Americanafest Video Round-Up

Americana Awards Finale

There’s just way too much to see when visiting Americanafest. That’s why God created smart phones. Here’s some great videos that fans uploaded.

I heard that Robert Ellis held an epic classic country rich performance at the legendary Robert’s Western Wear. Of course I heard about it the day after it happened. Good thing somebody tipped off Hayes Carll, J.P. Harris, Shelly Colvin, Josh Hedley, Johnny Fritz and Jim Lauderdale.

Sam Outlaw proved that classic country can still thrive in L.A.

The Avett Brothers show you never can get so big that you can’t bring it back to the basics.

Sturgill Simpson’s performance at the not quite opened City Winery was a hard get with a capacity RSVP list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUvE-GTiKiY

Plant and Griffin reunite (well, musically) for the Americana Awards.

It was Loretta Lynn’s night (rightly so) as he swept his categories.

Loretta Lynn. Nuff said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoA0y9aCgxU

The closing of the Americana Awards with Ry Cooder, Rosanne Cash, Jason Isbell, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller and others.

Loretta Lynn, Flaco Jiménez, Jackson Browne and Taj Mahal to Receive Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Awards

AMA Lifetime Achievement

Loretta Lynn, Flaco Jiménez, Jackson Browne and Taj Mahal have been selected to receive Lifetime Achievement Award winners to be presented at its 13th Annual Honors and Awards. The ceremony will take place on Wednesday, September 17 at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The show will be taped for air on PBS later this year in the Austin City Limits time slot and titled ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival 2014.

Jackson Browne will receive the “Spirit of Americana Award, Free Speech in Music” co-presented with the First Amendment Center. The Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting goes to country music legend Loretta Lynn. Texas tejano accordion master Flaco Jiménez will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award as an Instrumentalist.
The Lifetime Achievement in Performance will go to Grammy Award-winning blues luminary Taj Mahal.

The 15th annual Americana Music Festival & Conference will take place September 17-21, 2014 in Nashville, Tenn. Tickets for the Honors & Awards are only available with the purchase of a conference registration.

Purchase here.

Music Review: “Divided & United: The Songs of The Civil War” – Various Artists [ATO Records]

Divided & United: Songs of the Civil War

One of he bloodiest periods in American history, the Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression as it’s often referred to south of the Mason/Dixon,) left deep and lingering cultural wounds in the nation’s psyche. These scare are often picked at by the ignorant, the malicious and those depraved enough to exploit them for power.

It’s said that music as a healing and uniting force. I believe it can be. Like Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s 1972 watershed release, “Will the Circle be Unbroken, Movie soundtrack producer Randall Poster’s “Divided and United – Songs of the American Civil War” beings together generations of country and roots musicians to interpret’s songs from both sides of the conflict.

Legends abound on “Divided and United.” Loretta Lynn’s take on “Take Your Gun and Go, John” is a stark with Lynn’s accompanied by banjo and fiddle. Her Southern lilt put an odd twist on this popular Union call to arms.

Del McCoury and Ricky Skaggs conjure bluegrass magic on the lost love lament “Lorena” and the bloody tale of brothers-in-arms “Two Soldiers,” respectively.

New blood represents the past equal aplomb. Sam Amidon’s gives a spirited performance on Joseph Philbrick Webster’s 1860 composition “Wildwood Flower” and new Opry inductees Old Crow Medicine Show give passionate performance on the globally popular “Marching Through Georgia,” though their double-time conclusion would have troops marching right past their destination.

Dirk Powell and Steve Earle trade off dutifully on the “Just Before the Battle, Mother Farewell, Mother” and makes me wish that Earle would tackle more music in this vein. Vince Gill’s expressive voice brings out the innate melancholy of a drummer boy fatally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg on “For The Dear Old Flag, I Die.”

Charleston duo Shovels & Rope give a woozy ramshackle rendition of, naturally, “The Fall of Charleston.” John Doe’s cajun flair to “Tenting on the Old Camp Ground” and it’s ground-level account of loss and battle.

A collection like this wouldn’t be complete without the presence off T Bone Burnett, But instead of his usual shepherding of the effort he lends his halting voice to recounting the single bloodiest event in American history on “The Battle of Antietam.”

