George Jones has been released from a Nashville, Tenn. hospital. Jones was admitted with an upper respiratory infection. The 80-year-old spent a week in March in the hospital with the same illness. The legendary country singer had canceled performances through June and will reschedule shows where possible.
Legendary roots musician Doc Watson remains in critical condition at a North Carolina hospital after undergoing colon surgery this past week. The 89-year-old Watson had also fallen early in the week. No bones were broken, but an underlying condition prompted the surgery.
In honor of what would have been his 72nd birthday Levon Helm’s band and friends - led by Larry Campbell, Theresa Williams, Amy Helm, Byron Isaacs and Justin Gulp - gathered at his Woodstock farm last night for a commemorative Ramble. The show was announced late Saturday night and quickly sold.
The Luckenbach Sunday Picker Circle host for the last 3 years, Cowboy Doug Davis, has passed away. Luckenbach , TX will hold a memorial service in honor of Doug Next Sunday June 3 at 5pm.
Levon Helm’s was taken to us too soon, and he didn’t write many songs on his own, but every song he performed he distinguished as his own. On this anniversary of what would have been his 72nd birthday here are some well-known and lesser known songs he left his imprint on. RIP brother Levon. The place isn’t the same without you.
“The Weight”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjCw3-YTffo
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
“Up On Cripple Creek”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDnlU6rPfwY
Some great videos from user prestoff2000 from the Los Lobos’ first Cinco de Mayo Festival at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles. The festival featured Los Lobos, X, Dave Alvin, Mariachi El Bronx, Neko Case and the legendary Flaco Jimenez. Check the greatness:
Poor Moon could have easily been lost to obscurity. After it’s initial label shuttered the album was left without production, distribution, and chief singer/ songwriter MC Taylor was left near bankruptcy. Thankfully the album was seen to be worthy of rescue by the small North Carolina label Paradise of Bachelors and was set to be their second in-house release. If you snatched up one of those quickly sold-out, 500 hand-numbered vinyl editions you were in possession of 13 songs of spare, skewed country soul.
The next step in the Poor Moon saga is Tompkins Square Records. The The California/New York label is no stranger to uncovering and promoting great-but obscure performances and must have seen a kindered spirit in the beleaguered album as they have reissued it on CD and online, giving the album a deserved wider distribution and an opportunity to gain a wider audience.
We are all luckier for the opportunity. Durham North Carolina-based MC Taylor and Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Scott Hirsch, make up the core of Hiss Golden Messenger. The duo are joined by an impressive list of guests including members of D. Charles Speer and The Helix, Black Twig Pickers, Brightblack Morning Light, and member’s of their old band The Court and Spark.
Salvation is rarely as ecstatic as depicted in fiction and mythology. Dark and light work within the mundane boundaries of the everyday and M.C. Taylor’s songs well chronicles these illusive interiors. The poet William Cowper wrote “God moves in a mysterious way” in his Hymn “”Light Shining out of Darkness” and the holy ghost certainly takes enigmatic forms in Poor Moon. Whether an agent of abdication as assassin (Jesus Shot Me in the Head) or as a devoted companion in hardship’s throes (Balthazar’s Song) the forms are elusive and not always certain, like faith itself.
Taylor is a believer that question’s his belief existence (or more precisely, his ability to recognize real-world manifestations of his faith.)Â He metaphorically skirts heathen’s path while keeping just within the confines of the apostle. He appears to be aman with no clear answers and takes comfort, reveling even, in the ambiguity.
“Poor Moon” is a deceptively straightforward album that surrenders it’s subtle beauty through repeated listening (preferably with headphones.)Â Hiss Golden Messenger travels the road forged by the recently departed, Levon Helm and The Band by melding country, folk and soul and creating approachable music that sound timeless as well as surprising. the road is well traveled and in this case, golden.
As a singer Lisa Marie Presley has a shadow cast across her longer than most.Being the offspring of the man that spearheaded an entire genre has got to be a daunting challenge even for the most daring soul.
When she’s not spending her time as a Humanitarian for child literacy and tabloid subject (cough,,..Micheal Jackson..cough) she occasionally makes music much of which has been forgettable pop-rock fluff.
Presley’s upcoming effort, “Storm & Grace” is being touted as “…album she was born to make – a raw, powerful country, folk and blues collection that finds her embracing her Southern roots and family name,” ( Rolling Stone) Well, with T Bone Burnett producing she certainly hired the right man to shepherd her into this land of pastoral rebirth.
“You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” is the first single from the album and like a “haven’t we seen this movie before” moment. With it’s moody swamp-guitar reverb vibe the song bears a striking resemblance to the cover of Li’l Millet and his Creoles’ “Rich Woman” by a disciple of Presley’s daddy, Robert Plant, on 2007’s Raising Sand. As readers know this was also a T Bone Burnett production.
