Category Archives: Country

Poco Drummer Fundraiser

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George Grantham, drummer, vocalist and founding member of the seminal 70’s West Coast country-rock band Poco  (“Crazy Love,”  “Heart of the Night”), recently suffered a severe stroke.  The stroke took him off the road permanently–making him incapable of enjoying or continuing his music career.

John McEuen from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Timothy Schmit, Kentucky Headhunters, Scotty Moore, Steve Wariner, DJ Fontana, Don Henley, Richie Furay, Chris Hillman, Graham Nash, the band Orleans ands others have all joined Grantham’s daughter Gracie to begin a campaign Putting Heads Together to raise money for her father by contributing items for an eBay auction and to establish a fund to pay for George’s medical and living expenses.

For the latest news, to donate cash, something to sell or want to buy something from the auction visit the Putting Heads Together  site.

“It Burns When I Pee” – Episode #0006 – Get Your Hank On!

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“It Burns When I Pee” displays their fine upbringing by dedicating their episode #0006 to an 84th year birthday tribute to the legend Hiram “Hank” King Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953).

The episode features such great interview with Beth Birtley from the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. IBWIP also plays some of Hank’s song preformed by the likes of Joey Allcorn, Hank III, Andy Norman, Hank Cash, and Jake
Penrod and by Hank the the man himself. They also feature Jared Morningstar on the show and he will be reading an essay he wrote about the late great Hank Williams.

Head over to the Section 86 store for all your “It Burns When I Pee” merch.

Hank Williams Sr.- Honky Tonk Blues

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af9bbRTFPUY[/youtube]

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show – 9/18

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From Pitchfork.com – On September 18, CMV/Columbia/Legacy will release The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show, a 2xDVD compiling 66 live performances from the 58 episodes of Johnny Cash’s 1969-1971 “The Johnny Cash Show”.

Kris Kristofferson hosts the DVD, which features performances from Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Louis Armstrong, Loretta Lynn, Neil Diamond, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Derek and the Dominoes, Roy Orbison, the Carter Family (including June Carter Cash), and Johnny Cash himself, among many others.

The set also features new interviews with John Carter Cash, Tennessee Three bassist Marshall Grant, Hank Williams, Jr., musical arranger Bill Walker, and hairstylist Penny Lane.

There will also be a single-disc CD version of the compilation available on the same day as the DVD.

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show (DVD):

01 Johnny Cash: “Ring of Fire”
02 Bob Dylan: “I Threw It All Away”
03 Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan: “Girl From the North Country”
04 Kris Kristofferson: “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”
05 Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash: “Blue Yodel #9”
06 Stevie Wonder: “Heaven Help Us All”
07 Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Bad Moon Rising”
08 Linda Ronstadt and Johnny Cash: “I Will Never Marry”
09 George Jones: Medley: “White Lightning” (with Johnny Cash) / “She Thinks I Still Care” / “The Love Bug” / “The Race Is On”
10 Johnny Cash: “Hey Porter”
11 Waylon Jennings: “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line”
12 Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash: “The Singing Star’s Queen”
13 Waylon Jennings: “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”
14 Tammy Wynette: “Stand by Your Man”
15 Marty Robbins: Medley: “Big Iron” / “Running Gun” / “El Paso”
16 Johnny Cash: “Ride This Train”
17 Johnny Cash: “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow”
18 Johnny Cash: “Man in Black”
19 James Taylor: “Sweet Baby James”
20 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: “Cripple Creek”
21 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: “Worried Man Blues”
22 Johnny Cash: “Sunday Morning Coming Down”
23 Johnny Cash: “Old Time Religion”
24 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three: “Daddy Sang Bass”
25 Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters: “Wildwood Flower”
26 Neil Young: “The Needle and the Damage Done”
27 Johnny Cash: “Tennessee Flat Top Box”
28 Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash: “Long Black Veil”
29 Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three with Carl Perkins: “Big River”
30 Johnny Cash: “I Walk the Line”
31 June Carter Cash: “A Good Man”
32 Derek and the Dominoes: “It’s Too Late”
33 Derek and the Dominoes With Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins: “Matchbox”
34 Charley Pride: “Able Bodied Man”
35 Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys: “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
36 Loretta Lynn: “I Know How”
37 Jerry Lee Lewis: “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
38 Johnny Cash: “Ride This Train (America the Beautiful, This Land Is Your Land)”
39 The Everly Brothers With Ike Everly and Tommy Cash: “Silver Haired Daddy of Mine”
40 Ray Charles: “Ring of Fire”
41 Johnny Cash: “A Boy Named Sue”
42 Conway Twitty: “Hello Darlin'”
43 Mother Maybelle Carter: “Black Mountain Rag”
44 Tony Joe White and Johnny Cash: “Pork Salad Annie”
45 Glenn Campbell: “Wichita Lineman”
46 Neil Diamond: “Cracklin’ Rosie”
47 Ray Price: “For the Good Times”
48 Roy Orbison: “Crying”
49 Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash: “Oh, Pretty Woman”
50 Johnny Cash: “Wanted Man”
51 Chet Atkins and Johnny Cash: “Recuerdo De La Alhambra”
52 Chet Atkins: Medley: “Country Gentleman” / “Mister Sandman” / “Wildwood Flower” / “Freight Train”
53 June Carter Cash With Homer and Jethro: “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
54 Merle Haggard: “No Hard Time Blues”
55 Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash: “Sing Me Back Home”
56 Carl Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”
57 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, and Carl Perkins: “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago”
58 Roy Clark: Medley: “In the Summertime” / “12th Street Rag”
59 The Statler Brothers: “Flowers on the Wall”
60 Johnny Cash: “Working Man Blues”
61 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: “Jackson”
62 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: “Turn Around”
63 Johnny Cash: “I Love You Because”
64 Hank Williams Jr.: Medley: “You Win Again” / “Cold Cold Heart” / “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love With You” / “Half As Much”
65 Johnny Cash: “A Wonderful Time up There”
66 Johnny Cash: “Folsom Prison Blues”

