Category Archives: News

Tom Morrell – Innovator of Steel Guitar – Hospitalized

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From the Dallas Morning News – Tom Morrell, a Dallas-based prolific steel guitar player is being treated at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas for emphysema,Mr. Morrell was admitted to the hospital Jan. 21, where he was placed on a ventilator on Tuesday. The ventilator has since been removed.

Mr. Morrell was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, in St. Louis, in 2001. His CD Monkey Bizness is the 13th volume in his “How the West Was Swung” series of Tom Morrell and the Time Warp Tophands albums. For a discography, visit www.westernswing.net.

Leon Rausch, of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, hired Mr. Morrell in 1964 to be part of the reorganized Texas Playboys band, after Mr. Wills had left the band.

Mr. Rausch, who has played with Mr. Morrell in many other groups and gigs over the years, says fellow musicians consider Mr. Morrell a musical genius. “He’s the man to go to for steel guitar,” he says. “He’s the biggest influence that a lot of us have ever had.”

Albert Talley of the Texas Steel Guitar Association says, “Tom has been a premier player and innovator of steel guitar for the last 50 years.”

Mr. Talley, who organizes the annual Texas Steel Guitar Association Jamboree, says that Mr. Morrell had intended to attend this year’s convention but probably not perform as he usually has.

Willie Nelson and Rick Rubin Are Nominated for a Grammy

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Typically I could care less about the Grammy’s. I mean COME ON! Hootie & the Blowfish, Milli Vanilli and Culture Club! Yeesh! But because because of a flash of musical perception, odds, or whatever…they sometimes get it right. This year the folks at the Grammys have a couple of winners..if they actually win that is.
Willie Nelson’s You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Album and Rick Rubin has been nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classicalfor his work on Johnny Cash’s album American V: A Hundred Highways and the song “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”. He is also nominated in the same category for his work on albums from Neil Diamond, The Dixie Chicks, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Legend Porter Wagoner Signs to Anti-

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Fifty years into his legendary music career, Grammy winner and Country Music Hall of Famer Porter Wagoner has been signed to LA-based Anti- records, and is soon to release a Marty Stuart-helmed project celebrating his five decades as one of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry’s best-loved performers.

Wagonmaster, as the project is now titled, will mostly feature songs written by Wagoner himself– the same tunes that have earned him a place in Americana music history, as well as numerous industry awards and accolades. But one song in particular, while not penned by Wagoner himself, holds a special place on the album’s roster.

Twenty-five years ago, after Johnny Cash took an interest in some of Wagoner’s early recordings, he wrote “Committed to Parkview,” about a stay in a mental asylum not far from Nashville, where Cash and Wagoner both spent time. Cash gave a cassette recording of the song to bandmate Marty Stuart, who was instructed to pass it along to Wagoner, which he did– two and a half decades later.

“I never got around to it until we started collecting songs for this project,” Stuart explained in a statement. “I searched mywarehouse and found the envelope with ‘Committed to Parkview’ on it, with a note from John to Porter. Twenty-five years after I was supposed to and three years after his death, I did what I told John I would do. I delivered the song and Porter loved it.”

Wagonmaster is slated for release in May 2007. For more on Porter Wagoner, check out his official website, PorterWagoner.net.

Anti- is home to such artists as Tom Waits, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Neko Case.

Charlie Louvin Gets Help From Friends for New CD

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Country legend Charlie Louvin (of the great Louvin Brothers) is set to release his first new album in more than a decade. The self-titled 12-track set will arrive Feb. 20 via New York’s Tompkins Square Records and be supported with an extensive tour.

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello and George Jones are among the artists pitching in. Louvin, who turns 80 in July, recorded the album earlier this year in Nashville with producer Mark Nevers. Also contributing to the sessions were Will Oldham, Tom T. Hall, Bobby Bare Sr., Marty Stuart, The Clean’s David Kilgour and members of Lambchop, Superchunk, Bright Eyes and Clem Snide.

The repertoire encompasses Louvin Brothers songs plus tracks long associated with the Carter Family, the Monroe Brothers and Jimmie Rogers. The album also includes a Charlie-sung tribute to his late brother and collaborator, Ira.

The Louvin Brothers remain a towering influence over country music; a Universal South tribute album, “Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’ — Songs of the Louvin Brothers,” won the 2004 Grammy for best country album.

Here is the track list for “Charlie Louvin”:
“Must You Throw Dirt in My Face,” featuring George Jones
“Great Atomic Power,” featuring Jeff Tweedy
“Blues Stay Away From Me,” featuring Bobby Bare Sr., Tom T. Hall and Marty Stuart
“The Christian Life,” featuring Eef Barzalay
“When I Stop Dreaming,” featuring Elvis Costello, Mac McCaughan and Pete Cummings
“Waiting for a Train,” featuring George Jones and Marty Stuart
“Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea,” featuring Alex McManus
“Worried Man Blues,” featuring Bobby Bare Sr., Kurt Wagner and Marty Stuart
“Grave on the Green Hillside,” featuring Marty Stuart and Tift Merritt
“Knoxville Girl,” featuring Will Oldham and Marty Stuart
“Ira,” featuring Marty Stuart
“My Long Journey Home,” featuring David Kilgour

Tift Merritt Off The Lost Highway

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The News & Observer reports that country chanteuse Tift Merritt is no longer a Lost Highway Records recording artist.  After a two-album run that included a 2005 Grammy
nomination for best country album reports that she and  Lost Highway (which is also home to Willie  Nelson and Ryan Adams) have parted ways.

