Category Archives: News Round Up

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2015 Lineup

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Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2015

As they have done the last few years organizers of San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival have trotted out over a few say streaming teaser mixes from their upcoming bill.

It’s a playful challenge for the thousands of fans that attend the free three day roots music festival at Hellman Hollow and Marx and Lindley meadows in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to lend their ears and make their best guess as to who those 100 musical acts that will play seven stages.

Over the years I’ve attended the event it’s always unlike any live event I’ve attended. The Bay chill is tempers by warming temperatures and fleet week has the United States Navy’s flight demonstration squadron The Blue Angels zipping high overhead the largely mellow crowd enjoying great music rolling through the rolling fields under the Eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and Monterey cypress trees.

Stumped or just want to cut to the chase? Hood thing the full bill has just been confirmed.

Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin with The Guilty Ones
Scott Miller & The Commonwealth’s Ladies Auxiliary
Spirit Family Reunion
Nick Lowe
Jim White vs. The Packway Handle Band
ALO
Joe Pug
Tim Barry
Tony Joe White
Buddy Miller
Anderson East
The Oh Hellos
Robyn Hitchcock
Nels Cline & Julian Lage
The New Mastersounds
Asleep At The Wheel
Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
Flogging Molly
Delbert McClinton
Fantastic Negrito
Gregory Alan Isakov
Steve Earle & The Dukes
Jamey Johnson
Michael Franti & Spearhead
The Milk Carton Kids
Hot Tuna Electric
The Mavericks
Doobie Decibel System
Joe Jackson
Fairfield Four
Indigo Girls
Gillian Welch
Lera Lynn
Neko Case
Lee Ann Womack
Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds
Angel Olsen
Beth Hart
Heidi Clare & The Goose Tatums
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell
Paul Weller
Boz Scaggs
The Stone Foxes
Ben Miller Band
Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires
Monophonics
Leftover Salmon
The Blind Boys of Alabama
Chicano Batman
Pokey LaFarge

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2015
Three days, seven stages, over 100 artists
Friday-Sunday, October 2-4, 2015
Hellman Hollow, Lindley & Marx meadows in Golden Gate Park
FREE

Listen Up! 10 String Symphony – “Anna Jane” [PREMIERE]

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10 String Symphony - "Anna Jane"

“Anna Jane,” the new cut from 10 String Symphony, starts out on a somber note, like a violin-led dirge. But the pace becomes lively in the jazz/bluegrass (jazzgrass?) style reminiscent of Nickel Creek or Sarah Jarosz, and a lovely ode to love (and jealousy) slowly blossoms. In the end, the praise of a woman tinges at the edges with a darker tone.

10 String Symphony is comprised of the exceptional talent of former Illinois fiddle champion Rachel Baiman & Christian Sedelmyer, who also occupies the fiddle position in The Jerry Douglas Band.

Of the song Rachel remembers, “Anna Jane was the first original song that Christian and I collaborated on. I had the verses all written and a version of the chorus but no real melody for the song. Christian came over and we worked the song up in my attic, where it turned into a subtly complicated affair, with the chord progression changing just slightly on each verse. My friend Caroline Spence was the first to tell me that the ‘Oh Anna Jane’ part was a chorus.

She said, ‘You totally wrote a chorus, that should be between every verse.’ I think at that point I was just over thinking everything a bit and wasn’t comfortable with such a simple refrain, when in reality, that was exactly what the song needed.

When people heard the first version of the song, (the chorus was just ‘Oh Anna Jane/Oh Anna Jane/Oh Anna Jane/Here we go again’) they often thought it was a love song. In fact, it’s a song about jealousy. But it’s that super painful form of jealousy where you want something (in this case someone) that your friend has, but at the same time, you know she is wonderful, and completely deserving of that person. It makes it all that much worse, because you really can’t bring yourself to be angry at anyone, which would be the easy way to deal with it. That is why, even though it’s not a love song, the first verse goes on and on about the virtues of ‘Anna Jane.’ I wrote all the verses in about 30 minutes in one of those really intense moments where your feelings are so big you feel like they are going to explode out of your body.

Our producer, Mark Sloan, helped us re-write the chorus to incorporate a fiddle melody that Christian wrote, and also to solidify the message of the song. He added those ‘she’s the only one you see’ and ‘I’ll never be what you need’ parts. I was so attached to the song I didn’t think I’d be willing to change it, but when he sent me recordings of those ideas, he had just nailed it so perfectly melodically and lyrically, that Christian and I both immediately loved it, which is RARE! Haha.”

