Not too be cynical, but Christmas albums are often little more than a money grab from big artists.It makes perfect business sense but rarely results in laying out hard-earned dollars to add to your collection. Here are 5 that break the opportunistic mold/ The artists here are either so singularly excellent as to transcend the material or they exhibit such sincerity and love for the material that it just moves you.
Christmas With Buck Owens And His Buckaroos – Buck recorded two Christmas albums back in the sixties - Christmas Shopping and Christmas with Buck Owens. This is the better of the two because the King of the Bakersfield Sound avoids the usual Christmas chestnuts and lends his signature style to a collection consisting almost all original songs. The songs run from barroom weepers Blue Christmas Tree and It’s Christmas Time For Everyone But Me and the swinging Santa’s Gonna Come in a Stage Coach and Because It’s Christmas Time. This is a great stocking-stuffer for the country traditionalist in your life.
A Christmas Present – How many Christmas albums can you name that resulted in a #1 song? Not many, but this is one of them. Haggard’s A Christmas Present, released in 1973, contains the single If We Make It Through December which spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart that December through January 1974. That song and others like melancholy “Daddy Won’t Be Home for Christmas settles you in for a lonesome Christmas, but Hag does take a light-hearted break with Santa Claus and Popcorn and Bobby Wants a Puppy Dog for Christmas.
A John Prine Christmas – The legendary John Prine puts away the satircal knives (mostly) on this excellent, though brief, holiday release. Classics like I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Silver Bells are done straight-up and mixed with wry originals resulting in a tasty spiked Christmas nog. Broken relationships in songs like Everything Is Cool and All the Best are recalled less bitterness then bemused fatalism.
To: Kate a Benefit for Kate’s Sake – A collection of Americana and alt.country legends came together on this 2005 release partake in one of the greatest of Christmas endeavors; charity.
Jim Lauderdale, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Buddy & Julie Miller and others to put together To: Kate a Benefit for Kate’s Sake to benefit a three-year-old Nashville girl suffering from a rare genetic disease. Chuck Mead and BR549 do a great Western Swing version of The Christmas Song and Jim Lauderdale tears through a spirited Holly & Her Mistletoe. Buddy and Julie Miller strike the perfect tone for the spiritual Away In A Manger and Joe Ely’s Tejano-tinged Winterlude is as spicy and pleasing as Mexican hot chocolate on a winter night.
Hillbilly Holiday- Unfortunately now out of print, Hillbilly Holiday is an excellent 18-track compilation of classic country Christmas songs. Pioneers like Bill Monroe, Tex Ritter and Ernst Tubb sit beside relative newcomers Willie Nelson. Buck Owens and Loretta Lynn on this often whimsical compilation. If you can find this release is just the remedy for the pop-country fan in your life.
Here it is hot off the presses ladies and gents, the last single-digit podcast from Casa Twang. That’s right #9 is in the books and ready for your listening pleasure.
As I say in the podcast (listen and see!) with 4 performers - The Pollies, Dillon Hodges, Jason Isbell and Doc Dailey - all hailing from the fertile music climes of Muscle Shoals, AL, that it feels like this episode is sponsored by the Alabama Tourism Department This is patently untrue! At least until they send me a check!
If there is another theme in this episode it’s the rich display of old-school honky-tonk from Rodney Hayden, Daniel Romano , Billy Don Burns and the legendary Loretta Lynn.
A couple of mia culpas on the introduction to Rodney Hayden’s song: “I Drink To Remember” I mention George Jones as a contributing songwriter. I misspoke and meant to say George Strait. Also I mention the new Pollies release “Where The Lies Begin” was on Palomino Records. It is out on This Is American Music.
I hope you like this episode of the Twang Nation Podcast. if you do tell a friend and let me know here at my site, Google+, Twitter or my Facebook.
And thanks to all of you for supporting great music!
