Live Review – Old 97s – Majestic Theater – Hitchhike to Rhome Anniversary Show – December 13

Old 97s - Majestic Theater

Remember alt.country? That mongrel cultural mash-up, fueled on a hefty helpings of George Jones and The Clash, that burst into cultural consciousness with Uncle Tupelo’s 1990 debut ‘No Depression?” Though the style is still heard in many performers in the greater Americana genre the movement proper has the boozy haze of days gone by.

Don’t tell the Old 97s this.

For over two decades the indie band that could has crossed the globe many times, hung out with music legends, had loads of positive ink spilled, had their songs featured on television shows and movies, and flirted with mainstream success.

And tonight they looked poised to do it all over again.

Saturday night the Old 97′s played a hometown show with their brand of alt.country, joyously ramshackle performances offsetting sharp songwriting and melodies, is still going strong. On the Majestic Theater stage, blocks from their Deep Ellum origins, the band came to celebrate ‘Hitchhike to Rhome,’ their 20-year-old debut, by performing it in its 16-song entirety for a full house of adoring fans.

The over two hour show included the aforementioned debut rundown as well as a full set from their recent ‘Most Messed Up’ tour. Through it all this band of buds, Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Ken Bethea, Philip Peeples has endured by focusing on what works.

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‘Hitchhike to Rhome’ conjured memories of their 20 years younger selves in the studio with Killbilly guitarist and the album’s producer Alan Wooley. “You have to be kind of delusional to start a band.” Miller said beaming at the audience that wall shared in that beautiful delusion. As well as memories the songs channeled spirits. Abbey Hoffman and frenetic Loco Gringos frontman Pepe Lopez appeared in ‘Desperate Times,’ a song a 14 year-old Miller penned after being chosen as an extra for Oliver Stone’s ‘JFK.’ “Miss Molly invoked the spirits of the songwriter Cindy Walker and the father of western swing Bob Wills that made it famous. The spirit of Merle Haggard’s ‘Mama Tried’ with Hammond on vocals. “I grew up with this song and knew it had to be on here.” he beamed before tearing into a rousing rendition.

Less etherial people with ties to the songs also were in attendance. Alan Wooley sat in on three songs playing guitar and mandolin on three songs/ The actual Doreen was situated front and center. It was pretty great that right before tearing into the song Miller looked down and said ‘are you ready Doreen?’ She smiled and mouthed that she was.

Not sure if Mike Schwedler, the former Killbilly drummer who managed the 97′s when they recorded Hitchhike to Rhome now runs the city-owned theater they celebrated in, but it made it more fitting to imagine he was.

In the end we got what we came for, an Old 97s show. Loud, sweaty, vibrant and full of songs with lyrics etched on our brains. They were sang by all at full volume on this night.
The occasion made it all more special, for sure, but in the end they played like their 20 years younger selves. like I remember on the stage of Club DaDa or Clearview. And that was always special.

Here’s to 20 more.

Watch Out! Willie Nelson & Billy Joe Shaver: “Hard To Be An Outlaw” – David Letterman 12/17/2014

Willie Nelson & Billy Joe Shaver: "Hard To Be An Outlaw"

It’s good to be David Letterman. Though his last show is set for May 20, 2015 he continues to showcase great music for quality and less commercial reasons. And why not? He’s the reigning late night king. And while it lasts it’s good to be the king.

Texas music legends Willie Nelson and Billy Joe Shaver performed last night. And though Willie’s been on The Late Show numerous times this was Shaver’s Late Show debut. Better late then never.

The pair performed ‘Hard to Be an Outlaw,’ which appears on Shaver’s latest ‘Long in the Tooth,’ which with the shared vocals this performance is drawn from, and Willie’s solo vocal version on his ‘Band of Brothers.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cAFyMtEFNg

Listen Up! Hear An Unreleased Joe Ely and Linda Ronstadt duet “Where is My Love.”

Linda Ronstadt Joe Ely

Joe Ely has alway been a step ahead of the music industry. He’s toured as an opener for the Clash and shared the stage with Elvis Costello. He;s kept Lubbock on the map by teaming up with local musicians Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock in the country/folk trio The Flatlanders. He’s written books, ‘Bonfire of Roadmaps’ and the forthcoming ‘Reverb: An Odyssey.’

