• Happy birthday to Willie Nelson’s longtime drummer and the “Paul” of the Willie’s song “Me and Paul,” Paul English.  Happy birthday also to legendary Texas singer/songwriter Guy Clark.

• The latest installment of Popmatter.com’s excellent Torch & Twang series Juli Thanki delivers a post exploring ithe intersecting careers of bluegrass legend  Bill Monroe and musician and folklorist Ralph Rinzler.

• I’m a long time fan of Libertyville, Illinois rocker Ike Reilly. So when I read over at the fine 9513.com that Reilly was teaming up with on-and-off country outlaw 2.0 Shooter Jennings for the song The War On The Terror and Drugs (from Reilly’s upcoming release Hard Luck Stories) I was intrigues. Turns out it’s damn fine! (Song Illinois)

• Front Porch Musings is offering a sweet playlist from performers playing the Americana-by-way-of-punk showcase showcase The Revival Tour.Featured are Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Jim Ward (At the Drive-In, Sparta), Frank Turner (Million Dead), and much more.

• Country, roots, Americana- as the rest of us are grappling with nomenclature (fancy word for names) for music, George Jones uses his old-guard status to reclaim flag and call Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift “not country music.”
  

• Austin’s Band Of Heathens are tearing up the (Americana) charts with their new release One Foot in the Ether.

I am briefly interrupting my New Mexico rehabilitation…er..vacation to ponder the rumor around the iterwebs that Shooter Jennings has given up country music to focus on his new band called Hierophant. An ancient Greek term the role of the hierophant in religion is to bring the congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy. Hierophant has been described as John Lennon meets Radiohead.

Jenning’s website features a clock radio with the band name and the words “Wake Up!”

It is rumored that Jennings was “..tired of being something he’s not.” So based on this new band description what is he? A British experimental pop musician?

I don’t know if the abandoning country music rumor is true, but after listening to his latest studio release “The Wolf” and with the release this month of a Shooter Jennings Greatest Hits (after only three albums!) I have to acknowledge that his heart sure doesn’t see to be in it anymore.

Let’s just hope that Hierophant is better than Stargunn was.

• The first track from Bob Dylan’s forthcoming release, Together Through Life, has been posted as a  free download on BobDylan.com. Seriously, you don’t have to enter an email address or anything. Titled  Beyond Here Lies Nothin, the song features Mike Campbell from Tom Petty’ Heartbreakers on guitar. The release will be available for  free from midnight, March 30th through midnight, March 31st.  Together Through Life will be released on Columbia Records on April 28th.

• Dyman’s Rolling Thunder camapdre Ramblin’ Jack Elliott will revisit neighborhoods he used to frequent with the likes of Jack Kerouac and Dylan in the 1950s and ‘60s when he plays a special show at the Highline Ballroom in New York City on May 13th.   The 77 year old Elliott is making a number of select appearances in support of his upcoming release A Stranger Here, available April 7th on ANTI- Records.  Produced by Joe Henry (Bettye LaVette, Solomon Burke, Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint), A Stranger Here is a collection of carefully chosen pre-WWII blues songs, re-crafted with backing by legendary Los Angeles session musicians such as Van Dyke Parks and David Hidalgo.

• I saw the Shooter Jennings and Jamey Johnson Crossroads on CMT the other night and was duly impressed. They were like a couple of old friends sharing a HUGE bottle of Jack and talking country music history in reverence and passionate tones it deserves. As I currently enjoy Johnson’s exellent That Lonesome Song, I wonder when Shooter will release anything that reaches the excellence of Put The O Back In Country. In the meantime we get an inexplicable “Greatest Hits” (Bad Magick: The Best of Shooter Jennings – March 24) after three studio release and a live album (which is the same as a greatest hit IMO.)

• In more Shooter news, Ted Russell Kamp has taken time from his main gig as the .357’s bass player to release his newest solo album Poor Man’s Paradise which was recorded in  Ted’s living room, Shooter’s tour bus & countless hotel rooms across America. Kamp a great instrumentalist, a sharp dresser and a great guy. Go give him a listen.

