Remember the sound of live music in a packed bar? As a fan during these COVID times we get wistful for those moments, but performers experience a deeper longing as well as the joy. And those feelings shine through in the twang-drenched ‘Honky Tonk Stage’ cut by Kyle LaLone.
Of the cut LaLone says – “I have performed, toured, and recorded with dozens of artists of nearly every style in just about every setting you could imagine,†he points out. “From dive bars and clubs across the country to large outdoor festivals in the UK and Canada.†LaLone has toured the US several times, had residencies with different bands in both NYC and Los Angeles and has even toured Alaska. “It’s been a struggle to stay afloat at times but I am proud and grateful to be making a living as a musician.â€
Kyle LaLone’s new single ‘Honky Tonk Stage,’ co-written with good friend and fellow country singer-songwriter Elijah Ocean, is a depiction of a weekend night playing a 4 hour bar gig at a honky tonk. Both LaLone and Ocean have spent hundreds of hours performing on various honky tonk stages over the last few years. The song is meant to convey the joy, pride, and hard work put in by working country musicians.
We are proud to feature the wonderful throwback tune ‘Honky Tonk Stage’ below.
Kyle LaLone- lead vocals, electric guitar
Elijah Ocean- background vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, drum programming, percussion
Jeremy Long- piano and organ
Dave Bernal- harmonica
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Elijah Ocean
Photo and design by Elijah Ocean
Long-time roots-revivalist William Elliott Whitmore is set to release his eighth studio full-length album ‘I’m With You’ on October 16. ‘I’m With You.’ on Bloodshot Records. This will be his first release of original material since 2015’s ‘Radium Death.’
The first single “My Mind Can Be Cruel to Me,†the video is below
Whitmore said of “My Mind Can Be Cruel to Me:â€
“The song “My Mind is Cruel to Me†is about perception. Our memories and thoughts can be torturous at times. Mark Twain called it the “devil’s race trackâ€, when a line of thought and worry goes around and around in a circle inside our brains. Is the mind a separate entity from the body? At what point does it feel as though our brains are actually betraying us?”
“Human beings are a complicated animal, and with that comes complicated emotions, fears, and habits. This video is meant to show that. Are the other band members real or not? It’s hard to remember, but I swear they were breathing and talking when we filmed it. The bass player, my friend Wolfina, kept messing up takes. I’m pretty sure I’m recalling that correctly. The guitar player, Patsy Decline, was trying to mimic the pedal steel part on her semi-hollow body electric. She did a great job I thought, really captured the spirit. I’ll never forget the time we had, it’s good to be around friends.”
Sounds like just the song for these socially isolated times.
“I’m With You” track listing:
Put It to Use
Solar Flare
My Mind Can Be Cruel to Me
MK Ultra Blues
History
Everything We Need
Save Ourselves
I’m Here
Black Iowa Dirt
Remember alt.country? The Old 97’s and their legions of fans worldwide haven’t. And those fans will be rewarded when the Dallas’ stalwarts deliver their 12th album, ‘Twelfth,’ on August 21st.
To drive home the title even further the cover features the most famous #12 of them all, the legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach airborne and in fine form.
The band began recording ‘Twelfth’ in Nashville’s Sputnik Sound Studio last spring, just as tornadoes ripped through the city as they watched from their rented condo.
Though The Old 97’s records and live performances are rollicking fun with a debauchery chaser, the new release will reflect singer and principal songwriter Rhett Miller’s newfound sobriety (five years this summer.) Though the topics might be more clear-eyed and focused if the newly releaseD cut ‘Turn Off The TV’ (see the Liam Lynch directed video below) is representative of the rest of the album, it’s still sure to be lots of fun.
‘Twelfth’ track list:
– Confessional Boxing
– Diamonds On Neptune
– I Like You Better
– Happy Hour
– Absence (What We’ve Got)
– Turn Off The TV
– This House Got Ghosts
– Why Don’t We Ever Say We’re Sorry
– Belmont Hotel
– Bottle Rocket Baby
– Our Year
– The Dropouts
Sometimes you just want to stretch out after a long days work and have a beer and daydream about simpler times. 24-year-old Canadian crooning cowboy Colter Wall writes and performs songs perfectly suited for such an activity. Now more songs of dusty trails and scenic Canadian locals are on the way when Wall releases his third album late this summer. “Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs” is slated for a August 28th release as the follow-up to his 2018 album “Songs of the Plains.”
Wall rounded up his hard-working touring band — Patrick Lyons (pedal steel, dobro, mandolin), Jake Groves (harmonica), Jason Simpson (bass), and Aaron Goodrich (drums); joined by Emily Gimble on piano and Doug Moreland on fiddle — and recorded and self-produced “Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs” at Adam Odor and David Percefull’s Yellow Dog Studio in Wimberley, Texas.