Ely also released a ‘B484,’ an album made in the 80’s in his home studio, cutting edge at the time, that later was recreated in a “professional” studio by MCA and released as ‘Hi Res.’

All this scavenging through archives has also led to another treasure.

A recent visit that Ely had with Linda Ronstadt the two artists recalling the session for a 1987 duet for “Where is My Love.”

After a search, the recording was found. Ely and Ronstadt agreed the song held up well over time. Written by West Texas songwriter, Randy Banks, it is a Tejanao-tinged song of lost love and woeful regret that brings Linda Ronstadt back to her ‘Silk Purse’ country-rock era of the early 70’s. Her vocal interchange with Ely carries a soulful reminder of how two fine artists create magic through chemistry and the sheer joy of sharing together in a great country song and, sadly, how much we will miss her voice due to her struggles with Parkinson’s disease.

Hear the magic below/ I will post info on buying when I get it.

Ely is currently at work on a follow-up to 2011’s ‘Satisfied at Last,’

Cream of the Crop – Twang Nation Top Americana and Roots Music Picks of 2014

TNCream2014

It defies all marketing logic.

Take thoughtful, and oftentimes uncomfortable, music built unapologetically (and more importantly, without irony) from instrumentation and melodies that reflect the past and drag it into the present.

Brazen sentimentality in the face of a blase world and lack of absolute style and ideological boundaries allows Americana to attract strange cultural bedfellows, Reminiscent of the 70’s when Saints Willie and Waylon brought the rednecks and hippies together under the tin roof of Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters, this music hits us at the human core. Good music strips away the bullshit, shows our humanity, and can make us whole.

This is why it’s the greatest music being created today. That’s why it’ll last as fashions fall and technology and cultural isolation encroaches.

But it’s shit for mapping out a contemporary music career. So how does this great stuff keep happening?

With no apparent thought to charts, hit singles, karaoke reality shows or clutching at the greased pig of contemporary music taste people believe so deeply and completely that they sit in a van for 200 plus days a year, in freezing snow and burning summer heat, to play barely filled rooms at a level like they’re playing the Ryman or Beacon. Because that girl near the stage, with the band logo tattoo, is singing every word to every song. In spite of increasingly remote odds of economic sustainability they keeping lining up and enduring.

They have no choice, the spirit fills them. And we are moved by it. It affects us all.

And that extraordinary music is not just culturally and stylistically satisfying, there’s a viable market. Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson have gone from tight quarter vans and half-full seedy clubs to spacious buses and sold-out theatres. Movies and TV shows are using more and more roots music to set a mood. The genre is snowballing in fans and new music and the influence is felt everywhere. It’s no longer our little secret.

This is good, it’s evolution. It’s is growth. The risk of commercial popularity resulting in diminitionment of quality is assured. But just as Americana is not fed from one influence it is also not any one band. There is a wealth of choice. some of which I hope I’ve been able to list below.

2014 leaves us in turmoil and cultural upheaval. Roots music has historically been a cultural channel to discuss injustices from the point of view of those most affected. From Woody to Dylan to Alynda Lee Segarra roots music provides a poetic reflection of where society and humanity are and where we’d like to be.

But it’s not all topical earnestness. There’s plenty of toe-tapping tomfoolery and easy fun to melt away your troubles and woes and sing at the top of your lungs.

We cry, we laugh, we get drunk and do both simultaneously. No airs, no regrets, no AutoTune.

Lists are subjective, and no more so than my own. But each year I hope to place a loose marker around where I feel we are, and where we’re headed as disciples of this mongrel aesthetic.

This year we can be assured that country music has finally been saved, so enough of that. Roots music continues to make inroads in the mainstream without losing it’s way (or soul.) As happened so music last year, many mainstream media best of country music year-end lists to purloin from the rootsier side (like this and this – http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/40-best-country-albums-of-2014-20141210 ). I applaud this. Bro-country’s foe is not the same tepid, lazy style wrapped in a dress. It’s better music without boundaries and gatekeepers.

2015 shows no sign of waning in output or fan interest. New releases from Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Ryan Bingham, James McMurtry, Caitlin Canty, American Aquarium, JD McPherson, another from Justin Townes Earle, Rhiannon Giddens, The Lone Bellow, Whitehorse, Robert Earl Keen’s bluegrass album, and possibly a new Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell collaboration has the new year is looking rosy.

