Category Archives: Americana

Blog Rodeo – Americana Music’s Influence on Country Music

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blog-rodeo-logoI am honored to have been asked to create this post for the inaugural Blog Rodeo. It’s a great opportunity to join with some of the best bloggers in the game. This is not the first time I’ve been asked to represent my chosen vice of Americana music in a discussion focused on mainstream country music, and I’m humbled to do so again and know the chips are stacked against me..

Regular visitors to this site, my Facebook page and my twitter account, knows mainstream country is not my beat. Unlike the other fine blogs asked to participate in the Blog Rodeo I don’t cover the Music Row variety of contemporary pop-country music. I couldn’t give a damn what Taylor Swift is doing. That is unless she’s collaborating with The Civil Wars or performing a cover on Mumford and Sons. Then she’s fair game. More on that later.

I also don’t typically put Music Row in the crosshairs. I don’t spend my days hating on the Chesneys and Aldeans. Sure I occasionally throw a snide tweet or let loose on the barrel of fish that is the CMAs, but for the most part I stay mum. It’s all music and someone, somewhere get’s joy from it. I prefer to spend my energy on the good stuff. The great music the people that makes it that comes my way.

Music Row performers attain success in their chosen fields in the one measurable way that is important to any commercial industry, money. Though it’s not my shot of hooch I have to give them their due. Sold out arena tours and millions of units sold is a pretty convincing measure of success.

But there’s more to music than mass-commercial appeal. Or there should be.

Unlike mainstream country radio “hits,” chart position and platinum albums are not the currency of Americana music. Filled arena tours funded by Bud Lite is not current model of operations. Americana is a genre of bootstrapping and scrappy souls. It’s where beater vans are the vehicle of choice driven thousands of miles by steadfast musicians playing for half empty bars at the end of the journey. All the while they never imagine doing anything else.

Now to address the thesis for this project. The most exciting thing for Country Music in 2013 will be…what?

I’ll answer that the most exciting thing about country music is it’s new-found focus on Americana as a kind of R&D lab for innovation. A source for material, inspiration and yes revenue. Here’s some examples:

On his fourteenth studio album of the same name Chesney momentarily put aside his Jimmy Buffett obsession and covered Guy Clark’s “Hemingway’s Whiskey.” On that same album he included a couple of nice duets . The first covered Matraca Berg’s “You And Tequila” with Grace Potter and the other with George Jones on Bobby Braddock ‘s “Small Y’all.”

Chesney will also be sharing the stage the Avett Brothers, Gary Clark Jr. and others at the Tortuga Music Festival in Ft. Lauderdale this Spring. Festivals a great source of cross-over exposure.

Taylor Swift nabbed two recent Grammy nominations with her work with T Bone Burnett and The Civil Wars for the song “Safe & Sound” from the Hunger Games soundtrack. She also does a fine cover of Mumford and Son’s White Blank Page Cover for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge.

Speaking of T Bone Burnett, as the music director for his wife’s night time drama, ABC’s Nashville, he’s done great job of getting small acts big exposure. Burnett has taken artists like Shovels and Rope and used their music, and in the case of Lindi Ortega used her music and provided a cameo. ABC puts these songs for sale on their official Nashville web site.

The heart of the music industry on cable TV, Country Music Television, has Crossroads which has paired Country music and Americana and rock music for years. CMT’s new on-line venture CMT Edge is a great showcase and news source for some of Americana’s best.

Is country music finding it’s soul again or just co-opting another popular music trend to make money? Who cares? The artists that are creating the great music are gaining a wider audience and getting more compensation for their considerable craft. Does increased exposure and success result in Jason Isbell and Chris Knight creating the next Truck Yeah? Doubtful.

The instinct to keep this music our precious little secret is a damaging and selfish one we need to overcome. Commercial country music does reinvent itself occasionally even if it’s for narrow commercial reasons. Before the genre abandoned them Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were all part of the country mainstream. It’s true that this might be another instance of Music Row just exploiting the next big thing and will abandon it for the next big thing. But I have faith that Americana music will survive this exploitation and few, like Mumford and Sons and The Lumineers, will actually springboard into a wider cultural consciousness.

So to answer the what will be the most exciting thing for Country Music in 2013 I will have to go with the opportunity is affords Americana performers and a few country music fans that will be delighted at discovering these great artists. Perhaps a little of the beauty and grit that we love about Americana will rub off on the occasional song featured on commercial country radio.

Am I naive? Perhaps. But I have a belief that great music, the kind that reflects the human spirit, inspires and speaks to us all.

