Tag Archives: Drive-By-Truckers

Drive-By Truckers – The Go Go Boots Episodes

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The mighty Drive-By Truckers have been releasing videos. entitled The Go Go Boots Episodes, in anticipation of their upcoming ninth studio release Go-Go Boots (3/15.) The segments are being shot and directed by Jason Thrasher and edited by Eddie Whelan and so far the we get to see Patterson Hood spin a vinyl test pressing of the Used To Be A Cop for made especially for Record Store Day last year, and  some cozy-looking acoustic versions from the upcoming album.

The Drive-By Truckers’ documentary,  The Secret to a Happy Ending, where filmmaker Barr Weissman followed the band during three critical years of touring and recording, will be released on the same day as Go Go Boots. In te meantime, follow the link above to many local screenings.

5 Off the Top – Thanksgiving Edition

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A great song is like a turducken, layers of goodness and mystery built to baffle as well as satisfy. …or something. Here are some rib-sticking selection for this day of thanks. A big THANK YOU to the men and women in uniform.

Kris Kristofferson – The Pilgrim Chapter 33

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

Patterson Hood  (Drive-By Truckers) – The Thanksgiving Filter – Acoustic

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ope-TwQ1doc[/youtube]

Mark Jungers and The Whistling Mules – We Talk

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wjfRsrFoWA[/youtube]

Johnny Cash – Thanksgiving Prayer

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA7ujUJCIdE[/youtube]

Todd Snider – Beer Run (’cause every Thanksgiving needs beer!)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIDSsY6C9Dw[/youtube]

Drive-By Truckers to Release New Album Go-Go Boots 2/15th 2011

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The mighty Drive-By Truckers will release their 10th studio record Go-Go Boots, on February 15, 2011, the first on their own label  ATO Records.  Go-Go Boots was produced by their longtime producer, David Barbe (Deerhunter, Bettye LaVette, Sugar). In conjunction with the new album they’ll also be releasing their documentary The Secret to a Happy Ending on DVD.

The band will show their appreciation for vinyl and independent record stores by releasing a special 10” 45 with Thanksgiving Filter and Used To Be A Cop on Record Store Day, November 26th. Both songs will be on Go-Go Boots and the release will be a limited pressing of only 2,500 copies and will feature a special sleeve designed by Wes Freed as well as a download card.

DBT will be releasing a series of Go-Go Boots episodes directed by Patterson Hood and Jason Thrasher.  As a preview to the episodes they’ve released a video for Used To Be a Cop.

The band will kick off a month long tour in Europe this week and will end the year with a bang playing New Year’s Eve in New York city at Terminal 5. The Go-Go Boots tour will be announced soon.

News Round Up: Lucinda Williams Tweets New Album Title

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  • Lucinda Williams took to Twitter to announce the title of her forthcoming album. Continuing her recent theme of happiness and matrimonial bliss the title will be Blessed. I guess Lou got her Joy back.
  • Ms. Lucinda and other notable Americana music folks, Drive By Truckers, Todd Snider, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Rhett Miller, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Hayes Carll, became animated to appear in a special musical episode of Cartoon Network’s cartoon centered on hillbilly cephalopods -  Squidbillies.
  • Folk singer-songwriter Ana Egge has tapped Steve Earle as producer for her seventh solo album. The album will be recorded in Woodstock, New York in the fall to record at Levon Helm Studio.
  • Moody-Old time Americana band Black Prairie (a side project for three members of the Decemberists and other notable Portland, OR. musicians) has recently released two new songs they are giving away for free.

The Blackest Crow

Turn It Into Gold

Todd Snider, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Rhett Miller, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Hayes Carll

Fathers Day Playlist

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I know I haven’t been posting much lately. Besides the uptick in my  frequency of the Twang Nation twitter feed and preparing for a move (down the street) but I wanted to do a quick list for Fathers Day. Being a dad it’s close to my heart and there are some great songs out there. Please I saw Darrell Scott  is giving away a free download of his song, A Father’s Song for the occasion so It moved me to get something done. Here’s some of my favorites, got one of your own? Post it below. Thanks for reading.

