Tag Archives: Lucinda-Williams

Americana Music Association’s Honors and Award to be Televised on Austin City Limits

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

The 10th annual Americana Music Association’s Honors and Award Show at the Ryman Auditorium will be broadcast live Thursday October 13th on Nashville Public Television.  Confirmed to attend include Jim Lauderdale, Robert Plant, Lucinda Williams, Gregg Allman, Elizabeth Cook,  Hayes Carll, The Secret Sisters, Justin Townes Earle, Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Civil Wars and many more.

An edited version of the award show will be aired November 19, 2011 as a special episode of the new season of the highly-acclaimed PBS series Austin City Limits,  (check local listings for exact local day and time). “ACL PRESENTS: AMERICANA MUSIC FESTIVAL 2011″ will reach approximately 98% of American TV households via PBS stations nationwide.

“It was time to bring the Americana Honors to another level,” said Jed Hilly Executive Director of the Americana Music Association. “We could not have better partners in Nashville Public Television President and CEO Beth Curley for our Middle Tennessee premiere and Austin City Limits Executive Producer Terry Lickona to take this to a national audience.”

The program, described by Emmylou Harris as “the shining star of Nashville and music everywhere,” will be filmed by High Five Entertainment and co-produced by its President Martin Fischer along with Lickona, Courtney Gregg, Holly Lowman and Hilly.

The Honors and Award Show is the capstone event of the Americana Music Festival and Conference presented by Nissan that will take place October 12-15, 2011 in Nashville, TN.  A limited number of tickets are available at ryman.com.  For more information go to americanamusic.org

New Compilation Unheard Hank Williams Songs To Be To Be Released

Posted on by — 4 Comments ↓

Rollingstione.com posts that a compilation of unheard Hank Williams songs will be released on October 4th. The songs come from a rescued from notebooks of  lyrics and song ideas  left behind in a leather briefcase by Williams after he died in 1953 at the age of 29. These notes and fragments were then finished by the 13 artists who contributed to the disc. These artists include Americana music and rock music greats – Bob Dylan (who’s  imprint Egyptian Records is putting out the album)  Levon Helm, Alan Jackson, Lucinda Williams, Merle Haggard and, and this is where my concern arises, Jack White . Norah Jones and Sheryl Crow. What? Was Kid Rock busy?

And though William’s granddaughter Holly Williams is included where is her brother Hank Williams III? For that matter where is Bocephus?  I would have scratched the last three, who are here for sales purposes only, and added new traditionalists like Wayne Hancock and Joey Allcorn that truly reflect the spirit of ol’ Hank.

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

 

 

Tom Russell – Mesabi

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Tom Russell has always been a pioneer, a wander expanding his territory of influences.  The L.A. native now calls the border town of El Paso home and there is much Tex-Mex grounding in his ventures. The title song from his upcoming Mesabi starts with an spare acoustic but then swings into full band including mariachi-style trumpet. The sonic imagery that greatly influences Russell is the narritive here as a  Mexican kid hears  Buddy Holly, Howling Wolf, Ritchie Valens, polkas and dreams of being a troubadour. To make things intereting there’s even a dash of The Who’s  Baba O’riley in there if you listen

Tom Russell’s new album, ‘Mesabi’, out 9/6. The album features Calexico, Van Dyke Parks and Lucinda Williams.

 

 

Mesabi_Tom Russell.mp3

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUH2SDjwa0g[/youtube]

Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Nominees Announced

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

From the Gibson/Baldwin Showroom in New York City local resident and legendary Americana performer Rosanne Cash announced the 2011 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards nominees. The announcement was followed by performances by New/Emerging Artist of the Year nominee and  The Civil Wars and an all-star set by Levon Helm,  Jim Lauderdale and Rosanne Cash (who tweeted that she was brought to tears by the event) which included The Band’s The Weight.

As in years past the nominees are a well-known safe bets with few surprises and tends towards the NPR-side of the Americana fence. No need to look for Whitey Morgan or Rachel Brooke here.

The Nashville -based trade organization moved toward the mainstream with the nominations of Grey’s Anatomy favorites Mumford and Sons and the Civil Wars, the later also aided to stardom by being heralded by no less than Taylor Swift and Boy George. Good for them, despite the mainstream success, these bands are actually great and will find longevity in the Americana community. Both are each nominated for both New/Emerging Artist and Duo/Group of the Year.

The AMA displayed spunk in nominating the extraordinary Elizabeth Cook the Album of the Year field for her latest Welder, Song of the Year nomination for the flash-back country-funk El Camino and Artist of the Year against some limey bloke named Robert Plant.

