5 Americana & Country Music Christmas Albums – The Nice List

Not too be cynical, but Christmas albums are often little more than a money grab from big artists.They makes perfect business sense but rarely results in laying out hard-earned dollars to add to your collection. Here are 5 that break the opportunistic mold/ The artists here are either so singularly excellent as to transcend the material or they exhibit such sincerity and love for the material that it just moves you.

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An Americana Christmas
is a rootsy 16 song mix of classic Christmas songs and brand new holiday recordings from country and Americana legends, like John Prine, Johnny Cash and Dwight Yoakam, and some new guns Ronnie Fauss and Nikki Lane. This is a nicely balanced CD to sip your nog to.

 

 

 

Christmas With Buck Owens And His Buckaroos – Buck recorded two Christmas albums back in the sixties - Christmas Shopping and  Christmas with Buck Owens. This is the better of the two because the King of the Bakersfield Sound avoids the usual Christmas chestnuts and lends his signature style to a collection consisting  almost all original songs. The songs run from barroom weepers Blue Christmas Tree and It’s Christmas Time For Everyone But Me and the swinging Santa’s Gonna Come in a Stage Coach and Because It’s Christmas Time. This is a great stocking-stuffer for the country traditionalist in your life.

 

 

 

A Christmas Present – How many Christmas albums can you name that resulted in a #1 song? Not many, but this is one of them. Haggard’s  A Christmas Present, released in 1973,  contains the single If We Make It Through December which spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart that December through  January 1974. That song and others like melancholy “Daddy Won’t Be Home for Christmas settles you in for a lonesome Christmas, but Hag does take a light-hearted break with Santa Claus and Popcorn and Bobby Wants a Puppy Dog for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

A John Prine Christmas – The legendary John Prine puts away the satircal knives (mostly) on this excellent, though brief, holiday release. Classics like I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and  Silver Bells are done straight-up and  mixed with wry originals resulting in a tasty spiked Christmas nog. Broken relationships in songs like  Everything Is Cool and All the Best are recalled less bitterness then bemused fatalism.

 

 

 

 

 

To: Kate a Benefit for Kate’s Sake – A collection of Americana and alt.country legends came together on this 2005 release partake in one of the greatest of Christmas endeavors; charity.
Jim Lauderdale, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Buddy & Julie Miller and others to put together To: Kate a Benefit for Kate’s Sake to benefit a three-year-old  Nashville girl suffering from a rare genetic disease. Chuck Mead and BR549 do a great Western Swing version of The Christmas Song and Jim Lauderdale tears through a spirited Holly & Her Mistletoe. Buddy and Julie Miller strike the perfect tone for the spiritual Away In A Manger and Joe Ely’s Tejano-tinged Winterlude is as spicy and pleasing as Mexican hot chocolate on a winter night.

 

 

 

Hillbilly Holiday– Unfortunately now out of print, Hillbilly Holiday is an excellent 18-track compilation of classic country Christmas songs. Pioneers like Bill Monroe, Tex Ritter and Ernst Tubb sit beside relative newcomers Willie Nelson. Buck Owens and Loretta Lynn on this often whimsical compilation. If you can find this release is  just the remedy for the pop-country fan in your life.

Americana and Roots 54th Grammy Awards Nominees – 2012

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) announced its nominees for the 54rd Annual Grammy Awards. I was pleased to see Americana and roots performers being nominated for some of the more prestigious awards like Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Below are nominees that fall into the Americana and roots category and other artists in other categories that might be of interest to readers of Twang Nation.

