News Round Up: Kris Kristofferson is Open for Football Draft

Kris Kristofferson reminisces about his days playing football. The days before he was pulled because of too many head injuries, that is.

CMT interviews the Texas Yoda, Willie Nelson about his new T Bone Burnett produced album, Country Music.

Dwight Yoakam & Merle Haggard will perform together June 18 & 19 at Oregon’s Chinook Winds Casino Resort.

Speaking of Brother Hag, the LA Times Pop & Hiss get’s on the bus with the Merle while in town for the Stagecoach Festival.

News Round Up: New Johnny Cash Recording in February

  • The big for fans of the Man In Black is that Rick Rubin’s American Records will release American VI: Ain’t No Grave, the final volume in the American series that  helped revitalize Johnny Cash’s career beginning in the early 90’s, after he was unceremoniously dropped from Mercury Records. February 26 would have been Cash’s 78th birthday. (New York Times)
  • The economy may be for the dogs but it seems like it’s every week I find out about another ,usic festival cropping up. This time it’s Austin’s Americana focused Old Settler’s Music Festival (April 15-18) who have just released a partial line up list: Joe Ely, Patty Griffin, The Travelin’ McCourys, Fred Eaglesmith, Buddy Miller, Peter Rowan, The Lee Boys, The Gourds, Band of Heathens, Radney Foster, Blue Highway, Mindy Smith, Alison Brown with Joe Craven, The Infamous Stringdusters, Bearfoot, Solas, The Special Consensus, The Wronglers, Elizabeth Cook, Ruby Jane. Sounds like a winner. Grab those tickets, this one will fill up fast.
  • I was lucky enough to catch Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard as they headed out to a brief 4 city tour, the first time they had appeared on stage together.  This legendary dup will appear once more for one show (as far as I can tell) at Ft. Worth’s Bass Performance Hall on February 17. (Pagasus News)
  • If you missed it today on NPR, you can head over to the Fresh Air site and listen to T. Bone Burnett discuss the creation of the Crazy Heart soundtrack.

The Best of 2009

best-09

It’s been a bumper-crop year for Americana and roots music. There are many reasons for this sonic bonanza but I believe the main drive results from an aging generation used to genre defying music now looking for something a little more comfortable, but no less challenging, as they move from their 20s to their 30s. A generation that grew to see mash-ups as a newly formed musical expression are much more comfortable with genre bending acts like The Drive By Truckers and Deer Tick, and the success of recent T. Bone Burnett stewarded projects, the O’ Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and Robert Plant and Allison Krauss’ Raising Sand brings older performers and songs to a new audience and shows that the music is not only interesting and exciting, and in a culture steeped in hipster irony something emotionally authentic, but it can make money as well.

Maybe part of the boom was the newly added Americana Grammy category (yeah, I don’t buy that either), or maybe this aging population are used to the internet and discovering music their way instead of having pre-fabricated crap shoved down our throats by the big labels whose only business plan over the last decade is to sue the fans and squeeze musicians tighter, and the commercial radio stations that enable them. As a grassroots cultural correction Americana, like punk rock in the 70’s, is a response to this environment of mediocrity. Only this time it’s with a banjo instead of a Fender Jaguar and a Mohawk (though some of these musicians do sport Mohawks) and wielding the power of social media that does much of the jobs the big labels used to do a generation ago. Whatever the reason for all the music, I’m just happy to be a recipient and humble purveyor of all the goods, and I hope some of you readers find some of this stuff interesting as well.

I’ve expanded my top 10 list to 20 this year to make room for this great embarrassment of riches. By doing this I’ve also done away with my addendum Honorable Mentions, which was always kind of like a cheat anyway.

I was honored to be included with 29 of the best music blogger compadres around in the top 20 Bird List, but I have to admit that the list I submitted for that list has changed about 10 more times ultimately resulting in the list you now see before you….enjoy, disagree, fume and fret ,leap for joy, whatever…just get me some of that spiked Nog while you’re up.

1. Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day (turning life’s lemons into Luckenbach lemon-aid)
2. Kris Kristofferson- Closer To The Bone (#2 this year, but career-wide nobody can touch Kristofferson for songwriting.)
3. Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell – One To The Heart, One To The Head (a brilliant Western cinematic duet)
4. Lindsay Fuller and the Cheap Dates –Self Titled (Flannery O’Connor with a telecaster)
5. Miranda Lambert – Revolution (The anti-Taylor works from inside Music City)
6. George Strait – Twang (The King of Country. Period)
7. Tom Russell – Blood and Candle Smoke (Beat poet hillbilly travels dusty roads and smoky coffee shops with members of Calexico)
8. Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle – Let’s Just Stay Here (Quirky yet familiarly cozy Canadian country music)
9. Corb Lund – Losin` Lately Gambler(See Canadian reference above)
10. Grant Langston – Stand Up Man (Bakersfield is alive and well)
11. Wrinkle Neck Mules – Let The Lead Fly (alt.country is alive and well)
12. William Elliott Whitmore – Animals In The Dark (punk and folk ethos delivered with timeless soul)
13. Amanda Shires – West Cross Timbers (Winsome chanteuse travels dark and dusty regions of the heart)
14. Angela Easterling – Black Top Road (Roots/Rock sweetheart with a folk sense of cultural activism)
15. Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel – Willie and the Wheel (perfect union channels the spirit of Bob Wills)
16. Todd Snider – Excitement Plan (Steve Earle should study this release, social commentary doesn’t have to suck)
17. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight At The Movies (the younger Earle continues to make his mark by reaching into country music’s past)
18. The Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock (The Basement Tapes run through a dark prism)
19. Guy Clark – Somedays The Song Writes You (A Texas treasure that can do no wrong)
20. Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day (Indy spirit that uses twang as a strong driver)
21. Those Darlins – Self-titled (Riot Grrrl spunk with a Carter Sisters trad reverence)

It’s been a bumper-crop year for Americana and roots music. There are many reasons for this sonic bonanza but I believe the main drive results from an aging
generation of people used genre defying music but now looking for something a little more comfortable, but no less challenging, as they move from their 20s to their
30s. Kids that grew to see mash-ups as a newly formed musical expression are much more comfortable with genre bending acts like The Drive By Truckers and Deer Tick.
The success of recent T. Bone Burnett stewarded projects, the O’ Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and Robert Plant and Allison Krauss’ Raising Sand shows that the music is not only interesting and exciting but can make money as well.

Maybe it was the newly added Americana Grammy category (yeah, I don’t buy that neither), or maybe this aging population are used to the internet and discovering music their way instead of having pre-fabricated crap shoved down our throats by the big labels whose only business plan over the last decade is to sue the fans and squeeze musicians tighter, and the commercial radio stations that enable them. As a grassroots cultural correction Americana, like punk rock in the 70’s, is a response to this environment of medicocrity. Only this time it’s with a banjo instead of a Fender Jaguar and a Mohawk (though some of these musicians do sport Mohawks.) Whatever the reason for all the music, I’m just happy to be a recipient and humble purveyer of all the goods, and I hope some of you readers find some of this stuff interesting as well.

http://www.thebirdlist.org/

I’ve expanded my top 10 list to 20 this year to make room for this great embarrassment of riches. By doing this I’ve also done away with my addendum Honorable Mentions, which was always kind of like a cheat anyway.

I was honored to be included with 29 of my music blogger compadres in the top 20 Bird List, but I have to admit that the list I submitted for that list has changed about 10 more times ultimately resulting in the list you now see before you….enjoy, disagree, fume and fret ,leap for joy, whatever…just get me some of that spiked Nog while you’re up.

1. Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day (turning life’s lemons into Luckenbach lemon-aid)
2. Kris Kristofferson- Closer To The Bone (#2 this year, but career-wide tobody can touch Kristofferson for songwriting.)
3. Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell – One To The Heart, One To The Head (a brilliant Western cinematic duet)
4. Lindsay Fuller and the Cheap Dates -Self Titled (Flannery O’Connor with a telecaster)
5. Miranda Lambert – Revolution (The anti-Taylor works from inside Music City)
6. George Strait – Twang (The King of Country. Period)
7. Tom Russell – Blood and Candle Smoke (Beat poet hillbilly travels dusty roads and smoky coffee shops with members of Calexico)
8. Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle – Let’s Just Stay Here (Quirky yet familiarly cozy Canadian country music)
9. Corb Lund – Losin` Lately Gambler(See Canadian reference above)
10. Grant Langston – Stand Up Man (Bakersfield is alive and well)
11. Let The Lead Fly – Wrinkle Neck Mules (alt.country is alive and well)
12. William Elliott Whitmore – Animals In The Dark (punk and folk ethos delivered with timeless soul)
13. Amanda Shires – West Cross Timbers (Winsome chanteuse travels dark and dusty regions of the heart)
14. Angela Easterling – Black Top Road
15. Rita Hosking – Come Sunrise
16. Todd Snider’s Excitement Plan
17. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight At The Movies
18. The Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock
19. Guy Clark – Somedays The Song Writes You
20. Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day
21. The Builders & The Butchers – Salvation is a Deep Dark Well

