We mere mortals can only hope to be meager conduits for the grand themes of life – Love, hope, fear, death – these concepts are bigger then any one of us but that doesn’t stop the courageous and foolish from shaping these experiences into music and words.

Joe Pug, a Chicagoan sometimes-carpenter, is standing on the shoulders of Guthrie, Dylan, Van Zant, Prine, Clark, Simon and Young to join the ranks of present-day troubadours like Ryan Bingham, Willy Mason and Ray LaMontagne. Joe Pug’s songs belie this greenhorn’s recent foray into the craft of songwriting and his world-beaten voice belies his youth (early-twenties.)

“Hymn 101” is worth the price of admission alone. A trotting acoustic guitar supports the lyrics  “I’ve come here to get high, to do more than just get by, I’ve come to test the timbre of my heart.” and “I’ve come here to meet the sheriff and his posse, to offer him the broad side of my jaw, I’ve come here to get broke, and then maybe bum a smoke, we’ll go drinkin’ two towns over after all.” This is goddamn staggering in its courage and rich in it’s symbolism.

“Call It What You Will” has a mournful mood that brings to mind Townes Van Zandt at his most melancholy. “I call today a disaster, she calls in December the 3rd” Pug sings being at once melodramatic and nonchalant. You can almost feel the whiskey and brimstone on Pug’s breath when he sings “I am the day, I am the dawn, I am the darkness coming on” on the harmonica laced Hymn 35

There is a timeless quality to this 7 song EP, like a found chest of remembrances in your grandparent’s attic, there are treasures for this that pay attention. And the foolish courage of man armed with only an acoustic guitar standing as a lightening rod for the ages is a wonder to behold.

Joe Pug performing Hymn#101

Country music has some great male/female duos - Tammy Wynette & George Jones, Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner and now… Robert Plant and Alison Krauss? No really, let me ‘splain.

While Mssr. Plant and his partner in sonic larceny Jimmy Page spent most of their time pilfering Robert Johnson’s crossroads they never left the dirt roads to traverse the back woods and smokey mountains where Americana, country and roots music flourished. In plant’s own words “I completely missed a whole other area of amazing American music.”

The collaboration between the blonde bluegrass angel and blonde rock god was set in motion seven years ago when the two sang together at a 2004 Leadbelly tribute concert. The conduit to the to bring the project together came in the form of producer and musician T-Bone Burnett (’O Brother, Where Are Thou’ and ‘Walk The Line’.)

The result is a moody hushed world where sepia tinted country, fringe-folk and swaggering rockabilly fuse into a surprisingly cohesive whole. Like an unlikely collaboration between Angelo Badalamenti and Sam Phillips the alchemy on these thirteen sparsely-arranged cover versions is raw and mesmerizing - Krauss sings like a shimmering Nightingale, and sets a perfect counterpoint to Plant purr and growl. In tandem, they frequently reach moments of true transcendence last heard when Plant dueted with Sandy Denny on Zappelin 4’s (or Zoso) haunting mandolin-driven folk ballad “The Battle of Evermore.”

As you might expect of a recording of this pedigree the musicians are top of the line. Burnett’s hired guns Marc Ribot (guitar), Dennis Crouch (bass), Jay Bellarose (drums) and Norman Blake (acoustic guitar) are solid but restrained. Burnett has a knack for perfecting the early country and roots high lonesomeness that conjures hard fate and hone-spun menace that can only be labeled dark Americana.

The covers are picked with care with attention to diversity and songwriting mastery. Doc Watson’s “Your Long Journey”, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s “Trampled Rose”, Gene Clark waltz “Through the Morning, Everly Brothers’ “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)” and, most impressive, a discordant rendering of Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothing”and a Plant and Page number Please Read The Letter.”

Krauss and Plant trade solo and duet in deliriously beautiful harmony. I haven’t heard a duet release this good since Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell’s 2005’s release “Begonias.

I went to see Chris Knight about a year ago at a dive here in New York City. It was a great, albeit cozy, show. Once when Knight was about to launch into a song more geared to the tastes of the ladies he stated matter-of-factly “This is a song I wrote to broaden my appeal to the female demographic.”