Best Americana Album
Emotional Jukebox – Linda Chorney
Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down – Ry Cooder
Hard Bargain – Emmylou Harris
Ramble At The Ryman – Levon Helm
Blessed – Lucinda Williams

Best Folk Album
Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars
I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive – Steve Earle
Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes
Ukulele Songs- Eddie Vedder
The Harrow & The Harvest – Gillian Welch

Best Bluegrass Album
Paper Airplane – Alison Krauss & Union Station
Reason And Rhyme  – Jim Lauderdale
Rare Bird Alert – Steve Martin And The Steep Canyon Rangers
Old Memories: The Songs Of Bill Monroe – The Del McCoury Band
A Mother’s Prayer- Ralph Stanley
Sleep With One Eye Open- Chris Thile & Michael Daves

Best Country Album
“Here For A Good Time” — George Strait

Best Children’s Album
I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow (various artists collection)

Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes
The Bristol Sessions, 1927-1928: The Big Bang of Country Music (various artists collection)

Record Of The Year
Rolling In The Deep – Adele
Holocene – Bon Iver
The Cave – Mumford & Sons

Album Of The Year
21 – Adele

Song Of The Year
The Cave – Mumford & Sons
Holocene – Bon Iver
Rolling In The Deep – Adele

Best New Artist
Bon Iver

Best Pop Solo Performance
Someone Like You – Adele

Best Pop Instrumental Album
The Road From Memphis – Booker T. Jones
Setzer Goes Instru-Mental! – Brian Setzer

Best Pop Vocal Album
21 – Adele

Best Rock Performance
Down By The Water – The Decemberists
The Cave – Mumford & Sons

Best Rock Song
The Cave – Mumford & Sons
Down By The Water- The Decemberists

Best Rock Album
Wilco  – The Whole Love

Best Alternative Music Album
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
My Morning Jacket – Circuital

Best Country Duo/Group Performance
Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars

Best Country Song
Threaten Me With Heaven – Vince Gill

Best Instrumental Composition
Life In Eleven РB̩la Fleck & Howard Levy, composers (B̩la Fleck & The Flecktones)

Best Engineered Album (Non Classical)
Follow Me Down-  Brandon Bell & Gary Paczosa, engineers; Sangwook “Sunny” Nam & Doug Sax, mastering engineers (Sarah Jarosz)
The Harrow & The Harvest – Matt Andrews, engineer; Stephen Marcussen, mastering engineer (Gillian Welch)
Paper Airplane – Mike Shipley, engineer; Brad Blackwood, mastering engineer (Alison Krauss & Union Station)

Twang Nation – Holidays at the Ranch Mix -2011

Here’s a little something to stuff your sock,  warm your chestnuts and spike your nog. There’s some traditional (Gene Autry – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer) and the less-so (Drive-By Truckers – Mrs. Claus’ Kimono.) But, I’m sure there’s something here for everyone, except your Uncle Jack, that ass hates everything. Enjoy and Happy Holidays, y’all!

Twang Nation – Holidays at the Ranch Mix -2011

Gene Autry – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Willie Nelson – Pretty Paper
John Prine – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Emmylou Harris – O Little Town of Bethlehem
Drive-By Truckers – Mrs. Claus’ Kimono
Steve Earle – Nothing But A Child
Johnny Cash – Silent Night
Commander Cody – Daddy’s Drinking Up Our Christmas
George Jones – Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus
Dolly Parton – Hard Candy Christmas
Michael Martin Murphey – Two-Step ‘Round The Christmas Tree/Two-Step Medley
Waylon Jennings – Away In A Manger
Dwight Yoakam – Run Run Rudolph
Merle Haggard – If We Make It Through December
The Mavericks – Santa Claus Is Back In Town
Alan Jackson with Alison Krauss – The Angels Cried
Clay Walker – Blue Christmas
Chris LeDoux – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Suzy Bogguss – Two-Step ‘Round The Christmas Tree
Deana Carter – Carol Of The Bells
George Strait – White Christmas
Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys – Christmas Time’s A-Coming
Dwight Yoakam – Here Comes Santa Claus
Neko Case – Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis
Asylum Street Spankers – Zat You, Santa Claus?
Jim Lauderdale – Holly & Her Mistletoe
Otis Gibbs – Jesus On The Couch
Robert Earl Keen – Merry Christmas From The Family
Lyle Lovett – Christmas Morning
James McMurtry – Holiday

 

Live Review: Sunday Valley – Kimo’s Penthouse Lounge- San Francisco 8/8/11

The thing about booking your own shows is that, unless you know that terrain, you never know where you’ll end up. Making their way South and then West to their home-base nashville from the influential Pickathon festival in Oregonthe Nashville-based by way of Kentucky alt.country band Sunday Valley found themselves in Kimo’s Penthouse Lounge , a seedy little joint known for it colorful bar clientele (aka day-long boozers) and it retro-punk clientele inhabits it’s upstairs live-space nightly.  This could have been a fish-out-of-water scenario but it turned out to be a great fit.

