Category Archives: Americana

Watch Out! Ryan Adams Revisits “Oh My Sweet Carolina” on Colbert

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Ryan Adams Revisits “Oh My Sweet Carolina”

Ryan Adams took time away from his classic rock persona to revisit his earlier incarnation of roots-rocker. Taking to the Late Night stage in an intimate setting Adams turned the focus toward his 2000 solo classic debut ‘Heartbreaker.’

Adams was joined by Infamous Stringdusters and Nicki Bluhm, sitting in for Emmylou Harris, who provided harmony on the original.

Adams revisit is to shed light on the re-issue of ‘Heartbreaker,’ which had a deluxe version reissued earlier this year.

https://youtu.be/YgP1J34D8LA

John Prine Will Release New album ‘For Better, Or Worse’ This Fall

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John Prine - For Better, Or Worse

The other day John Prine teased some upcoming music by posting a picture on his Facebook page of he and long-time collaborator Iris DeMent laying down some tracks in his home studio.

Now the great news is out. On September 30, Oh Boy Records will release John Prine’s latest, ‘For Better, Or Worse,’ a thematic bookend to his classic, Grammy nominated ‘In Spite of Ourselves. Produced by Jim Rooney, John performs duets with country and roots luminaries like the aforementioned Iris DeMent, as well as Alison Krauss, Miranda Lambert, Kathy Mattea, Kacey Musgraves, Fiona Prine, Amanda Shires, Morgane Stapleton, Susan Tedeschi, Holly Williams, and Lee Ann Womack.

Wow, indeed.

The classic songs on ‘For Better, Or Worse,’ originally recorded by artists such as Hank Williams, George Jones, Ernest Tubb, Buck Owens and others, are in John’s blood. “I cut my teeth on Hank Williams songs,” he says. “When I sing these songs there is a small pipeline straight from my heart to my lips.” The tracks take listeners through the universal cycle of love’s pull, love’s bend, love’s life, and love’s end.

The toe-tapping first single, “Who’s Gonna Take The Garbage Out,” originally done by Loretta Lynn with Ernest Tubb, features Iris Dement, is available now when you pre-order the new record. Hear it below.

This fall, John will celebrate both the new album and his approaching 70th birthday with two shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Sept. 30th & Oct. 1st, where he will be joined by some of the duet partners from ‘For Better, Or Worse.’

John Prine took time to talk to NPR’s Jewly Hight about the album.

Tracklist:
John Prine/Iris DeMent – Who’s Gonna Take The Garbage Out
John Prine/Lee Ann Womack – Storms Never Last
John Prine/Alison Krauss – Falling in Love Again
John Prine/Susan Tedeschi – Color of the Blues
John Prine/Holly Williams – I’m Telling You
John Prine/Kathy Mattea – Remember Me (When Candlelights Are Gleaming)
John Prine/Morgane Stapleton – Look At Us
John Prine/Amanda Shires – Dim Lights, Thich Smoke and Loud, Loud Music
John Prine/Lee Ann Womack – Fifteen Years Ago
John Prine/Miranda Lambert – Cold, Cold Heart
John Prine/Kathy Mattea – Dreaming My Dreams With You
John Prine/Kacey Musgraves – Mental Cruelty
John Prine/Iris DeMent – Mr. & Mrs. Used to Be
John Prine/Fiona Prine – My Happiness
John Prine – Just Waitin’

Listen Up! Ronnie Fauss Covers Slobberbone’s “Lumberlung”

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Portrait of musician Ronnie Fauss, photographed in Brooklyn, NY
Portrait of musician Ronnie Fauss, photographed in Brooklyn, NY

There are few songs that move me quite as much as Slobberbone’s “Lumberlung.” I’d put it up there with Ryan Adams’ ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’ and Drive-By Truckers’ ‘Goddamn Lonely Love’ on my ‘melancholy tales of faded love’ list

Nortex troubadour Ronnie Fauss wisely agrees. He pays honorable tribute on this fine rendition picking up the pace and little giving it an a slightly jauntier spin without losing any of the emotion-wrenching punch.

Of his relationship with the band and recording the song Fauss says “I first heard Slobberbone over the speakers at a now defunct record store on lower Greenville in Dallas. It stopped me in my tracks – I went to the counter and said “what in the hell is this?!?” The album was “Everything you thought was right was wrong today” and the song was “Lumberlung”.

