Tom Russell Blogs on New Release

El Paso based renaissance man and Americana forefather Tom Russell will be posting a series of writings on his blog, each tied to a song on his forthcoming new release. The first post in this series is for the song East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam and deals with his time teaching school in Nigeria during the Biafran war.

Russell is recording his new record with members of Calexico and Bob Dylan’s drummer from Unplugged, Winston Watson at Wave Lab studios in Tucson, AZ. Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh will also appear contributing backing vocal and keyboards respectively.

The album will include 12 new Russell originals; the scheduled release date in the U.S. on Shout Factory! Records is September 22.

Russell did a few new songs from the release when I saw him earlier this year in Berkley, CA. and based on those I think this is going to be a great one.

[myspace]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=55055947[/myspace]

Album Review – Gretchen Peters With Tom Russell – One to the Heart, One to the Head (Scarlet Letter Records)/Buddy and Julie Miller – Written In Chalk (New West)

These days duets are more like joint corporate sponsorships than a simpatico union of the heart and mind through song. Great male and female collaborations transcend their individual craft and emerge with something altogether new and remarkable. Kitty Wells and Red Foley, Ferlin Husky and Jean Shepard, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Johnny and June – they made music that was more than the sum of their already amazing parts.

The Americana world seems to be coming into its own in the duet field. What arguably began with Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris got a real boost with 2005’s Begonias featuring Whiskeytown and Tres Chicas’ Caitlin Cary and her friend singer/songwriter Thad Cockrell. 2007 saw Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and T. Bone Burnett’s  Raising Sand set a standard for craft as well as sales. Now 2009 has already endowed us with two dazzling releases that build handily on this legacy.

Gretchen Peters is no stranger to the world of Nashville songwriting. Her songs have been recorded by Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis, George Strait, Martina McBride, and Patty Loveless who was nominated for a 1996 song of the year Grammy for Peters’ “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am.” for such a prolific songwriter it’s surprising that her seventh solo album, One To The Heart, One To The Head is a covers album. On it she partners with L.A. native, El Paso resident and Renaissance man Tom Russell who penned one song, Guadalupe, co-produced and painted the album cover image of what looks like a stylized dead horse. Russell knows his way around songwriting, his songs have been covered by Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith, Dave Alvin and Suzy Bogguss as well as 16 solo releases. These are two heavyweights and they bring their considerable collective talents to bare on a great release.

OTTH,OTTH is referred to as a “western album” which Peters tapped into her earlier life in Boulder, Colorado to draw inspiration. The instrumental opener North Platte does set a western landscape with a Elmer Bernstein or Jerome Moross sense of expanse as well as gravity. The landscape contracts just a bit for the stark and beautiful Prairie In The Sky which beautifully highlights Peter’s shimmering trill as she floats over cello and piano accompaniment. Bob Dylan’s Billy 4, from the soundtrack to Sam Peckinpah’s film Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, gets a serious borderlands infusion with Joel Guzman’s extraordinary Conjunto-style accordion and Russell bringing his silky-graveled voice counter to Peters’.

Tom Dundee’s tale of cultural isolation shines as the classic country sound of These Cowboys Born Out Of Their Time and with Russell’s end of the road lament Guadalupe woe never sounded so good. The accordion and barrel house piano that kicks off Bonnie Raitt’s tequila fueled barroom sing-along Sweet & Shiny Eyes sets just the right cantina vibe. It takes guts to cover a Townes Van Zandt song and Snowin’ on Raton is done with delicate beauty and  a proper sense of deference. If I Had a Gun furnishes this album with its title. “If I had a gun you’d be dead. One to the heart, one to the head. If I had a gun I’d wipe it clean, my fingerprints off on these sheets. They’d bury you in the cold hard ground, fist full of dirt would hold you down. They’d bury you in the cold hard ground, it’d be the first night I sleep sound.” Peckinpah would be proud.

Gretchen Peters Site | Tom Russell Site | Buy

Buddy Miller was featured on the cover of the No Depression’s final issue last year. The bible of alt.country/Roots/Americana declared Miller the Americana journeyman the Artist of the Decade and it’s hard to argue he’s not. On top of his great solo work Miller played lead guitar and provided backing vocals for Emmylou Harris’s Spyboy band, performed with Steve Earle on his El Corazon tour, performed on Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s 2000 album Endless Night and appeared on several albums by songwriter/singer Lucinda Williams. Most recently Miller has been busy performing lead guitar and backing vocal duties for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand touring band. Julie, his wife of over 20 years, is no slouch either with six solo albums, and three collaborating with Buddy, under her belt. Her songs have been covered by Dixie Chicks, Linda Ronstadt, Lee Ann Womack, Emmylou Harris, Julie Roberts and others.

