Category Archives: Honky Tonk

Twang Nation Podcast Episode 16 – Holly Williams, Brandy Clark, Devil Makes Three

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Twang Nation Podcast

Hey Twangers! Get it while it’s hot! Podcast episode 16! Wow that’s a lot df exclamation point! Argh!

New prime cuts are buzzing around Casa Twang. Old favorites like Brett Detar, Lindi Ortega and The White Buffalo have great new releases. Proud to offer “Stripes,” the neo-trad he new single from Brandy Clark, who’s setting Music Row on fire, and some great stuff from TN newcomers Boo Ray, John Murry and Ben Miller Band.

As always. I hope you like this episode of the Twang Nation Podcast and thank you all for listening. If you do tell a friend and let me know here at this site, Google+ , Twitter or my Facebook page.

As always , BUY MUSIC, SEE SHOWS!

Opening Song - Dale Watson – “A Real Country Song”

1. Brett Detar - Song: “Too Free To Live” - album: Too Free To Live  
2 Cree Rider Family Band – Song: “If You’re Gonna Cheat Me ”  Album: One Night Stand
3. Brandy Clark – Song: “Stripes”  Album “12 Stories (Slate Creek Records) 
4 Devil Makes Three – Song: “Stranger” Album: “I’m a Stranger Here” (New West Records)
5 Holly Williams -Song:  “ Drinkin’  “ Album: ‘The Highway’ out now on her own Georgiana Records 
6 John Murry- Song:  “Photograph’ Album: ‘The Graceless Age” Out noes Evangeline Recording Co.
7 Lindi Ortega - Song” “Tin Star” Album “Tin Star” Out now on Last Gang Records
8 The White Buffalo - Song:  “Set My Body Free ” Album “‘Shadows Greys and Evil Ways,” Out now
9 Boo Ray -  Song:  “Boots And Blue Jeans” Album – “Six Weeks in a Motel” Out now independently released
10 Ben Miller Band - Song: “Strike up the Band”  Album – ” Heavy Load” released independently

George Jones Tribute Concert Videos

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george jones

Last night’s George Jones tribute held in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena featured 40 performances honoring The Possum by artists , many of home, might not be where they are without him.

Jamey Johnson, Jim Lauderdale, Shooter Jennings and his mom Jessi Colter, Trisha Yearwood & Garth Brooks, George Strait and Alan Jackson – they all played on honor of the “greatest voice in country music.”

Billboard has a nice post on the event featuring a list of all performances.

Not sure of there’s going to be a formal network showing or DVD release of the event, but The Triggerman from Saving Country Music informed me via Twitter that “….they (the event producers) were broadcasting video feed outside and there was a camera crew, so we know the footage exists.”

That’s great news, but until that day I will post fan-made videos below.

Eric Lee Beddingfield, Mandy Barnett, Teea Goans, Chad Warrix, Greg Bates – “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes”

Tommy Shaw (Styx) – “She Thinks I Still Care”

Vince Gill – “Bartender’s Blues”

Oak Ridge Boys – “Same Ole Me”

Marina McBride & George Strait – “Golden Ring”

Jamey Johnson – “Tennessee Whiskey”

Blake Shelton & Miranda Lambert – “These Days I Barely Get By”

Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood – “Take me”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3phmPLY1iZo

Patty Loveless – “Color Of The Blues”

Montgomery Gentry – “The Race Is On”

Brad Paisley – The One I Loved Back Then (The Corvette Song)

Jamey Johnson and Megadeath – “Wild Irish Rose”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjtJczbZfc

George Strait – “The Grand Tour”

Alan Jackson – “He Stopped Loving Her Today”

The Story Behind “Shotgun Willie” [VIDEO]

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shotgun willie

This is a great story behind the great title song of a great album.

Sure Willie is widely known as the Texas Yoda, but he has had a past occasionally reminiscent of a Cops episode. Or to paraphrase the Drive-By Truckers, it’s the duality of the Texas thing.