Opening Song – “Mr. D.J” – by Dale Watson
1. Rodney Hayden – song: “I Drink To Remember” – Album: “Atascosa Sand” (Palomino Records – out now)
2. The Pollies – song: ” Little Birdie” – Album: “Where The Lies Begin” (This Is American Music – out now)
3. The Martha Redbone Roots Project – song: ” The Garden Of Love” – Album: “The Garden of Love, Songs of William Blake” ( Blackfeet Productions – out now)
4. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – song: ” Danko/Manuel” – Album: “Live From Alabama” ( Lightning Rod Records – out November 19)
5. Daniel Romano – song: “Middle Child” – Album: “Come Cry With Me” ( Normaltown Records, an imprint of New West – January 22, 2013 this single “Middle Child” out 11/27 on iTunes)
6. Amy LaVere and Shannon McNally – song: “Never Been Sadder” – Album: “Chasing The Ghost Tour-Rehearsal Sessions EP” ( Archer Records – out 11/27)
7. Dillon Hodges – song: “The Proof” – Album: “Rumspringa” ( Single out November 20 and his Debut album, Rumspringa slated for 2013 release )
8. Billy Don Burns – song: “Honky Tonk Singer” – Album: “Nights When I’m Sober: Portrait of a Honky Tonk Singer” ( Rusty Knuckles – out now)
9. Goodnight, Texas – song: “Submarines” – Album: “A Long Life of Living” ( Tallest Man Records – out now)
10. Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil – song: “Catch the Presidents” – Album: “Catch the Presidents” ( Southern Discipline Recording Co. Records – out November 13th)
11. Loretta Lynn – song: “Honky Tonk Girl” (MCA Nashville)
In fighting outside your weight class news – A recent Variety article brought news that pop-country performer Taylor Swift would be portraying folk music legend Joni Mitchell in an upcoming movie adaptation of Sheila Weller’s book “Girls Like Us.” Soon after that I read that pop-folk/pop-country performer Jewel will portray country music legend June Carter Cash in an upcoming Lifetime television movie. Yesterday I saw that Loretta Lynn had announced from the stage of Nashville’s Mother Church of Country Music, the Ryman Auditorium, that she had asked actress and pop-folk performer Zooey Deschanel to portray hey in ‘Coal Miner’s’ musical.
This is like casting Keanu Reeves to play the Buddha oh wait, that happened.
This news reminded me of when I heard that Jack White was appearing with Jimmy Page and The Edge in the movie “It Might Get Loud.” What the hell is he doing at THAT table?”
Here are performers that, despite sales, are clearly punching above their weight class. It’s a classic “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” moment except that instead of acknowledging these lightweights for what they are they are handed a job they are clearly undeserving of.
All due respect to Ms. Loretta, The choice of Deschanel , just like the choices of Swift, Jewel and White before them, is a choice of marketing potential, not musical qualifications. The decision to cast these cultural pee-wees has nothing to do with equivalent talent, it’s about demographic crossover and getting viewers. As a lover of music, great lasting music, I don’t use the same criteria for assessment for placement in these roles. I immediately evaluate these performers on their work and my conclusion is “no way.” They don’t deserve the instant gravitas to their career that comes with portraying legends clearly out of their league. I have an idea, how about actually writing music that get’s you that cred instead of just playing one on TV.
But that takes a level of musical genius that none of these people possess.
“Why do the best things always disappear?” Ophelia
The other day I read a tweet from Jason Isbell that read “I don’t know what to say.” that offered had a link to levonhelm.com. When I followed that link the official site read that ”Levon was in the final stages of his battle with cancer.” Today at at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City the music legend left this last and final stage.
Helm was a key member of a band brimming with talent. Once backing rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins under the moniker “The Hawks,” and then backing Dylan as he shook the folk culture by bringing it into the electric age. The negative reaction of this event shook Helm to the extent that he returned to his birth state, Arkansas, to work on off-shore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for two years until he was asked to rejoin the band.