Criteria – Calendar year 2014. No EPs, live, covers or re-release albums no matter how awesome.

Don’t see your favorite represented? Leave it in the comments and here’s to a new year of twang

26. Mary Gauthier – ‘Trouble & Love’
The only way to best your demons is to look them in the eye. Gauthier does just that on ‘Trouble & Love’ With her wonderfully roughewn voice to inner struggle in the wake of love lost (or, more appropriately, taken) Misery loves company and Gauthier keeps some of
Nashville’s finest – Guthrie Trapp, Viktor Krauss, Lynn Williams, Beth Nielsen Chapman, The McCrary Sisters, Darrell Scott, Ashley Cleveland. Catharsis rarely sounds this good.

25. Old 97s – ‘Most Messed Up’
Remember alt.country? I sure do. And so does Rhett Miller. The Dorian Gray of roots rock and his faithful compadres Ken Bethea, Philip Peeples and Murry Hammond still bring the heat to their blend of Tex-power pop in even the most road-weary, blase’ moments. This is a work of fury, fun and not giving a damn. here’s to that!

24. Angaleena Presley – ‘American Middle Class’
Presley steps out of the shadow of her super group Pistol Annies and digs deep into her history to deliver an album deeply steeped in country music traditions. Presley writes songs of hardship that rings true and is too busy making a living to sing hands and despair.

23. Sunny Sweeney – ‘Provoked’
Who needs bro-country when you have Sunny Sweeney. Her voice is your afternoon sweet sun tea but her wit is the bourbon you stir in. ‘Provoked’ is Sweeney’s true voice and it twangs true and kicks some serious ass.

22. Billy Joe Shaver – ‘Long in the Tooth’
Billy Joe Shaver is not about to sit on his long and prestigious laurels. No sir, not if Todd Snider has anything to say about it (Todd prodded Shave into this) Shaver takes aim at Music Row ( ‘Hard To Be An Outlaw’) love (“I’ll Love You as Much as I Can”) and teh absurdity of life ( “The Git Go”) God bless Billy Joe Shaver and everything he represents!

21. Rodney Crowell – Tarpaper Sky
Following his Grammy-winning collaboration with Emmylou Harris ‘Tarpaper Sky’ finds Crowell relaxin into a zone of a craft he’s spent 40 years refining. Songs from the rearview (“The Long Journey Home”, “The Flyboy & the Kid”) , heart-busters sit beside cajun frolick (“Fever on the Bayou”) to create a satisfying release.

20. Kelsey Waldon – ‘The Goldmine’
Great country music is rooted in the blood, sweat, and the threadbare hope of those just out of the reach of the American Dream. Kelsey Waldo’s songs richly reflects a lives hobbled by hard decisions and opportunities never given. While ‘The Goldmine’ reflects a hard realism, Waldon smartly ensures that it is never devoid of hope.

19. Doug Seegers – ‘ Going Down to the River’
A story too absurd to be true. Swedish documentary features homeless Nashville busker leading to a number 1 single on Swedish iTunes Charts for 12 consecutive days and a Will Kimbrough produced full-length featuring collaborations with Emmylou Harris and ex-tour mate Buddy Miller. But it’s true, and ‘ Going Down to the River’ is deep with truth.

18. Robert Ellis – ‘The Lights From the Chemical Plant’
Ellis moved to and works in Nashville. But he’s still got the heart if a Texas musician, wandering and unbridled. His love for George Jones is as much a part of him as his love for Jimmy Webb. ‘The Lights From the Chemical Plant’ reflects not only his versatility on the fretboard but his command of the songwriting craft. He reflects multiple styles, sometimes within the same song, and makes it behave. And across it all his voice glides across each with its own high lonesome.

17. The Bones of J.R. Jones – ‘Dark was the Yearling’
Brooklynite J.R. Jones, aka Jonathon Linaberry travels even further down his moody roots road with his second effort ‘Dark was the Yearling.’ Fitting comfortably with with moody-folkies like Lincoln Durham and Possessed By Paul James, sparse production ‘s soulful croon, haunting blues picking and percussive stomp make Darkness Was the Yearling is a galvanization of Linaberry both as a songwriter and a producer.

