After the Red-Headed Stranger recently cancelled shows due to a bout with the flue we collectively held our breaths. It’s to be expected, news of a more virulent strain and less effective vaccine saturates our media.
Willie is 84 years old and recent times have not been kind to our music heroes.
Nelson answers our concerns by not only booking new shows, including headlining his 2018 Luck Reunion day festivaL held at his ranch outside Austin, Texas, but also announcing a new album following up his last release, ‘God’s Problem Child,’ by just a day short of a year.
Nelson will celebrate his 85th birthday (4/29) with the release of a new album, ‘Last Man Standing.’ The new release will offer 11 new songs written by Nelson and longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon.
Below, listen to the title track, which much like the first release off his previous album, “Still Not Dead,” playfully addresses his aforementioned mortality.
“I don’t want to be the last man standing/Or wait a minute, maybe I do.â€
Though Jerry Lee Lewis used the title ‘Last Man Standing’ on his 2006 album addressing his longevity as the last remaining member of the Sun Studio’s “Million Dollar Quartet,” Nelson is referring to his brotherhood of Outlaw country members which overlaps Lewis’ with a single member, Johnny Cash.
Though Nelson is not yet the last man standing he is in rarified company as Kris Kristofferson is still kicking and a case could be made for David Allan Coe.
1. “Last Man Standing”
2. “Don’t Tell Noah”
3. “Bad Breath”
4. “Me and You”
5. “Something You Get Through”
6. “Ready to Roar”
7. “Heaven Is Closed”
8. “I Ain’t Got Nothin'”
9. “She Made My Day”
10. “I’ll Try to Do Better Next Time”
11. “Very Far to Crawl”
‘Blaze’ the Ethan Hawke co-written and directed tender biopic created to celebrate the tragic life of country blues Texas artist Blaze Foley has been turning heads at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival at the Cafe Artois in Park City, Utah. (here and here)
Benjamin Dickey, who portrays Blaze Foley, is a longtime friend of Ethan Hawke and was offered the role after he played ‘one of he and Ethan’s favorite Foley tunes.’
Blaze Foley’s lover Sybil Rosen, who is played in the film by Alia Shawkat, was Ethan Hawke’s co-writer for the film.
The great Kris Kristofferson portrays Foley’ father.
Charlie Sexton portrays Texas legend folk musician and Foley’s friend Townes Van Zandt.
Alynda Segarra from Hurray for the Riff Raff has a cameo.
The film was done in a cinema verite style, a technique that pays more attention to the natural actions and authentic dialogue showing people in a typical day in a day life.
Hawke knew he dad to make the film after reading reading Sybil Rosen’s beautiful memoir ‘Living in the Woods in a Tree,’ which he wrote for forward to.
Sybil Rosen plays her own mother in the film.
Blaze was not filmed in Austin but in the Baton Rouge area.
Village Studios in Jackson served as a production base for the project, which filmed in winter 2016-17.
Blaze will be released to the public later this year.
Remember The first time you heard a Merl Haggard song? That relaxed yet steady voice. This lyrics.
Relive that moment with the guys over at the Lost In Vegas YouTube channel.
I discovered Lost In Vegas reaction videos when a friend of mine sent me a link to their reaction video to Megadeth’s ‘Holy Wars…The Punishment Due.’ They were so genuine and thoughtful in their verbal and nonverbal reactions to a truly new genre was a ‘delight to behold’ as one comment perfectly put it.
The duo follows a simple and well-worn formula: the show’s two hosts, George and Ryan, play a song that they are somewhat or completely unfamiliar with, and then react to it in real time, occasionally pausing the music to dig deeper or just yell in exclamation. It really is quote something to watch the joy two grown men have at listening to music.
I started to search out more and more of their metal reaction videos. Never disappointed.
Tonight I was riffing across YouTube I came across them not reacting to a another metal classic but working the gritty side of the fence. The guys too up the great Merle Haggard’s ‘Big City.”
Reactions like “That right there…what the hell is that? Pure unadulterated COUNTRY” at hearing the opening pedal steel to observing the timelessness of Merle’ lyrics.
