Category Archives: Americana

Second Annual No Depression Festival Line-Up Announced

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No Depression magazine (and now web site), the go-to authority for roots and Americana music for 15 years, has announced the line-up for their second annual No Depression Festival, and it’s a peach! The Swell Season, Lucinda Williams, The Cave Singers, Alejandro Escovedo, Chuck Prophet, Punch Brothers and Sera Cahoone. The fun starts on Aug. 21, 2010, at Marymoor Park  in Redmond, Wash. Pre-sale tickets are available 10 a.m. Thursday 4/29 until 10 p.m. Friday 4/30 (password: HAPPY). Tickets will be available to the general public beginning 10 a.m. May 1.

If you order your tickets in the presale, email your confirmation to info at nodepression dot com to be entered in a drawing for a special No Depression prize package. Three winners will be chosen at random and will win a No Depression t-shirt, tote bag, anthology, and stickers.

News Round Up: Kris Kristofferson Releases Early Demo Compilation

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Kris Kristofferson’s latest is actually some of his earliest. Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72 is a collection of raw demos made to shop his songs around to singers while sweeping floors at Columbia Studios in Nashville (where he later first met Johnny Cash.) I listened to 16 cuts from the album streaming over at NPR and it’s a beauty. The back and forth with Kristofferson and the recording engineer does not take away from the artistry from this master songwriter. There are classics like Me and Bobby McGee,made famous by a woman that dated Kristofferson for a time, Janis Joplin. There is also the title cut which was recorded by Bobby Bare and If You Don’t Like Hank Williams latter recorded by Hank Williams Jr. With Willie and Merle Haggard coming out with releases this month Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends just makes this one of the best bumper crops in quite some time. The down-loadable version is on sale now at Amazon.

News Round Up: Kris Kristofferson is Open for Football Draft

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Kris Kristofferson reminisces about his days playing football. The days before he was pulled because of too many head injuries, that is.

CMT interviews the Texas Yoda, Willie Nelson about his new T Bone Burnett produced album, Country Music.

Dwight Yoakam & Merle Haggard will perform together June 18 & 19 at Oregon’s Chinook Winds Casino Resort.

Speaking of Brother Hag, the LA Times Pop & Hiss get’s on the bus with the Merle while in town for the Stagecoach Festival.

Dwight Yoakam & Merle Haggard Perform June 18 & 19!

News Round Up: George Strait Breaks Billboard Charts Records

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  • Listen to a stream of Merle Haggard’s  I Am What I Am, his upcoming release Vanguard Records.
  • Everyone knows that Music City big label country music is more pop than country, and some takes many pages from classic rock playbook, but PopMatter.com’s Steve Leftridge does a fine job of connecting the dots. (Pour Some Sugarland on Me.)
  • George Strait has set a Billboard record by charting a top 10 hit on the Country Songs survey in an unprecedented 30th consecutive year! No artist in the history of Billboard has had such a lengthy streak of top 10 titles. The Country Music Hall of Fame singer’s most recent song, I Gotta Get to You jumped from No. 12 to No. 9 on the radio airplay list. Strait first hit the top 10 on Country Songs in 1981 with Unwound.  His current album titled Twang has sold 551,000 copies since it’s August release.
Steve Leftridge