Ahead of the album’s release, Wall has shared a new song “Western Swing & Waltzes,†a more relatively upbeat offering than his past faire.
“Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs” Track listing:
1. Western Swing & Waltzes
2. I Ride An Old Paint/Leavin’ Cheyenne
3. Big Iron
4. Henry and Sam
5. Diamond Joe
6. High and Mighty
7. Talkin’ Prairie Boy
8. Cowpoke
9. Rocky Mountain Rangers
10. Houlihans at the Holiday Inn
Neo-trad Texas troubadour Charley Crockett just gave us another reason to look forward to summer. He’s just announced his next studio album, “Welcome To Hard Times,” will be released July 31st on Thirty Tigers.
“Welcome To Hard Times” is produced by Mark Neill (The Black Keys, Old 97s) with songwriting contributions from Pat McLaughlin (Steve Wariner, Tanya Tucker, Delbert McClinton) and Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), “Welcome To Hard Times” is described as a “genre-bending mix of classic country, psychedelic spaghetti western and rhythm & blues. It may draw on heritage sounds, but this aptly-named collection perfectly fits these troubled times.”
Crockett’s vision for the record seems fatalistic if hopeful, “This record is for the folks who feel like everything’s fixed. If you think you’re playing a rigged game, you’re right. If it seems like all the cards are marked in advance, they are. But you still gotta roll the dice, even when you know they’re loaded.“
Crockett released the album title track, and it’s accompanying video, co-directed by Crockett and Bobby Cochran, which premiered today with American Songwriter Magazine.(watch below) Shot on location in the Sierra Nevadas, it will feature as part of a series of videos Crockett is shooting and directing over the next month, where he will play the same character walking alone through isolated landscapes in the American wilderness. Discussing the video concept, Crockett stated, “Whether it’s out of admiration or fear, the whole world contemplates what the west means. When folks ask me what I’m really after, I guess that’s it. Just to drift through it all my days. I’m making films that visually represent this land just as my music describes it in sound.â€
Crockett is no stranger to hard times. In early January 2019, while at a routine doctor’s checkup. Crockett was diagnosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome, a congenital heart condition, as well as Aortic Valve disease, and he had to immediately undergo life-saving heart surgery. Crockett believes that this experience inspired him to make the record that he truly wanted.
Crockett stated, “I look at that scar and all I can think about is the limited amount of time I’ve got left, I wanted to make an album that would try to reclaim the conversation about country music.†Crockett added, “My entering country music has been controversial, to say the least but I believe country fans have more eclectic tastes than they are given credit for. My country music is inspired by what I played in the subway car so I could eat, in the French Quarter in ragtag bands. I sat in pastures on farms across this country putting it all together into my own sound. I don’t like labels but if that ain’t country I don’t know what is.â€
Crockett grew up in poverty and spent time living homeless and busking making his way from New Orleans to the subway platforms of New York City. Crockett also lost his sister to addiction and he is a twice-convicted felon and was falsely implicated in his own brother’s crimes, “I’ve gotten more than my fair share of raw deals in my thirty-six years. But I don’t let hard-luck own me.†Crockett stated, adding, “I’ve been fortunate enough to see things that a person from my background is never meant to see, and that’s worth something. It turns out that a wandering boy can learn a whole lot out there getting in trouble. Especially if he learns from his mistakes. I wouldn’t take anything back that’s happened to me. I’m not the best and I damn sure ain’t the first. But I’m different, and in music, that’s everything.â€
In spite of these challenges, Crockett has remained steadfast and persistent in his music career, releasing a catalog of critically respected self-released albums including “The Valley” and “Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza”, which garnered critical acclaim.
Without the support of a major record label deal, Crockett has established himself as a breakthrough independent artist and the master of his own success. Generating over 36 million total streams across his song catalog, growing a grassroots following from his sold-out shows across America and Europe and making debuts at Stagecoach Festival, the Grand Ole Opry, and Newport Folk Festival.
Welcome To Hard Times was recorded in Valdosta, Georgia at Mark Neil’s studio. Mark shared Charley’s vision to make “a dark gothic country record.†Neil stated, “It was a pleasure to have been involved in what I believe to be the best gulf and western country record ever made.†The album was recorded with a studio band consisting of Kullen Fox, Colin Colby, Alexis Sanchez, Mario Valdez, Nathan Fleming, Billy Horton and Mackenzie Rosser.