10 String Symphony will release ‘Weight of the World’ on October 23.

Listen Up! The Afternoon Edition – “Fallow” [Album Premier]

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The Afternoon Edition

Brothers Connor and Shane Noetzel put their experience playing in bands together through high school and college to great use. While in college, Connor befriended Brian Gallio , bonding over kindred love of music. After graduation the three burgeoning troubadours moved in together – with Connor as lead vocalist and main songwriter, Shane on lead guitar, and Brian on banjo, acoustic guitar, and piano – to focus on cultivating their craft.

After releasing their debut EP “No One Will Know” in May of 2013 the trio went on to perform those new songs at iconic New York spots like The Bitter End, The Living Room, Pianos, and Rockwood Music Hall.

The result is The Afternoon Edition. The New York based roots trio echo their shared heroes throughout the 10 cuts on their full-length debut “Fallow.” Shades of The Band, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, The Byrds, even contemporaries like Beck, The Avett Brothers and My Morning Jacket are heard throughout. From the yearning, Sea Change-esque opener “Let You In” to the sunny ease of the album closer ‘The World Will Beat A Path,’ on display is a passion for great 60’s and 70’s folk and country songwriting backed by spirited musicianship.

On the new album the band says “As far back as we can remember, the sounds of the 60’s and 70’s were hitting our eardrums and churning up emotion and fascination before we were even aware. The most captivating part of this music for us is the influence and history it contributed to in our own backyard, The Hudson Valley. Stemming from Westchester, and gathering inspiration from the natural beauty the Hudson Valley provides, it’s hard not to feel the same influence this area had on our heroes in the Folk/Americana scene years ago. We’ve set out to continue that tradition, and to use the same tools these artist had to create music that comes from the same rivers, hills and valleys that used to inspire them, and in turn now inspires us. It was only natural for us to wrap them in the Americana and Country aesthetic, which have always provided us with the comfort of wearing our hearts on our sleeves.”

‘Fallow’ will be released on August 28th

Son Volt To Release 20th Anniversary Version of Acclaimed Debut, ‘Trace.’ Tour To Follow.

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SON VOLT'S TRACE DELUXE REISSUE

While I oh-so-paiently await that long overdo Uncle Tupelo reunion (come on already, we ain’t getting any younger!) I will find solace in the upcoming release of the 20th anniversary version of Son Volt’s spectacular acclaimed debut album, ‘Trace.’

This fall, Jay Farrar will celebrate the anniversary by putting out a deluxe version digitally remastered from the original analog masters. Farrar was heavily involved in the remastering process and contributes highlighted track commentary to the liner notes, which also feature a contribution from No Depression magazine founder Peter Blackstock.

In addition to every song from the 1995 original album, the first disc also features previously unreleased demos for eight album tracks, including “Drown,” “Live Free,” “Windfall,” and an acoustic version of the rocker “Route.” The two-disc version of ‘Trace’ features newly remastered sound and more than two dozen unreleased bonus tracks will be available October 30, 2015, for a suggested retail price of $24.98. The original album will also be re-issued on 180-gram vinyl for $24.98.

Son Volt will also hit the road with original pedal steel player, Eric Heywood, along with multi-instrumentalist, Gary Hunt. The tour is billed as “Jay Farrar Performs Songs Of Trace” and tickets for the tour will go on-sale Friday, August 14. For more information please go to www.sonvolt.net.

The dates will begin with a special AmericanaFest performance at 3rd & Lindsley on September 20. Farrar will also bring the tour to New York City on October 30, and on the same day, Rhino will release a two-disc version of Trace that features newly remastered sound and more than two dozen unreleased bonus tracks.

The second disc contains an unreleased live performance recorded at The Bottom Line in New York’s Greenwich Village on February 12, 1996. At the show, the band played nearly every song from Trace , covered Del Reeves’ “Looking At The World Through A Windshield,” and performed “Cemetery Savior,” a tune that wouldn’t surface until the following year on Son Volt’s sophomore release, Straightaways.

The show also features songs originally recorded by Uncle Tupelo, the vastly influential alt-country band that Farrar started with Jeff Tweedy in the Eighties. Among the standouts are: “Slate,” “True to Life” and the title track from the band’s final album Anodyne (1993).

