It was quite a treat for me to see Willie Nelson perform under the Saratoga stars the other night. The Texas Yoda and “the family” played the beautiful Mountain Winery to an a rousingly adoring crowd.  At one point he traded his signature red bandanna for heavy worn and button adorned straw cowboy hat that an elderly gentleman on crutches offered at the foot of the stage.  I can now claim to have seen Willie on all three coasts (Texas, New York and California)!

The fine folks at the 9513 brought my attention to a great piece by Chris Willman, author of the excellent book Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music, on the use of the formally exclusive use of Brooks & Dunn’s “Only In America” by the Democrats to cap Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention. Whatever your political stripe, it’s interesting to watch all parties vie for the cultural pulse and show love for the Twang.

Rosie Flores “The Rockabilly Filly” turns 58 years young and will be celebrating this Wednesday, Sept 10th at Antone’s in Austin. Playing the celebration will be the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash (8:00) James Intveld (9:00) the lady Rosie Flores herself (10:00) and Two Hoots and a Holler (11:00). Doors open at 7:00

Justin Townes Earle’s excellent release “The Good Life” is available today a vinyl limited edition of 1000 from Bloodshot Records.

The Blugrass Blog reports that comedian, actor, author and banjo player Steve Martin was preparing to record an album of serious banjo music.

TBB reports: The recording has been completed, produced by fellow banjo man John McCuen, with assistance from Tony Trischka and Pete Wernick. Helping out in the studio were Russ Barenberg on guitar, Matt Flinner on mandolin and Brittany Haas on fiddle, among others. New Martin compositions are the focus, performed in both 3 finger and clawhammer styles.

Earl Scruggs & Steve Martin - Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Presenting the Hank III Exclusive World Premier Video of “Long Hauls and Close Calls” from the forthcoming new release “DAMN RIGHT, REBEL PROUD” in stores on 10/21 in CD and Double Vinyl format.
I’m posting this as a mirror to the Record Store Day web site which broke the video first.

Hank III - “Long Hauls and Close Calls”

• Ellensburg, Washington based alt.country artist Star Anna is already a Twang Nation favorite and has tickled our fancy even further by offering an excellent ‘Crooked Path Live EP‘ available for download at Amazon. The digital four track EP release includes live versions of Crooked Path, Bed That I’ve Made, Five Minutes To Midnight and a never before released track, Push It Through. Star Anna will be appearing at Seattle’s Bumbershoot music festival.

• Texas Yoda and Country Music legend Willie Nelson’s debut novel “A Tale Out Of Luck” (Center Street Books) should not to be confused with Willie’s album “A Tale Out of Luck” which features the excellent song “Home Motel.” The book is the story of Retired Texas Ranger Captain Hank Tomlinson who must attempt to keep his sons safe from vengeful Comanche warriors while trying to catch a murderer who he knows will soon strike again. The name of the book and the album are a play off the name of Luck Texas which is an old western town built in 1986 on Willie Nelson’s ranch for the filming of “Red Headed Stranger.

• Four-time GRAMMY winner and Country Music Icon Marty Stuart will premiere his new television series The Marty Stuart Show this November starting with the first 26 episodes airing Sunday nights on RFD-TV.  The Marty Stuart Show will begin production in September at Nashville’s NorthStar Studios, home of RFD-TV. The 30-minute episodes, hosted and produced by Stuart, will be a part of RFD-TV’s new Sunday night prime time lineup with HEE HAW, Postcards From Nebraska, and Music & Motors.  Each show will feature music by Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, as well as his wife Country Queen Connie Smith and performance segments from the best that country music and American music has to offer.  Radio personality Eddie Stubbs will serve as the show’s announcer and Stuart’s sidekick on every episode.
• Stuart  will also release his second photography book Country Music: The Masters on Nov. 11.   Chicago’s Source Books will publish the 342 page collection that includes Stuart’s personal photos of friends including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Ray Charles and more.   The book’s forward is written by long-time pal and country music fan Billy Bob Thornton.

To celebrate the August 19th release of “Gravity’s Our Enemy” Cadillac Sky and Skaggs Family Records will be holding two, count ‘em, two release parties.

The first takes place in  Nashville, Tennessee where those C-Sky’s boys will take the stage at the prestigious Grand Ole Opry. The show starts at 9pm. The second will take place Wednesday, August 20th in Fort Worth, Texas, hometown of the band, at Lola’s.  The party gets started at 7:30pm (admission is free with purchase of the cd), so get there early to get your place in line!

If you can’t make it to a show in person Cadillac Sky will bring the party to you. Just log on to www.skaggsfamilyrecords.com on Tuesday at 9:00pm (Central) and witness the birth of “Gravity’s Our Enemy” live on the webcast as it happens.

Cadillac Sky - “Born Lonesome”

Hot on the heels of “The Plague” which was released just last March Madison, WI based Gothic-Country band Those Poor Bastards will release “Satan is Watching” this October. Just in time for All Hallows Eve, kiddies.

For the vinylphiles among you, this will be the first TPB release offered as a limited edition 12″. Track liting will be released when the final release date is ironed out.

Those Poor Bastards - Pills I Took

• The Americana Music Association has released an initial list of arists that will be playing around Nashville during their music festival and conferencethis September 17-20 2008. Some of the performers will be: Jim Lauderdale, Mike Farris, Kane Welch Kaplin, The everybodyfields, The SteelDrivers, Tift Merritt, Jason & the Scorchers, Joe Ely, Malcolm Holcombe, Rosie Flores, Band of Heathens, Laura Cantrell, Cross Canadian Ragweed, James McMurtry, Jason Isbell and much much more.

