Category Archives: Americana

News Round-Up: Hayes Carll and Ryan Bingham Leave Lost Highway

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  • The latest news from the wasted trailer-park that is music industry; Hayes Carll and Ryan Bingham have parted ways with their label the Universal Americana imprint Lost Highway. Mike Crowley, Carll’s manager, said in response to Carlls’ departure “Being part of Universal Music, we’ve watched as the corporation has tightened the reins on Lost Highway…The requirements that Universal imposes just make less and less sense for artists like Hayes and Ryan, who are never going to be something that can be marketed like Lady Gaga.”
  • Johnnie Wright, Country Singer, Bandleader, manager and husband of Kitty Wells, had died at the age of 97. (New York Times)
  • The current King of Country, George Strait, has been added to an already stellar lineup for the Fire Relief:
    The Concert for Central Texas event, which already booked Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, the Dixie Chicks and
    Asleep at the Wheel, Eric Johnson, Steve Miller, Joe Satriani, Shawn Colvin, the Texas Tornados and the Court Yard Hounds will make guest appearances, and Turk Pipkin and ‘Friday Night Lights’ star Kyle Chandler will host the event.. The benefit show, which is slated for October 17 at the Frank Erwin Center in the capitol city of Austin, Texas, will raise money to help replace the estimated $250 million loss in damages.   Tickets range from $25-$250, with the higher end being VIP tickets that allow concert-goers close access to the stage as well as an exclusive lounge area.
  • Looking forward to seeing Merle Haggard today ay Hardly Strictly Bluegrass with that youngster Kris Kristofferson. Here is the The Hag discussing his recent bout with cancer and his take on the current political climate. Here’s a hint, he recently penned a anti-government cut entitled “Shut It Down.” Take that Steve Earle.

:happy trails

Music Review: Wagons – Rumble Shake & Tumble

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When I first saw The Proposition, the 2005 Australia-based Western about an outlaw (Guy Pearce) forced to kill his older brother, I was taken by what Vincent Vega (to mix movie metaphors) is the “little differences.” The narrative was familiar and there were cultural parallels (at least cinematic)  between late nineteenth century Australia and the American West and Southwest.

This is the feeling I get when listening to the Australian roots-rock band Wagons recent fourth release Rumble, Shake & Tumble. There are elements of the familiar that are then twisted and elevated to strange and inspired places. the album kicks off with Downlow,a tale of clandestine romance done in as a jangly Tom Petty-style number complete with scorching lead and 80’s-era humming synths. I Blew It is thumping rockabilly tune that has Henry Wagons careening his baritone growling a lost-love lament. Moon Into The Sun is a front-porch ditty that shimmers with pedal-steel and hillbilly Buddhist pronouncements like  “Everybody’s as happy as they want to be.”

Willie Nelson is a slinky-stomp ode to the Texas Yoda, well to the idea of him anyway since there’s really no details in the song relating the the legendary icon. It’s more testament to great music and a reason to jam. Love Is Burning channels fellow Aussie (and script writer for the aforementioned movie, The Proposition.) Nick Cave and is smoldering with lust and menace like a ,well, a Nick Cave song.  My Daydream is a spacey country-tinged number that sound like a collaboration of Gram Parsons and David Bowie ( Singer Henry Wagons’ voice even sound eerily like the Thin White Duke at times.) Save Me is a Civil War-style and honky-tonk mash-up telling a tale of dispare and redemption

Henry Wagons  drummers/bassists Mark Dawson and Si Francis, guitarists Chad Mason and Richard Blaze, and keyboardist Matthew Hassett made a big noise at the 2011 SXSW a nd it’s easy to hear why. Rumble, Shake and Tumble  is a study in American music from an Australian bands perspective. the album will have you coming back again and again to peel back layer after layer of influence and nuance served with an edgy modern twist.