News Round Up: New Releases by John Prine, Johnny Cash Art Collective

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  • In true DIY fashion The Johnny Cash Project is a “global collective art project” that allows fans from all over the world to contribute to a arrogated, user-generated video for the title track from the latest Johnny Cash recording American VI: Ain’t No Grave. The single images are then threaded together into a one-of-a-kind labor of love. I only wish the Man in Black has lived to see this.
  • John Prine fans are about to hit pay-dirt. On May 25th, 2010, Oh Boy Records (founded in 1981 by Prine and manager Al Bunetta) will release the live In Person & On Stage, which will draw from performances spanning the past several years and covering songs from as far back as Prine’s 1971 debut and as recently as 2005’s acclaimed Fair & Square. Then Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine will be released on on June 22nd (Oh Boy) and will feature Prine compositions interpreted by devotees such as My Morning Jacket, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, The Avett Brothers, Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lambchop, Drive-By Truckers, Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg, Justin Townes Earle, Those Darlins, and, reprising their respective tracks from In Person & On Stage, Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins and Josh Ritter. Oh Boy will begin a pre-sale for In Person & On Stage on April 20thand for Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows on April 27th at www.musicfansdirect.com.
  • The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has announced it will pay tribute to the legendary Tammy Wynette with an exhibit titled Tammy Wynette: First Lady of Country Music. Presented by Great American Country (GAC) the exhibit will open in the Museum’s East Gallery on August 20, 2010, and run through June 2011.
  • More news from the The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. An upgrade to the Hall’s core collection, Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through Country Music, are expected to be completed next month. The updates, which focus on country music’s last five decades, will bring the story of country music forward in time and conclude with a glimpse of the future. They will highlight the country-rock, pop-country, southern rock, full-strength classic country and the “Urban Cowboy” craze. The upgrade includes new oversized portraits, video clips and artifacts such as Dolly Parton’s handwritten lyrics to Jolene, Tom T. Hall’s acoustic guitar he purchased from songwriter Merle Kilgore, and items from Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Rogers, Mel Tillis, and Tanya Tucker. Other updates focus on the mid-1980s arrival of artists like Dwight Yoakam, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Randy Travis and Steve Earle. New exhibits celebrate contemporary bluegrass and Americana artists, ranging from Alison Krauss and Del McCoury to Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale.

News Round Up: Robert Plant to Tour with Patty Griffin, Darrell Scott & Buddy Miller

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Robert Plant appears to be following the Americana music muse that led him to a successful collaboration with Alison Krauss and T. Bone Burnett on the Grammy-Award winning Raising Sand.

Plant has confirmed a 12-city North American tour  beginning in July.  Plant’ will be supported on tour by the  Band of Joy, a name taken from a pre-Zeppelin  ’60s Birmingham, England group he performed in with drummer John Bonham.  Plant and Band will preview material from a new album set for release on Rounder in late summer/early fall.  Band of Joy will feature Patty Griffin (who has recently release her own new album Downtown Church), multi-instrumentalist/singer Darrell Scott,  bassist/singer Byron House, drummer/percussionist/vocalist Marco Giovino, and co-producer/guitar/singer Buddy Miller (who also appeared on Raising Sand.)

Billy Joe Shaver Acquitted of 2007 Shooting

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In a case that will go down in Country Music Outlaw history, a Waco, Texas jury has acquitted 70-year-old Texas Country Music Hall of Fame member Billy Joe Shaver of aggravated assault in the shooting of a man outside a Lorena, Texas bar in 2007. the incident came after Shaver had played a show.Willie Nelson and actor Robert Duvall had been at the trial to show their friend moral support.

My favorite parts of  the released testimony were: during cross examination by the prosecuting attorney Shaver was asked if he might have pulled a gun on Billy Coker in the bar’s parking lot because  Coker (who had first allegedly pulled a knife to which Shaver pulled a gun from his truck and famously asked him “Where do you want it?” ) was talking to talking to Shaver’s wife, Wanda, Shaver said “I get more women than a passenger train can haul. I’m not jealous.”  When asked why he didn’t leave the bar without his wife after realizing his argument with Coker was escalating. Shaver replied, “Ma’am, I’m from Texas. If I were chickenshit, I would have left, but I’m not.” Classic.

Texas singer/songwriter wrote a song entitled “Where do you want it?” shortly after the incident.

Lorena, Texas

Music Review: Kara Suzanne – Parlor Walls [self-released]

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One of the great things about the Americana music genre the ability of the musicians to work familiar ground into unfamiliar and surprising places. Kara Suzanne and her excellent backing band, the Gojos – David Cieri – clavinet, hammond B3, mellotron, piano, wurlitzer, Steve Lewis – guitars, harmonica, lap steel, pedal steel Bill Mead – drums, percussion , Jordan Scannella – bass – have mined the genres of American music with Parlor Walls.  Country, jazz, blues, Cajun and more have been seamless woven together to craft an outstanding release.

The refracted musical influences run from the pedal-steel and piano smokey-bar crooner You’re For Real,  to the yearning for lost love of neo-folk of Madeliene, the  ’20s Jazz meets country ditty Eyes Wide Open, the flawless punk-pop of General Henry (which sounds like it’s lifted from the Chrissie Hind book of snarl and pout rock), the Polynesian jazz of A Little Spin and the country-fried barn-burner Not’ Doin.

