Tonight we sail on a radio song – Tom Petty Tributes

Tom Petty’s music appealed to anyone who loved thoughtful and superbly performed songs, but he held a special place in the hearts of Americana and roots artists. In the wake of his untimely death of cardiac arrest last Monday, there was an outpouring of tributes from his contemporaries and acolytes. Here are some I’ve collected and will add more as I come across them.

Know one? Let me know in the comments below.

Walk off the Earth – ‘You Don’t Know How It Feels’ – Just happened across this brilliant cover by Canada’s Walk off the Earth. Sit back and enjoy.

One person that best exemplifies a contemporary version of roots rock Petty helped establish is Jason Isbell. Here’s Isbell and the 400 Unit tearing through “Refugee” on the first night of their 6-night sold-out run at The Ryman Auditorium. Auditorium – October 9th, 2017
https://youtu.be/nei56RLiFRc

Heres Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit performing “You Wreck Me” on the second night of their The Ryman Auditorium run. October 10th, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi9CG504Twg

Here is Jason Isbell and the 400 unit ripping through “American Girl” at Mempho Fest 2017 – October 7th, 2017

Margo Price gives ‘Last Dance with Mary Jane’ a badass spin – 10/7/17

Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real – ‘American Girl’ at The Fonda Theater – Hollywood, Ca. – Willie’s son does this rocker justice.

Gov’t Mule – ‘Breakdown’ – Houston, October 2nd, 2017 – Gov’t Mule brings on the moody groove featuring searing guitar work by Warren Haynes.

Old Crow Medicine Show – ‘American Girl’ Sydney, Australia, October 6th, 2017 – A badass breakdown by Old Crow Medicine Show.

The Mavericks – ‘You don’t know how it feels’ – Humphrey’s – SD, CA – October 5, 2017 – The Mavericks put their unique spin on this classic.

Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus – “Wildflowers” – Whatever Miley Cyrus does musically she proves time and again that she has a country heart. Cyrus finishes out her Tonight Show residency with a lovely tribute to Petty with accompaniment from her father Billy Ray Cyrus.

Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives- ‘Runnin’ Down A Dream’, April – Marty Stuart has long proclaimed in concert that he’s a Petty fan. This tribute was captured a few months before Petty’s death.

The Avett Brothers – “You Don’t Know How It Feels” Council Bluffs, IA October 5th, 2017 – The Avett Brothers h=get a lot of help from the audience in this heartfelt tribute.

Chris Stapleton – “Learning to Fly” – October 5th, 2017, Moline, Illinois – Chris Stapleton offers some memories of playing a show with Petty before performing a soulful solo acoustic version of “Learning to Fly.”

John Fogerty – “I Won’t Back Down” – October 4th, 2017, Encore Theatre at Wynn hotel, Las Vegas. Fogerty honors Tom Petty at his show at The Encore Theatre at Wynn Las Vegas. This was also the first show after the tragic events at Mandalay Bay

Wilco – ‘The Waiting,’ Toyota Pavilion, Irving, Texas, October 3, 2017 – I dare you not to get chills from this tribute.

Hanson – “Wildflowers” (rehearsal) – October 3rd, 2017 at the Corona Theatre in Montreal, Canada. – Say want you want about Hanson, this is a beautiful harmonic tribute.

Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Dave Matthews, Patty Griffin – “Refugee” by Tom Petty – Moore Theatre, Seattle October, 3rd 2017 – This performance was the opening song on the opening night of the 2017 edition of Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees benefiting Jesuit Refugee Services USA.

Foo Fighters “Breakdown”- Played at a secret 2013 show in Moorpark, CA – Redballs Rock N Roll Pizza. Just badass.

Super Bowl XLII Halftime Show – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – An all American moment with the master himself.

Uncle Tupelo’s Pivotal Debut “No Depression” to be Reissued In January

Uncle Tupelo’s No Depression

Great news alt.country fans! On January 28th, Legacy Recordings will reissue Uncle Tupelo‘s widely acclaimed debut LP, 1990′s “No Depression.” The release will be a special two-disc expanded edition featuring rare and previously unreleased material. Of course, the influential alt.country trio would later birth Wilco (Tweedy) and Son Volt (Farrar.)

“No Depression: Legacy Edition” improves on the original album’s “tinny” production. Remastering has been done by engineer Vic Anesini, and the reissue features new liner notes by original band booster Richard Byrne of St. Louis’ alt-weekly The Riverfront Times. The second disc features the band’s original 1989 eight-song demo, Not Forever, Just For Now, which has never been released on CD.