Recent New/Emerging Artist of the Year honorees Justin Townes Earle and Hayes Carll are each up for Album of the Year for Harlem River Blues (along with Song of the Year for the album’s title track) and Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for Kmag Yoyo respectively.

The Civil Wars and Mumford and Sons each earned nominations in both the New/Emerging Artist and Duo/Group of the Year categories, while Buddy Miller also secured two nods: Artist and Instrumentalist of the Year.

Album of the Year category also includes Lucinda Williams’ Blessed, and the  Song of the Year category includes The Decemberists featuring Gillian Welch’s “Down by the Water. And Mumford and Sons GRAMMY-stage mates The Avett Brothers are up for Duo/Group of the Year—which the band won in 2010. Sarah Jarosz, Will Kimbrough, Gurf Morlix and Kenny Vaughan all  will compete for Instrumentalist of the Year.

The 10th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, October 13 at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville as part of the 11th Annual Americana Festival and Conference October 12 through Saturday, October 15.

The complete list for Americana Music Association Honors and Nominees:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Band of Joy, Robert Plant
Welder, Elizabeth Cook
Harlem River Blues, Justin Townes Earle
Blessed, Lucinda Williams

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Buddy Miller
Elizabeth Cook
Hayes Carll
Robert Plant

NEW/EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR
The Civil Wars
Mumford And Sons
The Secret Sisters
Jessica Lea Mayfield

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Avett Brothers
The Civil Wars
Mumford And Sons
Robert Plant and the Band Of Joy

SONG OF THE YEAR
Decemberists with Gillian Welch- “Down By The Water”
Elizabeth Cook – “El Camino”
Hayes Carll – “Kmag Yoyo”
Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues”

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Buddy Miller
Gurf Morlix
Kenny Vaughan
Sarah Jarosz
Will Kimbrough

 

 

Concert Review: Gurf Morlix Pays Tribute to Blaze Foley

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

Gurf Morlix and the traveling Blaze Foley road-show rolled through San Francisco last night in the Amnesia. The Mission district bar was packed and it house showed a strong interest local interest in the current Austin-based Americana legend and David Fuller aka Blaze Foley, an until recently forgotten homeless, drunken singer/songwriting that could pen transcendentally lovely and aching songs that was tragically killed at 39 while protecting an elderly friend.

The event opened with Kevin Triplett, the producer and director of the documentary Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah,  setting up a projector and handling the remote control, all in the true DIY spirit in which he took the 12 years that it took to make the film. Family, friends, fellow songwriters -  including Mr. Morlix – and a past love, Sybil Rosen, who was on hand to read from her biography with her life with Foley  Living in the Woods in a Tree, , make appearances in this edited version of the doc to tell the extraordinary tale of a peculiar man who moved in the 70s and 80s Austin singer/songwriting circles along with Morlix as well as Lucinda Williams and Townes Van Zandt who were all friends with Foley and posthumously wrote songs about him.

Morlix then took the stage to sing songs from Foley that appear on his latest and great release Blaze Foley’s 113th Wet Dream. The room remained mostly silent as Morlix with a single parlor guitar performed song after song with palatable reverence – If I Could Only Fly, Cold Cold World, Clay Pigeons…each one making you wonder how Foley couldn’t see fame and fortune in his lifetime even with high profile artists like John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covering his songs (the latter taking the time to praise Foley in the film.) But as the documentary made clear as Foley followed his muse, and rejected material comforts in that pursuit, oftentimes caused him to alienate people and undermine his own career.

Gurf Morlix Official Site | Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah official site

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxUDRB5jRU&feature=player_embedded#at=132[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRkYTBERTvE&feature=related[/youtube]

Music Review – Lucinda Williams – Blessed [Lost Highway]

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

It’s a staple of the blues mythos that things are bad and bound to get worse – Born under a bad sign, Born to Lose, Ain’t No Luck But Bad Luck… yeah, not a lot of sunshine on this side of the street.

Since moving to L.A. and marrying her manager, Tom Overby, on stage after a Minneapolis, Minn. concert in a nod to the late Hank Williams (no relation)- who married his second wife, Billie Jean, on stage in New Orleans – the Queen of Americana Music has seemed more satisfied of late and, dare I say, happy.

Williams catalog, like the great songs from country and blues music, is full of great songs about lost or unrequited love, but happiness? How does that work?