The new release by Gary Allen - “Living Hard” - co-produced with Allan and Mark Wright, Allen co-wrote six of the album’s 11 cuts - seems to be him doing the same.

No artist has straddled the chasm of Nashville pop-mainstream and gritty Outlaw badlands better than Gary Allen in his career. By the time he made 1999’s Smoke Rings in the Dark Allen had marked his territory somewhere between the Bakersfield sound of his Southern California regional home and the early rockabilly-pop of Johnny Cash and Elvis. Though many times Nashville has attempted to drown Allen’s roadhouse mojo with sick production somehow his talent and spirit has won out.

“Watching Airplanes” kicks things off with a raucous yet lonely song that can only be pulled off on a country music album. Written by Jim Beavers and Jonathan Singleton the song is big and fearless. Mandolins, electric guitars, pedal steel and twinkling piano (!) blend with a string section and build to a point where Allen voice almost seems overtaken by the expanse.

The rhythmic opener for “We Touched the Sun” - written by Allen with Jim Lauderdale and Odie Blackmon is the opposite of the first. In spite of the power of the electric guitar and the lyrics that refer to breaking earthly limits he power of love, the song never breaks from the opening monotonous metronome.

“She’s So California” is where things go bad. Written by Allan with Jon Randall and Jaime Hanna. Sounding like a John Mellencamp ripoff we are treated with clunky lines like “She’s So California, She’s a wildfire out of control headed for ya.” Current natural tragedies aside the song makes me wish he had actually set fire to the song by breaking out with a jangly-pop straitjacket it suffers from. Short of that a match under the song-sheet might suffice.

“like It’s a Bad Thing”’s lyrics give testament to the rebel Allen can be. “They say I drive a little fast, Say I like to push the limit everyday I’m living my life as if it were my last.” This is a song were Allan and the band really shine. The guitars are big and loud and the drums are booming and tight. The keyboard are right out of a 70’s metal handbook.

With “Learning How To Bend” we’re headed down the road of Grey’s Anatomy pop. Weepy relationship melodrama with strings. I have to admit, this song hurt me to listen to such a man “bend” so low.

Except for the excellent “like It’s a Bad Thing” the rockers on ” Living Hard ” don’t rock (think Bon Jovi) and the country seems watered down (again, think Bon Jovi.) The entire release seems like a pulled punch from an artist not known for timidity. If this were a Kenny Chesney or Tim McGraw album, and I accidentally reviewed it, I would give them extra credit for branching out. For Allen, a man that has built his reputation challenges, this is a step back to safety.

Perhaps with everything he’s been through “Living Hard” is a signal that Allen is healing and getting past it all. Maybe this is the sound of his catharsis. If so I’m happy to hear it, I just hope it doesn’t also mean he’s no longer willing to take chances.

Right from the dreaded Curb site, Hank III’s new release , Damn Right Rebel Proud, will be unleashed December 18 on edit: now the site reads “Coming Soon.” Mike Curb is already pulling the same shit.

It’ll come in raunchy and wussy flavors.

Let’ s hope Curb is smart enough to drop this baby on schedule.

the tracklist:

1. The Grand Ole Opry
2. Wild & Free
3. Me & My Friends
4. 6 Pack Of Beer
5. I Wish I Knew
6. If You Can’t Help Your Own
7. Candidate For Suicide
8. H8 Line
9. Long Hauls And Close Calls
10. Stoned & Alone
11. P.F.F.

Props to Ninebullets.net for the news.

Hank III - Dick In Dixie-Cunt In County - Allentown PA - 9/26/07

Some things are naturally occurring, Texas Summer heat , death, taxes and Dwight Yoakam at some point in his career would release an album of covers by his mentor and friend Buck Owens.

After his fist release Dwight was soon introduced to the Texas native and they collaborated on Buck’s revived “The Streets of Bakersfield” to top the charts in 1988. The two stayed good friends until Buck Owen’s death on March 25, 2006 of a heart attack only hours after performing at his Crystal Palace restaurant and club.

