According to RollingStone.com the next release by rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson, “Unfinished Business,” will be produced by none other than Justin Townes Earle. Look for this 31st release from Jackson to come out October 9th on Sugar Hill Records.
Jackson says that Earle had encouraged her to “get back to her roots” of country, blues, and rockabilly. Earle steps into producer and music accompaniment shoes previously filled by Jack White on 2011’s “The Party Ain’t Over.” Personally, I think with his mastery of early roots and folk forms that Earle will be a better fit than White was to tap into Jackson’s greatness. What do you think?
Track list for “Unfinished Business:”
“I’m Tore Down”
“The Graveyard Shift”
“Am I Even a Memory” (feat. Justin Townes Earle)
“Pushover”
“It’s All Over Now”
“Two Hands”
“Old Weakness”
“What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome”
“Down Past the Bottom”
“California Stars”
Kathy Mattea has seen both sides of the Nashville fence. 15 consecutive Top 10 hits and four No. 1 singles has her in the good graces of Music City. 2008’s Grammy-nominated “Coal” had her working more in the Americana mystic side of things.
Mattea will be releasing ‘Calling Me Home,’ her first album with Sugar Hill Records, home to Marty Stuart, Connie Smith and Don Williams
Check the EPK below for what Mattea describes as “a love letter to her home state of West Virginia.”
The Avett Brothers, one of the hardest working bands in Americana music, announced today via their Facebook page that they have picked a title and release date for their next album.
Titled The Carpenter, the Avetts’ sixth album will be released on September 11 via Universal Records. Like their 2009 breakout album “I And Love And You” the album was once again produced by Rick Rubin.
So far two songs have surfaced that I presume will be on the tracklist, “The Once and Future Carpenter†(below) and “Live and Die,†which is currently streaming at NPR Music.
Look for the Avetts on the road near you this Summer and at the Austin City Limits Festival, the New Orleans’ Voodoo Experience and Florida’s Clearwater Jazz Festival in October.
Pop music has gotten a bad rap. Pop has gone from being “popular” to engineered mass appeal and style over all especially substance blotting out all pretension of song-craft or, HA! , longevity
Great songs by such luminaries as Elton John and Fleetwood Mac in the 70s and Squeeze and XTC in the 80s, took the music around them and refined it into a polished work of studio perfection. With hooks big enough to hang the moon on and wry lyrics that hinted at bigger things without mired in the ponderous, these musicians proved you could be popular and create music for the ages.
Seymour Stein knows a thing or two about this. As the cultural chaos of punks ripped through the fabric of music Stein saw pop beauty by The Ramones , Talking Heads and the Pretenders and others who he signed as co-founder of Sire Records.
Stein signed the six-piece band from North Carolina Delta Rae after a mutual friend set them up for an acoustic performance at his office. He must have been impressed as he called more people into his office to hear the band play for 45 minute audition.
Like the other bands Stein has signed, Delta Rae resonates the trends around them, in this case Americana, and amke it appealing to a larger ausince that might wince at a claw-hammer style banjo.
On “Holding On To Good” acoustic guitar and piano burst “Carry The Fire” open with such assurance it’s surprising this is a debut album. Brittany Holljes is a woman who can belt out or sing delicately as she does here with harmonies in response “In the morning…” along with her like a tide rolling in an back out. In this opening the bar is set high. “Is There Anyone Out There” follows with Brittany’s brother Ian Hölljes handling vocals (half the band are siblings with brother Eric Hölljes on vocals, guitar, piano and keys.) Like the former this song also mixes bombast with lovely hushed melody.
“Morning Comes” has a gospel soul as an acapella start and hand clap accompaniment give Eric Holljes lot of room to soar. Though nowhere near as nimble the style brings to mind Freddy Mercury and the sound of the song overall makes me think the band has been had Queen’s greatest hits on heavy play for some time.
Gospel is also the influence in my favorite track “Bottom of the River.” I like things dark and gritty and, even though the production is crisp, there’s a Southern Gothic quality in the song that is brought out in the video for the song. Big vocals of of Brittany and the band and percussion is a central instrument of the number that is accentuated in the a mid-song interlude. The darkness is also reflected in “Fire” with it’s controlled cacophony of sound and forgoing the pop elements momentarily to drive toward pure passion.
The infusion of pop in Americana is not new. Delta Rae join their contemporaries The Civil Wars, Mumford and Sons, the Avett Brothers in bringing a folk, country and soul hybrid to the masses. Carry the Fire joins there ranks as a great example of how pop music can also be excellently crafted and and not seemingly focused on hits. I applaud Delta Rae for this fine first release and for bringing a larger audience into the Americana fold.
