Watch Out! Kasey Chambers – Wheelbarrow [VIDEO]

Kasey Chambers - Wheelbarrow

Clawhammer banjo fuses with guitar-fuzz bombast spectacularly in “Wheelbarrow” the first release from Aussie country music vet Kasey Chambers’ upcoming 7th solo release “Bittersweet (August 29)

Chambers lends her unmistable pipes, which has a wonderful feel to the upper register, to this tale of trade-offs and empathy.

The stark stark black-and-white video, directed by Renny Wijeyamohan and shot in Southern Highlands of New South Wales, has a Bonnie & Clyde motif of bank heist and love. But love runs shallow and the Clyde in this case is left holding a sizable kiss-off in the end.

http://youtu.be/RNH_2MIZo8U

Twang Nation 8th Anniversary Contest – Johnny Cash, Lone Justice , Gram Parsons

Twang Nation 8th Birthday

I know, I know. I don’t look a day over six. But it’s true! Your generally humble roots music blog, Twang Nation, turns 8 this month.

Where does the time go?

I started this on a lark. Cultural, geographical and psychological displacement of this Texan in New York City led me here. I gravitated toward the most stable ground that had always been there for me, music.

The great roots music I began to discover I wanted to share with a wider audience. And I wanted them share their findings with me. 8 years and three timezones later I’d say it’s going pretty well. I’m still chugging along, looking under rocks and atop branches to find and share great music.

And that’s saying something. In the midst of one of the worst times to become a musician there’s so music of it around, and more every coming across my desk(top) every day. I’m sure things were worse during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, and yet much of the music that I treasure was produced in those troubled times.

Maybe that’s the things about music. Even at it’s thematic darkest musics very presence is a sign of human optimism. Why else bother?

And these days optimism, and music, abounds. There’s more music than ever being produced in human history. Technology has allowed access to performance and strategy tools as a musician, and access and discovery for fans, than ever before. I hope I have contributed in some small way to your musical discovery. And with roots music awareness, Grammy categories and regularly appearances in TV shows and movies, the movement is showing to signs of slowing down.

And Twang Nation will be right in the middle of it. Bringing you the best in new and classic performers and live performances that remind us all that live music, made by fallible humans, can be intoxicating.

And believe me, the best is yet to come.

Keep up with us here on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and tumblr and come along for the journey. As we all know the road goes on forever….

As a thank you, Twang Nation is giving away a prize pack of three great slabs of vinyl for your listening pleasure.

Johnny Cash album 'Out Among the Stars'

First up is the recent release of Johnny Cash lost and previously unreleased material, “Out Among The Stars,” on Vinyl. This is a far cry from the Columbia Records produced Cash and producer Billy Sherrill. The results are classic cash with a contemporary roost twist with help from John Carter Cash, Marty Stuart and Buddy Miller.

Lone Justice

Nest up is the Lone Justice reissue from Omnivore Recordings, “This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983.” This album captures the raw talent of this alt.country pioneering band at their peak, touring L.A. punk clubs and taking no prisoners. Did I mention that this great album is on translucent red vinyl?!

Gram Parsons - Alternate Takes from GP and Grievous Angel

And the best for last the Record Store Day Rhino records exclusive release of Gram Parsons’ Alternate Takes from GP and Grievous Angel. tHIS 2LP vinyl release IS audio sourced from “The Complete Reprise Sessions” released in 2005. Contains a postcard insert at the request of Gram’s daughter, Polly Parsons, for the Hickory Wind Ranch Recovery Community. Foil numbering.

Just leave a comment below to be entered for all three albums. Birthday salutations or a band you might have found out about from me would be cool.

Now the boring stuff: The winner needs to be located in the United States and will be picked at random, Sunday, July 27th, 12PM CST.