In many ways “Divided and United” tills the same ground as Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s 1972 watershed release, “Will the Circle be Unbroken.” Ages-old, deeply rooted, American music draws together generations in common reverence and celebration. This wonderful collection has the added dimension of addressing past scars and bringing just a little humility, understanding and empathy.

Buy

10 Country Music Awards Moments to Remind Us It Didn’t Always Suck

charlie-rich-envelope-john-denver-cma-1975

Remember when Loretta Lynne won CMA Awards with Loretta Lynn announced as Entertainer of the Year? How about when johnny Cash hosted the event.

Of course you don’t. It was decades ago and most of you weren’t even born yet.

There was a time that the Country Music Awards, like the industry and culture itself, had an edge and a spirit of danger. Performers would roll off a couch in a studio somewhere in town to accept their award. Sometimes they were drunk and looking for a fight. Below find some great moments from CMA history to help us steel through the glitter-choked tailgate party it’s become.

The one video I wanted o find most of all was one of Charlie Rich burning the piece of paper announcing John Denver as the Country Music Association “Entertainer of the Year” at the 1975 CMA Awards. Alas that little gem of industry spontaneity has been shut down.

Dolly Parton sneaks up on Randy Travis

Waylon Jennings performs “America” on what looks like an ’80’s CMA

CMA’s hosted by Johnny Cash in 1978
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkbBJE76KU0

Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge perform Me and Bobby McGee at the 1974 CMA Awards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fujhzkyYias

Sonny James and Bobby Goldsboro present the award for the Country Music Association Instrumentalist to Jerry Reed in 1971.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko39cIFowRY

1974 CMA Awards with Loretta Lynn announced as Entertainer of the Year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8370bQ5Izo

Willie Nelson Induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame by Johnny Cash at the 27th CMA Awards 1993
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMrh7aPaagg

Alison Krauss & Union Station performs ‘My Poor Old Heart’ on the 2005 CMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuGJaU25ZIA

1968 Country Music Awards with an induction of Bob Wills into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Skip over the insipid performance by Bobby Goldsboro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BYNuPL0Te4

In 1999 George Jones, recovering from a near-fatal car accident, was nominated for Single of the Year for his autobiographical ballad “Choices.”
CMA executives asked Jones to sing a shortened version of the nominated song, but he opted to stay home as a sign of his protest against the request.
Alan Jackson showed class and reverence for Jones worked “Choices” into the last portion of his scheduled performance of his current single, “Pop A Top.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_WmbAek0-4

Listen Up! Willie Nelson – “Grandma’s Hands” featuring Mavis Staples

Willie-Nelson-To-All-The-Girls

Willie Nelson just doesn’t know the meaning of quit. The Texas Yoda took time from his extensive (some might say grueling) touring schedule to enter the studio with some of his favorite female singers for a duets album entitled ‘To All The Girls….’ (Oct. 15 on Legacy Recordings.)

Nelson features his talented daughter Paula Nelson, as well as legends like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Roseanne Cash and newcomers Secret Sisters, Norah Jones, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert.

Also representing the legend status is Mavis Staples. She and Nelson do a smooth version of Bill Withers’ deeply personal “Grandma’s Hands.” Besides Withers the song has been previously covered by Mavis’ own legendary family gospel group, The Staple Singers.

Preorder the album here.

To All The Girls track list:

1. Dolly Parton — From Here To The Moon And Back
2. Miranda Lambert — She Was No Good For Me
3. Secret Sisters — It Won’t Be Very Long
4. Rosanne Cash — Please Don’t Tell Me
5. Sheryl Crow — Far Away Places
6. Wynonna Judd — Bloody Mary Morning
7. Carrie Underwood — Always On My Mind
8. Loretta Lynn — Somewhere Between
9. Alison Krauss — No Mas Amor
10. Melonie Cannon — Back To Earth
11. Mavis Staples — Grandma’s Hands
12. Norah Jones — Walkin’
13. Shelby Lynne — Til The End Of The World
14. Lily Meola — Will You Remember Mine
15. Emmylou Harris — Dry Lightning
16. Brandi Carlile — Making Believe
17. Paula Nelson — Have You Ever Seen The Rain
18. Tina Rose — After The Fire Is Gone

Steve Earle, Loretta Lynn, Shovels & Rope, Dolly Parton and Others Featured On Commemorative Civil War Tribute Album

ATO Records

Now this is something special.