Welcome To Hard Times tracklist:
Welcome To Hard Times
Run Horse Run
Don’t Cry
Tennessee Special
Fool Somebody Else
Lily My Dear
Wreck Me
Heads You Win
Rainin’ In My Heart
Paint It Blue
Black Jack County Crain
The Man That Time Forgot
The Poplar Tree
With less than 3 weeks until ‘World On The Ground’ is released Sarah Jarosz has been busy on her social platforms offering fans 3 songs from the album and some media interviews including her tips on making sourdough bread.
So here’s everything I know about the new release from Sarah Jarosz.
The Title:
Sarah Jarosz’s new album is titled “World On The Ground.” It’s her first new album in four years.
Record Label:
Jarosz’s new album is on Rounder Records. This is her first release for the label.
Producer:
Jarosz worked with John Leventhal (Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello,) and the album was recorded in his Manhattan home studio. Jarosz credits Leventhal with helping inspire her new songwriting direction toward more storytelling.
The Album Cover: Sarah Jarosz – “World On The Ground”
Released Songs:
Jarosz has released three songs in the runup to the “World On The Ground” release. “Johnny,” “Orange and Blue,” and “Maggie” (hear them below.)
The Songs
“World On The Ground” will contain 10 songs. The songs released so far, and in as covered in interviews, take on more of a protagonist narrative form, Of the song “Maggie” Jarosz recalls it coming to her soon after attending her 10-year high school reunion in Wimberley, Texas,
“It’s is the only one that’s actually based on a real friend I’ve lost touch with…” Jarosz explains. “I was probably complaining about never being in one place, but she said, ‘That’s all I want.’ So the song is about her, but it’s also about the greater thing: it’s about having compassion for someone who doesn’t have the means to get out of their circumstances but still has the dreams.”
World On The Ground Tracklist:
Eve
Pay It No Mind
Hometown
Johnny
Orange and Blue
I’ll Be Gone
Maggie
What Do I Do
Empty Square
Little Satchel
It is an unfortunate and unforeseen turn of events that one of the most anticipated albums of the year would be released during a worldwide pandemic that has put the entire music industry on its heels.
B.J. Barham, principal songwriter, frontman and the last original member of North Carolina’s American Aquarium,
has been tilling the thematic fields of adversity and resilience over the band’s 15-year existence. Historical hardships of beleaguered farmers at the mercy of king tobacco, disappearing jobs, and a flood of opioids used to chemically salve the indignity. Demons of doubt, drink and destruction have yielded a bitter fruit who’s popularity with fans proves a trope of country music. Misery loves company.
But for many (most?) of the fans, this has been misery by proxy. But no more.
We now find ourselves in strange, troubled, and tribal times. Politicians exploit our fears and confusion for personal agendas, the media baits us to rage click-and-shares in a culturally corrosive model that, while momentarily lucrative, undermines the very foundation of a free press. Then there’s big tech holding the puppet stings of both.
In all this ‘Lamentations’ is delivered. The quasi-title track opener “Me + Mine (Lamentations)” is a bleak recap of Barham’s aforementioned themes. Had times, harder people, and the hollow futility of looking to God or the American Dream for remedy.
There is a momentary ray of hope in the blue-collar romance of “Before the Dogwood Blooms” and the boot-stomping bootstrapped “The Luckier You Get” celebrating self-reliance and grit resulting in a better day.
But the clouds return on “Six Years Come September” with its pedal-steel yearn telling of a family tragedy. “The Day I Learned to Lie to You” is a piano-led lament of regret that marches toward a horn and organ swell like
a Crescent City funeral.
Unfortunately, all that populist goodwill get’s pissed away with one song. “A Better South,” the most politically charged track on the album takes aim at the very same people the other cuts other songs empathize with by rendering then into one-dimensional caricatures.
“Down here we’re still fighting for all the wrong reasons
Old men still defend these monuments to treason
To the right side of history, we’re always late
Still arguing the difference between heritage and hate”
Where the earlier songs set up a context why a proud people being stripped of their dignity might reflexively cling to heritage as a weapon against cultural elimination, “A Better South” ditches all that goodwill and takes up an adolescent’s “okay boomer” argument.
“I’m sick and tired of listening to Daddy’s generation
The byproduct of war and segregation
Still thinking they can tell us of what to do
Who can live where and who can love who”
Sure it’s not easy to plumb the depths of humanity and tell it in a song, but Barham has shown on many occasions that he could be just the man to do it. Instead, he gets caught in what Patterson Hood coined as “The Southern Thing,†the existential friction of confronting the past and excusing or even justifying the darker elements by wholesale that an, in this case, surrender to the contemporary mobs that would be just fine erasing the Mason-Dixon blemish as longs the gourmet BBQ trucks stay open.
