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.

Stagecoach 2013 Lineup Announced

If somebody said that Justin Townes Earle and Lady Antebellum would be appearing on the same bill you would not be remiss in thinking “You’re nuts.”

Then you haven’t been to Stagecoach.

The above is indeed correct. The Goldenvoice-produced festival, now in it’s seventh year, takes a broad, historical view of country music. Contemporary country staples Toby Keith and Trace Adkins with country legends Charley Pride and Don Williams and Americana music favorites Old Crow Medicine Show and Hayes Carll are all included.

I’m a fan of this cross-influence dynamic. That a Toby Keith fan could check out Hayes Carll is good for both fan bases that tend to be a bit musically and culturally insular. Americana acts in front of these huge audiences gives them a big opportunity to grow their audience.

And if Keith and Carll break into a rendition of “Beer for my Horses” I’ll be the first to applaud.

The festival place the weekend of April 26-28 in Indio California. Tickets go on sale Oct. 20 at 10 a.m. via the official Stagecoach site. A new pricing structure is in place for 2013, and a three-day festival pass will cost $239.

Friday, April 26:
Toby Keith, Hank Williams Jr., Trace Adkins, Jeff Bridges & the Abiders, Roger McGuinn, Old Crow Medicine Show, Joe Nichols, Connie Smith, Maggie Rose, Hayes Carll, Wylie and the Wild West, Commander Cody, the Steel Wheels, Haunted Windchimes, Alissa Griffith

Saturday, April 27:
Lady Antebellum, Dierks Bentley, Rodney Atkins, Dwight Yoakam, Phil Vassar, Nick 13, John Anderson, Marty Stuart, Jana Krama, Justin Townes Earle, Suzy Bogguss, the Honky Tonk Angels Band, Sons and Brothers, the Westbound Rangers, Robert Ellis

Sunday, April 28:
Zac Brown Band, Darius Rucker, Thompson Square, Lonestar, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charley Pride, Don Williams, Tanya Tucker, Blue Sky Riders, John Reilly and Friends, Riders in the Sky, Waddie Mitchell, Florida Georgia Line, Brown Bird, Becky Stark, Gabriel Kelley

Music review: Dale Watson & The Texas Two – The Sun Sessions [Red House Records]

On his new release Texas country music traditionalist Dale Watson goes back to the roots of by recording in the historic Sun Studios of Memphis, TN. It was here that owner and chief producer Sam Phillips changed the face of 20th century music by manning the board for the likes Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Feathers, Ray Harris, B.B. King, Joe Hill Louis, Rufus Thomas, and Howlin’ Wolf, Charlie Rich, and Jerry Lee Lewis among many others.

Dale scales down his band for the sessions to drummer Mike Bernal and Chris Crepps on upright bass, or as they have been christened the “Texas Two.” This band title is not the only     testimonial to Johnny Cash’s 1954 to1958 sessions with his Tennessee Two.”   The spirit of Cash is also evoked on nearly every song with the use of his trademark boom-chicka-boom sound  as well as the class atmospheric “slap-back” production that helped make the Sun Studios famous.

This is not the first time Dale has gone to hallowed ground to summon the spirit of Cash. His 2007 album, from the Cradle to the Grave was recorded in a cabin near Nashville formally owned by Cash and  graciously loaned to him by his friend and current owner Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame.

Wason and his Texas Two peer from the cover with the iconic beaming sun set above them. These days Watson is looking less like Paulie Walnuts from the Sopranos and more like an older Unknown Hinson.

Also in line with Cash’s Sun Studio sessions is each songs brief duration. The 14 songs here clock in at less than a half-hour overall with the longest song, an ode to love and Southern cooking My Baby Makes Me Gravy, at 2:45. A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach but apparently it doesn’t take long to get there.

The songs are mostly all new with the exception of Johnny at the Door from Watson’s album People I’ve Known, Places I’ve Been (1999) and Elbow Grease, Spackle And Pine- Sol, which is a renamed version of Holes in the Wall from the Watson’s first album Cheatin’ Heart Attack (1995)

The genesis of the album began on Watson’s 16-ton Eagle tour bus bus after learning that the gig they were headed to in Memphis had fallen through. He then called up Sun Studios to see if they had an opening and they said “Come on in.” Watson then used his iPhone to record his voice as he worked out some songs while sitting behind the wheel.

