Category Archives: Legends

Asleep at the Wheel To Release ‘Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys’ 3/3/2015

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Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys,

“I think the…Western swing, or whatever you want to call it, will slack off for a little while and then I think some of these younger boys will come out here one of these days with a golden voice and it’ll build again.”—Bob Wills

After attending the Bob Wills Festival and Fiddle contest in Greenville, TX over the winter I developed a deep love for the Western Swing genre and for it’s creator, Bob Wills.

But I’m ready for more.

Luckily early in the new year Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel will again honor the legendary Bob Wills with ‘Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys,’ out March 3 on Bismeaux Records.

Exemplary Americana and country artists like The Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Buddy Miller, Elizabeth Cook, Lyle Lovett, Shooter Jennings, Brad Paisley and George Strait join the band on new interpretations on classics on, what looks like, a release that will best the previous two Will’s tributes from the band.

For over 40 years, Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel have been the deft practitioners and caretakers of Western swing craft, carrying Wills’ traditions across generations and the into the 21st century.

This release will be band’s third full-length Bob Wills tribute following 1998’s ‘Ride with Bob’ and 1993’s ‘A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills,’ with four GRAMMY awards and over half a million copies sold collectively.

From the press release:

“The new album features genre-spanning collaborations with critically acclaimed artists, old friends and new favorites including Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Jamey Johnson, Merle Haggard, George Strait, The Avett Brothers, Amos Lee, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lyle Lovett, Kat Edmonson, Robert Earl Keen and Tommy Emmanuel, among many others. The album is available for pre-order via PledgeMusic and iTunes with the track “Tiger Rag,” featuring Old Crow Medicine Show, delivered in advance of the release date as an immediate download. Asleep at the Wheel will be performing at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on March 4 with spring tour dates to be announced. Watch the exclusive video teaser HERE. Please see the full track listing below.

Widely considered “The King of Western Swing,” Bob Wills (1905-1975) and his Texas Playboys performed thousands of shows across the United Sates for nearly six decades and recorded prolifically in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s. Early stars of American country music, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were a dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers. “After 45 years of traveling and playing, it still amazes me how well this music, born in the 1920s and ‘30s, thrives in the present day,” says Benson. “The artists playing and singing on this collection range in age from folks in their 20s to former Texas Playboys 92-year-old Billy Briggs and 86-year-old Leon Rausch…certain evidence that Western swing music is alive and well as it cruises through the next millennium.” Bob Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and the National Fiddler Hall of Fame in 2007.

Based in Austin, Asleep at the Wheel formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia in 1970. Since their inception, the band has won nine GRAMMY awards, released more than 20 studio albums and charted more than 20 singles on the Billboard country charts. In 1971, the band signed their first record deal after Van Morrison mentioned they “play great country music” in an interview in Rolling Stone. Their debut record, Comin’ Right At Ya, was released in 1973 on United Artists. The release of Texas Gold in 1975 brought the band national recognition, with the single “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” becoming a top-ten country hit. The band has been awarded “Touring Band of the Year” (CMAs, 1976) and the “Lifetime Achievement in Performance” (Americana Music Awards 2009). In 2010, they earned a GRAMMY nomination in the newly minted Best Americana Album category for their critically acclaimed Willie & The Wheel, on Bismeaux Records.

Owned by Ray Benson, Bismeaux Records has won “Best Local Record Label” three years consecutively in the Austin Music Awards. Between 2005 and 2012, Ray Benson wrote, produced and starred in the Bob Wills musical A Ride With Bob. The production sold 70,000 tickets in 18 cities nationwide including the Kennedy Center in 2006. In 2007, Benson performed with Carrie Underwood & Johnny Gimble on the GRAMMY Awards Telecast in a special GRAMMY Salute to Bob Wills.”