Lost In Vegas aren’t you usual reaction vieson in that they are genuine lovers of music and balance just the right mix of gut-reactions to digging a little deeper to appreciate and find meaning.
2017 was another great year for Americana and roots music, and 2018 so far shows no signs that the great music is waning. As our Cream of the Crop favorites from last year makes plain we continue to experience a golden age of roots and Americana music. From Sturgill Simpson winning the Grammy for the best Country album of the Year (for his least country album no less) to the increased numbers of roots artists in media and festival line-ups the genre continues to represent and deliver on great music.
As I’ve said before, this is important not only because as fans, there’s abundant choices for our entertainment but because it continues to lay a foundation for future ‘Cream of the Crop’ recipients.
The list below is a collection of known 2017 notable Americana / roots releases. Some anticipated releases from artists like American Aquarium and Kacey Musgraves have no release dates yet, but when I become aware of them and others I will be updating the list throughout the year. Follow me on Twitter to stay current on changes to the list.
If you know of an actual release not listed yet please leave it in the comments.
One thing is for sure, it’s going to be another great year for roots music folks.
January 12th –
Brooks Dixon – White Roses EP
Ryan Bingham – ‘Live’
Cindy Alexander – ‘Nowhere To Hide’
Seth Lakeman – ‘Ballads Of The Broken Few’
Cassidy Best – ‘Same Old Sins’
January 19th –
First Aid Kit – ‘Ruins’
Lanco – ‘Hallelujah Nights
’
R. Finn (aka Chris Rondinella) – ‘Collecting Trip
Calexico, The Thread That Keeps Us
Steep Canyon Rangers, Out in the Open
Kalie Shorr, Awake EP
Mary Gauthier, Rifles and Rosary Beads
Devin Dawson – ‘Dark Horse’
Caitlyn Smith -‘Starfire’
Van William – ‘Countries’
Alice DiMicele – “One With The Tideâ€
Grace Basement – ‘Mississippi Nights’
Glen Hansard – ‘Between Two Shores’
John Gorka – ‘True In Time’
January 26th –
The Ben Miller Band – ‘Choke Cherry Tree’
Laura Benitez and The Heartache’s – ‘With All Its Thorns’
Sara Morgan – ‘Average Jane’
The Fugitives – ‘The Promise of Strangers’
Ron Pope – ‘Worktapes EP’
February 2nd –
Mike and the Moonpies – ‘Steak Night at the Prairie Rose’
The Wood Brothers – ‘One Drop of Truth’
John Oates – ‘Arkansas’
Sunny War – ‘With the Sun’
February 9th –
Wade Bowen – ‘Solid Ground
’
Jim White – ‘Waffles, Triangles & Jesus’
February 16th –
Matthew McNeal – ‘Good Luck’
Brandi Carlile – ‘By the Way, I Forgive You’
Courtney Patton – ‘What It’s Like to Fly Alone’
I’m With Her (Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan) – ‘See You Around’
February 23rd –
Jeff Hyde – ‘Norman Rockwell World’
3hattrio – ‘Lord of the Desert’
Doby Watson – “Family Mattress Deluxeâ€
March 2nd –
Vivian Leva – ‘Time is Everything’
Chip Taylor – ‘Fix Your Words’
Haley Heynderickx – ‘I Need To Start A Garden’
Son of the Chief – ‘Needless Road’
Savannah Conley – “Twenty-Twenty.â€
March 9th –
Ashley Campbell – ‘The Lonely One’
Ross Cooper – “Another Mileâ€
March 16th –
Trailhead – “Keep Walking”
March 23rd –
The Price Sisters – ‘A Heart Never Knows’
Paul Thorn – ‘Album Don’t Let The Devil Ride’