Also included is a recently unearthed 10-song demo tape “Not Forever, Just Now,” recorded by the original UT, Jeff Tweedy, Jay Farrar, and Mike Heidorn in 1989. Below, listen to one of the demo tape’s tracks, an early version of “I Got Drunk” (via Consequence of sound).

The reissue will also include bonus tracks that appear on the album’s 2003 reissue; songs taken from their 1983 self-released Live and Otherwise cassette; and five cuts off the band’s 1987 demo Colorblind and Rhymeless.

Legacy will also issue a limited edition seven-inch vinyl single of Uncle Tupelo’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog” b/w “Commotion” for Record Store Black Friday on November 29th.

Pre-order No Depression: Legacy Edition.

No Depression: Legacy Edition Track List:

Disc One

No Depression (Original Album)

Graveyard Shift
That Year
Before I Break
No Depression
Factory Belt
Whiskey Bottle
Outdone
Train
Life Worth Livin’
Flatness
So Called Friend
Screen Door
John Hardy
No Depression Era Odds & Ends

Left In The Dark
Won’t Forget
I Got Drunk
Sin City
Whiskey Bottle (Live Acoustic)
Disc Two

Not Forever, Just For Now (No Depression Demos, Produced By Matt Allison, 1989)

Outdone
That Year
Whiskey Bottle
Flatness
I Got Drunk
Before I Break
Life Worth Livin’
Train
Graveyard Shift
Screen Door

From Live & Otherwise (Self-Released Cassette, 1988)

No Depression
Blues Die Hard

From Colorblind and Rhymeless (1987 Cassette Demo)

Before I Break
I Got Drunk
Screen Door
Blues Die Hard
Pickle River

Americana For All

carolina chocolate drops

I’ve been kicking around the ideas to address Giovanni Russonello’s “Why Is a Music Genre Called ‘Americana’ So Overwhelmingly White and Male?” i heard my mom’s advice in m mind,
“just walk away from the stupid.” Part of it was my dad’s voice “Teach ’em a lesson.” i’ve decided to go with dad on this one.

Russonello’s piece frames the recent six-week “Americanarama” tour to argue that the tour’s roster, which included Bob Dylan, Wilco, My Morning Jacket and Ryan Bingham – represents a larger cultural exclusion rampant in the genre.

Setting aside the argument that the “Americanarama” bill does not really represent the contemporary Americana genres, let’s address the premise of “Overwhelmingly White and Male”

Early country, folk and bluegrass have generally appealed to a predominantly anglo audience. Partly because many of the songs are from European source material performed by mostly white people. The trend in these genres have mapped closely to the trends in American society in general and, as opportunities have arisen, woman and people of color have stepped up to represent their unique take on the music.

The difference is that Americana proper (and it’s cousin alt.country) have never been exclusionary.

It’s introduction into popular culture came in the 80’s as MTV gave us the L.A. cow punk band Lone Justice , featuring the gritty soul of Maria McKee, and their “Ways to be Wicked” and “Sheltered videos in rotation with Jason and the Scorchers and The Georgia Satellites on the 24- hour feed.

At the same time kd Lang and Roseanne Cash joined Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam and Lyle Lovett in shaking up Nashville.

Soon after bands like The Meat Purveyoyers, Freakwater , Neko Case, Gillian Welch, the Cowboy Junkies, Hem, Tarnation – all bands prominently featuring female artists – laid the groundwork for Americana.

An allum of the watershed “O Brother where art thou” roster, Alison Krauss, has the enviable honor of having won the most Grammys by a female artist with twenty-seven (!)

Hardly the good-old boys club that article paints for the genre.

Then there’s this:

“… if an art form is going to name itself after this country, it should probably stop weatherproofing itself against America’s present-day developments. And it hardly seems like enough to say you’re carrying on the legacies of black gospel and blues if the performers and listeners venerating them are almost all white.”

The claim that Americana is “carrying on the legacies of black gospel and blues” is specious. True, some artist incorporate gospel and blues within their style, to say that Americana is carrying on the legacy of those sage musical genres is insulting to these thriving genres and their decades of practitioners.

And the argument that since the genre appeals to a particular segments of the population signifies that genre exclusion of others is ridiculous. Much of music is self-identity. If a segment of society don’t see themselves in the performers and their stories it follows that they wouldn’t be compelled to buy the music or attend the shows. Early hip-hop was a primarily African -American cultural phenomenon which has now transcended. As for as I know on one was accusing hip-hop of excluding anglos.

Just as people of color have taken different roads to Americana, and have contributed to it’s evolution. Los Lobos and Alejandro Escovedo bring a uniquely chicano take to the music. The Carolina Chocolate Drops and newcomer Valarie June have infused the genre with African-American string-band and folk-soul influences receptively.

