Six Rounds Spent – Outlaws

We all know about the Outlaw Country movement, that stylistic and attitude splintering of Waylon, Willie and the others that took their sound out of Nashville and into Texas where some of the most vibrant, and most enduring, country music was created. That’s not what this is.

I wanted to do a list of songs actually about outlaws. The blood shedding type.  Whether as a concept or a literal fugitive it seemed like a rich and natural source for inspiration. Include your own in the comments if you would like.

6. Joe Ely’s Me and Billy the Kid – What does Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and Joe Ely have in common? A song about Bill the Kid. I went with what I think was the best.

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

5. Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska. A song inspired by the 19 year-old Charles Starkweather who, along with his 14 year-old girlfriend Caril Fugate, went on a murder spree killing 11 people in Nebraska in 1958. Springsteen even considered “Starkweather” as the title.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwcOhOv4fho&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

4. Terry Allen – New Delhi Freight Train – Terry Allen’s song begins “Some people think that I must be crazy / But my real name is just Jesse James”, and goea on to be narrated by the outlaw. Originally recorded on Allen’s 1979 album Lubbock (On Everything), the song has been covered by Rick Nelson, and by Little Feat.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsN1AcllQ4I[/youtube]

3. Willie Nelson – Red Headed Stranger -  In true Outlaw Country fashion Willie Nelson wrote a concept album in 1975 about murder. You can imagine how well that went over on Music Row. Red Headed Stranger follows a  fugitive on the run from the law after killing his wife.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G9wXWr40WA&feature=related[/youtube]

2. Townes Van Zandt – Pancho and Lefty – This song may or may not be about the Mexican bandit Pancho Villa. It is however about betrayal, a manhunt and death. The song has been covered by
Emmylou Harris on her 1977 album, Luxury Liner and was a number one country hit in 1983 for Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtzgwNDZAs4[/youtube]

1. Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues – The best of a pretty great set. A man sits in prison lamenting his lost freedom and recalling his past crime when he “Shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1xSt7iganA[/youtube]

Nominations for the 53rd GRAMMY Awards

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) announced the nominees for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards (to be held February 13th, 2011.) Here listed are the nominees in the Americana, Roots categories as well as similar artists in other categories (for a full list of nominees ho the Grammy.com)  Any surprises? Who’s missing?

BEST AMERICANA ALBUM
Rosanne Cash – The List
Los Lobos – Tin Can Trust
Willie Nelson – Country Music
Robert Plant – Band of Joy
Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone

BEST BLUEGRASS ALBUM
Sam Bush – Circles Around Me
Patty Loveless – Mountain Soul II
The Del McCoury Band – Family Circle
Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band – Legacy
The Steeldrivers – Reckless

BEST TRADITIONAL FOLK ALBUM
Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig
Luther Dickinson & the Sons of Mudboy – Onward and Upward
The John Hartford Stringband – Memories of John
Maria Muldaur – Maria Muldaur & Her Garden of Joy
Ricky Skaggs – Ricky Skaggs Solo: Songs My Dad Loved

BEST CONTEMPORARY FOLK ALBUM
Jackson Browne & David Lindley – Love Is Strange – En Vivo Con Tino
Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Age of Miracles
Guy Clark – Somedays the Song Writes You
Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs – God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise
Richard Thompson – Dream Attic

BEST COUNTRY INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE
Cherryholmes – “Tattoo of a Smudge”
The Infamous Stringdusters – “Magic #9”
Punch Brothers – “New Chance Blues”
Darrell Scott – “Willow Creek”
Marty Stuart – “Hummingbyrd”

Other Americana/roots/indie/alt/whatever artists nominated in assorted other categories:

