Americana – What It Is?

Americana joins around 100 other words whose use is now widely recognized as new entries in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. According to the dictionary’s editors Americana music is defined as: “a genre of American music having roots in early folk and country music” Now after many a heated battles for going on 13 to 15-years (No Depression magazine was first published in 1995 ans the Americana Music Association was founded in 1998) concerning the fine distinctions of Americana music this seems to be simultaneously as clear and murky a definition as you’ll find.

It’s my view that when producer Ralph Peer set up his record studio Bristol, Tennessee in 1927 the distinction between “county” and “folk” was nonexistent. The elements of both genres laid fused in the sounds of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family and the art form was cleaved apart for marketing and political reasons some 30 years later.

I applaud the recognition Merriam-Webster has bestowed on the Americana genre but saying that it has “roots in early folk and country music” overlooks what much of the music that performers like Gillian Welch and William Elliott Whitmore do to define their sound. They reach to a time before the genres were distinct entities and the styles of both were found in the hollers, plains and porches of our European ancestors. They reach back to the original source to remind us all how great the music is and while giving it their own personal slant.

Concert Review: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – Warfield Theatre, San Francisco – 7/7/11

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were greeted by an adoring Bay Area crowd Thursday night with and wit a wide smile Gillian greeted the crowd  “Howdy!”  She added “Somebody gave me shit the other day for saying “Howdy.” “Hi” yeah that’s more colorful.” In a nutshell that is Gillian Welch’s music, quaint traditionalism as a defiant gesture to a modern and cynical world. In many ways it’s the same attitude that close genre cousin Music City takes in creating their product. But Welch, and the rich vein of Americana acts that flooded in the aftermath of O Brother…bring a lack of contrivance to the craft and a love of the tradition they honor.

Strolling onstage Rawlings, in gentleman cowboy courtier with fitted suit and a straw Stetson carried his signature 1935 Epiphone Olympic and Welch in simple dark dress was carrying her 1956 Gibson J50 acoustic guitar and vintage Vega Whyte Laydie banjo.. In person Gillian Welch, a hardscrabble, sparrow-boned woman with fine red hair, looks very much like a like a Steinbeck character. A perfect embodiment of the music she performs.

Welch, who is an UCSC alumnus and lived in the Bay are in the early 90’s, mentioned that she had seen several shows at their venue this night,  the historic Warfield Theatre. “I saw a Jerry (Garcia) show here. I saw Tom Waits here, the one they filmed. And I was here for the Pixies when we broke the balcony dancing an jumping around.” She then added “It look much different from this side.”

After a rousing opening of Scarlet Town, also from, The Harrow & The Harvest, Welch mentioned was their fist time they had performed the song live. “Thanks for being our experimental lab.” She said. The applause, hoops and hollers showed the crowed was open to a show without a net.

If Trace Adkins or Toby Keith came into the Bay Area I’m not sure how many of the locals would stand in rapt attention about live below the banjos, trains and life below the Mason/Dixon but when Welch was doing this very thing on Down Along The Dixie Line they couldn’t get enough. It seems themes might be universal but the vehicle for delivery matters.

A lilting version crowd favorite, Look at Miss Ohio from 2003’s Soul Journey closed out the first set, there was a 15 minute intermission for them as well as the audience to get a drink or dispose of same.

The second set opened with the back-woods existential romp The Way It Goes. David Rawlings took a turn at the wheel by performing the whimsical David Rawlings Machine number Sweet Tooth. Rawlings then took banjo duty for Six White Horses and while singing duet at a single mic Gillian did band slapping sort of like playing spoons but she was too poor to afford spoons. The often stayed dead silent in the quieter songs but clapped and sang along to the to the more rollicking songs from the new album (played in it’s entirety) as well as the classics like Revelator and I Want To Sing That Rock and Roll, and no one left early. In fact, many stayed late—a testament to the quality of the music as well as the performance.

The first encore (there were two) featured an inspired rendition of the traditional number I’ll Fly Away, which Gillian sang along with Alison Krauss on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. The crowd sand so loudly with her that several times Welch’s eyes widened and lit up with surprise.