But as prolific as they are Written In Chalk is their only their third collaboration in their first over six years, and though both Buddy and Julie share vocal duties the real magic comes when Julie’s lyrics are swathed in her world-weary angel vocals and complemented by Buddy’s chameleon-like guitar picking that’s been hewed by years of studio sessions.

Buddy and Julie collaborated on Wide River which was later recorded by Levon Helm and the superb album opener Ellis County, a song aching for the good old/hard days, is cut from the same Steinbeckian gingham. Robert Plant described Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On) from Raising Sand as “shimmy music” and Gasoline And Matches has the same vibe, swamp mud guitars and bad ass drums. Julie winsomely sings Don’t Say Goodbye which features Patty Griffin who has the good sense to lend only a supporting role to Julie’s already elegant voice.

Robert Plant lends restrained support for Buddy in a backwoods rendition of Mel Tillis’ What You Gonna Do Leroy which is reported to have been recorded in a dressing room at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre during the Raising Sand tour. The song sounds like the source material for a thousand rock songs not least of all Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues. A Long, Long Time exquisitely shows off Julie’s  smoky jazz side and Patty Griffen makes an appearance on the excellent cut Chalk. As good as she is Griffen is she seems superfluous when you have Julie Miller at your disposal. Hush, Sorrow is a pensive beauty with Buddy accomapnied by Regina McCrary. Agian I say, when you have Julie Miller….

Smooth is another “shimmy” style swampy rocker with Buddy and Julie sharing vocals. Julie show up on another delicate beauty with June which was written and recorded as a tribute the day June Carter Cash died. The song is justly somber and celebratory. The Selfishness Of Man is a slow motion testament on hope featuring Emmylou Harris. I love Emmylou but my earlier comments on Patty Griffin’s appearances still apply. Julie would have been a better choice.

Buddy & Julie Miller Site | Buy

Bob Dylan Releases Free Track from Upcoming “Beyond Here Lies Nothin”

  • The first track from Bob Dylan’s forthcoming release, Together Through Life, has been posted as a  free download on BobDylan.com. Seriously, you don’t have to enter an email address or anything. Titled  Beyond Here Lies Nothin, the song features Mike Campbell from Tom Petty’ Heartbreakers on guitar. The release will be available for  free from midnight, March 30th through midnight, March 31st.  Together Through Life will be released on Columbia Records on April 28th.
  • Dyman’s Rolling Thunder camapdre Ramblin’ Jack Elliott will revisit neighborhoods he used to frequent with the likes of Jack Kerouac and Dylan in the 1950s and ‘60s when he plays a special show at the Highline Ballroom in New York City on May 13th.   The 77 year old Elliott is making a number of select appearances in support of his upcoming release A Stranger Here, available April 7th on ANTI- Records.  Produced by Joe Henry (Bettye LaVette, Solomon Burke, Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint), A Stranger Here is a collection of carefully chosen pre-WWII blues songs, re-crafted with backing by legendary Los Angeles session musicians such as Van Dyke Parks and David Hidalgo.
  • I saw the Shooter Jennings and Jamey Johnson Crossroads on CMT the other night and was duly impressed. They were like a couple of old friends sharing a HUGE bottle of Jack and talking country music history in reverence and passionate tones it deserves. As I currently enjoy Johnson’s exellent That Lonesome Song, I wonder when Shooter will release anything that reaches the excellence of Put The O Back In Country. In the meantime we get an inexplicable “Greatest Hits” (Bad Magick: The Best of Shooter Jennings – March 24) after three studio release and a live album (which is the same as a greatest hit IMO.)
  • In more Shooter news, Ted Russell Kamp has taken time from his main gig as the .357’s bass player to release his newest solo album Poor Man’s Paradise which was recorded in  Ted’s living room, Shooter’s tour bus & countless hotel rooms across America. Kamp a great instrumentalist, a sharp dresser and a great guy. Go give him a listen.

Panning for Gold – Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection

Before he became the modern equivalent of Liberace and creator of Disney Soundtracks (1994’s The Lion King with Tim Rice) Sir Elton John (Reginald Dwight to his mum) was the reigning king of 70’s adult pop. Odds were if you tuned into an FM rock or pop station  (often they were the same station as genre segmentation was less rigid back then) within 5 minutes you’d hear one of his omnipresent truckload of singles.

