• The Independent’s Simmy Richman writes an excellent article (Another Country: Why everything you thought you knew about cowboy music is wrong) on Britain’s relationship with Country Music and his own conversion to the genre by a common gateway, Gram Parsons.

• After the loss of Doug Sahm and  Freddy Fender, the future of the Texas Tornados was uncertain to say the least. Well Texas Music Matters has unveiled a new Texas Tornadoes cut, Who’s To Blame Senorita,written by Doug Sahm and his son Shawn. Shawn will also lend support to their new album, Esta Bueno,will be released March and is “…a collection of old sounds and new songs — with five previously unreleased vocal performances by Doug Sahm, new songs written by Fender, and a new song written by Doug and Shawn titled Who’s To Blame, Senorita?

• Marty Stuart officially announced the creation of the Mississippi Country Music Trail. the Trail will feature 30 markers celibrating a variety of country music artists, including Jimmie Rodgers, Charley Pride, Conway Twitty, Jerry Clower, Faith Hill, Tammy Wynette, Mac McAnally and Stuart himself.

• In another stoke of tone-deafness the Academy of Country Music has released their nominees for their 45th annual awards (April 18.) Nowhere in the Song Of the Year category will you find in one of the most popular (and good) songs sweeping awards outside of their narrow vision of mainstream country radio -  Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett’s Golden Globe -winning and Oscar nominated The Weary Kind from the great Jeff Bridges movie Crazy Heart. Hey ACM, do us all a favor and j ust give all the awards to Swift and put something else on in that time slot!

• Check out the “twitterview”  – a cute way of describing an interview conducted on twitter -  between TheBoot.com and Willie Nelson as was gearing up for his MySpace free secret concert in Maui, Hawaii.

• Speaking of the twitterverse (yeah, I’m gonna get mileage out of this), Charlie Robison won’t have to travel far to play a private living room concert for the winner of his twitter concert. The winner lives in Austin.

• The Grand Ole Opry will bring back it’s special Opry Country Classics program this fall for an eight-week run beginning Thurs., Sept. 10. Already scheduled to perform are Moe Bandy, Terri Clark, Jimmy Dickens, Larry Gatlin, Vince Gill, Jamey Johnson, George Jones, Ray Price, Joe Stampley, Marty Stuart, Mel Tillis, Pam Tillis, and Tanya Tucker.

• Rosanne Cash will be the subject of the Americana Music Association’s Festival and Conference 2009 Keynote Interview. The interview will be conducted by author/journalist Michael Streissguth – who has written books on Rosanne as well as her father Johnny, Eddy Arnold and others – will take place Thursday, September 17 from 10:45 until noon at the Nashville Convention Center.

• Jack Ingram established a new Guinness World Record – most radio interviews in a 24-hour period. Ingram was  promoting his new disc “Big Dreams & High Hopes.” Ingram recorded 215 radio interviews within 24 hours, hitting most of the 50 states, Canada, Ireland and Australia. The previous record was 96.

• Langhorne Slim’s forthcoming release is titled  Be Set Free (Kemado Records, Sept 29.) and containes this shimmery slice of heartache:  I Love You, But Goodbye  (I_Love_You_But_Goodbye.mp3). Check out Langhorne Slim’s MySpace page for more information and upcoming tour dates.

• Charlie Robison

• Willie Nelson premiered his new video covering Tom T. Hall’s Shoeshine Man (below) The song is not on his upcoming covers album American Classics so I have no idea whay he made this video, but he seems to be having a ball. The Texas Yoda has taken a page from the DIY codger goofing around in front of a video camera recently used by Neil Young for his video Fork in the Road.

• The Americana Music Association announced the lineup for its 2009 festival,  Sept. 16-19 at around several of  Nashville’s best venues – The Mercy Lounge, The Cannery Ballroom, 3rd & Lindsley, The Station Inn and The Basement.  On the roster is Cross Canadian Ragweed, Angela Easterling, Asleep at the Wheel, The Bottle Rockets, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Joe Pug, Charlie Robison, Marty Stuart, Patrick Sweany, Those Darlins and many more.

• Popmatters.com has posted an mp3 for Chain, a cut off Vic Chesnutt’s upcoming release At the Cut (Constellation) to be released 22 September (US)

• Randy Travis, Martina McBride and Ray Price join an International  line-up of over 60 International, UK and Irish acts performing on three separate stages at the UTV CountryFest ‘09  August 1st – 2nd  at the Kings Hall in Belfast.

Just when you needed more evidence that you’re getting old and aren’t accomplished very much I give you Ruby Jane.  Ruby is a 14 year old native Texan (born in Dallas, now resides in Austin) and is a premiere junior fiddler and a fast-rising star in country and bluegrass-Americana music scene.

She has shared the stage with Marty Stuart, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Asleep at the Wheel, Rhonda Vincent, Mike Snider, Jesse McReynolds, Jim Brock, James Monroe, Carl Jackson and Big & Rich (hey, a girls gotta make some bank!) In true old-school country entrepreneurial style  Ruby even has her own pancake mix for sale!  When not sawing wood and hawking flapjacks Ruby Jane is also an actress and a model Kids today and their virtuoso Blugrass playing!

• The fine folks at the 9513 brought to my attention the sorry news that Kris Kristofferson’s longtime guitarist Stephen Bruton has succumbed to throat cancer.

• More details on Stephen Bruton at Billboard.com.

• More sad news, Lynyrd Skynyrd Bassist Donald “Ean” Evan dies At 48 after a battle with cancer.