Remember the one where his ex-aide sewed him up in his sheets as he drunkenly slept and beat him with a broom? Good times.

Here’s another gem from Willie’s newsletter:

Willie has been described as a man of wisdom and a peacemaker, but he wasn’t always the gentle soul that many now know him as. He was nicknamed ‘Shotgun Willie’ for the shootout that happened when he heard his daughter Lana was being physically assaulted by her husband Steve.

“I ran for my truck and drove to the place where Steve and Lana lived and slapped Steve around,” Willie recalls. “He really pissed me off. I told him if he ever laid a hand on Lana again, I would come back and drown his ass. No sooner did I get back to Ridgetop than here came Steve in his car, shooting at the house with a .22 rifle. I was standing in the door of the barn and a bullet tore up the wood two feet from my head. I grabbed an M-1 rifle and shot at Steve’s car. Steve made one pass and took off.”
Willie then returned to Steve and Lana’s to find Steve had left and kidnapped their young son Nelson Ray. Lana told Willie that Steve was looking to ‘get rid of him.’ So Willie drove back to Ridgetop and waited.

“Thinking Steve would come to Ridgetop to pick me off about dusk, I hid in the truck so he couldn’t tell if I was home. We laid a trap for him. I had my M-1 and a shotgun. He drove by the house, and I ran out the garage door. Steve saw me and took off. That’s when I shot his car and shot out his tire. Steve called the cops on me. Instead of explaining the whole damn mess, the beatings and the semi-kidnapping and shooting and all, I told the officers he must have run over the bullet. The police didn’t want to get involved in hillbilly family fights. They wrote down what I told them on their report and took off.”

Not clear on what ever happened to the scumbag Steve or daughter Lana, but as we say in Texas, i’m not letting facts get in the way of a good story.

Uncle Tupelo’s Pivotal Debut “No Depression” to be Reissued In January

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Uncle Tupelo’s No Depression

Great news alt.country fans! On January 28th, Legacy Recordings will reissue Uncle Tupelo‘s widely acclaimed debut LP, 1990′s “No Depression.” The release will be a special two-disc expanded edition featuring rare and previously unreleased material. Of course, the influential alt.country trio would later birth Wilco (Tweedy) and Son Volt (Farrar.)

“No Depression: Legacy Edition” improves on the original album’s “tinny” production. Remastering has been done by engineer Vic Anesini, and the reissue features new liner notes by original band booster Richard Byrne of St. Louis’ alt-weekly The Riverfront Times. The second disc features the band’s original 1989 eight-song demo, Not Forever, Just For Now, which has never been released on CD.

Also included is a recently unearthed 10-song demo tape “Not Forever, Just Now,” recorded by the original UT, Jeff Tweedy, Jay Farrar, and Mike Heidorn in 1989. Below, listen to one of the demo tape’s tracks, an early version of “I Got Drunk” (via Consequence of sound).

The reissue will also include bonus tracks that appear on the album’s 2003 reissue; songs taken from their 1983 self-released Live and Otherwise cassette; and five cuts off the band’s 1987 demo Colorblind and Rhymeless.

Legacy will also issue a limited edition seven-inch vinyl single of Uncle Tupelo’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog” b/w “Commotion” for Record Store Black Friday on November 29th.

Pre-order No Depression: Legacy Edition.

No Depression: Legacy Edition Track List:

Disc One

No Depression (Original Album)

Graveyard Shift
That Year
Before I Break
No Depression
Factory Belt
Whiskey Bottle
Outdone
Train
Life Worth Livin’
Flatness
So Called Friend
Screen Door
John Hardy
No Depression Era Odds & Ends

Left In The Dark
Won’t Forget
I Got Drunk
Sin City
Whiskey Bottle (Live Acoustic)
Disc Two

Not Forever, Just For Now (No Depression Demos, Produced By Matt Allison, 1989)

Outdone
That Year
Whiskey Bottle
Flatness
I Got Drunk
Before I Break
Life Worth Livin’
Train
Graveyard Shift
Screen Door

From Live & Otherwise (Self-Released Cassette, 1988)

No Depression
Blues Die Hard

From Colorblind and Rhymeless (1987 Cassette Demo)

Before I Break
I Got Drunk
Screen Door
Blues Die Hard
Pickle River

10 Country Music Awards Moments to Remind Us It Didn’t Always Suck

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charlie-rich-envelope-john-denver-cma-1975

Remember when Loretta Lynne won CMA Awards with Loretta Lynn announced as Entertainer of the Year? How about when johnny Cash hosted the event.

