Prince not only appeared to transcended mortality he transcended genre. So it’s not surprising that songwriters and musicians across styles took his sudden death as a call to perform reverent Prince covers to fill the void.
Roots music is no different. Though his music superficially differed from Americana and country music they saw in Prince a prolific songwriters and accomplished musician who’s entire being was defined by his art. Prince created music just as readily as the music created him. They were indistinguishable from each other.
Below I’ve collected a few live tributes in the aftermath as well as Cory Branan and Lydia Loveless superb Record Store Day 2015 purple vinyl split 7″. All are wonderful and you can feel the bittersweet joy in remembrance.
Also a video of Prince doing a Stones classic, because it’s awesome.
Bruce Springsteen – ‘Purple Rain’ – Multicam mix – Brooklyn – New York – http://youtu.be/ifNyqjHHCGw
Chris Stapleton – ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ – Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA – http://youtu.be/dV_Wp4vVlB8
Step right up folks for a chance to win special contest featuring none other than the Man in Black, Johnny Cash.
One lucky winner will receive one Record Store Day exclusive copy of Legacy Recordings limited edition, pressed on white and red colored vinyl, Record Store Day Black Friday release.
Recorded as a concert special on Danish television this collection offers classics like “I Walk the Line,†“Me and Bobby McGee,†and “Folsom Prison Blues.” These songs were originally only available as a performance video of the event.
To enter just comment below (make sure to use a legit email) and tell us your favorite Johnny Cash song. One winner will be picked at random Friday, December 11th , 6am CST. THIS CONTEST IS INTENDED FOR LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE 50 UNITED STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ONLY.
Johnny Cash
Man in Black Live in Denmark 1971
DETAILS
Format: 2 x LP
Label: Legacy
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release
More Info:
During an international tour of Johnny Cash’s popular music-variety TV show he documented the live Danish TV broadcast in 1971. Johnny Cash Man In Black: Live In Denmark 1971 is now available for the first time on LP. This hour-long performance features Cash’s newest and biggest songs including “I Walk The Line,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and “A Boy Named Sue.” June Carter Cash joins him for three duets, solo performances wow the audience by the legendary Carl Perkins (of “Blue Suede Shoes” immortality), The Statler Brothers and the Carter Family all joining together for a gospel finale. This double LP is remastered and pressed on white and red colored vinyl commemorating the historic performance in Denmark.
Track List
“A Boy Named Sue”, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, “I Walk The Line”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Matchbox, “Me And Bobby Mcgee, “Guess Things Happen That Way”, “Bed Of Roses”, “Flowers On The Wall”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Darlin’ Companion”, “If I Were A Carpenter”, “Help Me Make It Through The Night”, “Man In Black”, “Introduction To The Carter Family”, “A Song To Mama”, “No Need To Worry”, “Children, Go Where I Send Thee”
All discussions about roots music lead to some kind of history lesson. But history in theory brings tedium and loss of context. The lucky crowd on hand last Saturday at the historic Granada Theatre were given a living history lesson none of us will soon forget. Ricky Skaggs, Sharon White, Ry Cooder and a grand supporting band performed country, bluegrass and gospel songs (none younger than 1965, Skaggs informed the audience) in grand aplomb
This is the source, the core. The musical crop seed of what now goes by the umbrella Americana. And the standing room crowd stood enthralled in this living and joyous journey into history.
Masterful musicianship and dazzling harmonies (helped by Sharon’s sister and fellow Whites band member Cheryl) wasted no time with a stirring version of Louvin Brothers’s gospel favorite “Family Who Prays.” The spirit of the ages filled the theatre for a nearly 2 hour performance that would alternately hush the room in a solemn silence and then rev them up into whooping, had-clapping, boot-stomping frenzy.
“(Take Me in You) Lifeboat” by Skagg’s own mentors Flatt & Scruggs followed , then a swinging rendition of Merle Travis’ “Sweet Temptation.” Next a solum moment with a devastating Hank Williams’ mournful “Mansion on the Hill.” On through the night on sounds from a reverent band of dizzying talent. But all was not somber reflection, Skaggs, White and Cooder traded affection and jokes all night. After breaking out a banjo for Stanley Brothers’ “Cold Jordan” Cooder quipped “I learned this song from YouTube, and so can you.”