As a guitarist I’m especially impressed by a great player of David Rawlings caliber. His style falls somewhere between Chet Atkins and Django Reinhardt yet ends up sounding like nobody but himself. He deftly coaxes beautiful tones and delicate textures with deceptive ease.

“We promised not to let you leave happy.” Welch quipped referring to the frequent theme of misery that runs through their canon, before preforming the fitting closing song The Way The Whole Thing Ends. I’m sure as the crowd spilled into the brisk San Francisco night agreed that it sure felt good to feel this bad.

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

[edit – the playlist added]

Set I-Scarlet Town-Silver Dagger-One Morning-Elvis Presley Blues-Annabelle-The Way It Goes-A Dark Turn Of Mind-I Want To Sing That R&R-Hard Times-Look At Miss Ohio. Set II-Down Along The Dixie Line-No One Knows My Name-6 White Horses-Tennessee-Revelator-Swe​et Tooth-Red Clay Halo. E-The Way It Will Be-I’ll Fly Away. E2-The Way The Whole Thing Ends.

Music Review: Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harvest [Acony]

If there is such a thing as a superstar in the Americana genre then Gillian Welch is one. Her debut album, Revival, came out in the height of Nashville stylized indulgence – hitherto known as the Garth years – and reached so far back in style and subject matter that it couldn’t be called old school, it predated the school itself. This New York City born and Berklee College of Music educated woman became a gabardine-clad personification mountain holler laments and sepia drenched Dust Bowl yarns. Like Duluth, Minnesota’s Bob Zimmerman she embodied the ancestral ghosts of mythology and willed herself into a contemporary symbol of a bygone era by exhibiting a respect for the cultural legacy and  ingenuity to work within the confines to create music that sounds not only timeless but new.

To further distinguish herself , at the time of her debut many of Welch’s contemporaries were approaching their work from a folky, more Lilith-like, direction. Welch was rougher, darker, and delivered her talws with grit. Like Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson, she appeared to be a woman that could drink you under the table and hold herself in a fight.

After an 8-year stretch, where Welch battled writer’s block and provided a supporting role for performing partner David Rawlings solo undertaking, By plan or happenstance The Harrow & the Harvest has been released  to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Coen Brothers O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a move that in many ways reflects to neo-rustic forms crafted by Welch. The movie’s multi-platinum soundtrack was a watershed moment for the Americana music genre and featured Welch performing alongside better-known contemporaries Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris. Welch also has a cameo in the film requesting a copy of the best-selling single from the movies fictitious group Soggy Bottom Boys.

On The Harrow & the Harvest Welch heeds timeless advice and doesn’t try and fix what’s not broken by offering up 10 songs of want and worry in many varieties. Scarlet Town opens with the protagonist visiting a town calamity and deception that would make Dr. Ralph Stanley bow his head in woe. The darkness of the songs subject is countered dazzlingly by David Rawlings deft guitar picking.

The murder ballad Dark Turn Of Mind carries a sinister undercurrent that belies it’s lulling cadence with a come-on / threat “take me and love me if you want me, but don’t ever treat me unkind. ‘cause I had bad trouble already, and he left me with a dark turn of mind”

The Way It Will Be is a smooth-folk Crosby, Stills and Nash-like that takes the associated SoCal groove to darker regions and The Way It Goes is a jaunty ode to weary fatalism that comes from a worn soul.

Tennessee is a character study in temptation and willful sin in the best Puritan tradition of the Southern Gothic form. The arch leads us from Sunday School to carousing, dancing and gambling all leading to the sweet bye and bye. The Way The Whole Thing Ends fittingly as it saunters and offers up hillbilly existential nuggets like “That’s the way the cornbread crumbles. That’s the way the whole thing ends.”