Before the show I talked to John Sturgill Simpson, (guitar and lead vocals), over the preceding band’s tortured version of “Whipping post.” Simpson discussed the band’s influences and the pros and cons of the genre labeling. “At one festival we were billed as a bluegrass band.” he laughs. And as a fan of fellow Kentuckian Bill Monroe, as well as country music in general, Simpson knows how ridiculous this distinction is and how hard a band like Sunday Valley is to pigeonhole.

Alt.country, cowpunk, XXX, whatever…the band is a natural extension of Bakersfield electrified hillbilly and heavy-rock bravado of Southern rock. Their set ripped into gear with Old Sunshine from new new exceptional release To The Wind And On To Heaven. Though there was the occasional glib “yeeeHAAAAW!” , the crowd was soon gathering at the edge of the stage to bear witness to these brazen outsiders. By the time they slide into the burner Sometimes Wine the black leather and metal-stud crowd had recognized a musical kin of passion and workman-like DIY culture.

Kevin Black (Bass and background vocals) and Edgar Purdom (Drums) laid down solid foundation for Simpson’s slicing, snarling telecaster, He glares out at the darkened crowd like a man that might have something to prove if only he gave a shit. The crowd was eating it up.

The just over an hour-long set packed in 12 songs, including an amped up rendition of the classic murder ballad Pretty Polly and Train 45 which Simpson dedicated to Bill Monroe. That’s what makes Sunday Valley a great band. Like Monroe when he was crating the blueprint for bluegrass, tradition is held in reverence but new territories are bravely exploring sonic terra firma.

Americana Music and the Big Tent

This morning the Americana Music Association  shared a link to an online Spin.com (Meet the New Stars of Americana) past covering the Americana scene in Red Hook Brooklyn and touching on the Americana genre in general.

I take a view much like I believe Jed Hilly and the AMA do, since they sent this article out via twitter and their own official email blast, that any press is good press and it helps to lift all Americana boats in the ocean of mass-media and National consciousness.  It takes a real aberration of opinion, like calling Robert Plant the King of Americana or declaring the predecessor to Americana, alt.country to be dead , to rile my feathers enough to take use this blog as a virtual soap box..

But the article is pretty much what i would expect from Spin magazine. A 20-something speaking using context of indy-rock and language of 20-somethings to establish shared taste and like-mindedness. Ever generation does this. Have you listened to most 20-somethings on the  train talking to one another? It’s like razor wire, like, for your, like, ears. Right?!

I’m just glade that in this instance Uncle Tupelo , Whiskeytown and Bill Monroe are the topic of conversation instead of the whatever skinny-jean and hoodied is the flavor of the week.

If there’s anything in the article that peeves me it’s the reference to Americana pioneer Gillian Welch, who co-produced of the 9 million unit selling O, Brother, Where Art Thou and Alison Krauss, the most awarded woman in Grammy history (26 awards of  38 nominations) as “niche acts.” I think most musicians would love to have that niche. there is also the painfully ham-handed application of sub-genre definitions – “chillbilly, bootgaze, artisanal rock, outhouse, tin can alley, or hobohemian.”

Fans of Americana share, aside from band-wagoners, share a lot of the same attributes as folk, blues and jazz fans. there is a reverence to a purity and reverence to an idea of “tradition” that sometimes gets in the way of innovation and creativity. But in the case of Americana, a mongrel genre at best, the litmus of genre purity, or as I like to call it the “more authentic than thou” argument, makes no sense for a field that can claim genre-bending acts like Those Darlin’s , Hank Williams III and the Legendary Shack Shakers as members.

