Ryan Adams Confirms New Album ‘Ashes & Fire’ – October 10th.

Americana enfant terrible Ryan Adams has confirmed his new album ‘Ashes & Fire’ will be released on October 10th. It will be his his 13th(!) solo release. Adams has in recent times moved away from the country-based music in which he made his bones and worked on a couple of books electronic and heavy metal music. He’s also taken the occasional opportunity to dump on the heritage of country music.

The album was recorded  in California with producer Glyn Johns, who helmed iconic records like the Who’s Who’s Next and engineered music for the Bob Dylan, Clash, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles. Appearing on the album will be previous collaberator Norah Jones, who appears on three songs — Come Home, Save Me, and Kindness — and keyboardist Benmont Tench, a longtime member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Adams will set out on a solo acoustic tour this Fall, hitting cities in California and the Pacific Northwest; dates are forthcoming. Hardly Strictly perhaps?

Ashes & Fire tracklisting:

Dirty Rain
Ashes & Fire
Come Home
Rocks
Do I Wait
Chains of Love
Invisible Riverside
Save Me
Kindness
Lucky Now
I Love You But I Don’t Know What to Say

This clip from his surprise opening stop for Emmylou Harris at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, CA, on April 21, 2011 gives me hope that the album will be a great one.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wfBDJLUVeE[/youtube]

The National Barn Dance Documentary Coming to PBS this Fall

Before the Internet, hell before TV, radio held great sway over American culture and nothing introduced Great Depression and World War II era Americans to country and roots music like national “barn dance” packages like the Grand Ol’ Opry and the Louisiana Hayride. These programs drew on a rural and Southern cultural heritage of the listeners and made millions for thier spnsors. I was not aware of the National Barn Dance broadcast from Chicago on WLS-AM which was  a direct predecessor of many of these country music radio shows including the Grand Ole Opry.

This Fall PBS and ITVS will present The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance (1924 – 1960.) Narrated by Garrison Keillor (no stranger to radio and roots music himself) will document of the history of the program and will feature “rare performance footage, home movies, and candid photographs with firsthand accounts from fans and performers. Interviews with historians, folklorists, and media experts reveal historical and cultural perspectives of this unique period in America’s history.”

The National Barn Dance launched the careers of Gene Autry, Patsy Montana, Bradley Kincaid, George Gobel, Pat Buttram, Andy Williams, and Lulu Belle and Scotty. Produced and directed by Stephen Parry with supervisory producer Bob Hercules,The Hayloft Gang will premiere on PBS nationwide beginning September 1, 2011

In addition to the national broadcast, The Hayloft Gang Video Contest allows participants and viewers to experience a fresh take on the popular music of the times. Audiences can watch performance videos, interpret the songs themselves, and upload their videos for prizes. Participants will urge friends and family to vote for them via email, Facebook, and Twitter. To coincide with the broadcast, the contest launches at on August 15th, 2011. Winners will be announced in October.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_TI1o0XEa8[/youtube]

New Compilation Unheard Hank Williams Songs To Be To Be Released

Rollingstione.com posts that a compilation of unheard Hank Williams songs will be released on October 4th. The songs come from a rescued from notebooks of  lyrics and song ideas  left behind in a leather briefcase by Williams after he died in 1953 at the age of 29. These notes and fragments were then finished by the 13 artists who contributed to the disc. These artists include Americana music and rock music greats – Bob Dylan (who’s  imprint Egyptian Records is putting out the album)  Levon Helm, Alan Jackson, Lucinda Williams, Merle Haggard and, and this is where my concern arises, Jack White . Norah Jones and Sheryl Crow. What? Was Kid Rock busy?

And though William’s granddaughter Holly Williams is included where is her brother Hank Williams III? For that matter where is Bocephus?  I would have scratched the last three, who are here for sales purposes only, and added new traditionalists like Wayne Hancock and Joey Allcorn that truly reflect the spirit of ol’ Hank.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKPHJslYNkk[/youtube]

 

 

5 Cool Kris Kristofferson Covers

One of the things about being one of the best songwriters in the world, loads of folks want to cover your work. The other night over at the Twang Nation Jamboree at turntable.fm the DJs holding forth ran with a Kris Kristofferson covers theme and it sounded pretty great. I thought I would try and track some down and post them here.