Riding a wave of success his self-titled album (Elton John) had brought him Elton, and his writing partner and primary lyricist Bernie Taupin, released Tumbleweed Connection in October 1970. Though neither Elton or Taupin had ever been to America many listeners believed that the album reflected thier travels there but was in reality a convincing work of Taupin‘s fascination with the American old west. Taupin was inspired by hearing The Band’s Music from Big Pink, Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding, and The Grateful Dead’s American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead, as well as numerous country songs such as Marty Robbins’ classic  El Paso (the song Taupin claims made him want to write songs) to create a somewhat thematically unified take on his own idea of the mythical American west. The sepia tinted album cover says it all. A picture of John on the front, and Taupin on the back, kicking back on an old western town’s boardwalk.

Tumbleweed Connection
was the first time a road band had been used in the studio, making it more the Elton John band rather than just Elton on his own, and the bigger sound comes to life immediately on the blues-rock opener Ballad of a well-known Gun, the story of a gunslinger reaching the end of the road (though I prefer the more country-rock version found on disc 2 of the Legacy edition of TC) and My Father’s Gun a moody study on a Southern son’s legacy of avenging his father’s Civil War death that builds to a dramatic finale’. Both songs feature the soaring backing vocals of Madeline Bell, Tony Burrows and blue-eyed soul diva Dusty Springfield.

Country Comfort is a bustling tune about John and Taupin’s love for the countryside complete with pedal steel, harmonica and fiddle. John re-released the song in 2001 as part of the ‘Earl Scruggs and Friends’ album released by Earl Scruggs. Earl Scruggs played banjo on the song. The song was also covered by Rod Stewart and Juice Newton.

Son of Your Father is a blues-country rouser featuring a rare appearance by UK folk duo Sue and Sunny. Where to now St. Peter? is a pleasant if somewhat goofily-psychedelic tune that seems oddly out of place on this except the narrative seems to be about a man lost in the world and struggling for direction, so I guess it sort of fits. Love Song is the only non-John/Taupin penned tune on the album. Leslie Duncan wrote and performs acoustic guitar and background vocals on this melancholy beauty.

Amoreena might be my favorite cut on this album brimming with great cuts. Taken from the name of John’s god-daughter, this great song about a young man yearning for his distant loved one is notable not only for John’s great piano riffs but also because he is accompanied for the first time by bass player Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson, who would form the core of his rhythm section until their departure in 1975.

The album concludes with the Gospel-inspired slow-burner (pun intended) Burn Down the Mission. This simple, but vague, story of a poor and oppressed community that sees the narrator rising up to take action to deal out some personal justice. This is the most orchestrated and cinematic (thanks to a large measure to Paul Buckmaster’s string arrangements) of the songs contained here and John plays piano and sings with passion and fervor befitting its expanse.

For an album that spawned no singles Tumbleweed Connection stands as a testament to the musical greatness of John and Taupin, and is a heartfelt commendation of the mythical American west.  Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose reportedly once said he would love to own the publishing rights to Tumbleweed Connection as a work of art. I’d say this is probably the first time that Axl and my tastes are in sync.

Panning for Gold is a random celebration of classic alt.country/roots/Americana releases of the past.

Official Site | Amazon

Elton John – Burn Down the Mission

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BSBkhRZMic#sthash.3YUOobSV.dpuf

Tom Russell and Gretchen Peters to Release One to the Heart, One to the Head

The new release by Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell, “One to the Heart, One to the Head,” should be available on or before Feb 1 2009. It features Russell’s song, “Guadalupe,” plus songs by Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Rosalie Sorrells, Jennifer Warnes, Ian Tyson, Stephanie Davis and others. Russell calls it his favorite western-flavored record since “Blood on the Saddle,” by Tex Ritter.  (via the 9513)

The making of “One To The Heart, One To The Head.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6QixC1FlTc[/youtube]

“Johnny Cash’s America” Premieres Tonight

HeadS up Twangers, “Johnny Cash’s America” premieres tonight, Thursday night, October 23, 2008, at 9PM ET/10PM PT on The Bio Channel.