Track Listing

Disc One
1. “Windfall”
2. “Live Free”
3. “Tear Stained Eye”
4. “Route”
5. “Ten Second News”
6. “Drown”
7. “Loose String”
8. “Out Of The Picture”
9. “Catching On”
10. “Too Early”
11. “Mystifies Me”
12. “Route” -Acoustic Demo*
13. “Drown” – Demo*
14. “Out Of The Picture” – Demo*
15. “Loose String” – Demo*
16. “Live Free” – Demo*
17. “Too Early” – Demo*
18. “Catching On” – Demo*
19. “Windfall” – Demo*

Disc Two: Live from Bottom Line 2/12/96
1. “Route”*
2. “Loose String”*
3. “Catching On”*
4. “Live Free”*
5. “Anodyne”*
6. “Windfall”*
7. “Slate”*
8. “Out of the Picture”*
9. “Tear Stained Eye”*
10. “True to Life”*
11. “Cemetery Savior”*
12. “Ten Second News”*
13. “Fifteen Keys”*
14. “Drown”*
15. “Looking For a Way Out”*
16. “Chickamauga”*
17. “Too Early”*
18. “Looking at the World Through a Windshield” – Del Reeves cover*
*previously unreleased

JAY FARRAR PERFOMS SONGS OF TRACE – 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

SEPTEMBER
20 3rd & Lindsley (AmericanaFest) Nashville, TN

OCTOBER
28 The Birchmere
29 Ardmore Music Hall
30 City Winery Alexandria, VA
Ardmore, PA
New York, NY
DECEMBER
2 The Troubadour
3 Slim’s
5 Aladdin Theatre
6 Tractor Tavern
Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco, CA
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA

Listen Up! Aaron Lee Tasjan – “The Trouble With Drinkin’ ” [EXCLUSIVE]

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Aaron Lee Tasjan
Aaron Lee Tasjan. Photo by Stacie Huckeba.

A highlight of last year’s Americana Music Festival was when my friends and I happened on a set at The High Watt while mulling about in the huge Cannery space in Nashville. The smaller, newer space was packed with onlookers, arm-to-arm, whose collective attention to the stage made us curious and whose collective body heat warmed the outside night chill out of us.

On the stage was a solo performer, spectacles covering most of his boyish face. A nautical-themed cap casting a shadow on the scruffy folk-singer with a side-slant smile. He picked at an old banged-up Guild acoustic, told stories about seeing Ted Nugent live and beautifully performed songs clever as they were reflective.

The crowd was transfixed by Aaron Lee Tasjan.

Tasjan had moved on from his glam rock days shredding guitar with New York City’s Semi Precious Weapons to and was making his way to his current incarnation as one of East Nashville’s most sought-after axemen and solo troubadours. Damn well transition too. On the surface his songs, Roger Miller and Frank Zappa, sprinkled with wry humor might divert you from the beauty of the songs and the care in the music. That would be a lazy mistake.

Case in point is Tasjan’S new song “The Trouble with Drinkin’” A Leon Russell-style folk-funk stroll through a place where heaven’s open bar keeps that amber current flowin’ through his mind. (Apologies to Willie Nelson) The musicianship and tight. the song structure if casual but deft, and those just here for the groove might overlook it. And that’s cool. But try a little harder and reap greater reward of deft song craft that would compel Shel Silverstein and John Prine to take him out for a few rounds.

Of “The Trouble with Drinkin’ ” origin Tasjan recalls:

“I came up with this song on my way out of Rock Island, IL. I was on tour last fall opening for The Legendary Shack Shakers. This was no small feat to accomplish because they are without a doubt one of the most exciting and entertaining bands I’ve ever heard, and I had to get up there with nothing but an acoustic guitar before they’d come on and decimate the place every night. We were playing a gig at a place that was also a brewery, and I had checked into a hotel that was right across the street from the venue, which can be dangerous. Touring all on your own has a great way of keeping your post-show good times in check because you have to be responsible for everything. You don’t have to be as responsible when there’s nothing to do after a show but stumble across the street to your hotel room while on the phone to Domino’s. Playing a gig at a brewery is always gonna be a tough one, too, if you like beer because they’re going to give you a shit ton of it, and you’re probably going to drink it either because you want to or because you were raised to be polite and take what you’re offered.

