• Dial up WNCW next Tuesday, Oct. 28, the station will be airing an hour-long special to announce the 2009 MerleFest lineup. The hour will be filled with the reading of the lineup, music from those artists and talk about the festival. The 22nd annual MerleFest will take place in Wilkesboro, NC, April 23-26, 2009. Tickets go on sale Nov. 11 at MerleFest.org.

• (No Depression) After wrapping up his debut for Anti Records (Merle Haggard, Tom Waits, Porter Wagoner) Animals in the Dark (drops Feb. 17, 2009) singer-songwriter and dark-folk, claw-hammer banjo player extrodinairre William Elliott Whitmore will join roots rock band Murder By Death for a month-long sprint across the U.S. The joint tour is a follow up to the limited edition split 7″ Whitmore and Death by Murder released yesterday, which is available at Murder by Death’s website. It’s the first in a series of seven 7″ recordings that MBD will be doing in collaboration with their friends in other bands. A full list of tour dates are available from Anti Records.

There’s a lot of things you can say about Shelton Hank Williams III, he’s profane, his lyrics are simplistic, he advocates substance abuse and a destructive lifestyle – my money would be that he would look you in the eye, give you smile and spit on your shoes.

The newest release by Hank III “Damn Right, Rebel Proud” follows the same breakneck path his last album “Straight to Hell” took us. Barrels of whiskey, bales of pot, cocaine, scraped knuckles, black eyes and gratuitous hell raising are the order of the day. And if it’s too loud (or fast) get the hell off the road.
The album wastes no time bolting from the chute with the arm jerker “The Grand Ole Opry (Ain’t So Grand)” which could be considered the rallying song for the “Reinstate Hank” campaign which Hank III

spearheads. The tune levels a bead at the beloved Nashville institution for keeping Hank III’s grandfather, Hank Sr. off it’s membership (though he was the first performer to receive six encores at the Opry, in August, in 1942, the Opry’s WSFA fired him due to “habitual drunkenness.” Despite this firing the Opry continues to use the name and likeness of Hank Williams Sr. in promotional materials.) Name checking Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck, Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Martin, and III’s daddy, Hank Jr. (aka Bocephus)  III leaves no one wondering where he comes down on the issue.

The songs cover the familiar country music terrain of hard living and wild times – “Wild & Free,” “Me & My Friends,” and the honky-tonk moshers “Six Pack Of Beer” and “Long Hails & Close Calls,” the latter’s spirit owes as much to thrash metal (III played bass with Superjoint Ritual, a New Orleans metal band formed by Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo) as it does Bill Monroe.

But it’s not all raising hell, fun and guns. Hank III is man that makes no apologies for his life choices and celebrates the causalities left in his Knowing this makes songs like “I Wish I Knew,” a stand lament for a lost love and the choices made that drove her away, along with “Candidate For Suicide” and “Stoned And Alone” all show III moving toward more reflective themes and a broadening his narratives and, yes, show he’s getting older.

III’s voice has always had a haunting, keening quality that harkins back to his grandad and skipped over his daddy’s baritone delivery. The whole package is perfectly held together by III’s passion and the crack band, especially Andy Gibson on steel guitar and Dobro and Johnny Hiland on lead guitar, which leaves most country, as well as punk and metal bands, in the dust.

iTunes has “Damn Right, Rebel Proud” classified under rock (It’s now been moved under the country music section), maybe it’s all the profanity that runs through the album that got it booted to another area. This release is just as deserving of the country music moniker as the pop-country fodder – Kenny, Toby, Carrie and Taylor – glutting the country section of iTunes country music section. For spirit alone it’s more deserving than most of what is found in any online classification, on the mainstream radio country charts and the mainstream country music industry at large (III;s label, Curb Records, declined to put their name on it, instead reviving the Sidewalk Records imprint to keep a safe distance from it.) Seems Hank III, like his legendary Granddad before him, is seen as a black sheep. Here’s to the rebels.

Hank III – “The Grand Ole Opry (Ain’t So Grand)”

PopMatter.com’s Jim Abbott spends some time with country music legend George Jones. The possum seems in good humor and is looking toward future entrepreneurial ventures. He also offers a few choice words about mainstream pop-country:

“This new country needs to find a new title and quit stepping on country music like it’s a steppingstone,”
Jones says of the stuff that dominates radio. “Country music is country music, and if they want to
do something else, then find a new title. It breaks my heart because I know country music the way it’s
supposed to be.”