Of course you don’t. It was decades ago and most of you weren’t even born yet.

There was a time that the Country Music Awards, like the industry and culture itself, had an edge and a spirit of danger. Performers would roll off a couch in a studio somewhere in town to accept their award. Sometimes they were drunk and looking for a fight. Below find some great moments from CMA history to help us steel through the glitter-choked tailgate party it’s become.

The one video I wanted o find most of all was one of Charlie Rich burning the piece of paper announcing John Denver as the Country Music Association “Entertainer of the Year” at the 1975 CMA Awards. Alas that little gem of industry spontaneity has been shut down.

Dolly Parton sneaks up on Randy Travis

Waylon Jennings performs “America” on what looks like an ’80’s CMA

CMA’s hosted by Johnny Cash in 1978
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkbBJE76KU0

Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge perform Me and Bobby McGee at the 1974 CMA Awards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fujhzkyYias

Sonny James and Bobby Goldsboro present the award for the Country Music Association Instrumentalist to Jerry Reed in 1971.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko39cIFowRY

1974 CMA Awards with Loretta Lynn announced as Entertainer of the Year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8370bQ5Izo

Willie Nelson Induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame by Johnny Cash at the 27th CMA Awards 1993
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMrh7aPaagg

Alison Krauss & Union Station performs ‘My Poor Old Heart’ on the 2005 CMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuGJaU25ZIA

1968 Country Music Awards with an induction of Bob Wills into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Skip over the insipid performance by Bobby Goldsboro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BYNuPL0Te4

In 1999 George Jones, recovering from a near-fatal car accident, was nominated for Single of the Year for his autobiographical ballad “Choices.”
CMA executives asked Jones to sing a shortened version of the nominated song, but he opted to stay home as a sign of his protest against the request.
Alan Jackson showed class and reverence for Jones worked “Choices” into the last portion of his scheduled performance of his current single, “Pop A Top.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_WmbAek0-4

Watch Out! Alan Jackson: “Blacktop” on David Letterman

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Alan Jackson - Letterman

Alan Jackson did more than sit around and gripe about the sad state of commercial country music. He went out and made a damn fine bluegrass album and reminded us all how great that music was and can be.

David Letterman and his crew continued their fine tradition of supporting fine country, roots and Americana music as they welcomed jackson and his cracker-jack band (in bluegrass is there any other kind?)

Jackson and Co. performed “Blacktop” from the newly released, and straightforwardly titled, “The Bluegrass Album” (Alan’s Country Records/EMI Nashville)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4jdefl2JS4

Watch Out! 10 Murder Ballads for Halloween

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Johnny Cash - Delia's Gone

Hello ghouls and goblins! Halloween celebrations in some form has a long and rich tradition in 16th century European and Scandinavia. At roughly the same time the murder ballad evolved right along with it. Both washed up on these US shores with the pilgrims and were shaped, over time, with our own uniques cultural influences and musical styles.

Gallons of blood, and scores of lifeless bodies, have been detailed in many harrowing ditties. The genres of folk, bluegrass and country music count more death and malice
than in metal and gangster rap combined (to be fair, they have had centuries to stack up bodies.)

I bring to you this spooky season some contemporary versions and variations of the murder ballad. From the Wilburn Brothers’ version of “The Knoxville Girl,” an Appalachian murder ballad, derived from the 19th-century Irish ballad The Wexford Girl. There also modern takes like Lindi Ortega’s menacing “Murder Of Crows.”