Presley sounds confident with her husky if limited delivery and the song is good , if not groundbreaking. That said, I look forward to hearing the rest of the album and ushering in another member of the Americana music family.
“Wish It Was True” is a sparse, acoustic song of longing for faith and the risk and disappointment that often comes with that yearning. The White buffalo (aka Jake Smith is a master songsmith in the manner of Guy Clark and Steve Earle, engaging the listener through expansive allegory that always winds up in the interior landscape of the mind and heart.
The video features Jake and his actual son and was filmed in Death Valley partially in an “old pseudo-abandoned motel” and a gutted bus. Both of which serve as apt forsaken symbols for the lyrics.
Mother, I tried to do right by you,To do what you asked me to.
I did wrong, and I knew.
Mother, I tried to behave for you.
Now I’m a-diggin’ a grave for you.
It was all I could do.
Find a way back home, make everything new.
I wish it was true.
Father, well I gave my soul to you.
I came in blind folded for you.
It was all that I knew.
Open your arms and I’ll fly out of hell up to you.
I wish it was true.
Boy, come on out from the cold.
You’re lost outside there, don’t you know?
It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.
Just keep wishing your wishes are true.
Well your dreams, they’re reality.
There’s no pain, there’s no misery.
Just polish the blood and the brews.
For there’s just no way you can lose.
Well I wish it was true.
Country, I was a solider to you.
I did what you asked me to.
It was wrong, and you knew.
Country, now I’m just a stranger to you.
A number, a name; it’s true.
Throw me away when you’re through.
Home of the brave and the free; the red, white, and blue.
I wish it was true.
Here at Casa Twang we make it no secret that we are big fans of Nikki Lane. The comely raven-haired chanteuse might be only 28 but she delivers a classic country sound with a modern twist that belies her South Carolina upbringing and current home of Los Angeles.
Since her release of her first full-length, Walk of Shame, last year Lane has been busier than a long-tail cat in a room full of rockers. She played two showcases at last year’s Americana Music Association Festival (which I was lucky enough to catch), toured with Noah & The Whale and the mighty Drive-By Truckers, played NPR’s “Mountain Stage†and recorded a session for the always excellent Daytrotter site. If that wasn’t enough the bustling Ms. Lane has opened High Class Hillbilly a Nashville vintage boutique.
Nikki has also found time to finish a new video for Walk of Shame’s “Lies,†directed by Jared Eberhardt, who also directed the “Gone, Gone, Gone†video. (Watch it below.)
The song has a classic reverbed 70s classic revived by Tarantino films depicting Nikki walking in the desert, signing while lounging in front of a fireplace, lying in a bed, and driving a Trans-Am that was probably manufactured the year she was born. And she makes every frame of it look good.
As a part of what Steve Earle called “Nashville’s great credibility scare of the mid ’80s.” Lyle Lovett, along with Earle, k.d. Lang, Dwight Yoakam and others took up the traditionalist Outlaw mantel of the 70’s and reinvigorated country music from it’s soft-rock and Urban Cowboy influence the times.
Lyle Lovett’s new album “Release me,” exhibits pun in name as well as aesthetic. The album is the last for the Curb Records, the label for his entire 26-year. 11-album, career. And in case you missed that the cover art depicts Lyle tied up head-to-ankle in a lariat.
Though Lovett continues a late career trend of including cover songs. But this adios to Curb raises the stakes as it contains only two Lovett originals among the album’s 14 tunes. You might conclude that this last release would be a weakened collection to meet contractual obligations. You would be wrong in that assessment.
Sure Lovett may not be the most prolific songwriter on the planet but he is one of the best interpreters of classic country. There is no one fit to polish Lovett’s boots when it comes close to serving as a diplomat for the eclectic music styles of the Lone Star State.
“Release me” wastes no time offering a burning interpretation of the classic instrumental breakdown of “Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom.” The number made popular in the 1930s by Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith sounds both timeless and spirited in the hands of Lovett and his band.
The title track became a hit for both Jimmy Heap and Ray Price, both in 1954. Here it’s done as a duet with Lovett and k.d. lang, who is so far down in themix her soaring vocals are lost. That quibble aside it’s a great tear-in-my-beer standard well done.
The cover of Michael Franks’ “White Boy Lost in the Blues” slinks in with the funky blues accentuated by Arnold McCuller harmony vocals.The gospel/R&B and Memphis horn-sound of “Isn’t That So” works to a rousing effect and will probably kill live.
Understand You channels beautifully the tender-hearted cowboy Lovett has portrayed many time in his career. The cover of Brown Eyed is looser that Chuck Berry’s original or the covers by covered by many including fellow Texans Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings. But the song still carries the weight Berry intended after being inspired by witnessing a Hispanic man being arrested by a policeman.
The Ragtime-inspired “Keep It Clean” dares you not to cut a rug and William Moore’s One Way Gal is a fine-time front porch testament to a good woman.
