News Round Up: T Bone Burnett Produced Steve Earle Album Forthcoming

  • I was on the fence about seeing the upcoming Gwyneth Paltrow movie Country Strong but after reading that Hayes Carll was tapped for some of the music (SFGate) for the soundtrack I might have to know. Or at least listen to the soundtrack…(btw, Happy Birthday to Hayes Carll!) UPDATE – Neal Casal (Ryan Adams and the Cardinals) is also in Country Strong. The Americana mojo is strong in such a Music City flick.
  • T Bone Burnett produced the Steve Earle song “This City, ” which plays during the closing credits tune for HBO’s Treme, a drama set in the Treme district of New Orleans which in which Earle plays the character of Harley, a local folk musician who is forming a Cajun band to back him on a tour. The song will appear on Earle’s upcoming album which will be also be produced Burnett, and has been described by Earle as his “most country album to date.”
  • This video was sent to me and when I saw it the singer looked and sounded familiar to me. Then it hit me, It’e Kendel Carson. I met her in Nashville when she was doing work with Chip Taylor. This is a Canadian band Belle Starr, a band Carson is now a member of, along with Stephanie Cadman & Miranda Mulholland, covering a fellow Canadian Fred Eaglesmith.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFkYk3kh0HY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Hayes Carll

News Round Up: Ryan Bingham Wins For Best Song and Artist of the Year at the Americana Awards

Ryan Bigham has come a long way in a short time. From bull rider, to opening for the Drive By Truckers, to getting the Golden Globe and Academy Award for The Weary Kind, the theme to film Crazy Heart – a song that he and T Bone Burnett wrote together.  He can now add the song of the year won at the  Americana Awards Thursday night during a rousing show at the Ryman Auditorium. “Man, I don’t know if I really deserve this,” Bingham said. “Everyone on the list are all people I’ve looked up to and admired for a long time.” Other nominees were Patty Griffin, Levon Helm, Steve Earle and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Suitably humble and damn fine company to keep. Bingham also won the award for artist of the year that. with the year he’s had, he justifiably deserves.

Other 2010 Americana Honors and Awards recipients

Album of the year: The List Rosanne Cash
Instrumentalist of the year:  Buddy Miller
New /Emerging artists of the year:  Hayes Carll
Duo/Group of the year: The Avett Brothers

Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award for Executive:  Highway Records founder Luke Lewis
Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist:  Greg Leisz
Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance:  Wanda Jackson
Lifetime Achievement Award for Producer/Engineer:  Brian Ahern
Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriter:  John Mellencamp

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

Americana Awards

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

Festival News: MusicFest Lineup (so far)

Add this to your awesome festivals to attend list! The annul MusicFest (now approaching its 25th year) features some of the finest Americana and roots music to the world-class ski resort of Steamboat, Colorado for 6 days (January 4-11th) of snowy fun. Performers already booked for the next MusicFest are: Robert Earl Keen, Randy Rogers Band, Band of Heathens, Reckless Kelly, Charlie Robison, Kevin Welch, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Lee Ann Womack, Jamie Wilson, Todd Snider, Jason Eady and The Wayward Apostles, Billy Joe Shaver, Matt Skinner, Jack Ingram, Dean Dillion, Bonnie Bishop, Chris Knight, Walt Wilkins, Midnight River Choir, Jonathan Tyler and The Northern Lights, Kevin Fowler, Modern Day Drifters, Hayes Carll, Ben Smith, Jason Boland and The Stragglers, Josh Abbott, Cory Morrow, Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Trishas, Wade Bowen, The Doug Moreland Show, Stoney LaRue, Tina Wilkins, Roger Creager, Lucas Hubbard, Sean McConnell, Johnny and The Footlights…and more on the way!