• The drop date for Chris knight’s new album, Heart of Stone, has been pushed back to September 2nd due to “production issues.” Guest musicians on Heart of Stone include Mike McAdam (Steve Earle, Radney Foster) on various guitars, Keith Christopher (Georgia Satellites, The Yayhoos) on bass, Tammy Rodgers (The SteelDrivers) fiddle and vocals, mandolin and banjo, and Michael Webb (The Wreckers, Allison Moorer) on B-3 organ, piano and accordion. Producer Dan Baird also contributes on guitar and vocals. Knight says of Heart of Stone “It might just be my best. For some reason, there’s a cohesiveness here that’s not like anything I’ve done before. But at the same time, it’s not real predictable. There’s a lot of texture to it as well, but it’s a simple record. I don’t know how that happened. But I know it when I hear it.”
• The documentary “Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music” will air on PBS stations tomorrow night. The film is directed by Robert Elfstrom and is a “cinema vérité look at Cash.”  PBS produced the documentary almost 40 years ago (!) Robert Elfstrom also takes some time to answer some questions for the the Tennessean (via the 9513)

I’m always fascinated when country music is honored and performed by folks overseas. I’m also interested in how new bands are able to use the web to do much of the heavy lifting traditionally done in the past by big labels with big money and a large staff. I get both of these plus great music with Belfast Ireland’s country rock band Jackson Cage. The Jackson Cage I’m most familiar with is a dour song about suburban futility by Bruce Springsteen on his release “The River.”  Jackson Cage the band do exhibit some of New Jersey’s most famous hillbilly’s knack for narrative, but only inasmuch as he was willing to channel Dylan, Woody Guthrie and The Band to tell a compellingly stark tale.

Jackson Cage’s self-funded, self-released, self-promoted and self-titled debut album managed to hit #1 on the most popular Alt Country Albums on Amazon MP3 (it currently sits at #5 just after Ryan Bingham’s Mescalito.) What makes all this more impressive is that Amazon only sells MP3s to US customers.

Jackson Cage is one of those rare cases where a band exhibits a skillful grasp of great music roots while working contemporrary technology just as adeptly. Keep your eye on Jackson Cage.

Jackson Cage - Taste the Moon(mp3)

Jackson Cage - White Line(mp3)

Jackson Cage  - I ain’t gonna waste my time(mp3)

From Pitchfork.com: Country music legend Charlie Louvin, along with his late brother Ira, set the standard for duo close harmony singing that would later be followed by the The Everly Brothers, the The Wilburn Brothers and the Beach Boys. After Ira’s death in June 1965 Charlie launched a solo career that was put on hold for nearly a decade until last year’s “Charlie Louvin” was released on New York label Tompkins Square and featured a cast which included George Jones, Elvis Costello, Marty Stuart, Tom T. Hall, and Jeff Tweedy.

On September 16 Tompkins Square will release Louvin’s self-proclaimed “gospel record,” called Steps to Heaven. It features versions of 8 traditionals and two Louvin Brothers tunes.
Steps to Heaven Track List:

01 Love at Home
02 How Beautiful Heaven Must Be
03 Precious Lord, Take My Hand
04 There’s a Higher Power
05 Where We’ll Never Grow Old
06 If We Never Meet Again This Side of Heaven
07 Just Rehearsing
08 When the Roll Is Called up Yonder
09 I Feel Like Traveling On
10 I Am Bound for the Promised Land

A second record, Charlie Louvin Sings Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, is Louvin’s exploration of the darker songs, comes out December 9 also on Tompkins Square, and it borrows nine songs from the label’s recent compilation, People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, 1913-1938. Those songs are supplemented on the record by the appearance of new versions of a couple songs from the first Louvin Brothers album, Tragic Songs of Life.

Mark Nevers of Lambchop, who has worked on records by Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Andrew Bird, produced, recorded, and mixed both albums.

Louvin has dates  throughout the rest of the year which includes a show in Nashville on July 30 opening up for M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel’s She & Him.

Charlie Louvin:

07-13 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Winnipeg Folk Festival
07-18 Athens, GA - Melting Pot
07-26 Palmer Rapids, Ontario - TBA
07-30 Nashville, TN - The Mercy Lounge *
08-08 Moss Point, MS - Moss Point
09-06 Sparta, NC - Sparta High School
09-20 Berea, KY - College Berea (Spoonbread Festival)
09-21 Chattanooga, TN - Chattahippie Music Festival
10-17 Austin, TX - Cactus Cafe
10-18 Durant, OK - TBA
11-01 Mobile, AL - Alabama Pecan Festival
01-17 Tampa, FL - 6th Annual Bell Buckle Cruise

* with She & Him

• I’ve heard it said, and agree, that alt.country and Americana is country music for liberals. Todd Snider is once again reinforcing that idea for me. “Peace Queer” is the name of the new Snider’s new release and it is being touted as “his most political record yet.” You can hear the first track off the album “Mission Accomplished.”

• NineBullets.net has posted some tasty cuts from Chris Knight’s upcoming album, Heart of Stone (8/19.)

• Hank III’s site has posted release date for his upcoming release “Damn Right & Rebel Proud” - October 21, 2008 From the III site: The album is again self produced and will shake the guns right offa your rack!  The first single will be “Long Hauls and Close Calls” - for which a video has also been produced that is full of muddin’, truckin’ and gunnin’! We thank our dysfunctional family for all of its support and patience in the release of this album.  Always get comfortable here, and the official Myspace site for all the news you really need.

Tracklist:

The Grand Ole Opry Ain’t So Grand / Wild & Free / Me and My Friends /6 Pack of Beer / I Wish I Knew / If You         Can’t Help Your Own /Candidate for Suicide / H8 Line / Long Hauls and Close Calls / Stoned and Alone / P.F.F. / 3  Shades of Black / Workin Man