Excert: “We are in talks regarding a new home and we are  really excited about our next step,” Merritt wrote  in an e-mail message Saturday (while taking a break  from watching the UNC-Kentucky basketball game).  “Looking forward most of all to getting into the
studio early next year.”

After being lucky enough to see an amazing, funny and soulful Merritt open solo for Dwight Yoakam last October in New York City. I’m here to say it’s Lost Highway loss.

 

Robert Plant Flirts with Twang

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I’ve had a running list of rock stars already straddling the fence of rock and country and
could probably make a pretty great straight-up country release (Tom Waits, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey)
and then there’s those that you never considered for that list but when their name come up to
do something in that vein you say “Hmmm, yeah that could be cool.” This story from Nashville
newspaper, The Tennessean falls into category 2.

Robert Plant (ex-Led Zeppelin) and bluegrass diva Alison Krauss are the collaborators in question.
After Plant was spotted at several “see and be seen” Nashville restaurants and clubs in recent days,
columnist Beverly Keel started sniffing around and discovered that the seemingly unlikely pair have
been in the studio, recording an album of duets under the watchful ear of producer T Bone Burnett.
Release date for the album has yet to be announced.

The two have recently become label-mates, as Rounder Records Group has just released Plant’s first
ever live performance DVD, Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation, from a 2005 PBS Soundstage
production.

Twang note – for a great Zep cover from a great band check out Devil in a Woodpile’s cover of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp(mp3) on their release In Your Lonesome Town

Lucinda Williams looks “West”

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From the press release:

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Loss and loneliness are at the core of Lucinda Williams‘ largely down-tempo album, “West,” the singer/songwriter’s first release since 2003.

The disc, slated to be released February 13 via Lost Highway, finds the Grammy winner coping with another painful breakup and the passing of her mother, whom she reminisces in songs like “Mama You Sweet” and “Fancy Funeral.” In such songs as “Come On,” “Learning How to Live” and “Everything Has Changed,” Williams again deals with heartbreak.

“The songs deal with a chapter in my life and they definitely tell a story,” Williams told Billboard.com. “It’s probably been the most prolific time in my life as a writer. I’d been through so many changes — my mother’s death and a very tumultuous relationship that ended badly — so obviously there’s a lot of pain and struggling, but it ends with a look toward the future.”

Featuring the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, celebrated drummer Jim Keltner, longtime Bob Dylan bassist Tony Garnier (both of whom played on her “Essence” disc) and Williams’ longtime guitarist Doug Petibone, “West” was co-produced by Williams and Hal Willner, whose credits include Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Bill Frisell, who also guests on the “West.”

But “West” is not a completely somber affair. “Mama You Sweet” is upbeat and “Come On” is a nasty, almost raunchy kiss-off, musically akin to “Atonement” from 2003’s “World Without Tears.”

She injects doses of hope and light in tracks like “What If,” in which she imagines a world where the president wears pink and a prostitute is a queen.

“I get tired of people looking at my songs and feeling that they’re all sad and dark,” she said. “There’s more to them than that. Some people might read Flannery O’Connor and see that as simply dark — and it is dark and disturbing — but there’s a philosophical aspect, even a comical aspect to it as well. I think that’s all there on this album. It’s a full circle, like I’ve come through a metamorphosis.”

Stephen King’s Top 10 Music Picks of 2006

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Anyone that has read Stephen King knows he’s got great taste in music. AC/DC did the soundtrack for his 1986 filmMaximum Overdrive and a Ramones song makes an appearance in Pet Sematary and they wrote a song for the movie and he wrote the liner notes for the Ramones tribute album We’re a Happy Family.

The King of Scream has released his top 10 songs of 2006. Some of the choices fit the mold for this site and some, not so much, but instead of picking and choosing I’ve decided to post the whole list. Considering the source I’d say this a soundtrack for your nightmares.

10. ”Drunk All Around This Town,” Scott Miller & the Commonwealth/”My Drinkin’ Problem,” Hank Williams III (tie)
I no longer drink, but I love songs about boozing, and these are beauts. The Hank III album is called Straight to Hell, and I imagine the Nashville establishment wishes young Mr. Williams would go there, posthaste. Me, I hope he sticks around. This is the real country: hollow of eye, pale of face, and bursting with the rhythm of the damned. Also, check out Hell’s ”Low Down.”