I bought the CD on the spot, and listened all the way home. When I got home I went straight to the guitar that was under my bed (and had not been played in years) and started working on a song of my own. It was just my natural response to hearing Slobberbone for the first time – I had to make something of my own.

I became a superfan. I went to see them many times around Deep Ellum and other parts of Dallas…I introduced my buddies to them and they became superfans as well, we bonded like brothers at their shows. Also, I kept on writing my own songs. A few years later, I had a batch of material that I felt good enough about to record. I had read that (Slobberbone lead singer) Brent Best was recording local artists in his spare time in his home studio, so I went to see him at a solo gig he was playing at the Barley House…after a few shots of whiskey I mustered up the courage to approach him, introduce myself, and ask if he would be open to helping me make a record. He gave me a once-over and said “sure”, and that was that.

We recorded my first EP in his house in the Spring of 2008. It was very surreal to be recording with the songwriter who had encouraged me to start writing songs in the first place! It’s an intimate, stripped down recording…tracked over his linoleum kitchen floor. He would stand up between takes, go to the stove and stir something in a pot, and then return to the control board. He said he was cooking a goat. I’m proud of the record we made together, it’s called “New Songs For The Old Frontier Volume 1”.

When I was invited to pick a Slobberbone song to record for this project, I was elated. What an honor! But then a sort of creative atrophy took over. As I listened through their entire catalog in search of a song to cover, I came to realization – I could not improve on anything they had ever done. I only want to offer my own version of someone else’s song if I think I can bring something unique and meaningful to the table…but how could I improve on perfection???

And then it hit me – don’t try to do it better, just do it different. So I went back to “Lumberlung”…the first song I heard by Slobberbone in that record store more than a decade earlier, and an idea hit me. Speed it up a bit, change the tempo, bring in a banjo and a mandolin and a fiddle and turn it into a back porch picking number. Their original verison is perfect and beautiful and haunting, mine is something different.

I’m proud of how it turned out. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. I mean come on, I had about the best source material to work with that a man could ask for.’

Fauss joins Luther Dickinson and others that have recorded Slobberbone songs to celebrate the release of Bees and Seas: The Best Of Slobberbone

Ronnie Fauss Official Site | Slobberbone Official Site

Dr Ralph Stanley Funeral – Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, and Ricky Skaggs [VIDEO]

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Dr Ralph Stanley funeral - Vince Gill, Patty Lovelace, and Ricky Skaggs

YouTube member tdcat26 uploaded this video from Ralph Stanley funeral. It gives us an intimate glance of what it was like to be in attendance with all those paying tribute.

Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, and Ricky Skaggs were on hand to do the same.

After a beautiful eulogy Vince Gill performs ‘Go Rest High On That Mountain,’ a song Gill began writing in the tragic aftermath of Keith Whitley’s death in 1989, but did not finish the song until a few years later following the death of his older brother Bob, in 1993, of a heart attack.

As in the original recording Patty Loveless and Ricky Skaggs lend their backing vocals in moving tribute.

In memory Gill said ‘The first time I heard Ralph’s voice it was life-changing. ,,, It was the most mournful, it was the most soulful, and it reached deep inside me more than any other voice I had heard in Bluegrass.”

Patty Loveless remembering her performance of ‘Pretty Polly’ live with Stanley “It means so much to me,,,I had a career but this raised even further.”

The Drive-By Truckers To Release New Album ‘American Band’ This Fall, Premiers Single

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Drive-By Truckers

Drive-By Truckers have always been a band that defies convention. Their new cut, “Surrender Under Protest” from their 11th studio release ‘American Band’ (ATO Records), proves that their not about to soften anytime soon.

The Georgia-by-way-of-Alabama band has had a revolving number of extraordinary personal over their 20 years. Through it all main songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley have held mirrors to Southern life in ways that asks narrative questions while also honoring stylistic traditions.

“Surrender Under Protest” is a Cooley-penned first single from the record. A blast of guitar intros a song for these times, bracing in it’s directness confronting our growing cultural divisions.