Wall Sreet Journal Covers Big Surprise Tour

  • The Wall Street Journal talks to some of the performers on the Big Surprise Tour. The toue is traveling the East coast and  showcases the Old Crow Medicine Show, Justin Townes Earle, The David ­Rawlings Machine (featuring Gillian Welch) and the Felice Brothers.
  • Houston Presses’ William Michael Smith in his Lonesome Onry and Mean column tells of  his son leaving the petroleum engineering program at University of Houston to, over time, become a guitarist for Hayes Carll, looking down the stage and seeing Guy Clark (arms folded) and being heckled by David Allan Coe (My Son, the Guitar-Slinger)
  • Jennifer Aniston has signed on to signed on to produce and star in Goree Girls, a film about the Goree All Girl String Band, a country music group that had a popular 1940s-era radio show despite the fact that its members were all inmates at a Texas prison. (E Online)
  • Kevin Costner wants to help victims of Canada’s Big Valley Jamboree country music festival in Canada where his band “Modern West,” was set to perform.  Storms at the event injured 70 people and a 35 year-old woman died when the wind blew down a speaker on her.

First Annual Ray Wylie Hubbard Grit-N-Groove Festival

Ray Wylie Hubbard has always done things his own way. So after years of being asked to steward a festival he always put it off. Until now…

Hubbard has invited his favorite artists to play the First Annual Ray Wylie Hubbard Grit-N-Groove Festival to be held on Saturday April 4th in Luckenbach Texas (where else?!) From the poster design to the seating layout he has been involved in every aspect to ensure his festival has the grit and groove we have all come to expect and love about him. The vibe will be acoustic throughout the day with The Band of Heathens and Ray and his band closing the evening with full rockin’ band sets.

The concert will be held in the dance hall with seating on a first come first serve basis.

Drive By Truckers News

The Drive By Truckers are just off their start to 2009 with 3 sold-out shows for their Athens GA 40 Watt Club Homecoming, they next will be playing this weekend,  with opener Bloodkin, in Knoxville at the Valarium (Thurs Jan 29) and two nights at Asheville’s historic Orange Peel (Fri Jan 30 and Sat Jan 31). Next month they have a few more dates including a two night stand in DC at 9:30 Club and a few dates with Texas’ Hayes Carll.

On Feb. 5th Drive By Truckers Front Man Patterson Hood will play an annual benefit for Athens, GA’S The Robert Osborne Classic Film Festival.

On Feb 7th, PBS will be airing the episode of Austin City Limits starring Drive By Truckers and Ryan Bingham. Check local listings for exact time and date of airing.

April will see the DBTs backing the legendary R&B and soul and funk pioneer Booker T. Jones ANTI- Records debut Potato Hole. The band will be backing Booker T. in some dates including thier first ever New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival appearance on Friday April 24th.

The Drive-By Truckers with Kelly Hogan – I’m Your Puppet

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrUMbHhsoC8[/youtube]

The Best of 2008 (For Reals)

Propaganda has been honed to a fine art in the last half century. Americans have been convinced to fight wars, hand over civil and employee rights and consume ever crappier beer, food and, alas, music.

Mainstream Country Music is one of the few genres in the 21st century that tolerates no real deviation from certified Music Row and mainstream radio product. Sure there are exceptions, the Outlaw Movement cooped a largely ignored youth movement, Garth tweaked the business model and stage production and Big and Rich and their “MuzikMafia” was a painfully lame attempt to emulate Hip Hop’s concept of crews. But when it comes to altering the DNA of the music the image driven slickness and paint-by-numers narritives seem as tightly mandated as the McDonald’s Big Mac cooking process. If you don’t fit the hat act mold you are cast into the slums of Americana, folk, roots, alt.country or, if the sins were severe enough, rock!

Into this unyielding environment stepped artists that discovered that Cash, Willie and Hank were speaking to them in ways larger then the flavor of the week bands being crammed down their throats. That’s where the wild hillbilly muse dances. That way real beauty and art lay waiting.

Americana/roots/alt.country is attracting new talent that bravely straddles the cultural divide between trad sepia-toned country circa Jimmie Rogers and Carter Family and the current attitudes, sounds and stories of our times. New artists like O’Death, The Felice Bothers, Justin Townes Earle and Star Anna and road-tested warriors like Dale Watson, Eleven Hundred Springs and Tom Russell have Inject new blood, whiskey and adrenaline into a largely lifeless form of music that refuses to be embalmed.

