Tag Archives: San-Francisco

Drive By Truckers/The Hold Steady Contest

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Live in the San Francisco area? Want to see the Drive By Truckers and The Hold Steady on their “Rock and Roll Means well” tour when it comes through the legendary Fillmore theater on Sunday, November 23rd? Hell, sure you do. You’re not CRAZY!

Just send an email to holler(at)twangnation.com (replace the (at) with an @). type “Drive By Truckers/ The Hold Steady Contest” in the subject field, and tell us why we should choose you to go to this amazing show. The best reason will receive a pair of tickets. Be sure to send your mailing address so we can send you the tickets if you win. Good luck!

Hang Jones and Band of Annuals at Hotel Utah, Earl Pickens and Family to Perform “The Country-Fried Joshua Tree”

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It’s Friday night and I’m still sober so I’m gonna get a couple of show announcements out here before things take a bad turn…

My good friend Hang Jones (AKA Stephen Grillos) will be playing Hotel Utah here in beautiful San Francisco Tuesday next 10/21st at 9pm. Hang will be sharing the stage with Utah’s Band of Annuals. This is a show not to be missed so grab the Missus, crank over the Fury and head on into town to catch this.
This next show seems so brazen that I was sure it was going to be a car wreck, but the YouTube video convinced me otherwise. Earl Pickens and Family will perform “The Country-Fried Joshua Tree” Saturday, November 1st at Cherry Alley Cafe (c’mon Cherry Alley! Get a damn web site I can link to!)  in Lewisburg, PA at 7 PM. Jessie Yamas, Bruce W. Derr, Bob Albin, Jake Kline and Earl will perform an acoustic, countrified rendition of the classic U2 album The Joshua Tree, in its entirety. Yeah, I know that’s what I thought…

    Cherry Alley Cafe
    21 N. 3rd Street / Lewisburg, PA
    Tickets $8, $5 for students
    tickets available at Cherry Alley Cafe
    You out-of-towners can buy tickets for the Country Fried Joshua Tree show by mail if you so desire. Send a check, made out to Earl Pickens, to PO Box 82, Lewisburg, PA 17837. Shoot Earl an email at earl@earlpickens.com letting him know that you’re ordering by mail.

    Earl Pickens and Family – Where The Streets Have No Name

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tin4_L9WLCE[/youtube]

    Elliot Randall – Take the Fall (self released)

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    Elliott Randall is a man to watch.

    Randall, not Elliott Randall the ex-Steely Dan guitarist best known for his guitar solos on Reelin’ in the Years, but the Bay area by-way-of Charleston, South Carolina, alt.country rocker has a lot going for him. On first listen it’s easy to be lazy and compare Elliot Randall’s superb release “Take the Fall” (self released) to some of Ryan Adams best work.

    For instance take the melancholy slide-guitar and Rhodes keyboard steeped “Elephant” and the soul-wrenching title track, Randall sounds much like he’s channeling Adams more soulful moments. But Randall is his own man and as an artist he’s in many ways more focused in his compositions than Adams has been of recent. “How to Get Old” is a damn fine song that could have come from Uncle Tupelo with little mainstream Nashville hook added in to sweeten the experience. It works skillfully and without coming off as sterile and contrived. More Early Guy Clark storytelling than Kenny Chesney clichés.

    Barn-burning rave-ups like Don’t Give Up On Me” and “Leaving This Town” show that the man can get a room moving when he wants to.

    A recent feature on an Americana Roots podcast, Randall straddles the country and rock worlds proficiently and his work sounds both timeless and fresh.