Official Site | Buy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQN3-Ik7znM[/youtube]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival – Sunday10/2 Recommendations

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As I wait patiently for my last-minute backstage access I give to you Sunday Recommendations. Sunday will be a travel day for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival stages. The great stuff is scattered like medicinal Mary-Jane smoke in the Golden Gate Park wind. As in HSB in the past.The most fun by far will be on thePorch Stage at 1:25pm with Those Darlins.  Ms. Emmylou Harris closing the event is the place to be at the Banjo Stage 5:45.
Banjo Stage

11:00am Dry Branch Fire Squad
1:20pm Bela Fleck & Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer
2:45pm The Blind Boys of Alabama
4:15pm Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
5:45pm Emmylou Harris

   Rooster Stage
11:00am Jessica Lea Mayfield
12:05pm Kevin Welch & Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin
1:20pm Brokedown in Bakersfield (featuring Nicki & Tim Bluhm, Scott Law, Lebo, Steve Adams & Dave Brogan)
2:10pm Ollabelle
4:15pm Justin Townes Earle
5:45pm The Jayhawks

Star Stage
11:45am The Low Anthem
1:20pm Dr. John & The Lower 911
3:05pm DeVotchKa
4:50pm Elbow

Towers of Gold Stage

11:00am Abigail Washburn
12:30pm Buddy Miller

Arrow Stage

11:00am Joe Purdy
1:10pm The Devil Makes Three
4:00pm Mother Hips

   Porch Stage
12:10pm Dive Bar Dukes
1:25pm Those Darlins
2:40pm Frank Fairfield
3:55pm The Swanson Family Band
5:10pm Over The Rhine

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival – Saturday 10/1 Recommendations

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Saturday is where things really take off. On Friday the main Banjo stage would have been a fine place to park your blanket to get the most for your musical enjoyment and Saturday is also the case.   Greensky Bluegrass, Alison Brown, Earl Scruggs, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings and Steve Earl. The last few years  The Arrow Stage has been the place for Texas performers and this Saturday follows that theme –   featuring The Band of Heathens, Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses, Reckless Kelly and The Flatlanders (Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock) The crowning jewel of this day is the legendary Kris Kristofferson & Merle Haggard performing together on the Star Stage at 2:20.
Banjo Stage
11:00am Greensky Bluegrass
12:00pm Alison Brown
2:45pm Earl Scruggs
4:15pm Gillian Welch
5:45pm Steve Earle & the Dukes (& Duchesses) featuring Allison Moorer

Rooster Stage
11:00am The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore
1:35pm Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson
2:50pm Patty Griffin
4:15pm Punch Brothers
5:45pm Robert Earl Keen

Star Stage
12:30pm Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
2:20pm Kris Kristofferson & Merle Haggard

Towers Of Gold Stage
11:40am Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

Arrow Stage
12:15pm The Band of Heathens
2:55pm Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
4:25pm Reckless Kelly
5:45pm The Flatlanders feat. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival – Friday 9/30 Recommendations

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Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is trying something new for #11.  Friday is a full-day and not half-day event, and the additional acts are not just filler.

Bill Kirchen & The Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods – Bill Kirchen – Ann Arbor native and “The Titan of The Telecaster” Kirchen was a guitarist with the original Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen from 1967 to the mid 1970s. Come see Kirchen bring the twang and show why he’s toured or recorded with Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Doug Sahm and Emmylou Harris. (Banjo Stage – 11:00am)

Blame Sally – Bay Area Americana is represented on Friday is the all female quartet Blame Sally. Known for their rollicking show and instrumental expertise the genre is great hands. (12:55 – Arrow Stage)

South Memphis String Band -  ON EDIT-  After I posted my Friday picks I was contacted about the South Memphis String Band and asked to reconsider. I did and I have. Go see ’em, they’re great! (Star Stage – 1:20)

The Mekons – This veteran punk band is headed by sometime Chicago-based Brit-expat cowpunk Jon Langford (The Waco Brothers.) They are currently supporting their new release Ancient and Modern. (2:10 pm – Arrow Stage)

Jolie Holland – Like Gillan Welch Texan Jolie Holland has a vocal quality, and reflects subject matter,  from another time. A distant, dusty and dark past. Her soulful roots and dreamy Ragtime sound is the reason she can count Tom Waits as a fan. (Star Stage –  2:50)

Del McCoury & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band –  Legendary New Orleans Jazz and Bluegrass together? Like jambalaya and moonshine baby. (2:35 – Banjo Stage)

Southern Culture on the Skids – Formed in 1983 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina SCOTS shows what happens when you mix top-notch musical chops and white trash aesthetic. Namely a hootin’ hollerin’ time. ( Arrow Stage – 3:30)