16. Marah – ‘Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania’
Pennsylvanian folklorist Henry Shoemaker long-ago cache of American song lyrics are discovered and interpreted by Marah’s David Bielanko and Christine Smith performing live around a single microphone in a ready-made studio set up in an old church, doors open to allow local performers and the generally curious to gather and join along. The result is a startlingly cohesive work driven by a ramshackle spirit. ‘Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania’ opens a contemporary channel to the restless, rustic ghosts of Big Pink more authentically than the recent T Bone Burnett helmed effort.

15. The Secret Sisters – ‘Put Your Needle Down’
Shedding the gingham shell that encased their debut The Secret Sisters , Lydia and Laura Rogers, apply their exquisite sibling harmony to push their songwriting chops and build a testament to contemporary roots music. I’m looking forward to riding along with the Rogers as they take us from the past toward a brave musical adventure.

14. Lee Ann Womack – ‘The Way I’m Livin’ ‘
Music Row superstar hangs out with motley Americana crew and ends up making a spectacular roots album? ANd it’s up for the Country Album of the Year Grammy?! Bask in genre confusion and the beauty of great songs performed by a master.

13. Hurray for the Riff Raff – ‘Small Town Heroes’
Few bands have the roots chops of Alynda Lee Segarra and her Hurray for the Riff Raff. Social-minded tunes performed with poetry over preachiness strikes a delicate balance most of the Guthrie-inspired falter. Segarra and crew prove you win hearts and minds my tapping toes and shaking asses on the dancefloor.

12. Lera Lynn – ‘The Avenues’
Lynn’s warm honey voice might lure you like a Siren, but the smart songwriting will truly wreck your ship. No, no this is a good thing! Stripped down guitar, drums and doghouse bass and cause you to sit on shore amongst the wreckage and let bask in ‘The Avenues’ glint and shimmer.

11. Cory Branan – ‘No Hit Wonder’
I defy you to find a better contemporary songwriter that is as deft and studied at the craft as Cory Branan (DEFY YOU!!) As evidence I submit to you “The No-Hit Wonder.” a work expansive yet grounded in the classic folk and country styles. That’s a fancy way of saying it’s badass.

10. Shovels & Rope – ‘Swimmin’ Time’
This follow-up to their 2012 acclaimed ‘O’ Be Joyful,’ has Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst has a tighter focus and arrangement of songs. This can sometimes come off as too eager to please. But when their indy-rock-meets-Carter-Family spirit overtakes, like in “Mary Ann and One Eyed Dan,” it hits on all cylinders and transcend crowd-pleasing.

9. Karen Jonas – ‘Oklahoma Lottery’
Small town character studies have always been a staple of country music. Karen Jonas builds scenes with her breathy drawl that make you feel like you lived through the desperation, danger and loneliness and litters the landscape of this excellent release.

8. Nikki Lane – ‘All Or Nothin’ ‘
Every night is Saturday night on Nikki Lane’s ‘All Or Nothin’ ‘ The Black Key’s Auerbach sets the mood and get’s out of the way as Lane fuses SMART SONGS, 60’s B-movie pop and country music gold to make her mark. So hang on, hold on and have the time of your life. But bring bail money and, be assured, there’ll be a broken heart…and a scar.

7. Hiss Golden Messenger – ‘Lateness of Dancers’
M.C. Taylor is a wandering soul. His fourth full-length as the moniker Hiss Golden Messenger continues his (hiss) quest across a troubling yet hopeful human landscape. This time the pat taken is in the form of his usual folk and country traditions with scenic asides in rock and R&B resulting in his best so far.

6. Old Crow Medicine Show – ‘Remedy’
From buskers to roots music ambassadors Old Crow Medicine Show has shown great songs and keen instrumentation does have a place in the mainstream. The band faces their newfound fame by doing what they know best, Delivering a solid ‘Remedy’ that appeals to long-times fans and garners new ones that wouldn’t be caught dead at a bluegrass festival.

5. Ben Miller Band – ‘Any Way, Shape Or Form’
If you’re looking for a band that mashes old forms with new look no further than Ben Miller Band’s latest ‘Any Way, Shape Or Form.’ The traditional folk chestnut “The Cuckoo” is taken to a tribal-drum psychedelic level. “Any Way, Shape or Form” pushes the Ben Miller Band form just another string band toward something vibrant and a forceful.