Washboard lessons held in Brooklyn, John Deere caps and pearl-snap shirts from Urban Outfitters  and a vague grasp of bluegrass history is no threat to Americana.  Age, geography, wardrobe or other litmus tests aside from the musical variety which I partake in ad nauseam, is pure horseshit.

News Round Up: George Jones Says Get Your Own Damn Genre!

  • Happy birthday to Willie Nelson’s longtime drummer and the “Paul” of the Willie’s song “Me and Paul,” Paul English.  Happy birthday also to legendary Texas singer/songwriter Guy Clark.
  • The latest installment of Popmatter.com’s excellent Torch & Twang series Juli Thanki delivers a post exploring ithe intersecting careers of bluegrass legend  Bill Monroe and musician and folklorist Ralph Rinzler.
  • I’m a long time fan of Libertyville, Illinois rocker Ike Reilly. So when I read over at the fine 9513.com that Reilly was teaming up with on-and-off country outlaw 2.0 Shooter Jennings for the song The War On The Terror and Drugs (from Reilly’s upcoming release Hard Luck Stories) I was intrigues. Turns out it’s damn fine! (Song Illinois)
  • Front Porch Musings is offering a sweet playlist from performers playing the Americana-by-way-of-punk showcase showcase The Revival Tour.Featured are Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Jim Ward (At the Drive-In, Sparta), Frank Turner (Million Dead), and much more.
  • Country, roots, Americana- as the rest of us are grappling with nomenclature (fancy word for names) for music, George Jones uses his old-guard status to reclaim flag and call Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift “not country music.”

Happy Labor Day – Top 10

Labor Day originated in Canada from labor unions fighting for a nine-house work day. The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City as a result of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the US military and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike. With our current animosity toward all things union, Labor Day has become little more than a reason for a car sale and a three-day last gasp of Summer vacation. Kind of a drag when you realize that we are working harder and getting less now than generations past…

Here are the top 10 songs I believe celebrate the working person as the backbone of America.

1.  Work’in Man Blues –  Merle Haggard – Still a staple in Merle’s set list and a must have in all the best honky-tonks and beer joints across America.

2. Can’t Make it Here – James McMurtry  – In the recent economic downturn it’s become fashionable to pen songs about tough times for a quick buck. None come  even close to the gritty heart of McMurtry’s tale of hard times.

3. 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton -This two Grammy Award winning crossover hit was the theme song to the hit film starring Parton, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman. Leave it to  Dolly to make cubicle drudgery sound so fun.

4. Take This Job and Shove It – Johnny Paycheck – Penned by David Allan Coe about the bitterness of a man who worked long and hard with no apparent reward.  The song was also covered by the Dead Kennedys on their album Bedtime for Democracy.

5. Maggie’s Farm -  Bob Dylan – Dyman made it popular but Maggie’s Farm has a much longer history that includes Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs.Though it has been documented that Maggie’s Farm was Dylan’s declaration of independence from the constructions put on him by the folk movement, it stands just as well as an oppressed employee leaving his thankless boss.

6.  Wichita Lineman – Glen Campbell – Written by by Jimmy Webb and famously covered by Glen Campbell While driving on a deserted highway in northern Oklahoma, Webb spotted a solitary lineman working high on a transmission cable and the idea for the lyric was born.  It has been referred to as ‘the first existential country song’.

7. Working Man – Hank Williams III – Shelton’s narration of the hard times and the endless struggle of blue collar work and his role in society and his family.

8. Dark as a Dungeon – Merle Travis -  Travis’ father was a coal miner in Muhlenberg County, Ky. and this classic song details the risks and drudgery of the work.

9.  Millworker – Emmylou Harris – Emmylou covers this James Taylor song in her signature sublime style.

10. John Henry – Woody Guthrie, Merle Travis, Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, etc – The enduring American folk tale of man and machine.