The Drive By Truckers : Oufit – Jason Isbell shows Southern soul telling a tale of a  man giving sage advice to his son.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTKrtftHCv4[/youtube]

Drive-By Truckers: Daddy Needs A Drink – Yeah, I’m showing my DBT bias here, but great songs are where you find them. Patterson Hood embodys a man worn out by life and seeking liquid refuge.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v5OiZ9C8zU[/youtube]

Dixie Chicks: Godspeed (Sweet Dreams) – Sure Natalie Maines sings this beautiful song, written by Austin legend Radney Foster, but the sentiment of parental love is transcendent. Emmylou Harris ‘ vocals near the end seal the deal.

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

Elton John: My Father’s Gun – From the excellent Americana classic Tumbleweed Connection. A boy inherits his father’s firearm as well as his hatred of the Yanks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_p0lbEuKzk[/youtube]

Lee Canner: Distant Father – One of my twitter followers sent me this as an anti-Father’s Day song from the Victor Mourning’s Stephen Lee Canner. Chilling and lovely Gothic Americana.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlT8tZS1xyE&fmt=18[/youtube]

Michael Dean Damron: Father’s Day – Love this guy and this song from his latest.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imPLOdMQGe4[/youtube]

A Boy Names Sue – Johnny Cash sings Shel Silverstein’s wry tale about a father’s peculiar form of character development.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M89c3hWx3RQ[/youtube]

Stephen Lee Canner

News Round Up: New Releases by John Prine, Johnny Cash Art Collective

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  • In true DIY fashion The Johnny Cash Project is a “global collective art project” that allows fans from all over the world to contribute to a arrogated, user-generated video for the title track from the latest Johnny Cash recording American VI: Ain’t No Grave. The single images are then threaded together into a one-of-a-kind labor of love. I only wish the Man in Black has lived to see this.
  • John Prine fans are about to hit pay-dirt. On May 25th, 2010, Oh Boy Records (founded in 1981 by Prine and manager Al Bunetta) will release the live In Person & On Stage, which will draw from performances spanning the past several years and covering songs from as far back as Prine’s 1971 debut and as recently as 2005’s acclaimed Fair & Square. Then Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine will be released on on June 22nd (Oh Boy) and will feature Prine compositions interpreted by devotees such as My Morning Jacket, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, The Avett Brothers, Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lambchop, Drive-By Truckers, Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg, Justin Townes Earle, Those Darlins, and, reprising their respective tracks from In Person & On Stage, Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins and Josh Ritter. Oh Boy will begin a pre-sale for In Person & On Stage on April 20thand for Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows on April 27th at www.musicfansdirect.com.
  • The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has announced it will pay tribute to the legendary Tammy Wynette with an exhibit titled Tammy Wynette: First Lady of Country Music. Presented by Great American Country (GAC) the exhibit will open in the Museum’s East Gallery on August 20, 2010, and run through June 2011.
  • More news from the The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. An upgrade to the Hall’s core collection, Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through Country Music, are expected to be completed next month. The updates, which focus on country music’s last five decades, will bring the story of country music forward in time and conclude with a glimpse of the future. They will highlight the country-rock, pop-country, southern rock, full-strength classic country and the “Urban Cowboy” craze. The upgrade includes new oversized portraits, video clips and artifacts such as Dolly Parton’s handwritten lyrics to Jolene, Tom T. Hall’s acoustic guitar he purchased from songwriter Merle Kilgore, and items from Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Rogers, Mel Tillis, and Tanya Tucker. Other updates focus on the mid-1980s arrival of artists like Dwight Yoakam, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Randy Travis and Steve Earle. New exhibits celebrate contemporary bluegrass and Americana artists, ranging from Alison Krauss and Del McCoury to Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale.

Music Review: The Bottle Rockets – Lean Forward [Bloodshot]

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br_lean forwardOne of the forebearers of the old school alt.country work ethic of play hard, play often, and play well.