Cooder then donned one of his several vintage electric guitars for the Delmore Brothers stone-rocking “Pan American Boogie.” Then a gloriously sweeping version of Hank Snow’s “A Fool Such As I” (video below) and then Kitty Wells’ song of heartbreak and woe “Making Believe” (written by Jimmy Work), and then a smartly-dressed White nephew joined the band to add to add twin fiddle to a rousing version of what Skaggs named “The state’s national anthem,” Bob Will’s ‘San Antonio Rose.’
Skaggs fluidly moved from mandolin to fiddle to acoustic guitar to a sweet cheery red Telecaster. Cooder was the master of the elusive tone. White was the soul of classic country on acoustic and other-worldly harmonies. A 84 year old Buck White showed why he’s a master of the ivories. Ry’s son Joachim Cooder on drums and Mark Fain laid a fluid yet solid foundation for the band to dance on.
Call it what you will, the music was alive and left the audience hungry for more.
Setlist:
The Family that Prays (Louvin Brothers),
Take Me to Your Lifeboat (Flatt and Scruggs)
Sweet Temptation (Merle Travis)
Mansion on the Hill (Hank Williams)
On My Mind (Flatt and Scruggs)
Cold Jordan (The Stanley Brothers)
Daniel Prayed (Ralph Stanley)
Hold What You Got (Jimmy Martin)
Pan American Boogie (The Delmore Brothers)
Fool Such as I (Hank Snow)
Above and Beyond (Harlan Howard)
San Antonio Rose (Bob Wills)
No One Will Ever Know (Hank Williams)
Gone Home (Ricky Skaggs)
Wait a Little Longer (Bill Monroe)
No Doubt About It (Flatt and Scruggs)
Uncle Pen (Bill Monroe)
Encore:
You Must Unload (John B. Vaughan)
Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’ (Flatt and Scruggs)
Reunion In Heaven (Flatt and Scruggs)
As they have done the last few years organizers of San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival have trotted out over a few say streaming teaser mixes from their upcoming bill.
It’s a playful challenge for the thousands of fans that attend the free three day roots music festival at Hellman Hollow and Marx and Lindley meadows in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to lend their ears and make their best guess as to who those 100 musical acts that will play seven stages.
Over the years I’ve attended the event it’s always unlike any live event I’ve attended. The Bay chill is tempers by warming temperatures and fleet week has the United States Navy’s flight demonstration squadron The Blue Angels zipping high overhead the largely mellow crowd enjoying great music rolling through the rolling fields under the Eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and Monterey cypress trees.
Stumped or just want to cut to the chase? Hood thing the full bill has just been confirmed.
Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin with The Guilty Ones
Scott Miller & The Commonwealth’s Ladies Auxiliary
Spirit Family Reunion
Nick Lowe
Jim White vs. The Packway Handle Band
ALO
Joe Pug
Tim Barry
Tony Joe White
Buddy Miller
Anderson East
The Oh Hellos
Robyn Hitchcock
Nels Cline & Julian Lage
The New Mastersounds
Asleep At The Wheel
Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
Flogging Molly
Delbert McClinton
Fantastic Negrito
Gregory Alan Isakov
Steve Earle & The Dukes
Jamey Johnson
Michael Franti & Spearhead
The Milk Carton Kids
Hot Tuna Electric
The Mavericks
Doobie Decibel System
Joe Jackson
Fairfield Four
Indigo Girls
Gillian Welch
Lera Lynn
Neko Case
Lee Ann Womack
Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds
Angel Olsen
Beth Hart
Heidi Clare & The Goose Tatums
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell
Paul Weller
Boz Scaggs
The Stone Foxes
Ben Miller Band
Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires
Monophonics
Leftover Salmon
The Blind Boys of Alabama
Chicano Batman
Pokey LaFarge
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2015
Three days, seven stages, over 100 artists
Friday-Sunday, October 2-4, 2015
Hellman Hollow, Lindley & Marx meadows in Golden Gate Park
FREE
​When Emmylou Harris sang, “One thing they don’t tell you about the blues when you got ‘em/ You keep on falling ‘cause they got no bottom†in the aching “Red Dirt Girl,†the first song in what was supposed to be Rosanne Cash’s second night as the Country Music Hall of Fame’s 2015 Artist in Residency, the night seemingly could’ve turned into a night of one upsmanship and “watch this.†Raw, almost bleeding and deeply vulnerable, Harris’ song set a high bar for artistry and emotional pulse that could’ve read as a challenge.