March 30th –
Caitlin Canty – ‘Motel Bouquet’
Lindi Ortega -‘Liberty’
Kim Richey – ‘Edgeland’
Ashley McBryde – ‘Girl Going Nowhere’
Great Peacock – ‘Gran Pavo Real’
Sam Morrow – ‘Concrete and Mud’
April 6th –
Blackberry Smoke – ‘Find A Light’
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers – ‘Years’
Jodee Lewis – ‘Buzzard’s Bluff’
Kacey Musgraves – ‘Golden Hour’
April 10th –
Rita Hosking – ‘For Real’
April 13th –
John Prine – ‘Tree of Forgiveness’
Simone Felice – ‘The Projector’
April 20th –
Old Crow Medicine Show – ‘Volunteer’
Joshua Hedley – “Mr. Jukebox”
Charley Crockett – ‘Lonesome As a Shadow’
Ashley Monroe – ‘Sparrow’
April 27th –
Band of Heathens – “Live Via Satellite” On April 27th
May 4th
Scott Mickelson – ‘A Wondrous Life’
Parker Millsap – ‘Other Arrangements’
Trampled by Turtles – ‘Life Is Good On The Open Road’
Daniel Daniel – ‘Lonesome Hollow’
Rita Coolidge – ‘Safe in the Arms of Time’
May 11th
Ry Cooder – ‘The Prodigal Son’
May 18th
Kelly Willis – “Back Being Blue”
The Dead Tongues – ‘Unsung Passage’
June 1st
Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore – “Downey to Lubbockâ€
American Aquarium – ‘Things Change’
June 8th
Erin Rae – ‘Putting On Airs”
June 22nd
Jeffrey Foucault – ‘ Blood Brothers’
Paul Cauthon – ‘Have Mercy’
Lera Lynn – ‘Plays Well With Others’
Adam Wright – ‘Dust’
Roanoke – ‘Where I Roam’
June 29th
The Milk Carton Kids – ‘All The Things That I Did And All The Things That I Didn’t Do’
July 13th
Carolina Story – ‘Lay Your Head Down’ – buy
July 15th
The Brothers Comatose – ‘Ink, Dust, and Luck’ buy
July 20th
Lori McKenna – “The Tree”
July 27th
Andrew Combs – 5 Covers & A Song’ EP
The Hollow Ends – ‘Bears In Mind’
August 2nd
Kevin Galloway – “The Change”
August 3rd
Jim Lauderdale – ‘Time Flies†and “Jim Lauderdale and Roland White’
August 10th
Dawn Landes – ‘Meet Me at the River’
Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis – ‘Wild! Wild! Wild!’
August 24th
Devil Makes Three – ‘Chains Are Broken’
Ryan Culwell – “The Last American”
Murder By Death – ‘The Other Shore’
August 31st
Aaron Lee Tasjan – ‘Karma for Cheap’ buy
September 7th
Roscoe & Etta – ‘Roscoe & Etta’
Mike Farris – “Silver & Stone”
William Elliott Whitmore – ‘Kilonova’
Kathy Mattea – ‘Pretty Bird’
October 12th
Colter Wall – ‘Songs of the Plains’
October 14th
Asleep at the Wheel – “New Routes”
October 26th Whitey Morgan and the 78s – ‘Hard Times and White Lines’
Canadian roots chanteuse Lindi Ortega has always blazed a unique trail her entire career, and her fifth studio record ‘Liberty’ is no appears to be
no exception. Due out March 30, 2018, Ortega wrote roughly half of the twelve tracks solo, and enlisted co-writers Aaron Raitiere, Bruce Wallace and John Paul White (The Civil Wars) for the rest. The result is a three-part concept album reflecting loss, seance, resurrection, and freedom.
The darkened journey progresses toward light starting with several unsavory characters in “You Ain’t Foolin’ Me” and even a lost love from childhood in “Til My Dyin Day.” Then grief turns to desperation in “Nothing’s Impossible” and “The Comeback Kid.” However, the tides begin to turn on “Darkness Be Done,” and about halfway through, with “Forever Blue,” the character makes a choice to follow the light.