Or as Hood describes the approach to ‘American Band’ : “This time out, there are no such (narrative) diversions as these songs are mostly set front and center in the current political arena with songs dealing with our racial and cultural divisions, gun violence, mass shootings and political assholery. Once again, there is a nearly even split between the songs of Cooley and myself, with both of us bringing in songs that seem to almost imply a conversation between us about our current place in time.

“American Band” is a rock and roll call to arms as well as a musical reset button for our band and the country we live in. Most of all, we look at it as the beginnings of some conversations that we, as a people very much need to begin having if we ever hope to break through the divisions that are threatening to tear us apart.”

The motivation to make music that matters is a natural one in roots-leaning music. But not everyone can strike a Woody Guthrie tone. There’s a risk of partisan platitudes ( think “Jerusalem ” era Steve Earle) instead of populist poetry ( think pre- ‘Jerusalem’ era Steve Earle.)  it’s a  subtle balance the “Surrender Under Protest” struggles to maintain.

“American Band” not only marks a change in tone for the The Drive-By Truckers. The band is using a photograph for the cover, an American flag at half-staff, instead of an illustration (mostly handled by the Southern-Gothic imagery of Wes Freed.)
The Drive-By Truckers premiered the new single with NPR.

‘American Band’ pre-order options are here Listen to “Surrender Under Protest” and check out the band’s upcoming tour dates are listed below.

Drive-By Truckers Tour Dates:

July
13 — New York, N.Y. @ Lowdown Hudson Music Fest
17 — Alta, Wyo. @ Grand Targhee Festival

August
20 — Morrison, Colo. @ Red Rocks Amphitheater
27 — Lexington, Ky. @ MoonTower Music Fest

September
16 — Toronto, Ontario @ TURF 2016
17 — Fredericton, Neb. @Canada Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival
23 — Kansas City, Mont. @ Crossroads
24 — Minneapolis, Minn. @ First Avenue
25 — Sioux Falls, S.D. @ The District
28 — Missoula, Mont. @ The Wilma
29 — Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox at the Market
30 — Portland, Ore. @ Wonder Ballroom

October
1 — Portland Ore. @ Wonder Ballroom
2 — Vancouver, British Columbia @ Rickshaw Theater
5 — Sacramento, Calif. @ Ace of Spades
6-7 — San Francisco, Calif. @ The Fillmore
8 — Lake Tahoe, Nev. @ Montbleau Resort Casino
11-12 — Los Angeles Calif. @ Teragram Ballroom
13 — Solana Beach, Calif. @ Belly Up Tavern
14 — San Luis Obispo, Calif. @ The Fremont
15 — Scottsdale, Ariz. @ Livewire

Americana Music Association and Record Store Day Announce AMERICANA MUSIC MONTH

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AMERICANA MUSIC MONTH

Record Store Day always offers great limited edition Americana/folk/country/Bluegrass as well as other genres, but now it seems that June is all about the twang.

The good folks at Nashville-based Americana Music Association and Record Store Day have joined forces to make June AMERICANA MUSIC MONTH. More than 100 independent record stores are participating throughout the month providing free music samplers, special deals on new and classic Americana albums, and special in-store performances all month long.

Check the RSD site for participating indy record stores and chaeck back for more information.

Third Man Records to Release Dwight Yoakam Blue Series “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day”

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Dwight Yoakam "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day"

It looks like Third Man Records will continue further down the Lost Highway they began earlier this year with the release of Margo Price’s breakout debut ‘Midwest Farmer’s Daughter’ with a release from a true country music icon – Dwight Yoakam.

As part of their next Blue Series the Nashville-based label/shop/live music venue will feature a true country music icon , Dwight Yoakam. Yoakam stopped by the studio with Jack White to record songs by one of Yoakam’s biggest non-country influences – “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day” (Boyce/Venet, popularized by The Monkees, as well as the flip-side “High On The Mountain of Love” written by Harold Dorman, popularized by Kenny Lynch, Charley Pride, Johnny Rivers, the Beach Boys and others.

“Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day” will be released June 10th on 7” vinyl and digitally on itunes.

Hear samples below and pre-order here.

Watch Out! Robert Ellis – “How I Love You” [VIDEO]

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Robert Ellis - "How I Love You"

Texas folk/country singer travels the big lonely in his new video “How I Love You.”

