Concert For The (Texas) Coast

This goes out to my home state: Concert For The Coast is a Texas-wide event on Oct. 26, 2008, featuring 10 venues in 10 cities with over 100 artists ( like Band of Heathens, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Gary P Nunn, Rodney Parker and many others), with both acoustic and full band performances, coming together for one cause, to help the recovery process of the millions hit hard by Hurricane Ike.

All events have a suggested donation of $10 per person to enter.  Each event will also feature raffles as well as auctions
of artist merchandise, autographed memorabilia and other items donated by local merchants.  There will also be an online auction concurrent with the events.

Many are struggling without the basic necessities of food, water and shelter. Radio Free Texas has proven that it is a community that cares.  In this spirit, the idea for Concert For The Coast was born.  Radio Free Texas has partnered with others in the Texas Music community to bring a multi city, multi venue benefit event that will help bring much needed relief to the coastal communities and those that call it home.

For more information about the Concert For The Coast benefit event, please contact Nate Smith by calling 512-912-6082 or emailing at nate@tx-live.com

Tim McGraw is Apologizing to Fans for Latest Release

  • PopMatters.com has a nice posting on Lucinda Williams’ new Lost Highway release “Little Honey” and on Columbus, Ohio’s Two Cow Garage.
  • If you’re in Nashville this Friday October the 17th totally blow off mall-country teeny-bopper Taylor Swift’s show and head down to see Justin Townes Earle with Caitlin Rose and Chris Scruggs at the Exit/In. Rose’s mom, Liz, has penned a few of Taylor Swift’s biggest hits so it’ll kind of be like being there but without the crappy music (Rose’s mom’s cuts excluded, of course.)
  • As if that weren’t enough Junior Brown will bring his guit-fiddle wizardry to Nashville on the same night (9/17) at the Station In.
  • Tim McGraw is apologizing to his fans for the labels decision to put out his third greatest hits collection. “I am saddened and disappointed that my label chose to put out another hits album instead of new music. I’ve only had one studio album since my last hits package. It has to be just as confusing to the fans as it is to me. I had no involvement in the creation or presentation of this record.” Hey Time, now how about apologizing for the rest of the crap you’ve put out in your career (excluding the cuts penned by my uncle, of course.)
  • The Times Colonist of Canada has a nice write up of Kris Kristofferson’s show at the McPherson Playhouse in Victoria, British Columbia “…last night, before an adoring sold-out crowd at the McPherson Playhouse, a huge dose humility is what worked best for veteran singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. The native of Brownsville, Texas, opened his Victoria debut with Shipwrecked in the 80’s, which he delivered in a plainspoken manner befitting of a folk singer. Dressed in black jeans with a black shirt, an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder and harmonica rack around his neck, Kristofferson, 72, cut quite a figure. The giveaway to his country past? Dusty cowboy boots. Pure Kristofferson.”

Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Show Legacy Edition – 10/14

  • Christmas is not too far away, and the perfect gift for your Country Music aficionado (ah hem) is the Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Show Deluxe Box Set. This Legacy Edition will feature a 2CD/1 DVD will feature the entire two Cash 1968 concerts from the California prison, totaling in 31 previously-unreleased tracks, including songs like “Blue Suede Shoes,” “I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail,” “This Ole House” and even more duets with his wife June Carter Cash. The DVD contains footage from the shows, plus interviews with Merle Haggard, Roseanne Cash and inmates who witnessed Cash’s Folsom concerts. Also featured are liner notes penned by both Cash biographer Michael Streissguth, Steve Earle and Cash himself, which he wrote in 1999. Out October 14th via Columbia/Legacy.
  • The Prophets of Country Doom Those Poor Bastards new release “Satan Is Watching” will be available (fittingly) on October 31st. on CD and Vinyl.
  • Get over to ebay and buy up all the It Burns When I Pee goodies! Norma Jean’s panties aren’t going to be up there forever people!
  • And lastly a little video from the Americana Music Conference:

Glen Campbell – Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6myTC0XdUQ[/youtube]

Billy Joe Shaver indicted in 2007 Texas shooting

From the Associated Press: WACO, Texas (AP) — A McLennan County grand jury has indicted country singer Billy Joe Shaver on felony charges for his alleged role in an April 2007 shooting at a Lorena bar.