Down, Down, Down, Down sets the pace with a boom-chicka-boom fright-train-like opening as Watson’s baritone breaks down a song of a life misspent on woe, sorrow and hell-raising ultimately asking for redemption. The Cash vibe is strong on Johnny at the Door, a tribute to a “good ol boy” Austin-area bar doorman and Drive, Drive, Drive that often echos Cash’s own Cry, Cry, Cry. Elbow Grease, Spackle And Pine- Sol is a guide to man’s reaction to being served divorce papers by his wife through aggression, he apologizes but sound like he does it with a smirk and doesn’t sound like he’s sorry at all for the “holes in the wall.”  Her Love has Watson conjuring one of the other ghosts of Sun Studio. The sentimental , heartfelt ballad has the mark of Elvis Presley running all through it.

Watson continues to be the cure for the contagion of  Music City pop-country.

Be sure to check out the Facebook campaign to get Dale Watson on the legendary Austin City limits show.

Official Site | Buy

Dale Watson & The Texas Two- My Baby Makes Me Gravy

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

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.

Gurf Morlix – Blaze Foley’s 113th Wet Dream [Rootball Records]

“He’s only gone crazy once. Decided to stay.” – Townes Van Zandt about Blaze Foley

For Gurf Morlix to create a tribute album for his Austin running buddy and fellow singer-songwriter, the late, great Blaze Foley, was a tricky endevour. Foley wrote songs with such singular originality edging toward cloying sentimentality and corny humor and instead delivering songs of heart-wrenching honesty and dry wit. Once hear Foley do a Foley song you can’t really imagine anyone else doing it.

Not that it hasn’t been tried before. Foley’s songs have been covered by John Prine (Clay Pigeons) and Merle Haggard (If I Could Only Fly.) And Foley has inspired others as as the subject of Austin contemporaries Townes Van Zandt’s “Blaze’s Blues” and Lucinda Williams’ “Drunken Angel.”

Foley’s legacy is ready-made for mythology. He used to jokingly claim to be the illegitimate son of Red Foley and Blaze Starr, to be a news broadcaster from Cincinnati and to have once tried to break into Caspar Weinberger’s house to “see what was on his VCR.” These whoppers are like a seeping breach between a rich source of song-craft inspiration and a need to recreate himself.

In truth Blaze Foley. Born in Marfa Texas (setting for the films Giant and There Will Be Blood and currently a thriving creative community) in l949. He performed in a family gospel act called the Fuller Family with his mother and sisters. He eventually landed in Austin, a city that prides itself on non-conformity, and with his duct-taped boots and clothing, sense of humor and stark, brutally honest songs, stood out.

Gurf Morlix is an Americana music pioneer. A New york native in1981 he moved to Los Angeles where he met a kindred spirit Lucinda Williams. He went on to lead her band for 11 years (1985 to 1996) singing, and playing guitar, and eventually producing her albums. His latter role as producer of Williams’ pinnacle Car Wheels On A Gravel Road led to their acrimonious split. Morlix then went on to play either guitar, bass, mandolin, dobro, pedal steel guitar, lap steel, banjo, piano, harmonica, and a variety of other instruments for and/or produce a literal who’s-who in the the Americana/rock field – Warren Zevon, Mary Gauthier, Robert Earl Keen, Slaid Cleaves, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Buddy and Julie Miller, Tom Russell, Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, Michelle Shocked, Jimmy LaFave, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Mojo Nixon, Jim Lauderdale, Jerry Lee Lewis, Peter Case, Bob Neuwirth, Don Walser, Jon Langford, Steve Earle, Harry Dean Stanton, Charlie Sexton, The Plimsouls, Victoria Williams, James McMurtry, Flaco Jimenez, Rosanne Cash, David Byrne, Kevin Welch, John Prine, Dave Alvin and many more. Impressed yet?