Though primarily known for his tight drumming style and distinctive Southern growling vocal style Helm was an accomplished on mandolin, guitar, bass, harmonica and banjo. This wealth of talent allowed him to endure long after the demise of The Band.
As the soul American in the otherwise Canadian The Band’; Helm’s lent Sothern authenticity to some of their best known songs and the sound of elongated drawl shaped the words into authenticity. His solo career built on that foundation and he used his Woodstock NY barn for his Rambles, to experiment in open community jams that helped shape the sound and and to celebrate the heritage of music and shape the style we now know as Americana. Fittingly, Helm won two of the three Americana Album of the Year Grammys that have been handed out since the categories existence (Electric Dirt in 2010 and Ramble at the Ryman in 2011.) There is no argument that Helm is a founding father of the genre.
When news of Helm’s death started fanning across the web artists began to use twitter to pay their respects and reminisce. Rodney Crowell (@RodneyJCrowell) tweeted “Rest in Peace, Brother Levon.” Loretta Lynn (@The_LorettaLynn) tweeted (by way of her Facebook page) “Levon Helm will Always hold a special place in my heart. He was as great of an actor as a musician .. For me watching him play the role of my daddy in Coal miners daughter is a memory I will alway(s) treasure”
Helm is best known role was playing the aforementioned stern but loving father, Ted Webb, to Sissy Spacek’s Loretta. But he also had memorable parts in a number of other films including the excellent Tommy Lee Jones’ directed and starred in film “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.”
As musicians and fans tweeted the news “RIP Levon Helm” , “The Last Waltz” and “TheBand” were all listed as trending topics on the main page. Helm’s official Facebook page currently has over 6000 comments on the news of his death. It’s heartening to see a man so steeped in tradition being celebrated by fans taking solace in these online communities.
I believe it’s not a day of sadness bit of a celebration of a great life well lived. I was fortunate to see Helm perform live when he brought the Ramble on a rare road trip to San Francisco in August 2010. I’ll leave you with a video from that extraordinary performance.
Country music legand and Hall of Fame member Loretta Lynn was hospitalized over the weekend with the early stages of pneumonia, according a release from the AP quoting a representative of Lynn.
The 76-year-old Lynn was scheduled to perform Saturday at the Performing Arts Center in Ashland, Ky. and Sunday in Durham, N.C., but the Kentucky center issued a news release saying she is in the hospital and would be unable to perform. The Kentucky theater says the show will be rescheduled.
Loretta Lynn Enterprises posted a statement on her website Saturday night that confirmed the cancellations due to illness.
“Doctors have diagnosed her as the beginning stages pneumonia, and will continue to need rest. Loretta is doing well and is disappointed but feels confident she will be ready for upcoming November dates.”
Or wishes and thought go out to the Coal Miner’s Daughter for a speedy recovery.
Looks like Dwight Yoakam will adding to his acting resume which currently includes excellent turns in Sling Blade, Panic Room and Crank. Yoakam has been cast to play Butch Cavendish, the villain of Disney’s The Lone Ranger joining Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale and director Gore Verbinski.
Loretta Lynn’s 2004 LP Van Lear Rose will be released on Jack White’s Third Man Records.The album will be available on August 9 on standard black vinyl, there will also be a special blue version limited to 300 copies. A hundred of these limited editions will be sold on release day at the Third Man store in Nashville, TN. The label hasn’t yet revealed where the other 200 will be available, but the announcement said, “We haven’t done a contest in a while… Hmmmm…”
If there is such a thing as a superstar in the Americana genre then Gillian Welch is one. Her debut album, Revival, came out in the height of Nashville stylized indulgence – hitherto known as the Garth years – and reached so far back in style and subject matter that it couldn’t be called old school, it predated the school itself. This New York City born and Berklee College of Music educated woman became a gabardine-clad personification mountain holler laments and sepia drenched Dust Bowl yarns. Like Duluth, Minnesota’s Bob Zimmerman she embodied the ancestral ghosts of mythology and willed herself into a contemporary symbol of a bygone era by exhibiting a respect for the cultural legacy and ingenuity to work within the confines to create music that sounds not only timeless but new.