“Dress of Laces” is an achingly lovely Daughter-Father twist on the classic murder ballad. White Freightliner Blues is one of the few up-tempo songs penned by the late, great Townes Van Zandt and Lovett plays it to it’s full open-road greatness.
The two originals Lovett contributes to the album, The first is “The Girl With the Holiday Smile” (also on his 2011 holiday EP “Songs For the Season;”) came from a real-life 1978 encounter young lady hiding out from the cops inside a Houston 7-11. This is my second favorite Christmas/hooker song (Tom Waits’ Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis being the first.) The second cut “Night’s Lullaby,” which features Nickel Creek’s Sara and Sean Watkins, was penned for a 2011 run in the Shakespeare Center Los Angeles’ production of “Much Ado About Nothing” that the three appeared in.
I look forward to the work Lovett is free to explore in his new world as a free agent and am thankful he has left us with something this great to tide us over until the nest batch of surprises comes along.
The Great American Music Hall is a post-earthquake 105 year-old 5,000-square-foot, guilded French motif performance hall that has
been a restaurant, a bordello and a host to fan dancers and a stage for golden Jazz era greats like Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie and relative newcomers Van Morrison and the Grateful Dead.
But on this night the back stage of the great American is more like a living room at a friends or relatives’ house. I came to meet Jake Smith, who performs solo and with a band under the moniker The White Buffalo. There in the dimly lit room Smith along with Matt Lynott (drums) and Tommy Andrews (bass) offer smiles, handshakes and beverages. After the hellos and intros the talk moves to influences. I tell Smith about a video I saw on You Tube of him covering the Highwaymen’s theme of world adventure  “Highwayman.” “Oh yeah.” Smith cracks a smile “Waylon, Willie, Kristofferson and Cash. You can’t do any better than those guys.” He then tells me about the music of his Southern California childhood. “We listened to a lot of things. Country, like Loretta, classic rock I guess they call it now. Blues. Gospel.”
The influences show on Smith’s songs if you look for them. Like the best craftsman of songs he makes them sound easy. Effortless. Like they couldn’t be any other way then the way he’s spinning them out. Then I bait him with the question most musicians hate to answer, “How would you label your music.” “I don’t” he says straight. “I spend my time writing them and that’s hard enough. If I spend time on “Is this country” or “if the Americana” I think the song will suffer.”
Smith and the band then starts to list up the night’s songs. Three musicians, three clean, white sheets of paper. One sharpie. then the discussion begins. “What about the Pilot?” “How about Darkside of Town?” “Might be too slow and bring things down.” “How about Love Song #2.” “Okay but you’ll need to sing backup in my mic.” The process is reminiscent of charting an emotional course of stage logistics,crowd physiology and sonic dynamics. What will take them where we want them to go?
The moniker came about through need and happenstance. Smith once wore a sweat shirt that had the title emblazoned on it and some his friends recalled it when he emailed them ideas for a name. White buffalo are extremely rare. The National Bison Association (yes, there is such a thing) has estimated that a White buffalo only occur in approximately one out of every 10 million births. Smith is a living testament to his moniker standing around 6′ 2″ , solid as a wall and stylistically embodying a rare mix of grit and nuance that you couldn’t squeeze out of a dozen neo-folk acts.
Born in Oregon and raised in Southern California, he moved to the Bay area from Huntington Beach to pursue college on an athletic scholarship. He then made his way to L.A. where he now calls home. Because of his local Smith has had his songs crop up in movies and T.V. A bootleg tape of his music made it into the hands of pro surfer Chris Malloy, and his song, “Wrong,†was featured in his surf movie, Shelter. That led to further film scoring and composing work, with three of his songs featured in FX’s Sons of Anarchy and HBO’s Californication.
With 3 EPs and one fill-length out and one more , Once Upon a Time in the West , set to release February 28th Smith has seen thousands of miles over the last few years opening for acts like Ziggy Marley, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and tonight the Texas blues man Gary Clark Jr. His brooding songs of America’s topological and emotional landscape, “mini-movies” he calls them, transforms on the stage. The darkness, whiskey and gunpowder is still there in narrative but the sound shifts to urgency and electricity. Lynott and Andrews expand the dynamics and work off Smith like a fright train veering off the tracks. They are one of the best rhythm sections I’ve seen live.
Over a beer after the show I ask Smith about his fans and whether online piracy worries a working man with a wife and two kids. “People are buying ticket and I’m selling merch. I can’t do anything about the new world I am working in. I have to trust people.”
In true DIY fashion they set their own gear on stage, sell their own merchandise and pack it all up in a van at the end of the night. Off to the nest show miles away across the dark night of America.
I didn’t take, nor did I find, clips from this show. But I couldn’t post without a taste of what I saw. Here The White Buffalo at Bonaroo.