​But given that Harris and Cash have been dear friends for 35 years and Lucinda Williams friends for almost 25, what emerged was a testimony to love, grace, talent and songs well-realized. Drawing on old songs, cover songs and songs yet to be recorded, the American roots music queen wove a tapestry of human emotion that brought everyone in touch with their deepest – perhaps even unacknowledged – selves.
​Seeing three women who’ve lived lives, ignited intense love affairs, faced great disappointments, shored up, thrived not just survived – and then wrote or found songs that distilled those things is a thrill. But to watch them love and respect each other unabashedly, shower the others with compliments and tell cheeky stories is to understand the power of women unfurled.
​For Rosanne Cash, whose velvety claret voice soothed Williams’ rusty barb wire tones on the final verse and chorus of “Sweet Old World,†the most rock-leaning of the threesome inspired a moment of true rapture with her song of death and devastation. Williams’ version of the song from the 1992 album of the same name has taken the stunned despair and deepened it with both a world-weary recognition of how much it hurts losing people you love and an appreciation for how wonderful the world is.
​Emmylou Harris waxed wry, offering the insight about NPR’s liberal point of view: “the truth†before launching into stark “Emmett Till,†which she introduced by explaining his racially-driven murder 50 years ago may well have tipped the civil rights struggle in a way that allowed Barack Obama to America’s first black President. Not one to preach, the gently reflection suggests much about the power of songs and women to deliver volatile social messages in ways that make injustice emerge on their own.
​That is the power of the feminine mystique in experienced hands: they can tackle charged topics, embrace Bob Dylan (Cash’s “Girl from North Countryâ€) with innocence informed by passion, get visibly emotional (Williams before singing her beauty in the ravages “When I Look At the World†from last year’s “Where The Spirit Meets The Bone†album) and near intimidation (Cash talking about how she spent her first five years trying to impress Harris “and this song did itâ€) met with off-handed humor (Harris’ reply “which one?â€) as the walk-up to Cash’s second #1, the dusky torch “Blue Moon with Heartache.â€
​For those gathered in the 800-seat Ford Theater, it was the rare peak into the realm of women unfettered. The pair let it all hang out: glorying in songs, basking or demurring from the praise, making off-handed jokes and being unabashedly honest about their love for each other. In the small details – designer Natalie Chanin’s teaching Cash to sew with the admonition “You have to learn to love the thread†turning into the metaphor that inspired the double-Grammy winner “A Feather’s Not A Bird†or Harris revealing the inspiration culled from a birthday gift from the late Susanna Clark, “a print of a Terry Allen piece, what looked like a Leonardo DaVinci drawing of an arm, which would’ve been enough, but then there was a boat emerging from the arm, and it was called, ‘When She Kisses The Ship Upon His Arm†– empowers and grounds part of where their strength lies.
​But more than that, it is the communion of friends, artists, muses. For Cash’s second night of a three night residency – the final being September 24 – she pulled back the veil and revealed the essence of a woman’s heart. It is joy, hope, sorrow and beauty all tempered with love and knowing, and when it is joined to songs tendered with lyrics of nuance, it is a stunning thing, indeed.
​By the time of the encore, the cheers had taken on a force of their own. After pulling Cash’s breakthrough “Seven Year Ache,†the tale of a heartbreak moving through a wide swath of town, as the common ground, each woman had shown her strength and lifted the others up. Celebratory, that man become incidental – yet Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone,†the night’s final song, also suggested these three understand the potency of romance, desire and falling in love to the hilt.
​What isn’t necessary becomes wanted, and that is the magic of life, emotion and the uncertainty of how we move through the world. Standing shoulder to shoulder on the edge of the stage, Cash, Harris and Williams bowed – as much to the forces that brought them to this place as to the packed house on their feet.
Holly Gleason has written regularly for ROLLING STONE, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, PASTE, NO DEPRESSION and HITS, as well as contributing to RELIX, THE OXFORD AMERICAN, PLAYBOY and THE NEW YORK TIMES. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
On July 6th at Austin’s Moody Theater some of country and roots music’s most independent spirits will convene to pay tribute to a musical and cultural pioneer that helped blaze a trail they all travel, Waylon Jennings.
Two days after Willie Nelson’s Picnic many in Austin for Willie’s already fantastic event will gather with others to pay tribute to Jennings who died in his sleep in 2002 of diabetic complications.