• Country music legends Charley Pride and Marty Stuart and bluesman Pinetop Perkins will headline the third annual Mississippi Grammy gala.

• Recycle your cell phones to support Nuci’s Space and get free merch coupons from the Drive-By Truckers official Store!

• The New York Times has a piece on Steve Earle and his course in recording his trubute to his mentor Texas singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt.

• Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt will appear on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight (2/4.)

• This morning the Country Music Association announced that Roy Clark, Barbara Mandrell and Charlie McCoy will become the 105th, 106th and 107th Country Music Hall of Fame members. The official induction will take place this spring, during the Hall’s Medallion Ceremony.

• No Depression has posted a track (Death Don’t Have No Mercy) from the upcoming release by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott A Stranger Here. The album will drop on April 7 via Anti- Records and was produced by Joe Henry

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott & Marty Stuart – Engine 143 – SXSW 2006 Hootenanny

If you’re like me and you want to see the The Marty Stuart Show, but your cable provider doesn’t offer RFD-TV, you can head over to the MSS YouTube page for some highlights. It is great to see my old family firnd Charlie Pride doing his classic Kiss an Angel Good Morning (below.)

Charlie Pride – Kiss an Angel Good Morning

Peter Cooper at the Tennessean.com posts a great piece on RFD TV network’s The Marty Stuart Show. Cooper reports that the country music legend Stuart modeled after The Porter Wagoner Show, The Wilburn Brothers Show, The Flatt & Scruggs Show. Pretty good company to keep and miles away from the pop fluff being crammed down our necks on GAC and CMT. I really hope more cable companies start to carry the  RFD TV network or that CMT has the good sense to pick up this jewel.

Riders in the Sky on The Marty Stuart Show

Earl Scruggs on The Marty Stuart Show

Postings have been slow going here at Ranch Twang. The holidays have me running like a headless chicken and my trips to Washington DC on my solid-gold private plane to ask for a bail out. Since I’m the only employee of Ranch Twang I’m none too happy about my audacious behavior while my job hangs in the balance. That check better be in the mail or Christmas presents are going to be as rare as hen’s teeth. But of the bail-out..er..rescue comes in time here, dear Twangers, is my shopping list:

At Folsom Prison Legacy Edition – Johnny Cash’s 1968 watershed concert is given the Legacy treatment with the inclusion of both of the days performances, One show at 9:40 in the morning and another at 12:40 in the afternoon – the first show was exclusively used for the official record. The performance was like an old-style showcase and all the performers are present – Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, Radio DJ Hugh Cherry and the Carter family. Also included is a documentary DVD featuring interviews with Roseanne Cash, Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart, and several former inmates who attended the famed concert.

Merle Haggard: Legendary Performances – A Shout! Factory and the Country Music Hall Of Fame produced DVD of many of the Hag’s vintage live performances such as “Branded Man” (Country Music Holiday,1968), “Mama Tried” (Billy Walker’s Country Carnival, 1968) and “Okie From Muskogee” (The Porter Wagoner Show, 1970).

Country Music: The Masters by Marty Stuart – A breathtaking scrapbook by singer/songwriter/musician and country music historian Marty Stuart has created the closest thing  to pressing the wild and beautiful soul of country music between two covers – Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe and more are candidly featured in Stuart’s own photos that span his 40 year career. The book somes with a CD including the song “Dark Bird,” an unreleased cut dedicated to Johnny Cash and written by Stuart after Cash’s death. There’s also a nice introduction from Boxmaster’s front man and actor Billy Bob Thornton.

Classic Christmas by George Strait – Who better to deliver your yule tides then the man with the pipes that could wrench away Bing Crosby’s hold as the voice of Christmas? “We Three Kings,” a playful “Up on the Housetop,” classics like “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing,” “Deck the Halls,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” Aa great album to listen to by the fire while putting a little whiskey in your egg nog.

And last, but certainly not least, premier roots and alt.country record labels Bloodshot Records (Justin Townes Earle, Ryan Adams, tge Old 97s) and Hyena Records (Dale Watson, Grayson Capps) and legendary alt.country/roots magazine (now web site) No Depression are all having a blowout holiday sale. Go clean ‘em out!

For all of you on the naughty list, look for the full Rascall Flatts catalogue in your stocking.

David Fricke  over at RollingStone.com has some noce things to say about the upcoming Hank Williams Unreleased Recordings box set – “…the 54 performances in this three-CD set pack a magical, concentrated immediacy that is, in its time and way, as electrifying as Johnny Cash’s Sixties prison shows or Bob Dylan’s early acoustic concerts. Williams’ nasally drawl is crisp and strong, like the young Dylan without the sandpaper; he holds the long, desolate notes in “Cool Water” with stunning force.”

Country Music legend Marty Stuart’s “Sparkle & Twang: An American Musical Odyssey“, an exhibit of four decades of rock, country, rockabilly, bluegrass, rhythm & blues and gospel music memorabilia from Stuart’s personal collection
will make its way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland from Oct. 30 through March 1. The 300 items, including musical instruments, stage clothing, handwritten lyrics and photographs. Among them are Hank Williams’ handwritten lyrics “Cold, Cold Heart” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart, Elvis Presley’s sweater worn in a photograph with Junior Parker, Johnny Cash’s first black suit from 1955 and handwritten lyrics for “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Man in Black,” Performance outfit worn by Bob Dylan, Clarence White of the Byrds’ blue leather suit, Pop Staples’ 1962 Fender Jazzmaster guitar and Marty Stuart’s first guitar and performance outfit, sewn by his mother.