The documentary explores the prominent themes of Cash’s life including love of the land, freedom, justice, family, faith and redemption through exclusive interviews, photos and unreleased music and footage. Interviews include Cash’s sister Joanne, son John Carter Cash and daughters Cindy Cash and Rosanne Cash, childhood friends and fellow band mates as well as Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Sheryl Crow, Al Gore, Tim Robbins, Loretta Lynn, Snoop Dogg, Vince Gill, Ozzy Ozborne, Steve Earle, Merle Haggard and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) all of whom are connected to Cash in surprising ways.

The special features 27 of Cash’s songs as well as unreleased and never-before seen footage including the 1965 “Johnny Cash Show” featuring solo performance of “Five Feet High and Rising,” outtakes from the recording studio with Cash and Bob Dylan from his elusive Eat the Document documentary and rehearsal footage for a Highwaymen recording session. The Cash family – Johnny’s sister, son, and other relatives – take viewers to rural Dyess, Arkansas to Cash’s childhood home and visit brother Jack’s grave which elicits a moving, impromptu singing of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBY0iaGE1-E[/youtube]

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Johhny Cash’s America on The Biography Channel

A new documentary on country music legend “Johnny Cash’s America,” will air on The Biography Channel  on 10/23.  It examines Cash’s life, music, and influence on 20th century American history. It’s already premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival.  Commentary from as diverse a collection as Al Gore, Bob Dylan, Snoop Dogg, and Merle Haggard are featured in the film.

The Biography Channel also offers a nice section of it’s web site outlining Cash’s life.

Johnny Cash’s America

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dr8rabYlUE[/youtube]

Record Review – The Moonshine Sessions – Solal (Indent Series)

Much of my wayward youth was spent journeying through various musical genres. Like the geographical type, musical travel helps impede bigotry, in this case musical bigotry. This experience has helped me to look at the music I hear more fully and not to reflexively dismiss something just because it doesn’t for some rigid idea of what I should like.

One genre (sub-genre really) I still love is, for lack of a better term, World electronica. Old world sounds mixed with laptop beats that meld into a surprisingly great thing. One artists that did this melding particularly well was the tango/electronica focused Gotan Project stewarded by  dj, producer and Frenchman Philippe Cohen.

If you mentioned to me that this Parisian was now not only jumping genres by another border altogether by packing up his laptop and heading to Nashville I would have told you it was a recipe for disaster, and I would have been dead wrong.

Cohen had solid instincts to hire some of Nashville and Texas’ best – Jim Lauderdale, David Olney, Sam bush, Melonie Cannon and Rosie Flores to name a few – and to hire Bucky Baxter (Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams) to co-produce. Like with the Gotan Project works, the songs here are lush and custom made for early morning brunch or relaxing late night listening, but the soul is still intact and beauty undeniable. Atmosphere is scattered throughput the songs in the form of musicians chewing fat, crickets and distance dog barking and train whistles. What could have easily been ham-handed is an outsiders’ loving snapshot of country music and culture.

From the pedal steel and banjo flecked opener of Jim Lauderdale sung “The Academy of Trust” to the unlikely covers of
Abbas “Dancing Queen” (featuring Melonie Cannon) and the Sex Pistols “Pretty Vacant” (featuring the amazing Rosie Flores.) All this with the warm, organic production of a front-porch guitar pull with the slightest tinge of electronic wizardry.

Cohen has proven himself to be a true connoisseur of sound and annihilator of boundaries with this fine release.

Moonshine Sessions Main Site |  MySpace

The Moonshine Sessions – Luna’s Song

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-CLoJYs2s[/youtube]

Yahoo Music Blog’s 25 Music Legends

Rob O’Connor compiled a list of 25 Music Legends (With At Least 25 Years of Service) for his Yahoo music blog. His list speaks well of the longevity of great country music by including some legends scattered in with Blues and Rock greats.

Merle Haggard bows in at #23 (as a country music artist, he’s about as close to rock ‘n’ roll as a country musician can go without acting crossing over the line.) Loretta Lynn comes in at #21, Dolly Parton at #18, Willie Nelson at #12 (I assume it’s his Zen-like state that enables him to endure the rigors of the road after all these years. He’s able to get to that mental state where you don’t know where you are and you don’t care.) George Jones is in at # 9 and Johnny Cash makes the grade at #5 (He owned the color black.)

Topping the list at #1, no surprises, is Robert Allen Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan)

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show – 9/18

From Pitchfork.com – On September 18, CMV/Columbia/Legacy will release The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show, a 2xDVD compiling 66 live performances from the 58 episodes of Johnny Cash’s 1969-1971 “The Johnny Cash Show”.

