Neil Young and Crazy Horse To Release New Album, Americana (6/5)

Neil Young and Crazy Horse will attempt to do what other brave souls (me included) have failed at for years, define definitively Americana.

Of course I don’t think the upcoming album, Americana (6/5) by Young and the band, he began fronting in 1968 after his band Buffalo Springfield dissolved, will be  doing anything of the sort. But I am intrigued by them covering late 19th century/early 20th century American folk songs, which include the classic murder ballad Tom Dooley, Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land,  Gallows Pole the classic folk song covered by Leadbelly and Led Zeppelin and forlorn American western ballad Clementine.

Young and Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, will redefine what people think of when when they associate the band with “Classic rock.”

The album was produced by Neil Young along with John Hanlon and Mark Humphreys. I saw the band in February for the Grammy MusiCares tribute to Paul McCartney where they covered the Beatles I Saw Her Standing There (all videos of that performance have been removed online as far as I can tell)  and the band was in lean fighting form. There are no reports of a tour resulting from the album.

Americana Tracklist:
1 – Oh Susannah
2 – Clementine
3 – Tom Dooley
4 – Gallows Pole
5 – Get A Job
6 – Travel On
7 – High Flyin’ Bird
8 – She’ll Be Comin ’Round The Mountain
9 – This Land Is Your Land
10 – Wayfarin’ Stranger
11 – God Save The Queen

Rounder Records Turns 40

  • The Green Bay Press Gazette has a great interview with Justin Townes Earle. Earle talks candidly about his past addictions and is troubled relationship with his father. as well as his excellent new release Midnight at the Movies.
  • Robert Earl Keen’s Lost Highway debut “The Rose Hotel,” produced by Lloyd Maines, will be released on On Sept. 29
  • Rounder Records will celebrate their 40th anniversary on Oct. 12th at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, TN with performances from Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bela Fleck and Irma Thomas will join in this momentous celebration along with musical host Minnie Driver and special guests to be announced.
  • Shreveport-based , the Louisiana Hayride (1948 to 1960) will  be inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. In it’s day the country music showcase featured Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, George Jones, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.
  • The grave of the late great Texas blues musician, Blind Willie Johnson, is  finally discovered. Johnson’s songs have been covered by everybody from Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton to Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.
  • Details magazine sits down with Native Texan and anti-Taylor Swift blond bad ass Miranda Lambert for some Q&A.
  • Nashville Scene‘s newest cover has  “Three Hot Acts Present a New Breed of Female Songwriter” featuring Caitlin Rose, Tristen Gaspadarek and Those Darlins.

The Roots of Led Zeppelin

 If songs like “Down By The Seaside,” “Gallows Pole” and “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” didn’t convince you that Led Zeppelin had occasional detours off the road to Clarksdale to the Appalachians, or at least Nashville, then maybe the words of the alt.country/roots music impresario T-Bone Burnett, who produced the great new CD Raising Sand with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (review soon) will convince you:

“People confuse Led Zeppelin with what came after them, as if they were a heavy metal band. But the incantations that Robert was singing were drawn from the Delta and the Appalachian mountains. It was music of the mud and earth. They had many gears they could go up, but at its essence was something raw and true and authentic.”