Category Archives: Film

Heartworn Highways To Be Shown Nationwide via Kino Marquee Starting Feb. 5th

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HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS

In the mid-‘70s, filmmaker James Szalapski traveled to Texas’ Hill Country and Tennessee to capture musical white lightening in a bottle. From high school gymnasiums, trailer homes, recording studios to a liquor-fueled Christmas guitar pull in Guy and Susanna Clarks dining room, now legendary performers – Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Young, David Allan Coe, a 19-year-old Steve Earle and many others are shown crafting a genre by looking towards country music’s folk roots and away from Music Row’s glitz.

Musical highlights include Clark’s brilliant “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” Steve Earle’s stirring “Mercenary Song” and Townes Van Zandt’s gut-wrenching “Waiting Around To Die.” (see videos below)

Though filmed in the late 70’s the full documentary was not released theatrically until 1981 and has been notoriously difficult to watch in its entirety. If you’ve never seen it in its entirety now you’ll have a chance. Starting Feb 5 Heartworn Highways will be in Virtual Cinemas nationwide via Kino Marquee.

Visit Kino Marquee here

Guy Clark – “Desperados Waiting For A Train”:

Steve Earle – “Mercenary Song”:

Townes Van Zandt – “Waiting Around To Die”

Amazon Studios to Create Merle Haggard Biopic

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Sam Rockwell, Merle Haggard
Courtesy of Michael Schwartz; AP

deadline.com reports that Amazon Studios has acquired the rights to create a Merle Haggard biopic. Top of the list to play The Hag s Oscar-winning actor Sam Rockwell (The Green Mile, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Blaze) and that he will do his own singing of Haggard’s perennial standards

Robin Bissell will direct the film and will write the script with Merle’s widow, Theresa Haggard, based on the Haggard memoir Sing Me Back Home. Bissell and Haggard will produce the film jointly.

The film covers Haggard’s subsequent struggle to escape his hard past to become a better man and legendary artist. Ashamed of his past, Haggard hid his ex-con status from all but those closest to him until finally coming clean on Johnny Cash’s TV show in 1969. The story also focuses heavily on Merle’s complicated love affair, which played out on-stage and off, with singer Bonnie Owens – his singing partner and eventual wife.

Once Haggard figured it all out, he became a symbol of the power of rehabilitation: from 1966-1970, Merle had 9 number one hits, and would record 38 number one tunes overall and 71 in the top ten. His biggest hits included Okie From Muskogee, The Fightin’ Side Of Me, Sing Me Back Home, The Fugitive, Workin’ Man Blues, Mama Tried and Today I Started Loving You Again, to name only a few. He won seven CMA awards including Entertainer of The Year in 1970. Haggard in 1972 was pardoned by Governor Ronald Reagan, and astronaut Charlie Duke took his Merle Haggard tape to the moon on Apollo 16.

Look Out! HBO Full-Length ‘Deadwood’ Trailer featuring Colter Wall

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Deadwood: The Movie

Deadwood fans are still cautiously giddy at the news of a full-length version of our favorite profanity-splattered Shakspereon western. Deadwood unceremoniously canceled on June 5, 2006 Fans were left with a fragmented and ponderous third season after creator and primary writer David Milch decided he wanted to work on the HBO surfer sap opera ‘John from Cincinnati.” (which was immediately canceled)

In the aftermath, Milch agreed to make a pair of two-hour television films, but HBO executives and the otherwise newly contracted actors at various times over the years put the odds of that happening as slim to none.

But good things come to hooplheads that wait and HBO announced a few weeks back that ‘Deadwood: The Movie’ was happening. This was backed up by W. Earle Brown, who plays Al Swearengen’s hang-dog muscle Dan Dority verified on Twitter that the movie was in post-production.

Then came an official announcement from HBO with a trailer. Canned peaches all around!

Today we get a full-length trailer (see below) trailer highlighting more of the excellent cast (Calamity Jane!) The trailer also treats us with the perfectly placed Colter Wall song ‘Sleeping on the Blacktop.” This is a nice treat though no surprise as Deadwood has always featured great roots music.