News Round Up: Billy Joe Shaver Disovers his Roots, Closes Out 2009 with Willie

Texas country music legend and friend of Twang Nation Billy Joe Shaver is closing out a great career year with a slew of concerts including a a sold-out show with the Texas Yoda Willie Nelson, Ray Price, Billy Bob Thornton and Kris Kristofferson on Wednesday, December 16 at famous (in Texas anyway) Carl’s Corner Truck Stop. Billy Joe is also looking out for the working man by launching what he calls the “Bottom Dollar Shows” to give people access to his shows during these trying times. Shaver is also looking toward the new year by preparing material for a new album, including a new composition, “The Get Go,” which he’s been debuting in live appearances.

Besides his personal legendary musical status Shaver has learned that he comes from historic bloodlines. His great-great-great grandfather was Evan Thomas Watson (1759-1834), a Virginia-born Revolutionary War veteran who settled in an area of the Arkansas Territory that would become part of Texas. Shaver has known since childhood that he’s part Native American as well, but recently learned that he’s also a descendant of Crazy Horse, the respected war leader of the Oglala Lakota who fought against the U.S in an effort to preserve the traditions and values of the Lakota way of life and participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. Shaver recently visited the tribe’s reservation, close to where a large mountain carving similar to Mount Rushmore is being created as a Crazy Horse Memorial. He was given a Native American name: Spirit Eagle

News Round Up: Kris Kristofferson Presented With BMI Icon Award

  • Rosanne Cash talks to the Wall Street Journal about her new release, The List, and joins George Jones by stating her views on the homogenization of mainstream country radio.
  • The Who’s Roger Daltrey says Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium is the “That’s the best bloody place for a musician to play in the whole —— world.” You get one guess what goes where the lines are but this is a quite as it appears over at Country Standard Time.
  • Kris Kristofferson was presented with the BMI Icon award Tuesday evening and watched while Vince Gill, Patty Griffin and Willie Nelson performed some of his best-loved compositions.  “Why Me,” “Help Me Make It Through The Night,” “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” and “Me and Bobby McGee.”
  • Geoff Muldaur recently sat down with the New York Times’ Ben Sisario to discuss the extraordinary group of musicians who came together to form the Texas Sheiks. The Texas Sheiks includes the late Stephen Bruton (Kris
    Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, and T-Bone Burnett) who did not live
    to see the album released, blues singer Johnny Nicholas (Big Walter Horton and Robert Jr. Lockwood, Asleep at the Wheel), Cindy Cashdollar ( Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Paul Butterfield), Suzy Thompson ( Dave Alvin and Alice Gerrard).  Bruce Hughes (Jason Mraz, Bob Schneider)

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.

News Round Up: Kris Kristofferson Cruises

  • Chico California’s NewsReview.com features a brief interview with local resident Merle Haggard.
  • Whitney Self at the CMT.com blog details the story behind Kris Kristofferson’s most famous hit and its Italian cinematic motivation.See him perform this and more on Studio 330 Sessions.
  • More on Kristofferson – ABC’s Good Morning America’s Weekend Drive cruises around Nashville with the man as he reminisces about his long illustrious career. Kristofferson, 73, is releasing “Closer to the Bone,” his 24th album, this week.
  • The Bay Area’s own premier Southern Gothic band the Pine Box Boys’ upcoming album is entitled The Emancipated Head and will be released sometime next Spring.
  • The Tin Whisker offers a nice interview with neo-traditionalist J. B. Beverley. Beverley discusses his move from punk rock to honky-tonk.
  • The annual IBMA World of Bluegrass begings today in Nashville(9/28-10/4). The World of Bluegrass events includes the IBMA Business Conference,,the 20th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards Show at the Ryman Auditorium and Bluegrass Fan Fest.
  • After seeing Amanda Shires performance at the Basement during the Americana Music Association conference and festival I have to say, I am smitten. The Native Texan’s newest release, West Cross Timbers, is one of the best releases I’ve heard this year. Music Fog has a clip of her and a guy that looks a lot like TV’s House (but who is really her music partner Rod Picott) doing I Kept Watch Like Doves (aka Murder Ballad) from the album.

