Tag Archives: Ashley Monroe

Listen to Pistol Annies “Run Daddy Run” from Hunger Games Soundtrack

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Singer/songwriter/producer and Americana stalwart T Bone Burnett seems to be practicing a sort of genre alchemy  with the upcoming Hunger Games soundtrack (March 20.)

Mr. Burnett seems to be taking poetic license with Suzanne Collins’ trilogy which follows the heroine, whose home in District 12 that encompasses current-day Appalachia, an region Burnett knows something about. The setting of the books is a sort of future version of the old frontier which also plays to Burnett’s wheelhouse.

Burnett excels  in making neo-rustic music that would appeal more to Hunger Game readers parents. The young women that are the primary demographic for the books are more likely to be fans of indy rock, pop or country pop.

Burnett displays his craft to fuse his world to the new audience adeptly on the  Taylor Swift and Civil Wars track “Safe and Sound.” Now he’s done the same for the same for the Pistol Annies’ cut Run Daddy Run. The song is sung by the group, which consists of Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, and sounds more akin to O Brother’s Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby sung by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch. This is a different sound than the sassy country found on the recent Pistol Annies debut.

Check out the track below and let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYhvKabzUZ4&feature=player_embedded

Music Review: Miranda Lambert – Revolution

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The pride of Lindale, Texas continues to defy all expectations. When every other country artist on the chart is a chirpy little blonde singing lines from her 9th grade journal. Lambert, writing or co-writing all but four of the album’s 15 tracks, waves her classic country pride flag but amps it way up instead of the lazily chasing a hits-laden pot of gold.

From the Eno/Lanois U2 era opener of the of the excellent White Lies and skipping off the grid Airstream Song, the Sgt. Pepper’s era psychedelic sound effects of Maintain The Pain (where we find Ms. Lambert puts a bullet in her radio. Pop Country commentary Texas style?) to the Sticky Fingers/Southern groove of  Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go.

Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum co-wrote Love Song, a song that in Lady A’s hands would probably have been a hot slick mess.
Me and Your Cigarettes could do with less electronic hand-claps, but is still a fine song of addiction and regrets co-written by current and boyfriend, Blake Shelton and former Columbia Records artist Ashley Monroe.

Lamert also has a great ear for covers. Here her cover of Fred Eaglesmith’s Time to Get a Gun is a great interpretation and she delivers it like the song of populist last resort it is and not some 2nd amendment rally cry. John Prine’s That’s the Way the World Goes ‘Round absurdest study is given a honky-tonk treatement spiked with Ramones punk-pop adrenaline. The fine art of Southwestern passive-aggression with is detailed in fine form with the scorching Only Prettier.

Lambert is nothing if not study in adept  duality. She has been able to straddle the line between country and rock in a way that doesn’t get her tossed into the Americana side of the tracks and she’s the only current country mainstream artists to land on the cover of People and No Depression. Here’s a swaller and a holler to Lambert and hoping she continues to surprise her fans shame Nashville with more gems like Revolution.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ufjCDK9dGw[/youtube]

RIP Odetta

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  • The fine folks over at the 9513 drew my attention to some good stuff this AM. LaundroMatinee has several videos from a Joe Pug live performance, including the unreleased songs “Not So Sure” and “Bury Me Far From My Uniform,” and there’s a video for “Old Enough,” a new bluegrass-inspired single by the The Raconteurs featuring Ricky Skaggs, Ashley Monroe and Twang Nation friend Mark Watrous on fiddle.
  • As an early Christmas present Dar Williams is giving away some cuts from her Ann Arbor show at The Ark on September 17, 2008 (Hank Williams Sr’s birthday!) – “It’s Alright” “Buzzer” “Easy Way.”
  • The Grammys nominees will be unveiled tonight, and No Depression has a few words on some of the nominees. I typically tune in to check out the music to avoid.
  • Last but not least, RIP to legendary singer Odetta.