Pre-order here

‘Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys’ tracklist:

1. Intro—Texas Playboy Theme (with Leon Rausch)
2. I Hear Ya Talkin’ (with Amos Lee)
3. The Girl I Left Behind (with The Avett Brothers)
4. Trouble In Mind (with Lyle Lovett)
5. Keeper Of My Heart (with Merle Haggard and Emily Gimble)
6. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (with Kat Edmonson)
7. Tiger Rag (with Old Crow Medicine Show)
8. What’s The Matter With The Mill (with Pokey LaFarge)
9. Navajo Trail (with Willie Nelson and The Quebe Sisters)
10. Silver Dew On The Bluegrass Tonight (with The Del McCoury Band)
11. Faded Love (with The Time Jumpers)
12. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way) (with George Strait)
13. I Had Someone Else Before I Had You (with Elizabeth Cook)
14. My Window Faces The South (with Brad Paisley)
15. Time Changes Everything (with Buddy Miller)
16. A Good Man Is Hard To Fine (with Carrie Rodriguez and Emily Gimble)
17. Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas (with Robert Earl Keen and Ray Benson)
18. Brain Cloudy Blues (with Jamey Johnson and Ray Benson)
19. Bubbles In My Beer (with The Devil Makes Three)
20. It’s All Your Fault (with Katie Shore)
21. Three Guitar Special (with Tommy Emmanuel, Brent Mason and Billy Briggs)
22. Bob Wills Is Still The King (with Shooter Jennings, Randy Rogers and Reckless Kelly)

Watch Out! Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson – ‘Who’ll Buy My Memories’ [VIDEO]

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Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson - 'Who'll Buy My Memories'

It’s a bumper year for Willie Nelson fans. The best selling ‘Band of Brothers” was released over the summer and as reported earlier, his second album of 2014, December Day, a collection cut with his sister and longtime musical partner Bobbie Nelson will be released next week .

Nelson has just releases a video for an updated version of his song “Who’ll Buy My Memories,” from his 1992 ‘IRS Tapes’ which helped pay of his well-publicized tax debt at the time.

The video is a quiet and intimate look at the Nelson siblings doing what they’ve been doing for over 40 years. Playing in beautiful harmony.

The Last Waltz -Reflections and Alternate Footage

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On November 25th, 1976, Thanksgiving Day, San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom was the setting for the end of an era. One that had started seventeen years earlier when Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson aligned as The Hawks, a backing band for rockabilly pioneer Ronnie Hawkins.

The concert most famously known as ‘The Last Waltz,’ from the Martin Scorsese documentary and resulting best-selling soundtrack, was part fan’s, friend’s and peer’s celebration of a legendary band and a grand and final statement mandated by Robertson, who unilaterally wanted to end The Band as a touring entity.

Through Scorsese’s studied gaze, and his love of music, the film delivers an intimate and exuberant slice of music history But off-screen business maneuvering, lawyers and a fair amount of paranoia and hubris tainted the celebration and drove a wedge between Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson that time, and lawyers, never remedied.

As Helm recalled in his book ‘This Wheel’s on Fire’ Robertson “… was saying he was sick of it all. He wanted to keep on recording with us, but not go on the road. ‘We’re not learning anything, man. It’s not doing anything for us, and in fact it feels dangerous to me. Look what’s happening, Levon. I’m getting superstitious. Look at Dayton Stratton (a friend and associate of The Band who had died in an air crash). Every time I get on the plane I’m thinking about this stuff. The whole thing just isn’t healthy anymore.’

Set designer Boris Leven lent a deft hand in creating a cozy yet grand stage aesthetic. Using stored props from Opera Company of San Francisco’s production of Verdi’s opera ‘La Traviata’ – columns, chandeliers, crimson wall hangings – Leven grandly melded lavish pomp with living room comfort to set a fitting au revoir.

Contrast this with the ‘Cocteau Room.’ A backstage space painted white walls to ceiling, with white carpeting. Also furnished was a glass table strewn with razor blades for the express purpose of cocaine use for the gathered guests. Helm remembers Scorsese being so wired that “he talked so fast I barely understood a word he said.”

Though there’s no denying the talent and magic of some of the performances, I’m left wondering if this was a bit of thunder stealing. After a spirited full set by The Band, complete with horns arranged by Allen Toussaint, the latter portion of the bill relinquished The Band to back-up positions. Not only of their former frontmen Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan but also for Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison and others who performed their own songs.

Though this no doubt broadened the marketing potential for the movie and soundtrack I personally believe it was taking the spotlight from its proper focus, The Band and their musical legacy. Wouldn’t it have been more fitting, and appropriate if these artists were brought on to support the group in their own songs and them maybe then given one of their own? I believe so.

But it’s all history now, and the music remains. This was even more poignant to me after I happened across this great raw footage of the event. Footage that shows the performances like the crowd that night experienced it.