News Round Up: Taylor Swift Attends Miranda Lambert’s Revolution

  • Vince Vaughn is not only hilarious, and tall, but he loves country music. Or is it Americana music…hell I can’ keep up.
  • The Americana extravaganza that is Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is next weekend people. John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Boz Scaggs, Steve Earle, Ricky Scaggs, Gillian Welch, Booker T and the Drive By Truckers as his backing band, Mavis Staples, Emmylou Harris, Doc Watson, Aimee Mann and Little Feat. And it’s FREE!
  • Taylor Swift showed up at the Ryman last night to watch Texas’ own Miranda Lambert play her new release Revolution (I wonder if she has to pay Steve Earle royalties on that too?) That’s right Taylor, that’s how it’s done! During her performance Lambert knelt down and kissed the historic wooden stage of the hallowed Mother Church of Country Music. No mics where taken from any performers as far as I know…

News Round Up: Twitter Your Way to an Avett Bros. Deluxe Box Set

  • William Michael Smith’s latest Houston Press column Lonesome Onry and Mean finds kinship and flattering things to say about the new releases from Texas songwriting legends Guy Clark and Kris Kristofferson.
  • Of you tweet between 9/23-9/28 with @theavettbros and #Avett in the text you will be entered in a for a chance to win a Deluxe Box Set of The Avett Brothers’ new release I & Love &You.
  • The latest Rolling Stone features Jason Fine’s article on Bakersfield legend Merle Haggard sordid history (Issue 1088 – Merle Haggard: The Fighter.) Rollingstone.com has a photo gallery of Haggard tracing his early years to his rise as one of Country Music’s greatest singer/songwriters.
  • A film caturing a special evening at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis playing the Music of Ray Charles  can be seen in select cinemas from October 15 and will arrive in-stores, just in time for Chrstmas,on both Blu-Ray and DVD on October 20 from A&E Home Entertainment for $19.95 (SD) and $29.95 (BD). The concert event, including a half-hour backstage, behind-the-scenes interview special, airs on HDNet in true high definition on October 18 at 8:00 p.m. ET and on SIRIUS XM’s Real Jazz channel, SIRIUS channel 72 and XM channel 70 on October 18 at 8:00 pm ET. Blue Note Records will release a live album of the concert in Spring 2010.
  • Thanks to @kimruehl at No Depression and About.com Folk Music for the “official” Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival Twitter hash tag #hsbf. Let’s trend it up people!

News Round Up: The Glossary is Giving Their 2007 Album, The Better Angles of Our Nature

  • PopMatters.com has Juli Thanki’s newest Torch & Twang post (Louisiana Woman, Texas Troubadour)  Thanki bypasses the standard view that Loretta Lynn’s best duet partner was Conway Twitty and makes her case for Ernest Tubb.
  • Best Buy is offering an exclusive EP from Miranda Lambert today which  includes her new single “ Dead Flowers” from her upcoming album Revolution. The EP includes three bonus tracks from her prior album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The cost of the EP is $1.99, or you can pre-order Revolution and get the EP free. (via My Kind of Country and the 9513.com)
  • Kris Kristofferson, Ray Price, Bobby Bare Jr. and My Morning Jacket are some that will pay tribute to writer, artists , country music songwriter and Playboy mansion resident Shel Silverstein on Turnable, Twistable Man which is produced by Silverstein ‘s friend Bobby Bare.
  • Murfreesboro, Tennessee-based quirky indy Southern rock band the Glossary is giving their new 2007 album, The Better Angles of Our Nature, free from their official site and in different quality formats.  I’ll review it soon, but after a couple of passes on the iPod it’s a great one.
  • Happy birthday Patsy Cline  (Sept 8 1932)
  • Another use for texting? Apparently looking for the country crooner that stopped in your town and might have knocked you up is now on that list.  A certain lady with a Wisconsin phone number is currently looking for this Rodeo Romeo. (via NashvilleScene)