Documentary on Country Music Planned

From Variety.com – Plans are in motion for documentarians David Leaf (The U.S. vs. John Lennon) and Morgan Neville (The Night James Brown Saved Boston) to chronicle the history of country music/ the series will be produced by Shout! Factory and Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The individual segments will be thematically divided. On the slate are “The Roots of Country and Bluegrass,” “The Honky Tonk Tradition,” “Outlaw Country,” “The Nashville Sound,” “The Politics of Country,” “Country Songs and Songwriters,” “California Country” and “No Depression,” a look at the alternative country music movement.

Modern country stars will be participating in the films, providing their personal connections to the past.
“We are always looking for new ways to reach and expand our audience and tell them the story of this uniquely American genre,” said Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Hall of Fame and Shout! Factory, founded by music industry vets Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos, first partnered last year to create DVD collections culled from the museum’s archive.

I hope this is half as good as the BBC 2003 four-part series Lost Highway: The True Story of Country Music.

Jessica Simpson Goes Country (badly)

  • The New York Times has an extensive review of Joe Nick Patoski’s biography, “Willie Nelson: An Epic Life.”
  • Ted Hacker, he producer of next weekends BamaJam festival (featuring Hank Williams Jr., Miranda Lambert, Ricky Skaggs and much more), and a former country music manager for the Oak Ridge Boys, Diamond Rio and Darryl Worley details the steps it took to put the festival together.
  • Ben Cisneros at the 9513 has nice things to say about Dallas’ Eleven Hundred Springs’ new release “Country Jam.”
  • And lots of folks have lots to say, lots, about Jessica Simpson’s newest country music single “Come On Over.” The consensus seems to run toward (and I agree) that Jessica is doing to the song what she did to Tony Romo’s chances for the Superbowl.
  • There is some talk about bringing back Austins’ legendary Armadillo World Headquarters. This is the place where, after leaving Nashville, Willie Nelson focused on remaking himself as the hippy/redneck savant as we know him today. (thanks to Linda at Still Is Still Moving – the #1 fan site on Willie Nelson)

Legendary Shack Shakers Line Up Shake Up

As per a post from the Legendary Shack Shakers MySpace page and on the fine NineBullets.net blog there seems to be a line up change for the LSS.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As our good buddy David Lee is currently tearing up his bicycling career all over the world, please meet the NEW guitarist for the Legendary Shack Shakers: Duane Denison.

Duane first came to public notice through his work with Chicago indie rock icons The Jesus Lizard. But he has also worked with a wide variety of internationally acclaimed artists including Hank Williams III, Mike Patton/Tomahawk, Bobby Bare, the Silver Jews and Firewater.

Duane’s style is synonymous with innovation, technique and taste. His move to Nashville a few years ago has allowed him to collaborate with several local, country-fried musicians. But only now will he be allowed to push the envelope and blur the lines between both the roots and Indie Rock worlds.

Strap yourself in and get ready for the NEXT chapter of the Legendary Shack Shakers!

Sunny Sweeney News

It’s been a while since I posted on Austin’s own Sunny Sweeney, so allow me to make ammends by letting ya’ll know Sunny has added a new song “You’re My Hotel, He’s My Home” (co-written with Adam Hood) to her set list and posted the lyrics on her MySpace blog. (via the 9513)

Go out and see Sunny when she come to a town near you.

Sunny Sweeney at Ernest Tubb’s records in Nashville

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzdCbxogO-Y[/youtube]

Willie Nelson’s Birthday Texas Monthly Cover

The #1 Willie Nelson fan site stillisstillmoving.com gives us a sneak peak of of Texas Monthly‘s special tribute cover commemorating Willie’s upcoming 75th birthday. It will also be the first time TM HAS ever done a cover without a word on it in 35 years (well, for the 270,000 or so subscribers) the rest of the newsstand buyers will get a version with just one cover line, featuring Mike Hall’s 12,000-word oral history of soon-to-be-75-year-old Willie’s life.

This is surely one to pick up!

Tommy Butler – Voted Best Pedal Steel Player

If you ever pondered who might hold the title for best pedal steel player wonder no more. According to the users of the industry networking site, Musician’s Referral List (MRL) that would be Tommy Butler. Using scoring is 1 through 10 Butler received almost exclusively 10 (highest) ratings from his peers and fans. Butler said this about his success, “This career has taken me places and afforded me opportunities to see and do things that I would have not gotten to do without music. It is an experience unlike any other.”

Some of the more artists Butler has performed with are Joe Nichols, Tim McGraw, John Michael Montgomery, Doug Stone, Vern Gosdon, Hank Williams III, Daryle Singletary, Dierks Bentley, Jessica Andrews and The Wilkinsons. Butler is currently working with the much heralded brother and sister country duo, “The Roys” who are touring with Legendary George Jones on select dates throughout 2008.

Scott H Biram Spring Dates

That “Dirty ol One Man Band from Texas: Scott H. Biram will be wheeling his First Church Of The Ultimate Fanaticism selling his brand of sanctified chicken-fried country blues music this spring and will be over in the UK in late May with some possible central Europeon dates in Early June.

Check him out at a chicken coop near you if you dare!

Fri 3/21/08 Riley’s Tavern Hunter, TX

Sat 3/22/08 Red Eyed Fly Austin, TX

Sat 3/29/08 Double-Wide Dallas, TX

Thu 4/10/08 Rhythm Room Phoenix, AZ w/Hillstomp

Fri 4/11/08 Plush Tucson, AZ w/Hillstomp

Sat 4/12/08 Casbah San Diego, CA w/Hillstomp

Sun 4/13/08 Safari Sam’s Hollywood, CA
w/ Wayne Hancock, 50 Cent Haircut, Hillstomp (SHB plays 3rd)

Tue 4/15/08 The Crepe Place Santa Cruz, CA

Wed 4/16/08 Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, CA w/Hillstomp

Thu 4/17/08 Axe & Fiddle Cottage Grove, OR w/Hillstomp

Fri 4/18/08 Dante’s Portland, OR w/Thee Loyal Bastards & Hillstomp

Sat 4/19/08 El Corazon Seattle, WA w/Hillstomp & Bob Wayne & His Outlaw Carnies

Mon 4/21/08 The Filling Station Bozeman, MT w/Hillstomp

Wed 4/23 Bar Deluxe w/Hillstomp

Fri 4/25/08 Bender’s Tavern Denver, CO w/Hillstomp, Rev. Deadeye

TBA (Possibly Lincoln, NE)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX6-G5uHFHk[/youtube]

Tom Russell Gallery Showing At Austin’s Yard Dog Gallery

Austin’s Yard Dog Gallery will host a showing by El Paso resident and renowned singer/songwriter and painter, Tom Russell.

The majority of the paintings in the show pay tribute to a group of jazz musicians from Juarez, Mexico.  They were premier musicians who played in the top night spots of Juarez in its heyday, even backed Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee, but lost their lives when their bus went off a cliff in 1953.

Opening reception is Friday February 15th 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Tom will play a few songs at the opening.  Afterward, he will be playing at the Cactus Café.

Yard Dog
1510 S Congress Ave
Austin, TX 78704
512.912.1613