Let us give thanks that The Band was with us, no matter how briefly, and left a rich musical trail-blazing legacy still followed, and celebrated today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiEWeaM-D78

Steve Earle To Release His 16th Studio Album, “Terraplane,” and Memoir in 2015

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Steve Earle "Terraplane"

2015 is looking pretty bright roots music people. Steve Earle is again working with the current version of The Dukes – Kelly Looney, Will Rigby, Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore – and will release his 16th studio effort “Terraplane” on February 17th. The album will also feature another great cover by longtime Earle collaborator Tony Fitzpatrick.

Earle will also release his memoir ‘I Can’t Remember If We Said Goodbye,’ published by Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group.

The album follows fellow roots artist like Ray Wylie Hubbard and Lucinda Williams into more blues focused territory.

From the press release:

” ‘Terraplane’ takes its title from the 1930s Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit model, which also inspired the Robert Johnson song “Terraplane Blues.” … As its title suggests, the album is very much a blues record, a third of which was written while Earle toured Europe alone for five weeks with just a guitar, a mandolin and a backpack. Earle, who was raised outside of San Antonio before migrating to Houston, offers about Texas blues, “There was Fort Worth where the model was Freddy King, and there was the Houston scene which was dominated by Lightnin’ Hopkins. Two very different styles.” He saw both of these giants, and was also exposed to Johnny Winter, Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Billy Gibbons, all of which make their influence heard here within Earle’s masterful storytelling. ”

“Earle states in the Terraplane album liner notes, “…the blues are anything but superficial. In fact, they run so deep and dark and close to the bone that folks walk around everyday with the blues as though it were perfectly natural for a human being to go on living with a broken heart (apologies to Tony Kushner).” He continues, “For my part, I’ve only ever believed two things about the blues: one, that they are very democratic, the commonest of human experience, perhaps the only thing that we all truly share and two, that one day, when it was time, I would make this record.” ”

The album was produced by R.S. Field (Buddy Guy, John Mayall), engineered by Earle’s longtime production partner Ray Kennedy, and recorded at House of Blues Studio D in Nashville, TN.

‘Terraplane’ will be available as a compact disc, deluxe CD/DVD combo as well as as 180g vinyl. The deluxe version of the album will include 24-bit high-res audio of the album as well as a long-form interview between Earle and acclaimed journalist Mark Jacobson, three live, acoustic songs filmed on the porch of House of Blues Studio D, and a behind-the-scenes short film about the making of the album.

2015 will also see the publication of Earle’s memoir ‘I Can’t Remember If We Said Goodbye,’ published by Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group. Earle has been a featured actor on the HBO Original Series “The Wire” and “Treme,” and also appears in the upcoming films “The World Made Straight” and “Dixieland.” He can be seen in many episodes of the Foo Fighters HBO Original Series “Sonic Highways” and also co-wrote the title track with Marianne Faithfull for her new studio album Give My Love To London.

Steve Earle & The Dukes – Terraplane Track Listing:
1. Baby Baby Baby (Baby)
2. You’re The Best Lover That I Ever Had
3. The Tennessee Kid
4. Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now
5. Better Off Alone
6. The Usual Time
7. Go Go Boots Are Back
8. Acquainted With The Wind
9. Baby’s Just As Mean As Me
10. Gamblin’ Blues
11. King Of The Blues

Earle announced four January residency performances at the City Winery in New York City, where he resides :

January 5 – New York, NY @ City Winery *
January 12 – New York, NY @ City Winery +
January 19 – New York, NY @ City Winery
January 26 – New York, NY @ City Winery

* With Willie Watson
+ With Shawn Colvin

Live Review: Sturgill Simpson – Club DaDa – Dallas, Tx – 11/15/14

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Sturgill Simpson - Club DaDa - Dallas, Tx - 11/15/14

Music is not a static thing. There is no such thing as a pure form of music.

The current hand-wringing around the state of country music implies that there’s some pure, better form of the music that we are denying at best, losing at worst. It;s not new. The same worry of a lost way is a constant topic around most genres. Rock is dead. Punk is head. Hip-Hop has sold out. Bro country is the new satan.

The struggle between art and commerce is the core of this discussion. In order for a performer to continue to make music they need the freedom, creative freedom as well as freedom from starvation.

Since Bristol folk music been driven from the fields and porches and into commodity. It’s a reality and there’s no turning back, and it’s or the best. If not for commodification and musicians being monetarily rewarded for producing music we as fans would not have much of the music that’s become a part of our lives.

In country music Music Row has long been the standard to adhere to and rail against. Music Row’s push toward mitigation of risk by driving standardization and homogeny is a page right out of the Henry Ford and McDonalds book of business. This makes lot’s of money but leads to mediocre music. Sometimes the pendulum swings too far.

The slick Nashville Sound of Eddy Arnold led to the harder Bakersfield Sound with Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Outlaw Country was a latter reaction to the controlled, top-down production of the Music Row studio system. The neo-traditional wave of the 80’s – Randy Travis, Lyle Lovett, Rosanne Cash, Keith Whitley, Marty Stuart, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam was a salvo against the cultural and economic juggernaut known as Urban Cowboy movement.

When George Strait and Alan Jackson joined forces to chastise the industry on “Murder on Music Row,” they were setting their sights directly on that savvy self-promoter Garth Brooks.

So is the midst of bro-country brouhaha we have a new country music savior. Like these other, dare I say, outlaws Sturgill Simpson is the ultimate outsider. Exacting in his sound and themes, indifferent about current style (music and fashion) Sturgill’s working his variation of 70’s hard country music that 30 years before was mined by neo-traditionalists like Dwight Yoakam. And there appears to be a new audience hungry for a similar sound.

A stark contrast to the Merle Haggard show I attended a few days before, the crowd was young but no less reverent. 20 and 30 somethings arrived at Dallas’ storied Club DaDa to catch a sound that their grandparents might enjoyed at Billy Bob’s decades before.

The pendulum swings.

After some last minute changes by the local promoter due to chilly weather and to accommodate grumbling fans left ticketless from the small venue (I believe Sturgill could have sold out The Granada) the crowd was packed, primed and a little pickled.

Baltimore native opener Cris Jacobs had a daunting task confronting this rowdy crowd. But his Chris Stapleton-like soulful croon and dexterity on the acoustic and cigar box guitar quickly won us all over.

Once Jacobs set ended within minutes Simpson enters the stage to the roar of the crowd, which was the only signal that something had happened. No big announcements or set changes, just…Sturgill Simpson lead guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. It’s startling in the world of entertainment big entrances how effective this was.

And without pomp and choreographed gyrations to distract a crowd you need to deliver, and Simpson and band did just that. Estonian-born guitarist Laur Joamets is a present day Don Rich. His throwback Travis Tritt looks and mastery of that staple of country music , the fender Telecaster, showed why Simpson, no slouch on the guitar himself, gave him the gig.

Simpson looks menacingly into the crowd with a crooked smile and sang his songs about hillbillies and mind-altering substances and the crowd responded in dizzying accord. The audience’s singing was so enthusiastic that during the hits ‘Turtles All The Way Down ” and “Living the Dream,” the band was barely decipherable and many passages Simpson just the crowd at it, and smiled.

Which makes me wonder, is it a hit if radio refuses to play it? The crowds response gives me all the answer I need.

This night, this show, this crowd – it all had a feeling of once in a lifetime event. Like you’ll never see this man in a venue this small again. with the late-night show appearances and sold-out shows he’s moving on to bigger places.

But no matter how big this becomes Simpson is keeping it all in perspective. On his bus after the show show Simpson confesses ‘This has been a wild year , and I’m thankful. But I remember those nights when nobody came. you can’t take this for granted.”

Simpson is a tipping point of other traditionally like-minded folks like Jamey Johnson and Kacey Musgraves that are at the right place, at the right time. And more importantly, with great songs and a sense of history, but without a dogged allegiance it it.

Is Simpson country music’s savior? No, it’s doesn’t need saving. bUt he and his fans are having a hell of a tie riding the pendulum as it swings.

Listen Up! Old 97’s – “Eyes For You”

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Old 97's debut ‘Hitchhike to Rhome.’

As I previously posted Omnivore Recordings today releases the Old 97’s alt.country standard-bearing debut, ‘Hitchhike to Rhome.’

Before you head over and get your copy (and you should,) check out the barn-burning (and unsettling) cut “Eyes For You,” below. The rave-up was selected by the band and co-producer Ken Bethea for this reissue and shows the boys at their hall-bent finest.

The version was first in Chicago in ’95 for Bloodshot Record’s “Early Tracks” and as a limited red vinyl edition (1000) 7″ single.

This version was cut in Dallas a year earlier during the original ‘Hitchhike to Rhome’ sessions, but was not included on it’s release.

Buy a few to stuff in those pitifully empty stockings over the fireplace.