  • Dailey & Vincent – “Elizabeth” (Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals)
  • Dierks Bentley – Up on the Ridge (Best Country Album)
  • Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert & Jamey Johnson – “Bad Angel” (Best Country Collaboration with Vocals)
  • Dierks Bentley, Del McCoury & the Punch Brothers – “Pride (In the Name of Love)” (Best Country Collaboration with Vocals)
  • Ryan Bingham & T. Bone Burnett – “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart (Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media)
  • Johnny Cash – “Ain’t No Grave”/ The Johnny Cash Project (Best Short Form Music Video)
  • Crazy Heart (Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media)
  • Steve Earle – “I See You” from Treme (Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media)
  • Patty Griffin – Downtown Church (Best Traditional Gospel Album)
  • Buddy Holly – Not Fade Away: The Complete Studio Recordings and More (Best Historical Album)
  • Elton John & Leon Russell – “If It Wasn’t for Bad” (Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals)
  • Jamey Johnson – “Macon” (Best Male Country Vocal Performance, Best Country Album for The Guitar Song)
  • Miranda Lambert – “The House That Built Me” (Best Female Country Vocal Performance, Best Country Song, Best Country Album for Revolution)
  • Ray LaMontagne – “Beg, Steal, or Borrow” (Song of the Year)
  • Los Lobos – “Do the Murray” (Best Rock Instrumental Performance)
  • Mumford & Sons – “Little Lion Man” (Best Rock Song, Best New Artist)
  • Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Mojo (Best Rock Album)*The Steeldrivers – “Where Rainbows Never Die” (Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals)
  • Robert Plant – “Silver Rider” (Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance)
  • Pete Seeger with the Rivertown Kids and Friends – Tomorrow’s Children (Best Musical Album for Children)
  • Ricky Skaggs – Mosaic (Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album)
  • George Strait – “The Breath You Take” (Best Country Song)
  • Marty Stuart & Connie Smith – “I Run to You” (Best Country Collaboration with Vocals)
  • Treme (Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media)
  • Hank Williams – The Complete Mother’s Best Recordings…Plus! (Best Historical Album)
  • Lucinda Williams & Elvis Costello – “Kiss Like Your Kiss” from True Blood (Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media)
  • Neil Young – “Angry World” (Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Album for Le Noise)

Willie Nelson Arrested for Marijuana Possession

In case you didn’t already hear, The Texas Yoda, or Willie Nelson as he is known to the rest of the world, was arrested for marijuana possession after his tour bus was stopped at the border checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas while taking a short-cut from California to Austin, Texas. Six ounces of the demon weed was found on the bus and was sent to the county jail, where he later posted bail.  The bad news is that 6 ounces could get Willie 6 months minimum and 2 years max.

Okay,  lets start with the most obvious. Searching Willie Nelson for marijuana is like searching Taylor Swift for tear-stained journals, fish in a barrel.

Now I know it will surprise some to discover that Texas isn’t the most progressive state in the nation. But for all it’s idiocy (secession anyone?) Texas’ weakness is also its strength – namely State pride and a staunch defense of our citizens. There is no person more symbolic of the best of Texas than Willie Nelson. He is the closest thing the state has to a world diplomat. No matter how someone feels about Texas they love Willie.

So give Willie diplomatic immunity for weed. The man is in his late 70s, I’m sure he has something that would result in him getting prescription if he took time away from entertaining tens-of-thousands of people around the world a year to get check out. Second, the border is explosive and marijuana is a large reason why. Tons of it transported over the border with Mexico every year and where there’s that kind of money there are people willing to kill to protect territory and American access.

Willie’s arrest is a lesson for Texas to use to do the right thing.Take care of Willie and show the Nation you have your eye to the future – legalize weed, undercut the criminals terrorizing the border, free up law enforcement to pursue real crime. Besides the tax Texas gets from legalization can be used it to keep Cliff Lee with the Rangers.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWCa3GvbNUE&feature=fvw[/youtube]

News Round Up: Miranda Lambert Gets Her Due

  • In a rare alignment of planets the Country Music Awards are actually in agreement. the pride of Texas, Miranda Lambert has been nominated for a record-breaking nine Country Music Association Awards, the most for any female country music artist in the history of the awards program. This almost makes up for the years that the CMA has been celebrating glitter and hairspray bull dung. I predict that Miranda will no longer be known as the blond country music singer that’s not Taylor or Carrie. Let’s hope the CMA carries through with this stumble into excellence and give her 9 wins.
  • In case you missed it, all last week NPR’s Fresh Air dug through their extensive interview archives for their excellent Country Music Week special. Terri Gross’ interviews and spotlights legends like Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Charlie Louvin, John Doe and more. Check it out.
  • On of my most anticipated releases next month is The Union, the T-Bone Burnett produced collaboration between Elton John and Leon Russell. The album also features Hohn’s long-time lyricist Bernie Taupin who had a hand in writing  songs and Elton and Russell playing piano simultaneously. You can listen to two of the 14 songs from the album, If It Wasn’t for the Bad (the disc’s first single which is on sale digitally now) and I Should Have Sent Roses (don’t let the cheesy opening music in the videos for the logo fool you.) Russell and John are scheduled to perform together on November 3, at the Hollywood Palladium. The Union will be released on October 19.
  • It has been a been a long time coming but it looks like The Last Rights of Ransom Pride,  the Ray Wylie Hubbard co-written dark Western, starring Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam, is finally having some premier showings. The Los Angeles Premiere will be at 12am on Friday, September 10 and Saturday, September 11 with upcoming releases in Dallas, TX, Ft. Worth, TX, Denton, TX and Phoenix, AZ. Check the film’s web site to leearn more, buy tickets and bring the film to your town.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j-kXAz5DQ0[/youtube]