All in all The Harrow & the Harvest is a, paraphrasing from the song Scarlet Town , a deep well and a dark grave of an album brimming with hard truths as plainly told stiff as a pull of mash. It’s a fine return to form from an crafts-person that has been sorely missed.  It’s the feel bad album of the summer

official site | buy

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjlgyy_gillian-welch-the-way-it-goes-conan-2011_music[/dailymotion]

Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Nominees Announced

From the Gibson/Baldwin Showroom in New York City local resident and legendary Americana performer Rosanne Cash announced the 2011 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards nominees. The announcement was followed by performances by New/Emerging Artist of the Year nominee and  The Civil Wars and an all-star set by Levon Helm,  Jim Lauderdale and Rosanne Cash (who tweeted that she was brought to tears by the event) which included The Band’s The Weight.

As in years past the nominees are a well-known safe bets with few surprises and tends towards the NPR-side of the Americana fence. No need to look for Whitey Morgan or Rachel Brooke here.

The Nashville -based trade organization moved toward the mainstream with the nominations of Grey’s Anatomy favorites Mumford and Sons and the Civil Wars, the later also aided to stardom by being heralded by no less than Taylor Swift and Boy George. Good for them, despite the mainstream success, these bands are actually great and will find longevity in the Americana community. Both are each nominated for both New/Emerging Artist and Duo/Group of the Year.

The AMA displayed spunk in nominating the extraordinary Elizabeth Cook the Album of the Year field for her latest Welder, Song of the Year nomination for the flash-back country-funk El Camino and Artist of the Year against some limey bloke named Robert Plant.

Recent New/Emerging Artist of the Year honorees Justin Townes Earle and Hayes Carll are each up for Album of the Year for Harlem River Blues (along with Song of the Year for the album’s title track) and Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for Kmag Yoyo respectively.

The Civil Wars and Mumford and Sons each earned nominations in both the New/Emerging Artist and Duo/Group of the Year categories, while Buddy Miller also secured two nods: Artist and Instrumentalist of the Year.

Album of the Year category also includes Lucinda Williams’ Blessed, and the  Song of the Year category includes The Decemberists featuring Gillian Welch’s “Down by the Water. And Mumford and Sons GRAMMY-stage mates The Avett Brothers are up for Duo/Group of the Year—which the band won in 2010. Sarah Jarosz, Will Kimbrough, Gurf Morlix and Kenny Vaughan all  will compete for Instrumentalist of the Year.

The 10th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, October 13 at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville as part of the 11th Annual Americana Festival and Conference October 12 through Saturday, October 15.

The complete list for Americana Music Association Honors and Nominees:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Band of Joy, Robert Plant
Welder, Elizabeth Cook
Harlem River Blues, Justin Townes Earle
Blessed, Lucinda Williams

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Buddy Miller
Elizabeth Cook
Hayes Carll
Robert Plant

NEW/EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR
The Civil Wars
Mumford And Sons
The Secret Sisters
Jessica Lea Mayfield

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Avett Brothers
The Civil Wars
Mumford And Sons
Robert Plant and the Band Of Joy

SONG OF THE YEAR
Decemberists with Gillian Welch- “Down By The Water”
Elizabeth Cook – “El Camino”
Hayes Carll – “Kmag Yoyo”
Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues”

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Buddy Miller
Gurf Morlix
Kenny Vaughan
Sarah Jarosz
Will Kimbrough

 

 

My Jukebox – Amanda Shires

My Jukebox is a new Twang Nation feature where I ask musicians and other folks about their recent  listening choices.

photo Credit: Joshua Black Wilkins

For Americana chanteuse Amanda Shires music is ubiquitous. “I listen to music when the alarm goes off, when I ride or drive, when I can’t sleep, in the airport, when I shop, in a box with a fox…,” Shires says showing her inner Seuss.

‘Like a lot of musicians I listen to everything. I love great songs.  I don’t think I have a wide strike zone–I just think that if the song is there, then that’s why I like something. So, it could be anything from Nicki Minaj to Bob Wills…Bush to Beethoven..and a ton of songwriters.”

“I used to work at Ralph’s Records in Lubbock, TX so I was exposed to all sorts of things.  I got to hear a lot of music I wouldn’t have heard if I hadn’t worked there. That said,  I know what I can’t stand.”

