New York Times Writer Champions Country Music for Insight Into America

Kurt Campbell who’s bio states that he’s  is an expert on Asia and security issues who is now chief executive of the Center for a New American Security and served in the Pentagon in the Clinton administration, in charge of Asia/Pacific issues, and earlier taught at Harvard. Mr. Campbell writes over at that mouthpiece for the Blue Sate agenda, The New York Times, that country music is a  place to gain a”…deeper insights into the soul of America even without leaving the obvious attractions of Blue State life.”

As a person enjoying the educational, cultural, culinary and economic booty of the bluest of states (New York) I agree with Mr. Campbell when he writes:

Yes, even with its love for the vehicular and alcoholic, country western is the best place to start to learn a little something   about what it means to have a family, to struggle making ends meet, to own a gun or a pickup truck, to support our troops     unquestioningly, to enlist in the military and fight our country’s wars and to generally be very proud of what America stands  for — and to profess confusion over just what all this fuss is about when it comes to our foreign policy choices.

But I urge Mr. Campbell to also pick up recent releases from Steve Earle, James McMurtry or Darrell Scott and many others to hear great country and roots music with a clear insights into foreign policy.

Review – Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raising Sand (Rounder)

Country music has some great male/female duos – Tammy Wynette & George Jones, Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner and now… Robert Plant and Alison Krauss? No really, let me ‘splain.

While Mssr. Plant and his partner in sonic larceny Jimmy Page spent most of their time pilfering Robert Johnson’s crossroads they never left the dirt roads to traverse the back woods and smokey mountains where Americana, country and roots music flourished. In plant’s own words “I completely missed a whole other area of amazing American music.”

The collaboration between the blonde bluegrass angel and blonde rock god was set in motion seven years ago when the two sang together at a 2004 Leadbelly tribute concert. The conduit to the to bring the project together came in the form of producer and musician T-Bone Burnett (‘O Brother, Where Are Thou’ and ‘Walk The Line’.)

The result is a moody hushed world where sepia tinted country, fringe-folk and swaggering rockabilly fuse into a surprisingly cohesive whole. Like an unlikely collaboration between Angelo Badalamenti and Sam Phillips the alchemy on these thirteen sparsely-arranged cover versions is raw and mesmerizing – Krauss sings like a shimmering Nightingale, and sets a perfect counterpoint to Plant purr and growl. In tandem, they frequently reach moments of true transcendence last heard when Plant dueted with Sandy Denny on Zappelin 4’s (or Zoso) haunting mandolin-driven folk ballad “The Battle of Evermore.”

As you might expect of a recording of this pedigree the musicians are top of the line. Burnett’s hired guns Marc Ribot (guitar), Dennis Crouch (bass), Jay Bellarose (drums) and Norman Blake (acoustic guitar) are solid but restrained. Burnett has a knack for perfecting the early country and roots high lonesomeness that conjures hard fate and hone-spun menace that can only be labeled dark Americana.

The covers are picked with care with attention to diversity and songwriting mastery. Doc Watson’s “Your Long Journey”, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s “Trampled Rose”, Gene Clark waltz “Through the Morning, Everly Brothers’ “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)” and, most impressive, a discordant rendering of Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothing”and a Plant and Page number Please Read The Letter.”

Krauss and Plant trade solo and duet in deliriously beautiful harmony. I haven’t heard a duet release this good since Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell’s 2005’s release “Begonias.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5KF4dKq-6I

AMA Conference Highlights

This is just brief rundown on events here in Nashville at the Americana Music Association conference. I will add more detail next week.

Meeting Barbara Lamb, Sunny Sweeney, Chip Taylor, Kendal Carson, Gurf Morlix , Stacy Earle and Janet Reno!

The Halloween tribute to the memory of Porter Wagoner with Mark Ferris, Rodney Crowell, Jim Lauderdale and Emmylou Harris.

Seeing Darrell Scott at the Station Inn.

The AMA Awards at the Ryman Auditorium (the Mother Church of Country Music) featuring Joe Ely, Guy Clark (in a tribute to Townes Van Zandt) , Lyle Lovett, The Avett Brothers, Patty Griffin, Old Crow Medicine Show, Darrell Scott, Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale and Emmylou Harris.

Eating Jacks BBQ and drinking Big River Brewery beer.

Visiting the Hatch Show Print studio.

Wayne Hancock Tour Headed to the Mid West

Wayne “The Train” Hancock has hired Huck Johnson to play upright bass in his band and is ready to hit that long and winding road for an upcoming Fall tou. Wayne is reported to be “Totally Stoked” to get back on the road (Wayne, dude, cut back on those Keanu flix.) Catch out Wayne’s fine show when he come to a town near you, especially the one at Joplin Memorial Hall in Joplin, MO with Willie Nelson.

10/27 – Greenville, TX
Kenneth Threadgill Concert,

10/28 – Joplin Memorial Hall
***Opening for Willie Nelson!***
Joplin, MO

10/30 – Knuckleheads
Kansas City, MO

11/02
Beale on Broadway
St. Louis, MO
Cost:N/A

11/09
Pocola, OK
Choctaw Casino,

11/10 Pocola, OK
Choctaw Casino,

11/14 – Kent, OH featuring Don Helms and Joey Allcorn
Kent State Folk Festival @ the Kent Stage

11/15 – Cleveland, OH
Beachland Ballroom,

11/16- Pittsburgh, PA
Diesel

11/17 Maumee, OH
The Village Idiot,

11/18 – Newport, KY
Southgate House

11/22 Austin, TX
Thanksgiving at the Continental Club!

11/23 Houston, TX
Fitzgeralds

DEC 16 Hollywood, CA
Safari Sams

Wayne Hancock “California Blues”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcEjfS5fscY[/youtube]

It Burns When I Pee #8 Will Swallow Your Soul!

You smell that gentle reader? It’s the smell of brimstone from episode #8 of It Burns When I Pee, the hellicous Halloween special edition.  This episode Blake interviews Lonesome Wyatt from the Southern Gothic band Those Poor Bastards. Plus it’s brimming with monstrous music – Hank 3, Split Lip Rayfield, Hellalujah, Porter Hall Tennessee, and Joe Buck. Repent sinners or suffer the wrath of hellbilly honey Cheyenne.

Patterson Hood Talks About New Drive By Truckers Release

To get ready for tonight’s show I was trolling for Trucker info and came across Patterson Hood talking about the Drive By Truckers’ new upcoming release on ReadExpress.com.

“The new record’s kind of all over the map,” (Patterson) explained. “A couple of songs sound like they could’ve come off of country records from the early ’60s. And a couple of songs are almost Stooges/MC5 primal stomp. [There’s] almost a Howlin’ Wolf influence on one song.”

Nice!