— On Thu, 9/2/10, the dwarf <whokilledthedwarf@gmail.com> wrote:

From: the dwarf <whokilledthedwarf@gmail.com>
Subject: LAST RITES OF RANSOM PRIDE IN THEATRES
To: “scotty wilson” <scotty2fly@gmail.com>
Received: Thursday, September 2, 2010, 7:02 PM

The wait is over… The Dwarf is here…

The Last Rites of Ransom Pride is coming to theaters. Thanks to you.

Come to The Los Angeles Premiere
12:00 AM Friday, September 10
12:00 AM Saturday, September 11

Laemmle Sunset 5

8000 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, 90046

Get tickets now… http://www.laemmle.com/viewmovie.php?mid=6595

Upcoming Theatrical Screenings

Dallas, TX – September 16

Studio Movie Grill Royal Lane

11170 N. Central Expressway
Dallas, TX 75243

Ft. Worth, TX – September 17

Fort Worth, TX

7th Street Movie Tavern

2872 Crockett Street

Fort Worth, TX 76107
(682) 503-8100

Denton, TX – September 18

Denton Movie Tavern

916 West University Dr

Denton, TX 76201
(940) 566-FILM(3456)

Phoenix – Thursday, September 24
Fox Theater
Arizona Underground Film Festival
http://www.azundergroundfilmfest.com/home/

Tucson – Friday, September 25
Arizona Underground Film Festival
http://www.azundergroundfilmfest.com/home/

Calgary – Landmark Theater Dates and Times TBD

Raleigh  — Dates and Times TBD

Asheville – Dates and Times TBD

Seeking Street Team to put up flyers and stickers in the cities listed above. Join the street team, get three free tickets to a city premiere and a signed movie poster.

If these cities are not in your area please visit LastRitesFilm.com and request the movie in your area. Click on Hold Your City for Ransom.

Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Fred Foster Honored as Leaders in Country Music

Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and music publisher for Combine Music and founder of Monument Records, Fred Foster each received the Dale Franklin Award, an award honoring their unique leadership in country music during an invitation-only event on Sunday night (Aug. 29) in Nashville. On hand to perform were friends Rodney Crowell, Jamey Johnson, Lyle Lovett, Lorrie Morgan, Dolly Parton, Randy Travis, Lee Ann Womack and others. The award is named for the first executive director of Leadership Music, an industry networking organization that hosts the annual gala event.

During his introduction of Willie Nelson, Vince Gill said Nelson’s face belonged on Mount Rushmore. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

From CMT.com “As a music publisher for Combine Music and founder of Monument Records, Foster helped lay the career groundwork for artists like Kristofferson, Roy Orbison and Dolly Parton, as well as Larry Gatlin, Billy Grammer, Boots Randolph, Jeannie Seely, Billy Swan and Tony Joe White. His recent credits include producing Nelson’s 2006 album, You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker, and a 2007 collaborative album with Merle Haggard, Nelson and Ray Price called Last of the Breed, which won a Grammy. Gill told the audience that Foster’s advice to aspiring producers was simply to “frame the picture,” thus allowing the artist to be the focus of attention, not the frame.”