I don’t know about you but I’m ready to accommodate a bigger party.

Blog Rodeo Roundup: See What Everyone Else Is Saying About Country Music in 2013!

Top 10 Country / Roots Guitarists

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Chet-AtkinsI don’t do a lot of “top whatever” lists but as an advanced mediocre guitar player I’ve always been fascinated by the instrument. So here goes! I asked my much more intelligent than myself twitter followers who they thought was the best country / roots guitarists of all time was and i got a lot of excellent responses. Though I used those responses as a source all blame of leaving Buddy Miller off is mine and mine alone.

These 10 masters that squeeze magic from lumber and have changed the genre and influenced scores of followers. Country and roots guitarists don’t hide behind fancy technology. Their stock-and-trade is built on clean tone and fiery or soulful picking.

Don’t see your favorite? Drop them in the comments below.

10. Willie Nelson – An under-appreciated player. Willie’s been playing this ode to his hero, Django Reinhardt, on his one-of-a-king acoustic – Trigger – for years.

9. Junior Brown – Junior is an absolute beast on his signature double-neck 6-string meets lap steel guitar guitar. He’s dubbed it his “guit-steel”.

8. Dave Rawlings – You may go to see Gillian Welch but you’ll walk away knowing that it’s Rawlings that brings musical depth to the duo.

7. Jerry Reed – most people knwo him as Cledus Snow from the Smokey and the Bandit films but Reed was a top-notch songwriter and guitar slinger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCE48O6U4Yw

5. Brent Mason and 6. Vince Gill – Soem might say the whole point of this post was to show these masters at work. Who am I to argue?

4. Hank Garland – Garland wrote “Sugarfoot Rag” when he was 19. It went on to sell over a million copies. He went on to be a sought after Nashville session guitarist working with Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins, the Everly Brothers, Boots Randolph, Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPj3yjXJzYw

3, Kenny Vaughan – You can’t be a sloucher to play with Marty Stuart. Vaughn has lent his talent to Staurt, Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell and others. He’s also used his fiery tele to carve a=out a right respectable solo career.

2. James Burton – James “Master of the Telecaster” Burton is in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. the latter of which his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards. bUTON’S session work has appeared on the works of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, John Denver, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Lee Lewis, Claude King, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Vince Gill, Suzi Quatro and more.

1. Chet Atkins – In his lifetime Atkins set a new bar for guitar players. His clear-time picking could shift from roadhouse to supper club in a the same piece. Influenced by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and Maybelle Carter. He has nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards, and was inducted into both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YegKYn5yeKM

Son Volt Announces New Album, April Tour Dates

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son volt honky tonkAlt.country/Americana music pioneers Son Volt will release Honky Tonk, their highly anticipated follow-up to 2009’s American Central Dust.

According to a received press release, the 11-track album features a mix of classic honky tonk and acoustic-based songs about “heartache, heartbreak, and the road.” Sounds like a winning combination.

According to a press release, the 11-track album us described by band leader Jay Farrar thus, “Honky tonk music is about heartache, heartbreak, the road.” He reflects that as he wrote and recorded the songs so deeply steeped in tradition, “I wanted these songs to sound more contemporary and modern. There was no strict adherence to methodology of the past. You never want to be a nostalgia act.”

“I was always averse to using certain words in songs, including ‘love’ and ‘heart,’” frontman Jay Farrar explained. “But I started using them on American Central Dust, and now I guess the floodgates have opened.”

The album is said to “dwell on affairs of the heart with album’s opener, “Hearts and Minds,” a speedy Cajun waltz which assays the delicate balance between love’s steadfastness and its caprice, the plaintive “Brick Walls,” and “Barricades,” which affirms the necessity of pushing forward in the face of overwhelming despair and defeat.”

Farrar also learned a new instrument as an inspiration for the sound of the record and ” inspired an intense exploration of honky tonk music.” “In the time between Son Volt records, I started learning pedal steel guitar. I play with a local band in St. Louis now and then called Colonel Ford. So I was immersed in honky tonk music, the Bakersfield sound, in particular. And it was almost second nature when I started writing the songs for this record.”

“Honky Tonk and Farrar’s forthcoming book, Falling Cars and Junkyard Dogs (Counterpoint Press, 2013) both continue his ongoing exploration of America’s landscape through the redemptive power of its music. Yet for all its hearkening back to a classic sound, Farrar and company make Honky Tonk feel vital, fresh, and new.”

Son Volt has national tour dates for April 2013 starting at Nashville’s Mercy Lounge.