Since releasing his first major label debut “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.” in 1986 Yoakam has been the heir apparent of the twangy, electrified, rock-influenced flavor of hardcore honky-tonk entitled the Bakersfield sound (from it’s regional birthplace Bakersfield, CA.) and made famous by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Like it’s mountain cousin Bluegrass, Bakersfield is the kind of music that separates the country music aficionado from the tourist. It wears it’s hillbilly roots on it’s Nudie suited spangled sleeve while also using rock arrangements and technology to move forward.

The Bakersfield sound was also a bracing counter to the syrupy country-pop being produced in Nashville in the ’60s. Yoakam was able to deftly revive the sound in the ’80s in reaction to the very same insipid country music environment.

Now comes the inevitable and precisely if obviously titled “Dwight Sings Buck.” A reprisal of fifteen of Buck Owens’ greatest releases including 11 top five hits, eight of which reached #1 on the country charts, spanning 1956 to 1967. Though there are no real stretches or deviations with Dwight’s arrangements of these familiar classics, there are some pleasant tweaks here and there.

The release kicks things off with a bang with “My Heart Skips A Beat” to let you know just what is in store. Rave up electrified guitars twang out a solid back beat. The songs melts deftly into “Foolin Around” with an even faster beat and innocent double entendres. The breadth of this release and Dwight masterful delivery of the songs reminds the listener just how influential Buck Owens was and how his Hee Haw corn-pone persona allowed people to dismiss him as the innovator he was on country and rock.

“Only You” is a cut with a noticeable difference in arrangement. It’s still a slow loping testament to lost love but Dwight starts out the song with an organ bringing to mind a church procession. The song then moves into a waltz and Dwight’s voice aches, cracks and brings out the lonely ache of wanting in the song’s lyrics.

That same ache also occurs on Dwight Sings Buck’s first released single “Close Up The Honky Tonks.” That ache that is at once lonely and comforting when you realize someone is out there putting these universal feelings to hillbilly poetry.

This Fall is shaping up to be a great one for country fans, Dwight Sings Buck is the joyous and passionate release on the top of that list.

Dwight Yoakam - Close Up The Honky Tonks

Thanks to JakobGreen at the Hank III board for this one -

American VI will be the second album of songs from the final recording sessions Johnny Cash made before he died. Like its predecessors, American Recordings, Unchained, American III: Solitary Man, American IV: The Man Comes Around, and American V: A Hundred Highways, American VI is produced by Rick Rubin and will be released on Rubin’s American Recordings record label. Lost Highway Records currently distributes country releases from the American Recordings label. Though the liner notes of Unearthed (a box set comprised of outtakes from the first four entries into the series) claim “around 50″ songs were recorded during the American V sessions prior to Cash’s death on September 12, 2003, only two albums worth of material will be released, including American V: A Hundred Highways.

One track known to be recorded during these sessions but not included on American V is “There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down”. Another track that could possibly be included is “A Satisfied Mind” which was released on the soundtrack to Kill Bill, Vol. 2. Rubin is credited as producer and the track is copyrighted 2003, which would suggest that it came from Cash’s final sessions.

Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day” was recorded by Cash weeks before his death and is a likely candidate for inclusion on American VI.

Doug Kershaw has told audiences in 2006 that he has heard Cash’s recording of Kershaw’s signature song “Lousiana Man”, but its status for inclusion on American VI is unknown.

According to a USA Today article, American VI could be released in early 2007. Most likely it will be released Mid-2007.

Track listing…

“A tentative track listing has been revealed on ManInBlack.net, a Johnny Cash fansite. It includes the following songs…”

1. “San Antonio”
2. “Redemption Day”
3. “Here Comes a Boy”
4. “That’s Enough”
5. “1st Corinthians 5:55″
6. “I Can’t Help But Wonder”
7. “Nine-Pound Hammer”
8. “North to Alaska”
9. “His Eyes on the Sparrow”
10. “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again”
11. “The Eye of an Eagle”
12. “Don’t Take Everybody for Your Friend”
13. “Belshazzar”
14. “Loading Coal”
15. “A Half a Mile a Day”
16. “Flesh and Blood”
17. “I Am a Pilgrim”
18. “Beautiful Dreamer”
19. “Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down”
20. “Family Bible”

