As I’ve mentioned before Nonesuch Records will release Emmylou Harris’ new album “All I Intended to Be” (Nonesuch) on June 10. This will be her first solo effort since 2003’s Stumble Into Grace.

Listen to some samples of the release at the Nonesuch site.

Here is the track listing:

1. Shores of White Sand (Jack Wesley Routh)
2. Hold On (Jude Johnstone)
3. Moon Song (Patty Griffin)
4. Broken Man’s Lament (Mark Germino)
5. Gold (Emmylou Harris)
6. How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower (Emmylou Harris, Kate and Anna McGarrigle)
7. All That You Have is Your Soul (Tracy Chapman)
8. Take That Ride (Emmylou Harris)
9. Old Five and Dimers Like Me (Billy Joe Shaver)
10. Kern River (Merle Haggard)
11. Not Enough (Emmylou Harris)
12. Sailing Round the Room (Emmylou Harris, Kate and Anna McGarrigle)
13. Beyond the Great Divide (J.C. Crowley and Jack Wesley Routh)

Emmylou is currently on tour:

6/6/2008 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Ampitheatre
6/8/2008 Lawrence, KS Wakarusa Festival
6/14/2008 Lisle, IL Morton Arboretum
6/16/2008 Toronto, Canada Massey Hall
6/18/2008 New York, NY Town Hall
6/19/2008 New York, NY Town Hall
6/20/2008 Oyster Bay, NY The Planting Fields Arboretum
6/22/2008 Vienna, VA Wolf Trap Filene Center
6/23/2008 Charlottesville, VA Charlottesville Pavilion
6/25/2008 Raleigh, NC North Carolina Museum of Art
6/27/2008 Atlanta, GA Chastain Park Amphitheatre
7/17/2008 Avon, CO Vilar Center for the Arts at Beavercreek Resort)
7/19/2008 Alta, WY Grand Targhee Americana Festival
7/20/2008 Salt Lake City, UT Red Butte Garden Ampitheatre
7/23/2008 Vancouver, Canada Orpheum Theater
7/31/2008 San Diego, CA Humphrey’s Concerts By the Bay

I’ll be in my hometown Dallas, TX on 6/23 to catch the legendary Tom Waits at the Palladium Ballroom. If you’re in the neighborhood drop me a line and buy me a beer.

Tom Waits - Hold On

We mere mortals can only hope to be meager conduits for the grand themes of life – Love, hope, fear, death – these concepts are bigger then any one of us but that doesn’t stop the courageous and foolish from shaping these experiences into music and words.

Joe Pug, a Chicagoan sometimes-carpenter, is standing on the shoulders of Guthrie, Dylan, Van Zant, Prine, Clark, Simon and Young to join the ranks of present-day troubadours like Ryan Bingham, Willy Mason and Ray LaMontagne. Joe Pug’s songs belie this greenhorn’s recent foray into the craft of songwriting and his world-beaten voice belies his youth (early-twenties.)

“Hymn 101” is worth the price of admission alone. A trotting acoustic guitar supports the lyrics  “I’ve come here to get high, to do more than just get by, I’ve come to test the timbre of my heart.” and “I’ve come here to meet the sheriff and his posse, to offer him the broad side of my jaw, I’ve come here to get broke, and then maybe bum a smoke, we’ll go drinkin’ two towns over after all.” This is goddamn staggering in its courage and rich in it’s symbolism.

“Call It What You Will” has a mournful mood that brings to mind Townes Van Zandt at his most melancholy. “I call today a disaster, she calls in December the 3rd” Pug sings being at once melodramatic and nonchalant. You can almost feel the whiskey and brimstone on Pug’s breath when he sings “I am the day, I am the dawn, I am the darkness coming on” on the harmonica laced Hymn 35

There is a timeless quality to this 7 song EP, like a found chest of remembrances in your grandparent’s attic, there are treasures for this that pay attention. And the foolish courage of man armed with only an acoustic guitar standing as a lightening rod for the ages is a wonder to behold.

Joe Pug performing Hymn#101

Looking for a cool place to get a tattoo, see some pin up girls, check out some classic cars, get married on the Queen Marry and catch some great Americana music this summer? Then head over to the Iron-N-Ink Tattoo and Kustom Culture Festival in Long Beach, CA June 6-8.

On the bill is Wayne Hancock, The Blasters, Dale Watson, Rosie Flores, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Junior Brown, The Lonesome Spurs and much more.

The man is a mad genius in a world of tin-eared fools. Pehdtsckjmba people, pehdtsckjmba.

Via the 9513 and Stillisstillmoving.com

Dallas based terrestrial roots-music/classic-rock/country-music radio station Lone Star 92.5 offers some great live performances by the likes of Steve Earle, Chris Duarte, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jason Isbell, Back Door Slam, Todd Snider and Billy Joe Shaver on their feature the Full Throttle Garage.

Charlie Daniels has invited Shooter Jennings to open a series of Daniels’ Volunteer Jam concerts this year. April 11-12 in Harris, Mich. the bill also features .38 Special (which includes Donnie Van Zant, of the country duo Van Zant.)

The origial Volunteer Jam took place in 1972 was suppose to a one-off showcase of Daniel’s friend’s which just happed to be the best Southern Rock bands of the time which including the Allman Brothers Band and the Marshall Tucker Band.

If your in the 5 boroughs next Tuesday head on over to the Rockwood Music Hall to catch singer/songwriter Joe Whyte and his band. Whyte won’t be playing these parts until May so ya’ll head on over!

Tuesday, March 11
Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen St., NYC
8pm
FREE!!

The New York Times has a nice piece on something I’ve seen first hand. the rising popularity of Roots Music here in New York. The city that gave you the smoky Greenwich Village folk clubs from the 60’s seems posed to offer the same proving ground for roots and Americana music.

From the article: “There’s another generation of people who want to hear music that’s accessible, that’s not a prefab product, that’s lyric based but not preachy,” said Adam Levy, a guitarist and singer-songwriter who has played on all of Ms. (Norah) Jones’s albums. “If there’s a roots movement in New York now, I think of it in those terms.”