Bobby Bare croons a smooth version of Come Sundown. Nothing says heartbreak like a huge white tie.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8JJ3ZYdwQA[/youtube]

Try and look over the full-on Nashville Sound and syrupy strings and try and concentrate on the awesomeness that is Mr. Ray Price covering For The Good Times.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ZKIX0ICZo[/youtube]

Sammi Smith made it a hit, bit Johnny and June makes Help Me Make It Through The Night spectacular.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df9lIfWSqTE&feature=related[/youtube]

Most people think Janis Joplin was the first to cover Me And Bobby McGee. Those people are wrong. Roger Miller was the first artist to have a hit with the song, hitting No. 12 on the US country chart in 1969.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ko_bzuODTI[/youtube]

Yeah it’s not technically covers but the himself is being backed by the Foo Fighters on Sunday Morning Coming Down and doing The Pilgrim, Chapter 33 being backed by Elvis Costello And The Sugarcanes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRNYOgEbK80[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO3fkbRq8O0[/youtube]

 

News Round-Up: Merle Haggard and Scott H. Biram Prepare Fall Releases

There are a coupe of new releases upcoming that I am really anticipating…

Legendary country stalwart Merle Haggard will release ‘Working in Tennessee,’ on October 4,  his second on the Vanguard Records label.

The Hag penned nine of the 11 tracks on the on the album and jsut as on 2010’s I Am What I Am he invites his wife Theresa to provide vocals on the Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash classic hit, Jackson. Merle’s son Ben Haggard also joins his father by providing his adroit tele work and Willie Nelson joins on an updated version of Merle’s ‘Workin’ Man Blues.’
Despite his 2008 lung cancer diagnosis, with part of his lung being removed, the 74-year-old hasn’t lost his voice. “I’m swinging back in full throttle right now,” he insists. “Music keeps me alive. It makes me breathe better … It’s funny, but I feel better when I come off a tour than when I start out.”

Merle has been confirmed to perform at the legendary Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park on October 1st. Check Merle’s other tour dates:

‘Working in Tennessee’ Track Listing:

1. ‘Working in Tennessee’ (Merle Haggard)
2. ‘Down on the Houseboat’ (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Doug Colosio)
3. ‘Cocaine Blues’ (TJ Arnall)
4. ‘What I Hate’ (Merle Haggard)
5. ‘Sometimes I Dream’ (Merle Haggard, Jenessa Haggard)
6. ‘Under the Bridge’ (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard)
7. ‘Too Much Boogie Woogie’ (Merle Haggard)
8. ‘Truck Driver’s Blues’ (Merle Haggard, Tim Howard)
9. ‘Laugh It Off’ (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Doug Colosio)
10. ‘Working Man Blues’ (Merle Haggard)
11. ‘Jackson’ (Billy Edd Wheeler, Gaby Rodgers)

 

And that Dirty Ol’ One Man Band from Texas, Scott H. Biram, will release his fourth full-length for Bloodshot Records, Bad Ingredients on October 11th on CD, vinyl LP, and digital download. Bad Ingredients was recorded at Biram’s home studio in Austin, Texas and mastered by Jerry Tubb of Terra Nova Mastering (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam), Bad Ingredients delivers SHB’s classic throat-stomping style (“Dontcha Lie To Me Baby” and “Victory Song”), but showcases a more mature songwriter-both lyrically and musically. It’s Biram at his quietest, but don’t worry, Hiram Biram still raises plenty a ruckus on his ’59 hollowbody Gibson and stomp board. But the best way to experience Biram is live, go check his schedule and see him if you can.

Concert Review: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – Warfield Theatre, San Francisco – 7/7/11

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were greeted by an adoring Bay Area crowd Thursday night with and wit a wide smile Gillian greeted the crowd  “Howdy!”  She added “Somebody gave me shit the other day for saying “Howdy.” “Hi” yeah that’s more colorful.” In a nutshell that is Gillian Welch’s music, quaint traditionalism as a defiant gesture to a modern and cynical world. In many ways it’s the same attitude that close genre cousin Music City takes in creating their product. But Welch, and the rich vein of Americana acts that flooded in the aftermath of O Brother…bring a lack of contrivance to the craft and a love of the tradition they honor.

Strolling onstage Rawlings, in gentleman cowboy courtier with fitted suit and a straw Stetson carried his signature 1935 Epiphone Olympic and Welch in simple dark dress was carrying her 1956 Gibson J50 acoustic guitar and vintage Vega Whyte Laydie banjo.. In person Gillian Welch, a hardscrabble, sparrow-boned woman with fine red hair, looks very much like a like a Steinbeck character. A perfect embodiment of the music she performs.