Kris Kristofferson hosts the DVD, which features performances from Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Louis Armstrong, Loretta Lynn, Neil Diamond, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Derek and the Dominoes, Roy Orbison, the Carter Family (including June Carter Cash), and Johnny Cash himself, among many others.

The set also features new interviews with John Carter Cash, Tennessee Three bassist Marshall Grant, Hank Williams, Jr., musical arranger Bill Walker, and hairstylist Penny Lane.

There will also be a single-disc CD version of the compilation available on the same day as the DVD.

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show (DVD):

01 Johnny Cash: “Ring of Fire”
02 Bob Dylan: “I Threw It All Away”
03 Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan: “Girl From the North Country”
04 Kris Kristofferson: “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”
05 Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash: “Blue Yodel #9”
06 Stevie Wonder: “Heaven Help Us All”
07 Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Bad Moon Rising”
08 Linda Ronstadt and Johnny Cash: “I Will Never Marry”
09 George Jones: Medley: “White Lightning” (with Johnny Cash) / “She Thinks I Still Care” / “The Love Bug” / “The Race Is On”
10 Johnny Cash: “Hey Porter”
11 Waylon Jennings: “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line”
12 Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash: “The Singing Star’s Queen”
13 Waylon Jennings: “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”
14 Tammy Wynette: “Stand by Your Man”
15 Marty Robbins: Medley: “Big Iron” / “Running Gun” / “El Paso”
16 Johnny Cash: “Ride This Train”
17 Johnny Cash: “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow”
18 Johnny Cash: “Man in Black”
19 James Taylor: “Sweet Baby James”
20 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: “Cripple Creek”
21 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: “Worried Man Blues”
22 Johnny Cash: “Sunday Morning Coming Down”
23 Johnny Cash: “Old Time Religion”
24 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three: “Daddy Sang Bass”
25 Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters: “Wildwood Flower”
26 Neil Young: “The Needle and the Damage Done”
27 Johnny Cash: “Tennessee Flat Top Box”
28 Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash: “Long Black Veil”
29 Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three with Carl Perkins: “Big River”
30 Johnny Cash: “I Walk the Line”
31 June Carter Cash: “A Good Man”
32 Derek and the Dominoes: “It’s Too Late”
33 Derek and the Dominoes With Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins: “Matchbox”
34 Charley Pride: “Able Bodied Man”
35 Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys: “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
36 Loretta Lynn: “I Know How”
37 Jerry Lee Lewis: “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
38 Johnny Cash: “Ride This Train (America the Beautiful, This Land Is Your Land)”
39 The Everly Brothers With Ike Everly and Tommy Cash: “Silver Haired Daddy of Mine”
40 Ray Charles: “Ring of Fire”
41 Johnny Cash: “A Boy Named Sue”
42 Conway Twitty: “Hello Darlin'”
43 Mother Maybelle Carter: “Black Mountain Rag”
44 Tony Joe White and Johnny Cash: “Pork Salad Annie”
45 Glenn Campbell: “Wichita Lineman”
46 Neil Diamond: “Cracklin’ Rosie”
47 Ray Price: “For the Good Times”
48 Roy Orbison: “Crying”
49 Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash: “Oh, Pretty Woman”
50 Johnny Cash: “Wanted Man”
51 Chet Atkins and Johnny Cash: “Recuerdo De La Alhambra”
52 Chet Atkins: Medley: “Country Gentleman” / “Mister Sandman” / “Wildwood Flower” / “Freight Train”
53 June Carter Cash With Homer and Jethro: “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
54 Merle Haggard: “No Hard Time Blues”
55 Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash: “Sing Me Back Home”
56 Carl Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”
57 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, and Carl Perkins: “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago”
58 Roy Clark: Medley: “In the Summertime” / “12th Street Rag”
59 The Statler Brothers: “Flowers on the Wall”
60 Johnny Cash: “Working Man Blues”
61 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: “Jackson”
62 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: “Turn Around”
63 Johnny Cash: “I Love You Because”
64 Hank Williams Jr.: Medley: “You Win Again” / “Cold Cold Heart” / “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love With You” / “Half As Much”
65 Johnny Cash: “A Wonderful Time up There”
66 Johnny Cash: “Folsom Prison Blues”

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash “Girl From The North Country” – 1969

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpxwjsP76E[/youtube]