Big State Festival – October 13 & 14 – Bryan-College Station, Texas

The good folks at the country music blog 9513.com are giving away tickets to the Big State Festival. Now I lived in Texas most of my life and never heard of the Big State Festival. Well turns out this is the first year it’s being put on.

The Festival is held on October 13 & 14 at the Texas World Speedway; Bryan-College Station, Texas (Gig ’em!) and will have more than 50 country music stars on 5 stages over 2 days as well as stock car racing as (this is my favorite part) a Barbecue Showdown. The performers will include Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, Drive-By Truckers, Leon Russell, Billy Joe Shaver, Charlie Louvin , Gary Allan, Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert, Bruce and Charlie Robison, Luke Bryan, Kelly Willis, Sunny Sweeney and more. Head over to the official Big State Festival website to see a full lineup.

The festival will benefit the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation.

CMA / AMA Best Artists – My View

So the Country Music Association and the Americana Music Association have recently released their nominees list for their respective awards and in an attempt to figure what passes for country music nowadays and what the heck “Americana” means I am going to compare a category they share…sort of.

CMA Entertainer of the Year
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
Rascal Flatts
George Strait
Keith Urban

CMA Male Vocalist of the Year
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
George Strait
Josh Turner
Keith Urban

CMA Female Vocalist of the Year
Alison Krauss
Miranda Lambert
Martina McBride
Reba McEntire
Carrie Underwood

AMA Artist of the Year
Joe Ely
Lucinda Williams
Patty Griffin
Todd Snider

Being good, progressive minded folk the Americana place the boys and the girls in one “artist” category. The CMA naturally plays it like a broken record with Chesney and Rascal Flatts nominated for the millionth time. I have a question, to qualify for EOTY shouldn’t you be entertaining? And I don’t mean in a comedic sense. And what is the difference between “Entertainer of the year” and Vocalist of the year” I mean all the nominees are vocalists,that’s what they do to entertain, sing. Is the CMA rewarding acrobatics, ripped biceps and hair gel as a separate category?

I like George Strait and think his 07 release “It Just Comes Natural” is good but not great. I like Brad Paisley somewhat but think he’s choosing the corn-ball and schmaltz cuts that are beneath him and his fine guitar playing to chase the dollar. I think Miranda Lambert is the best thing to happen to country in a long time and she has the good sense to cover excellent songwriters like Gillian Welsh. Alison Krauss is the one crossover artist here but she had to soften her bluegrass roots and get a make-over to get acceptance by the CMA crowd. Britney 2…er..I mean Carrie Underwood has the pipes but not the soul or courage to be interseting.

Joe Ely is a Texas legend and should when in any category he’s in. And even though I love Lucinda, I think “West” was a weak effort and shows that moving to L.A. will kill even a dignified soul.

I will use the CMA boy/girl dichotomy and ignore the useless EOTY category and play nice and not add other deserving artists like Elizabeth Cook and Wayne Hancock into the mix, and say:

Male Artist of the Year: Joe Ely

Female Artist of the Year: Miranda Lambert

Townes Van Zandt To Be Presented with AMA President’s Award

Texas singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt will be remembered with the President’s Award by the Americana Music Association during their annual awards show on Nov. 1 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The award will be accepted by Van Zandt’s friend, songwriter Guy Clark, who will perform one of Van Zandt’s songs in tribute. Emmylou Harris, who recorded Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You” and “Pancho and Lefty,” has also been added to the list of performers for the awards show. The Hacienda Brothers, Elizabeth Cook, the Avett Brothers and Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby will also perform.

CD Review – Molly McGinn – Girl with Slingshot

Some artist produce “Americana” music in a spirit that is akin to a gumbo or a stew. A medley of accompanying flavors melding together into something that is definitely more than the sum of it’s parts. Dodge City, Kansas native and current Greensboro, North Carolina resident Molly McGinn‘s pedigree through her musical career has covered everything from jam-band to ska and reggae, so it’s not surprising MS. McGinn’s take on Americana, “Girl with Slingshot” (dotmatrix) utilizes these influences in a recipe that works to great and surprising effect.