Country and roots music has a long history of honoring and reflecting the dignity of work and the labor of Americans from all walks of life.  We celebrate this Labor Day, 2009  with a collection of songs as diverse and enduring as the people they celebrate.

Band Round-Up: Jason and the Punknecks

Though Jason and the Punknecks aare described by some as punk-country. Gratuitous tattoos and a stage show that gets a bit rowdy the band has more in common with Bill Monroe than the Sex Pistols (though, as I’ve argued before I think the Sex Pistols have more in common with Monroe that 95% of what comes out on Music City.)

This band sounds to like they adhere to tradition without being enslaved by it and tap joyously into the rowdy and hell raising spirit that has been part of road houses and honk- tonks for decades.

The  husband and wife duo of  Jason and Polly Punkneck make the kind of music fit for Carter and Cash, and sure they work their corn-pone shtick a little thick, but there’s no denying the music. They adhere to a sound (and work ethic) as old as the hills and plains and a revel in a hillbilly attitude that Nashville has spent years trying to varnish over.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyT5-yTyq9s[/youtube]

Music Review – Red Eye Junction – In The Shadows (Self-Released)

If you like your country music steeped in the sound of Bakersfield and honky-tonk that reeks with the aroma of beer and sawdust rathe than hair mousse and celebrity fragrances then San Luis Obispo California’s Red Eye Junction’s second release In The Shadows might be your cup of shine. The ghosts of Lefty Frizzell, Buck Owens and Hank Williams Sr. haunt every groove of this fine release. Featuring songs that appear deceptively simple that on closer listen manifest a musical craftsmanship reverent for music made for Saturday-night sinning and Sunday-morning salvation.

Red Eye Junction features a crackerjack band on this release as led by the Benevolent Dr. Cain (as he is billed) who possesses a high-lonesome keen only at home in country music, and most associated with Bill Monroe, Hank Williams Sr. and Jimmy Dale Gilmour, and Jackpot Jonny Clarke who can pick slicker than a greased pig on a July night.

Tonight is a boot-skootin‘ tunes about good times and good lovin‘. These Five Strings and Gone Again are boudoir bawlers that feature pedal Steel by master Tommy Butler and Talk of the Town and Home Ain’t So Sweet are cheating (and potentially murder) songs featuring Jonny Clarke on slightly gruffed vocals and Greg Clarke’s fine fiddle work. A stand out for me is the title cut, an simmering atmospheric minor-chord lament with Buck Dylan’s midnight train harmonica. Anytown is a rollicking road song praising small town life and Two Part Blue features both Dr. Cain and Jonny Clarke sharing vocals on this light-hearted barroom confessional.

Pick up In The Shadow, crack open a brew and celebrate the enduring spirit of country music.

MySpace | CD Baby

“It’s All Over” – Red Eye Junction (from thier first release “Outlaws And Heroes”)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvB0W0-qdBQ[/youtube]


The Country Music Hall of Fame Needs $1.1 million

The Country MusTwang Nation › Edit Post — WordPressic Hall of Fame and Museum has announced a $1.1 million fundraising campaign to pay a $750,000 bankruptcy settlement to keep Bill Monroe’s Gibson F-5 Loar mandolin, Maybelle Carter’s Gibson 1928 L-5 guitar and Johnny Cash’s Martin D-35 acoustic guitar. Monroe’s musical legatee, Grand Ole Opry star Ricky Skaggs, will lead the national appeal to music fans.

As a nod to Monroe, who was fond of passing out quarters to his fans, Skaggs will encourage fans to contribute to the Precious Jewel Fund in increments of 25.   “This is an equal-opportunity challenge to the greatest fans in the world,” he said. “Twenty –five cents is as significant as a gift of $25,000. The important thing is that we all stand up and be counted. After all,” he laughed, “we’ll want to have something to report when we run into Maybelle, Monroe and John R. at that famous gate down the road.” Persons interested in making a tax-deductible contribution may do so online, by mail and by telephone.

Bill Monroe – Uncle Pen

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2XT9u7iw9o[/youtube]