Looks like Mike Curb is going to do right by Hank III and release his new album on the originally slated date. For those of you that just can’t wait for tomorrow’s release of Hank Williams III “Damn Right, Rebel Proud” head over to the online listening station and hear the release in it’s entirety. Let me say that again, entirity.

Hank III – Damn Right, Rebel Proud EPK

• It seems that it’s New York Times day at Ranch Twang; the paper features a nice write up on legendary singer/songwriter John Hiatt whom they talked to just before he shared the stage with Lyle Lovett in Greenville, South Carolina.

• Is McCain supporter John Rich, the shorter, and more homophobic half of Country Music comedy duo Big and Rich, a badass? Maybe. TMZ (THE source of celebrity trash) reports that Rich “hit a guy in the face shortly after 4 a.m. Friday (Oct. 17) at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif. The guy was Jerry Montano, who previously played bass in the metal band Danzig and, more recently, with another metal band, Hellyeah. According to the TMZ report, some sort of disagreement led to Rich allegedly hitting Montano in the nose with a beer bottle.” Wow. If only Rich’s compositions lived up to his off stage hell raising antics.I wonder if he messed up his big fur coat?

• Men’s Health magazine seems to think that country music is one of the “13 Things a Man Should Never Fear.” Really? The magazine says of country music”Your snobbery betrays ignorance. Some of the greatest songs in the North American canon have come out of this genre. Also, if you think you have problems, just listen to some Merle Haggard. You’ll feel a lot better.” and lists it with hot tea, yoga and allowing the lady in your life to drive. Wierd. It’s like they meant to put John Mayer or James Blunt and ended up putting in Merle Haggard. So ‘cmon guys kick back in your aromotherapy bath with that cup of Darjeeling (spiked with whiskey, natch) and crank on Mama Tried.

The New York Times has a great piece on the second annual Johnny CashFlower Pickin’ Festival in Starkville, MS. Cash fans may know Starkville for the song made famous on  the live prison release “At San Quentin.” The song tells the tale of Cash’s after show journey through the town that night in May 1965, one of the darkest years of the musician’s life, leading to his arrest for public intoxication, or as Cash himself later put it “picking flowers.

While serving what would become a six hour stint Cash kicked his jail cell so hard he broke a toe, might or might not have given his $40. black shoes to a fellow cell mate named Smokey Evans while saying “Here’s a souvenir. I’m Johnny Cash.” Of the seven places Johnny Cash was arrested  Starkville was the only wrote one he wrote a song about.

Johnny Cash – Starkville City Jail

Why does a Chicago based, blues/bluegrass/punk, Bloodshot Records band Devil in a Woodpile cover classic Zeppelin? Because they’re damn good at it!

David Fricke  over at RollingStone.com has some noce things to say about the upcoming Hank Williams Unreleased Recordings box set – “…the 54 performances in this three-CD set pack a magical, concentrated immediacy that is, in its time and way, as electrifying as Johnny Cash’s Sixties prison shows or Bob Dylan’s early acoustic concerts. Williams’ nasally drawl is crisp and strong, like the young Dylan without the sandpaper; he holds the long, desolate notes in “Cool Water” with stunning force.”

Country Music legend Marty Stuart’s “Sparkle & Twang: An American Musical Odyssey“, an exhibit of four decades of rock, country, rockabilly, bluegrass, rhythm & blues and gospel music memorabilia from Stuart’s personal collection
will make its way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland from Oct. 30 through March 1. The 300 items, including musical instruments, stage clothing, handwritten lyrics and photographs. Among them are Hank Williams’ handwritten lyrics “Cold, Cold Heart” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart, Elvis Presley’s sweater worn in a photograph with Junior Parker, Johnny Cash’s first black suit from 1955 and handwritten lyrics for “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Man in Black,” Performance outfit worn by Bob Dylan, Clarence White of the Byrds’ blue leather suit, Pop Staples’ 1962 Fender Jazzmaster guitar and Marty Stuart’s first guitar and performance outfit, sewn by his mother.

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

As good as it gets….