The Felice Brothers – I have likened them to being the anti- Avett Brothers. From the Catskill Mountains to the New York City subways The Felice Brothers offer a brand of gritty junkyard Americana that is as engaging and sinister as a classic Scorsese movie. Their new release Celebration, Florida might be the first (or at least the best) example of techo-Americana.  (Rooster Stage – 3:30 pm)

John Prine – A veteran on the country/folk scene since the early 70s when he was burdened with the “the next Dylan.” Dylan once even appeared at one of Prine’s first New York City club appearances unannounced and backed him on harmonica. Kris Kristofferson once remarked that Prine wrote songs so good that “we’ll have to break his thumbs” (Banjo Stage – 4:05pm)

Robert Plant & The Band of Joy –  Years ago when I got wind that Plant was sniffing around Nashvile I expectedthe worse. Rock singers in Music City typically results in mediocrity. Then I heard he was in the studio with T. Bone Burnett and Alison Krauss and was intrigued that at least he was keeping good company. A zillion sales and awards with the resulting Raising Sand led Plant back to the promised land with band conductor and guitarist Buddy Miller and came back with more premium Americana performers Patty Griffin and Darrell Scott. (Banjo Stage – 5:45pm)

If you have kids or just want to set up a stationary spot your best best bang for your buck (for FREE!) would be the Banjo Stage. The recommendations for Saturday and Sunday are larger so there will be only a list and no description. You’ll just have to trust me, I’m a (semi) professional.

Open Letter to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

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Dear HSB folks,

Though I’ve approached the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass personnel in every direct (and indirect) way imaginable to allow me backstage access to this year’s event I’ve gotten nothing from you but polite but firm “no chance.” It’s not like I’m a newbie fan-boy looking to drool over M Ward (who I will be skipping) I’ve been back there before. In 2008 I was backstage because of the kindness of Billy Joe Shaver and in 2009 it was the awesome Elizabeth Cook that came through for casa Twang. Last year a deal for access with an artist and label never came through so I got to feel what it was like to  work through a 600k free attendance while trying to blog from a phone, get a decent photo and look for electrical outlets. Not to mention the bathroom lines. I didn’t care for it.

Do I deserve backstage access? I don’t know. I have been a guest for the Grammys in L.A. and the Americana Music Association in Nashville for the work I’ve done on this blog over the last 7 years. I do it because I love the music and I want to share it with like-minded people. I do it as a fan speaking to other fans. There is no other better example off a labor of love when it comes to as fickle an industry as music. Sure the HSB is a huge success and it’s free so publicity is not an issue but what about showing some love from one fan to another? I mean it is after all why we both do what we do.

The reason you gave for a blanket media (of which I’m not) shut-out was given as overzealous folks in the past has overstepped their place and bothered the artists. As I’ve stated, I have been backstage two years in the past and never did as much. I would nod, a hello and ask for the photo here and there, but really it was about me tweeting and posting what was going on around me. I am a courteous guest. My mama raised me right.

So yes,  I will be at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival next weekend and will be posting my picks to see this week as usual. Yours is the premier Americana and roots music event in the country and Mr. Warren Hellman deserves hillbilly Sainthood for arranging and funding the entire event. But in San Francisco, a city that claims a spirit of cooperation and technology innovation, to have this event bar me from the event based on some historic bad apples is arbitrary and unfortunate to a lowly blogger that just want’s quiet place to do his thing.

Baron Lane

Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Michael Martin Murphey To Appear at the Americana Music Association Conference

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  • The newest additions to the Americana Music Association Conference is Texas Legend Jimmie Dale Gilmore backed by the critically acclaimed Wronglers (featuring Hardly Strictly Bluegrass benefactor Warren Hellman in banjo) and are iconic American songwriter Michael Martin Murphey.
  • Speaking of The Americana Music Association Conference, day panels have been postedat the AMA site. I’m most looking forward to seeing a live broadcast of Mojo Nixon doing his SiriusXM Outlaw Country with  the Bottle Rockets, North Mississippi Allstars and Kenny Vaughan. The Americana Music Association Conference is held October 12th – October 15th in Nashville, TN. Look for my reports for the conference while I’m there.
  • How is it that a Texas legend like Dale Watson hasn’t appeared on another Texas legend, Austin City Limits? Head over to the “We Want Dale Watson on Austin City Limits” Facebook page . “Like” it and get Dale on there!