Honky Tonk will be released via Rounder Records on March 5. Check out the track list and tour dates below.

Honky Tonk Tracklist:
1. Hearts and Minds
2. Brick Walls
3. Wild Side
4. Down the Highway
5. Bakersfield
6. Livin’ On
7. Tears of Change
8. Angel of the Blues
9. Seawall
10. Barricades
11. Shine On

Son Volt Tour Dates:
April
10 – Nashville, Tenn. @ Mercy Lounge
11 – Asheville, N.C. @ The Orange Peel
12 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Terminal West
13 – Carrboro, N.C. @ Cat’s Cradle
14 – Knoxville, Tenn. @ Bijou Theatre
16 – Birmingham, Ala. @ WorkPlay Theatre
17 – New Orleans, La. @ The Parish
18 – Houston, Texas @ Continental Club
19 – Austin, Texas @ Old Settler’s Music Festival
20 – Dallas, Texas @ Sons of Herman Hall

Got news tips for Twang Nation? Email holler(at)twangnation.com

Song Spotlight – The White Buffalo “House of Pain” from the “West of Memphis” Soundtrack

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West_of_Memphis_poster“You never know how much you need music until you don’t have it.” -Damien Echols, Life After Death

Damien Echols, ason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. were convicted in 1994 of the 1993 reportedly ritual satanic murders of three 8-year old children in West Memphis. In 2011 thee men entered Alford pleas, which allowed them to assert their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them. Their pleas were accepted the the men and sentenced to time served. They were then released with ten-year suspended sentences, having each served 18 years and 78 days behind bars.

“West of Memphis: Voices for Justice” is music from and inspired by West of Memphis, the documentary film written and directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Amy Berg and produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (the Lord of the Rings triology), Damien Echols and Lorri Davis.

In every instance of involvement, the artists on the soundtrack decided which song they felt reflected their personal feelings about the case. There’s a connection between the music and the man remaining at its center, Damien Echols.

The soundtrack features Henry Rollins and Johnny Depp each lending their voices to excerpts from Damien Echols’ letters from death row recited over a Nick Cave / Warren Ellis score featured in the film.

Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks covers of Pink Floyd’s “Mother.” “Satellite” is covered by Eddie Vedder which was written for Lorri Davis, Damien Echols’ wife, as part of a collection of songs Eddie recorded for the couple in 2000. Artists also featured are Lucinda Williams, Band of Horses, Patti Smith, Citizen Cope and others each bringing particular stories around the songs that represent them on this collection.

My favorite cut on the album is from The White Buffalo (aka Jake Smith.) He lends his baritone vibrato, and moody melodic stye, to the Faster Pussycat 1989 ballad that kept Damien company while sitting on death row.

Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Dan Auerbach, Kris Kristofferson To Pay Tribute to Cowboy Jack Clement

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Cowboy-Jack-Clement_5Ggx_full“Cowboy” Jack Clement has carved out a storied career as a sinsinger/songwriter having his songs have been recorded by folks such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, Bobby Bare, Elvis Presley and more. A producer for Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings and DJ with a weekly program on Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s Outlaw country)

The Memphis-born, 81-year-old, Clement recently lost his house to a fire in 2011. Now some of his friends are coming together at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville January 30 to help out.

According to American Songwriter “one of those musicians was Artist Growth founder Matt Urmy, who Clement recently produced, Artist Growth joined up with Dub Cornett, a long time protege of Clement’s, to put together Honoring A Legend: A Tribute To “Cowboy” Jack Clement, featuring an all-star list of artists influenced by and associated with Clement.”

Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys, Kris Kristofferson, Charley Pride and more will gather to pay tribute to “The Pied Piper of Music City.”
All proceeds for the concert will go toward The Music Health Alliance and launching the “Cowboy” Jack Clement Fund to help the cost of medical bills for musicians not covered by insurance.

Get tickets

Check out the full list of artists below:

Dan Auerbach
Bobby Bare
Marshall Chapman
Rodney Crowell
Jakob Dylan
Emmylou Harris
Charley Pride
John Prine
T-Bone Burnett
Billy Burnette
Shawn Camp
Mary Gauthier
Kris Kristofferson
Nikki Lane
John C. Reilly

Ray Wylie Hubbard on Late Show with David Letterman 1/9/13

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1351032044-ray_wylie_hubbardIs anyone working the circuit cooler than Ray Wylie Hubbard?

David Letterman continues his much-appreciated love affair with Americana and roots music by featuring Texas singer/songwriter/producer/guru Ray Wylie Hubbard as his music guest last night.