Russonello places Dylan as the “the father of Americana” (I would argue Gram Parsons or Townes Van Zandt) and then points to the current shining light, Jason Isbell, as not heading the lessons of Dylan and providing anything “new.” The argument could be made that Dylan at the beginning of his career, as Isabell still is, brought nothing that hadn’t already been done by Guthrie and Seeger. Russonello then makes the case that “Music gets its power from a keen, contemporary perspective” and then “it feels facile to let this one strain of yellow-page nostalgia represent it.”

This is just lazy. Though the form, the music and singing styles harken back to a yesteryear , topics are either contemporary, like Isbell, Todd Snider and Steve Earle or dealing with the great human truths – love, hate, death – that transcend any time period.

Though the article does a serviceable job of tracing roots music’s trajectory thorough time, the conclusion shows a bias of the writer. Anything this white and male met be a conspiracy..

Americana does reflect an idealized notion of the the past (as Americans are prone to do,) but to confuse the predilections of subjective taste enjoyed by some as a kind of organized Jim Crow-style musical segregation insults a music and musicians that I celebrate daily. It also, ironically, displays a type of bigotry that all cultural forms must undergo some forced, artificial desegregation toward some imagined moral purity.

Let freedom twang!

Bob Dylan, Wilco, & My Morning Jacket Team Summer AmericanaramA Festival Tour

bob-dylan-wilco-my-morning-jacket

Coming through this summer Bob Dylan, Wilco, and My Morning Jacket, Richard Thompson Electric Trio and Ryan Bingham will be featured for the AmericanaramA Festival. Pre-sale tickets go on sale Wednesday, April 24th.

Though I would squabble with some of the inclusions in an “Americana” showcase this should be a cool show.

The tour kicks off in West Palm Beach, FL on June 26th and hits over 20 U.S. different cities before concluding in Mountain View, CA on August 4th. Check out the itinerary below.

Bob Dylan 2013 Tour Dates:
04/21 – Bowling Green, OH @ Bowling Green State University – Stroh Center *
04/23 – St. Louis, MO @ Peabody Opera House *
04/24 – Springfield, MO @ Missouri State University – JQH Arena *
04/25 – Champaign, IL @ University of Illinois – Assembly Hall *
04/27 – Murray, KY @ Murray State University – CFSB Center #
04/28 – Louisville, KY @ The Louisville Palace #
04/30 – Asheville, NC @ U.S. Cellular Center*
05/01 – Charlotte, NC @ Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheatre *
05/02 – Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater *
05/04 – Charleston, SC @ Family Circle Magazine Stadium *
05/05 – St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre *
06/26 – West Palm Beach, FL @ Cruzan Amphitheatre &
06/27 – Tampa, FL @ Live Nation Amphitheatre &
06/29 – Atlanta, GA @ Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood &
06/30 – Nashville, TN @ The Lawn at Riverfront Park &
07/02 – Memphis, TN @ AutoZone Park & ^
07/05 – Noblesville, IN @ Klipsch Music Center & ^
07/06 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center & ^
07/07 – Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena & ^
07/10 – St. Paul, MN @ Midway Stadium & ^
07/11 – Peoria, IL @ Chiefs Stadium & ^
07/12 – Chicago, IL @ Toyota Park & ^
07/14 – Clarkstown, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
07/15 – Toronto, ON @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre & ^
07/18 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center & %
07/19 – Bridgeport, CT @ The Ballpark at Harbor Yard & %
07/20 – Mansfield, MA @ Comcast Center & %
07/23 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion & %
07/24 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Farm Bureau Live at Virginia Beach & %
07/26 – Hoboken, NJ @ Pier A Park & %
07/27 – Wantagh, NY @ Nikon at Jones Beach Theater & %
07/28 – Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center & %
07/31 – Denver, CO, @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre & %
08/01 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre & %
08/03 – Irvine, CA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre & %
08/04 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre & %
* = w/ Dawes
# = w/ The Wild Feathers
& = w/ Wilco and My Morning Jacket
^ = w/ Richard Thompson Electric Trio
% = w/ Ryan Bingham

Americana and Roots 54th Grammy Awards Nominees – 2012

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) announced its nominees for the 54rd Annual Grammy Awards. I was pleased to see Americana and roots performers being nominated for some of the more prestigious awards like Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Below are nominees that fall into the Americana and roots category and other artists in other categories that might be of interest to readers of Twang Nation.