Sturgill Simpson: “Life of Sin” – Late Show with David Letterman 7/15

Sturgill Simpson: "Life of Sin"

Last night Sturgill Simpson added his name to a long line of excellent roots performers that have appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Simpson, and his cracker-jack band, rip through a rousing version of “Life of Sin’ from his latest “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_70HJMikcBo

Lucinda Williams To Release Double Album “Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” – September 30

Lucinda Williams - Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone

Roots-music legend, and three-time Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams is set to release her first-ever double album “Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” on September 30 though her very own Highway 20 Records

“Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” is said to be ” Williams’ most ambitious and adventurous projects to date.” It features 20 new songs, with 18 written by Williams. The album’s opening track, “Compassion”, was originally a poem by her father, the poet Miller Williams, in which she wrote the music and additional lyrics.

From the press release “This is a personal milestone for Williams as it marks the first time she has composed music for one of her father’s poems, and it is from that song that the album title was taken. ”

The album also features a cover os JJ Cale’s “Magnolia.”

“Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” features performances by guitarists Bill Frisell and Tony Joe White, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, Elvis Costello’s rhythm section of Pete Thomas (drums) and Davey Faragaher (bass) and Wallflowers guitarist Stuart Mathis. Jakob Dylan adds harmony vocals on “It’s Gonna Rain.” Williams’ longtime rhythm section of Butch Norton (drums) and David Sutton (bass) make also contribute. D”Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” was produced by Williams, Tom Overby and Greg Leisz.

Of the Album Williams says ” “I didn’t set out to do a whole album of country-soul, but once I started working, a stylistic thread kind of emerged,” she says. “It’s a sound I can relate to, one that’s really immediate and really timeless at the same time — kind of sad in an indefinable way. It’s like something my dad said to me many years ago, something I wrote down and included in my song “Temporary Nature (Of Any Precious Thing)” because it was so profound to me — ‘the saddest joys are the richest ones.’ I think that fits this album really well.”

EDIT: Here is the front and back covers. (The back is for the vinyl version.) The photos are by Birney Imes from his book “Juke Joint”. It is the same book that provided the cover for “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road”, as well as the photo that inspired the song “2 Kool 2 Be Forgotten”

Lucinda Williams "Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone"

See Williams perform “Something Wicked This Way Comes” from “Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone”

Ryan Adams Announces Release of Self-Titled Album

adams

Ryan Adams announced today the release of a new, self-titled album on September 8.

‘Ryan Adams’ is the singer’s 14th solo album and was produced by Adams at his Pax Am Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and follows 2011’s ‘Ashes & Fire.’ The album will feature recent single ‘Gimme Something Good.’

Pre-order at Amazon.

‘Ryan Adams’ track list:

‘Gimme Something Good’
‘Kim’
‘Trouble’
‘Am I Safe’
‘My Wrecking Ball’
‘Stay With Me’
‘Shadows’
‘Feels Like Fire’
‘I Just Might’
‘Tired Of Giving Up’
‘Let Go’

Ryan Adams debuts new track “Stay With Me” at a gig in Portland, Maine

Adams’ tour dates:

07/22/14 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
07/23/14 – Burlington, VT – Flynn Center For Performing Arts
07/25/14 – Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival
07/26/14 – Camden, NJ – XPoNential Music Festival at Susquehanna Bank Center
08/05/14 – Aspen, CO – Belly Up Aspen (SOLD OUT)
08/07/14 – Boulder, CO – Fox Theater (SOLD OUT)
10/01/14 — Santa Barbara, CA — Arlington Theater *
10/05/14 — Portland, OR — Arlene Schnitzer Hall
10/06/14 — Seattle, WA — Paramount Ballroom
10/07/14 — Vancouver, BC — Orpheum Theater
10/09/14 — Edmonton, AB — Francis Winspear Theater
10/10/14 — Calgary, AB — Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
10/12/14 — Winnipeg, AB — Burton Cummings Theater
10/13/14 — Minneapolis, MN — Northrop at the University of Minnesota
10/14/14 — Milwaukee, WI — Riverside Theater
10/16/14 — Chicago, IL — Chicago Theater **
10/18/14 — Ames, IA — Stephens Auditorium @ Iowa State Center ***
10/19/14 — St. Louis, MO — Peabody Opera House