Wall’s song being included appears to have been taken him by surprise as he heard the news while working on his ranch. He responded on social media.

Though the news of a movie finally being released is cause for celebration it comes with the bittersweet revelation that David Milch is suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Deadwood: The Movie will premiere on HBO, May 31, 2019.

UPDATE>> Apparently Jason Isbell will have a cameo in the movie!

Colter Wall’s ‘Sleeping on the Blacktop” on his album “Imaginary Appalachia.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0WrXmhvXTA

Watch Out! Gillian Welch and David Rawlings Sing “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” Oscars 2019

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The 2019 Academy Awards held very little appeal for me (how was Ben Dickey, Alia Shawkat and Charlie Sexton’s performances in ‘Blaze’ overlooked?!) but a break in the tedium came when Kacey Musgraves introduced Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. The Americana legends bedecked in matching nudie-esque suit finery performed “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings.” The song was a contender in this year’s race for best original song from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” Welch and Rawlings wrote the track, which was performed on the Coen Brothers’ series and soundtrack by actor Tim Blake Nelson and singer-songwriter Willie Watson.

The Coen Brothers also received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJiToQqeGr0&feature=youtu.be

Drive-By Truckers To Release Concert Film “Black Ice Vérité” + “English Oceans” Deluxe Edition on November 18th [VIDEO]

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Black Ice Vérité

Last winter that the Drive-By Truckers were scheduled to play live at the 40 Watt to support their latest album “English Oceans.” Then a winter storm hit Athens, GA that had a local meteorologist staing that the storm “…truly is Armageddon…”

Sub-zero end-times proclamations were not enough to stop the Rock Show that night as the mighty Drive-By Truckers performed English Oceans in entirety that night.

On November 18th nn extended version of English Oceans will be released as a deluxe edition. In addition to the full album, the deluxe CD will contain eight live bonus tracks and the Black Ice Vérité DVD directed by Jason Thrasher, as will the LP version on white vinyl. Bonus live versions will include “Dead Drunk and Naked” from Southern Rock Opera.

As the final track on English Oceans, “Grand Canyon” brings together both the record and the band’s 40 Watt performance, as it is an emotionally overwhelming elegy for Craig Lieske. Lieske was a longtime member of DBT’s touring family, a former manager of the 40 Watt Club and a key player in the city’s experimental music scene. Lieske died suddenly of a heart attack in January 2013 following the first night of the band’s three-night homecoming stand in Athens. English Oceans is dedicated to him.

“I probably wrote it in 15 minutes,” Hood says. “It wasn’t any kind of a conscious thing. It’s the most important song of mine on the record. I wrote new songs to go with it. It recalibrated something. It became a totally different record for me than the record I thought we were going to make.”

Pre-order English Oceans Deluxe + Black Ice Vérité

CD Bonus Track Listing

1. First Air of Autumn
2. Grand Canyon
3. Made Up English Oceans
4. The Part of Him
5. Feb 14
6. Panties in Your Purse
7. Dead Drunk and Naked
8. Shit Shots Count

Tour Dates

9/12 – Louisville, KY – Iroquois Amphitheater w/ North Mississippi All-stars
9/13 – Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Theater%
9/14 – Champaign, IL – Canopy Club%
9/16 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown#
9/17 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom#
9/18 – Dallas, TX – Southside Music Hall#
9/19 – Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall%
10/4 – Mt. Pleasant, SC – Holy City Hogs
10/10 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle$
10/11 – Birmingham, AL – Cask and Drum
10/ 17 – New York, NY – Beacon Theater$
10/ 18 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory$
10/ 19 – Albany, NY – Hart Theatre at The Egg
10/21 – Pawtucket, RI – The Met
10/22 – Bethlehem, PA – Musikfest Cafe
10/23 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall^
10/24 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theater^
10/25 – Springfield, MO – Gillioz Theater^
10/28 – Fayetteville, AR – George’s Majestic Lounge^
10/29 – Oxford, MS – The Lyric Oxford^
10/30 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium^
11/1 – Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore^
11/20, 21, 22 – San Fran, CA – The Fillmore w/ Sturgill Simpson

# = Lucero
% = Lee Bains & The Glory Fires
$ = St. Paul & the Broken Bones
^ = Houndmouth

Glen Campbell “I’ll Be Me” Official Movie Trailer

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GLEN CAMPBELL I'LL BE ME Official Movie Trailer

One of the most heart-breaking moments of my life was seeing Glen Campbell accept his lifetime Achievement Grammy due to the already evident effects of his Alzheimers. Talking to him and his wife, Kim Woollen, afterword gave me hope. As dire as his future looked he was still in good spirits and was surrounded by people who love him.

Below is the trailer for the Glen Campbell documentary, ‘Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,’ which will be released on Oct. 24 in New York and Nashville.

‘I’ll Be Me’ features footage from Campbell’s Goodbye Tour mixed with stories from artists and celebrities who know and love him, including Blake Shelton, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Vince Gill, Steve Martin, Bruce Springsteen, Bill Clinton, the Edge, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Webb and Jay Leno.

The documentary won the Gibson Music City/Music City Films Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Nashville Film Festival, where it premiered. It was directed by James Keach and produced by Keach and Trevor Albert.

More information can be found at the film’s official site.

T Bone Burnett Recording Unfinished Dylan Tunes with Elvis Costello, Jim James, Marcus Mumford [VIDEO]

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New Basement Tapes

If there was ever an Americana and roots music watershed recording the Basement Tapes 1967 sessions from Bob Dylan and The band was one.

Now there’s official word that that mainstay of Americana, T Bone Burnett, is working on a project “Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes.” The project has a solid (and marketable) roster – Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons.)

The event focuses on two-dozen recently discovered lyrics written by Dylan during the 1967 period that generated original legendary Basement Tapes release.

Recording is nearly complete on the project which will be released later this year by Electromagnetic Recordings/Harvest Records. The album will be accompanied by a Showtime documentary titled Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued, directed by Sam Jones (the Wilco documentary, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart)

I can imagine the germ of this endeavor occurred during the “Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” held at New York City’s Town Hall last September. That one-night event featured Mumford and Giddens as well as Joan Baez, Patti Smith, Jack White, The Avett Brothers, Punch Brothers, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings Machine, Willie Watson, The Milk Carton Kids, Colin Meloy and Lake Street Dive. (see below)

Truth is I’m ambivalent about this. A sequel to The New Basement Tapes is like a sequel to Casablanca. Is it necessary and will it ever have a chance to even come close to the genius of the original. And as much as i respect the artists involved, they are hardly the contemporary versions of Dylan and The Band.

If this was Ryan Adams and the Felice Brothers I still think it would fall short, but damn it would be interesting.

Here’s to being proven wrong.

You can sign up for updates at on the project at the official site.

Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes” will be released Nov. 11. Pre-order here.

Roots Run Strong for 56th Grammy Award Nominees

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Grammy Noms Americana

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Science held their big to-do to announce a few of the nominees for the next round of the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards. The choices in the Americana and roots categories again display an appreciation of some of the veterans of the genre and the roots they represent.

Collaborations reigned in the Best Americana Album category. Emmylou Harris may add another trophy to the 12 GRAMMYS she a lead has on her mantel with “Old Yellow Moon,” her duet collaboration Hot Band guitarist and legendary singer-songwriter , Rodney Crowell. Steve Martin & Edie Brickell are nominated for “Love Has Come For You,” their first joint effort and Americana stalwarts Buddy Miller And Jim Lauderdale are up for their “Buddy And Jim.” Mavis Staples , who won for Best Americana Album in 2011 is up for “One True Vine.” Legendary composer, producer, performer Allen Toussaint intimate and live deliberation of his new New York City home “Songbook” rounds out the list

Nominees for Best American Roots Song include another new New York resident (By way of Texas) Sarah Jarosz for the title cut of her third studio release, “Build Me Up From Bones.” Steve Earle snagged a spot for “Invisible,” his song focused on the homeless and indigent, from his latest “The Low Highway.” Old partners reconvene to gain a spot with Tim O’Brien & Darrell Scott’s “Keep Your Dirty Lights On” from their Memories and Moments. Best Americana Album nominees Edie Brickell & Steve Martin is nominated for the title cut “Love Has Come For You” and Allen Toussaint for “Shrimp Po-Boy, Dressed.”

There are no slackers in a bluegrass band, and Best Bluegrass Album nominees are some of the best in the field. A nice surprise was the choice for newcomers Della Mae’s nomination for their sophomore release “This World Oft Can Be” Members of The Boxcars have collected numerous IBMA and GRAMMY Awards and have shared the stage with legends so it’s no surprise that their third album “It’s Just A Road” was nominated. Though Harlan Howard was referring to country music when he coined the term “…three chords and the truth.” James King and his cracker-Jack band adopted it as the title for their first GRAMMY-nominated album. Veterans Dailey & Vincent (Jamie Dailey (guitar, bass, vocals), Darrin Vincent (mandolin, guitar, bass, vocals)) are up for their 3rd GRAMMY Award nomination for their sixth release “Brothers Of The Highway” and the Del McCoury Band nabbed a nomination for their 14th release “The Streets Of Baltimore.” Del and the band won in the category in 2006 for “The Company We Keep.”

Roots music greatness continued with the Best Folk Album category, whose boundaries blur so much with Best Americana Album category that any performer from either side could swap with a perfumer from the other and few people would notice. Patriarch singer/songwriter Guy Clark grabbed his 6th nomination for his latest “My Favorite Picture Of You.” The Greencards received their 3rd GRAMMY nomination for their sixth studio album “Sweetheart Of The Sun” and Sarah Jarosz is up for her 2nd nomination for “Build Me Up From Bones.” Newcomer favorites The Milk Carton Kids are on the list for their current “The Ash & Clay.” “They All Played For Us: Arhoolie Records 50th Anniversary Celebration,” the roots-rich benefit
in tribute to the Arhoolie Foundation, and the 50th anniversary of Arhoolie Records, is also included.

Music Row continues to show some interest in Americana-leaning performers with country newcomer
Kacey Musgraves up for Best New Artist, Best Country album (Same Trailer, Different Park) andBest Country Snog (“Merry Go ‘Round”.) Best Country Duo/Group Performance category features The Civil Wars for “From This Valley, ” Kelly Clarkson Featuring Vince Gill for “Don’t Rush” and Kenny Rogers With Dolly Parton for “You Can’t Make Old Friends.”

Other nominations honoring Americana and roots artists are the soundtrack for “Muscle Shoals”, nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.

Root-rock pioneer Neil Young, with his band Crazy Horse, is looking to garner this third GRAMMY win with “Psychedelic Pill” for Best Rock Album

Multiple GRAMMY winner, and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, folksinger Pete Seeger received a GRAMMY nomination for “The Storm King,” in the category of Best Spoken Word Album.

Uncle Tupelo / Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is up for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for his work with Mavis Staples, Low and Sarah Lee Guthrie And Johnny Irion.

Alabama Shakes is up for Best Rock Performance (“Always Alright”) Jack White for Best Rock Performance (“I’m Shakin'”) Neko Case for Best Alternative Music Album (The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight…) and Mumford & Sons are nominated for Best Boxed or Special Edition Limited Package, Best Music Film (The Road to Red Rocks)

After the nominations were announced twitter was abuzz with folks pointing out a glaring oversight of Jason Isbell’s “Southeastern” for Best Americana Album. The album is on all Americana and roots music end of year lists.

Isbell took to twitter to address with humor the snub,”Don’t worry guys, I’ll get plenty of noms. There’s a Chipotle right across the street from the hotel! #NOM”

“Don’t worry guys, I’ll get plenty of noms. There’s a Chipotle right across the street from the hotel! #NOM”

Congratulations to them all the nominees. Keep an eye on GRAMMY.com and on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/P on on January 26, 2014 to see who wins.

“Another Day/Another Time” Celebrates the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis” to Air on Showtime

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Another Day/Another Time

“Another Day/Another Time,” a concert inspired by the Coen Brothers’ film “Inside Llewyn Davis”, which itself was inspired by the 60’s New York folk movement, took place at Town Hall
Sun, September 29, 2013.

Luckily Showtime set up some cameras.

The concert features performances of songs from the early 1960s in addition to live renditions of the film’s folk music.

The performances include The Avett Brothers, Marcus Mumford, Jack White, Gillian Welch, Joan Baez, Dave Rawlings Machine, Rhiannon Giddens, Lake Street Dive, Colin Meloy, The Milk Carton Kids, Punch Brothers, Patti Smith, Willie Watson, and the film’s lead Oscar Isaac.

“Another Day/Another Time” will will air December 13 at 10:00 PM on Showtime.

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

The Band’s Dec. 28-31 1971 Performances at New York’s Academy of Music Gets the Box Set Treatment

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The Band Box Set

Ultimate Classic Rock reports that Capitol/UME will release a The four-CD, one-DVD set of The Band live at their peak.

The concerts are from the last week of 1971 and is entitled ‘Live at the Academy of Music 1971′ (Sept. 17)

From Ultimate Classic Rock “The four-CD, one-DVD set gathers 56 performances from the group’s Dec. 28-31 shows at New York City’s Academy of Music. A two-LP version of the concerts was released in 1972 as ‘Rock of Ages.’

The expanded box set will include a mix of all four nights’ shows on two discs (which make up all the songs they played during the four-night stand) and the complete New Year’s Eve concert on the remaining two CDs. Songs include Band classics like ‘The Weight’ and ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.’ The complete track list is below.

In addition to cover songs and reworked versions of their own tracks, ‘Live at the Academy of Music 1971′ spotlights new horn arrangements by Allen Toussaint as well as a surprise guest appearance by Bob Dylan, who joined his old backing band on four songs during the New Year’s Eve show encore.

The DVD includes the remastered first two discs of the box in surround sound, plus two video clips — ‘King Harvest (Has Surely Come)’ and ’The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show’ – from the Dec. 31 concert. The set also includes a 48-page hardbound book with photos and essays.”

The Band’s ‘Live at the Academy of Music 1971′ Track List:


Disc 1
‘The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show’
‘The Shape I’m In’
‘Caledonia Mission’
‘Don’t Do It’
‘Stage Fright’
‘I Shall Be Released’
‘Up on Cripple Creek’
‘This Wheel’s on Fire’
‘Strawberry Wine’
‘King Harvest (Has Surely Come)’
‘Time to Kill’
‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’
‘Across the Great Divide’

Disc 2
‘Life Is a Carnival’
‘Get Up Jake’
‘Rag Mama Rag’
‘Unfaithful Servant’
‘The Weight’
‘Rockin’ Chair’
‘Smoke Signal’
‘The Rumor’
‘The Genetic Method’
‘Chest Fever’
‘(I Don’t Want To) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes’
‘Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever’
‘Down in the Flood’ (With Bob Dylan)
‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’ (With Bob Dylan)
‘Don’t Ya Tell Henry’ (With Bob Dylan)
‘Like a Rolling Stone’ (With Bob Dylan)

Disc 3
 ‘Up on Cripple Creek’
‘The Shape I’m In’
‘The Rumor’
‘Time To Kill’
‘Rockin’ Chair’
‘This Wheel’s on Fire’
‘Get Up Jake’
‘Smoke Signal’
‘I Shall Be Released’
‘The Weight’
‘Stage Fright’

Disc 4
‘Life Is a Carnival’
‘King Harvest (Has Surely Come)’
‘Caledonia Mission’
‘The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show’
‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’
‘Across the Great Divide’
‘Unfaithful Servant’
‘Don’t Do It’
‘The Genetic Method’
‘Chest Fever’
‘Rag Mama Rag’
‘(I Don’t Want To) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes’
‘Down in the Flood’ (With Bob Dylan)
‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’ (With Bob Dylan)
‘Don’t Ya Tell Henry’ (With Bob Dylan)
‘Like a Rolling Stone’ (With Bob Dylan)