4. The Felice Brothers – ‘Favorite Waitress’
On their new release the Felice Brothers have returned from their sonic diversion in “Celebration, Florida” to their usual rustic terrain where Big Pink meets Brooklyn (with a little Velvet Underground thrown in) Gliding nimbly from ramshackle folk to smokey piano ballads to unbridled zydeco ‘Favorite Waitress’ is a fine stylistically homecoming to their splayed and gangly jams.

3. Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives – ‘Saturday Night/Sunday Morning’
Country music. like life, has always been steeped in the struggle between the light and the darkness, sin and salvation. This double album takes us on a boxcar across the dark
(‘Jailhouse, ‘Geraldine’) and the light (‘Uncloudy Day,’ ‘Boogie Woogie Down the Jericho Road’) Stuart was there when Country and Americana music was the same thing. Thank goodness he’s still on his game and cares to remind us.

2. Caroline Rose – ‘Will Not Be Afraid’
This sonic offspring of Chrissie Hynde and Wanda Jackson debut release is everything that’s great about music. It grabs you by the throat immediately with ‘Blood on your Bootheels,’ a cut on racism and violence void of sanctimony that hits like a topical bomb. ‘Tightrope Walker’ is a jaunty roots-rocker with spooky organ line as Rose lyrically juxtaposes two Americas and exposes us to be without a without net. Rose bends, shapes and fires words in a way that would make Dylan envious. This is a daring debut is the kind of record that will make you remember where you were when you heard it.

1. Sturgill Simpson – ‘Metamodern Sounds in Country Music’
Shocking, right? But sometimes the hype does reflect reality. Simpson will surely be all over Americana and mainstream country best of lists (the latter showed a tendency to reach over the fence last year when Jason Isbell sat alongside Tim McGraw and Band Perry), and rightly so. The Kentuckian’s success is more than a bro-country backlash. The praise from NPR Music to UK’S Telegraph speaks to than a more than a mere clerance of Music Row’s current low bar. Simpson channels 70’s hard outlaw country, spiked with bluegrass dexterity into songs that feel genuine. His topics are a contemporary a Kristoffersonion introspection of spirituality, identity and mind-altering substances. Simpson isn’t saving country music, he’s just reminding a us all that there’s a hunger for vibrant music that is vibrant, thriving, and unrepentantly ornery.

Watch Out! Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson – ‘Who’ll Buy My Memories’ [VIDEO]

Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson - 'Who'll Buy My Memories'

It’s a bumper year for Willie Nelson fans. The best selling ‘Band of Brothers” was released over the summer and as reported earlier, his second album of 2014, December Day, a collection cut with his sister and longtime musical partner Bobbie Nelson will be released next week .

Nelson has just releases a video for an updated version of his song “Who’ll Buy My Memories,” from his 1992 ‘IRS Tapes’ which helped pay of his well-publicized tax debt at the time.

The video is a quiet and intimate look at the Nelson siblings doing what they’ve been doing for over 40 years. Playing in beautiful harmony.

The Last Waltz -Reflections and Alternate Footage

On November 25th, 1976, Thanksgiving Day, San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom was the setting for the end of an era. One that had started seventeen years earlier when Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson aligned as The Hawks, a backing band for rockabilly pioneer Ronnie Hawkins.

The concert most famously known as ‘The Last Waltz,’ from the Martin Scorsese documentary and resulting best-selling soundtrack, was part fan’s, friend’s and peer’s celebration of a legendary band and a grand and final statement mandated by Robertson, who unilaterally wanted to end The Band as a touring entity.

Through Scorsese’s studied gaze, and his love of music, the film delivers an intimate and exuberant slice of music history But off-screen business maneuvering, lawyers and a fair amount of paranoia and hubris tainted the celebration and drove a wedge between Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson that time, and lawyers, never remedied.

As Helm recalled in his book ‘This Wheel’s on Fire’ Robertson “… was saying he was sick of it all. He wanted to keep on recording with us, but not go on the road. ‘We’re not learning anything, man. It’s not doing anything for us, and in fact it feels dangerous to me. Look what’s happening, Levon. I’m getting superstitious. Look at Dayton Stratton (a friend and associate of The Band who had died in an air crash). Every time I get on the plane I’m thinking about this stuff. The whole thing just isn’t healthy anymore.’