Listen Up! Levon Helm – “The Same Thing” from “The Midnight Ramble Sessions Volume 3”

The Levon Helm Band

“The Midnight Ramble Sessions Volume 3” sessions represent last musical project with which the late drummer of The Band was involved. Helm personally hand-picked the album’s 13 songs from a five-year period of live Midnight Ramble recordings, 2006-2010 at the Barn, with his longtime band member and musical director, multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell. The album features performances from the Levon Helm Band with special guests including the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Jimmy Vivino, Elvis Costello and New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint, capturing the homespun spirit of those gatherings, a worthy posthumous tribute to Helm’s indomitable spirit and peerless musical abilities. Aside from listening to hours of tapes to come up with the final song selection, Helm also designed the cover art for the album.

Campbell explains that, after the Electric Dirt record, he and Levon began formulating what a third album might encompass. “He wanted it to be more representative of what this band was like at a live show, featuring all of the players,” says Campbell. “Levon was having health problems, so our plan was to go through the archives and pull out tunes that best showed what our lifestyle was like. That was his real, main motive, to showcase the band as best we could. And then he chose the tunes that he liked playing, and we edited it down to fit on a single CD. “There were probably 20 songs that he initially wanted us to include, but these were the ones we all finally decided were best.”

“The Same Thing” from the just-released “The Midnight Ramble Sessions Volume 3″ has Helm in excellent form as his characteristic dynamic drumming drives a Dixieland /rock/soul infused gumbo in front of a lucky audience. Of “The Same Thing” (recorded Feb. 14, 2009) Campbell says : We’d been doing that song for a while and it turned out to be a great show opener. When Levon’s singing was on, it was just magical. Jimmy Vivino is playing slide guitar on this, and Mike Merritt was on bass that night. The song always just set a great mood to start the evening, so we figured we’d start the record with it.”

Buy The Midnight Ramble Sessions, Vol. 3

Listen Up! Ryan Adams “Gimme Something Good”

Ryan-Adams-Gimme-Something-Good

The last few years has seen Ryan Adams dabbling in computer music and metal with occasional forays into his singer/songwriter wheelhouse with Easy Tiger and Adams’ last studio album, Ashes & Fire.

Maybe it’s his love affair with Fender amps, but the latest offering from Adam’s takes a page from the Tom Petty bible of hook-laden rock- and-roll.

“Gimme Something Good,” his first release in two years, is a blast at us who wondered if a sober Ryan Adams was a soft Ryan Adams. Guitar stabs swirls of Hammond B3 Organ. this is classic rock made anew – big and bold and content to leave feelings aside for a spell. An acoustic does appear near the end of the track, but it’s added for flavor and doesn’t slow down the charge ahead.

I raise a Bic lighter high to “Gimme Something Good”

Americana Music Association Releases First Half of 15th Annual AmericanaFest Bill

Americanafest

The Americana Music Association continues its tradition of showcasing some of the best in Americana and roots music by it’s partial roster of Americanfest performers released today.

Though the lineup doesn’t show any groundbreaking direction, I’m fine with that. There are lots of folks on the list that have been busting their hump for years and deserve this recognition rather then inserting acts to placate outsider accusations of one thing or another. Personally I’m happy to see Casa Twang favorites Howlin’ Brothers, Jamestown Revival, John Moreland, Lera Lynn, Marah and Ben Miller Band on the bill. And Texas is well-represented by Billy Joe Shaver, Sarah Jarosz, Jason Eady and Hayes Carll

The event is celebrating its 15th as the premier Americana event by welcoming 160 performers taking the stage at 11 venues including 3rd & Lindsley, The Basement, City Winery, High Watt, Cannery, Mercy Lounge, The Rutledge, Station Inn, Music City Roots, Downtown Presbyterian Church and Musicians Corner.