The track “Pablo” is inspired by her new husband, Daniel Huscroft. While they performed as a duo on a series of Chris Stapleton arena dates in Canada, Huscroft wore a poncho and grew a handlebar mustache — a look that led to a new nickname and a song title. ‘Liberty’ concludes with “Gracias a la Vida” from the pen of Chilean composer Violetta Parra. The title translates as “Thank you to Life.”
“Even though I always tried to have a silver lining, whether it’s by making my songs tongue-in-cheek, or writing some dark lyrics to happy music, there’s always been an element of balancing light and dark on my previous albums,” Ortega explains. “But this is a full story, and I want everybody to be able to take something away from it at the end of the day.”
Pre-orders begin on Friday, January 19th.
‘Liberty’ tracklist:
I. Through The Dust Part I
1. Afraid of the Dark
2. You Ain’t Foolin’ Me
3. Til My Dyin Day
4. Nothings Impossible II. Though The Dust Part II
5. The Comeback Kid
6. Darkness Be Gone
7. Forever Blue
8. In The Clear
9. Pablo
10. Lovers In Love III. Through The Dust Part III
11. Liberty
12. Gracias a la Vida
2018 Lindi Ortega tour dates:
Fri., Jan. 19 / The Basement / Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Sat., Jan. 20 / The Exchange / Regina, SK, Canada
Sun., Feb. 4-Sun., Feb. 11 / Cayamo 2018 / New Orleans, LA, US
Thurs., Feb. 15 / South on Main / Little Rock, AR, US
Fri., Feb. 16 / Knuckleheads Saloon / Kansas City, MO, US
Thurs., Mar. 15 /The Lyric Theatre / Swift Current, SK, Canada
Fri., Mar. 16 / Arden Theatre / St. Albert, AB, Canada
Sat., Mar. 17 / Empress Theatre / Fort Macleod, AB, Canada
Sat., Mar. 24 / The Tractor Tavern / Seattle, WA, US
Sun., Mar. 25 / Mississippi Studios / Portland, OR, US
Thurs., Mar. 29 / Moroccan Lounge / Los Angeles, CA, US
Fri., Mar. 30 / Soda Bar / San Diego, CA, US
Sun., Apr. 1 / Musical Instrument Museum / Phoenix, AZ, US
Tues., Apr. 3 / Stubb’s BBQ – Indoors / Austin, TX, US
Wed., Apr. 4 / Club Dada / Dallas, TX, US
Thurs., Apr. 5/ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck / Houston, TX, US
Thurs., Apr. 12 / Festival Hall / Calgary, AB, Canada
Sat., Apr. 14 / West End Cultural Centre / Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Sun., Apr. 15 / Dakota Jazz Club / Minneapolis, MN, US
Tues., Apr. 17 / Lincoln Hall / Chicago, IL, US
Thurs., Apr. 19 / Old Rock House / St. Louis, MO, US
Fri., Apr. 20 / 3rd & Lindsley / Nashville, TN, US
Sat., Apr. 21 / Eddie’s Attic / Decatur, GA, US
Sun., Apr. 22 / The Evening Muse / Charlotte, NC, US
Tues., Apr. 24 / Union Stage / Washington DC, US
Wed., Apr. 25 / Rams Head On Stage / Annapolis, MD, US
Thurs., Apr. 26 Mercury Lounge / New York, NY, US
Fri., May 4 / L’Escogriffe / Montreal, QC, Canada
Sat., May 5 / The 27 Club / Ottawa, ON, Canada
Sun., May 6 / Neat Coffee Shop / Burnstown, ON, Canada
Mon., May 7 / Centre in the Square / Kitchener, ON, Canada
Wed., May 9 / Mod Club Theatre / Toronto, ON, Canada
Thurs., May 10 / Aeolian Hall / London, ON, Canada
Fri., May 11 / Mills Hardware / Hamilton, ON, Canada
Sat., May 12 / Queen’s Grad Club / Kingston, ON, Canada
Entertainment Weekly reports that neo-trad singer/songwriter Kacey Musgraves will release a spanking new album in “early 2018.” Reportedly entitled ‘Golden Hour’ this will be the Texas-native’s third LP of original material and a follow-up to 2015’s Pageant Material.