Set designer Boris Leven lent a deft hand in creating a cozy yet grand stage aesthetic. Using stored props from Opera Company of San Francisco’s production of Verdi’s opera ‘La Traviata’ – columns, chandeliers, crimson wall hangings – Leven grandly melded lavish pomp with living room comfort to set a fitting au revoir.

Contrast this with the ‘Cocteau Room.’ A backstage space painted white walls to ceiling, with white carpeting. Also furnished was a glass table strewn with razor blades for the express purpose of cocaine use for the gathered guests. Helm remembers Scorsese being so wired that “he talked so fast I barely understood a word he said.”

Though there’s no denying the talent and magic of some of the performances, I’m left wondering if this was a bit of thunder stealing. After a spirited full set by The Band, complete with horns arranged by Allen Toussaint, the latter portion of the bill relinquished The Band to back-up positions. Not only of their former frontmen Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan but also for Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison and others who performed their own songs.

Though this no doubt broadened the marketing potential for the movie and soundtrack I personally believe it was taking the spotlight from its proper focus, The Band and their musical legacy. Wouldn’t it have been more fitting, and appropriate if these artists were brought on to support the group in their own songs and them maybe then given one of their own? I believe so.

But it’s all history now, and the music remains. This was even more poignant to me after I happened across this great raw footage of the event. Footage that shows the performances like the crowd that night experienced it.

Let us give thanks that The Band was with us, no matter how briefly, and left a rich musical trail-blazing legacy still followed, and celebrated today.

Live Review: Sturgill Simpson – Club DaDa – Dallas, Tx – 11/15/14

 Sturgill Simpson - Club DaDa - Dallas, Tx - 11/15/14

Music is not a static thing. There is no such thing as a pure form of music.

The current hand-wringing around the state of country music implies that there’s some pure, better form of the music that we are denying at best, losing at worst. It;s not new. The same worry of a lost way is a constant topic around most genres. Rock is dead. Punk is head. Hip-Hop has sold out. Bro country is the new satan.

The struggle between art and commerce is the core of this discussion. In order for a performer to continue to make music they need the freedom, creative freedom as well as freedom from starvation.

Since Bristol folk music been driven from the fields and porches and into commodity. It’s a reality and there’s no turning back, and it’s or the best. If not for commodification and musicians being monetarily rewarded for producing music we as fans would not have much of the music that’s become a part of our lives.

In country music Music Row has long been the standard to adhere to and rail against. Music Row’s push toward mitigation of risk by driving standardization and homogeny is a page right out of the Henry Ford and McDonalds book of business. This makes lot’s of money but leads to mediocre music. Sometimes the pendulum swings too far.

The slick Nashville Sound of Eddy Arnold led to the harder Bakersfield Sound with Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Outlaw Country was a latter reaction to the controlled, top-down production of the Music Row studio system. The neo-traditional wave of the 80’s – Randy Travis, Lyle Lovett, Rosanne Cash, Keith Whitley, Marty Stuart, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam was a salvo against the cultural and economic juggernaut known as Urban Cowboy movement.

When George Strait and Alan Jackson joined forces to chastise the industry on “Murder on Music Row,” they were setting their sights directly on that savvy self-promoter Garth Brooks.

So is the midst of bro-country brouhaha we have a new country music savior. Like these other, dare I say, outlaws Sturgill Simpson is the ultimate outsider. Exacting in his sound and themes, indifferent about current style (music and fashion) Sturgill’s working his variation of 70’s hard country music that 30 years before was mined by neo-traditionalists like Dwight Yoakam. And there appears to be a new audience hungry for a similar sound.

A stark contrast to the Merle Haggard show I attended a few days before, the crowd was young but no less reverent. 20 and 30 somethings arrived at Dallas’ storied Club DaDa to catch a sound that their grandparents might enjoyed at Billy Bob’s decades before.

The pendulum swings.

After some last minute changes by the local promoter due to chilly weather and to accommodate grumbling fans left ticketless from the small venue (I believe Sturgill could have sold out The Granada) the crowd was packed, primed and a little pickled.

Baltimore native opener Cris Jacobs had a daunting task confronting this rowdy crowd. But his Chris Stapleton-like soulful croon and dexterity on the acoustic and cigar box guitar quickly won us all over.