Blaze Foley’s 113th Wet Dream is 15 Foley originals that display the dark-to-light shadings of the man’s talent. Displaying a sense of humor and song-craft Roger Miller would envy on the cuts Baby Can I Crawl Back To You, Big Cheeseburgers and Good French Fries and No Goodwill Stores in Waikiki and the unvarnished melancholy and longing of If I Could Only Fly (featuring renowned Texas singer/songwriter Kimmie Rhodes on backing vocals) and Cold, Cold World that would make his buddy Townes Van Zandt weep. Some of the songs – Oh Darlin’ and Rainbows and Ridges combine elements of both.

Morlix ‘s arrangements and delivery are straightforward and top notch playing adds just the right amount of adornment. Aside from the excellent musicianship Morlix, unlike Steve Earle’s 2009 tribute to his mentor Townes Van Zandt, appears to have no urge to put his personal stamp on the songs.

Morlix was there on that cold February day in Austin when they put Blaze Foley in the ground as a result of being on the business end of a 22-caliber rifle. He was not content to let his songs be buried with him.

This CD is released in conjunction with the documentary film, Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah, which has been 12 years in the making.

official site | buy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFuOh2TXnHM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KwR7fk1PGQ[/youtube]

Hank Williams – 15 Covers in Tribute [VIDEO]


“I ain’t gonna worry wrinkles in my brow, cuz nothin’s never gonna be alright nohow. No matter how I struggle and strive, I’ll never get out of this world alive.”
— Hank Williams

Sometime in the early morning hours of January 1st 1953, somewhere on the roads of Kentucky on-route to a News Years Eve show in Canton, Ohio, The King of Country Music,  Hank Williams succumbed to a life of drugs, booze and sorrow in the back seat of his powder blue Cadillac. He was 29.

In his brief professional life Williams forged a sound and lasting legacy that runs throughout country and rock music , and really most all American music, to this day. On this New Years Eve I want to celebrate his life and demonstrate the broadness of his influence with some of the best covers of Hank Williams that I could uncover. Leave your own in the comments and at the stroke of midnight take a moment to remember the greatness of Hank Williams.

Tom Waits – Ramblin’ Man

Wayne Hancock – Lost Highway

Hunter Hayes / Hank Williams Jr. – Jambalaya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57sfRo26fAc

Townes Van Zandt – Alone & Forsaken

Jerry Lee Lewis – Cold Cold Heart

Patsy Cline – Lovesick Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rBtNVmUvPw

Chris Scruggs – I’m A Long Gone Daddy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W6dA67kTJc

Ray Charles – Your Cheatin’ Heart

The The – I Saw The Light
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYVXuauvZLA&feature=related

Neko Case – Alone and Forsaken

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant  -  My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan – Ramblin Man

Johnny Cash and Nick Cave – I Am So Lonesome I Could Cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovaGrcOEI-M

Hank Williams III – I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive

Hank Williams Jr and Tammy Wynette – Hank Sr Medley

News Round Up: Jerry Lee Lewis Gets Mean with Kris Kristofferson

  • Hey Bay Area twang fans! The San Francisco Weekly features a story on Joe Goldmark and the Seducers and their ongoing Sunday night residency at the Outer Sunset bar Riptide which bills itself as “the Bay Area’s best little honky-tonk.”
  • The Salt Lake Tribune sits down with legendary Texas songer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen.
  • Aquarium Drunkard sits down with Athens, Georgia-based alt.folk legend Vic Chesnutt.
  • Legendary rocker, and label mate of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis has released his first country single since the 1970s, Mean Old Man (you can get it now at Amazon for free.) The song was written by Kris Kristofferson and will be part of a new CD that will be released soon on Shangri-La Music.

Robert Earl Keen

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show – 9/18

From Pitchfork.com – On September 18, CMV/Columbia/Legacy will release The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show, a 2xDVD compiling 66 live performances from the 58 episodes of Johnny Cash’s 1969-1971 “The Johnny Cash Show”.

Kris Kristofferson hosts the DVD, which features performances from Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Louis Armstrong, Loretta Lynn, Neil Diamond, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Derek and the Dominoes, Roy Orbison, the Carter Family (including June Carter Cash), and Johnny Cash himself, among many others.

