Cowboy Jack Clement’s Posthumous Release ‘For Once and For All” Out July 15, 2014

Cowboy Jack Clement

Looks like the late legendary singer/songwriter/producer Cowboy Jack Clement isn’t quite done yet.

Clement’s last musical work, and only his 4th studio release, “For Once and For All” produced by Dave “Fergie” Ferguson and Matt Sweeney with T Bone Burnett as executive producer — will be the debut release on John Grady’s new I.R.S. Records Nashville label. Street date is July 15.

From the release:

“What an honor it is to be involved with Cowboy’s final record. This is the perfect way to start I.R.S. Nashville,” Grady says. “All the producers and musicians set the tone for this record. Sometimes we should all get together and do the right thing. I hope Jack is proud of us.”

He was 82-years-old when he died on August 8, 2013 and 82 when he finished this song-set with help from friends including John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Bobby Bare, Duane Eddy, T Bone Burnett, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Rodney Crowell, Buddy Miller, Dan Auerbach, Leon Russell, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings, Dickie Lee, Shawn Camp, Dierks Bentley, Jim Rooney, Jim Lauderdale, Will Oldham, daughter Allison Clement and a bunch of others who loved Cowboy and who Cowboy loved in return. His favorite accordionist, Joey Miskulin, played on “The Air Conditioner Song” and “Baby Is Gone.”

The whole thing is graceful and true, a primer for the unfamiliar, an anointed completion for the acolytes and a joy-filled lesson for those of us who study phrasing, musicality and soul.

Cowboy Jack was American music’s whimsical maverick. He was a singer and producer, a publisher, a best friend to Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. He was a writer of classic songs. He desegregated country music by bringing Charley Pride to popular attention and producing Pride’s first 13 albums for RCA. He was the first to record Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison, there at the popular birth of rock ‘n’ roll at Sun Records in Memphis.

He made the greatest album of country music’s “Outlaw Movement” when he produced Waylon Jennings’Dreaming My Dreams. He created the Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa, Nashville’s first great home studio and the nerve center for what would come to be known as Americana Music.

“If you unraveled all the threads Jack wove into the tapestry of what made country music great over the last 50 plus years, the whole thing would come apart,” Harris said.

No one unraveled those threads, though, and no one will. Can’t be done. The Cowboy’s tapestry weave is secure and indelible, and his import is ratified by a plaque in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Cowboy Jack Clement sustained an unprecedented and unduplicated career outside of the public eye. He and fame saw each other across a crowded street, waved and went their separate ways.

Though he was in and around recording studios all of his adult life, he didn’t release a solo album, All I Want To Do In Life, until 1978, when he was in his late 40s. The follow-up came a quarter century later with 2004’sGuess Things Happen That Way. And he rarely toured. So while Clement impacted myriad major careers, he did little to promote his own.
“I don’t remember it being any huge letdown,” he said, recalling the less-than-platinum sales of All I Want To Do In Life. “It took a few months before you realized you ain’t gonna outdo Elvis or something, and by that time I was off into something else.”

Hear “Let the Chips Fall” the tearjerking first single from the album below.

Legendary Engineer/Producer/Singer/Songwriter “Cowboy” Jack Clement Dies

"Cowboy” Jack Clement

Few people have held such a pivotal place in music history as “Cowboy” Jack Clement had. He worked with some of the greatest rock and country performers of the twentieth century and helped shape the genres at key points in music history.

Clement died August 8th after a long bout with liver cancer, just a few months before being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

He was 82.

Born and reared in Memphis, Clement was performing with guitar and Dobro at an early age. After a stint in the Marines he cut his first record for the Sheraton label in Boston, Massachusetts in 1953,

The nicknamed ‘Cowboy’ Clement earned in his student days while playing pedal steel guitar with a local band. His real step toward fame came in 1956 when he joined Sam Phillips at Sun Records as a producer and engineer.

While there Clement helped shape American music history by working with Carl Perkins Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. He also fielded and recorded a curly haired kid from eastern Louisiana by the name of Jerry Lee Lewis while Sam Phillips was away on a trip to Florida. The initial session included Ray Price’s “Crazy Arms” and his own composition “End of The Road”. Later the pair would record the smash hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and the demise of the 50’s America was sealed.

in 1959, Clement began work as a producer at RCA in Nashville. After some time in Beaumont, Texas as producer and publisher Bill Hall in opening Gulf Coast Recording Studio . By 1965 he had become a significant figure in the country music business by starting a publishing business and a recording studio, where he recorded Charley Pride and Ray Stevens. In 1971, he co-founded the J-M-I Record Company.

Clement wrote many well-known and successful songs recorded stars such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, Bobby Bare, Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves, Jerry Lee Lewis, , Charley Pride, Tom Jones, Dickey Lee and Hank Snow. He also produced albums by Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings.

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973.

Steve Earle, Loretta Lynn, Shovels & Rope, Dolly Parton and Others Featured On Commemorative Civil War Tribute Album

ATO Records

Now this is something special.