Best Americana Album
Emotional Jukebox – Linda Chorney
Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down – Ry Cooder
Hard Bargain – Emmylou Harris
Ramble At The Ryman – Levon Helm
Blessed – Lucinda Williams

Best Folk Album
Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars
I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive – Steve Earle
Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes
Ukulele Songs- Eddie Vedder
The Harrow & The Harvest – Gillian Welch

Best Bluegrass Album
Paper Airplane – Alison Krauss & Union Station
Reason And Rhyme  – Jim Lauderdale
Rare Bird Alert – Steve Martin And The Steep Canyon Rangers
Old Memories: The Songs Of Bill Monroe – The Del McCoury Band
A Mother’s Prayer- Ralph Stanley
Sleep With One Eye Open- Chris Thile & Michael Daves

Best Country Album
“Here For A Good Time” — George Strait

Best Children’s Album
I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow (various artists collection)

Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes
The Bristol Sessions, 1927-1928: The Big Bang of Country Music (various artists collection)

Record Of The Year
Rolling In The Deep – Adele
Holocene – Bon Iver
The Cave – Mumford & Sons

Album Of The Year
21 – Adele

Song Of The Year
The Cave – Mumford & Sons
Holocene – Bon Iver
Rolling In The Deep – Adele

Best New Artist
Bon Iver

Best Pop Solo Performance
Someone Like You – Adele

Best Pop Instrumental Album
The Road From Memphis – Booker T. Jones
Setzer Goes Instru-Mental! – Brian Setzer

Best Pop Vocal Album
21 – Adele

Best Rock Performance
Down By The Water – The Decemberists
The Cave – Mumford & Sons

Best Rock Song
The Cave – Mumford & Sons
Down By The Water- The Decemberists

Best Rock Album
Wilco  – The Whole Love

Best Alternative Music Album
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
My Morning Jacket – Circuital

Best Country Duo/Group Performance
Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars

Best Country Song
Threaten Me With Heaven – Vince Gill

Best Instrumental Composition
Life In Eleven – Béla Fleck & Howard Levy, composers (Béla Fleck & The Flecktones)

Best Engineered Album (Non Classical)
Follow Me Down-  Brandon Bell & Gary Paczosa, engineers; Sangwook “Sunny” Nam & Doug Sax, mastering engineers (Sarah Jarosz)
The Harrow & The Harvest – Matt Andrews, engineer; Stephen Marcussen, mastering engineer (Gillian Welch)
Paper Airplane – Mike Shipley, engineer; Brad Blackwood, mastering engineer (Alison Krauss & Union Station)

Grammy Wrap-Up – Americana Represents

Now that I’ve had a few days to recover from the whirlwind Grammy event in L.A. I ma going to try and make some sense of it all to determine what I saw and what I saw, what I learned and what I’d like to see changed.

2011 marked the third year that the GRAMMYs (branding, people) have organized a formal social media initiative to allow a bottom-up perspective, mostly-unvarnished perspective from bloggers that have established their own brand credibility in various genres. The cool thing is that it’s not just the major genres – pop , hip-hop and rock being asked to participate. Other pre-telecast awarded genres like my own Americana/folk participating were country (still a bridesmaid after all this time),  jazz , classical , soul , gospel were represented as well as social media strategy and fashion.

I believe the GRAMMYs are looking at the seismic changes in the music industry and are being proactive in addressing their own relevance and consumers changing relationship with music. I believe our efforts in coordination with GRAMMY.com ‘s wider social channels via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube led to a successful outcome I hope continues to grow and expand.

Case in point was the Social Media Summet. This was a Grammy-week event, which was open to the public and streamed live on the Grammy website, explored how the industry engages fans and consumers in sharing new music and what impact it has had on the business.
.  Held at the beautiful Conga Room the event former MTV News anchor John Norris hosted the panel which featured Facebook director of platform product marketing Ethan Beard, Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai and Pandora founder Tim Westergren as well as American Idol runner-up phenom Adam Lambert and rapper Chamillionaire won a Grammy in 2007 for his No. 1 song, “Ridin’ , which went on to become the top selling ringtone of that year with 3.2 million in sales, and the first to gross $1 million.

Quick take-aways from the panel were that social media is a double edged sword for muscians who want to make themselves available to their fans but are scrutinized by the media for any single misstep (“Don’t drunk tweet.” Advised Adam Lambert) and not all fans you hear from are, well, sane.

Lambert also said that while he loves when fans take pictures and recording video footage at his concerts, he feels like they’re cheating themselves by not being present at the moment of the experience. It’s like pre-mediation and self-inflicted removal from an experience thats most powerful attribute is immediacy.

Rapper Chamillionaire said he engages in social media because unlike the major labels “There’s not a suit standing there telling me I can’t do something. I stand or fall on my own action and my fans let me know what they think really fast.”