Hubbard performs “Mother Blues” from his latest Grifter’s Hymnal (buy it here)

Like many of his songs it’s a semi-autobiographical piece on guitars. girls and the “first of many bad decisions” loosely based around the Lemmon Avenue bar that, incidentally, was the first bar I ever when to. Hubbard appears to be a man that at the phase of his storied career shows no sign of running dry or slowing down, and appreciating every moment. Or as Hubbard does, after naming-checking and thanking the band and Dave, appreciates the moment with a “Been a damn fine day.” God bless Ray Wylie Hubbard. May he roll on for many , many years.

Look for Hubbard on the road and at his annual Grit-and-Groove festival April 6, 1013 in New Braunfels, TX.

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

Song Spotlight: Brett Detar – “A Soldier’s Burden”

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A Soldiers Burden - Brett Detar2013 is fresh out of the oven and I’ve already got some great music for you kids!

L.A. based/Pennsylvania native Brett Detar has spent the time between his last album, 2010’s excellent Bird in the Tangle (Ravensong Records) in his words “…holed up like a hermit in the recording studio, emerging only occasionally for coffee or to walk my dog Waylon.”

What he really means is he has written the score for a #1 box office films (Paramount Picture’s The Devil Inside) has the makings for a new album as well as odds, sods and “b-sides and rarities that may or may not see the light of day.”

One gem mined from this self-imposed seclusion is the new cut “A Soldier’s Burden.” Detar’s gently picked guitar and drum and fiddle accompaniment gently ebbs toward a lush arrangement belying it’s dark message. That of a soldier confronting the harrowing and cold realities of battle. Fittingly the song’s finale echos strains of the Civil War era classic “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

“A Soldier’s Burden” shows us Detar’s time away has been reflective and fruitful. I look forward to the release of a full album later this year. Pick up the mp3 of “A Soldier’s Burden” for free over at brettdetar.com/ and pick up a t-shirt while you’re over there.

Grammy Artist Twitter Interview Series – A Fine Frenzy & The Civil Wars’ Joy Williams

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joySinger-songwriter Alison Sudol, known professionally as A Fine Frenzy, conducted a Twitter interview with The Civil Wars’ Joy Williams today as part of a campaign for the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards, which will be held on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. The series of interviews are done with participation from Twitter, as part of their Artist Interview series that will also include Miranda Lambert , Reba McEntire and others.
a-fine-frenzy[1]

The interview can been see in it’s entirety below. If you, like me, read the exchange looking for clues as to what happened with the Civil Wars sudden hiatus you will be disappointed. The brief interview sums up to two gal-pals sharing holiday plans, food preferences, how they miss each other and intimate photos of woolen socks.

Robert Plant Joins Patty Griffin Onstage in Austin

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I first saw this posted at JamBands.com (don’t ask.) The couple that elevated Austin to a new level of cool sat in together at Austin, TX’s Continental Club on Saturday night.

Patty Griffin introduces her not-husband Robert Plant to the stage during her gig. This fuzzy, sometimes muffled, fan-made video shows Plant easing through a sweet version the folky Tangerine from Zeps 1970 album Led Zeppelin III.

The song could have been sung from plan t to griffin herself. “I was her love, she was my queen.”

See JamBands.com for more complete recount of the show.

Song Feature: “White Trash Song” – Shooter Jennings featuring Scott H. Biram

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SJ_White_Trash_SongShooter Jennings is the kind of guy that doesn’t take the easy road. He doesn’t just release a new album, he releases a concept album with a film tie-in. The few details around the concept taken from a the newly launched site from Neltner Creative states “The film explores the themes of self-discovery, temptation, isolation and rebirth and serves as a visual counterpart to the album.” Not the recipe for pop-country confectionery singles ready for rotation between Jason Aldean and Taylor Swift.

The first cut of the album is a rocking country blues number entitled “White Trash Song” featuring Texas’ own Scott H. Biram. The song begins with a serene setting of birds chirping, a rooster crowing and a modern day hillbilly taking stock of his physical and mental landscape. Things rev up considerably and break into some sweet pedal steel, fiddle and piano turns. Biram shines in his introduced part with his signature gritty whoop and holler.

Head over to the site to watch the ominous trailer for the film written and directed by Blake Judd and featuring Slim Cessna’s Auto Club’s Jay Munly, Demonbabies Jesus Rivera, and wife of Hellbound Glory front man Leroy Virgil, Jenn Virgil at www.thislifeisadream.com and follow the project on twitter @The_Other_Life