Category Archives: Americana

News Round Up: Country for Our Country Supports the Troops

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  • The Country for Our Country benefit concert will occur  in Tyler, Texas this Saturday night (10/24). The event will celebrate the troops and benefit wounded soldiers by providing them with counseling and support during a difficult transitional period in their lives. The benefit will feature performances by Joe Nichols, Heidi Newfield, Derek Sholl, and Kacey Musgraves and The Big D & Bubba Show will emcee the event.
  • Check out Ryan Bingham’s new video for his song Country Roads.
  • Paste magazine’s Andy Whitman gives his view of the landscape of country (really Americana) music of the aughts (’00.)
  • Find Lighten’ (the opposum) over at georgejones.com and get entered to win prizes like: Cracker Barrel Gift Cards, Autographed CD’s, and concert tickets.

Festival News: MusicFest Lineup (so far)

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Add this to your awesome festivals to attend list! The annul MusicFest (now approaching its 25th year) features some of the finest Americana and roots music to the world-class ski resort of Steamboat, Colorado for 6 days (January 4-11th) of snowy fun. Performers already booked for the next MusicFest are: Robert Earl Keen, Randy Rogers Band, Band of Heathens, Reckless Kelly, Charlie Robison, Kevin Welch, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Lee Ann Womack, Jamie Wilson, Todd Snider, Jason Eady and The Wayward Apostles, Billy Joe Shaver, Matt Skinner, Jack Ingram, Dean Dillion, Bonnie Bishop, Chris Knight, Walt Wilkins, Midnight River Choir, Jonathan Tyler and The Northern Lights, Kevin Fowler, Modern Day Drifters, Hayes Carll, Ben Smith, Jason Boland and The Stragglers, Josh Abbott, Cory Morrow, Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Trishas, Wade Bowen, The Doug Moreland Show, Stoney LaRue, Tina Wilkins, Roger Creager, Lucas Hubbard, Sean McConnell, Johnny and The Footlights…and more on the way!

News Round Up: Elizabeth Cook in the Studio

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  • Head over to Elizabeth Cook’s Facebook page to see inside pics of EC working on her new album with her ace live band (including her guitarist and husband Tim Carroll),  producer Don Was and engineer Krish Sharma. Also sitting in with Cook was the producer of her lest record, Balls, Rodney Crowell.
  • USA Today talks to John Fogerty about making his new 36-years in the making roots-rock album The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.
  • If you’re in the Bay Aarea head over to the Elbo Room for Hang Jones, Casey Prestwood & the Burning Angels and Misisipi Rider.

Lyle Lovett’s New Album $3.99 Today Only!

News Round Up: Welcome Back Garth

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  • Terry Clark follows Gretchen Wilson and Tim McGraw with frustration with the management and distribution practices of the Nashville big label system. I keep hoping this new found independence will result in these undeniably talented performers taking some risk with their material. Bit after hearing Wilson’s bland ‘Work Hard, Play Harder‘ (produced on her own label Redneck Records) I don’t hold out much hope.
  • Billboard.com has six questions for Son Volt’s Jay Farrar about his collaberation with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard album based on the Jack Kerouac’s 1962 novel “Big Sur” due Oct. 20.
  • I used to hate Garth Brooks. As far as I was concerned his glossy sound and circus-spectacle  concerts was in direct conflict with everything I loved about country music. In the years since his 2001 retirement to tend to family responsibilities a revisit to Garth’s material is almost, dare I say, Waylonesque (well, perhaps more Conway Twitty-esque)  Steve Wynn has made a deal with Brooks that addresses a promise he made to his daughter’s to be there with them until they head off to college and a jet plane to make sure he’s there Monday morning and Friday  afternoons. In Vegas this is a deal that only somebody with Brook’s appeal can fetch. I respect Brooks for sticking to his principles. Wynn has also given Garth a format for return that I have to respect, just him on stage with a guitar.  I repct anyone that can step onstage without the net of a backing band. I want to say something snarky, but all I can say is welcome back Garth.

News Round Up: Ralph Stanley in the Wall Street Journal

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The Wall Street Journal’s Dave Shiflett covers (it’s not really a review) the  new autobiography of bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley, Man Of Constant Sorrow.  Shiflett details Stanley’s birth in Dickenson County, Va., his early sometime dangerous career playing alongside his older brother, Carter, and how a man named Elvis upended the country and bluegrass music industry with a new sound and led to a stall in Stanley’s career and to “….eating a lot of Vienna sausages.”  Stanley’s autobiography, Man Of Constant Sorrow, is available now.

News Round Up: Terry Allen Discusses Influences

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  • Legendary Texas singer/songwriter Terry Allen talks to the Austin Chronicle’s Robert Faries about his colorful life that led to his skill as a storyteller and his  new solo play, Dugout III, written and directed by Allen playing at Austin’s State Theater.
  • The New York Times‘ Charles McGrath interviewed bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley before a recent performance at Carnegie Hall with Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. My favorite line from the interview:  “It used to be said that when you heard a Ralph Stanley tune, you either wanted to get drunk or go to church and get saved.” Dr. Stanley’s autobiography, Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times, will be released tomorrow.
new solo play, Dugout III, written and directed by Allen playing at Austin’s Sate Theater.