Once Jacobs set ended within minutes Simpson enters the stage to the roar of the crowd, which was the only signal that something had happened. No big announcements or set changes, just…Sturgill Simpson lead guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. It’s startling in the world of entertainment big entrances how effective this was.

And without pomp and choreographed gyrations to distract a crowd you need to deliver, and Simpson and band did just that. Estonian-born guitarist Laur Joamets is a present day Don Rich. His throwback Travis Tritt looks and mastery of that staple of country music , the fender Telecaster, showed why Simpson, no slouch on the guitar himself, gave him the gig.

Simpson looks menacingly into the crowd with a crooked smile and sang his songs about hillbillies and mind-altering substances and the crowd responded in dizzying accord. The audience’s singing was so enthusiastic that during the hits ‘Turtles All The Way Down ” and “Living the Dream,” the band was barely decipherable and many passages Simpson just the crowd at it, and smiled.

Which makes me wonder, is it a hit if radio refuses to play it? The crowds response gives me all the answer I need.

This night, this show, this crowd – it all had a feeling of once in a lifetime event. Like you’ll never see this man in a venue this small again. with the late-night show appearances and sold-out shows he’s moving on to bigger places.

But no matter how big this becomes Simpson is keeping it all in perspective. On his bus after the show show Simpson confesses ‘This has been a wild year , and I’m thankful. But I remember those nights when nobody came. you can’t take this for granted.”

Simpson is a tipping point of other traditionally like-minded folks like Jamey Johnson and Kacey Musgraves that are at the right place, at the right time. And more importantly, with great songs and a sense of history, but without a dogged allegiance it it.

Is Simpson country music’s savior? No, it’s doesn’t need saving. bUt he and his fans are having a hell of a tie riding the pendulum as it swings.

Listen Up! Old 97’s – “Eyes For You”

Old 97's debut ‘Hitchhike to Rhome.’

As I previously posted Omnivore Recordings today releases the Old 97’s alt.country standard-bearing debut, ‘Hitchhike to Rhome.’

Before you head over and get your copy (and you should,) check out the barn-burning (and unsettling) cut “Eyes For You,” below. The rave-up was selected by the band and co-producer Ken Bethea for this reissue and shows the boys at their hall-bent finest.

The version was first in Chicago in ’95 for Bloodshot Record’s “Early Tracks” and as a limited red vinyl edition (1000) 7″ single.

This version was cut in Dallas a year earlier during the original ‘Hitchhike to Rhome’ sessions, but was not included on it’s release.

Buy a few to stuff in those pitifully empty stockings over the fireplace.

CD TRACK LIST:
Disc One
St. Ignatius
504
Drowning In The Days
Miss Molly
Dancing With Tears
4 Leaf Clover
Wish The Worst
Old 97’s Theme
Doreen
Hands Off
Mama Tried
Stoned
If My Heart Was A Car
Desperate Times
Ken’s Polka Thing
Tupelo County Jail
Disc Two
St. Ignatius (demo cassette version)
Drowning In The Days (demo cassette version)
Making Love With You (demo cassette version)

Stoned (demo cassette version)
Dancing With Tears (demo)*
Ivy (demo)*

Eyes For You*

Crying Drunk*

Victoria*

Old 97’s Theme Spgeddi*
Alright By Me*

Desperate Times*
LP TRACK LIST:
Side One
St. Ignatius
504
Drowning In The Days
Miss Molly
Dancing With Tears
Side Two
4 Leaf Clover
Wish The Worst
Old 97’s Theme
Tupelo County Jail
Doreen
Hands Off
Side Three
Mama Tried
Stoned

If My Heart Was A Car
Desperate Times
Ken’s Polka Thing
Tupelo County Jail
Side Four
Crying Drunk*

Dancing With Tears (demo)
Ivy (demo)*

Victoria*

Eyes For You*
Old 97’s Theme Spgeddi*
* Previously unissued
– See more at: http://www.twangnation.com/2014/10/13/omnivore-recordings-to-release-expanded-20th-anniversary-of-old-97s-debut-hitchhike-to-rhome-november-17/#sthash.Wbhq2UGk.dpuf

Merle Haggard / Marty Stuart Deliver a Powerful Double-Shot – Bass Hall, Ft. Worth 11/12/14

Merle Haggard / Marty Stuart A Powerful One, Two Punch - Bass Hall, FT. Worth 11/12/14

On a North Texas night chilled by an early winter snap Merle Haggard and Marty Stuart brought a welcome reprieve by turning up the heat.