Dale Watson & The Texas Two “My Baby Makes Me Gravy” (from the Sun Sessions)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnyYwdFQJgk[/youtube]

 

Among the artists making plans to perform in Nashville during the annual Americana Music Association Conference are Iconic American Songwriter Michael Martin Murphey and the critically acclaimed Wronglers with Texas Legend Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Live Review: Sunday Valley – Kimo’s Penthouse Lounge- San Francisco 8/8/11

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The thing about booking your own shows is that, unless you know that terrain, you never know where you’ll end up. Making their way South and then West to their home-base nashville from the influential Pickathon festival in Oregonthe Nashville-based by way of Kentucky alt.country band Sunday Valley found themselves in Kimo’s Penthouse Lounge , a seedy little joint known for it colorful bar clientele (aka day-long boozers) and it retro-punk clientele inhabits it’s upstairs live-space nightly.  This could have been a fish-out-of-water scenario but it turned out to be a great fit.

Before the show I talked to John Sturgill Simpson, (guitar and lead vocals), over the preceding band’s tortured version of “Whipping post.” Simpson discussed the band’s influences and the pros and cons of the genre labeling. “At one festival we were billed as a bluegrass band.” he laughs. And as a fan of fellow Kentuckian Bill Monroe, as well as country music in general, Simpson knows how ridiculous this distinction is and how hard a band like Sunday Valley is to pigeonhole.

Alt.country, cowpunk, XXX, whatever…the band is a natural extension of Bakersfield electrified hillbilly and heavy-rock bravado of Southern rock. Their set ripped into gear with Old Sunshine from new new exceptional release To The Wind And On To Heaven. Though there was the occasional glib “yeeeHAAAAW!” , the crowd was soon gathering at the edge of the stage to bear witness to these brazen outsiders. By the time they slide into the burner Sometimes Wine the black leather and metal-stud crowd had recognized a musical kin of passion and workman-like DIY culture.

Kevin Black (Bass and background vocals) and Edgar Purdom (Drums) laid down solid foundation for Simpson’s slicing, snarling telecaster, He glares out at the darkened crowd like a man that might have something to prove if only he gave a shit. The crowd was eating it up.

The just over an hour-long set packed in 12 songs, including an amped up rendition of the classic murder ballad Pretty Polly and Train 45 which Simpson dedicated to Bill Monroe. That’s what makes Sunday Valley a great band. Like Monroe when he was crating the blueprint for bluegrass, tradition is held in reverence but new territories are bravely exploring sonic terra firma.

News Round Up: Listen to the New Reckless Kelly & Lydia Loveless

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  • Austin’s  The Band of Heathens will celebrate the success of their current album Top Hat Crown & the Clapmaster’s Son with a weekend of music in Denver on Fri.-Sat., October 7–8 at Cervante’s Other Side.  The shows, which will be taped for a forthcoming live CD and DVD.
  • Austin’s Reckless Kelly  is streaming their new album Good Luck & TrueLove in its entirety free on AOL Music’s “Listening Party” beginning this week. Their their 11th album is out September 13 on their own No Big Deal Records.
  • Also at AOL Music’s “Listening Party” take a listen to Lydia Loveless’ Bloodshot Records great debut album, Indestructible Machine.

Check out the lovely Toronto singer Lindi Ortega video for from her debut album Little Red Boots. The video was shot entirely on the iphone 4.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSi_jyHmIIQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Lucinda Williams, Gregg Allman, Jerry Douglas, Rick Hall and Bob Harris To Be Honored by Americana Music Association

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The Americana Music Association conference  and Awards Show is shaping up to be the best so far.  Legendary rocker Gregg Allman, Dobro master Jerry Douglas, Fame Studios producer Rick Hall, BBC radio host Bob Harris and Grammy-winning queen of alt.country Lucinda Williams will be recognized with Lifetime Achievement awards at the Americana Honors and Awards show on Oct. 13. The ceremony will take place at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Allman will be honored in the performer category, Douglas will receive his honor as an instrumentalist and Hall will be recognized as a music executive. Also, Harris will receive the Trailblazer award and Williams will be honored for her songwriting. Tickets are available at the Ryman box office and website. The Americana Festival and Conference will take place Oct. 12-15 in Nashville.