To further distinguish herself , at the time of her debut many of Welch’s contemporaries were approaching their work from a folky, more Lilith-like, direction. Welch was rougher, darker, and delivered her talws with grit. Like Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson, she appeared to be a woman that could drink you under the table and hold herself in a fight.
After an 8-year stretch, where Welch battled writer’s block and provided a supporting role for performing partner David Rawlings solo undertaking, By plan or happenstance The Harrow & the Harvest has been released to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Coen Brothers O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a move that in many ways reflects to neo-rustic forms crafted by Welch. The movie’s multi-platinum soundtrack was a watershed moment for the Americana music genre and featured Welch performing alongside better-known contemporaries Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris. Welch also has a cameo in the film requesting a copy of the best-selling single from the movies fictitious group Soggy Bottom Boys.
On The Harrow & the Harvest Welch heeds timeless advice and doesn’t try and fix what’s not broken by offering up 10 songs of want and worry in many varieties. Scarlet Town opens with the protagonist visiting a town calamity and deception that would make Dr. Ralph Stanley bow his head in woe. The darkness of the songs subject is countered dazzlingly by David Rawlings deft guitar picking.
The murder ballad Dark Turn Of Mind carries a sinister undercurrent that belies it’s lulling cadence with a come-on / threat “take me and love me if you want me, but don’t ever treat me unkind. ‘cause I had bad trouble already, and he left me with a dark turn of mind”
The Way It Will Be is a smooth-folk Crosby, Stills and Nash-like that takes the associated SoCal groove to darker regions and The Way It Goes is a jaunty ode to weary fatalism that comes from a worn soul.
Tennessee is a character study in temptation and willful sin in the best Puritan tradition of the Southern Gothic form. The arch leads us from Sunday School to carousing, dancing and gambling all leading to the sweet bye and bye. The Way The Whole Thing Ends fittingly as it saunters and offers up hillbilly existential nuggets like “That’s the way the cornbread crumbles. That’s the way the whole thing ends.”
All in all The Harrow & the Harvest is a, paraphrasing from the song Scarlet Town , a deep well and a dark grave of an album brimming with hard truths as plainly told stiff as a pull of mash. It’s a fine return to form from an crafts-person that has been sorely missed. It’s the feel bad album of the summer
For Father’s Day I rustled up some greats singing on their dads. I know it’s not an even 10 but I think you’ll like what I have. Share your favorites of they aren’t up here or just leave some memory or sentiment for your own dad. Thanks for all the great suggestion from my friends and followers in twitter. This is dedicated to my own father Jerry Max Lane, and my daughter Isobel and my step-father Joe Herbert whose been more than a father to me in my life.
For such a macho genre Country Music has never been shy about it’s sentimentality. And nobody could deliver the heartstrings yanking goods like Mr. Conway Twitty.
The jaunty tone of Louvin’s famous “See the Big Man Cry” belies the heartache of a man that sees his boy while walking on the sidewalk on day but can’t approach him and his ex-wide due to court orders.
The darker side of Loretta’s They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore, a man quiets grace leads to isolation and alienation from his daughter. Love the hair!
Brad Paisley is a cut above the typical Music City hat acts and his performance of this song on impending fatherhood shows as much.
Jamey Johnson – The Dollar
Even early in his career and with all the production sheen Johnson is a great songwriter. This is a tale of a boy that saves his change to buy time with his overworked father. An anthem to family challenges in these tough economic times.
Loretta Lynn has had to cancel several upcoming shows due to recuperation from recent knee surgery and at one canceled performance another legend is able to help out. Next weekend’s Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio, California will feature Kris Kristofferson in the April 30 and May 1 at the Empire Polo Field slots Lynn would have played. The veteran singer-songwriter-actor has tuned into the a kind of a country music reliever. Last fall he stepped up to a solo performance since his gig partner, Merle Haggard, began suffering from blood pressure-related issues and had to miss their scheduled performance at Neil Young’s Bridge School benefit concerts in Mountain View, California.