Ms. McGinn is a vocalist with a style that is an equal blend of cool urbanite and earnestly sincere Southern girl. An example of the former is exhibited in the first cut Kill Devil Hills, a smooth folk-jazz snapshot of life which is delivered with a hep scat-like staccato and cloaked in a reverb drenched vibe. The latter comes though in the lovely slide guitar paired gospel-country tune “Preacher and Thieves” which is a song that would have easily for in Neko Case’s earlier Southern-gothic catalog .

“Bad Jokes and Blues” takes me to a smoky L.A. beat-club circa 1967 and offers one of the best one-liners I’ve heard in a song about love “Please don’t dull my eccentricities.” “Beautiful Ugly Man” sound like a funky beat-box rave up with a Suzanne Vega at the helm. Intimate and literate lyrics wrapped in poignant and sophisticated arraignments that never leaves you cold.

Molly McGinn is not an easy artist to pin down and her Jedi-like genre bending seems natural and not contrived or clever. I believe she is a talent to watch.

Bobby Bare Jr. Tour News

Coming off summer tour dates with The Slip and gearing up for a fall tour supporting Lucero, post-punk-alt.country innovator and Andre The Giant look-alike Bobby Bare Jr will be performing a special daytime Musicfest NW show today with members of the Decemberists appearing as his backing band! Bobby and his crack pickup band will support Cat Power at a special daytime Musicfest NW show. Touring in support of The Longest Meow, his critically acclaimed album on Bloodshot Records,  Bare Jr also announces a special reunion of his crack band in previous years, Bare, Jr, which takes place on November 23rd at The Exit in Nashville, TN.

New York Concert Calender Part Deux

I posted the overlooked a couple of doozies from the fall music calender.

Mary Gauthier with John Henry  9/20/2007    Blender Theatre at Gramercy   New York, NY

Ryan Adams                 10/31/2007    Hammerstein Ballroom        New York, NY

Sunny Sweeney in Dallas/San Antonio

Hey Dallas and San Antonio homies, do yourself a favor and get out this weekend and check out that honky-tonk sweetheart and CMT.com blogger Sunny Sweeney at a show near you.

Sep 7 2007      9:00P Sons of Hermann Hall     Dallas, TX
Sep 8 2007     9:00P Leon Springs Dancehall w/ Rodney Hayden     San Antonio, TX

Sunny Sweeney – East Texas Pines

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt62tQg2Urg[/youtube]

Shooter Jennings to Release First Single From the Wolf – Walk of Life

Singer/songwriter and heir to the outlaw tradition Shooter Jennings will introduce the lead single from his third studio album, The Wolf (9/17), a cover of the Dire Straits cut “Walk of Life.”

Now I like Dire Straits, especially “Sultans of Swing”, but “Walk of Life” always seemed pretty lightweight and silly to me.

Jennings says
“I’ve loved this song since I was a kid, but when I actually read the lyrics, I was fascinated by the line ‘he do the song about the sweet lovin‘ woman, he do the song about the knife,’ because it’s a struggle that I can relate to as a musician,” explains Jennings. “Hopefully this song will make people let their guards down, and it will open the door to the rest of the album. Then the more personal songs I wrote will speak for themselves.”

Okay I’ll hold all judgement until I hear it for myself.

Jennings also wrote nine of the 13 tracks for The Wolf, produced by Dave Cobb, including the autobiographical country blues tinged title cut, as well as “Slow Train” featuring guest vocals by iconic country music group The Oak Ridge Boys and the tribute to best friends everywhere, “Old Friend.”

Jennigs says “Dave and I were able to live out some of our musical fantasies with this album, which includes horn sections, and some of the Grand Ole Opry background singers,” added Jennings “It’s a country album that shows my influences from guys like Hank Jr. and my dad, and a lot of the country from the 70’s and 80’s. We also got a cool drum sound for the whole record that almost has a disco sound to it, as strange as that may sound. I think my fans are really going to dig it.”

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show – 9/18

From Pitchfork.com – On September 18, CMV/Columbia/Legacy will release The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show, a 2xDVD compiling 66 live performances from the 58 episodes of Johnny Cash’s 1969-1971 “The Johnny Cash Show”.

