Category Archives: alt.country

Deep Blues Festival and BamaJam

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It’s time to start planing on this Summer’s musical festivals and this strikes me as two of the more interesting ones.

The 2nd annual Deep Blues Musicland Film Festival seems to do for blues what alt.country did for country music. Taking place July 18-20, 2008 and offering bands from 18 states, Italy, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom – the festival will take place on the East side of Minneapolis/St Paul to the Washington County Fairgrounds by Lake Elmo, MN. The lineup offers 45 band including Richard Johnston, Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers, T-Model Ford, Scissormen, Black-Eyed Snakes, Black Diamond Heavies, Bob Log III, Scott H. Biram, Left Lane Cruiser, Hillstomp and Charlie Parr.

The Deep Blues Festival prides itself in being a”fan friendly” event. Free parking, affordable ticket prices and concessions, no ticket services fees, and plenty of room for the fans are guaranteed. A film festival will feature dozens of music related films and will be free and open to the public at the fairgrounds throughout the weekend.

A limited quantity of discount advance three day passes for this 21+ show are available at the two festival websites deepbluesfestival.com and myspace.com/deepbluesfestival for $45. Daily tickets will be available at the event for $30. Under 21 are free, but must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Gates open at 10:00am, rain or shine.

BamaJam Music & Arts Festival is a three-day event in Enterprise, AL. – June 5-7 – and offers a nice lineup of country, Southern rock, folk and bluegrass acts. The fest will present 30 acts on three stages, including Hank Williams Jr., Trace Adkins, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nanci Griffith, Ralph Stanley, ZZ Top, Randy Owen, Ricky Skaggs, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, Del McCoury Band, Tracy Lawrence, Darryl Worley, the Duhks, Dan Tyminski, Eric Church, Claire Lynch and Railroad Earth.

Ticket prices range from $39.50 to $99.50 for general admission, $149.50 to $309.50 for VIP.

New York Times on the City’s Growing Roots Music Scene

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The New York Times has a nice piece on something I’ve seen first hand. the rising popularity of Roots Music here in New York. The city that gave you the smoky Greenwich Village folk clubs from the 60’s seems posed to offer the same proving ground for roots and Americana music.

From the article: “There’s another generation of people who want to hear music that’s accessible, that’s not a prefab product, that’s lyric based but not preachy,” said Adam Levy, a guitarist and singer-songwriter who has played on all of Ms. (Norah) Jones’s albums. “If there’s a roots movement in New York now, I think of it in those terms.”

Jayhawks’ Louris and Olson Make New Album

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from CMT.com – Two former members of the Jayhawks have collaborated on a new album for the first time since 1995. Gary Louris and Mark Olson completed Ready for the Flood last year and expect to release it this summer or fall. The duo hired Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson as producer. No distribution plans have been announced. Olson initially left the pioneering alt-country band following the tour for 1995’s Tomorrow the Green Grass album, and the band called it quits in 2005. However, Louris and Olson have toured together over the last few years. Louris released Vagabonds, a solo album also produced by Robinson, on Feb. 19.

Gone Country Reconsidered

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So I blogged on the CMT reality Program Gone Country hosted by John Rich (of Big & Rich fame)  without seeing one episode and trashed it (see Gone Stupid.)  Well I sat down this weekend and watched three epoides in a row and have to say, It’s not as bad as I suspected it might be.

The participants, Carnie Wilson, Maureen “Marcia Brady” McCormick, Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider , Sisqo of “Thong Song” fame, Julio Iglesias Jr., “American Idol” runner-up Diana DeGarmo and Boston bad boy Bobby Brown, seem genuinely sincere in wanting to succeed in writing a decent country song and living a country lifestyle.  That is if living includes wearing high-dollar be-spangled Manual suits, wearing huge fur coats (as John Rich does) and living in a swanky “rustic” Nashville nation. The other thing I was struck by is the absence of viciousness that runs through most reality programs, Except for Bobby Browns hygiene the show plays it pretty clean.

I still think John Rich is a tool that writes schlock meanwhile laughing all the way to the bank., but the man understands the mechanics of Nashville like few do and he seems to be the right PT Barnum for this circus.

I  just can’t wait for Dee Snider to kick all their butts with a gem of a tune.

No Depression Magazine to End Publication

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Due to financial and music industry self-inflicted mortal wounds No Depression Magazine will cease publication after 13 bi-monthly years of bringing it’s readers to best of “Alternative Country (Whatever that is)” From the March-April issue publishers Grant Alden, Peter Blackstock and Kyla Fairchild as its Page 2 “Hello Stranger” column and from their site –

Barring the intercession of unknown angels, you hold in your hands the next-to-the-last edition of No Depression we will publish. It is difficult even to type those words, so please know that we have not come lightly to this decision.

It’s no understatement to say that the humble blog you are currently reading and others like it would not exist if not for No Depression. ND showed that country and roots music and mutated into many interesting and thrilling varieties. You could enjoy your Grandfather’s music in a new and souped up form and there was music out there that still had the heart and soul of Cash and Haggard and might be doing it with a arm full of tattoos and a energy of any punk or metal band. Many of the bands and artists I could not live with today, the Drive By Truckers, Hank III, Meat Purveyors, Scott H. Biram…the list goes on and on.

