The Best of 2010

It’s that time again. The end of the year list that are as common as as spam in your inbox, but it’s tradition and I’m a sucker for tradition. So here we go!

If you follow my twitter feed (http://twitter.com/#!/TwangNation) you’ll already know what’s on this list. I did the countdown as seperate tweets lest week and I got a great response. You also know that its not merely a top 10 but a top 25! That’s right, you get 25% more music for your money.

It has been another great year for Americana/roots music, and from what’s currently coming across my desk for 2011 we can look forward to another. Old-timers are beating on the barn door and upstarts are using old parts to make new works that advance the form while staying true to the roots.  The genre appears to be attracting and cultivating the type of nurturing and craftsmanship that labels used to practice in the golden days of the 60s and early 70s. Of course this time without the lavish pay-out. The music industry is in turmoil from the corner office view but from the touring van and the laptop it’s  a prime-time for opportunity. And if you’re a burgeoning musician concerned about the current conditions I urge you to purchase Dr. Ralph Stanley’s book Man of Constant Sorry and learn about what REAL hard time look like.

So I raise a pint and celebrate an embarrassment of riches that show the love of craft and and honor in roots that defines a road of American culture that is often overlooked and forgotten but often leads to the promised land.

As the year comes to a close, I’m reflecting on the past four years of writing Minkin’s Music and all the good times with people I’ve met along the way. May the spirit of the season touch your soul and let comfort and joy shine upon you throughout the upcoming year.

  1. Mat D – Plank Road Drag – goo.gl/JmxJL
  2. Jamey Johnson – Guitar song- goo.gl/quZFh
  3. Ray Wylie Hubbard – A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) – goo.gl/VMe2Z
  4. Truckstop Darlin’ – Truckstop Darlin’ – goo.gl/jcRi0
  5. Reckless Kelly – Somewhere in Time- goo.gl/gwqGM
  6. Miranda Lambert – Revolution – goo.gl/Ana72
  7. Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues – goo.gl/ZIU2V
  8. Lindsay Fuller – The Last Light I See – goo.gl/wZsFI
  9. Elizabeth Cook – Welder – goo.gl/kiEVi
  10. Jason & The Scorchers  –  Halcyon Times – goo.gl/gzf0g
  11. Mandolin Orange – Quiet Little Room – goo.gl/tPcHS
  12. Black Twig Pickers – Ironto Special – goo.gl/sipmJ
  13. Possessed By Paul James – Feed The Family – goo.gl/0BjNl
  14. Joe Thompson – Yankee Twang – goo.gl/whgRF
  15. Joe Pug – Messenger – goo.gl/VQt31
  16. Carolina Chocolate Drops  – Genuine Negro Jig – goo.gl/38tmF
  17. The Sadies – Darker Circles – goo.gl/z5nMt
  18. 6 Day Bender – E’ville Fuzz – goo.gl/xLDK6
  19. I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House – Sounds of Dying – goo.gl/AhIG1
  20. Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil – Victims, Enemies & Old Friends – goo.gl/twVaZ
  21. Shineyribs – Well After Awhile – goo.gl/8kgWY
  22. Patty Griffin – Downtown Church – goo.gl/YVXav
  23. Whitey Morgan & the 78′s – Whitey Morgan & the 78′s- goo.gl/HM2af
  24. Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers  – Agridustrial – goo.gl/ldsGN
  25. Mary Gauthier – The Foundling – goo.gl/fKAJb

Americana Music Association Hold Auction

The Americana Music Association are auctioning significant memorabilia items and ticket offers. All proceeds will support the not for profit association’s annual Americana Music Festival & Conference, which takes place in Nashville from September 16th – 19th, 2009. Some of the things up for sales are a Jason & The Scorchers 20 Year Birthday Celebration Autographed Hatch show print and tickets to Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt in the city of your choice.

South Florida’s Metromix recounts Alejandro Escovedo’s 30-plus years long career and his brush with death in 2003 as a result of contacting hepatitis C. Escovedo also discusses how living in Aaustin helps shape his eclectic musical style: “The bulk of my material is influenced by living in the Southwest,” he says. “There are spaces here I love very much. It’s a wonderful place to meditate on all sorts of subjects and things. And music from Texas always influenced me: Joe Ely, Ornette Coleman, Junior Walker, Arnett Cobb, Lightnin’ Hopkins. And then, you’ve got people like Roky Erickson and the Butthole Surfers. It’s an amazing place musically. It lends itself to imagination. You can get lost in the dreamlike quality of it.”Escovedo is currently on tour.

The Los Angeles Chronicle has a nice post on country music legend Kitty Wells‘ influence on women’s careers  in country music, her singles and career as a refection of women in domestic relationships of post-WWII America and how Roy Acuff believed how having a woman headline a live showcase was “financial suicide. ” Wells  is currently enjoying a retrospective at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum entitled “Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music, Presented by Great American Country Television Network,” which remains open until June 14, 2009

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]

Americana Music Association Announces Line Up

  • The Americana Music Association has released an initial list of arists that will be playing around Nashville during their music festival and conferencethis September 17-20 2008. Some of the performers will be: Jim Lauderdale, Mike Farris, Kane Welch Kaplin, The everybodyfields, The SteelDrivers, Tift Merritt, Jason & the Scorchers, Joe Ely, Malcolm Holcombe, Rosie Flores, Band of Heathens, Laura Cantrell, Cross Canadian Ragweed, James McMurtry, Jason Isbell and much much more.
  • The drop date for Chris knight’s new album, Heart of Stone, has been pushed back to September 2nd due to “production issues.” Guest musicians on Heart of Stone include Mike McAdam (Steve Earle, Radney Foster) on various guitars, Keith Christopher (Georgia Satellites, The Yayhoos) on bass, Tammy Rodgers (The SteelDrivers) fiddle and vocals, mandolin and banjo, and Michael Webb (The Wreckers, Allison Moorer) on B-3 organ, piano and accordion. Producer Dan Baird also contributes on guitar and vocals. Knight says of Heart of Stone “It might just be my best. For some reason, there’s a cohesiveness here that’s not like anything I’ve done before. But at the same time, it’s not real predictable. There’s a lot of texture to it as well, but it’s a simple record. I don’t know how that happened. But I know it when I hear it.”
  • The documentary “Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music” will air on PBS stations tomorrow night. The film is directed by Robert Elfstrom and is a “cinema vérité look at Cash.”  PBS produced the documentary almost 40 years ago (!) Robert Elfstrom also takes some time to answer some questions for the the Tennessean (via the 9513)