Hank Cochran Passes On

Hank Cochran, one of country music’s most storied and prolific songwriters who wrote songs for Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, Merle Haggard, George Strait an many others passed away yesterday morning. His Wikipedia bio reads like a  Mother lode for source for country gold:

Born during the Great Depression in Isola, Mississippi, he contracted pneumonia, whooping cough, measles and mumps all about the same time at age 2. The doctor didn’t think that he would survive. His parents divorced when he was 9, he moved with his father to Memphis, Tennessee, but then went to an orphanage. He was sent to live with his grandparents, in Waynesboro, Mississippi, after he had run away from the orphanage twice. His uncle Otis Cochran taught him how to play the guitar as the pair hitchhiked  from Mississippi to southeastern New Mexico to work in the oilfields.

and my persoan favorite.

While working at publishing company Pamper Music, he used to spend nights playing at a Nashville bar called Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. While there a new guy showed up and Cochran was amazed, he then encouraged management to sign the young songwriter, Willie Nelson, giving Nelson a raise that was coming to him at the time.

This from the press release:

Last night, Jamey Johnson, Billy Ray Cyrus and Buddy Cannon dropped by to sing songs with Hank, and this morning the legendary songwriter was surrounded by family and friends when he passed away at his Hendersonville, Tennessee home. A private, family memorial will be held in the near future, and a public service will follow. Details will be forthcoming.

The family asks that you respect their privacy at this time and, in lieu of flowers, request those wishing to honor Hank make donations to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation.

Hank was inducted in to the Nashville Songwriters Association International Hall of Fame by unanimous vote in 1974, and was honored by B.M.I. in June 2009 for his six-decade long career of hits, that includes country classics: “I Fall To Pieces,” “Make The World Go Away,” “Ocean Front Property,” “The Chair” and “Don’t You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOl8RdBLTKc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Music Review: Joe Whyte – When The Day Breaks [Bridge & Tunnel Records]

There appears to be a resurgence of sorts of the modern troubadour. the male singer/songwriter armed with only an acoustic guitar and the stories he weaves always teetering on the precipice between  emotional authenticity and cloying sentimentality. The balance becomes even more precarious when you have pop leanings as the term “pop” has been severed from it’s root “popular” into something fleeting and vapid.

A well-crafted song defies genre. Whether it’s Sinatra’s I did It My Way or Willie Nelson’s Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, there’s a craftsmanship that transcends and a balanced symmetry of sound and word. These types of songs also used to fall under the moniker of pop because they were “popular” not because they were reminiscent of sugary confection.

New Jersey based Joe Whyte’s new (FREE!) release, When The Day Breaks, is a slice of pop-Americana that straddles territory settled in the 70’s by pioneers like Gordon Lightfoot and Stephen Stills and currently being reshaped by the likes of the  Avett Brothers, Darrell Scott and Brice Robinson.

Rambling is the asphalt-hearted theme that runs through this release. The jangly channeling of Gram Parsons in the opener Please Believe Me portrays a sunny tempo belying the narrators compulsion to hit the  road and not allow anyone to fence him. It’s a Shame with its Dobro yawn supplies  a precisely suited accompaniment to reflect the dark dysfunction of a man destined to leave a caring woman knowing full well its the wrong thing to do,

This City is Alive has the narrator sit still in the City that Never Sleeps (sounding like a lost track from Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection) yet fights the urge to escape before it steals the person he’s finally discovered he is. Off to War is a different kind of leaving. A soldier being deployed wants more then anything to be home with his family and his solemn ache is the strongest testament against an unjust war.

Blending a pop songwriters instinct for precision and hook with the warmth and authenticity in storytelling that are the trademarks of folk and country Whyte rescues the much maligned genre and gives it beauty and depth.

Official Site | Free Download | Facebook

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFAxNsMArY0[/youtube]

Music Review: Willie Nelson – Country Music (Rounder) Merle Haggard – I Am What I Am (Vanguard)

If there was a country music Mount Rushmore two legendary (and appropriately weathered)  mugs sure to be immortalized in granite would be Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.

Willie and The Haggard have left their indelible imprint on Country music by spearheading two spirited responses to the slick sound of 50s and 60s Nashville, Outlaw country and the Bakersfield sound respectively. Willie (77) and the Hag (73) show no signs of slowing down with ongoing touring and debuts on new labels ( and in Willie’s case a follow up) and both are back to buck mainstream Country trends by assuredly reasserting their mark on the future by mining tradition.