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash “Girl From The North Country” – 1969

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpxwjsP76E[/youtube]

Porter Wagner’s Comeback in Full Swing

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The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press have some nice articles on Porter Wagoner. When I saw Wagoner a few months ago at Joe’s Pub, and and a few weeks ago opening for the White Stripes and Grinderman at Madison Square Garden (both backed by Mart Stuart) he seemed at the top of his game and has gone on to do other live dates and even a stop on the David Letterman show.

All the while “The Thin Man from West Plains” seems deeply appreciative for the response this comeback has given him. Blessed as he has said.

If you get a chance, go see him. If you can’t go out today and buy his newly released “Wagonmaster” (Anti Records) and remind yourself what country music can sound like it’s performed by a legend that helped invent it.

An excerpt from the AP: “I stopped making records because I didn’t like the way they were wanting me to record,” he sighs. “When RCA dropped me from the label, I didn’t really care about making records for another label…”

That was 1981, after he had been with RCA almost 30 years. Except for the Grand Ole Opry and work on the now defunct Nashville Network, his career dried up like an old corn stalk.

His comeback began in 2004 with a series of gospel records. Soon, he and Marty Stuart, a fellow Opry member, were plotting an album that would recreate the sound and feel of Wagoner’s vintage recordings.

 Porter Wagoner on David Letterman – Albert Erving

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jptVTVMucc0[/youtube]

MTV Urge Interviews Porter Wagoner

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Country music’s legend, Porter Wagoner, sits down with MTV Urge for an interview and discusses his start as well as serious health problems he had to overcome to record his new album, Wagonmaster.

You can find the interview here. You’ll need to download the Urge software first, but it”s worth it.

An excerpt: URGE: Your first big break came on Red Foley’s “Ozark Jubilee” show, the first nationally televised country music program. How did you develop your trademark flashy, Nudie-suit image there?

Porter Wagoner: Nudie [Cohn] came to the Ozark Jubilee one day, and I didn’t know who he was. It was in the real early ’50s. He said he made suits for cowboys and people in the movies. And he had a new idea for suits that included rhinestones and sequins … people hadn’t seen anything like that. My answer was, “It’ll probably cost so much I can’t afford it,” because I was barely getting by then. He said, “If this don’t work, they won’t cost you anything. If it does, then I’ll make some money off of making clothes for you throughout your career.” About three or four weeks later I got a big package that had a suit of clothes in it, and a shirt to match it and a pair of boots. It was a peach-colored suit, and it had a big covered wagon across the back of it. It was just unbelievably beautiful. It was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. That weekend I wore it onstage, and boy, people just went “wow.” That was the first one he’d made for anybody. He had made a lot of different clothes for cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, but they didn’t have the sparkle or the glitz.