“I hope you didn’t come looking for some fancy show. If you did you just wasted your money!” Stuart grinned, making a reference to the lavish Ft. Worth venue typically showcasing symphonies, ballets, operas and musicals.

But not tonight. This cold night the capacity-filled Bass hall had been transformed into a rowdy roadhouse, though a tad highfalutin one.

No chairs or longnecks were thrown (and no chicken wire across the stage required) during Stuart’s set but the atmosphere created was just that. Stuart is the consummate showman – in tight leather pants and silver rooster comb of hair – as he worked the crowd into a frenzy. Well, the crowd was largely equally as sliver, so let’s say a tizzy. He and his always extraordinary band, the Fabulous Superlatives – Kenny Vaughan on guitar, Harry Stinson on drums and Paul Martin on bass, – brought a level of bluegrass-level virtuosity that Start had honed personally from his many years in country music, including his start with Lester Flatt. The majority of the brief but satisfying set was from their just-released double album, “Saturday Night/Sunday Morning.” Honky-tonk barn-burners mixed with Gospel pew-kneelers set toes-tapping and hands-clapping.

And in the case of Stuart’s astonishing mandolin solo, jaws dropping.

As Merle Haggard said later in the program “Marty likes to work in Nashville, I DON’T! But he keeps that town alive.”

Stuart introduced the 77-year-old Haggard as he strolled out on stage as nonchalantly as a living legend might.

Decked in Blacks slacks, boosts and a black jacket with brown leather trim (my bets a Manual exclusive) a fedora/cowboy hybrid chapéu and dark sunglasses, The Hag wasted no time launching into “Big City.”

The classics kept coming, his own hits like “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star,” Silver Wings,” “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” and others including Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” Blaze Foley’s “If I Could Only Fly,” and the Townes Van Zandt he and Willie made into a radio staple “Pancho and Lefty.”

A hush fell over the crowd during his reverent rendition of “Are the Good Times Really Over.” As the song reminiscences simpler times, and better music, without resorting to saccharin tropes of as he asks teh question most of us ask whe watching a oucntry awards program, “Are the good times really over for good?”

Not as long as Haggard and Stuart walk this earth.

Haggard appeared to be a bit winded and he mentioned several times about “Being out of breath” and feeling like he was having an “asthma attack.” Given hsi recent history with health issue there was palpable concern and calls of encouragement as he sipped some hot tea a delivered on-stage by a background singer.

The one soap-box moment of the night came when Haggard asked the audience who was in favor for legalization of marijuana? He then asked “Who’s against it?” Following rhetorically with, “Why?” (video below)

Are the good times really over for good? Not as long as Haggard and Stuart walk this earth.

Merle Haggard’s set list: “Big City,” “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star,” Silver Wings,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink,” “If I Could Only Fly,” “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive,” “Mama Tried,” “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “If We Make It Through December,” “Are the Good Times Really Over,” “Pancho and Lefty,” “Footlights,” “Train of Life,” “San Antonio Rose,” “Old Fashioned Love,” “Working in Tennessee” (with Marty Stuart) and “Okie From Muskogee” (with Marty Stuart) No encore.

Watch Out! Whitehorse – “Sweet Disaster”

Whitehorse - "Sweet Disaster"

Canadian folk rock duo Whitehorse (Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland) has released a spellbinding video for their Spaghetti-Western-meets The Zombies’ “Time Of The Season” cut “Sweet Disaster.”

The video, directed by Ken Cunningham, features delicate overlayed images with washed-out white. The images fit perfectly with this song the band describes as ” a story about one rich man’s quest to send a couple to Mars. It’s fitting subject matter for Melissa’s first ever love song to Luke, and for a band described thus far as “space cowboy lovebirds” (Now Magazine, Toronto).”

Whitehorse’s song “Sweet Disaster” from the album Leave Kickstarter-funded “No Bridge Unburned,” out February 17, 2015 on Six Shooter Records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB3IQcorMLY