Reportedly ‘Golden Hour’ was ‘musically influenced by everything from Sade to Neil Young’ as well as Musgraves’ newlywed status with singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly and specifically deals with the ‘different masks one uses to represent oneself.’
“None of the masks are solely us, but they’re all us,” she tells EW. “On this record, there’s the lonely girl, the blissful girl, the new wife, the girl that’s missing her mom, the angry girl, the sarcastic girl, the Sixties-sequined Cruella de Vil with the beehive, the shy girl, the life of the party, the winner, the loser – they’re all characters on this record. None of them alone are me, but the golden hour is when they all come together and you see me as a whole.”
Musgraves is not detailing the proper release date or song titles, but she did work with frequent collaborators Shane McAnally, Luke Laird and Natalie Hemby on the project. She also notes that she’ll be including a new song she’s been performing live for fans, but doesn’t share the title, which may or may not be the unreleased tune “Butterflies” (hear it below) she’s performed at many of her 2017 shows.
News of a new album only adds to what appears to be another great year for Musgraves as she continues to build out her career. Starting in February she’ll join Little Big Town and Midland on The Breakers Tour, running through May. Followed up by a June, run with with Harry Styles solo arena tour of the United States.
– “At the Louisiana Hayride Tonight†– Various artists (Bear Family) $250.
Germany’s Bear Family label has reputation for giving loving (obsessive) detail in creating their box sets and “At the Louisiana Hayride Tonight†continues that osession. The Saturday night music radio show was broadcast by Shreveport, Louisiana’s KWKH-AM from 1948-1960 and rivaled only by the more straight-laced Grand Ole Opry for live radio entertainment.
Country and roots music greats abound – Hank Williams, George Jones, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, Ernest Tubb, Louvin Brothers and many more in their prime.
A 20-CD set gives us a view back to live radio before studio wizardry and music was still wonderfully raw and brazon and done without a net.
Presley’s first TV appearance on the television version of the Hayride in March 1955 features and electrifying performance of his breakthrough single “That’s All Right,†as well as 14 songs includes “Baby Let’s Play House,†“Heartbreak Hotel,†and “Don’t Be Cruel†and are just a fraction of the more than 500 tunes stocking At the Louisiana Hayride Tonight. The box set also contains long-buried treasury of like a previously unknown recording of “I’m a Long Gone Daddy†by Hank Williams.
The accompanying 226-page book not only identifies all the performance dates and musicians, but also provides plenty of historical context.
Yeas this sweet collectable clocks in at over $200, but it breaks down to about $.40 a song for these treasured performances. That’s quite a deal.
‘Why Bob Dylan Matters’ by Richard Thomas – Richard Thomas $16.50
Harvard Professor of Classical Literature Richard F. Thomas explores Dylan’s music with a lense on his music influence on society as well as style. Dylan is dealt with in a serious tone usually reserved for classical literary and poetic luminaries. ‘Why Bob Dylan Matters’ set his work in it’s proper place and argues that it’s a work deserving of the ages.
‘Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives’ – Holly Gleason, in Woman Walk the Line ( University of Texas Press) $19.65
Music industry vet Holly Gleason presents twenty-seven extraordinary women scribes writing about twenty seven country music greats that just happen o be women. These personal and uplifting stories dig to the heart of what it means to connect to Music. Yes I still believe that #WomennInMusic is not a genre and that self-segregation is nearly as harmful as outside variety, but damn, this is a great read.
Johnny Cash, “Unearthed†(American) – $228.
THere was a real chance that Johnny Cash might have died in popular obscurity in 2003 had Rick Rubin not had the great instinct to spearhead the Country music legend’s breathtaking late-career albums. This 2003 collection of outtakes
serves a bounty with seven LPs featuring alternate takes and unreleased songs. Cash lends his historic baritone to distinctive renditions of gospel, rock,folk blues, and, of course golden-age country as well as covers by
Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle and others so good you might forget their were sung by anyone before The Man in Black.