This fall, ATO Records, and music supervisor Randall Poster (‘Moonrise Kingdom,’ ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ ‘Rave On Buddy Holly’) will release ‘Divided & United,’ a two-disc set of Civil War songs freshly interpreted by lends and newcomers of country, bluegrass, folk and Americana like Contributions from Old Crow Medicine Show, A.A. Bondy, Taj Mahal, T. Bone Burnett, Ashley Monroe, Steve Earle, Shovels & Rope, Dolly Parton, Cowboy Jack Clement and others (No, The Civil Wars oddly not represented)

The collection celebrates music deeply rooted in American history in tribute to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Fresh interpretations of period parlor songs, spirituals, abolition and minstrel numbers. the songs hold a mirror to the past and explores themes of race, identity and reconciliation while reflecting contemporary issues.

Loretta Lynn’s rendition of “Take Your Guns and Go, John,” (below) is a beautifully spare, earnest version of the traditional detailing a man off to war.

“I had such a great time recording this song for this album,” Lynn tells Rolling Stone. “I loved the song and sound of that banjo, played by Bryan Sutton, made me feel I was back on the front porch in Kentucky where I came from. Glad to be a part of this record.”

‘Divided & United’ also features an essay by noted musician, filmmaker and historian John Cohen, who writes: “This record aspires to erase the legacy of segregation and through music seeks reconciliation instead, in order to celebrate a great musical heritage of America, born in pain, war and prejudice.”

Disc 1
1. Take Your Gun and Go, John – Loretta Lynn
2. Lorena – Del McCoury
3. Wildwood Flower – Sam Amidon
4. Hell’s Broke Loose In Georgia – Bryan Sutton
5. Two Soldiers – Ricky Skaggs
6. Marching Through Georgia – Old Crow Medicine Show
7. Dear Old Flag – Vince Gill
8. Just Before the Battle, Mother/ Farewell, Mother – Steve Earle and Dirk Powell
9. The Fall Of Charleston – Shovels & Rope
10. Tenting on the Old Campground – John Doe
11. Day Of Liberty – Carolina Chocolate Drops
12. Richmond Is a Hard Road to Travel – Chris Thile and Michael Daves
13. Two Brothers – Chris Stapleton
14. The Faded Coat Of Blue – Norman Blake, Nancy Blake and James Bryan
15. Listen to the Mockingbird – Stuart Duncan feat. Dolly Parton
16. Kingdom Come – Pokey Lafarge

Disc 2
1. Rebel Soldier – Jamey Johnson
2. The Legend of the Rebel Soldier – Lee Ann Womack
3. The Mermaid Song – Jorma Kaukonen
4. Dixie – Karen Elson with Secret Sisters
5. The Vacant Chair – Ralph Stanley
6. Hard Times – Chris Hillman
7. Down By the Riverside – Taj Mahal
8. Old Folks at Home/ The Girl I Left Behind Me – Noam Pikelny & David Grisman
9. Secesh – The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band
10. The Battle of Antietam – T Bone Burnett
11. Pretty Saro – Ashley Monroe
12. Aura Lee – Joe Henry
13. Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier – AA Bondy
14. When Johnny Comes Marching Home – Angel Snow
15. Battle Cry of Freedom – Bryan Sutton
16. Beautiful Dreamer – Cowboy Jack Clement

Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Dan Auerbach, Kris Kristofferson To Pay Tribute to Cowboy Jack Clement

Cowboy-Jack-Clement_5Ggx_full“Cowboy” Jack Clement has carved out a storied career as a sinsinger/songwriter having his songs have been recorded by folks such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, Bobby Bare, Elvis Presley and more. A producer for Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings and DJ with a weekly program on Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s Outlaw country)

The Memphis-born, 81-year-old, Clement recently lost his house to a fire in 2011. Now some of his friends are coming together at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville January 30 to help out.

According to American Songwriter “one of those musicians was Artist Growth founder Matt Urmy, who Clement recently produced, Artist Growth joined up with Dub Cornett, a long time protege of Clement’s, to put together Honoring A Legend: A Tribute To “Cowboy” Jack Clement, featuring an all-star list of artists influenced by and associated with Clement.”

Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys, Kris Kristofferson, Charley Pride and more will gather to pay tribute to “The Pied Piper of Music City.”
All proceeds for the concert will go toward The Music Health Alliance and launching the “Cowboy” Jack Clement Fund to help the cost of medical bills for musicians not covered by insurance.

Get tickets

Check out the full list of artists below:

Dan Auerbach
Bobby Bare
Marshall Chapman
Rodney Crowell
Jakob Dylan
Emmylou Harris
Charley Pride
John Prine
T-Bone Burnett
Billy Burnette
Shawn Camp
Mary Gauthier
Kris Kristofferson
Nikki Lane
John C. Reilly

News Round Up – Cowboy Jack Clement Home Studio Destroyed in Fire

Sad news received here at Casa Twang -  the Nashville home studio, of famed musician and producer Cowboy Jack Clement (80) was consumed in a fire on Saturday 6/26th. The source of the fire is currently unknown but many reel-to-reel master tapes of rare recordings by Johnny Cash, John Prine, Louis Armstrong and dozens of others, many of which were unreleased. Also lost were many priceless mementos such as photos taken by and autographed by Clement’s  friend Johnny Cash, files on music productions and movie scripts. (The Tennessean)

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

 

 

The Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa