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Americana & Roots Music & Culture
Now it’s time for some family props. My dad, Jerry Max Lane, has written and performed Country music for over 30 years. He’s had his songs covered by the likes of George Strait. Now he and my talened step-mom, Jeannie, have a song (him writing, her singing) on the soundtrack for the new Ashley Judd movie Come Early Morning
The song is great and Jeannie sings it with heart.
From the Merlefest press release: Wilkes Community College will present MerleFest 2007, the 20th annual festival in celebration of the music of the late Merle Watson and his father Doc Watson, on its campus in Wilkesboro, NC on April 26 – 29, 2007. Those joining Doc Watson and Merle’s son Richard Watson for MerleFest 2007 will include:
Blue Highway; Sam Bush; Cherryholmes; Elvis Costello; John Cowan Band; Donna The Buffalo; Jerry Douglas; The Duhks; Béla Fleck; Paul Geremia; John Hammond; Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver; Del McCoury Band; Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet; Darrell Scott; the Legendary Earl Scruggs with Family & Friends; Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives; Pam Tillis; The Waybacks; and many others.
MerleFest 2007 has also confirmed appearances by Susana & Timmy Abell;
RG Absher & Extra Measure; Alberti Flea Circus; The Belleville Outfit
(formerly DesChamps Band); Ira Bernstein; Spencer Bohren; Roy Book Binder;
Laura Boosinger; The Carolina Chocolate Drops; T Michael Coleman; Crooked
Still; Deer Clan Singers; Dixie Dawn; Robert Dotson; Benton Flippen Band;
The Flowers Family; Pat Flynn; Forget-Me-Nots; Ruthie Foster; Gospel Jubilators; Mitch Greenhill; Buddy Greene; Dianne Hackworth; George Hamilton IV; Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz; Orville Hicks; Bob Hill; Willette Hinton & the Hinton Family Band; Clint Howard; The Infamous Stringdusters; The InterACTive Theater of Jef; Reverend Robert Jones; Jim Lauderdale; Jack Lawrence; Mark Lippard; Jeff Little; Brack Llewellyn; The Local Boys; The Lonesome Sisters; The Lovell Sisters; Bill Mathis; Thomas Maupin; Andy May; Curly Miller & Carole Ann Rose; NC Thumb and Finger Style Guitar Players, Inc.; Nashville Bluegrass Band; Dirk Powell Band; Red Stick Ramblers; Roan Mountain Hilltoppers; Robinella; Jim Rooney; Tom Sauber; Shana Banana; Larry Skipper; Joe Smothers; Steep Canyon Rangers; Tut Taylor; Joe Thompson & Bob Carlin; Toubab Krewe; Happy Traum; Uncle Earl; The Waybacks; Charles Welch; Pete & Joan Wernick; Cyndi Wheeler; Wilkes Playmakers; Tony Williamson; and The Worthless Son-In-Laws. All bookings are subject to change without notice due to circumstances beyond the control of the festival.
Tickets go on sale on November 14th!
::Shooter Jennings and the .357s
::Live at Irving Plaza 4.18.06
::Universal South
I was lucky enough to attend this show at Irving plaza in New York City and I’m happy to report that this release includes most of the songs played and captures the beer soaked rowdy recklessness of the night.
What Shooter does here, with his fine band the .357s, is country-rock his way. In the fine tradition of the Allmans and Skynard he mines the sprit of rebellion of both genres instead of the blandness that might occur (Eagles anyone?). The balls-out approach to tales of Texas drug busts (“Busted in Baylor County” with a nice tip-of-the-hat to Black Sabbath “Sweet Leaf,” in the bridge and “Steady at the Wheel” and the smooth and steady “Gone to Carolina” and “Southern Comfort” show the wide palette Shooter uses to paint his own musical landscape.
I don’t know if Shooter will ever rise to the legendary level of his daddy but he’s already on his wayto blazing his own outlaw trail.
Shooter will be returning to the scene of the crime, Irving Plaza N.Y.C., on 11/4 with The Watson Twins (as in “Jenny and…” and Brooklyn neo-folkies Oakley Hall.
EDIT – On mutiple listens my one gripe is that the CD is too brief and should have been 2 CDs. That is all.
I remember as a kid in Texas in the 70’s you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing “Wasted days and wasteed nights” and “Before the Next Teardrop Falls.” Both made it to #1 on both the pop and country charts.
Fender recently won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album in 2002 for “La Musica de Baldemar Huerta.” He also shared in two
Grammys: with the Texas Tornados, which won in 1990 for best Mexican-American performance for “Soy de San Luis,” and with Los Super Seven in the same category in 1998 for “Los Super Seven.”
He said in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press that one thing would make his musical career complete — induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
“Hopefully I’ll be the first Mexican-American going into Hillbilly Heaven,” he said.
RIP Freddy. I hope you got there. You certainly earned it.
There’s a great article/review on Waylon Jennings and the newly released box set, Nashville Rebel, At PopMatters.com. From the article:
The “outlaw country†thing was always as much about camaraderie as anything else. It was a reason to stick with his pals, to make music with those who understood. And that feeling of walking in the same footsteps as other like-minded musicians stretched back to the past, as all of these outlaws wore on their sleeves their debt to the giants of country music. In the mid-’70s two Waylon Jennings singles, written by the man himself, made this point clear as day. First “Bob Wills Is Still the Kingâ€, a tribute that puts Wills on the highest pedestal (“it don’t matter who’s in Austin / Bob Wills is still the king”) while also declaring Waylon’s own love for the Texas tradition of honky-tonks and western music. And then its flip side, the lament “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Wayâ€. As an anti-Nashville-showbiz statement it set up Jennings as an outlaw, but it’s also a statement of solidarity with the simple, from-the-gut approach of Hank Williams.
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Gary Allan is a great artist with a voice and a sincerity that can really draw you into a story. The man took a personal tragedy (the suicide of his wife) and turned it into a theraputic, personal and exceptional album “Tough All Over.”
I’m sure Allan’s current opening slot with Rascal Flatts will allow him good exposure to a wider audience. Too bad the pain caused by the pop-country swill of the Flatts will make me to miss him when he’s here at Madison Square Garden on the 16th.
Hey Gary, when you’re done opening for a band not worthy of carrying your gear come back through on your own and I’ll be front and center.Â
A nice announcement on Pitchfork – Columbia/Legacy will reissue Johnny Cash’s first chart-topping album– the live Johnny Cash at San Quentin– on November 14 as a three-disc (two CDs and one DVD) set, along with plenty of previously unreleased extras.
The 2000 remastered version of the 1969 LP expanded the original’s tracklist from 10 to 18 tracks, but this release will transcend both by including 13 previously unreleased performances from Cash and his entire ensemble, which included his wife June Carter Cash, the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers.
Click on the above link for track lists.
The Texas Yodas doing it again for the family farmers. This year the 20th annual Live Aid benefit concert will take place in Camden, New Jersey and will feature Jerry Lee Lewis, Gov’t Mule, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Los Lonely Boys, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, reggae legand Steel Pulse, polka legend Jimmy Sturr, Steve Earle and his wife Allison Moorer, Shelby Lynne, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Arlo Guthrie, Pauline Reese and Danielle Evin and of course, Mr. Willie Nelson.
If you can’t make it to the show, please consider making a donation anyway.