Three-time Americana Group of the Year, The Avett Brothers, will headline the event at Riverfront Parl on Saturday Sept. 20. Americana’s Music Festival & Conference registrations will have access. Tickets for the general public will go on sale Friday, June 27 at 10AMat www.ticketfly.com.

Check out THE Americanafest 2014 Spotify playlist.

The first half of Americanafest’s performing artist list includes:

Allison Moorer
Amy Ray
Angaleena Presley
The Avett Brothers
The Barefoot Movement
Ben Miller Band
Billy Joe Shaver
Black Prairie
Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay
Buddy Miller
The Cactus Blossoms
Carlene Carter
Caroline Rose
Chatham County Line
Chuck Mead
Danny & The Champions of the World
The Deadly Gentleman
Del Barber
The Deslondes
Doug Seegers
The Duhks
The Dustbowl Revival
Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo
Ethan Johns
The Fairfield Four
The Grahams
Grant-Lee Phillips
Green River Ordinance
Greensky Bluegrass
Gregory Alan Isakov
Greyhounds
The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer
Hayes Carll
Howlin’ Brothers
Immigrant Union
Israel Nash
Jamestown Revival
Jason Eady
JD Wilkes & the Dirt Daubers
Joe Henry
Joe Pug
Joe Purdy
John Moreland
Jonah Tolchin
Jonny Two Bags
Josh Ritter
Joshua James
Lake Street Dive
Lee Ann Womack
Leo Welch
Lera Lynn
Marah Presents: Mountain Minstrelsy
Marty Stuart
Matthew Ryan
McCrary Sisters
Nathaniel Rateliff
New Country Rehab
Oh Susanna
Otis Gibbs
Parker Millsap
Paul Thorn
Pete Molinari
Quebe Sisters Band
Rhett Miller
Robbie Fulks
Robyn Hitchcock
Rodney Crowell
Ruthie Foster
Ryan Montbleau
Sam Outlaw
Sarah Jarosz
Sean Rowe
Shakey Graves
Suzy Bogguss
Todd Snider & Friends
Tom Freund
Tony Joe White
Trigger Hippy (feat. Jackie Greene, Joan Osbourne, Steve Gorman, Tom Bukovac & Nick Govrik)
Whiskey Shivers
Willie Watson

The 15th annual Americana Music Festival & Conference occurs September 17-21, 2014 in Nashville, Tenn. The 13th annual Americana Honors & Awards Show on Sept. 17 at the historic Ryman Auditorium.

Watch Out! Sturgill Simpson, ‘The Promise’ [VIDEO]

Sturgill Simpson, 'The Promise'

Sturgill Simpson’s latest video, is for his dour yet heartfelt of version of Manchester synth-pop band When In Rome’s 1988 hit “The Promise.” (also included below for reference)

Simpson sits singing looking directly at you. Aashed-out colors fill in the grey-tone frame. Colors swirl and wash until replaced by inky clouds claustrophobically closing in.

And then.. he’s gone.

“The Promise” is a cover but Simpson makes it his own and shapes one of the best songs on his excellent release “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.”

Watch Out! Kacey Musgraves – “The Trailer Song” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon [VIDEO]

trailersong

Ladies and Gents great country music is alive and well and, yes, sometimes it still comes from Music Row.

GRAMMY-award winning singer/songwriter Kacey Musgraves has a response to self-rightous neighbors and it’s “The Trailer Song,” and it’s a honky-tonk delight (with an “awww haaawww’ for bonus points)

The song was written by Musgraves, and her usual partners in crime Brandy Clark and Shane McAnnally

Last week Musgraves performed “The Trailer Song” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (see below.)

Purchase “The Trailer Song.” at Musgraves’ website.

Musgraves is currently on tour this summer with Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss as well as Katy Perry on her Prismatic World Tour.