And then there are the genre-crossing big-wigs like  Elvis Costello, Ray Davies, Chrissie Hynde and Robert Plant (who is currently nominated for 6 grammys and forgoing a Led Zeppelin reunion to continue Raising Sand with Bluegrass chanteuse Alison Krauss) that are moving toward a the wildser lands attracted by its proclivity for authenticity and celebration of  experimentation. The only sin is mediocrity, the only transgression is bovine conformity.

There’s no reward for compiling a “best of” list. People will quibble with the selections, the order of said selections will displease many and whether the writer is at all qualified to compile such as list will be questioned. Ridicule and contempt is sure to follow.

I do this to celebrate those that are willing to look past the wanna-be-celebrity choked road paved with pyrite. The Great Ones bent Nashville to their ways or took refuge in other regions far from the industry, Bakersfield California,  Austin Texas, to ply their wares. The Music Row road is not an easy one, it’s just crowded with sheep and the destination is less interesting.

Here’s to the on’ry, ragged, dusty dreamers.

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10) Hank Williams III – “Damn Right, Rebel Proud” (Sidewalk Records) -The man with a country music royalty pedigree, and an arguable entitlement to the moniker “Man In Blacker,” burns the middle-of-the-road with another custom hot-rod release. Amazon | MySpace | Official Site

9) Jamey Johnson – “That Lonesome Song” (Mercury Nashville) -  Jamey Johnson does more than redeem himself for helping to pen Trace Adkins maga-seller Honky Tonk Badonkadonk with this brilliant release born of hard living and a love of Waylon Jennings and George Jones.  Amazon | MySpace | Official Site

8)  Sara Cahoone – “Only As The Day Is Long” (Sub-Pop) – Former rock drummer Cahoone has created a melancholy-shoegaze-Americana masterpiece with her rainy-day ready debut release.  Amazon | MySpace | Sub-Pop

7)  Star Anna – “Crooked Path” (Malamute Records) -  On this smoldering debut of Americana-noir Ellensburg, Washington’s Star Anna Krogstie proves she can hold her own with Lucinda Williams and Neko Case. Her voice seems to be the shear definition of longing and heartache.  Amazon |  MySpace | Official Site

6) Hang Jones – “The Ballad of Carlsbad County” (Self Released) – Hang Jones is the alias for Stephen Grillos and his concept album, set in 1887 New Mexico, takes the typical elements – lust, jealousy, whiskey, gunpowder and blood – and works his gritty magic to deliver a great album.  Amazon |  MySpace | Official Site

5) Luke Powers – “Texasee” (Phoebe Claire) – Powers stated in an interview that Texasee is a study of a mythical place that lies between Nashville and Austin and is done in a style reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah. Sign me up! Writers in the Western genre celebrate a few that are seen as more “literary.”  Powers like Tom Russell, James McMurty, John Prine and Joe Ely, occupies the mirror space in music.  CD Baby | MySpace | Pheobe Claire Site

4) Felice Brothers (Team Love) -From from the Catskill Mountains to the subways of New York city these actual brothers (and a bass player named Christmas) channel the Basement Tapes and spin  magnificently dark tales of desperation and violence. Amazon | MySpace | Official Site

3) O’Death -  “Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin” (Kemado) – New York’s O’Death is a concoction of parts that if mixed any other way would result into a noxious mess.  Appalachian Mountain music,  Gypsy music, Gothic punk, funk and metal, it all just shouldn’t play nice together. On Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin the sounds meld magnificently in a dark and volatile masterpiece.  Amazon | MySpace | Official Site

2) Justin Townes Earle – “The Good Life”  (Bloodshot) -Before technology allowed us to cheat, musicians were the source of musical synthesis, or what is referred to by the hipsters today as mash-ups. Justin Townes Earle harkens back to these aural alchemists and has created a potent blend of 19th century folk, country swing and hillbilly boogie. Overcoming his Daddy’s long musical shadow (and his inclination towards illicit substances) Justin Townes Earle’s first full length release rejoices in heritage while transcending its creators youth.  Amazon | MySpace | Bloodshot Records

1) Eleven Hundred Springs – “Country Jam” (Palo Duro Records) – If you want a crash course in the best Texas country music over the last half-century the 2008 release from Dallas’ ESL would be a great place to start. From the hillbilly poetry of Mickey Newbury and Joe Ely to the Western Swing of Bob Wills to the pop and rock of  Doug Sahm and Buddy Holly all the influences are there.  And though the sounds are reflective of the Texas greats  ESL makes it distinctly their own on this superior homage to the Lone Star State. Amazon | MySpace | Official Site