New Round Up: Austin’s Rusty Wier Dies

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  • Austin singer-songwriter Rusty Weir died October 9, after two years of struggling with cancer. Wier was considered a country legend and he was inducted into the Austin Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.
  • The New York Times reviews the Jamey Johnson show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Johnson played two new songs, Back to Macon and Nothing Is Better Than You from hos upcoming release.
  • The New York Times also features a review of the Roseanne Cash’s sold-out concert at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. Cash performed many songs from her stellar career as well as from her newest album, The List.
  • Peter Cooper at the Tennessean celebrates geezerdom by detailing the steller and ongoing careers of country music legends Kris Kris Kristofferson, Bobby Bare, Loretta Lynn, Bill Anderson, Tom T. Hall, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. What other genre  has artists over 70 making some of the best music of their careers? I mean besides Blues, R&B, Gospel and Jazz that is
  • As you can see there have been some changes here at Ranch Twang. Not all the kinks are ironed out so I will be working on them this week. Let us know what you think of the new look and , as the sign says, pardon our mess.

News Round Up: Re-releases from Waylon Jennings / New Release from Hank Williams

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  • Country music legend George Jones seems to be popping up on all the TV shows recently to promote his new Cracker Barrel exclusive album, A Collection of My Best Recollection. This Sunday morning the Possum will make another appearance on CBS Sunday Morning this Sunday October 11, 2009. Host and interviewer Bob Schieffer visits George’s Nashville home and stops by Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium late this summer to talk about life, love and a lot of musical history, as well as all that he  is up to today. Jones has said that the new release might be his last album and has tour dates through the rest of the year and early next.
  • The follow up to last year’s Mother’s Best radio show recordings Hank Williams: Unreleased Recordings will be released November 3rd. Revealed: Unreleased Recordings will feature 50 new tracks including some new songs and dialogue between Hank and the emcee of the show and his band. The release will also include the first public performance of  Cold, Cold Heart.
  • Collectors’ Choice has chosen six of Waylon Jennings’  RCA albums from 1966-’70 and will release them as three double CDs: Folk Country/Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan, Love of the Common People/Hangin’ On and Waylon/Singer of Sad Songs. The CDs will be available on November 24. Grammy Award-winning annotator/historian Colin Escott wrote the liner notes.
  • Rosanne Cash will premieres her new album, The List, live at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY October 9th and 10th as part of  the St. Ann’s Warehouse 30th Anniversary Season.
  • Ranch Twang now has a LastFM group. Join up and help share great music with other folks.

News Round Up:Jim Lauderdale Will Help Push Your Car

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  • Birmingham Weekly sits down with Mr. Americana himself – Jim Lauderdale. Jim discusses hosting the Americana Awards ceremony at the Ryman auditorium, having the first single off the George Strait new album Twang and at one point Jim pauses the interview to help push a car to a station for a lady that ran out of gas. (his mama would be proud!)
  • The 4th annual  Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival will be held this weekend (October 10,11)  On the bill to play is Canada’s Blue Rodeo and Sadies, O’Death, Deer Tick, Blue Mountain and many more. The festival takes place at the Joshua Tree Lake Campground, about 9 miles northeast of the heart of Joshua Tree national park.
  • Miranda Lambert’s new release, Revolution, debuts #1 on the Billboard Country Chart and #8 on the Top 200 Chart. This will probably be the only time I champion any release that achieves that level of commercial success. Such is the power of Miranda Lambert!
  • Ju;li Thank is one bust lady. Not only is she writing about moonshine over at the 9513.com, she gives us a meaty perspective on Roseanne Cash’s new release, The List at PopMatters/com. The PopMatters.com review proper of Cash’s The List is provided by Ben Child.
  • Many NoDepression.com members (myself included) have shared many great photos from last weekends Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 9.
Blue Rodeo and Sadies, O’Death, Deer Tick, Blue Mountain

News Round Up: Jamey Johnson Pays Respect

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  • Country Music Neo-Outlaw Jamey Johnson shows his respect for the classics by covering Vern Gosdin, George Jones, George Strait and, his most obvious influence, Waylon Jennings, at the Chicago Country Music Festival.
  • Break out a jar of granny’s skull rattle folks, Juli Thaki at the 9513.com has given us her top 26 songs about moonshine.
  • Tom Russell has written what could be considered a companion piece to his new release Blood and Candle Smoke at the Rumpas (Where God and the Devil Wheel Like Vultures: Report from El Paso.) The dispatch reflects Russell’s style he cultivated by hanging with American underground great Charles Bukowski and similar threads from this and previous releases about his home in El Paso, TX,  the culture, people and the drug wars.
  • The Flower Pickin’ festival (October 16-19)will feature Carlene Carter, Justin Townes Earle, Jimmy Tittle, John Francis and more. The festival celebrates the day that Johnny Cash was arrested for public drunkenness in Starkville, MS in the early morning of May 11, 1965 following a performance at Mississippi State University. He spent one night in jail and paid a fine of $36. Cash sang about his run-in with “the law” in Starkville on his album, “At San Quentin (The Complete Live Concert),” recorded in 1969.