9. ”Over My Head (Cable Car),” The Fray
Old-school pop; for me, there’s nothing better. Another of its ilk is ”Rudebox,” by Robbie Williams.

8. ”Face the Promise,” Bob Seger/”Real Mean Bottle,” Bob Seger and Kid Rock
Not all of Seger’s new album is great — ”Wait for Me” is schmaltz — but these tracks are magnificent. They’re part of a specific hard-swing genre; see below.

7. ”I’m a Rat,” Towers of London
There is something to be said for straight puke-on-your-Dingo-boots rock & roll. Towers of London are mostly a joke, but this track — beginning with the shrieking air-raid siren — is, like those two priceless tracks on the Seger, the real deal.

6. Snake Farm, Ray Wylie Hubbard
Hubbard, an alt-country Southern rocker (his most memorable tune is called ”Screw You, We’re From Texas”), is one mean motorcycle. Snake Farm is a double-wide load of blues guitar and sly humor, your basic old-school boogie. Best tracks: ”Heartaches and Grease” and ”Live and Die Rock and Roll.”

5. Zoysia, The Bottle Rockets
The Bottle Rockets are often categorized as alt-country — by people who need categories — but what they really are is America’s premier bar band. Zoysia (I don’t know what it means either) is their best album ever — tuneful, soulful, and best of all, loud. Primo cuts: ”Better Than Broken,” ”Feeling Down.”

4. ”Chasing Cars,” Snow Patrol
Call me a sloppy sentimentalist if you want; I love this song. In fact, I never met a Snow Patrol song I didn’t like (runner-up: ”You’re All I Have”). If that makes you want to call me a sap, I can take it; that’s why they pay me the big bucks.

3. ”Hey Valerie!” The Derailers
The best country single of the year (from the album Soldiers of Love), but of course it got no airplay on the Top 40 country stations (duh). Country runner-up: a gorgeous love song, ”Would You Go With Me,” by baritone Josh Turner.

2. ”God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” Johnny Cash
You could argue that Cash saved the best for last and get no disagreement from me. This is the voice of an Old Testament prophet on his deathbed, eerie and persuasive, full of power and dust and experience. The entire album (American V: A Hundred Highways) is a masterpiece, but this and ”Like the 309” are the ones I keep coming back to.

1. The Animal Years, Josh Ritter
The best album of the year in a walk, and maybe the best album I’ve heard in the last five. Mysterious, melancholy, melodic…and those are only the M’s. Songs like ”Girl in the War” simply do not leave the consciousness once they’re heard, but the album’s real gem is the strange and gorgeous ”Thin Blue Flame.” This is the most exuberant outburst of imagery since Bob Dylan’s ”A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” in 1963. The Animal Years is an amazing accomplishment.

Jerry Max and Jeannie Lane in the Dallas Morning News

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The Dallas Morning News did a nice write up on my dad, Jerry Max Lane and his wife Jeannie for their song which was included on the soundtrack for the new Naomi Judd movie “Come Early Morning.” From the article: After more than 20 years together, Jeannie and Jerry Max Lane are singing a new tune.

The south Irving couple is celebrating the release of their new song on a movie soundtrack that also includes popular country artists Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson.

“It’s a love song, and I think the melody draws the listener’s ear to the lyrics,” said Mr. Lane, who noted he wrote it in about 15 minutes.

Titled “What’s Done Is Done,” the song is featured in Come Early Morning, the recently released independent film written and directed by actress Joey Lauren Adams and starring Ashley Judd. In the film, Mrs. Lane can be seen performing the song with a house band in the background while Ms. Judd dances with co-star Jeffrey Donovan.

“I love her [Jeannie’s] voice; it’s so powerful,” said Ms. Adams, well known for her roles in Big Daddy and Chasing Amy. “Their song sort of sums up the movie without being too much.”

Troy Lee Gentry Kills Teddy Bear – Admits He’s a Talentless Hack

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Okay, that last bit was me reading Gentry’s tiny mind. What does a wanna be country singer do for a hobby? Why play at being hunter and kills a captive bear named Cubby. I don’t think barring him from hunting is really punishment since he’s not a fucking hunter in the first place. I say they drop him in a hungry grizzley den greased up with bacon fat.

From CMT: Country singer Troy Lee Gentry admitted Monday that he shot and killed a domesticated black bear in a 3-acre penned area and not in the wild, as he had claimed when he registered the animal with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Gentry pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Duluth to the misdemeanor crime of submitting a false hunting registration form after killing the bear.

Gentry, 39, of Franklin, Tenn., a member of the country singing duo Montgomery Gentry, had been scheduled to stand trial starting Monday but reached a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He agreed to pay a $15,000 fine and forfeit the mounted bear, the bow he used to kill the bear, and all hunting, fishing and trapping privileges in Minnesota for five years.

The singer admitted that he set up a hunting stand in a 3-acre pen that was surrounded by an electric fence. [U.S. Attorney Michael] Dees told the court that Gentry had registered the bear as being shot in the wild six miles east of Sandstone.