The level of talent makes the ticket prices easier to swallow, $150 to $400, which go on sale at acl-live.com at 10 a.m. on Waylon’s birthday, Monday, June 15.
Ticket buyers also have an opportunity to purchase tickets to an exclusive after-party, proceeds which benefit “the United Way and earmarked to help Central Texas residents most affected by the recent Memorial Day floods,†according to a statement on the ACL Live website.
The lineup of “Outlaw: Celebrating the Music of Waylon Jenningsâ€:
• Willie Nelson • Kris Kristofferson • Sturgill Simpson • Jamey Johnson • Kacey Musgraves • Toby Keith • Lee Ann Womack • Ryan Bingham • Eric Church • Chris Stapleton • Billy Joe Shaver • Jessi Colter • Shooter Jennings
The Americana Music Awards just announced their 2015 nominees, and Lucinda Williams, Shakey Graves and Sturgill Simpson lead the pack with 3 nominations apiece. All were nominated for Album of the Year and Song of the year. Williams and Simpson share the Artist of the Year category with Lee Ann Womack, Rhiannon Giddens and Jason Isbell. Shakey Graves shares the Emerging Artist of the Year category with First Aid Kit, Houndmouth, Nikki Lane and the man behind one of the great stories of the year, Doug Seegers.
The awards will again be presented at the Mother Church of Country Music, the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
As impressive as it is the full list of nominees below is it offers just a glimpse of the diverse and strong field of Americana and roots artists building this sustainable genre and cultural force. There are no outliers, surprises or dark horses in the nominees, but that’s not the point of award shows. It’s to reward and display some of the most marketable of the genre to a larger public in order to grow a sustainable fan base for these artists and the next coming up, many of whom can be found playing the week-long festival at local clubs.
As mainstream country starts to take notice of Americana celebration each year in Music Row’s back yard I can’t help but feel that some of that influence (and, yes, proven success. It’ s still a business) won’t have some positive effect on roots music as a whole.
2015 Americana Honors & Awards Nominees
Album of the Year (Award goes to Artist and Producer)
‘And The War Came’ – Shakey Graves; Produced by Alejandro Rose-Garcia and Chris Boosahda
‘Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone’ – Lucinda Williams; Produced by Lucinda Williams, Tom Overby and Greg Leisz
‘Metamodern Sounds In Country Music’ – Sturgill Simpson; Produced by Dave Cobb
‘The Way I’m Livin” – Lee Ann Womack; Produced by Frank Liddell
‘Tomorrow Is My Turn’ – Rhiannon Giddens; Produced by T-Bone Burnett
The surprise the this category is the quirky, less rootsy ‘And The War Came’ by Alejandro Rose-Garcia aka Shakey Graves. I love that country superstar Lee Ann Womack has been so warmly embraced by the community for her great work on ‘The Way I’m Livin’ ‘ and Rhiannon Giddens more than deserves to be here fit her wonderful release. I believe it’s going to a photo finish between Lucinda Williams and Sturgill Simpson.
Artist of the Year
Rhiannon Giddens
Jason Isbell
Sturgill Simpson
Lucinda Williams
Lee Ann Womack
A Lee Ann Womack win would be badass and I believe likely winner Sturgill Simpson would agree.
Duo/Group of the Year
Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn
The Lone Bellow
The Mavericks
Punch Brothers
Shovels & Rope
Can’t quibble with anything here but it would be cool if Brooklyn’s The Lone Bellow walked away with it.
Emerging Artist of the Year
First Aid Kit
Houndmouth
Nikki Lane
Doug Seegers
Shakey Graves
Love Doug Seegers but I have to go with Nikki Lane on this one. Though I would have her in Artist of the Year as she’s now on her second excellent release (which should be up for AOTY)
Instrumentalist of the Year
Hubby Jenkins
Laur Joamets
Greg Leisz
John Leventhal
Stuart Mathis
Great performers all but I have to go with Lucinda’s axw\e-master Stuart Mathis here. The man’s a genius of nuance and a really nice guy as well.
