Watch Out! Rolling Stones – “Dead Flowers” with Brad Paisley Nashville June 17, 2015

Rolling Stones - "Dead Flowers" with Brad Paisley

The Rolling Stones are about half-way through their American “Zip Code” tour, but they waited until last night at Nashville’s LP Field to break out the classic cowboy junky track “Dead Flowers.”

Mick and the boys had vocal and guitar help from opener, and fanboy, Brad Paisley, who is donning his own classic lips and tongue logo shirt for the occasion.

See the fan-filmed coolness below.

The Band Vinyl Box Set To Be Released

The seven studio albums released by the Band on Capital records will be released in a new vinyl boxset, ‘The Band: The Capitol Albums 1968-1977.’

The nine disc set includes such classics as Music From ‘Big Pink’, ‘The Band’ and ‘Stage Fright’ along with the double live album Rock of Ages.

All will be remastered for vinyl from the original analog masters. The LPs are housed in a heavy-duty outer box with the original artwork and packaging faithfully recreated for each title.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pgtfuw1X28&sns=em

From the press release:
Before stepping into their own spotlight in 1968, The Band’s members already shared an extensive collaborative history. Between 1960 and 1962, the then-teenaged multi-instrumentalists Levon Helm (drums, vocals, mandolin), Robbie Robertson (guitar, piano, vocals), Rick Danko (bass, vocals, fiddle), Richard Manuel (keyboards, vocals, drums) and Garth Hudson (keyboards, horns) first performed and recorded together as members of the backing band for Ronnie Hawkins called the Hawks. In late 1963, the Hawks struck out on their own and became Levon & the Hawks, performing and recording under this name in 1964 and 1965.

In 1965, Robertson met with Bob Dylan in New York, just as Dylan was seeking an electric guitarist for his touring band. Robertson and Helm joined Dylan at his Forest Hills and Hollywood Bowl shows, and then convinced Dylan to bring all The Hawks on for the rest of the tour. The Hawks backed Dylan on the road from October 1965 through 1966 as he incensed audiences in the U.S., Australia and Europe, performing electric sets. Disheartened by the vocally disdainful ‘folkie purist’ audience response to their first plugged-in performances with Dylan, Helm left the band in November 1965.

After the 1966 tour concluded, The Hawks woodshedded for the next year in upstate New York, often in the company of Dylan, forging a highly original sound that in one way or another encompassed the panoply of American roots music: country, blues, R&B, gospel, soul, rockabilly, the honking tenor sax tradition, Anglican hymns, funeral dirges, brass band music, folk music, and modern rock, fused and synthesized in ways that no one had ever before thought possible.

In 1967, the former Hawks were re-joined by Helm as they prepared to record their first full-length album. The Band was born in 1968 with the release of Music From Big Pink, which debuted to glowing reviews; a journalist for Life magazine wrote that The Band “dipped into the well of tradition and came up with a bucketful of clear, cool, country soul that washed the ears with a sound never heard before.” While the album only reached No. 30 on Billboard’s chart when it was released, it has become recognized over time as one of the most important albums in the history of rock, and its lead single, The Weight, a timeless rock staple.

The Band’s second, self-titled album, released in 1969, was launched with the hit Up On Cripple Creek. But it was the second single, Robertson’s Civil War song, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, that rose to the top of the charts (for both The Band and Joan Baez), pushing the album to gold and elevating The Band to headliner status. Both hits were sung by Helm. Two more songs from The Band would go on to become staples of FM rock radio, the rollicking Rag Mama Rag and the socially conscious King Harvest (Has Surely Come).

Stage Fright ushered The Band into the ’70s. Both the title track, sung by Danko, a reflection on the stardom they had achieved, and The Shape I’m In, featuring Manuel’s vocals, became FM favorites as album rock burgeoned into a viable format. The Band’s fourth album, 1971’s Cahoots, features the funky, New Orleans sound of Life Is A Carnival, a collaboration by Robertson, Helm and Danko, and Bob Dylan’s When I Paint My Masterpiece, which preceded Dylan’s own recorded version.

