Fader.com has a great interview with Dwight Yoakam covering his influences, music and performing in L.A. in the early 80’s hillbilly revival, his evolving career and his music, his taste for Nudie threads and nicely blocked Stetsons and his take on the young guns coming around in the music biz today.
Category Archives: Americana
William Elliott Whitmore – Dig My Grave
Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard – Pitchfork Review (8.8)
Pitchfork has a fine review of Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard.
an excerpt:As an introduction to Haggard’s music– or even to the Bakersfield sound that he helped popularize– Hag may be unparalleled. Born in Bakersfield to transplanted Oklahomans, Haggard was at heart a California artist, reared on 1940s and
50s country and influenced by Bob Wills, Tex Ritter, and Spade Cooley. You can hear their influence– especially Wills’– in songs like “Living with the Shades Pulled Down”, on which Haggard calls out his band members to solo, adopting a falsetto much like his hero’s. It’s an original tune, but it could very easily be a Wills cover.
Hag recently collaborated with another Country legend, George Jones, on the release ”
Kickin’ Out the Footlights…Again.”
Tom Waits – “Lie To Me”
Gob Iron – Death Songs for the Living – Sony
Gob Iron (Brit for harmonica) is Comprised of Jay Farrar (Son Volt) and Anders Parker (Varnaline) together they breath life, longing and menace into retooled traditional folk songs. Recorded in the span of five days in the Autumn of 2004 Death Songs for the Living
These are songs about love, loneliness and death. Sparsely produced, mostly acoustic but with flourishes of Crazy Horse style dissonant electric guitar. The space between each songs are moody acoustic guitar instrumental interludes that fill out the overall Western-noir feel of the work.
Dwight Yoakam – Concert Hall at The New York Society for Ethical Culture (10/12)
Dwight Yoakam mosied into the sold out show on this brisk October night on Central Park’s upper west side as naturally as if he were playing at a State Fairgrounds or a Texas honky-tonk. The adoring crowd of big-buckle Yankees, pretty ladies in tight shirts and tattoos dancing in front of the stage hoping to catch the Honky-tonk man, in his stylish dudes, eye and there was a smattering of Southerners, like myself, appreciative to have a cultural diplomat of this talent stopping in town.
Tift Merritt was a surprise opener for the show and show and she charmed and wowed the crowd with her passionate voice and goofy jokes.
Yoakam’s sharp dressed band hit the stage at about 9:50 in his trademark off-white Stetson set over his eyes, and after a quick “Thanks ya’ll!” they break into “She’ll Remember” the toe-tapping rave-up from his latest release for New West records “Blame the Vain.” The nearly three-hour set was brimming with an embarrassment of riches, “Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose,†“This Time,†Jume Carter’s “Ring of Fire,†– Johnny Horton‘s “Honky Tonk Man,” “Stop the World (And Let Me Off),†“A Thousand Miles from Nowhere,†“Little Sister†as well as “Guitars, Cadillacs†— the song that startled the Nashville brass who had written Yoakam off when he was living in Nashvile in the early 80’s.
Yoakam also paid tribute to his late friend and Bakersfield style mentor, Buck Owens by covering his classics “Act Naturally,†“Cryin’ Time†and “Together Againâ€. The tribute ended with the duet the pair recorded in the 1990s, “Streets of Bakersfield.†I’m sure Owens was smiling down at the performance that night.
After a few minites off stage the band came back out to close things out with Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and the great song of spurned female commupance “Intentional Heartache.”
When he’s in the spotlight, Dwight Yoakam ranks with just a handful of country singers that make it all seem effortless.