Welch, who is an UCSC alumnus and lived in the Bay are in the early 90’s, mentioned that she had seen several shows at their venue this night,  the historic Warfield Theatre. “I saw a Jerry (Garcia) show here. I saw Tom Waits here, the one they filmed. And I was here for the Pixies when we broke the balcony dancing an jumping around.” She then added “It look much different from this side.”

After a rousing opening of Scarlet Town, also from, The Harrow & The Harvest, Welch mentioned was their fist time they had performed the song live. “Thanks for being our experimental lab.” She said. The applause, hoops and hollers showed the crowed was open to a show without a net.

If Trace Adkins or Toby Keith came into the Bay Area I’m not sure how many of the locals would stand in rapt attention about live below the banjos, trains and life below the Mason/Dixon but when Welch was doing this very thing on Down Along The Dixie Line they couldn’t get enough. It seems themes might be universal but the vehicle for delivery matters.

A lilting version crowd favorite, Look at Miss Ohio from 2003’s Soul Journey closed out the first set, there was a 15 minute intermission for them as well as the audience to get a drink or dispose of same.

The second set opened with the back-woods existential romp The Way It Goes. David Rawlings took a turn at the wheel by performing the whimsical David Rawlings Machine number Sweet Tooth. Rawlings then took banjo duty for Six White Horses and while singing duet at a single mic Gillian did band slapping sort of like playing spoons but she was too poor to afford spoons. The often stayed dead silent in the quieter songs but clapped and sang along to the to the more rollicking songs from the new album (played in it’s entirety) as well as the classics like Revelator and I Want To Sing That Rock and Roll, and no one left early. In fact, many stayed late—a testament to the quality of the music as well as the performance.

The first encore (there were two) featured an inspired rendition of the traditional number I’ll Fly Away, which Gillian sang along with Alison Krauss on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. The crowd sand so loudly with her that several times Welch’s eyes widened and lit up with surprise.

As a guitarist I’m especially impressed by a great player of David Rawlings caliber. His style falls somewhere between Chet Atkins and Django Reinhardt yet ends up sounding like nobody but himself. He deftly coaxes beautiful tones and delicate textures with deceptive ease.

“We promised not to let you leave happy.” Welch quipped referring to the frequent theme of misery that runs through their canon, before preforming the fitting closing song The Way The Whole Thing Ends. I’m sure as the crowd spilled into the brisk San Francisco night agreed that it sure felt good to feel this bad.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnbjmFyhljs[/youtube]

[edit – the playlist added]

Set I-Scarlet Town-Silver Dagger-One Morning-Elvis Presley Blues-Annabelle-The Way It Goes-A Dark Turn Of Mind-I Want To Sing That R&R-Hard Times-Look At Miss Ohio. Set II-Down Along The Dixie Line-No One Knows My Name-6 White Horses-Tennessee-Revelator-Swe​et Tooth-Red Clay Halo. E-The Way It Will Be-I’ll Fly Away. E2-The Way The Whole Thing Ends.

Music Review: Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harvest [Acony]

If there is such a thing as a superstar in the Americana genre then Gillian Welch is one. Her debut album, Revival, came out in the height of Nashville stylized indulgence – hitherto known as the Garth years – and reached so far back in style and subject matter that it couldn’t be called old school, it predated the school itself. This New York City born and Berklee College of Music educated woman became a gabardine-clad personification mountain holler laments and sepia drenched Dust Bowl yarns. Like Duluth, Minnesota’s Bob Zimmerman she embodied the ancestral ghosts of mythology and willed herself into a contemporary symbol of a bygone era by exhibiting a respect for the cultural legacy and  ingenuity to work within the confines to create music that sounds not only timeless but new.

To further distinguish herself , at the time of her debut many of Welch’s contemporaries were approaching their work from a folky, more Lilith-like, direction. Welch was rougher, darker, and delivered her talws with grit. Like Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson, she appeared to be a woman that could drink you under the table and hold herself in a fight.

After an 8-year stretch, where Welch battled writer’s block and provided a supporting role for performing partner David Rawlings solo undertaking, By plan or happenstance The Harrow & the Harvest has been released  to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Coen Brothers O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a move that in many ways reflects to neo-rustic forms crafted by Welch. The movie’s multi-platinum soundtrack was a watershed moment for the Americana music genre and featured Welch performing alongside better-known contemporaries Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris. Welch also has a cameo in the film requesting a copy of the best-selling single from the movies fictitious group Soggy Bottom Boys.