On her 9th studio album, Blessed Williams’ proves it can work quite well. The album opener Born To Be Loved is a tender blues number of affirmations. “You weren’t born to be abandoned. You weren’t born to be forsaken, you were born to be loved.” Williams world-weary voice and great immediacy of Producer Don Was and musical accompaniment drains any sap that might have crept into the song Buttercup is a barn burner that continues analogous caparisons with love and the natural world that was part of her last release Little Honey.

Not that everything has been rosy in her life; Williams saw the death of her longtime manager Frank Callari and the suicide of musical contemporary Vic Chesnutt, but the respective odes to these lost friends, the Wicked Game-slink of  Copenhagen and the rocking Seeing Black take these difficult topics and reflects on them with maturity and grace.

This approach is also applied to Soldier’s Song , a statement on war told as a shifting narrative from the killing fields to Main Street. It’s striking in how Williams finds from the poignant to normality and back again to heartbreaking conclusion.

I Don’t Know How You’re Livin’ is a song of devotion and faith that rolls on waves of pedal steel and slide guitar and Convince Me simmers with a longing  from the narrator that succinctly sets the tone for the records, and Lucinda Williams new direction overall. She’s seems be be hopeful by creating songs that direct us toward, if not outright deliver at our feet, hope.

Buy | Official Site

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrN9Wgh5Aic&feature=related[/youtube]

News Round Up: The Dixie Chicks Featured on Steve Martin’s Upcoming Album

Posted on by — No Comments ↓
  • The Dixie Chicks are featured on Steve Martin’s upcoming bluegrass album “Rare Bird Alert”! You can pre-order the album now on Steve’s website before the record comes out on March 15th.
  • You can stream Lucinda Williams new album Blessed in full at NPR.
  • Louisville, KY-based Americana/ roots band Slithering Beast will release new EP called “Delicious” coming out next week (2/27). For one week from release day the EP will be available for free from the band’s site. On Saturday, March 5th there will be an official CD release party at Ear X Tacy records in Louisville, Kentucky and  the record will be for sale through CD Baby, iTunes and  local retailers.

Lucinda Williams To Release New Album – Blessed

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

On March 1, the first lady of Americana Lucinda Williams will release Blessed, her first album since 2008’s GRAMMY nominated Honey. The record is produced by Don Was, and, according to American Songwriter, “features some of Williams’ strongest writing to date.” Blessed will also be available in a deluxe edition, which will include a bonus disc of the album in demo form, called The Kitchen Tapes.
Shortly after the album’s release, Williams will hit the road. Dates so far:

March
4-5 – Toronto @ Massey Hall
11-12 – New York @ Webster Hall
May
5 – New Orleans, La. @ New Orleans Jazz Festival
7 – Austin, Texas @ Stubb’s
8 – Houston, Texas @ The Houston International Festival

News Round Up: Lucinda Williams Tweets New Album Title

Posted on by — No Comments ↓
  • Lucinda Williams took to Twitter to announce the title of her forthcoming album. Continuing her recent theme of happiness and matrimonial bliss the title will be Blessed. I guess Lou got her Joy back.
  • Ms. Lucinda and other notable Americana music folks, Drive By Truckers, Todd Snider, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Rhett Miller, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Hayes Carll, became animated to appear in a special musical episode of Cartoon Network’s cartoon centered on hillbilly cephalopods -  Squidbillies.
  • Folk singer-songwriter Ana Egge has tapped Steve Earle as producer for her seventh solo album. The album will be recorded in Woodstock, New York in the fall to record at Levon Helm Studio.
  • Moody-Old time Americana band Black Prairie (a side project for three members of the Decemberists and other notable Portland, OR. musicians) has recently released two new songs they are giving away for free.

The Blackest Crow

Turn It Into Gold

Todd Snider, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Rhett Miller, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Hayes Carll

Second Annual No Depression Festival Line-Up Announced

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

No Depression magazine (and now web site), the go-to authority for roots and Americana music for 15 years, has announced the line-up for their second annual No Depression Festival, and it’s a peach! The Swell Season, Lucinda Williams, The Cave Singers, Alejandro Escovedo, Chuck Prophet, Punch Brothers and Sera Cahoone. The fun starts on Aug. 21, 2010, at Marymoor Park  in Redmond, Wash. Pre-sale tickets are available 10 a.m. Thursday 4/29 until 10 p.m. Friday 4/30 (password: HAPPY). Tickets will be available to the general public beginning 10 a.m. May 1.

If you order your tickets in the presale, email your confirmation to info at nodepression dot com to be entered in a drawing for a special No Depression prize package. Three winners will be chosen at random and will win a No Depression t-shirt, tote bag, anthology, and stickers.