The panel bemoaned the demise of the record store and Ethan Beard  hoped that Facebook could take up some of the slack to connect fans to musicians. “Music is social activity … and buying music on iTunes is different than in CD stores,” Beard said. “(But) using social media makes it more social.”

I would like to see the Americana field get more cred for using social media to expand the fan-base and scout out touring destinations. And I defy anyone to find a more active community site that No Depression.

In the end I was glade to be asked to the party and able to witness the Best Americana Album GRAMMY awarded to Mavis Staples (her first !)  for You Are Not Alone, her collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and see the Carolina Chocolate Drops claim the GRAMMY in the category of Best Traditional Folk Album for Genuine Negro Jig. Meeting Cajun-music legend D. L. Menard, Hank Williams’ daughter Jett and the fine people at Time -Life that helped her release the fantastic The Hank Williams Complete Mother Best Recordings….Plus! box set, Margaret and Arthur Warwick – proprietors of the legendary Louisiana Hayride.

Then there was that whole Avett, Mumford, Dylan thing..that was pretty cool as well.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HlUEnNMVaU[/youtube]

News Round Up: Country for Our Country Supports the Troops

  • The Country for Our Country benefit concert will occur  in Tyler, Texas this Saturday night (10/24). The event will celebrate the troops and benefit wounded soldiers by providing them with counseling and support during a difficult transitional period in their lives. The benefit will feature performances by Joe Nichols, Heidi Newfield, Derek Sholl, and Kacey Musgraves and The Big D & Bubba Show will emcee the event.
  • Check out Ryan Bingham’s new video for his song Country Roads.
  • Paste magazine’s Andy Whitman gives his view of the landscape of country (really Americana or alt.country) music of the aughts (’00.)
  • Find Lighten’ (the opposum) over at georgejones.com and get entered to win prizes like: Cracker Barrel Gift Cards, Autographed CD’s, and concert tickets.

News Round Up: Country for Our Country Supports the Troops

  • The Country for Our Country benefit concert will occur  in Tyler, Texas this Saturday night (10/24). The event will celebrate the troops and benefit wounded soldiers by providing them with counseling and support during a difficult transitional period in their lives. The benefit will feature performances by Joe Nichols, Heidi Newfield, Derek Sholl, and Kacey Musgraves and The Big D & Bubba Show will emcee the event.
  • Check out Ryan Bingham’s new video for his song Country Roads.
  • Paste magazine’s Andy Whitman gives his view of the landscape of country (really Americana) music of the aughts (’00.)
  • Find Lighten’ (the opposum) over at georgejones.com and get entered to win prizes like: Cracker Barrel Gift Cards, Autographed CD’s, and concert tickets.

Interviews with Jay Farrar and Twang Nation on Twitter/blip.fm

  • The Phoenix New Times’ Martin Cizmar ponders if, while interviewing Son Volt front man Jay Farrar,  he should ask him about the new Wilco record? (he does.)
  • Annie Zaleski at the Riverfront Times also interviewed Farrar and got some details on his side project Gob Iron, and the connection between Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt’s new label, Rounder Records.
  • Speaking of Son Volt, Kentucky.com’s Walter Tunis is digging their new release American Central Dust.
  • Radney Foster’s 50th birthday bash is tonight at Hills Cafe in Austin at 6pm w/ Radney, Wade Bowen, and many more.
  • And in shameless self-promotional news- Join Twang Nation on Twitter and listen to music I dig up over at blip.fm.

Benefit Album for Evan Phillips to Be Released

  • NineBullets.net has some good things to say about the new Scott H Biram’s Blooshot Records release Something’s Wrong / Lost Forever.
  • Kelly Dearmore at Twangville.com (no relation) praises the new The Dexateens release Singlewide.
  • A new Magnolia Electric co. album josephine will be released by secretly canadian on july 21st, 2009. Get a free mp3 of the title track over in the Magnolia Electric co.web site. In support the record they’ll head out july 10th on a month long tour crossing the U.S followed by a few weeks of full-band touring in Europe.
  • An benefit album to help Evan Phillips, – the principle songwriter for acclaimed Alaskan alt.country rock band The Whipsaws – pay medical costs associated with a debilitating chronic injury he sustained 7 years ago climbing is tentatively scheduled to release in Alaska and online on June 15. The album features acclaimed roots and alt.country artists like T, Nile, Matt Hopper, Aaron Lee Tasjan, The Devil Whales, Marty Jones and more all covering Phillips songs. Check the official MySpace site for more information and to listen to cuts from featured artists.