On The Harrow & the Harvest Welch heeds timeless advice and doesn’t try and fix what’s not broken by offering up 10 songs of want and worry in many varieties. Scarlet Town opens with the protagonist visiting a town calamity and deception that would make Dr. Ralph Stanley bow his head in woe. The darkness of the songs subject is countered dazzlingly by David Rawlings deft guitar picking.

The murder ballad Dark Turn Of Mind carries a sinister undercurrent that belies it’s lulling cadence with a come-on / threat “take me and love me if you want me, but don’t ever treat me unkind. ‘cause I had bad trouble already, and he left me with a dark turn of mind”

The Way It Will Be is a smooth-folk Crosby, Stills and Nash-like that takes the associated SoCal groove to darker regions and The Way It Goes is a jaunty ode to weary fatalism that comes from a worn soul.

Tennessee is a character study in temptation and willful sin in the best Puritan tradition of the Southern Gothic form. The arch leads us from Sunday School to carousing, dancing and gambling all leading to the sweet bye and bye. The Way The Whole Thing Ends fittingly as it saunters and offers up hillbilly existential nuggets like “That’s the way the cornbread crumbles. That’s the way the whole thing ends.”

All in all The Harrow & the Harvest is a, paraphrasing from the song Scarlet Town , a deep well and a dark grave of an album brimming with hard truths as plainly told stiff as a pull of mash. It’s a fine return to form from an crafts-person that has been sorely missed.  It’s the feel bad album of the summer

official site | buy

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjlgyy_gillian-welch-the-way-it-goes-conan-2011_music[/dailymotion]

News Round Up – Cowboy Jack Clement Home Studio Destroyed in Fire

Sad news received here at Casa Twang -  the Nashville home studio, of famed musician and producer Cowboy Jack Clement (80) was consumed in a fire on Saturday 6/26th. The source of the fire is currently unknown but many reel-to-reel master tapes of rare recordings by Johnny Cash, John Prine, Louis Armstrong and dozens of others, many of which were unreleased. Also lost were many priceless mementos such as photos taken by and autographed by Clement’s  friend Johnny Cash, files on music productions and movie scripts. (The Tennessean)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrHEmaxqDuo[/youtube]

 

 

The Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa

Tom Russell – Mesabi

Tom Russell has always been a pioneer, a wander expanding his territory of influences.  The L.A. native now calls the border town of El Paso home and there is much Tex-Mex grounding in his ventures. The title song from his upcoming Mesabi starts with an spare acoustic but then swings into full band including mariachi-style trumpet. The sonic imagery that greatly influences Russell is the narritive here as a  Mexican kid hears  Buddy Holly, Howling Wolf, Ritchie Valens, polkas and dreams of being a troubadour. To make things intereting there’s even a dash of The Who’s  Baba O’riley in there if you listen

Tom Russell’s new album, ‘Mesabi’, out 9/6. The album features Calexico, Van Dyke Parks and Lucinda Williams.

 

 

Mesabi_Tom Russell.mp3

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUH2SDjwa0g[/youtube]

News Round Up: New Guy Clark and Hank Willams III Coming Soon

  • On August 16thlegendary singer/songwriter Guy Clark will release Songs And Stories, a live album recorded at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville. Clark runs through his extensive collection of classics – L.A. Freeway, The Randall Knife, The Cape, Homegrown Tomatoes, and Stuff That Works – complete with stories and casual asides that should make this a must-have.
  • In other Clark news – In time to coincide with his 70th birthday This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark, is set to drop November 1 on Icehouse Music. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and Austin, Texas with a rotating cast of other musicians including multi-instrumentalist Lloyd Maines, bass players Glenn Fukunaga, Mike Bub and Glenn Worf, and drummers Kenny Malone and Larry Atamanuik. The release will feature Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Steve Earle, Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett and many other singer-songwriters that have performed with and been influenced by Clark over his extensive career.
  • Bringing prolificacy to a new level Hank Williams III will celebrate his freedom from his well-documented contract disputes with Curb Records and his own new label , Hank3 Records, in a grand fashion – by releasing four records on September 6th. That’s right — four. Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown,’ a double-album set,will be a country collection fusing Hank’s trademark hellbilly sound with Cajun influences and will feature special guests including Tom Waits. The other two releases are ‘Attention Deficit Domination’ and ‘3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin,’ are metal-driven records on which Hank 3 plays all instruments. ‘Cattle Callin’ will explore a proposed genre entitled “cattle core” sound, featuring Hank 3’s speed metal woven around actual cattle auctioneering. Hmm, something about that makes me very happy. All three projects were recorded at The Haunted Ranch, Hank 3’s home and studio on the outskirts of Nashville.