Shaver, 69, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, and a charge of unlawful carrying of a handgun by a licensed holder on a licensed premises, a third-degree felony, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported in its online edition Wednesday.

An official at the McLennan County Jail in Waco told The Associated Press that Shaver had not turned himself in Wednesday night.

Messages left by the AP for Shaver’s last known attorney and to his representative seeking comment after business hours weren’t immediately returned.

One witness said Shaver followed the victim, Billy B. Coker, out of Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon in Lorena on April 1, 2007, and asked, “Where do you want it?” before shooting him in the face, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed last year.

Another witness said that after hearing gunfire, she went outside and heard Shaver say to Coker, “Tell me you are sorry,” and “Nobody tells me to shut up,” according to the affidavit signed by then-acting Lorena Police Chief John Moran.

Coker, who was treated and released, told police last year that the shooting was unprovoked.

An attorney for Shaver said at the time that Coker was drunk, aggressive and had a knife and that he followed Shaver outside.

End Associated Press. My take? Mr. Coker is looking to make his mistake into a pay bay.

Happy Bithday Hank Williams Sr.

I’m in Nashville for the Americana Music Association Conference which starts full steam tomorrow so today I had time to stop by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to check out their new exhibit Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy featuring Hank Sr. and Hank Jr. I was perusing this great exhibit and reading the history of Hank Sr.’s life and it dawned on me. It’s Hanks 85th birthday  today (as well as my Sister’s, not 85 though) !

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snFnsGDG5tY[/youtube]

Happy Birthday George Jones!

Saratoga, Texas’ (but broUght up in Vidor) very own George Glenn Jones (AKA the Possum) is a living
embodiment of country music.

Jones’ bouts with the demon rum led to periods where Jones was too incapacitated to play shows and was branded “No Show Jones.” When his second wife, Shirley Ann Corley, hid the keys to every car they owned to keep Jones from traveling to the liquor store to buy booze Jones resorted to the only mode of transportation
available to a desperate man, a ten-horsepower rotary engine lawnmower. It took Jones the better part of an hour and a half to make it the whole 8 miles to the liquor store but get there he did.

But Jones is on his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, and been sober for many fruitful years. I had the pleasure of seeing the him two Halloweens ago at New York’s Carnegie Hall (Kris Kristofferson opened) and he was as smooth and brilliant as you might imagine. Jones is also up for a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievements in the performing arts this year and recently released a CD of unreleased duets, “Burn Your Playhouse Down.”

In tribute to George Jone’s 77th birthday New Yorks WFMU 91.1 fm has posted some tribute mp3s to celibrate.

George Jones – Too Much Water

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICJu2oeiNVY[/youtube]

Charlie Louvin Redies New Releases, Adds Tour dates Dates with Levon Helm and the Old 97’s.

Country Music Hall of Famer and half of the legendary country duo The Louvin Brothers,  Charlie Louvin will release two new albums on New York City’s Tompkins Square label.

Steps to Heaven, due September 16th, 2008, features ten traditional gospel classics including two Louvin Brothers songs. The release will be followed by Charlie Louvin Sings Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, out December 9, 2008. Both albums were produced, recorded and mixed by Mark Nevers (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Andrew Bird, Bobby Bare Sr.)

Charlie Louvin’s upcoming tour dates:

Sept 16th – Grand Ole Opry
Sept 19th – Grimey’s in store 5:30 during AMA convention
Oct 14 – Lucinda Williams album released w/ Charlie guesting
Oct 25th – Woodstock NY Levon Helm’s Ramble

***On tour with Old 97’s – October 1-12
Oct 1 Athens GA Georgia Theater
Oct 2 Knoxville TN Bijou Theater
Oct 3 Carrboro NC Cat’s Cradle
Oct 4 Lancaster PA Chameleon Club
Oct 5 Boston MA Wilbur Theatre
Oct 6 S. Burlington VT Higher Ground
Oct 8 Buffalo NY Town Ballroom
Oct 9 Pittsburgh PA Diesel
Oct 10 Cleveland OH Beachland Ballroom
Oct 11 Detroit St. Andrews Hall
Oct 12 Newport KY Southgate House

Charlie Louvin – “Ira”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIT0Xe1qaoI[/youtube]