Who says nothing good comes out of Music City? Nashville’s Infamous Stringdusters, have announced the We’ll Do It Live,a 5 city tour to record their first official live album. People that purchase tickets in advance will receive an exclusive lib EP of bonus material not to found on the final album.
At 84 Dr. Ralph Stanley is an American icon and cultural treasure and an original pioneer of bluegrass music. His new gospel album A Mother’s Prayer (Rebel) captures this artist at the peak of his wisdom and artistic power. The album is produced by his son Ralph Stanley II who also plays in the band. Songs include John the Revelator and What Kind of Man by Stanley and Larry Sparks.
It is with great excitement that we, the Stringdusters, announce our first official collaboration with you, the people. This is a live album that’s long overdue. Four of our favorite rooms (and one soon to be) in five great cities–we set up the mics, together we set up the celebration. It’s a record for all the world to hear, but some of you will actually be a part of it, partying down in the control room, singing backup while we dance across the recording studio stage. This is what we love to do. This is where our music comes to life. Join us, and this time WE’LL DO IT LIVE.
As a big thanks to each of you that join in the experience, EVERYONE WHO PURCHASES TICKETS IN ADVANCE for these shows will receive and EXCLUSIVE LIVE EP (by email) of BONUS MATERIAL off of the live album
Much love,
The Infamous StringdustersIt is with great excitement that we, the Stringdusters, announce our first official collaboration with you, the people. This is a live album that’s long overdue. Four of our favorite rooms (and one soon to be) in five great cities–we set up the mics, together we set up the celebration. It’s a record for all the world to hear, but some of you will actually be a part of it, partying down in the control room, singing backup while we dance across the recording studio stage. This is what we love to do. This is where our music comes to life. Join us, and this time WE’LL DO IT LIVE.
As a big thanks to each of you that join in the experience, EVERYONE WHO PURCHASES TICKETS IN ADVANCE for these shows will receive and EXCLUSIVE LIVE EP (by email) of BONUS MATERIAL off of the live album
The Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame plans to update their main exhibit space to devote an area to Americana and contemporary bluegrass music. The new exhibit will feature artifacts from Alison Krauss, Jim Lauderdale, Dell McCoury and Buddy Miller. Also to be included in the the second floor gallery’s theatre (in front of the Hee Haw exhibit) a new video exhibit will be featured showing about how topical events and social political issues are reflected and country music. The exhibit will feature examples like Merle Haggard’s “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill,” the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl,” and Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (The Angry American).”
For that Americana rock lover you need a gift for Billy Reid has offers a hand-made and -finished wooden box from Ross LeBlanc containing rare t-shirts inspired by the roots artists Old Crow Medicine Show, Justin Townes Earle, Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, and the Drive-by Truckers, and also includes a DVD of Old Crow Medicine Show’s live performance at the Tennessee Theater.
T Bone Burnett discusses his personal story of singer/songwriter Stephen Bruton. Thier collaboration and friendship led to the music selections for the upcoming Jeff Bridge’s movie about a down but not quite out country singer Crazy Heart. Burnett also mentions upcoming production duties with Jakob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Gregg Allman, Robert Randolph and John Mellencamp, and overseeing an all-star recording of music written by Mellencamp and horror-writer, and Americana music fan, Stephen King for “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” a play with music. And then there’s “Tough Trade,” a new series about three generations of country music stars, for which he’s serving as executive music producer. It’s set to premiere next year for EPIX, Viacom’s new multiplatform entertainment service. (LA Times)
Paramount Pictures has begun an open casting call to find a Caucasian girl between the ages of 12 and 16 to play the lead role of Mattie Ross in the upcoming Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of True Grit. (Cowboys and Indians blog)
A Christmas Present
A John Prine Christmas
To: Kate a Benefit for Kate’s Sake
:)