The set also features new interviews with John Carter Cash, Tennessee Three bassist Marshall Grant, Hank Williams, Jr., musical arranger Bill Walker, and hairstylist Penny Lane.

There will also be a single-disc CD version of the compilation available on the same day as the DVD.

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show (DVD):

01 Johnny Cash: “Ring of Fire”
02 Bob Dylan: “I Threw It All Away”
03 Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan: “Girl From the North Country”
04 Kris Kristofferson: “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”
05 Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash: “Blue Yodel #9”
06 Stevie Wonder: “Heaven Help Us All”
07 Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Bad Moon Rising”
08 Linda Ronstadt and Johnny Cash: “I Will Never Marry”
09 George Jones: Medley: “White Lightning” (with Johnny Cash) / “She Thinks I Still Care” / “The Love Bug” / “The Race Is On”
10 Johnny Cash: “Hey Porter”
11 Waylon Jennings: “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line”
12 Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash: “The Singing Star’s Queen”
13 Waylon Jennings: “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”
14 Tammy Wynette: “Stand by Your Man”
15 Marty Robbins: Medley: “Big Iron” / “Running Gun” / “El Paso”
16 Johnny Cash: “Ride This Train”
17 Johnny Cash: “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow”
18 Johnny Cash: “Man in Black”
19 James Taylor: “Sweet Baby James”
20 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: “Cripple Creek”
21 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: “Worried Man Blues”
22 Johnny Cash: “Sunday Morning Coming Down”
23 Johnny Cash: “Old Time Religion”
24 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three: “Daddy Sang Bass”
25 Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters: “Wildwood Flower”
26 Neil Young: “The Needle and the Damage Done”
27 Johnny Cash: “Tennessee Flat Top Box”
28 Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash: “Long Black Veil”
29 Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three with Carl Perkins: “Big River”
30 Johnny Cash: “I Walk the Line”
31 June Carter Cash: “A Good Man”
32 Derek and the Dominoes: “It’s Too Late”
33 Derek and the Dominoes With Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins: “Matchbox”
34 Charley Pride: “Able Bodied Man”
35 Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys: “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
36 Loretta Lynn: “I Know How”
37 Jerry Lee Lewis: “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
38 Johnny Cash: “Ride This Train (America the Beautiful, This Land Is Your Land)”
39 The Everly Brothers With Ike Everly and Tommy Cash: “Silver Haired Daddy of Mine”
40 Ray Charles: “Ring of Fire”
41 Johnny Cash: “A Boy Named Sue”
42 Conway Twitty: “Hello Darlin'”
43 Mother Maybelle Carter: “Black Mountain Rag”
44 Tony Joe White and Johnny Cash: “Pork Salad Annie”
45 Glenn Campbell: “Wichita Lineman”
46 Neil Diamond: “Cracklin’ Rosie”
47 Ray Price: “For the Good Times”
48 Roy Orbison: “Crying”
49 Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash: “Oh, Pretty Woman”
50 Johnny Cash: “Wanted Man”
51 Chet Atkins and Johnny Cash: “Recuerdo De La Alhambra”
52 Chet Atkins: Medley: “Country Gentleman” / “Mister Sandman” / “Wildwood Flower” / “Freight Train”
53 June Carter Cash With Homer and Jethro: “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
54 Merle Haggard: “No Hard Time Blues”
55 Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash: “Sing Me Back Home”
56 Carl Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”
57 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, and Carl Perkins: “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago”
58 Roy Clark: Medley: “In the Summertime” / “12th Street Rag”
59 The Statler Brothers: “Flowers on the Wall”
60 Johnny Cash: “Working Man Blues”
61 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: “Jackson”
62 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: “Turn Around”
63 Johnny Cash: “I Love You Because”
64 Hank Williams Jr.: Medley: “You Win Again” / “Cold Cold Heart” / “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love With You” / “Half As Much”
65 Johnny Cash: “A Wonderful Time up There”
66 Johnny Cash: “Folsom Prison Blues”

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash “Girl From The North Country” – 1969

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpxwjsP76E[/youtube]