During the final week of 1971, The Band played four legendary concerts at New York City’s Academy Of Music, ushering in the New Year with electrifying performances, including new horn arrangements by Allen Toussaint and a surprise guest appearance by Dylan for a New Year’s Eve encore. Highlights from the concerts were compiled for The Band’s classic 1972 double LP, Rock Of Ages, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and remains a core album in the group’s Capitol catalog (in 2013, Capitol/UMe released remixed recordings from all four shows on The Band: Live At The Academy Of Music 1971).

Moondog Matinee, an album of cover songs released in 1973, features The Band’s version of Ain’t Got No Home, a 1957 R&B hit by New Orleans legend Clarence “Frogman” Henry. Helm credited Hudson with rigging up a hose he sang through to achieve “that lovely frog voice” the song requires.

The Band’s sixth studio album was Northern Lights-Southern Cross, a clever reference to their Canadian roots and their love of the American South. The 1975 album features the Dixieland-tinged Ophelia, as well as Acadian Driftwood and It Makes No Difference. Released in 1977, Islands was The Band’s final Capitol album and the last to feature the group’s original line-up. The album includes The Saga of Pepote Rouge, a typically eccentric Band song, and a cover of Georgia On My Mind.

In 1989, The Band was inducted into the Canadian Juno Hall of Fame; five years later they were accorded the same honor by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2008, The Band was honored with The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sadly, three members of The Band, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Levon Helm, have passed away, but The Band’s legacy lives on, in their recordings and in their tangible influence on popular music since they first hit the scene, wowing not only Bob Dylan, but many other major players of the day, including Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and Miles Davis. Making Americana music before the term even existed, Rick, Levon, Garth, Richard and Robbie collectively constituted the only ensemble to ever rightfully earn the sobriquet The Band.
The Band: The Capitol Albums 1968-1977 will be released on July 31.

Watch Out! Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard – ‘Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash’ [VIDEO]

Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard - Missing Ol' Johnny Cash

Another charming, behind-the-scenes music videos in a series showing Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard working on their new collaboration ‘Django and Jimmie’ at Willie’s studio in Luck, Texas.

Thats Django as in the legendary gypsy-jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and Jimmie as in Jimmie Rodgers, the vaudevillian dandy turned mythic “Singing Brakeman.”

Each a personal musical influance to the respective Willie and Merle.

Featured in the video are the main men along with Willie’s longtime producer, collaborator and friend Buddy Cannon. Bobby Bare joins his old friends as a recording on the song ‘Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash’ is a honky-tonker that allows the men to reminiscence about the times with the Man in Black.

Merle describes his approach to writing the song like this ‘It was just some words that I had some chords to. Not really a melody to it, just kinda rapping.”

I sounds more like talking blues to me but I’m hardly one to argue with The Hag.

There’s some great stories throughout including a NSFW one at the end told by Merle.

‘Django and Jimmie’ is out now.

Listen Up! Rolling Stones – Alternative Take of “Dead Flowers”

5SvYf1C
Jagger, Richards and Parsons

If there’s an Americana equivilent to the setlist chestnut ‘Wagon Wheel” it would be , well, ‘Wagin Wheel.” But coming in close second would it have to be The Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers” from arguably their finest album, “Sticky Fingers.’

“Sticky Fingers” is the album most influenced by Keith Richards and Gram Parsons’ friendship and time shared in Paris during the “Exile on Main St.’sessions. Parsons shared his love of classic American country music with Richards and it appears to have taken hold in the The Stones sound over several albums.

Adding to the rootsier direction early recording sessions began at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama in December 1969 and later completed at the band’s mobile studio located at Jagger’s summer home at Stargroves, England in 1970.

This rendition, of the song was recorded in 1970, and will be one of the unreleased cuts included the the June 9 ‘Sticky Fingers’ anniversary reissue. This take has a more upbeat, ramshackle tempo from the band. Ian Stewart’s piano is pushed down in the mix, and it cranks up the country-fried guitar interplay between Richards and the newest band member Mick Taylor.