North Carolina’s Delta Rae is a excellent new addition to a growing pop-folk field of performers that are almost single-handedly bringing the Americana music genre into the mainstream. They join their contemporaries The Civil Wars, Mumford and Sons, the Avett Brothers and others embodying a branch of the Americana family tree that is attracting a significant number of fans that wouldn’t typically give twang and roots a listen. While these bands share the music on a larger stage, and bring more people into the genre tent, the soul remains intact.
Header over to my twitter page and for a chance to win a copy of their debut “Carry The Fire” and ook for a review of the album on Twang Nation soon. In the meantime you can stream the entire album over at Rolling Stone. The band has also been busy participating recently in Billboard’s “Under Cover” program by covering Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” as well as playing their single, “Bottom Of The River.”
Delta Rae will also be in LA on Tuesday celebrating the release of their album with a sold out show at the Troubadour. They’ll also be performing at the GRAMMY Museum in LA on Monday, June 18th as part of an event with Seymour Stein. They are also currently on tour and, if that wasn’t enough the band will also be performing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno June 25th.
Here’s Elizabeth Cook, with husband Tim Carroll on guitar and Bones Hillman (Midnight Oil) on bass, performing a great rendition of “Hear Jerusalem Calling: from her recent Gospel =Plow EP (review here) on the David Letterman Show 6/14/12.
She even makes Dave a believer! (in great music!)
You can also see a CBS web only performance of Cook and Jason Isbell covering two songs by the late, great Townes Van Zandt, “Tecumsah Valley” and “Pancho and Lefty. As I always say, covering Townes is a brave and futile endeavor. But they pull it off more brilliantly as many I’ve heard.
The larger bodies of country music and blues music have always fed from a stream of gospel music. Musicians reared in the Bible Belt, from Hank Williams to Blind Willie Johnson, stylistically moved deftly from Saturday night revelry to Sunday morning revelations mirroring the actual behavior of many of their fans. Hell even Elvis, the poster boy for over-indulgence, took time to record no less than 8 gospel and Christmas albums over his career.
Influenced by a recent performance at the Strawberry Music Festival’s Sunday morning gospel brunch, the recent passing of both her mother and father, and ongoing family strife detailed in her last album’s bittersweet “Heroin Addict Sister†has Elizabeth Cook getting right with Jesus. Or at least feeling enough of the spirit move her to release this wonderful seven song EP.
Blind Willie Johnson’s “If I Had My Way, I’d Tear This Building Down” is foot-stomper straight from the good book of Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
The title cut a traditional American folk song also known as “Hold On,” and refers to the Gospel According to Luke 9:62. In the passage Jesus replied to the
reluctant disciple in the face of his wavering faith “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.†This song and “Hear Jerusalem Calling” by Jerry Sullivan & Tammy Sullivan has Cook and band, husband Tim Carroll on guitar and Bones Hillman (Midnight Oil) on bass, as a bluegrass romping breakdown
“Every Humble Knee Must Bow” borrows a swampy vibe from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Heard It Through The Grapevine,” Hammond organ, barrel-house piano and electric guitar steep the tune in sweet Southern soul.
Vern Gosdin’s “The Other Side of Life’ is a beautiful song as it is, but Cook, along with an accompanying church organ, unveils a vulnerability in it that transcends.
Cook showed her inclination for the Velvet Underground by cutting a beautiful version of “Sunday Morning’ on 2007’s “Balls.” Here she she rounds out the out the EP with an understated and elegant cover of VU’s “Jesus,” keeping just enough of Lou Reed’s somber, woozy, psychedelic tone in this tale of a lost soul looking for redemption.
The only drawback is the brevity of the release. Though it’s a brief affair it’s long on excellence and, unlike the church with the long-winded preacher, you’ll wish the sermon would list a bit longer
Reviewing a Willie Nelson album is like describing to someone a visit you’ve made to the Grand Canyon. Sure there are the facts and impressions but the shear majesty of what you’re in the presence of something larger than life anit can bow you into awe. But here goes…
Nelson has always been a serial collaborator. The Texas Yoda has cut tracks with so many people he’s become a musical Keven Bacon. He’s shared the studio with his country contemporaries Waylon, Merle, Ray to genre-crossers Julio Iglesias and Phish, but Willie is no longer just a country artist. Like Ray Charles, another of his collaborators, he’s jettisoned his original genre and elevated himself to simply American music.
This studio gregariousness shows that Willie is not willing to sit on a laureled pedestal. He is generous with his studio and stage time and willing to lend a little Texas outlaw mojo to others. His legacy is so firmly entrenched in history he seems to feel he can work with whomever,and do do whatever, strikes his fancy. This has resulted from the inspired to the perplexing, but it’s hardly ever boring.
