veined with menace.

“Bodyguard” opens kicks things off like some kind of Appalachian beatnik mutation with it’s circular phrasings of “Where’s my bodyguard..” and “I saw a man, I saw a man, I saw a man..” it sublimely creepy. “Picture Show” has a Tom Waits scratchy junkyard carnival vibe that wobbles and skews under beat poetry. My preference for music with an open smile instead of a smirk and songs like “Tired Of This Life” and and the pedal steel tinged “Twilight” exhibit a simple, honest beauty that is reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.

The BoDeans Release “Still”, Tour US

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I saw the roots-rock group the BoDeans open for U2 in Ft. Worth for the Joshua Tree tour and they tore up the stage. The DoDeans are back with a new studio release, “Still” which is the eighth studio album for the band and is releasing it via their own record label, He & He LP. The disc was produced by T-Bone Burnett and features 12 new tracks. The band is touring this spring in support of their new album.

The first leg of the tour kicks off at SXSW in Austin, TX, and will cover the eastern part of the country. The group plans to visit the western half of the U.S. in a forthcoming second leg of the tour early this summer.

03/12/2008 – Threadgill’s – Austin, Texas
03/13/2008 – SXSW @ Bourbon Rocks – Austin, Texas
03/21/2008 – House Of Blues – Dallas, Texas
03/22/2008 – House Of Blues – New Orleans, Louisiana
03/24/2008 – Exit In – Nashville, Tennessee
03/25/2008 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, Georgia
03/26/2008 – The Handlebar – Greenville, South Carolina
03/27/2008 – McGlohon Theatre – Charlotte, North Carolina
03/28/2008 – House Of Blues – Orlando, Florida
03/29/2008 – House Of Blues – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
03/31/2008 – Toad’s Place – Richmond, Virginia
04/02/2008 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
04/03/2008 – Fillmore NY @ Irving Plaza – New York, New York
04/04/2008 РWorld Caf̩ Live РPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
04/05/2008 – The Chance – Poughkeepsie, New York
04/07/2008 – Mr. Small’s Theater – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
04/08/2008 – 20th Century Theater – Cincinnati, Ohio
04/10/2008 – University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, Wisconsin
04/11/2008 – The Vogue – Indianapolis, Indiana
04/12/2008 – House Of Blues – Cleveland, Ohio
04/14/2008 – Royal Oak Theater – Detroit, Michigan
04/15/2008 – The Intersection – Grand Rapids, Michigan
04/17/2008 – Paramount Theater – St. Cloud, Minnesota
04/18/2008 – People’s Court – Des Moines, Iowa
04/19/2008 – Washington Pavilion – Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Joe Whyte at Rockwood Music Hall – Tuesday, March 11

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If your in the 5 boroughs next Tuesday head on over to the Rockwood Music Hall to catch singer/songwriter Joe Whyte and his band. Whyte won’t be playing these parts until May so ya’ll head on over!

Tuesday, March 11
Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen St., NYC
8pm
FREE!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeuQz8ojJBg[/youtube]

The Village Voice on Folk/Country Female Artists

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The New York City based Village Voice has a characteristically snarky feature covering the latest releases by Carlene Carter, Sheryl Crow, Shelby Lynne, Allison Moorer, Tift Merritt and Kathleen Edwards.

The Kansas City Star has a feature on alt.country singer/songwriter and Nashville native Sara Cox on how she balances her career with being a mother of three. Apparently Kathy Mattea was her baby-sitter growing up. Cool!

The Academy of Country Music shows their criteria for country music excellence – sales over talent – and their exceptional consistency for surprising no one by nominating Kenny Chesney for 11 nominations.

Whiskeytown’s 1997 Strangers Almanac to be Released as Deluxe Version

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Ryan Adams, musical legend or precocious twit? I think there’s an argument to be made either way – but one thing there’s no argument on is that Adams early Band, Raleigh, NC’s Whiskeytown, made some of the best damn alt.country music in it’s short existence.

Whiskeytown’s 1997 major label debut, Strangers Almanac will be re-released in a deluxe, 2-CD edition on March 4, 2008 on Geffen/UMe/Mood Food/Outpost.

During the time of the recording the band was led by a 22-year-old Adams and was in a certain level of turmoil: There was a new rhythm section (bassist Jeff Rice and drummer Steven Terry joined Adams, Cary and Wandscher), band member fiddler-singer-songwriter Caitlin Cary was in a relationship with the former drummer Eric “Skillet” Gilmore, Adams had been offered his own solo deal and they had no guitars because they had been misplaced during the trip to Nashville. The acoustic guitar heard on Strangers Almanac was bought in a pawnshop.

Disc one is the original album plus five previously unreleased live public radio performances. 17 of the 19 recordings on the second disc were previously unreleased recordings and are from the pre-production sessions for Strangers Almanac (commonly referred to as the Barn’s On Fire sessions). Intimate acoustic demos of “16 Days,” “Avenues” and “Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart,” are included plus several original songs making their premieres in the Whiskeytown catalog: “Kiss & Make-Up,” “Indian Gown,” “Barn’s On Fire,” “Streets Of Sirens,” “Breathe,” “Nurse With The Pills” and “10 Seconds.” Also included are covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” Gram Parsons’ “Luxury Liner,” Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” and an early version of the True Believers’ “The Rain Won’t Help You When It’s Over.”

If this release comes anywhere close to the treatment reached by the Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and The Allman Brothers Band Eat a Peach deluxe editions it should be a great addition for Ryan fans.