The Bottle Rockets still contain the DNA of thier earlier incarnation of Chicken Truck, a straight up honky-tonk band that preceded the Rockets, and from their relationship with Uncle Tupelo in the 90’s. But while many of thier contemporaries  have either crashed and burned or abandoned the alt.country genre altogether for indy-rock cross-market gold (I’m  looking at you Tweedy!), guitarist/singer Brian Henneman,  guitarist John Horton, drummer Mark Ortmann and bassist Keith Voegele found their groove and honed their craft from years together and miles on the road.

Lean Forward is really two records in one. If you give it a casual spin it’s a tight and powerful rock and roll record that belies the craftsmanship by hitting you in the gut. On closer inspection the deceptively straightforward songs tell of everyday troubles while displaying a smart silver lining.

Wrong turns on tour are serendipitous events (The Long Way), Rolling-Stoned swaggering blues embrace inevitability in the face of good intentions (Shame On Me) and a Bo Diddley stomp-rocker about either a repo-man or a car thief (Nothin’ But A Driver) takes pride in his work.

Hard Times serves up a tasty slice of Southern funk and strikes a working-class Zen view of life – “Hard times, that’s nothin’. Hard times pass” and ending in resolve “I’m not broke down. I’m just out of gas.” Kid Next Door goes up with the Drive By Truckers’ Dress Blues and the Dixie Chicks Traveling Soldier as great slice-of-life songs that show the cost of war from a main street view.

The Bottle Rockets have been a criminally overlooked American rock band for seventeen years now and judging by Lean Forward it hasn’t bothered or slowed them down one bit

Official Site | MySpace | Buy

4_rate

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwZieRvf650[/youtube]

Michael Dean Damron “Father’s Day” (In Music We Trust Records)

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Portland Oregon’s Michael Dean Damron, or Mike D. as he was known when fronting his former hell-raising roots-rock band I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House, isn’t your garden variety sensitive, market tested, conveyor belt type of singer/songwriter. The emotion, fear and anger is laid out on his third solo release Father’s Day for all to feel. He’s not just singing, he’s testifying.

The youthful flame-thrower intensity of ICLASOBITH has been condensed into a focused,  welding torch constructing a dark and twisted terrain of one mans life and soul.

The lost love songs here – Dead Days, Boy With A Car and the provocatively titled I Hope Your New Boyfriend Gives You Aids (do NOT judge the album based on the title of this song, it doesn’t show up once in this beautifully heart wrenching cut.) display just as much defiance as they do remorse. Love songs are welcome, whining is not.

The specter of the Damron family patriarch is summoned and exorcised in the title track. The song tells of Damron’s father’s life as a hard, violent, and lonely one. The song is both a celebration and an unflinchingly cautionary tale. The excellent Angels Fly Up carries on the divisional theme, devils and angels, suicide and celebration- that seems to run through Fathers Day.

Tornado Song is a chugging blues-Gospel number veined with wailing harmonica and I’m A Bastard has Damron unmitigated affirmation of his place among the best of the worst in the troubadour trade.

As if the original songs weren’t enough to make this a fine album the three covers Damron has chosen to include speak volumes, fit nicely and are done with deftness and deference. Drag the River’s Beautiful And Damned is a solemn pedal-steel laced number and a ’round the campfire treatment of Thin Lizzy’s Dancing In The Moonlight are wonderful. The real courage, as with anyone willing to cover the Late Great Townes Van Zandt, comes with the inclusion of an accomplished rendition of Towne’s bleak tale of perseverance Waiting Around To Die.

Damron’s whiskey-and-dust vocals  brings to mind modern day contemporaries like Ryan Bingham, Drive By Truckers’ Patterson Hood, William Elliot Whitmore and Lucero’s Ben Nichols. The worn nature of the delivery adds another depth of ragged beauty to each of these gems. Damron sites Steve Earle, Alejandro Escovedo, Townes Van Zant and Waylon Jennings as heroes. But I believe that the true Patron Saint to his unique style of edgy storytelling, with a penchant for tenderness might well be David Allen Coe.

Sure Father’s Day is not a sunny Summer party album, who cares. It’s a great example of a  mature and excellent singer/songwriter venting his own private Winter.

Official Site | MySpace | Facebook | Buy

Father’s Day mp3

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDIYDNi2uTI[/youtube]