Americana Music Festival Announces Confirmed First-Round Performers

Though we might not always see eye to eye the Americana Music Association know how to put on a party. The Americana Music Festival & Conference is annually held in Nashville and this year will mark it’s This 13th year. Each year it occurs in Fall and this year it will run September 12-15. The event has loads of the best Americana music, media and industry people you could ever care to meet. All that and somehow they keep letting me back in!

The AMA has just released an early list of performers a slated to appear. They are:

American Aquarium – Amy Helm – Andrew Combs – Angel Snow – Anthony da Costa – Bearfoot – Belle Starr – Bill Kirchen – Billy Joe Shaver – Black Lillies – Blue Highway – Blue Mountain – BoDeans – Brandi Carlile – Brennen Leigh – Buddy Miller – Buxton – Caitlin Harnett – Chastity Brown – Corb Lund – Cory Branan – Darrell Scott – The Deep Dark Woods – Della Mae – Derek Hoke – The Dunwells – Eilen Jewell – Felicity Urquhart – Fort Frances – Gretchen Peters – Holy Ghost Tent Revival – honeyhoney – Humming House – Immigrant Union – Jason Boland & The Stragglers – Jill Andrews – Jim Lauderdale – Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition – John Fullbright – John Hiatt – Jordie Lane – Julie Lee – Kasey Anderson and the Honkies – Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson – Kevin Gordon – Lera Lynn – Lydia Loveless – Mandolin Orange – Mary Gauthier – The Mastersons – Max Gomez – McCrary Sisters – Mindy Smith – Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers – Phoebe Hunt – Punch Brothers – Reckless Kelly – Richard Thompson – Robert Ellis – Rodney Crowell – Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside – Sara Watkins – Shovels & Rope – Sons of Bill – Sons of Fathers – Star and Micey – Starr Anna – Steep Canyon Rangers – Steve Forbert – Teresa Williams and Larry Campbell – Tift Merritt – Turnpike Troubadours – Two Gallants – Wheeler Brothers – Whitehorse – The Wood Brothers – The World Famous Headliners

Be sure to keep your eye on the Americana Music Association official site for more additions and information.

See you there (and bring $, beers are on you!)

Kathy Mattea to Release ‘Calling Me Home,’ on Sugar Hill Records

Kathy Mattea has seen both sides of the Nashville fence. 15 consecutive Top 10 hits and four No. 1 singles has her in the good graces of Music City. 2008’s Grammy-nominated “Coal” had her working more in the Americana mystic side of things.

Mattea will be releasing ‘Calling Me Home,’ her first album with Sugar Hill Records, home to Marty Stuart, Connie Smith and Don Williams

Check the EPK below for what Mattea describes as “a love letter to her home state of West Virginia.”

Avett Brothers Confirm New Album “The Carpenter” – New Songs Surface

The Avett Brothers, one of the hardest working bands in Americana music, announced today via their Facebook page that they have picked a title and release date for their next album.

Titled The Carpenter, the Avetts’ sixth album will be released on September 11 via Universal Records. Like their 2009 breakout album “I And Love And You” the album was once again produced by Rick Rubin.
So far two songs have surfaced that I presume will be on the tracklist, “The Once and Future Carpenter” (below) and “Live and Die,” which is currently streaming at NPR Music.

Look for the Avetts on the road near you this Summer and at the Austin City Limits Festival, the New Orleans’ Voodoo Experience and Florida’s Clearwater Jazz Festival in October.

Paul Simon Joins Jerry Douglas Onstage in New York City – VIDEO

Rolling Stone reported that dobro master Jerry Douglas invited a surprise NYC local, Paul Simon, onto the Times Square B.B. King Blues Club stage during his performance on Friday night. Douglas has opened up for Simon past tours and covers the Simon and Garfunkel classic The Boxer, which they performed on this night,  on his new CD Traveler.

This is the only video I’ve been able to find from the event.