Her current playlist reflects her current “winter moods.” and spans from the Gypsy-folk of DeVotchKa, to blues-garage duo The Black Keys and, showing her Texas roots, Waylon Jennings and Buck Owens .

1.  Out With The Tide – A.A. Bondy
2.  The Corner – Cory Branan
3.  100 Other Lovers – DeVotchKa
4.  Sweet Boy -  Dolorean (this whole album The Unfazed is amazing)
5.  Waitin In Your Welfare Line – Buck Owens
6.  Howlin’ for you – Black Keys
7.  You Can’t Talk To Me Like That Anymore – Rod Picott
8.  Wrecking Ball -  Gillian Welch
9.  Hank Williams Jr. Drunk as Hell Live!
10. Another Place Another Time – Jerry Lee Lewis
11. The Curse – Josh Ritter
12. Sixes and Sevens – Lucero
13. Black Rose-Waylon Jennings( all of Honky Tonk Heroes really)
14. Jewelbomb – Richard Buckner
15. My Narrow Mind-16 Horsepower

Amanda Shires’ new release,  Carrying Lightning comes out May 3/11. She will be be touring behind it soon after.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass – Saturday Picks

Sat Oct 2 (11:00am – 7:00pm)
Here’s where it gets tough….
11:45am – Towers Of Gold Stage: Jon Langford & Skull Orchard – Mekons front man’s current alt.country manifestation.
11:00am – Arrow Stage: Kelly Willis – Austin-based singer/songwriter with a voice as clear as a spring creek.
12:00pm – Porch Stage: David Olney with Sergio Webb – Olney is one of the best songwriters of our time and hos recent release Dutchman’s Curve is one of his best.
12:05pm – Rooster Stage: Jonathan Richman Feat. Tommy Larkins – Imagine Lou Reed if he did funny songs.
12:55pm – Banjo Stage: Carolina Chocolate Drops – This African American string band current big deal in Americana music, and for a damn good reason.
1:15pm – Rooster Stage: Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson – Guy Clark is a Texas treasure, and he makes his own guitars!
2:30pm – Rooster Stage: Songwriter Circle with Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, John Doe & David Olney – wow.
2:35pm – Arrow Stage: Kinky Friedman – He didn’t get to be Governor of Texas so we get to see him perform a selection of wry and hilarious songs!
3:30pm – Towers Of Gold Stage: Richard Thompson – If you’ve never seen him, SEE HIM!
3:55pm – Arrow Stage: Jerry Jeff Walker – Another Texas-based treasure.
4:15pm – Rooster Stage:  Buddy Miller – A member of Robert Plant’s Band of Joy and the man who appeared on the final printed issue of no Depression magazine. He’s sort of the Keven Bacon of Americana..no telling who will show up.
4:20pm – Banjo Stage: Gillian Welch – An O Brother, Where Art Thou? alum (associate producer, performer and film cameo) and her partner, guitarist David Rawlings perform beautifully somber tunes from the farthest Appalachia.
5:20pm – Arrow Stage: The Flatlanders feat. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock – in Texas this is what is known as an embarrassment of riches. A real Texas suprergroup.
5:45pm -Banjo Stage: Steve Earle & The Dukes & Rooster Stage: Robert Earl Keen – Flip a coin, friend-O

New Round Up: Hardly Strictly Line-up Announced, Old 97s Rip It Up

  • The Old 97s tore it up at Thursday’s free show to promote Texas travel. Under the Lone Star flag at San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza an enthusiastic crowd under sunny skies as the band worked through their extensive catalog,  played REM’s Driver 8 from a recent covers EP release, a song written especially for the event – A State of Texas. The band also played a new song, Champaign, Illinois, from an upcoming double album called The Grand Theatre.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmPN9cnBfSQ[/youtube]

  • After much speculation on the line-up for this year’s Americana music ubber-festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival the official list is out. There was speculation that the list was held longer this year to help cut down on the massive crowd that showed up last year. I don’t see how holding the list back a week or so will help – perhaps if it weren’t completely free might help, but then it would be a lot less great. Some highlights: Earl Scruggs, Gillian Welch, Kelly Willis, Justin Townes Earle, Kinky Friedman, Lucero, Patty Griffin, T Bone Burnett and Friends, The Felice Brothers, The Flatlanders , James McMurtry and Richard Thompson and much, much more. The festival runs October 1-3 in Golden Gate Park. And like I mentioned it’s all free, thanks to the generosity of founder/billionaire/amateur banjo picker Mr. Warren Hellman.