From the forthcoming release “From the Cradle to the Grave” (Hyena Records)

Hey Todd Snider fans, good new coming by way of Upstage: (Nashville, TN) — Though singer/songwriter Todd Snider released his last album on Universal Records, he built up a strong and loyal following during his five-year tenure with Nashville based Oh Boy Records. Oh Boy Records sifted through their archives - and with Snider’s help - compiled a collection of rarities, B-sides and demos appropriately titled Peace, Love and Anarchy (Rarities, B-sides and Demos, Vol. 1). The album, which streets on April 3, is an invitation for us to peer in and watch a gypsy whittle, and for us to whistle along while he works.

Snider, praised as a next-in-line luminary by folks such as John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver, appears onstage as a barefoot tipsy gypsy, looking for all the world like he’s stumbling into brilliance, eloquence and gut-busting humor. It’s a great act, and this is not to say that he’s not himself out there. He is, and it’s his best self. It has landed him in hallowed performance halls, on the Jay Leno and David Letterman shows and in the good graces of his heroes.

What people don’t see, though, is the fellow who wakes early each morning, picks up a guitar and works on his poems. He writes them out by hand, and at first a Snider song is something like a big block of good wood. Then the knife comes out, the wood is shaped over days and weeks and sometimes years, and he shows it to people once he’s done with it. His recordings, too, blend the inspiration of a moment with a thousand afterthoughts. They wind up on finished recordings because they are… well, finished. Even the jagged stuff is there on for a purpose.

All of which makes Peace, Love and Anarchy (Rarities, B-Sides and Demos, Vol. 1) something of a revelation. Here are Snider’s songs at first blush. Some of these compositions - among them, “Nashville,” “Feels Like I’m Falling In Love” (for co-writer Jack Ingram), “Deja Blues” (for co-writer Shaver) and “Feel Like Missing You” - grew up to become master recordings, while “Nashville” was whittled down some more before appearing on the East Nashville Skyline album. The title song of the latter album never made the album in question, and it appears here for the first time, complete with resplendent harmonica/steel guitar interplay between Snider and the legendary Lloyd Green.

“Cheatham Street Warehouse” is a full-on rock ‘n’ roll tribute to a favorite Texas haunt, with Snider’s tough-as-the-blues electric guitar duel with Tommy Womack in the middle and Green’s searing steel solo dominating at song’s end. “Combover Blues” is a slice of poignant wit, and Snider can’t recall precisely why it was left off his original Oh Boy recordings. “I Will Not Go Hungry” is a weather-beaten spiritual reach, while the “Dinner Plans” haiku is all red wine reality.

“Stoney” is taken from the much-bootlegged but never-issued Todd Sings Jerry Jeff album that he recorded over a few nights in East Nashville as an aural thank-you note to one of his inspirers. He sat in a chair with eyes closed and played the songs from memory: Todd Snider knows Jerry Jeff Walker songs as well as he knows anything in the world, including but not limited to rolling paper techniques, lighter fluid methodology and San Francisco Giants baseball. “Some Things Are” is another openhearted endeavor, as is “From A Rooftop,” Snider’s postcard from the right side of town.

Peace, Love and Anarchy is not a post-contract, drag-the-lake affair. It is a carefully constructed collection, and a testament to the potency of a catalogue built during Snider’s five-year tenure with the small-but-stout Oh Boy Records family.

Todd Snider - Austin City Limits- This Land Is Your Land

Hellwood is a gothic roots-rock group featuring Jim White, Johnny Dowd and drummer Willie B.(Neko Case, Sally Timms). Recorded in a cabin in central New York, in a room with walls covered in newspaper clippings of musician obituaries, Hellwood’s “Chainsaw of Life” beings the minimalist approach of Johhny Dowd, the honky-tonk trip-hop of Jim White and the intricate percussion of Willie B. Hellwood wrapped up a Europeon tour late last year and the band is planning a tour of America this year.

The fine folks in the Drive By Truckers have released a free MP3 just in time for Christmas. It’s called Mrs. Clause’s Kimono (mp3) it’s a moody, loping Southern-fried carol for all you naughty boys and girls. Enjoy!