Meat Purveyors Last Show – Bloodshot BBQ – Union Pool, Brooklyn
It was a cold and bittersweet day this Saturday, Nov. 4th, it was the day of Bloodshot’s Annual CMJ (weasels!) Showcase. Yes it was a great day-long party and BBQ at Union Pool in Brooklyn featuring the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Mark Pickerel, The Silos, the Deadsting Brothers, Austin’s own Scott H. Biram, Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Starvation League and, sadly, Austin’s own Meat Purveyors where to be performing their last show as their bass player, Miss Cherilyn DiMond, has decided to get married and move on to other pastures in Maine. I missed most of the shows due shooting the shit and catching up with old friends and making some new ones.
But I got to make time for my homeboy Scott H. and his crazy grease-soaked stomp-blues revival and the very last show of the Purvs. Scott did his best in the 45 min allotted for him but c’mon! He’s just getting the crowd hoping, hollering and speaking in drunken tongues.
I skipped on Bobby Bare Jr. (yeah, I know) but I was near the front of the masses for the Purvs.
Taking the stage at 5:30 and a few moments of reflection from lead singer Jo Walston the band tore into an hour-and-a-half of thrash-grass sampler from their ten year career. “TMP Smackdownâ€, “Pain By Numbersâ€, “I’d Rather Be Your Enemy,†“Truckers Speed,†“Tallboyâ€, “Working on a Building†it was a trip down memory lane in a meth-fueled trailer park. The band then threw in killer covers of Ratts “Round and Round†and Madonna’s “Like a Virgin†and “Lucky Star†just to top of the night right.
There were tears, laughs and discussion of weed-induced hetro and or lesbian sex by Jo as she up-ended a stiff shot of whisky. The rest of the Purvs, Cherilyn DiMond on stand-up bass (and the instigator of the Purvs demise due to that aforementioned marital commitment (Damn woman, where your priorities?!), guitarist extraordinaire Bill Anderson and on speed-metal mandolin Peter Stiles, gave the rabidly-rowdy and adoring crowd (some of which had traveled all the way from Austin to catch the show) the red Meat they came to hear.
More tears, more denial and two encores I was too drunk to recall the details of..if it had to end this is the way it should have gone.
Thanks to the Meat Purveyors for then great years and to Bloodshot for being cool to me and putting on such a great shindig,
November Vanity Fair Country Music Spread
The November issues of Vanity Fair magazine has a pretty decent spread on country artists. There’s obvious -Cheesney, Hall and Oates…er…I mean Brooks and Dunn- the legends, Willie, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, I still get a heat flush looking at that woman! Then there’s the presence of Mr. Who Cares…Kid Rock? How does this no-talent yankee still get play. I guess there’s a lot of people that want to get to Pam…
Shooter, Shelby Lynn, Dwight, Rosanne, Lyle….all there. I could squabble about the obvious omissions (Hank III, Scott H. Biram, Gary Allen, Old Crow Medicine Show) but whatever…it’s a nice feature.
George Jones, Kris Kristofferson to Play Carnegie Hall Pic
Bloodshot Records 11th annual CMJ (weasels!) BBQ
Yeah those weasels at the CMJ denied yours truly a press pass to attend their precious conference (don’t they know that tens of people worldwide read this blog?!) but who cares there’s only one show I want to go to anyway and it’s open to the public and CHEAP! from the label:
BLOODSHOT 11th annual CMJ BBQ
Saturday, November 4th @ Union Pool in Brooklyn (Williamsburg)
Sponsored by KDHX, eMusic, and Oskar Blues Brewery.
Tickets $10 or $7 with a CMJ badge.
Public welcomed and encouraged. No invite needed!!!
Beer, BBQ and goodies provided
Doors at noon, music PROMPTLY AT NOON!!
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir (Chicago IL) (chamber folk punk)
Mark Pickerel (Seattle WA)
The Silos (NYC)Â New CD in Feb 2007
Deadstring Brothers  (Detroit MI)
Scott H Biram  (Austin TX) (That dirty ‘ol one-man band-Twang)
Bobby Bare Jr (Nashville TN)Â
THE MEAT PURVEYORSÂ (Austin TX)Â Â LAST SHOW EVER!!!!!(RIP dammit-Twang)