News Round Up: Lucinda Williams Tweets New Album Title

  • Lucinda Williams took to Twitter to announce the title of her forthcoming album. Continuing her recent theme of happiness and matrimonial bliss the title will be Blessed. I guess Lou got her Joy back.
  • Ms. Lucinda and other notable Americana music folks, Drive By Truckers, Todd Snider, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Rhett Miller, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Hayes Carll, became animated to appear in a special musical episode of Cartoon Network’s cartoon centered on hillbilly cephalopods -  Squidbillies.
  • Folk singer-songwriter Ana Egge has tapped Steve Earle as producer for her seventh solo album. The album will be recorded in Woodstock, New York in the fall to record at Levon Helm Studio.
  • Moody-Old time Americana band Black Prairie (a side project for three members of the Decemberists and other notable Portland, OR. musicians) has recently released two new songs they are giving away for free.

The Blackest Crow

Turn It Into Gold

Todd Snider, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Rhett Miller, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Hayes Carll

News Round Up: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Begins

  • The winners of the 20th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards went to: Dailey & Vincent : Entertainer of the Year and Vocal Group of the Year, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper : Instrumental Group of the Year, Dan Tyminski – Male Vocalist of the Year, Dale Ann Bradley – Female Vocalist of the Year, Wheels : Dan Tyminski, (artist/producer) Album of the Year, Don’t Throw Mama’s Flowers Away : Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass (artist) – Song of the Year (via BlueGrassJournal.com) See photos from the award show, held at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn (The Bluegrass Blog)
  • London-based Americana (Euro-Americana?) band The Dog Roses have a new EP, Just Another Saturday, scheduled for release next month. It is discribed as “foot tapping country-bluegrass mix with hints of celtic thrown in for good measure.” Download Let the Bottle Take the Heartache from the forthcoming EP: Let The Bottle Take The Heartache Away.mp3
  • Go pick up the new podcast from NineBullets.net featuring tracks from upcoming cds by Lucero,  Strawfoot and Micah Schnabel (Two Cow Garage) as well as new material from Drivin’ & Cryin’ and Chuck Ragan.
  • Sounds Country takes a look back at Jerry Jeff Walker’s 1975 release Ridin’ High
  • Hardly Strictly Bluegrass begins today and goea on until Sunday in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Speedway Meadow. The 9th year of this free annual Americana and roots festival features 5 stages featuring John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Billy Joe Shaver, Elizabeth Cook, Buddy Miller and many, many more. You can follow HSB on twitter. And you can follow Twang Nation tweets from the festival all weekend.

News Round Up: Fogerty Twangs, Dave Rawlings Readies Release

The Wall Street Journal talks to roots rocker John Fogerty (John Fogerty Twangs Again) about the dissolution of his old band Creedence Clearwater Revival, the role country music played in shaping his sound, and his new release The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.

The 9513.com finds good things in the tough love of Miranda Lambert’s Revolution.

Gillian Welch’s longtime musical counterpart steps into the spotlight with The Dave Rawlings Machine new album, A Friend of a Friend, to be released on Nov. 17th. Welch appears 8 of the 9 tracks on the album. Rawlings plans to tour to support the album, with Southeast and Midwest dates in late November and December and a West Coast run in 2010. The touring lineup will feature Welch and three members of Old Crow Medicine Show — fiddler Ketch Secor, guitarist Willie Watson and bassist Morgan Jahnig. (billboard.com)

Check out the excellent Danny Clinch directed video for Kris Kristofferson’s  title song for his new release “Closer To The Bone”.

Kris Kristofferson – Closer To The Bone from New West Records on Vimeo.