I woke up the next morning feeling pretty alright, save for the late-night pizza and all those free beers, so I went to a coffee shop to get some breakfast. Afterward, as I went to pay, I realized—or more accurately, thought that I realized—I left almost all the money from the gig in the hotel room I’d just vacated. When I went back to the room, though, the cash wasn’t there so I decided to retrace my steps in my mind to figure out the last place I had it. And that’s when the suddenly vivid memory of my pizza delivery man profusely thanking me multiple times upon receiving payment for the pizza came back to me. At the time, I’d drunkenly thought, “What’s the big deal? Anyone can pay for a pizza. It’s not a particularly impressive thing to do.” But it probably was pretty impressive to the delivery guy that I’d handed him all my gig money, effectively paying him around $200 for a $10 pizza.

At first I was mad he kept it, but then I thought, “Man. Maybe this guy could really use it. Maybe he came up $100 short on his kickstarter and now he can make an album and get out of this pizza gig or something.” Either way, I made peace with it and started driving down the road thinking about how I probably shouldn’t get hotel rooms close enough to the gig that I could George Jones myself out of two C notes. It had all been too easy. That was the trouble with it—there wasn’t any trouble with it. And I do like things that don’t require too much effort.”

Aaron Lee Tasjan’s “The Trouble With Drinkin’” is from his debut solo LP ‘In the Blazes,’ out Oct. 6th

UPCOMING TOUR DATES
8/1: Newport, KY – Southgate House Revival w/Lilly Hiatt
8/20: Charlotte, NC – The Evening Muse w/Lilly Hiatt
8/29: Tulsa, OK – The Colony w/Wink Burcham
9/3: Memphis, TN – 1884 Lounge w/Ray Wylie Hubbard

Dave Rawlings Machine Announces New Album ‘Nashville Obsolete.’

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Dave Rawlings Machine

2015 Americana releases are about to get much, much better.

Dave Rawlings Machine has announced the release of their second album, ‘Nashville Obsolete,’ on Acony Records on September 18. ‘Nashville Obsolete,’ is the follow-up to the 2009 debut ‘A Friend of a Friend.’

‘Nashville Obsolete’ was recorded on analog tape at Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, TN, whose client list includes Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Neal Diamond, Emmylou Harris, John Mellencamp, Johnny Cash, Steve Earle, Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dusty Springfield, Alabama and many, many others.

‘Nashville Obsolete’ features seven original compositions written by Rawlings and longtime collaborator Gillian Welch and produced by Rawlings. This will be the seventh studio album the duo have appeared together on.

Along with vocals and guitar byRawlings and Welch, other contributors included Willie Watson on vocals and guitar, Punch Brothers Paul Kowert of on bass, and guest appearances from Brittany Haas on fiddle and Jordan Tice on mandolin. A tour in support of the album is forthcoming.

Welch and Rawlings, along with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Don Henley, Ricky Skaggs & Los Lobos, will also be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting from the Americana Music Association during the 2015 Honors & Awards ceremony held at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The award will be presented to the two days before the album is released on September 16.

1. The Weekend
2. Short Haired Woman Blues
3. The Trip
4. Bodysnatchers
5. The Last Pharaoh
6. Candy
7. Pilgrim (You Can’t Go Home)

Pre-orders of ‘Nashville Obsolete’ are currently available from iTunes and physically and Amazon

Here’s Welch and Rawlings’ opening number of “65 Revisited,” the Bob Dylan 50th anniversary tribute of his electric performance at Newport Folk Festival.

Drive-By Truckers Announce “It’s Great To Be Alive!” Deluxe 5 LP Live Release

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Drive-By Truckers "It's Great To Be Alive!"

The first time I witnessed them in New York City on New Year’s Day 2005 I can attest that he Drive-By Truckers are one of the most electrifying live bands roaming the earth. Since 1996 Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley have continually created rich and compelling stories, performed by an assemblage of dynamic counterparts, that have tackled the cultural complexity of the South.

And rocked hard doing it.

On October 30th the mighty Drive-By Truckers will release a daunting chronicle of their live greatness. “It’s a Great Time to Be Alive!” a 5 LP / 3 CD / 35-track live deluxe album recorded over three nights at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore Auditorium. The Truckers will also condense the live effort into a condensed, 13-track edition titled ‘This Weekend’s the Night.’

The set reaches back to Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley’s early band, Adam’s House Cat, and brings us up to last year’s ‘English Oceans.’