Gillian Welch debuts the song “Happy Mother’s Day†in celebration of the holiday. This release is on Acony Records, the independent record label she and partner David Rawlings founded in 2001, and comes from a newly rediscovered cache of demos and home recordings from the early 2000s. “We can’t always be with the ones we love, but that can’t stop us from saying ‘I love you,’†Gillian says. “I wrote this song one May when I was far away and couldn’t be with my mom on Mother’s Day. Then I called and sang it into her answering machine when I knew everybody’d be sitting down to eat.
Here is the original home demo for the song, recorded on a portable reel to reel.â€
Today the honorable Texas Yoda turns 87. This is no small feat for anyone let alone a musician that has spent most of his working life on the road. In fact, he’s so indelibly tied to life on the road that one of his best known and most popular songs tells the tales of those asphalt escapades.
When the unthinkable (by most of us) happened and COVID-19 resulted in a nationwide lockdown impacting small businesses, in general, and specifically, the music industry – musicians, venues, and associated staff, for the first time in recent memory (not involving illness) Willie was off the road.
This worried me. COVID-19 has been documented a higher mortality rate in older folks, especially those with pre-existing conditions. Add to that being denied the opportunity to indulge in a profession you love (touring), and the passing of John Prine (and diagnosis of many others) and my worried mind goes to Willie.
Seeing Willie and his son Lukas MCing the recent 4/20 showcase brought me a lot of relief. Aside from some of the usual characteristics you’d expect of a Willie 87 year-old man he appeared happy and engaged as the artists lined up to sing his praises as well as some of their very fine tunes.
One of those artists was Nathaniel Ratelif who did a wonderful solo acoustic version of a new song created just for the occasion “Willie’s Birthday Song.â€
Now the cut has been formally released and it sounds even better. Done in a time signature that will be familiar to any Willie fan. The video was shot in isolation, the video features performances and as it moves along stars move in and out o feature impressive array support from of long-time of Willie’s family sister Bobbie Nelson on piano, and famed harmonica player Mickey Raphael to some of the next generation Lukas and Micah Nelson, Matthew Logan Vasquez, Nikki Lane, and Courtney Marie Andrews
Rateliff finished the song on March 12th when he arrived home in Denver after postponing the And It’s Still Alright tour. Following social distancing guidelines, Rateliff assembled a talented group of family and friends for the song who filmed their performances for the Rett Rogers.
The song was clearly one done out of love and appreciation from all those involved. It ends joyously with a snippet of Willie being served a chocolate birthday cake and grinning from ear-to-ear.
“Willie’s Birthday Song†will appear on the B-side of a limited edition 7†that will be released this summer exclusively at online merch shop. The A-side will be a duet by Rateliff and Willie, which will at that time be available digitally. Proceeds will support Farm Aid, whose mission is to keep family farmers on their land, and StrongHearts Native Helpline, which confronts issues of domestic violence in the Native American community.
Legendary Minneapolis pop-roots band The Jayhawks have announced their new album XOXO will release on July 10 via Sham/Thirty Tigers. Reportedly their most diverse and wide-ranging group of songs to date, XOXO marks a new era in collaboration, with songwriting and lead vocal contributions from all four longtime band members – Gary Louris, Marc Perlman, Karen Grotberg, and Tim O’Reagan. Along with the announcement, The Jayhawks have released a new video with Louris performing a stripped-down version of “Living In A Bubbleâ€, a timely song of the current lockdown era that laments the problematic nature of our ratings, click=bait driven “news” environment.
“Living In A Bubble’ lyrically is a reaction to the 24-hour news cycle and how the media can fan the flames of fear if one lets it,†says Louris. “It is also a commentary about data collection, Big Brother, and our obsession with devices, while never being truly present in the here and now. Musically it is an homage to the great Harry Nilsson, and is driven by the amazing piano playing of Karen Grotberg.â€
Recorded over two weeks holed up together at the secluded Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, MN, as well as at Flowers Studio, founded by their friend and Minneapolis music stalwart the late Ed Ackerson.
With XOXO The Jayhawks camaraderie is at the heart and soul of the 12 songs, bringing an injection of confidence and energy to The Jayhawks’ signature harmonies, infectious melodies, and masterful musicianship.
“It was time to open things up,†explains Louris. “The Jayhawks are a true band, one where everyone’s equal, and we wanted to make a record that really reflected that.†Elaborating on the process, Perlman says, “Some songs we molded together from scratch, but others had been fully written by one or the other of us. We didn’t worry too much about who penned what, because after all these years of playing together, everything we do just naturally comes out sounding like a Jayhawks song.â€