URGE: You had a life-threatening illness shortly before recording Wagonmaster. How did you bounce back?

Wagoner: I had surgery this past year, July the 14th. I had an aneurysm I had to have taken care of. It got into my kidney. We was talkin’ about doin’ an album at that time, and of course that stopped everything. I started healin’ up, but it took me a long time to get my strength back. Marty [Stuart, album producer] talked to me in the hospital several times [saying], “Let’s get together with a couple of guitars and we’ll sit down and pick some together, and I’d like it if you sang some for me, too.” That really gave me a lot of encouragement, knowing that he was still interested. On the first day, I think we worked 30 to 45 minutes, maybe. He said, “Let’s don’t do too much the first few times here.” And that’s the way we did it. I got to singing and pretty much got my voice back. I was so thrilled to be able to sing again that it really just gave me new inspiration. I was just very fortunate to have somebody like him. Marty loves me like a brother. I had no idea how brilliant he was in the studio. I produced a lot of records, and produced Dolly’s records all the time when she was with me, but he knew new things that I didn’t know. He made a believer out of me. If you could imagine how proud I am of the project. I feel like it’s a touch of brilliance, I really do.

Porter Wagoner – Committed To Parkview

CMT on Gruene Hall

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In its continuing quest not to completely suck CMT has a nice write up on Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas. Gruene Hall, Texas’ oldest dance hall, was opened by Pat Molak in1974 and then featured a young unknown named George Strait and his Ace in the Hole band who played one or two shows a month there starting in 1975.

“I have many great memories of playing at Gruene Hall,” Strait says. “It was definitely one of the highlights of my early career. Pat Molak, who owns it and I still consider a friend, let us play there one Sunday afternoon for, I think, 50 cents at the door. He had never heard us and wanted to check us out before he let us do a weekend night. This led to many great nights at one of Texas’ greatest dancehalls.”

Review – Kendel Carson – Rearview Mirror Tears

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Kendel Carson knows a thing or two about music. At the tender age of three she began playing violin and soon after climbed in the Canadian classical music world appearing as a featured guest soloist with the Victoria Symphony and later joining the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. She performed across her native Canada and around the globe since she joined her first musical group at nine years old.

Carson’s muse led her to the Juno-winning roots music band The Paperboys and she appeared on their most recent album, The Road to Ellenside.

Now at the age of 22 you could say she’s been around.

After making the acquaintance of music veteran Chip Taylor – best known for his country-folk work, being the brother of John Vought (and Angelina’s uncle) and for penning one of the most enduring songs from the 60’s “Wild Thing” – at a 2004 South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas Taylor began offering Carson long-distance encouragement and guidance similar to the guidance he gave to another singer/violinist from Austin by the name of Carrie Rodriguez.

As with Taylor’s collaboration with Rodriguez he has written songs that encourage Carson to bring out both the playful and the smoldering side, and Carson’s charming new release on Taylor’s Train Wreck Records label “Rearview Mirror Tears” serves up plenty of both and more.

The album kicks off with a runner in the excellent “Run to the Middle of the Mornin'” which showcases Caron’s and Taylor’s’ off-kilter harmony with Southern sass and fine fiddle work.

“Take Me Down to the River” has a swampy vibe that makes it sexy and just a little spooky.

Ribbons & Bows and Gold in the Hills (Of Saltery Bay) are great guy/girl songs about the trials and triumphs of love.

“In the Middle of a Think About You” sounds like a Bonnie Raitt country-blues stomp that cruises along nicely with guitar
work by John Platania. “Especially for a Girl” is a sassy strut about desire bubbling-over featuring great slide guitar work.

The album’s rowdier tracks, “I Like Trucks” and “I Certainly Know Why” both sound as if they were recorded in
a bar full of drunk, loud women and it seems to set the right environment for the songs.

Carson isn’t belter, she a setter of mood, but her voice excudes a confidence that is beyond her years coupled with her
nuance and fine fiddle work drives this release all the way to the bank.

Kendel Carson – I Like Trucks

Dale Watson’s “Justice For All” #1 video on last weeks CMT Pure 12 Pack

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“Justice For All” is currently #1 video on last weeks CMT Pure 12 Pack video count down. If their not careful I’ll start saying nicer things about them. Oh, Bucky Covington and Toby Keith are numbers 2 and 3 respectively. Forget about the nice things. And congratulations to Dale for his recent marriage.