This fall, ATO Records, and music supervisor Randall Poster (‘Moonrise Kingdom,’ ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ ‘Rave On Buddy Holly’) will release ‘Divided & United,’ a two-disc set of Civil War songs freshly interpreted by lends and newcomers of country, bluegrass, folk and Americana like Contributions from Old Crow Medicine Show, A.A. Bondy, Taj Mahal, T. Bone Burnett, Ashley Monroe, Steve Earle, Shovels & Rope, Dolly Parton, Cowboy Jack Clement and others (No, The Civil Wars oddly not represented)

The collection celebrates music deeply rooted in American history in tribute to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Fresh interpretations of period parlor songs, spirituals, abolition and minstrel numbers. the songs hold a mirror to the past and explores themes of race, identity and reconciliation while reflecting contemporary issues.

Loretta Lynn’s rendition of “Take Your Guns and Go, John,” (below) is a beautifully spare, earnest version of the traditional detailing a man off to war.

“I had such a great time recording this song for this album,” Lynn tells Rolling Stone. “I loved the song and sound of that banjo, played by Bryan Sutton, made me feel I was back on the front porch in Kentucky where I came from. Glad to be a part of this record.”

‘Divided & United’ also features an essay by noted musician, filmmaker and historian John Cohen, who writes: “This record aspires to erase the legacy of segregation and through music seeks reconciliation instead, in order to celebrate a great musical heritage of America, born in pain, war and prejudice.”

Disc 1
1. Take Your Gun and Go, John – Loretta Lynn
2. Lorena – Del McCoury
3. Wildwood Flower – Sam Amidon
4. Hell’s Broke Loose In Georgia – Bryan Sutton
5. Two Soldiers – Ricky Skaggs
6. Marching Through Georgia – Old Crow Medicine Show
7. Dear Old Flag – Vince Gill
8. Just Before the Battle, Mother/ Farewell, Mother – Steve Earle and Dirk Powell
9. The Fall Of Charleston – Shovels & Rope
10. Tenting on the Old Campground – John Doe
11. Day Of Liberty – Carolina Chocolate Drops
12. Richmond Is a Hard Road to Travel – Chris Thile and Michael Daves
13. Two Brothers – Chris Stapleton
14. The Faded Coat Of Blue – Norman Blake, Nancy Blake and James Bryan
15. Listen to the Mockingbird – Stuart Duncan feat. Dolly Parton
16. Kingdom Come – Pokey Lafarge

Disc 2
1. Rebel Soldier – Jamey Johnson
2. The Legend of the Rebel Soldier – Lee Ann Womack
3. The Mermaid Song – Jorma Kaukonen
4. Dixie – Karen Elson with Secret Sisters
5. The Vacant Chair – Ralph Stanley
6. Hard Times – Chris Hillman
7. Down By the Riverside – Taj Mahal
8. Old Folks at Home/ The Girl I Left Behind Me – Noam Pikelny & David Grisman
9. Secesh – The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band
10. The Battle of Antietam – T Bone Burnett
11. Pretty Saro – Ashley Monroe
12. Aura Lee – Joe Henry
13. Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier – AA Bondy
14. When Johnny Comes Marching Home – Angel Snow
15. Battle Cry of Freedom – Bryan Sutton
16. Beautiful Dreamer – Cowboy Jack Clement

5 Americana & Country Music Christmas Albums – The Nice List

Not too be cynical, but Christmas albums are often little more than a money grab from big artists.They 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.

americanachristmas-cover-300dpi

An Americana Christmas
is a rootsy 16 song mix of classic Christmas songs and brand new holiday recordings from country and Americana legends, like John Prine, Johnny Cash and Dwight Yoakam, and some new guns Ronnie Fauss and Nikki Lane. This is a nicely balanced CD to sip your nog to.

 

 

 

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.

Twang Nation Podcast Episode 9 – Rodney Hayden, The Pollies, Jason Isbell, Dillon Hodges and Doc Dailey

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)

 

Pretending to be Legends

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.

 

Music Legend Levon Helm Succumbs to Cancer

“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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxenRRQGlt0

:(:)