Song of the Year (Award goes to Artist and Songwriter)
“Dearly Departed” – Shakey Graves; Written by Alejandro Rose-Garcia and Esme’ Patterson
“East Side Of Town” – Lucinda Williams; Written by Lucinda Williams
“Terms Of My Surrender” – John Hiatt; Written by John Hiatt
“Turtles All The Way Down” – Sturgill Simpson; Written by Sturgill Simpson
“You’re The Best Lover That I Ever Had” – Steve Earle & the Dukes; Written by Steve Earle
Song of the Year is where I have plenty of conflicts. No Nikki Lane “The Right Time?” No American Aquarium ‘Man I’m Supposed To Be?’ No Cory Branan ‘Missing You Fierce’
9 or Old 97s ‘Longer Than You’ve Been Alive’ Oh well, I don’t program for radio and am looking at (and voted) this category differently than my contemporaries.
Building on the already excellent heritage of being the preeminent roots music event the Nashville-based Americana Music Association has released its first round of artists to perform during the 16th annual Americana Music Festival & Conference, presented by Nissan, September 15 – 20, 2015.
Chris Stapleton is someone who straddles,and thrives in, the stylistic and cultural divide between factions of contemporary country music.
He pens hit songs for the likes of Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley and Luke Bryan, whose version is up for for Song of the Year at this Sunday’s Academy of Country Music Awards. Though they are chart topping these songs are a cut above the bro-country radio fodder currently resulting from the Music Row songwriting sessions assembly line.
As a singer/songwriter his burly baritone gives testimony of a personal journeys that can hush a room or stir a crowd into a ruckus, as he does on this night.
Fresh from his television debut two nights’ before, making it onto the tightly restricted list of David Letterman’s musical guest before his retirement, Stapleton didn’t display airs as he
worked his craft on the road.
You’d be forgiven for overlooking Stapleton as just a member of the audience. Slightly unkempt hair and beard frame his unassuming features. His weathered straw cowboy hat sports a front feather splay emanating from a center turquoise stone. The kind of hat that could come from Johnny Paycheck’s closet.
Stapleton might have an ear for what makes a current country hit, but they’re built from an appreciation and deep understanding of style and stories manifested in classic 70’s country gold. A variety largely abandoned by Music Row in pursuit of money that enjoying a resurgence with artists with greater aspirations, like Sturgill Simpson, Whitey Morgan, Sarah Gayle Meech and Kelsey Waldon.
The Kentucky native resemble many of the crowd that break into hoots and hollers as he climbs on the small stage.
“Sounds like we’ve got some hillbillies here tonight.”
The band slowly build into the heart beat cadence of “Nobody to Blame,†from his anticipated “solo debut “Traveler.” It’s a swampy blue-collar mea-culpa of a man taking responsibility for a list of his wife’s retaliation in response to his unsaid transgressions.
This song is made even more poignant as his wife, the singer-songwriter Morgan Stapleton, sings harmony on the chorus his eyes locked with hers, where they remain most of the evening.
He payed tribute to Texas by performing songs from two of our state’s greatest performers; George Jones’ “Tennessee Whiskey†( also on “Traveler.”) Stapleton’s version is a slower, more melancholy one showcasing his smooth croon and thrilling soaring vocals across the well-worn terrain of temptation, love and salvation.
A young woman requested from the front of the stage to hear the his version of Waylon Jenning’s “Amanda,” as it was her name as well. He graciously obliged , going off setlist to perform the song. The woman, now smiling and flushed, fanned her face as tears ran down her face.
Between shots of fan-bought whiskey (the sweetest kind) Stapleton also paid tribute to his Grammy-winning stint with the new-grass band The Steeldrivers by performing a revved up, honky-tonk version of “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey” and the southern soul murder ballad ‘If It Hadn’t Been For Love.’ famously covered by Adel on the UK version of her album album ’21.’
Stapleton’s delivery of that , and all the songs tonight, make it easy to imagine what ran through Adel’s mind when she first heard that song. “That voice!” And she knows a thing or two about vocal range and texture.
The just repaired air conditioning makes it to the stage too late to bring comfort to Stapleton , who by the time he gets to the last song “Outlaw State of Mind,†his black, pearl snap shirt, was drenched through. ‘Outlaw…’ is a perfect sonic bookend to “Nobody to Blame.†It’s slow swampy build, and rebel-theme, build to a full-tilt bombast to send the grinning crowd into warm Texas night.
Set List:
Nobody to Blame
Traveller
Fire Away
Tennessee Whiskey (George Jones cover)
You Don’t Know How It Feels (Tom Petty cover)
Amanda (Waylon Jennings cover)
If It Hadn’t Been for Love
Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey
Whiskey and You
Outlaw State of Mind
Music is not a static thing. There is no such thing as a pure form of music.