The gaping cultural void left by ND’s sad demise will be felt directly and indirectly by fans and bands struggling against an American idolized world. ND was the place to look for inspiration and the place to hope to be featured when you had “made it” If you were featured or reviewed in ND you had cred! Fans and bands that otherwise thought they were pissing in the wind and making and enjoying music brazenly against the formulaic bile reflected everyday on the charts found a home in the pages of ND.

The passing of ND is a blow but their very existence in was a blessing. Now the Americana roots music goes back underground where it will mutate, rage and burst out once again like some dreaded cultural beast.

Adios amigos. Thanks for showing me the way.

Johnny Cash 76th Birthday Bash – Brooklyn, NY

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Hopefully you already bought your ticket for The Johnny Cash 76th Birthday Bash (Feb 23) at Brooklyn’s Southpaw – 125 5th Ave. (@ St. John’s Place) Brooklyn, NY – because the event is SOLD OUT.

The show will feature Alex Battles’ Whisky Rebellion performing a full rendition of “At Folsom Prison” in celebration of the albums 40th anniversary.

Episode #12 of It Burns When I Pee! The Valentines Day Massacre!

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Something missing in your life, friends? Been itchy, twitchy and filled with impure thoughts over the last two months? Well step eyeing the chickens and get yer keester over to www.section86.com and download Episode #12 of It Burns When I Pee! The Valentines Day Massacre!

This episode features an interview with Bill Anderson of the Meat Purveyors. Anderson talks about his career, the in and outs of The Meat Purveyors, and what he is doing now-a-days. Also check out the  premier of their new comedy skit, The Trailer Park Dating Game.

The show as usual is filled with music from the likes of The Von Ehrics, Stacy Dean Campbell, Joecephus & The George Jonestown Massacre, OldBoy, Hank Williams Sr, and of course some tunes from The Meat Purveyors.

So quit your bitching about Trashville dreck, put some salve on that thing and get over to get your Pee on!

Review – The Whipsaws – 60 Watt Avenue (self released)

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In the South we sometimes forget about our kindred spirits way up North. Alaskans have many of the same qualities as Southerners. A strong sense of independence, a yearning for wide open spaces and a tendency to raise hell when the opportunity arises and a deep appreciation of American Southern musical heritage.

Straight outta Anchorage The Whipsaws sound like they could be from anywhere South of the Mason-Dixon instead of a few thousand miles to the North where for the past five years, they have traveled the vast isolated miles playing smoke-filled saloons and paying their dues on cold winter nights cultivating a uniquely Alaskan brand of country-rock.

Cribbing from the best that Southern rock offers – Neil Young, The Band, The Allman Brothers and Uncle Tupelo, singer/songwriter/guitarist Evan Phillips, bassist Ivan Molesky, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Aaron Benolkin and drummer James Dommek, Jr. blend melodies, harmonies and sonic blasts in measures that make each song inspired with passion and not merely the aping of past glory.

The Whipsaws first full-length since their 2006 debut,Ten Day Bender, which reached #133 on the AMA chart, #28 on the Roots Music Report for Roots Rock, and debuting at #12 on the Euro Americana chart., 60 Watt Avenue carries the saound forward and has all their wares on display in fine form. The title track busts out big and then settles into a smooth vibe with crying bottle-neck guitar and Dommek’s clockwork drum work. As the song concludes Phillips screams out “I believe in rock and roll!” the band has left you no doubt that the sentiment is true.

Jesse Jane is a rollicking shuffle about wayward, boozy love that may or may not be about the porn star. The lonesome steel and fiddle laced Coming Home hearkens back to Uncle Tupelo’s Anodyne and Stick Around a love song with an askew melody that sound like it was written with a bottle a bottle of whiskey and a piano with the excellent “There are mysteries that surround you, that I don’t want to solve.” chorus of surrendering to ambiguity.

High Tide brings us to Allman Brothers wide-open road song terrain with a story of small-town woes featuring some great harmonica work. Lonesome Joe is a banjo and steel driven narrative of sage advice and life lessons from a Harley riding vet that is forged with beauty and sorrow. And The War continues the Allman-tinged aesthetic protest song that carries on the fine folk/country tradition of telling small stories to make a big point about humanity. Sinferno and Bar Scar blistering barroom brawlers right out of the hard-rock boogie Lynyrd Skynyrd playbook.

The band addresses one of their influences directly by covering Buffalo Springfield’s Mr. Soul – which was originally a great reworking of “(Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” the cover proves to be a worthy addition scorching wah-pedal leads sure to make Neil Young smile. Ode To Shakey is a moody analogue textured piece with a sloppy-jammed up lead that could have been lifted from a Mr. Young sound check. Seven Long Years is a dobro and harmonica blended gospel tune about temperance and redemption which features New West’s Tom Easton.

The Whipsaws can comfortably take their rightful place among current Southern Rock standard bearers like The Drive By Truckers and Alabama’s Caddle as they blaze a trail into the sunset.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKB55wKeBJ0[/youtube]