Texan Robert Ellis and Coloradan Courtney Hartman bonded backstage at a music festival in 2013 over their mutual love of John Hartford songs. After a few years of friendship and collaboration led to the creation of ‘Dear John,’ a collection of both well-known and obscure material that reveals witty and tender layers found in Hartford’s lyrics. The album also allows Ellis and Hartman to showcase their perfectly blended vocals and the playful ebb and flow of their shared guitar playing.
“I feel like Courtney Hartman and I must have known each other in a previous life. We share a deep love and obsession with a lot of the same music. There is a unique cross-section of songwriting craft, tradition and it’s context, and musicality that we both really get excited by,” says Ellis. “John Hartford is sort of the apex of this and it came as no surprise to me that he was a big influence on both of us and what we do. These songs, and playing them with Courtney really seemed to recharge my spirit in some way. Through playing these songs we are connected to each other and to John in a way that makes me feel like I’m at home.”
The album encompasses ten cuts that span John Hartford’s 30+ discography including his best-known song “Gentle on My Mind” – later recorded by Glen Campbell – for which Hartford earned two GRAMMY awards for Best Folk Performance and Best Country & Western Song. Versions of the song were also recorded by Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Bing Crosby, Lucinda Williams, and most recently Alison Krauss.
Throughout his career, Hartford earned two additional Grammy awards, for ‘Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording’ for his record ‘Mark Twang,’ as well as Album of the Year for his work on the watershed soundtrack to ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’
John Hartford’s son Jamie noted, “They have captured a subtle part of my dad that gets overlooked way too often. Now they have an obligation to the world to get this out. I wish them much success.”
From the 1980s onwards, Hartford had Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. On June 4, 2001, he died of the disease at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 63.
In support of the new release, Ellis and Hartman will hit the road for a limited tour kicking off on December 9 in Austin, TX at the Cactus Cafe, and ending at Stage One in Fairfield, CT on December 21. In between, they will make stops in Baton Rouge and Denver before two nights at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City.
Hear their gloriously heartfelt rendition of “Gentle on My Mind” below, and see ‘Dear John’ track listing and tour dates below:
‘Dear John’ Track List:
– Old Time River Man
– Them Way Long Time Ago Times
– Gentle On My Mind
– Right in the Middle of Falling for You
– Here I Am In Love Again
– Howard Hughes Blues
– Morning Bugle
– Delta Queen Waltz
– Up on the Hill Where They Do the Boogie
– We Did Our Best
In case you hadn’t heard roots rocker and reluctant savior of country music Sturgill Simpson used the occasion of the 51st Country Music Association Awards to convey a message to the people mingling outside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on lower Broadway and fans looking in from his live Facebook stream.
What was the message and who was it aimed at?
As is currently de rigour let’s start with the most overtly political and divisive.
When a fan asked about Trump, Sturgill responded : “He’s a fascist fucking pig and I’m not afraid to say that. Anybody who’s still supporting that guy can’t be anything in my mind but an ignorant fucking bigot. So there it is. Anybody that’s surprised to hear me say that is going to unfollow me or stop listening to my record was probably not listening that closely anyway.”
To say the election of Donald Trump a year ago was galvanizing is like saying tropical storm Harvey was merely a spring shower. The resulting split in the Country seems to roughly falls into three camps. Those that voted for Trump and still support him no matter what he does (or tweets,) Republicans that didn’t vote for Trump but disgruntledly supports him for the sake of the party, even as recent state elections suggest, he is single-handedly dismantling it. Then there are those that rally under the hashtag #NotMyPresident. Given the following quote, I’m willing to say Simpson falls into the third faction.
The ‘F’ word gets thrown around a lot by the 3rd faction (or it’s more heated shortcut Hitler,) which of course does little to set the groundwork for opposing views. But Sturgill is a smart man and he knows full well that Trump is not a fascist. A hallmark of traditional Mussolini strain of facism most people know violence against opposing views, not tweeting snarky things but actual rounding up and beatings or murder, is part of the ideology. As far as I can tell by the footage Simpson was allowed to speak at length with no harm inflicted.