Suzanne ‘s vocals style is expressive and expansive and ties the songs together exceptionally well. Her semi-veiled narratives lyrics of hard times – the 70s country-rocker title cut ” We had a little house Clothes that Momma made Still I questioned and I cried Asking where and asking why,” love lost, inand the slinky Euro-Raggae laced Bits Of Blue “Horses at the O.T.B. are running like I’m making to do, Cause my love, won’t wait for you” and regret of found love in the revved-up honky-tonk of Doses “Little doses of you are all I can stand , With the closeness of you I do what I can”

With all that’s going on here Parlor Walls is quite an accomplished effort. A sort of American-style neo-skiffle album that provides many layers of complex beauty for anyone that appreciates great music.

Official Site | Buy

Kara Suzanne – Doses

Kara Suzanne – Bits of Blue

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B4QDzd8T5w[/youtube]

News Round Up: Twang Nation Approved SXSW Showcases

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The extraordinary Elizabeth Cook talks to the Utne Reader about her irreverent career, influences and her upcoming Don Was produced album Welder.

Jim Lauderdale takes time from his South-By-Southwest appearance talk to Spinner.com about, well, his career, influences and her upcoming album Patchwork River, which was produced by longtime production partner Tim Coates and Doug Lancio,. Lauderdale also answers the timless question, “Beatles or Stones?”, in a diplomatic fashion that shows why he’s Mr.Americana.

South-By-Southwest has some great showcases, but I want to highlight three that I would love to attend.The

  • Roots music blog ninebullets.net is holding the party I wish I was organized enough to pull off. On Wednesday., March 17 at Opa! (2050 South Lamar Blvd.)  featuring; American Aquarium, Austin Lucas, Kasey Anderson, Glossary and Joe Pug.
  • No Depression Showcase will take place on Friday, March 19 at the Continental Club will feature Deadstring Brothers, Elliott Brood, Chatham County Line and more.
  • Not sure who’s putting this one on but on Friday 19 March the Red Eye Fly club will host Lucero. Deer Tick, Justin Townes Earle, Glossary, and Trampled By Turtles.
  • Also at the Red Eye Fly (man, I want to hot this club next ime I’m in Austin) Legendary alt.country/roots record label Bloodshot Records will hold their 15th SXSW party Friday, March 19th. Included in the line up are label mates Ha Ha Tonka, Justin Townes Earle and Waco Brothers, Rosie Flores and more.

News Round Up: New Releases by Elizabeth Cook, Jim Lauderdale and The Sadies

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  • The Hangover & Daily Show star (and amateur banjo player) Ed Helms is launching the LA Bluegrass Situation festival  (March 18th – 22nd) featuring Steve Martin, Emmylou Harris, The Steep Canyon Rangers, Nickel Creek. See the somewhat silly video introduction of the festival from Helms.
  • Canadian roots/surf rockers The Sadies will release their new album, Darker Circles, on May 18, 2010 on Yep Roc Records. The album will be produced by the Jayhawk’s Gary Louris.
  • Honky-tonk angel Elizabeth Cook will release her new album, Welder, on May 11th on 31 Tigers. Produced by Don Was (Rolling Stones, Kris Kristofferson), Welder will feature guest appearances by Dwight Yoakam, Rodney Crowell and Buddy Miller.
  • See the new video by Peter Wolf working on his new Americana-tinged album, Midnight Souvenirs, (UMe/Verve / April 6). Tragedy features duets with country music legend Merle Haggard, Neko Case and Shelby Lynne.
  • Mr. Americana, Jim Lauderdale, will release his new album Patchwork River, on Thirty Tigers May 11. He co-wrote the album–filled with such highlights as “Alligator Alley,” “Louisville Roll” and “Patchwork River”–with longtime Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter whom Lauderdale has praised as “one of the greatest writers that has ever lived in my book.
  • The mighty Drive By Truckers’ new release, The Big To-Do, will be released on March 16th. Partnering with Ghost Town Media, the band will release a series of webisodes that tell the behind the scenes story of each song from the record.  You will see footage of the band working on The Big To-Do  in the studio in Athens, Georgia, clips of the band performing the new songs at sound check and in concert, and in depth interviews with the band members telling the stories behind the songs.  The first of these websiodes will feature Mike Cooley’s Birthday Boy, the final song recorded for the album.