Watch Out! Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz & Aoife O’Donovan “Be My Husband” [Video]

Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz & Aoife O'Donovan  "Be My Husband"

The elegant simplicity of the video for Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan’s “Be My Husband” mirrors in production the song’s simple beauty in this acapella vow of love and devotion.

Deftly directed by Watkins’ husband, Todd Cooper, the video was filmed in March on the deck of the A Prairie Home Companion cruise (they have a cruise for everything ) through the windy Carribean. Accompanied only by the percussion of foot stomps and claps the song highlights these extraordinary women’s vocal prowess to the song written by Andrew Stroud for his then wife, Nina Simone’s 1965 album Pastel Blues.

The performance brings to mind that singular moment of Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch performing ‘Go To Sleep You Little Baby’ off the “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” soundtrack.

“Be My Husband” is the B-side off their 7″ single release Crossing Muddy Waters, available now. “Be My Husband” will be digitally available on May 26.

Fittingly the connection with A Prairie Home Companion will continue as the girls will be appearing on the May 22nd show and May 23rd broadcast in Vienna, VA to launch their US “I’m With Her Tour” dates. (Full dates below).

The 7 inch vinyl can be found here.

Tour Dates
2015-05-22 Vienna, VA – A Prairie Home Companion
2015-05-23 Vienna, VA – A Prairie Home Companion
2015-07-10 Katonah, NY – Caramoor
2015-07-11 Mt. Solon, VA – Red Wing Roots
2015-07-18 Vancouver, Cananda – Vancouver Folk Music Festival
2015-07-25 Lyons, CO – Rockygrass
2015-08-29 Fayetteville, AR – Fayetteville Town Center
2015-09-05 Pagosa Springs, CO – Four Corners Folk Festival
2015-09-19 North Adams, MA – FreshGrass

Iris Dement To Release Ode to 20th Century Russian Poet Anna Akhmatova – ‘The Trackless Woods’ (August 7)

Iris Dement - 'The Trackless Woods'

To many Iris DeMent is an authentic poet working in the Americana roots medium. This August DeMent will follow up 2012’s ‘Songs of the Delta’ with her loving tribute to 20th century Russian poet and activist Anna Akhmatova.

From the press release “Hailed as one of Russia’s finest poets, Akhmatova survived the Bolshevik Revolution, both World Wars and Stalin. She lost family, friends and fellow writers to political killings and labor in the gulags. When Iris randomly stumbled upon Akhmatova’s work in a book of poetry a friend sent as a gift, she was immediately taken by the sorrow and burden of the poems, juxtaposed with Akhmatova’s lightness and transcendence in the face of inhumanity.”

“Anna’s gift of song is so strong, about alI I had to do was get really quiet and listen,” says Iris. After reading that first poem the melodies began pouring out of her, and before she even fully understood what was driving her, Iris was gathering musicians and friends, including co-producer Richard Bennett (Emmylou Harris, Neil Diamond, Steve Earle), to record ‘The Trackless Woods’ in her living room over a five-day period.

“The result is a breathtaking pairing of piano and voice in Iris’ sui generis style with timeless melodies that are deeply rooted in the American South. The project also fulfilled a long yearned-for desire to connect with her adopted daughter’s culture and history. Iris and her husband adopted their daughter from Siberia in 2005, and she says “I’d never have made this record were it not for her.”

Pre-order
iTunes
Amazon
Official Store

Tour Dates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCRB1uhXeCw

TRACK LISTING
1. To My Poems
2. Broad Gold
3. And This You Call Work
4. From An Oriental Notebook
5. Prayer
6. Not With Deserters
7. All Is Sold
8. Reject The Burden
9. From An Airplane
10. Oh How Good
11. Like A White Stone
12. Song About Songs
13. Listening To Singing
14. Lot’s Wife
15. Upon The Hard Crest
16. The Souls Of All My Dears
17. Last Toast
18. It’s Not With a Lover’s Lyre/ Anna Akhmatova Recitation of “The Muse”

Lucinda Williams , Sturgill Simpson and Shakey Graves Lead 2015 Americana Awards Nominees

americana-fest

The Americana Music Awards just announced their 2015 nominees, and Lucinda Williams, Shakey Graves and Sturgill Simpson lead the pack with 3 nominations apiece. All were nominated for Album of the Year and Song of the year. Williams and Simpson share the Artist of the Year category with Lee Ann Womack, Rhiannon Giddens and Jason Isbell. Shakey Graves shares the Emerging Artist of the Year category with First Aid Kit, Houndmouth, Nikki Lane and the man behind one of the great stories of the year, Doug Seegers.