• In honor of today’s release of Sony Legacy’s Naked Willie you can head over to Go!Animate and create your own Willie Nelson cartoon n the persona of the Redheaded Stranger, Super Willie, Naked Willie (natch) , Willie harmonica player (and Naked willie producer) Mickey Raphael and a horse named Stardust.

• Universal South is releasing a wholly unnecessary Shooter Jennings Greatest Hits album, Bad Magick,  album on March 24th. Really? A “greatest hits?” Shooter has 3 studio and one live album, and a live album is a gretest hits album. Rumor is that this is the labels, not Shooter’s decision and ythat he is now done with his contract and shopping for a new label. Maybe he and Tim McGraw can start a label called “They Done Me Wrong Records.”

• Santa Cruz, California’s own Devil Makes Three will release Do Wrong Right to be released April 21st.  Go catch them this week at South-By-Southwest Mar 18 at Lovejoys (5:00pm) and  Mar 21 2009 at Submerged   (8:00pm)

• Tuscaloosa, Alabama’s own Dexateens will release their new album Singlewide on May 12th.   Singlewide was recorded in Nashville with veteran engineer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Calexico and the Silver Jews.) Their peculiar video for the song John Smith is below.

• Shooter Jennings and Jamey Johnson will collaborate on the next episode of CMT Crossroads, to be aired March 23.  The show will be taped in Nashville later this month before an invitation-only audience. CMT Crossroads pair country artists with musicians from other genres to great effect – Bonnie Raitt with Lyle Lovett and  Steve Earle with Rosanne Cash (which I had the good fortune to attend) come to mind. Sometimes they lead to a longer term effort like Robert Plant with Alison Krauss. It’d be interesting to see what a longer term partnership of  Jennings and Johnson might bring.

• The Dallas Morning News’ Jeff Mosier reports that George Strait, along with Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton and Julianne Hough, will lead a lineup for June 6 concert to christen Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium in Arlington, TX.  Let’s hope some of that Strait mojo works some magic on Tony Romo’s arm and Terrell Owens’ ego.

• It Burns When I Pee, the only podcast covering the cutting edge and proud tradition of country music, will be streaming their show live tonight (7:30pm CST) and showing us how the sausage is made. And yes, that is a lewd comment directed towards Norma Jean. The final gussied up and edited edition will be available  on Jan 23rd which will feature an interview and music by Bob Wayne.

• George Clinton, leader of the psychedelic funk music collective Parliament Funkadelic, is one of the celebrities participating in this season ofCMT’s  Gone Country 3.  Says Clinton: “I wanted to do Gone Country because I wanted to learn how to write country songs. I’ve written a lot of songs before, but I’ve never been validated as country, not even to myself. I’m country. I am a country boy. Johnny Cash, I like his songwriting. I used to watch Roy Clark and all them all the time — Chet Atkins and all those guys are really good songwriters. The lyrics for country songs are miles and miles ahead of almost anybody else’s lyrics. I guess everybody would agree there’s no comparison to it. I’m pretty sure I’ve got to do something that’s pretty challenging. I try not to imagine what it is, so when it happens I’ll just say I don’t have no time to do nothing but get off my ass and do it. I’m funky about doing whatever it takes.” I might have to actually watch it this season in spite of the homophobic midget host John Rich.

• Mercury Nashville is set to release an LP version of Jamey Johnson’s Grammy nominated album That Lonesome Song on January 27.  Since That Lonesome Song was released, it has spent 8 weeks in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums Chart and has appeared on numerous 2008 Top-10 lists (including mine.)

• Ryan Adams has announced a musical hiatus citing health issues and “narcissistic over-indulgent behaviour” as the reason. Really!? Who knew? In all seriousness, I hope Adams finds peace of mind in his reprieve.  (guardian.co.uk)

• Shooter Jennings talks about to NPR World Cafe host David Dye about Waylon Forever, a collection of songs Shooter recorded with his dad Waylon Jennings in 1995. Shooter then revisited the material with his backing band, The .357s.