CD TRACK LIST:
Disc One
St. Ignatius
504
Drowning In The Days
Miss Molly
Dancing With Tears
4 Leaf Clover
Wish The Worst
Old 97’s Theme
Doreen
Hands Off
Mama Tried
Stoned
If My Heart Was A Car
Desperate Times
Ken’s Polka Thing
Tupelo County Jail
Disc Two
St. Ignatius (demo cassette version)
Drowning In The Days (demo cassette version)
Making Love With You (demo cassette version)

Stoned (demo cassette version)
Dancing With Tears (demo)*
Ivy (demo)*

Eyes For You*

Crying Drunk*

Victoria*

Old 97’s Theme Spgeddi*
Alright By Me*

Desperate Times*
LP TRACK LIST:
Side One
St. Ignatius
504
Drowning In The Days
Miss Molly
Dancing With Tears
Side Two
4 Leaf Clover
Wish The Worst
Old 97’s Theme
Tupelo County Jail
Doreen
Hands Off
Side Three
Mama Tried
Stoned

If My Heart Was A Car
Desperate Times
Ken’s Polka Thing
Tupelo County Jail
Side Four
Crying Drunk*

Dancing With Tears (demo)
Ivy (demo)*

Victoria*

Eyes For You*
Old 97’s Theme Spgeddi*
* Previously unissued
– See more at: http://www.twangnation.com/2014/10/13/omnivore-recordings-to-release-expanded-20th-anniversary-of-old-97s-debut-hitchhike-to-rhome-november-17/#sthash.Wbhq2UGk.dpuf

Merle Haggard / Marty Stuart Deliver a Powerful Double-Shot – Bass Hall, Ft. Worth 11/12/14

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Merle Haggard / Marty Stuart A Powerful One, Two Punch - Bass Hall, FT. Worth 11/12/14

On a North Texas night chilled by an early winter snap Merle Haggard and Marty Stuart brought a welcome reprieve by turning up the heat.

“I hope you didn’t come looking for some fancy show. If you did you just wasted your money!” Stuart grinned, making a reference to the lavish Ft. Worth venue typically showcasing symphonies, ballets, operas and musicals.

But not tonight. This cold night the capacity-filled Bass hall had been transformed into a rowdy roadhouse, though a tad highfalutin one.

No chairs or longnecks were thrown (and no chicken wire across the stage required) during Stuart’s set but the atmosphere created was just that. Stuart is the consummate showman – in tight leather pants and silver rooster comb of hair – as he worked the crowd into a frenzy. Well, the crowd was largely equally as sliver, so let’s say a tizzy. He and his always extraordinary band, the Fabulous Superlatives – Kenny Vaughan on guitar, Harry Stinson on drums and Paul Martin on bass, – brought a level of bluegrass-level virtuosity that Start had honed personally from his many years in country music, including his start with Lester Flatt. The majority of the brief but satisfying set was from their just-released double album, “Saturday Night/Sunday Morning.” Honky-tonk barn-burners mixed with Gospel pew-kneelers set toes-tapping and hands-clapping.

And in the case of Stuart’s astonishing mandolin solo, jaws dropping.

As Merle Haggard said later in the program “Marty likes to work in Nashville, I DON’T! But he keeps that town alive.”

Stuart introduced the 77-year-old Haggard as he strolled out on stage as nonchalantly as a living legend might.

Decked in Blacks slacks, boosts and a black jacket with brown leather trim (my bets a Manual exclusive) a fedora/cowboy hybrid chapéu and dark sunglasses, The Hag wasted no time launching into “Big City.”

The classics kept coming, his own hits like “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star,” Silver Wings,” “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” and others including Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” Blaze Foley’s “If I Could Only Fly,” and the Townes Van Zandt he and Willie made into a radio staple “Pancho and Lefty.”

A hush fell over the crowd during his reverent rendition of “Are the Good Times Really Over.” As the song reminiscences simpler times, and better music, without resorting to saccharin tropes of as he asks teh question most of us ask whe watching a oucntry awards program, “Are the good times really over for good?”

Not as long as Haggard and Stuart walk this earth.

Haggard appeared to be a bit winded and he mentioned several times about “Being out of breath” and feeling like he was having an “asthma attack.” Given hsi recent history with health issue there was palpable concern and calls of encouragement as he sipped some hot tea a delivered on-stage by a background singer.