The current hand-wringing around the state of country music implies that there’s some pure, better form of the music that we are denying at best, losing at worst. It;s not new. The same worry of a lost way is a constant topic around most genres. Rock is dead. Punk is head. Hip-Hop has sold out. Bro country is the new satan.
The struggle between art and commerce is the core of this discussion. In order for a performer to continue to make music they need the freedom, creative freedom as well as freedom from starvation.
Since Bristol folk music been driven from the fields and porches and into commodity. It’s a reality and there’s no turning back, and it’s or the best. If not for commodification and musicians being monetarily rewarded for producing music we as fans would not have much of the music that’s become a part of our lives.
In country music Music Row has long been the standard to adhere to and rail against. Music Row’s push toward mitigation of risk by driving standardization and homogeny is a page right out of the Henry Ford and McDonalds book of business. This makes lot’s of money but leads to mediocre music. Sometimes the pendulum swings too far.
The slick Nashville Sound of Eddy Arnold led to the harder Bakersfield Sound with Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Outlaw Country was a latter reaction to the controlled, top-down production of the Music Row studio system. The neo-traditional wave of the 80’s – Randy Travis, Lyle Lovett, Rosanne Cash, Keith Whitley, Marty Stuart, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam was a salvo against the cultural and economic juggernaut known as Urban Cowboy movement.
When George Strait and Alan Jackson joined forces to chastise the industry on “Murder on Music Row,” they were setting their sights directly on that savvy self-promoter Garth Brooks.
So is the midst of bro-country brouhaha we have a new country music savior. Like these other, dare I say, outlaws Sturgill Simpson is the ultimate outsider. Exacting in his sound and themes, indifferent about current style (music and fashion) Sturgill’s working his variation of 70’s hard country music that 30 years before was mined by neo-traditionalists like Dwight Yoakam. And there appears to be a new audience hungry for a similar sound.
A stark contrast to the Merle Haggard show I attended a few days before, the crowd was young but no less reverent. 20 and 30 somethings arrived at Dallas’ storied Club DaDa to catch a sound that their grandparents might enjoyed at Billy Bob’s decades before.
The pendulum swings.
After some last minute changes by the local promoter due to chilly weather and to accommodate grumbling fans left ticketless from the small venue (I believe Sturgill could have sold out The Granada) the crowd was packed, primed and a little pickled.
Baltimore native opener Cris Jacobs had a daunting task confronting this rowdy crowd. But his Chris Stapleton-like soulful croon and dexterity on the acoustic and cigar box guitar quickly won us all over.
Once Jacobs set ended within minutes Simpson enters the stage to the roar of the crowd, which was the only signal that something had happened. No big announcements or set changes, just…Sturgill Simpson lead guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. It’s startling in the world of entertainment big entrances how effective this was.
And without pomp and choreographed gyrations to distract a crowd you need to deliver, and Simpson and band did just that. Estonian-born guitarist Laur Joamets is a present day Don Rich. His throwback Travis Tritt looks and mastery of that staple of country music , the fender Telecaster, showed why Simpson, no slouch on the guitar himself, gave him the gig.
Simpson looks menacingly into the crowd with a crooked smile and sang his songs about hillbillies and mind-altering substances and the crowd responded in dizzying accord. The audience’s singing was so enthusiastic that during the hits ‘Turtles All The Way Down ” and “Living the Dream,” the band was barely decipherable and many passages Simpson just the crowd at it, and smiled.
Which makes me wonder, is it a hit if radio refuses to play it? The crowds response gives me all the answer I need.
This night, this show, this crowd – it all had a feeling of once in a lifetime event. Like you’ll never see this man in a venue this small again. with the late-night show appearances and sold-out shows he’s moving on to bigger places.
But no matter how big this becomes Simpson is keeping it all in perspective. On his bus after the show show Simpson confesses ‘This has been a wild year , and I’m thankful. But I remember those nights when nobody came. you can’t take this for granted.”
Simpson is a tipping point of other traditionally like-minded folks like Jamey Johnson and Kacey Musgraves that are at the right place, at the right time. And more importantly, with great songs and a sense of history, but without a dogged allegiance it it.
Is Simpson country music’s savior? No, it’s doesn’t need saving. bUt he and his fans are having a hell of a tie riding the pendulum as it swings.