At nine Willie’s new album, ‘Heroes,’ ups the collaboration ante, and sometime within a single song. The count is four,including Willie, in the post-mortem ode to herb “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” The song’s title was was originally the album’s title until Willie put the kibosh on the inevitable Walmart boycott. Willie might be an outlaw, but he’s also always been a shrewd businessman. On the song Willie seems to be having fun performing with his brother of the weed Snoop Dogg, along with a bemused-sounding Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson, this collection get’s my vote for a “High” way men tour.
A Last of the Breed mini reunion occurs with Merle Haggard on a beautifully grizzled “Horse Called Music,” originally from the criminally overlooked 1989 album of the same title. Ray Price reprises Floyd Tillman’s classic “Cold War With You” with Willie and Lukas Nelson to suave cowboy effect.
The album’s title, Heroes, is a nod to the performers on the album as well as the musical influences that Willie has always honored. One clear influence on Willie Nelson, Bob Wills and the Western Swing genre is well represented with spirited renditions of Will’s “My Window Faces The South” and “Home In San Antone.”
Amongst the crowded studio the real purpose of “Heroes” appears to be a father’s introducing his son to a larger fan-base. Lukas and his band, The Promise of the Rea,l have been opening and backing for Willie for a couple of year as they honed the craft. But this is not crass nepotism as Lukas contributes a couple of the best songs on the album with “Every Time He Drinks He Thinks of Her” and “The Sound of Your Memory,” His pleasing vocal style is somewhere between his old man’s phrasing and Jimmie Dale Gilmore keen. Also, he’s a solid guitarist and his Stratocaster flourishes provides a contemporary counterpart to Willie’s cowboy-jazz Trigger.
A contemporary theme runs through a selection of covers. An inspired, palatial version of Pearl Jam’s rumination on mortality “Just Breathe” takes on deeper level of poignancy as the song is sung with his son Lukas, and Willie approaches his 80th birthday. Tom Waits’ quasi-gospel “Come On Up To The House” features Mickey Raphael’s excellent and understated harmonica work cultivated from being with Willie for many years. The song aligns dutifully with the original and also features Lucas and the ubiquitous Sheryl Crow, who is serviceable if unnecessary. Willie’s solo turn on Coldplay’s “The Scientist,” first seen on a Chipotle Super Bowl commercial, charms me into enjoying (okay, appreciating) the song.
The Willie-penned title song is said to be about fellow outlaw Billy Joe Shaver (in some cases literally), who appears here with a contemporary rabble-rouser of sorts, Jamey Johnson. This 4/4 waltz is a sentimental reminiscence of a musician who used to be “king of the bars,” but it just as well could be a testament to the current sad state of country music.
“Heroes” is an uneven affair. Like a ramshackle late-night guitar pull fueled by intoxents both legal and not, it’s a lot of fun and done with love of music, mutual respect and a seeming sense of harmonious happenstance sorely missing image-obsessed music industry.
Fiesta Red Records is starting business out right with an inaugural solid compilation,  ‘Lowe Country: The Songs Of Nick Lowe‘ (September 18.) Hayes Carll, Caitlin Rose, Amanda Shires, Chatham County Line and some of Americana’s other finest interpret songs from Lowe’s 4½-decade career.
Robert Ellis does a great honky-tonk meets quirky version of All Men Are Liars that you can pick up below for free.
Nick Lowe is no stranger to the world of alt.country and Americana. He’s on the YepRoc label with label mates Dave Alvin , Jim White and Chuck Prophet. He’s recently opened some show for Wilco (okay, they used to be alt.country)
Proceeds from the album will benefit victims of the 2010 Nashville floods and Texas wild fires of last year via The Central Texas Wildfire Fund (administered by the Austin Community Foundation) and The Nashville Rising Fund (administered by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee).
‘Lowe Country’ Track Listing:Lately I’ve Let Things Slide – Caitlin Rose
Don’t Lose Your Grip On Love – The Parson Red Heads All Men Are Liars – Robert Ellis (FREE MP3)
I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass – Amanda Shires
Marie Provost – JEFF the Brotherhood
Hayes Carll – I’m Gonna Start Living Again If It Kills Me
Lover Don’t Go – Erin Enderlin
When I Write The Book – The Unsinkable Boxer
You Make Me – Colin Gilmore
Heart Of The City – Chatham County Line
What’s Shakin’ On The Hill – Lori McKenna
Crackin’ Up – Griffin House
Where Is My Everything – Ron Sexsmith
Here’s Calexico doing their best mariachi meets dream-world best on their new new video for “Para”featuring footage from Algiers, LA. It’s from their new album ‘Algiers,’ out 9/11.