Country Music, the title of Willie’s Rounder Records debut, can be read as both a historical affirmation of the genre and a proclamation that the current pop variety overtaking the airwaves does not have a lock on the moniker  Never a slave to the genre Willie infuses these 14 classic covers (and one unearthed original) with his laid-back jazzy approach to make them fresh and compelling. Lack of collaboration is not a short-coming Willie embodies. He might collaborate with even a fence post if the mood struck him. But what I consider a perfect fellow Texan T Bone Burnett (Grammy winner for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand and Academy Award winner for the Crazy Heart soundtrack ) to handle production and brought some Nashville’s best talent – Buddy Miller,Jim Lauderdale,  mandolinist Ronnie McCoury, banjo player Riley Baugus as well as long-time Nelson harmonica maestro Mickey Raphale – and worked with Willie to choose the material, and steps back in the production and allows Willie and the material to shine.

The highlights include a sparse and elegant version of Merle Travis’ Appalachian coal miner lament Dark as a Dungeon which takes on a  topical context in light of the recent West Virginia and Russian tragedies,  the traditional Gospel number Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down which suits Willie’s sinewy voice backed by a instruments that emit a fitting Southern Gothic chill. The oft-covered Satisfied Mind is a solid study on appreciating what you have and is given authority in this delivery. The swinging Pistol Packin’ Mama, which was a number one single for Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters, throws off tons of playful cowboy cool.

I wonder if Haggard asked George Jones if he could borrow the title of his 1980 album I Am What I Am? Hag’s version made up of all originals and show him as feisty, poetic and occasionally solemn as ever. Recorded with his ace band the Strangers, as well as his son Ben on guitar, at his Northern California headquarters, the Shade Tree Manor studio, and produced by Haggard and longtime collaborator Lou Bradley, this album fits nicely into Haggard’s storied catalog.  The past fist-clenched defiance of Okie from Muskogee and The Fighting Side of Me has been replaced with a contemplation and mature restrain. But Haggard is still willing to say, not shout, what’s on his mind.

The bitetrsweet I’ve Seen It Go Away reminisces better times in a rear view mirror. Pretty When It’s New and The Road to My Heart shows that Willie is not the only one with a jazzy traditional pop bent. The spirit of Bob Wills inhabits the lively twin-fiddle fueled Live and Love Always, featuring a duet with his wife, Theresa, as Haggard gives arrangement instructions mid-song. Bad Actor is a great smooth country number about a man going through the motions in a dead-end relationship. Mexican Bands is a great mariachi-tinged waltz south of the border where haggard alludes to a pastime he might have picked up from Willie – “And early mañana smoke what I wanna, And listen to Mexican bands.”

Longtime fans know that both of there men are masters of the understated guitar, and throughout both releases there is testament to their subtle artistry. There are welcome reminders of the beauty and majesty possible when performers, young or old, are courageous enough to perform work from the heart.

Willie Nelson -  Country Music

Merle Haggard -  I Am What I Am

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuibW8WGCTA[/youtube]

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

News Round Up: Kris Kristofferson Releases Early Demo Compilation

Kris Kristofferson’s latest is actually some of his earliest. Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72 is a collection of raw demos made to shop his songs around to singers while sweeping floors at Columbia Studios in Nashville (where he later first met Johnny Cash.) I listened to 16 cuts from the album streaming over at NPR and it’s a beauty. The back and forth with Kristofferson and the recording engineer does not take away from the artistry from this master songwriter. There are classics like Me and Bobby McGee,made famous by a woman that dated Kristofferson for a time, Janis Joplin. There is also the title cut which was recorded by Bobby Bare and If You Don’t Like Hank Williams latter recorded by Hank Williams Jr. With Willie and Merle Haggard coming out with releases this month Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends just makes this one of the best bumper crops in quite some time. The down-loadable version is on sale now at Amazon.

News Round Up: Kris Kristofferson is Open for Football Draft

Kris Kristofferson reminisces about his days playing football. The days before he was pulled because of too many head injuries, that is.

CMT interviews the Texas Yoda, Willie Nelson about his new T Bone Burnett produced album, Country Music.

Dwight Yoakam & Merle Haggard will perform together June 18 & 19 at Oregon’s Chinook Winds Casino Resort.

Speaking of Brother Hag, the LA Times Pop & Hiss get’s on the bus with the Merle while in town for the Stagecoach Festival.