Category Archives: Americana

It Burns When I Pee Episode #0005 with Ward (Cousin Spiits) Harrison – The Hackensaw Boys

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Friends, that enemy of the pop-country scourge “It Burns When I Pee” is back spreading the glorious word of great old-school hillbilly, roots, Americana, alt.country..whatever in the hell twangs and don’t suck, and Episode #5 is a killer!

The new IHWIP offers up an interview with guitarists Ward Harrison from “upbeat/danceable/hectic/two-step/country” band, The Hackensaw Boys on their sound, member changes and making the charts.

And listen up fr the Twang Nation promo! It really makes the podcast, I think it really does….

So stop on by and tell Cheyenne how sweet she looks in that thrift-store Harley tube-top!

Steve Earle Does the UK

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The Brits are bonkers over Steve Earle, who headlined Brampton Live, north England’s biggest folk/roots music festival and and will release the The Dust Brothers’ John King produced Washington Square Serenade (New West) Sept. 25.

The Belfast Telegraph asks “Is Steve Earle America’s greatest living songwriter?” and The UK News & Star says Earle’s “every inch the hardcore troubadour.”

Earle also hosts the The Steve Earle Show: Hard Core Troubadour Radio on Outlaw Country, SIRIUS Satellite Radio Outlaw Country channel 63.

Porter Wagner’s Comeback in Full Swing

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The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press have some nice articles on Porter Wagoner. When I saw Wagoner a few months ago at Joe’s Pub, and and a few weeks ago opening for the White Stripes and Grinderman at Madison Square Garden (both backed by Mart Stuart) he seemed at the top of his game and has gone on to do other live dates and even a stop on the David Letterman show.

All the while “The Thin Man from West Plains” seems deeply appreciative for the response this comeback has given him. Blessed as he has said.

If you get a chance, go see him. If you can’t go out today and buy his newly released “Wagonmaster” (Anti Records) and remind yourself what country music can sound like it’s performed by a legend that helped invent it.

An excerpt from the AP: “I stopped making records because I didn’t like the way they were wanting me to record,” he sighs. “When RCA dropped me from the label, I didn’t really care about making records for another label…”

That was 1981, after he had been with RCA almost 30 years. Except for the Grand Ole Opry and work on the now defunct Nashville Network, his career dried up like an old corn stalk.

His comeback began in 2004 with a series of gospel records. Soon, he and Marty Stuart, a fellow Opry member, were plotting an album that would recreate the sound and feel of Wagoner’s vintage recordings.

 Porter Wagoner on David Letterman – Albert Erving

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jptVTVMucc0[/youtube]

William Elliott Whitmore Fall Tour

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The illustrated man with the banjo and a voice of the ages is embarking on an extended US fall tour. According to Whitmore’s MySpace page he is currently working on a new record this summer and it should be out in the Spring of ’08.

Fri Aug 17 2007 PICADOR IOWA CITY, IA
Sat Aug 18 2007 CLIFTON HOLLOW GOLF COURSE – DEEP BLUES FESTIVAL RIVER FALLS, WI
Fri Aug 24 2007 THE RIVER MUSIC EXPERIENCE – RIVER ROOTS LIVE MUSIC FESTIVAL DAVENPORT, IA
Sat Aug 25 2007 USHERS FERRY HISTORICAL VIL – USHERS FERRY FOLK FESTIVAL CEDAR RAPIDS, IA
Sat Sep 8 2007 THE NOTE CHICAGO, IL
Sun Sep 9 2007 STONEFLY BREWERY MILWAUKEE, WI
Mon Sep 10 2007 TRIPLE ROCK MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Wed Sep 12 2007 OFF BROADWAY NIGHTCLUB ST LOUIS, MO
Thu Sep 13 2007 MOJOS COLUMBIA, MO
Fri Sep 14 2007 JACKPOT SALOON LAWRENCE, KS
Sat Sep 15 2007 RED ROCKS MORRISON, CO MONOLITH FESTIVAL
Mon Sep 17 2007 TRACTOR TAVERN SEATTLE, WA
Tue Sep 18 2007 DANTES PORTLAND, OR
Thu Sep 20 2007 BOTTOM OF THE HILL SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Sat Sep 22 2007 THE CASBAH SAN DIEGO, CA
Sun Sep 23 2007 THE SETS TEMPE, AZ
Tue Sep 25 2007 EMOS ALTERNATIVE LOUNGING AUSTIN, TX
Wed Sep 26 2007 WALTERS ON WASHINGTON HOUSTON, TX
Sat Sep 29 2007 ROCKETOWN NASHVILLE, TN
Sun Sep 30 2007 SMITHS OLDE BAR ATLANTA, GA
Wed Oct 3 2007 NEW BROOKLYN TAVERN COLUMBIA, SC
Thu Oct 4 2007 LOCAL 506 CHAPEL HILL, NC
Tue Oct 9 2007 DC9 WASHINGTON, DC
Wed Oct 10 2007 MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS CAMBRIDGE, MA
Thu Oct 11 2007 IRON HORSE MUSIC HALL NORTHAMPTON, MA

Austin Freedom Fest at The Backyard – 8/10/07

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If you find yourself in Austin this Friday and want to make a statement against the so-called drug war and the political idiocy and the abuse of the our countries’ legal system that has resulted from it, then mosey on over to the Austin Freedom Fest at The Backyard. The concert will benefit MPP, NORML and WAMM, and will feature Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Jackie “The Jokeman” Martling, Carolyn Wonderland, Paula Nelson, Mark Stepnoski and others to be announced.

Billy Joe Shaver’s Bluebird Cafe 1992 Performance To Be Released On CD

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On September 11, Billy Joe Shaver will release a CD featuring his 1992 concert at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe titled “Storyteller: Live at the Bluebird 1992.”

The iconic, Texan-born Shaver, now aged 67, has had his share of run-ins with the law including shooting a man in the face. The man did not retain life threatening injuries and Shaver, after turning himself in, was charged with aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a handgun. After a court hearing, he was released on a $50,000 bond.

Along with being a country singer and songwriter he has also performed in movies including “The Wendell Baker Story,” “Secondhand Lions” and “The Apostle.”

Shaver is known among his peers as a survivor having lost his mother and wife to cancer in 1999 and his son in 2000 due to a drug overdose.

The new CD will be released through Sugar Hill Records.

Pop Matter DVD Review – Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music

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Popmatters.com has an excellent review of Robert Elfstrom’s documentary Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, and His Music (1969). The film highlights Cash at his career pinnacle and looks back at his upbringing in rural

Arkansas.From the review: More than that, he was content to dwell in contradiction; he didn’t try to resolve all his warring selves. He was equally the outsider rockabilly and the establishment patriot, the social protestor and the Billy Graham crusader. He gave us a model of cultural ambivalence that we could all identify with. He didn’t solve America’s identity problems, he showed us how to live with them.Â