The awards will again be presented at the Mother Church of Country Music, the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

As impressive as it is the full list of nominees below is it offers just a glimpse of the diverse and strong field of Americana and roots artists building this sustainable genre and cultural force. There are no outliers, surprises or dark horses in the nominees, but that’s not the point of award shows. It’s to reward and display some of the most marketable of the genre to a larger public in order to grow a sustainable fan base for these artists and the next coming up, many of whom can be found playing the week-long festival at local clubs.

As mainstream country starts to take notice of Americana celebration each year in Music Row’s back yard I can’t help but feel that some of that influence (and, yes, proven success. It’ s still a business) won’t have some positive effect on roots music as a whole.

2015 Americana Honors & Awards Nominees

Album of the Year (Award goes to Artist and Producer)
‘And The War Came’ – Shakey Graves; Produced by Alejandro Rose-Garcia and Chris Boosahda
‘Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone’ – Lucinda Williams; Produced by Lucinda Williams, Tom Overby and Greg Leisz
‘Metamodern Sounds In Country Music’ – Sturgill Simpson; Produced by Dave Cobb
‘The Way I’m Livin” – Lee Ann Womack; Produced by Frank Liddell
‘Tomorrow Is My Turn’ – Rhiannon Giddens; Produced by T-Bone Burnett

The surprise the this category is the quirky, less rootsy ‘And The War Came’ by Alejandro Rose-Garcia aka Shakey Graves. I love that country superstar Lee Ann Womack has been so warmly embraced by the community for her great work on ‘The Way I’m Livin’ ‘ and Rhiannon Giddens more than deserves to be here fit her wonderful release. I believe it’s going to a photo finish between Lucinda Williams and Sturgill Simpson.

Artist of the Year
Rhiannon Giddens
Jason Isbell
Sturgill Simpson
Lucinda Williams
Lee Ann Womack

A Lee Ann Womack win would be badass and I believe likely winner Sturgill Simpson would agree.

Duo/Group of the Year
Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn
The Lone Bellow
The Mavericks
Punch Brothers
Shovels & Rope

Can’t quibble with anything here but it would be cool if Brooklyn’s The Lone Bellow walked away with it.

Emerging Artist of the Year
First Aid Kit
Houndmouth
Nikki Lane
Doug Seegers
Shakey Graves

Love Doug Seegers but I have to go with Nikki Lane on this one. Though I would have her in Artist of the Year as she’s now on her second excellent release (which should be up for AOTY)

Instrumentalist of the Year
Hubby Jenkins
Laur Joamets
Greg Leisz
John Leventhal
Stuart Mathis

Great performers all but I have to go with Lucinda’s axw\e-master Stuart Mathis here. The man’s a genius of nuance and a really nice guy as well.

Song of the Year (Award goes to Artist and Songwriter)
“Dearly Departed” – Shakey Graves; Written by Alejandro Rose-Garcia and Esme’ Patterson
“East Side Of Town” – Lucinda Williams; Written by Lucinda Williams
“Terms Of My Surrender” – John Hiatt; Written by John Hiatt
“Turtles All The Way Down” – Sturgill Simpson; Written by Sturgill Simpson
“You’re The Best Lover That I Ever Had” – Steve Earle & the Dukes; Written by Steve Earle

Song of the Year is where I have plenty of conflicts. No Nikki Lane “The Right Time?” No American Aquarium ‘Man I’m Supposed To Be?’ No Cory Branan ‘Missing You Fierce’
9 or Old 97s ‘Longer Than You’ve Been Alive’ Oh well, I don’t program for radio and am looking at (and voted) this category differently than my contemporaries.