 

 

Music Review: Elizabeth Cook – Gospel Plow EP [Thirty One Tigers]

The larger bodies of country music and blues music have always fed from a stream of gospel music. Musicians reared in the Bible Belt, from Hank Williams to Blind Willie Johnson, stylistically moved deftly from Saturday night revelry to Sunday morning revelations mirroring the actual behavior of many of their fans. Hell even Elvis, the poster boy for over-indulgence, took time to record no less than 8 gospel and Christmas albums over his career.

Influenced by a recent performance at the Strawberry Music Festival’s Sunday morning gospel brunch, the recent passing of both her mother and father, and ongoing family strife detailed in her last album’s bittersweet  “Heroin Addict Sister” has Elizabeth Cook getting right with Jesus. Or at least feeling enough of the spirit move her to release this wonderful seven song EP.

Blind Willie Johnson’s “If I Had My Way, I’d Tear This Building Down” is foot-stomper straight from the good book of Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

The title cut a traditional American folk song also known as “Hold On,” and refers to the Gospel According to Luke 9:62. In the passage Jesus replied to the
reluctant disciple in the face of his wavering faith “No one who puts  a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” This song and “Hear Jerusalem Calling” by Jerry Sullivan & Tammy Sullivan has Cook and band, husband Tim Carroll on guitar and Bones Hillman (Midnight Oil)  on bass, as a bluegrass romping breakdown

“Every Humble Knee Must Bow” borrows a swampy vibe from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Heard It Through The Grapevine,” Hammond organ, barrel-house piano and electric guitar steep the tune in sweet Southern soul.

Vern Gosdin’s “The Other Side of Life’ is a beautiful song as it is, but Cook, along with an accompanying church organ, unveils a vulnerability in it that transcends.

Cook showed her inclination for the Velvet Underground by cutting a beautiful version of “Sunday Morning’ on 2007’s “Balls.” Here she she rounds out the  out the EP with an understated and elegant cover of VU’s “Jesus,” keeping just enough of Lou Reed’s somber, woozy, psychedelic tone in this tale of a lost soul looking for redemption.

The only drawback is the brevity of the release. Though it’s a brief affair it’s long on excellence and, unlike the church with the long-winded preacher, you’ll wish the sermon would list a bit longer

Official Site  |  Buy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LdUDGBPBpA

Doc Watson – (1923 – 2012) – The Music Never Dies

I’m not a religious man but I would like to have a word with god. I’d look up at his cloudy beard and steel-blue eyes and say “Stop.” I’m tired of writing posts sending off out legends. Scruggs, Helm and now Watson.

Men who’s storied careers shines a glaring light of authenticity and richness on the current music industry of glib irony and planned obsolesce.  Where AutoTune and beats take precedence over song-craft and instrumental dexterity.

A vascular disease Arthel Lane (Doc) Watson as an infant left him blind for life. He drank in the musical styles and lore from his family and became prolific on the harmonica. then at 10 he took up the banjo his father had crafted for him. By the time he was in his teens he settled on the guitar, the instrument he helped to revolutionize touring the folk circuit with his flat-picking virtuosity.

I’ve never attended MerlFest, the annual music festival held the last weekend in April in Wilkesboro, North Carolina named in honor of Watson’s only son, Eddy Merle Watson, who died in a farm tractor accident in 1985.

Over it;s 24-year history on the four-day festival’s 14 stages you could have see some of bluegrass, folk and country music’s greats -  Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Earl Scruggs, The Kruger Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Douglas, John Prine, Alison Krauss and Union Station. You would have also caught some of roots and Americana music’s shining stars -Gillian Welch , the Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, coming up in the ranks. You would have also seen genre-crossers like Robert Plant, Elvis Costello and Linda Ronstadt making the pilgrimage to stretch their boundaries and pay their respects.

The festival always concluded with Doc holding court performing music of the ages with humility, spirituality and grace.