The one soap-box moment of the night came when Haggard asked the audience who was in favor for legalization of marijuana? He then asked “Who’s against it?” Following rhetorically with, “Why?” (video below)

Are the good times really over for good? Not as long as Haggard and Stuart walk this earth.

Merle Haggard’s set list: “Big City,” “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star,” Silver Wings,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink,” “If I Could Only Fly,” “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive,” “Mama Tried,” “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “If We Make It Through December,” “Are the Good Times Really Over,” “Pancho and Lefty,” “Footlights,” “Train of Life,” “San Antonio Rose,” “Old Fashioned Love,” “Working in Tennessee” (with Marty Stuart) and “Okie From Muskogee” (with Marty Stuart) No encore.

GhostTunes Contest

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GhostTunes

The headlines are full of performers not happy with the current market conditions for their music. Few have the will (or the clout) to build their own marketplace to take on the establishment.

Garth Brooks has used his massive comeback, releasing ‘Man Against Machine, his first album in 13 years along with a string of sold-out shows, to shine a light on these economic conditions and his own full-service music platform , which goes live today.

From the press release “GhostTunes focuses on providing the best music experience for both artists and the fans that love their music. Fans are able to listen to their music immediately upon purchase from the GhostTunes platform, without having to download the content to their device. Fans can also download their purchased content to play with the audio player of their choice on a phone, tablet or computer.”

Will this change things? Perhaps. For now it’s changed the conversation.

Leave a comment below for chance to win a $12.99 gift card and judge for yourself.

A winner will be chosen at random this evening at 7pm CST.

Good luck!

Loretta Lynn Signs With Sony Legacy, New Album In The Works For Next Year

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Loretta Lynn

LynnThe reining Queen of Country Music inked her fist new record deal in more than a decade.

Following Willie Nelson to Sony Legend the new agreement covers “several albums of new material,” produced by Lynn’s daughter Patsy L Russell and John Carter Cash, recorded over the past seven years at the Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, Tenn.

The first title is plannned for release in 2015 and will be the artist’s first collection of new recordings since 2004’s Grammy-winning Jack White collaberation “Van Lear Rose,”

Lynn, Russell and Cash have beenworking togather at Cash Cabin Studio sice 2007. The materian “explores Lynn’s musical history spanning Appalachian folk songs and gospel music she learned as a child, to new interpretations of her classic hits and country standards, to songs newly-written for the project.

Drawing inspiration from personal memories and connections to American music, Lynn’s new recordings “capture the essence of these songs in intimate new performances, the way they might’ve sounded growing up in the 1930’s and 40’s in Butchers Hollow, Ky.”

Lynn appeared on the Country Music Awards last night, signing “You’re Looking at Country” with diciple Kacey Musgraves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7E_UGE4h0

Emmylou Harris To Be Honored By Roots Peers at Washington Event

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THE LIFE & SONGS OF EMMYLOU HARRIS

It is my opinion that Emmylou Harris can’t have enough tributes or be handed enough awards for her contribution to American music.

On January 10th, 2015 an impressive ensemble of roots and country performers will rightly come together to honor her in “The Life and Songs of Emmylou Harris.” The concert will take place in Washington DC’s DAR Constitution Hall, and will feature performances by Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow, Mary Chapin Carpenter,Mavis Staples, Martina McBride, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Trampled By Turtles, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Rodney Crowell, Iron & Wine, Shawn Colvin, Shovels & Rope, Joan Baez, Sara Watkins and The Milk Carton Kids. Harris will take the stage to perform with a number of special guests throughout the night. Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.\\\\

Grammy Award-winners Don Was and Buddy Miller will serve as music directors that will lead an all-star band backing the performers at this incredible concert event taping. Keith Wortman is the creator and executive producer of the show along with Harris’ manager Ken Levitan. Was and Wortman’s recent work together includes extraordinary concert events honoring music icons such as Johnny Cash, Levon Helm and Gregg Allman, amongst others.

“Emmylou Harris and her songs have inspired music fans and musicians all over the world,” said Was. Miller added, “I have been blessed to be both a dear friend and music partner of Emmy’s, and look forward to an extraordinary night of music.” “I am privileged to produce a concert event of this magnitude that honors an artist as special and important as Emmylou Harris. This will be one of those nights where every fan wishes they were in the building,” said Wortman.

The event will be taped but there is no mention of streaming live or dates for when event might be aired/released.

Tickets go on sale at November 7 at 10am

For more info head to songsofemmylou.com