Kris Kristofferson hosts the DVD, which features performances from Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Louis Armstrong, Loretta Lynn, Neil Diamond, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Derek and the Dominoes, Roy Orbison, the Carter Family (including June Carter Cash), and Johnny Cash himself, among many others.

The set also features new interviews with John Carter Cash, Tennessee Three bassist Marshall Grant, Hank Williams, Jr., musical arranger Bill Walker, and hairstylist Penny Lane.

There will also be a single-disc CD version of the compilation available on the same day as the DVD.

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show (DVD):

01 Johnny Cash: “Ring of Fire”
02 Bob Dylan: “I Threw It All Away”
03 Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan: “Girl From the North Country”
04 Kris Kristofferson: “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”
05 Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash: “Blue Yodel #9”
06 Stevie Wonder: “Heaven Help Us All”
07 Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Bad Moon Rising”
08 Linda Ronstadt and Johnny Cash: “I Will Never Marry”
09 George Jones: Medley: “White Lightning” (with Johnny Cash) / “She Thinks I Still Care” / “The Love Bug” / “The Race Is On”
10 Johnny Cash: “Hey Porter”
11 Waylon Jennings: “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line”
12 Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash: “The Singing Star’s Queen”
13 Waylon Jennings: “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”
14 Tammy Wynette: “Stand by Your Man”
15 Marty Robbins: Medley: “Big Iron” / “Running Gun” / “El Paso”
16 Johnny Cash: “Ride This Train”
17 Johnny Cash: “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow”
18 Johnny Cash: “Man in Black”
19 James Taylor: “Sweet Baby James”
20 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: “Cripple Creek”
21 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: “Worried Man Blues”
22 Johnny Cash: “Sunday Morning Coming Down”
23 Johnny Cash: “Old Time Religion”
24 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three: “Daddy Sang Bass”
25 Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters: “Wildwood Flower”
26 Neil Young: “The Needle and the Damage Done”
27 Johnny Cash: “Tennessee Flat Top Box”
28 Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash: “Long Black Veil”
29 Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three with Carl Perkins: “Big River”
30 Johnny Cash: “I Walk the Line”
31 June Carter Cash: “A Good Man”
32 Derek and the Dominoes: “It’s Too Late”
33 Derek and the Dominoes With Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins: “Matchbox”
34 Charley Pride: “Able Bodied Man”
35 Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys: “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
36 Loretta Lynn: “I Know How”
37 Jerry Lee Lewis: “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
38 Johnny Cash: “Ride This Train (America the Beautiful, This Land Is Your Land)”
39 The Everly Brothers With Ike Everly and Tommy Cash: “Silver Haired Daddy of Mine”
40 Ray Charles: “Ring of Fire”
41 Johnny Cash: “A Boy Named Sue”
42 Conway Twitty: “Hello Darlin'”
43 Mother Maybelle Carter: “Black Mountain Rag”
44 Tony Joe White and Johnny Cash: “Pork Salad Annie”
45 Glenn Campbell: “Wichita Lineman”
46 Neil Diamond: “Cracklin’ Rosie”
47 Ray Price: “For the Good Times”
48 Roy Orbison: “Crying”
49 Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash: “Oh, Pretty Woman”
50 Johnny Cash: “Wanted Man”
51 Chet Atkins and Johnny Cash: “Recuerdo De La Alhambra”
52 Chet Atkins: Medley: “Country Gentleman” / “Mister Sandman” / “Wildwood Flower” / “Freight Train”
53 June Carter Cash With Homer and Jethro: “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
54 Merle Haggard: “No Hard Time Blues”
55 Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash: “Sing Me Back Home”
56 Carl Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”
57 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, and Carl Perkins: “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago”
58 Roy Clark: Medley: “In the Summertime” / “12th Street Rag”
59 The Statler Brothers: “Flowers on the Wall”
60 Johnny Cash: “Working Man Blues”
61 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: “Jackson”
62 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: “Turn Around”
63 Johnny Cash: “I Love You Because”
64 Hank Williams Jr.: Medley: “You Win Again” / “Cold Cold Heart” / “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love With You” / “Half As Much”
65 Johnny Cash: “A Wonderful Time up There”
66 Johnny Cash: “Folsom Prison Blues”

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash “Girl From The North Country” – 1969

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpxwjsP76E[/youtube]