• Joe Whyte is back with his band at the Rockwood on inauguration Tuesday. Aang great show will be had by all: Rockwood Music Hall
  196 Allen St., NYC – 8pm – FREE

• New York blues guitarist Popa Chubby is readying his foray into country music entitled Vicious Country. The release features his wife Galea on bass. Below is a video shot at New York’s Rodeo Bar of Popa Chubby covering Hank Williams III’s song Straight to Hell.

• At the insistence of his family and personal physician, country music legend Merle Haggard had a malignant tumor removed from his lung Monday at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. Our thoughts are with the Hag and his family and here’s to a speedy recovery.

• NPR’s All Things Considered has a post on the Waylon and Shooter Jennings collaboration album Waylon Forever which they report “honors the outlaw legacy of Waylon Jennings. Shooter and his band complete the songs with the right combination of Southern rock with a Black Sabbath chaser. Waylon, who loved all kinds of music and even palled around with Metallica, would no doubt approve.”

• If you’re in the San Francisco area tomorrow night (11/6) head over to Amnesia (853 Valencia St.) for the Hang Jones CD Release Party

A great conversation by a couple of bonafide country music outlaws reminiscing about the good old days. From the piece:

JENNINGS: Nashville’s never going to change. They’re always going to be the same. They play by the rules. And it’s all still a pop thing. Nashville controlled it in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. It was just the reckless people that did it their own way that broke out [into the mainstream].

COE: The greatest example of that is Charlie Rich. Charlie Rich was just coming off of Behind Closed Doors, which was the biggest fuckin’ record. And if you went up by Sony Records, they would tell you-you couldn’t walk in a building, you know. Because Charlie was in the building, they had the doors locked. Security had to check you out first before you could get in the building. Then they had the awards show. And he was supposed to read the winner of male vocalist of the year. And he just opened the envelope and read it and took his fuckin’ lighter out and set it on fire.

JENNINGS: When John Denver won.

COE: Yeah. He refused to announce this guy as male vocalist of the year. And I thought it was the greatest fuckin’ thing I ever saw in my life. And you know what? You never heard Charlie Rich’s name again ever. That’s how powerful that town is. I just think music should be good or bad, period.

• Hearya.com has posted four great live cuts from Justin Townes Earle. The cuts are “Lone Pine Hill,” “Who Am I To Say,”
  “Your Biscuits Are Big Enough For Me” and “Turn Out My Lights.” The session was recorded along with his live show
  accompaniment and friend Cory Younts.
• Tickets for the July 5, 2008 Hootenanny in Orange County CA are on sale now.Some of the artists scheduled to appear are Mike Ness,BR549’s Chuck Mead,Royal Crown Revue, Cadillac Tramps, Grant Lee Phillips, Big Sandy, James Intveld, Guana Batz, Throw Rag, Blood on the Saddle, Roger Allen Wade, Russel Scott, Powerflex 5, Chris Schiflet, Dusty Rhodes, Rickey Warwick, Sh*tkickers, Hellbound Hayride and Wil Ridge
• Aquarium Drunkard has a great post on a two-volume Dirty Laundry compilation that rounds up a collection of black country-soul cuts from the sixties and seventies. Samples offered are James Brown doing Hank Williams’ “Your Cheating Heart” and Bettye Swann doing  “Just Because You Can’t Be Mine.”
• CMT’s Unplugged at Studio 330 has Shooter Jennings playing some cuts off his latest release The Wolf.”

Charlie Daniels has invited Shooter Jennings to open a series of Daniels’ Volunteer Jam concerts this year. April 11-12 in Harris, Mich. the bill also features .38 Special (which includes Donnie Van Zant, of the country duo Van Zant.)

The origial Volunteer Jam took place in 1972 was suppose to a one-off showcase of Daniel’s friend’s which just happed to be the best Southern Rock bands of the time which including the Allman Brothers Band and the Marshall Tucker Band.