Twang Nation – The Best In Americana Music
Americana & Roots Music & Culture
The Village Voice has a Q&A with Jon Langford of the Waco Brothers and the Mekons (playing the Highline Ballroom this evening.) Langford talks about the Waco Brother’s beginnings, his time on Bloodshot Records and their recent release Waco Express: Live & Kickin’ at Schuba’s Tavern.
Waco Brothers, “Death of Country Music”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw-jNu4mHxE[/youtube]
Dave Hunter over at the Gibson Guitar’s blog (love their acoustic guitars, but for electric I gotta side with Fender) has taken on the daunting task of choosing the “Top 5 Essential Alt-Country Albums.” No real surprises on the list, and I might have a quibble with one or two of the choices (No Lucinda Williams? No Bottle Rockets?) but it’s a nice introduction for anyone getting into the genre.
The Village Voice has a fine write up (Country Music Grows in Brooklyn) on the burgeoning Country Music scene in Brooklyn and mentions a Twang Nation favorite Hank’s Saloon, a 100 year old hell raising hillbilly bar smack dab between Carroll Gardens and Park Slope which features a trapdoor above the stage leads to an upstairs area once used as a flophouse by Native-American steelworkers. The article al
so mentions the New York Metropolitan Country Music Association which has hosted hoedowns for the last 25 years and now holds weekly line dances at the Glendale Memorial Building in Queens.
Seems there will be at least one singer that won’t be jumping the genre fence anytime soon. Ireland on-line reports that Rod Stewart is enraged with music label bosses at J Records for not giving him the green light to record country classics release.
He says: “Everybody there (at J Records) is against that, which makes me want to do it even more. Apparently, the idea didn’t test well, whatever that means.”
I’m amazed that someone with Stewart’s pedigree still has to ask the label bosses permission to record music. Perhaps he should hire Trent Reznor as a music business consultant. Then again, after listening to his take on the pop classics I believe that Stewart’s country music longings are probably are better off being denied.
Billboard.com has a glowing write up on the May 15th Charleston, S.C. Drive By Truckers show. A sample:
That they continue to pull it off in such hammering, consistent fashion is not only a credit to their staying power (and ability to weather waves like the departure of Jason Isbell last year), but, as they showed on a sweaty and Jack Daniels-fueled 25-song set in Charleston, proof that it still might make sense to buy completely into the notion that rock n’ roll is the literal answer to many, many things.
The New York Tines has a nice piece on Record Store Day in New York City and the shape of the independent music stores in the world of digital distribution. From the article:
“Record stores as we know them are dying,†said Josh Madell of Other Music. “On the other hand, there is still a space in the culture for what a record store does, being a hub of the music community and a place to find out about new music.â€
Thanks fpr supporting local music.
PopMatters.com has an excellent 20 question with Ft. Worth native and alt.country gadfly James McMurtry – who Stephen King has called “the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation†(Entertainment Weekly) – From the feature:
You want to be remembered for…?
Oh, perhaps…not screwing up my son any worse than I was screwed up. Of course, we don’t get remembered for what doesn’t happen on our watch.
During the waning years of the Carter presidency, Israel invaded Lebanon. The often portrayed as spineless Jimmy Carter told the Israelis to go home if they still wanted spare parts for their jets. The Israelis pulled back and waited for Reagan, who let them roll into Beirut and create one unholy mess. Reagan sent in the US Marines as a “symbolic presenceâ€. Over 300 of those Marines died when a truck bomb blew up their barracks and a few more died from sniper fire.
When Walter Mondale suggested that perhaps the intervention had been a bad idea, since the troops had been sent in more or less for the hell of it with no clear military objective, he was accused by the Reaganites of saying the troops had “died in vainâ€. Anybody remember what didn’t happen under Carter?
In case tyou were wondering what to do with those tax returns, McMurtry’s latest release, Just Us Kids, drops April 15.
The New York City based Village Voice has a characteristically snarky feature covering the latest releases by Carlene Carter, Sheryl Crow, Shelby Lynne, Allison Moorer, Tift Merritt and Kathleen Edwards.
The Kansas City Star has a feature on alt.country singer/songwriter and Nashville native Sara Cox on how she balances her career with being a mother of three. Apparently Kathy Mattea was her baby-sitter growing up. Cool!
The Academy of Country Music shows their criteria for country music excellence – sales over talent – and their exceptional consistency for surprising no one by nominating Kenny Chesney for 11 nominations.
The 9513 returned after a brief outage (hyew!) to draw my attention to this great article from the Houston Chronicle featuring country music legend Ray Price. Here’s a taste:
Price’s early notoriety was as a wingman, of sorts, for Hank Williams. They met in 1951 and became fast friends and roommates, drinking buddies and tour partners. Price would stand in when Williams was too drunk to perform. Williams got Price on the Grand Ole Opry. Price calls Williams “a great cat, down to earth.”
They were supposed to meet for lunch on the New Year’s Day, 1953, that news broke of Williams’ death. Price had seen him a few weeks earlier.
“He was pretty low. He was really depressed over his marriage and he slowly went (crazy). But he was a nice guy. Twenty-nine when he died. And he died at the top of the heap.”