Category Archives: Video

The New York Times Reviews George Strait

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  • The New York Times has a nice review of George Strait’s performance at New Jersey’s PNC Bank Arts Center. They discribe the Texas country music legend as “Sinatra with a deep tan.”
  • In honor of the upcoming Fathers Day the fine folks at the 9513.com have posted 30 Songs About Dads.

And because eveyone needs a little something to smile about on Monday, here ya go folks:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6WD1yzQscE[/youtube]

Hard Times

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These are tough times for America. Wall Street and board room crooks, unnecessary wars, mounting national and personal debt, massive unemployment, terrorists threats.. These are not the toughest times we’ve faced in our history,I think the fisr depression and the civil war were much tougher, but they are hard relative to the lives most people have lived today.

The silver lining is that from hard times comes great music, and country music taps into the populist zeitgeist better than any other genre beside blues. Much has been made about John Rich’s Shuttin’ Detroit Down and Hank William Jr’s Red White and Pink Slip Blues but it’s hard for me to buy populist empathy from a guy that parades around  in mink coats and a guy that puts hotel employees in a choke hold and demands a kiss.

Here is a list of songs that I believe exhibit the best of what it sounds like to live through the worst.

Ryan Bingham – Hard Times – A new artist with an old voice . The name says it all.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg428ZfOMsA[/youtube]

The Drive By Truckers – Puttin’  People on the Moon – A stiff shot of old-school Southern rock chased withed populist rage.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTkRyLobKSc[/youtube]

Jimmie Rodgers  – Muleskinner Blues – A classic of down-on-your-luck and lookin’ for work poetry.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXV9_WilcHs[/youtube]

Johnny Cash – Busted – Harlan Howard’s 1962 penned song of working man’s woe was aa hit for Johnny Cash in 1962 on his classic At Folsom Prison live album and was an even bigger hit for Ray Charles the following year.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rnAYYh8gGQ[/youtube]

Merle Haggard – Workin’ Man Blues – Classic Bakersfield rocks this ode to the laborer.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbEstJ98TcM[/youtube]

Frankie Miller – Blackland Farmer – A paen to the 1958 farmers that were just starting to get a glipmpse of the industrial farms that were to change thier professions and lives forever.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHvGOAVOqMc[/youtube]

Levon Helm – Poor Old Dirt Farmer -  Helm, the only American in the Americana/rock group The Band, tells the story of his Dad’s farm inTurkey Scratch, a hamlet west of Helena, Arkansas.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBuJB218UvU[/youtube]

Johnny Paycheck – Take This Job and Shove It – it’s not all hand-wringing and woe is me in country music. Paycheck’s cover of  David Allan Coe’s song was a huge 70’s hit and a raised finger to The Man.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knetbVx5A-Q[/youtube]

Record Review – Spindrift: The Legend Of God’s Gun (Tee Pee Records)

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If you’re a fan of Sergio Leone’s Italiano decomposition of American West mythology and its Ennio Morricone heat-induced sound-scapes accompaniment  then Spindrift’s new release The Legend Of God’s Gun (July 21st -  Tee Pee Records) might be up your shot of mescal.

I haven’t seen the movie that this record soundtracks and probably wouldn’t have to to get the gist. Lone gunman enters a lawless town of frontier anarchy,  blood and whiskey spills in copious quantities, sexy senorita will betray and be dispatched, roll credits. To fill in the details there are narrations of a “land untamed and riddled with lust, greed, debauchery and bullet holes” and “Speak up you rusted .45,  How many can you name that you faced and left to die.” Nice!

There are the aforementioned Morricone-esque nervy spaghetti Westerns serenades (In the Beginning, Titoli, Speak to the Wind), heat-shimmering reverberated art rock (The New West, Speak to the Wind, Burn the Church, Blessing the Bullets) and even quasi-electronica (The Scorpions  Venom) and ending with the warpath horse-gallop of Indian Run .

Now I have to see the movie and hope it’s half as entertaining as Spindrift’s soundtrack.

MySpace | Official Site | Buy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYWaoOlea9I[/youtube]

Poodies Locke Tributes, Jeff Tweedy Sued

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  • Jay Bennett, a former Wilco member, is suing band leader Jeff Tweedy in Cook County Circuit Court, claiming Tweedy owes him money from the band’s 2002 documentary and royalties on songs written during Bennett’s seven years with the group.

William Elliott Whitmore made a stop on the Jools Holland Show in England to perform Old Devils.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVJXa19w3W4[/youtube]

Jamey Johnson Uncovered

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Playboy.com’s Uncovered is a new video feature showcasing musicians performing covers of songs in some of the world’s most legendary music bars. Uncovered launches with Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter Jamey Johnson sitting in Loser’s, just off Nashville’s Music Row, and singing Waylon Jennings’ “Dreaming My Dreams With You” which is featured on Johnson’s latest album, That Lonesome Song, which was just certified gold this week.

You might not want to watch this at work.

Gretchen Peters and Tom Russell – Guadalupe

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With “One To The Heart, One To The Head” Gretchen Peters and Tom Russell have made what I consider the album of the year so far. (Twang Nation review)

Here’s the video for Russell’s song Guadalupe which appears on the album as well as Russell’s own solo record dropping later this year. (hat tip to the 9513.com for bringing this to my attention.)

[blip.tv ?posts_id=2031834&dest=-1]

William Elliot Whitmore Hell or High Water Video

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  • New releases by Texas singer/songwriters Slaid Cleaves (Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away), Wayne “The Train” Hancock (Vipers of Melody) and Dale Watson (The Truckin’ Sessions Vol. 2 ) are in stores and online today.
  • HearYa.com gives thier view on Steve Earle new Townes Van Zandt covers album Townes.
  • 77square.com posts a conversation with Wayne “The Train” Hancock about his latest album Vipers of Melody.

Introducing the new video by William Elliot Whitemore for his song Hell or High Water (thanks to ninebullets.net for bringing this to my attention.) Twang Nation Review of Whitmore’s newest release Animals in the Dark.

[myspace]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=55794026[/myspace]