Listen Up! Jamie Lin Wilson – “Just Some Things” (featuring Wade Bowen)

Jamie Lin Wilson Photographer: Ari Morales

The old adage goes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Apart from their startlingly beautiful harmony the case of Texas’ country/folk quartet The Trishas might be the exception to the rule.

Last year Kelley Mickwee released her lovely ode to Memphis with her solo ‘You Used To Live Here.’ Now he have another release from Jamie Lin Wilson’s ‘Holidays & Wedding Rings.’ This follow up to her 2010 ‘Dirty Blonde Hair’ is firmly planted in Texas’ Hill Country in tone and in the impressive roster of some of Texas’ best songwriters – Jason Eady, Adam Hood, Mike Messick, Dani Flowers, Owen Temple and Wade Bowen. The latter who is co-writer with Wilson, and lends his vocals to, “Just Some Things.”

“Just Some Things” rides a waltz tempo perfectly timed to a flashing motel vacancy sign. Pedal steel softly wails as Wilson honeyed-timbre casts just the right shade of melancholy. Bowen counters with his weary baritone to fitfully complete this song of second-thoughts and near-misses.

The intimacy evoked is even more stunning considering that Wilson and Bowen had just started their songwriting collaboration and friendship.

“Wade and I were just barely friends when I asked him to write with me. I was happily surprised that he said yes. I had this line in my head “just some things you can’t take back”, and the idea of someone contemplating going down the wrong road. The idea to make it a duet was an afterthought, but I’m so glad we did. I think it takes the song to another place, where both characters have the same struggle. You know, maybe they’re married to each other and in different hotel rooms! The ALMOST cheatin’ song.”

Pre-oder ‘Holidays & Wedding Rings,’ out May 19.

Listen Up! Jason Isbell – “24 Frames”

Jason Isbell – “24 Frames”

Jason isbell told Rolling Stone that his new song “24 Frames” “…kind of sounds like the way indie rock sounded when I was 15.”

Isbell was 15 in 1994, a year when grunge and post-punk reigned. Though the keen melodic sensibility that echoed through the airwaves then has always been part of Isbell’s toolkit “24 Frames” also owes much to his Southern heritage. The tight-but-loose pop jangle is reminiscent of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and the wail of the slide has melancholy shades of Duane Allman.

But the songwriting is pure Isbell. He has a way of making the common moments exquisite.

“This is how you make yourself vanish into nothing; And this is how you make yourself worthy of the love she gave to you back when you didn’t own a beautiful thing.”

But all is not rosy and Isbell shows in the refrain, accompanied by Amanda Shires’ understated harmony, that plans are for fools.

“You thought God was an architect; now you know, He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow.”

Harkening it’s cinematic reference “24 Frames” is a sonic diorama of the human condition packed into 3:13.

Beautiful in it’s brevity.

’24 Frames’ can be found on ‘Something More Than Free,’ out 7/17. Pre-order it and get ’24 Frames’ as an immeadiate download.

Watch Out! The Avett Brothers and Brandi Carlile – “Keep On The Sunny Side” – David Letterman

The Avett Brothers and Brandi Carlile: "Keep On The Sunny Side"

The Avett Brothers and Brandi Carlile too to the always supportive Letterman stage in the Ed Sullivan Theatre in mid-town Manhatten to perform the quintessential American song, “Keep On The Sunny Side.”

The Ada Blenkhorn penned the Gospel tune in 1899 inspired by her disabled nephew who always wanted his wheelchair pushed down “the sunny side” of the street.

The Avetts and Brandi Carlile perform it pretty much as the Carter Family did when they famously recorded it in 1928. They look to be having a great time with Brandi flanked at a single mic with Seth on guitar and Scott on autoharp and rounded out by Bob Crawford on stand-up bass and Joe Kwon on cello.

http://youtu.be/AkqjAVZGTks