When asked about the kind of acceptance speech he might give if handed an award at the proceedings happening behind him Simpson remarked “Nobody needs a machine gun, coming from a guy who owns quite a few guns.†He continued: “Gay people should have the right to be happy and live their life any way they want to and get married if they want to without fear of getting drug down the road behind a pickup truck. Black people are probably tired of getting shot in the streets and being enslaved by the industrial prison complex. And hegemony and fascism is alive and well in Nashville, Tenn. Thank you very much.â€
A generally non-controversial view for tolerant, thinking people of the 21st century, if rambling and broad one. Of course, as a gun owner Simpson knows he can’t legally buy an automatic machine gun anywhere in the United States and the ‘hegemony and fascism’ is this time aimed at his adopted city. This might refer to the Music Row system in general or the CMA’s decision to formally hamstring the media on topics they deemed sensitive in the aftermath of last month’s mass shooting in Las Vegas.
As a free speech purist I get it. But it’s not surprising with other award shows and the NFL’s ratings plummeting as a response to overt political topics that the CMA would want to steer clear.
Winning the Best Country Album Grammy last year does afford Simpson a level of minor celebrity (and let’s be honest, if People magazine covers your actions, you’re a celebrity.) It also gives Simpson a certain level of professional cache. Many artists would be meticulously building their career on by growing mass appeal leading to earning potential. But if you’ve followed Simpson’s career over the years you know Simpson’s songs and his interviews show he speaks his mind no matter the professional risk.
This has allowed Simpson to evolve into a persona defined more by what he’s against rather than what he’s for. Much like our beloved genre Americana he bristles against, Simpson has nebulous borders. Is he a new-breed Outlaw come to save “real†Country music from the contemporary homogenized variety being engineered out of Music Row for, well, decades or something else?
Simpson makes it hard to pin him down and that’s what makes him an intriguing artist. It’s also what makes him. like most of us, a lousy authority on public policy.
Simpson set up on the street to voice his opinion as is his constitutional right to do. He knows, as a Navy veteran, what that right costs. His guitar case open with his Grammy inside (not sure what to take from that) he collected tips that he said he’d be donating to the ACLU, a fine organization that has fought for the rights of groups as diametrically opposed as the Black Panthers and the K.K.K. and , most recently defended an on-line magazine in suggesting that Taylor Swift is a covert White Supremacist.
Sturgill’s views declared map generally to other Americana and Americana-leaning artists willing to publicize their views in interviews, on stage and through social Media. ANd though I agree with many of the sentiments expressed (yes i did vote for Hillary) I’m always concerned about the echo chamber effect made so easy by social media. Though I’m on the record arguing against the accusations of bigotry against Americana, I am concerned about the lack of intellectual diversity within the comminity. the only kind of diversity that matters and moved us forward.
It appears that Nashville will be the location for Merle Haggard’s Museum and Merle’s Meat + 3 Saloon – a Southern-style restaurant with adjacent bar. The restaurant will be operated by longtime Nashville restaurateur David Swett.
Sounds like a recipe for tourism cheese, but given the Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline Museum museum are located in the same vicinity off Nashville’s tourist-jammed Lower Broadway, it probably makes perfect business sense.
But I find it ironic that the estates of Haggard and Johnny Cash decide to locate their memorial museums in the town that eventually shunned them professionally later in their careers when they demonstrably had much more to offer. I mean, in the case of The Hag wouldn’t to make more sense to locate hs museum the city that reflected his signature music style, Bakersfield, CA?
The museum will feature performance clothing and musical instruments, along with awards and other professional and personal possessions from the Haggard, who died on his 79th birthday, April 6th, 2016.
The Merle Haggard museum and Merle’s Meat + 3 Saloon will be located at 121 Third Avenue South, with the restaurant on the ground level with the Museum on an upper floor. The projected opening for both is the summer of 2018.
In the meantime you can always visit the Hags childhood home, in Oildale, California, made from an old railcar. That seems appropriate.
