Twang Nation – The Best In Americana Music
Americana & Roots Music & Culture
Calling all hillbillys and yankees that love the Man In Black, the Brooklyn Country Music in association with BAM Brooklyn Next presents The Johnny Cash 75th Birthday Bash featuring Alex Battles’ Whisky Rebellion, The Lonesome Prairie Dogs, Louisiana Emily, Eli Smith, Jessica Rose, The Dock Oscar Gospel Quartet & more
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Southpaw
125 5th Ave. (@ St. John’s Place)
Brooklyn, NY
$10
Doors, 730pm
Releases this week: Singer-songwriter Patty Griffin released a new album, Children Running Through on ATO Records, a label founded by Dave Matthews. Her songs have been cut by the Dixie Chicks, Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Joan
Osborne and the Wreckers,
The week of his 60th birthday, Joe Ely releases Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch, his 12th album of new studio material in 30 years, to launch his own Rack ‘Em Records label.
Illinois bases Backyard Tire Fire have released thier fourth full-length CD “Vagabonds and Hooligans” and it brings to mind the roots-rock experimentalism of Neil Young, Whiskeytown and Gram Parker. Nice company to keep. You can hear the entire CD streaming at their site.
BTF tourdates coming up include a 2 week run with William Elliot Whitmore and dates with The Slip and MOFRO gigs at the bottom.
02-08 Carbondale, PA Hangar 9
02-09 Urbana, IL Canopy Club
w/ Will Hoge, The Drams, Matt Mays & El Torpedo
02-10 Iowa City, IA The Picador
w/ Death Ships
02-16 Normal, IL NV Ultra Lounge
Special Guests: Death Ships
02-17 Chicago, IL Double Door
Special Guests: Jay Bennett and Death Ships
Co-bill tour with William Elliot Whitmore:
02-19 Columbus, OH The Basement
02-20 Pittsburgh, PA Garfield Artworks
02-21 Syracuse, NY Funk n’ Waffles
02-22 Northampton, MA Iron Horse Music Hall
02-23 Mount Vernon, NY Bayou
02-24 Harrisburg, PA Appalachian Brewing Company
02-25 Baltimore, MD Sonar
02-26 Virginia Beach, VA Jewish Mother
02-27 Raleigh, NC Hideaway BBQ
02-28 Wilmington, NC Soapbox
03-01 Richmond, VA Empire
03-15 Indianapolis, IN The Music Mill
w/ The Slip
03-31 Moorhead, MN Broken Axe
04-13 Live Oak, FL Wanee Festival
w/ Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule, The Derek Trucks Band, Nickel Creek, Phonograph
04-18 Newport, KY Southgate House
w/ MOFRO
04-19 Madison, WI High Noon Saloon
w/ MOFRO
06-08 Wakarusa Festival
w/ Alejandro Escovedo, Bobby Bare Jr., Ozomatli, Ben Harper, North Mississippi Allstars
From the Dallas Morning News – Tom Morrell, a Dallas-based prolific steel guitar player is being treated at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas for emphysema,Mr. Morrell was admitted to the hospital Jan. 21, where he was placed on a ventilator on Tuesday. The ventilator has since been removed.
Mr. Morrell was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, in St. Louis, in 2001. His CD Monkey Bizness is the 13th volume in his “How the West Was Swung” series of Tom Morrell and the Time Warp Tophands albums. For a discography, visit www.westernswing.net.
Leon Rausch, of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, hired Mr. Morrell in 1964 to be part of the reorganized Texas Playboys band, after Mr. Wills had left the band.
Mr. Rausch, who has played with Mr. Morrell in many other groups and gigs over the years, says fellow musicians consider Mr. Morrell a musical genius. “He’s the man to go to for steel guitar,” he says. “He’s the biggest influence that a lot of us have ever had.”
Albert Talley of the Texas Steel Guitar Association says, “Tom has been a premier player and innovator of steel guitar for the last 50 years.”
Mr. Talley, who organizes the annual Texas Steel Guitar Association Jamboree, says that Mr. Morrell had intended to attend this year’s convention but probably not perform as he usually has.
Caddle (Phillip Hyde, Lead Vocals , Drew Akin, Guitar & Vocals. Eric Watters, Guitar & Vocals , Chris Pottratz, Bass Finney James, Drums & Vocals) are a little Skynyrd. A little Replacements. Haling from Birmingham, Alabama, Caddle’s country roots are tightly woven with melodic punk to pack a powerful punch. Take a listen to this Twang Nation favorite.
Good news Dale Watson fans. Dale is preparing a new release for 2007 and coins yet another frikkin genre description for the music we know and love. Dale provides this post from his website.
SXSW will find us releasing a new record , From The Cradle To The Grave on Hyena Records. It’s a compilation of songs I wrote and recorded at the log cabin that once belonged to Johnny Cash, but now belongs to my friend Johnny Knoxville. The CD is much different from my previous releases in the way that they were written without Honky Tonks in mind. Obvious Cash influence throughout , but I feel the entire vibe came from the cabin. The release will be in late April, but will have an advance release during SXSW in Austin.
Also, we have the European CD Live From Newland, NL as well as the DVD of the same name available at the Truckstop Mall. Also now at the Truckstop Mall are new T-shirts designs. A week in Australia will be a tour called “Seven Year Itch Tour” ( since it’s been 7 years since I’ve toured there) scheduled Febraury 24 thru March 5th. A west coast swing will happen this year as well. Thanks to another actor friend, James Denton, of Desperate Housewives, I’ll perform in LA on a package show with his band and my band. James is a picker himself and has done so much to support my music. He is a welcome ally and a mighty kind soul.
And finally….the name for the Genre……. I’ve been trying to come up with a name the best describes this music that me and folks similar do. When folks ask I hesitate, down right embarrassed really, to say country. I didn’t used to be, but with the change in country, the term doesn’t mean the same as it used to. If you say traditional, or old, or western swing most folks think “retro” and dismiss it without hearing it. I wanted a name that didn’t say country anything and didn’t give anyone a preconceived idea. I came up with ..
Ameripolitan. I even put it in Wikipedia defined as- Original music with “prominent” roots influence.
I hope yall like it. Let me hear from you. Hope to see yall soon.
Thanks for your kindness thru the years.
Dale
Well, sorta. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price with opener Asleep at the Wheel will come to Radio City Music Hall for thier The Last of the Breed show on 3/22 the night before Lucinda Williams plays the same room the night after. This is going to be a great couple of days for country music fans in Gotham.
Typically I could care less about the Grammy’s. I mean COME ON! Hootie & the Blowfish, Milli Vanilli and Culture Club! Yeesh! But because because of a flash of musical perception, odds, or whatever…they sometimes get it right. This year the folks at the Grammys have a couple of winners..if they actually win that is.
Willie Nelson’s You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Album and Rick Rubin has been nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classicalfor his work on Johnny Cash’s album American V: A Hundred Highways and the song “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”. He is also nominated in the same category for his work on albums from Neil Diamond, The Dixie Chicks, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Yeah I know. It’s starting to sound like all Lucinda, all the time here at planet Twang. So what? Who am I to deny the power of Lu? (or her publicity machine at Lost Highway – how about some backstage passes for all this, huh?) Ms. Williams will be coming to the Big Apple on March 23 at Radio City Music Hall. Oh how I wish for a Rockettes choreographed rendition of “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.”
Tickets go on sale this Saturday 1/13. See you there.
MSNBC has a nice