The track is from Ellis’ forthcoming self-titled LP, drums shuffle over a swelling piano with condensed electric guitar squeezing out sadness that fills the abandoned city Ellis traverses with dread and glimpses of hope embodied by a woman from the past? The future?

Ellis tells Consequence Of Sound – “Cullen (Kelly – the video’s diector) came to me with the concept of shooting a video in a major metropolitan area and making it feel completely empty,” Ellis explains to Consequence of Sound. “I think the city is the third character in this video. The idea is that falling in love has the power to bring a whole world into existence that wasn’t there before.”

“How I Love You” was penned by Delta Spirit frontman, Matthew Logan Vasquez anad can be found on Robert Ellis’ eponymous new release, out June 3rd via New West Records. Pre-order here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGtUMfI_1N0

Jaason Isbell Leads Americana Music Award Nominees

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Americana Music Award Nominees
(L-R) Ethan Jodziewicz, Sierra Hull, Kenneth Pattengale, Lucinda Williams, Joey Ryan, Margo Price, Jed Hilly.
Photo by Sarah Como

The nominees for the 15th annual Americana Music Awards and Honors was announced yesterday from the historic Mansion on O Street in Washington, D.C. Aside from the odd elitism that an event from a ballroom of the luxury hotel symbolizes (the Mansion? I wonder if it’s on a hill?) it was an entertaining and fun event.

The event was streamed via Facebook’s new ‘Live’ feature exclusively through NPR Music’s Facebook page. The Milk Carton Kids — Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan – were their usual droll elves. Ryan once making he connection between the event’s DC location and his vow to “Make Americana great again.” While donning a bright red cap emblazoned with that motto. It was huuuuuge.

Stellar performances by Lucinda Williams, Margo Price and Sierra Hull (who should be a nominee next year) with Ethan Jodziewicz put the spotlight on the purpose of the event – exceptional music by extraordinary musicians.

Alabama troubadour Jason Isbell continues his much-deserved success by leading the nominees with 3 nods for Album of the Year, Artist of the Year and Song of the Year. Lucinda Williams, Chris Stapleton and newcomer Margo Price each nominated for two apiece. Mainstream country crossover is reflected not only by Stapleton but also by Texan Kacey Musgraves

The 2016 Americana Music Association Festival and Conference is scheduled for September 20-25, with the awards ceremony being held at the historic Ryman Auditorium on Wednesday, September 21. Americana Music Association honors additional distinguished members of the music community with Lifetime Achievement Awards, which will be announced leading up to the event.

Jim Lauderdale is a natural as the proceedings host and Buddy Miller fronts the always exemplary house band.

Can’t make to to the event? Understandable, as it has sold out in recent years. But do not despair, the Americana Honors and Awards show will shown live on AXS TV and an edited version will show up on PBS at a later date. It will also be broadcast via SiriusXM Radio, BBC2, WSM and Voice of America.

South Carolina newcomers Shovels and Rope will lead the field with four nominations, followed by legendary Emmylou Harris and Buddy Miller each with three nods. I’m happy to report that a few of my choices made it on the list this year(Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison, YES!) and John Fullbright is up for Emerging Artist of the Year. Well if being nominated for the Americana Album of the year Grammy, as Fullbright was before losing to Bonnie Raitt, isn’t emerging the I don’t know what is. Dwight Yoakam’s dominance of the Americana charts earlier this year with his new release Three Pears (my review) also garnered him an Artist of the Year nod.

Here is the full list of the 2013 Americana Music Award nominees. Are your choices here?

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Something More Than Free – Jason Isbell
The Ghosts of Highway 20 – Lucinda Williams
The Very Last Day – Parker Millsap
Traveller – Chris Stapleton

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Jason Isbell
Bonnie Raitt
Chris Stapleton
Lucinda Williams

EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Leon Bridges
John Moreland
Margo Price
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

SONG OF THE YEAR
“24 Frames” Jason Isbell
“Dime Store Cowgirl” Kacey Musgraves
“Hands Of Time” Margo Price
“S.O.B.” Nathaniel Rateliff & The Nightsweats

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR
Alabama Shakes
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell
Lake Street Dive
The Milk Carton Kids
Tedeschi Trucks Band

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Cindy Cashdollar
Stuart Duncan
Jedd Hughes
Sara Watkins