Enjoy these dark treats and leave your favorites in the comments.

Wilburn Brothers – Knoxville Girl

Rachel Brooke – The Black Bird

Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers – Where’s the Devil?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgphO4JJIrw

Lera Lynn – Bobby, Baby

O’Death – Lowtide – Video

Stab – The Pine Box Boys

Lindi Ortega – Murder Of Crows

Porter Wagoner – Cold Hard Facts Of Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl4yjGzWOvI

Bobbie Gentry – Ode To Billie Joe

Johnny Cash – Delia’s Gone

NASHVILLE 2.0: The Rise of Americana to Air on PBS This November

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Nashville 2.0

NASHVILLE 2.0 kicks off the “PBS Americana Music Weekend,” which pairs this documentary with an Americana music concert from PBS’ iconic Austin City Limits (ACL) series. In a special episode, ACL travels to Nashville to capture performance highlights from the 2013 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards. ACL PRESENTS: AMERICANA MUSIC FESTIVAL 2013 airs November 23rd on PBS in select markets (check local listings for broadcast dates and times)

The hour-long film was co-directed by Carol Stein and Susan Wittenberg (the duo behind 2011‘s Women Who Rock) and will feature a lineup of some of the best rising and veteran country, folk, rock and multi-genre artists prominent in building the Americana movement.

The special will incluse includes performances by, and interviews with, Alabama Shakes, The Avett Brothers, Billy Bragg, Laura Cantrell, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Rosanne Cash, The Civil Wars, Elizabeth Cook, Rodney Crowell, Dawes, Jerry Douglas, John Fullbright, Shakey Graves, Emmylou Harris, The James Hunter Six, Jason Isbell , Amanda Shires, Jim Lauderdale, The Lone Bellow, The Mavericks, The Milk Carton Kids, Buddy Miller, Mumford & Sons, Shovels and Rope*, Richard Thompson, and Dwight Yoakam.

This is hardly an exhaustive list, and not all of these artists are from, or reside, in Nashville. Buy Music City has become the de-facto hub of the Americana Music industry.

For now.

Music Review: Brandy Clark’ – “12 Stories”

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Brandy-Clark - 12 Stories

The last few years there has been a quiet sea change in Music Row. The change toward song craft spearheaded by young women speaking to a larger audience of older country fans that prefer Kristofferson over Keith. And a younger audience that want to imagine themselves in the songs. All while adroitly straddling the worlds of rigid country music industry pressures and Americana free range creativity. Call them the anti-Taylors.

Add to this movement Brandy Clark’s debut, “12 Stories.” Clark has scrubbed behind the scenes for years spinning hits for contemporary female upstarts Miranda Lambert, as well as other music row heavy-hitters The Band Perry, Reba McEntire and, Darius Rucker.

As the title says, these are 12 co-penned gems of savvy working class narratives. Very much in the spirit of Kacey Musgraves’ newest, which Clark co-wrote several songs on. The daily struggles of a common life (the hazy groover “Pray to Jesus”) cheating and revenge (“Crazy Women,” “Stripes”) a new take on this medication nation (“Take A Little Pill”) and a bluegrass tinged herbal testament to the Book of Willie (“Get High.”) A Sunday morning, hymn-organ ode to Sunday morning and new beginnings (“Hungover.)

Clark’s tales of contemporary working class echoes those told by Cash, Haggard Dolly and Loretta decades ago. “12 Stories” reminds us of the poetry and emotion that Hank Sr. embodied and lays bare how great country music can still exist when an artist can resist country radio cliches.

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Watch Out! Ryan Bingham Live at Gruene Hall [VIDEO]

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Ryan Bingham Live at Gruene Hall

On March 13th of this year, Ryan Bingham took the stage at the historic Gruene Hall, the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas. The hall echoes the songs of Texas legends Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Doug Sahm, Lyle Lovett and others.

Captured in glorious sepia by TourGigs, this sold-out, intimate performance that features renditions of: “Tell My Mother I Miss Her So,” “Boracho Station” and “Hallelujah.”