Of the dozens of artist I’ve seen perform at the roots festival Hardly Strictly Bluegrass over the last three years, three artists rose above the rest by emodying the ages and representing a deep musical legacy the other musicians on the bill drew from – Hazel Dickens, Ralph Stanley and Doc Watson.

Thank you Doc for sharing your gift with the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNYHJIr0ur4

News Round Up: George Jones released From Hospital

  • George Jones has been released from a Nashville, Tenn. hospital. Jones was admitted with an upper respiratory infection. The 80-year-old spent a week in March in the hospital with the same illness. The legendary country singer had canceled performances through June and will reschedule shows where possible.
  • Legendary roots musician Doc Watson remains in critical condition at a North Carolina hospital after undergoing colon surgery this past week. The 89-year-old Watson had also fallen early in the week. No bones were broken, but an underlying condition prompted the surgery.
  • In honor of what would have been his 72nd birthday Levon Helm’s band and friends - led by Larry Campbell, Theresa Williams, Amy Helm, Byron Isaacs and Justin Gulp -  gathered at his Woodstock farm last night for a commemorative Ramble. The show was announced late Saturday night and quickly sold.
  • The Luckenbach Sunday Picker Circle host for the last 3 years, Cowboy Doug Davis, has passed away.  Luckenbach , TX will hold a memorial service in honor of Doug Next Sunday June 3 at 5pm.

Legendary Bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs dies

A great light in the music universe has dimmed. Earl Scruggs was as important to the shaping of American music what Hank Williams and Louis Armstrong  A pioneer in banjo player who helped create modern country music and Americana music that is heard in the contemporary work of Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers Bela Fleck.

Scruggs passed away early Wednesday at the age of 88 of natural causes in Nashville. The same town where the sound  he developed with Lester Flatt and the Blue Grass Boys – a fusion of traditional Appalachian with jazz don with extraordinary dexterity often at breakneck speeds, raised eyebrows in that very town. This was decades before Elvis Outlaw movement also sent tongues wagging.

Honky-Tonk great Porter Wagoner perfectly summed up Scruggs’ legacy like this: “I always felt like Earl was to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball. He is the best there ever was, and the best there ever will be.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A51yM6fjnAE&feature=related

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)

Twang Nation – Holidays at the Ranch Mix -2011

Here’s a little something to stuff your sock,  warm your chestnuts and spike your nog. There’s some traditional (Gene Autry – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer) and the less-so (Drive-By Truckers – Mrs. Claus’ Kimono.) But, I’m sure there’s something here for everyone, except your Uncle Jack, that ass hates everything. Enjoy and Happy Holidays, y’all!

Twang Nation – Holidays at the Ranch Mix -2011

Gene Autry – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Willie Nelson – Pretty Paper
John Prine – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Emmylou Harris – O Little Town of Bethlehem
Drive-By Truckers – Mrs. Claus’ Kimono
Steve Earle – Nothing But A Child
Johnny Cash – Silent Night
Commander Cody – Daddy’s Drinking Up Our Christmas
George Jones – Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus
Dolly Parton – Hard Candy Christmas
Michael Martin Murphey – Two-Step ‘Round The Christmas Tree/Two-Step Medley
Waylon Jennings – Away In A Manger
Dwight Yoakam – Run Run Rudolph
Merle Haggard – If We Make It Through December
The Mavericks – Santa Claus Is Back In Town
Alan Jackson with Alison Krauss – The Angels Cried
Clay Walker – Blue Christmas
Chris LeDoux – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Suzy Bogguss – Two-Step ‘Round The Christmas Tree
Deana Carter – Carol Of The Bells
George Strait – White Christmas
Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys – Christmas Time’s A-Coming
Dwight Yoakam – Here Comes Santa Claus
Neko Case – Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis
Asylum Street Spankers – Zat You, Santa Claus?
Jim Lauderdale – Holly & Her Mistletoe
Otis Gibbs – Jesus On The Couch
Robert Earl Keen – Merry Christmas From The Family
Lyle Lovett – Christmas Morning
James McMurtry – Holiday