Charlie Louvin Gets Help From Friends for New CD

Country legend Charlie Louvin (of the great Louvin Brothers) is set to release his first new album in more than a decade. The self-titled 12-track set will arrive Feb. 20 via New York’s Tompkins Square Records and be supported with an extensive tour.

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello and George Jones are among the artists pitching in. Louvin, who turns 80 in July, recorded the album earlier this year in Nashville with producer Mark Nevers. Also contributing to the sessions were Will Oldham, Tom T. Hall, Bobby Bare Sr., Marty Stuart, The Clean’s David Kilgour and members of Lambchop, Superchunk, Bright Eyes and Clem Snide.

The repertoire encompasses Louvin Brothers songs plus tracks long associated with the Carter Family, the Monroe Brothers and Jimmie Rogers. The album also includes a Charlie-sung tribute to his late brother and collaborator, Ira.

The Louvin Brothers remain a towering influence over country music; a Universal South tribute album, “Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’ — Songs of the Louvin Brothers,” won the 2004 Grammy for best country album.

Here is the track list for “Charlie Louvin”:
“Must You Throw Dirt in My Face,” featuring George Jones
“Great Atomic Power,” featuring Jeff Tweedy
“Blues Stay Away From Me,” featuring Bobby Bare Sr., Tom T. Hall and Marty Stuart
“The Christian Life,” featuring Eef Barzalay
“When I Stop Dreaming,” featuring Elvis Costello, Mac McCaughan and Pete Cummings
“Waiting for a Train,” featuring George Jones and Marty Stuart
“Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea,” featuring Alex McManus
“Worried Man Blues,” featuring Bobby Bare Sr., Kurt Wagner and Marty Stuart
“Grave on the Green Hillside,” featuring Marty Stuart and Tift Merritt
“Knoxville Girl,” featuring Will Oldham and Marty Stuart
“Ira,” featuring Marty Stuart
“My Long Journey Home,” featuring David Kilgour

Tift Merritt Off The Lost Highway

The News & Observer reports that country chanteuse Tift Merritt is no longer a Lost Highway Records recording artist.  After a two-album run that included a 2005 Grammy
nomination for best country album reports that she and  Lost Highway (which is also home to Willie  Nelson and Ryan Adams) have parted ways.

Excert: “We are in talks regarding a new home and we are  really excited about our next step,” Merritt wrote  in an e-mail message Saturday (while taking a break  from watching the UNC-Kentucky basketball game).  “Looking forward most of all to getting into the
studio early next year.”

After being lucky enough to see an amazing, funny and soulful Merritt open solo for Dwight Yoakam last October in New York City. I’m here to say it’s Lost Highway loss.

 

Robert Plant Flirts with Twang

I’ve had a running list of rock stars already straddling the fence of rock and country and
could probably make a pretty great straight-up country release (Tom Waits, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey)
and then there’s those that you never considered for that list but when their name come up to
do something in that vein you say “Hmmm, yeah that could be cool.” This story from Nashville
newspaper, The Tennessean falls into category 2.

Robert Plant (ex-Led Zeppelin) and bluegrass diva Alison Krauss are the collaborators in question.
After Plant was spotted at several “see and be seen” Nashville restaurants and clubs in recent days,
columnist Beverly Keel started sniffing around and discovered that the seemingly unlikely pair have
been in the studio, recording an album of duets under the watchful ear of producer T Bone Burnett.
Release date for the album has yet to be announced.

The two have recently become label-mates, as Rounder Records Group has just released Plant’s first
ever live performance DVD, Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation, from a 2005 PBS Soundstage
production.

Twang note – for a great Zep cover from a great band check out Devil in a Woodpile’s cover of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp(mp3) on their release In Your Lonesome Town

Lucinda Williams looks “West”

From the press release:

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Loss and loneliness are at the core of Lucinda Williams‘ largely down-tempo album, “West,” the singer/songwriter’s first release since 2003.

The disc, slated to be released February 13 via Lost Highway, finds the Grammy winner coping with another painful breakup and the passing of her mother, whom she reminisces in songs like “Mama You Sweet” and “Fancy Funeral.” In such songs as “Come On,” “Learning How to Live” and “Everything Has Changed,” Williams again deals with heartbreak.

“The songs deal with a chapter in my life and they definitely tell a story,” Williams told Billboard.com. “It’s probably been the most prolific time in my life as a writer. I’d been through so many changes — my mother’s death and a very tumultuous relationship that ended badly — so obviously there’s a lot of pain and struggling, but it ends with a look toward the future.”

Featuring the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, celebrated drummer Jim Keltner, longtime Bob Dylan bassist Tony Garnier (both of whom played on her “Essence” disc) and Williams’ longtime guitarist Doug Petibone, “West” was co-produced by Williams and Hal Willner, whose credits include Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Bill Frisell, who also guests on the “West.”

But “West” is not a completely somber affair. “Mama You Sweet” is upbeat and “Come On” is a nasty, almost raunchy kiss-off, musically akin to “Atonement” from 2003’s “World Without Tears.”

She injects doses of hope and light in tracks like “What If,” in which she imagines a world where the president wears pink and a prostitute is a queen.

“I get tired of people looking at my songs and feeling that they’re all sad and dark,” she said. “There’s more to them than that. Some people might read Flannery O’Connor and see that as simply dark — and it is dark and disturbing — but there’s a philosophical aspect, even a comical aspect to it as well. I think that’s all there on this album. It’s a full circle, like I’ve come through a metamorphosis.”

MySpace Showcase Tuesday 12/5 – Cadillac Sky

Well, Thanksgivings over and I’m out of excuses for not posting a new My Space Showcase…so here goes, and I’ve got a nice treat for all you bluegrass fans. I’m breaking the rules somewhat because these boys already have a record deal, but they’re my rules to break, and I can’t keep them under my Stetson.

Ft. Worth Based progressive Bluegrass phenomenon Cadillac Sky is the most recent signing to Skaggs Family Records. I allways thought that bluegrass is prog-hillbilly music and Cadillac Sky just reaffirms my brilliant (you heard me!) hypothesis.

Cadillac Sky is made up of two national champion pickers, a respected guitar veteran, an upright bass prodigy and an award winning songwriter and have built a reputation as an amazing live band – leaving fans, as well as fellow musicians clamoring for more at every performance. Cadillac Sky will make their first big splash onto the progressive Bluegrass scene when their debut Skaggs Family full-length “Blind Man Walking” lands in stores on January 23, 2007.

Twang says check ’em out!

William Elliott Whitmore Interview at HeroHill.com

A nice conversation with banjo picker and soul and whiskey voiced William Elliot Whitmore. An excerpt:

HH:: You have very diverse musical influences. Most people wouldn’t expect someone who plays the banjo to be into Minor Threat and Public Enemy. Are there any artists you still hope to play with?
WEW:: There’s lots of great music to soak up isn’t there? I’ve had the good fortune of having been exposed to a wide variety. Everything from Ralph Stanley to The Coup. The Coup’s new record is great. Another one of my new favorites is that Lupe Fiasco record. I would love to play shows with him. My dream list of bands to tour/collaberate with would be; The Evens, Lupe Fiasco, Animal Collective, Mike Watt and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.