Check out the performance of their 2010 ‘The Big To-Do’ track, “Birthday Boy,” below.

‘Both It’s Great to Be Alive!’ and ‘This Weekend’s the Night’ can be pre-ordered now on the band’s website.

Deluxe Vinyl side breakdown:
1A.
Lookout Mountain
Where the Devil Don’t Stay
Sink Hole
First Air of Autumn
1B.
Made Up English Oceans
The Righteous Path
Women Without Whiskey
Mercy Buckets
2A.
The Living Bubba
Primer Coat
Tornadoes
Sounds Better in the Song
2B.
Used to Be a Cop
Shit Shots Count
Runaway Train
A Ghost to Most
3A.
Goode’s Field Road
Uncle Frank
Putting People on the Moon
3B.
Box of Spiders
When the Pin Hits the Shell
A World of Hurt
4A.
Gravity’s Gone
Pauline Hawkins
Birthday Boy
Girls Who Smoke
4B.
Get Downtown
Ronnie and Neil
Three Dimes Down
Hell No, I Ain’t Happy
5A.
Marry Me
Shut Up and Get on the Plane
Angels and Fuselage
5B.
Zip City
Grand Canyon

Album Review: Jason Isbell – “Something More Than Free”

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Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free

If “Something More Than Free,” Jason Isbell’s follow-up to 2013’s career-defining album ‘Southeastern’ has a unifying theme it’s finding the everyday beauty in maturity. Yes, Isbell defies contemporary music trends by making his songs about something. His songs fully embody rich narratives that pump blood into lyrics. Words striking in their economy yet not lacking in marrow. Unlike others in the industry he refuses to hide behind crass chart confections or soul-syphoning irony. 

This is the stuff of life.

Opener “If It Takes a Lifetime” is a ragtime jaunt on down to the working day punch-clock. The protagonist gives a weary regard on the past (I thought the highway loved me but she beat me like a drum) and embodies a hopeful determination for a better future (I keep my spirits high / find happiness by and by).

The first single “24 Frames” is a perfect example of Isbell’s economy of word and imagery. A lean narrative of diminishing the self in deference to deepen relationships set to fragments of sonic vignettes that shine. 

‘Children Of Children’ is an achingly beautiful cut that has an 70’s-era Neil Young dark ferocity about it. The song both celebrates and bucks generational norms with an acoustic guitar and slinky bass giving way to howling slide whirling in the eye of an orchestral string outro. 

The title song is soulful ode to pride in purpose. It’s from the view of a blue-collar day laborer, but it just as easily maps to Isbell’s focus and perseverance on mastering the craft in an uncertain industry. “And the day will come when I’ll find a reason,  And somebody proud to love a man like me / My back is numb / my hands are freezing / What I’m working for is something more than free.”

In the aftermath of the reprehensible Charleston church shooting South Carolina has becomes a battle ground of the South’s cultural idenity. Isbell’s “Palmetto Rose,”  written and recorded before the tragedy, is a swampy funk study of the richness of a culture often mischaracterized.  The song gets its title rom the lovely flowers woven from strips of leaves from state tree. At once Isbell gives voice to the street vendors, many African-American, that peddle them and offers up a challenge to the hubris, mostly Anglo, of revising history. “Catch you comin’ out of a King Street store / Bullshit story ’bout the Civil War / You can believe what you wanna believe / But there ain’t no makin’ up a basket weave / Everybody in the tri-county knows / Who makes the best palmetto rose.”

“To The Band That I Loved” may or may not be about his stint in the mighty Drive-By Truckers. The reference to being “22 backwoods years old” jibes with the age he was when he joined the band. The subject moves from the singular “Now I know you’ll be fine on your own” and “Your voice makes the miles melt away” recalls camaraderie shared by Isbell and band members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. But there’s another layer of nuance that makes me believe it’s for his first wife and Drive-By Trucker’s bassist Shonna Tucker. Either way it’s a fine cut that only Isbell knows knows where it’s heart lies. (UPDATE – A Rolling Stone article says “To a Band I Loved…” is about Denton TX’s Centro-Matic. So, never mind! hat tip to Jason Scally @Santascal for the 411.)

Go-to roots music producer Dave Cobb, that helmed ‘Southeastern,” returns to guide the album into aesthetic cohesion and knows enough to stay out of the way and allow Isbell and his band’s humanity to shine through. During the recording Isbell tweeted that he felt the songs on  ‘Something More Than Free” reviled those on “Southeastern.” That’s a tall order, and largely subjective. Isbell’s songs paint authentic and poetic worlds in the great southern tradition of storytelling. It’s like picking the best story your grandfather told you on the porch while driking sweet tea in the summer heat. 

Some stories might edge out others, but mostly you’re just glade someone’s around that cares enough to tell them. 

Official Site | Buy

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Album Review: Kacey Musgraves – ‘Pageant Material’

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kacey-pageant material

Musgraves, like Taylor Swift before her, has a way uncannily bringing people that wouldn’t be caught dead listening to a George Jones record into the dusty fold.

But unlike Swift’s winsome fairytale strewn path to a pure-pop exodus Musgraves shows on ‘Pageant Material,’ that she’s content to stick around Music Row for a while, and use her wit, charm and a stiff shot of deft songcraft to draw in the twang wary and change things from the inside.

Musgraves’ pop comes in the form of populism that is less soapbox serenades than barstool banter. Songs like “Biscuits” and the excellent title song speak in appealing, self-depreciating southern grammar to draw you into ideas of non-conformity and acceptance while bringing the highfalutin down to earth.

Musgraves also takes time to have fun. “High Time” is a perfect Summer song that moseys along in Ronnie Milsap pop-country accentuated by a carefree whistling , well-timed hand claps and a sweep 50’s era Nashville Sound stings.

“Family is Family” is a fun jaunt in praise of blood lines that would give John Prine and chuckle. “Late To The Party” is a cuddly soft folk ballad that has Musgraves letting out her inner James Taylor. “Dimestore Cowgirl,” allows us to travel along with on her exceptional journey. “I’ve had my picture made with Willie Nelson/Stayed in a hotel with a pool” “Slept in a room with the ghost of Gram Parsons/ Drank some wine I can’t afford.” While reminding us she’s not getting above her raising and celebrates home in a way that feels real. Cause I’m still the girl from Golden, Had to get away so I could grow / But it don’t matter where I’m goin’, I’ll still call my hometown home.”

“This Town” is a personal favorite. With reverbed guitars, tambourine and eerie ‘Ode To Billy Joe’ – style strings Musgraves does her best Nancy Sinatra in this study on small town grapevine with it’s gossip and legit news puts Twitter to shame.

Musgraves worked behind the scenes foy years in Texas and Music Row before signing to Mercury Nashville and releasing “Same Trailer, Different Park.” Her chops shine in this excellent clutch of songs crafted with some of the friends – Shane McAnally, Brandy Clark, Luke Laird, Ashley Arrison, Josh Osborne, and Natalie Hemby – she’s made along the way.

Musgraves has much in common with one of her heroes, Willie Nelson. Both are adroit at the game and genre boundaries and are able to push the them to make room for a larger community. They affect change through the ver Southern qualities of quiet strength of example and likeability. They both stand as examples to an an industry, already excluding the female and alternative voice, that change is good.

‘Pageant Material’ is a subtle hillbilly Buddhist bomb of a record that will challenge attitudes. biases and business while being bracingly real.

The simple power is summed up nicely in a line in “The Good Ol’ Boys Club.” “It shouldn’t be about who it is you know / but about how good you are.”

four-half-rate

Listen Up! Lera Lynn – “My Least Favorite Life” from True Detective Season 2

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Lera Lynn - True Detective 2

Roots music is the perfect genre to set a certain mood. Apparently one of those moods is the scare the hell out of you kind.

As we posted before it was Lera Lynn crooning the song “The Only Thing Worth Fighting For” on the mysterious trailer for HBO’s “True Detective”

Lynn’s smoky contralto is back with “My Least Favorite L5ie,” a song that accompanies the psycho drama’s breathtaking opening credits.

Both songs were co-written by Lynn, T Bone Burnett and Rosanne Cash, with Burnett also producing both in his L.A. home studio.

Lynn will have a cameo appearance in next week’s ‘True Detective’ episode, will open a pair of concerts You can catch her headlining her own shows throughout the Summer and Fall, including a stop at the historic Kessler Theatre in Oak Cliff on September 25th. She will also perform in Nashville at the Americana Music Association’s annual festival in September.

Buy “The Only Thing Worth Fighting For” and “My Least Favorite Lie” on iTunes