Honorable Mention:

Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creations Dark
The Whipsaws – 60 Watt Avenue
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club – Cipher
Caitlin Rose -  Dead Flowers
The Power of County  – See You In Rock and Roll Heaven
Lucinda Williams – Little Honey
Kathy Mattea – Coal
The Wildes – Ballad of a Young Married Man
Hayes Carll – Trouble In Mind
Joey + Rory – The Life Of A Song
Kasey Chambers and Shane – Rattlin’ Bones
Ashton Shepherd – Sounds So Good
The Steeldrivers – Self-Titled
Whitey Morgan and the 78’s – Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels

Americana Update

When Bob Lefsetz, of the online music industry screed the Lefsetz Letter, writes about you positively you’re
probably doing something really cool. This is just what he has done after listening to the Americana Music Awards on XM Radio while driving in his home town of Los Angeles. I was in attendance at the Nashville’s Historic Ryman Auditorium and though his angel was on Robert Plant;s involvement with the Americana movement his point is an importmnat one, it’s about something all but lost in today’s culture, authenticity.

Sitting in the Ryman is to a country music fan as close to a secular sense of the divine there is to be had. Add a live performances by Ryan Bingham and Joe Ely (together with band leader Buddy Miller), an appearance by Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, Levon Helm, Joan Baez, Steve Earle, James McMurtry and John Hiatt and you’ve achieved, in my opinion, musical nirvana.

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant took top honors with Album of the Year with Raising Sand. The Band’s drummer/singer,now solo artist, Levon Helm won Artist of the Year. The award was presented by Billy Bob Thorton, who was on hand to promote his Americana/Country band The Boxmasters and thier new self-titled release. I caught Billy Bob and the Boxmasters at at the Cannery last night and was surpirised at how well done the music was and how fully invested he is in this musical endevor. Billy Bob also eaned my repect when he invited Charlie Louvin on stage for al acapella duet of the old Louvin Brothers murder ballad “KnoxvIlle Girl.”

A quick shout out to some of my fellow bloggers I caught up with -  Larry Karnowski at Hickory Wind, Greg Geil at AmericanaRoots.com, Justin Gage at Aquarium Drunkard.com and Dodge at My Old Kentucky Blog.com.

Here’s a list of the winners from the awards show …

Album of the Year: Raising Sand, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant
Artist of the Year: Levon Helm
Duo/Group of the Year: Alison Krauss and Robert Plant
Instrumentalist of the Year: Buddy Miller
New Emerging Artist of the Year: Mike Farris
Song of the Year: “She Left Me for Jesus,” Hayes Carll and Brian Keane (songwriters)

Awards were also given, including …

Spirit of Americana Free Speech in Music: Joan Baez
Lifetime Achievement (Songwriting): John Hiatt
Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement (Executive): Terry Lickona
Lifetime Achievement (Performance): Jason & The Scorchers
Lifetime Achievement (Instrumentalist): Larry Campbell
Trailblazer Award: Nanci Griffith
Lifetime Achievement (Producer/Engineer): Tony Brown

Billy Bob Thorton and Charlie Louvin – Knoxville Girl

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Af1DwHeV_c[/youtube]

Hayes Carll Simulcast: Today

Just in from the fine folks at Lost Highway Records: Bored at work?  Hayes Carll is performing live at 3:00 PM PST (6:00 PM EST) and it’s for all of us junkies!   Mike Nesmith’s (yes, THAT Mike Nesmith) VideoRanch.com and KPIG in Freedom, CA will simulcast Carll’s performance for your listening enjoyment.  You’ve got two ways to satisfy your Carll craving:

Visit www.videoranch.com and download the 3D Browser. It takes only a second and will be a trippy way to
watch Hayes perform.

Not into downloading files? Then visit www.kpig.com this afternoon (June 18) and listen to the performance.

And as always… make sure to swing by www.hayescarll.com for new tour dates, streaming music from Trouble In
Mind and loads of reviews.