Tag Archives: Lyle Lovett

“A Night For Austin” Fundraiser Featuring Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Lyle Lovett and More

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Austin, Texas, the self-professed “lLive Music Capital of the World” has announced “A Night For Austin,” a television and streaming event to raise money for the community of Austin in reaction to the closures and loss due to COVID-19 shutdowns. Produced by Luck Productions. “A Night For Austin” is the brainchild of Grammy legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the two hour, commercial-free telethon-style broadcast will start at 8 pm Central on June 10th at anightforaustin.com and twitch.tv/luckreunion. The program will also air locally on CBS Austin (KEYE). A Night For Austin will be powered by Brightcove, the world’s leading video technology platform.

Performances from Simon, Nelson, James Taylor, and more will intertwine with appearances from the likes of Ethan Hawke, Renée Zellweger, Woody Harrelson, and Owen Wilson; all Texans with a strong love for the city and its people. 100% of the money raised will go to a fund managed by the Austin Community Foundation to be distributed directly to MusiCares Austin, HAMM, Central Texas Food Bank, Six Square, Southern Smoke Foundation, Red River Cultural District, and People Fund. Locals will be able to watch “A Night For Austin” on CBS Austin (KEYE). Worldwide, “A Night For Austin” will be streamed on anightforaustin.com and at Luck Reunion’s Twitch channel, complete with a “virtual tip jar”—a direct link to donate throughout the evening. A full, ever-growing list of performers can be found below.

“The coronavirus has completely upended live music in Austin, which is why we must come together to support the industry that makes our city special. Austin Community Foundation is honored to work with Paul Simon to bring much-needed relief to those who rely on the music scene for their livelihood. The funds raised through A Night For Austin will go to nonprofit organizations equipped to help musicians, producers, venue owners, and others persevere through these difficult times,” said Mike Nellis, CEO of Austin Community Foundation.

What: “A Night For Austin” a two hour, commercial-free telethon-style fundraiser
When: June 10th at 8 pm Central
Where: anightforaustin.com/donate, twitch.tv, or locally on CBS Austin (KEYE)
Appearances by: Paul Simon, Edie Brickell, Vince Gill, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, John Hiatt, Jerry Douglas, Bonnie Raitt and Boz Scaggs, Ryan Bingham, Black Pumas, Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, Augie Meyers with Los Texmaniacs, Flaco Jiménez with Los Texmaniacs, Patty Griffin, Alejandro Escovedo, Willie Nelson, Lukus Nelson, Gary Clark Jr., Britt Daniel (Spoon), Jimmie Vaughan and The Tilt-a-Whirl Band, David Ramirez, Charlie Sexton with Doyle Bramhall II, Terry Allen, Norah Jones, James Taylor, Ethan Hawke, Renée Zellweger, Woody Harrelson, and Owen Wilson.

George Strait’s Hurricane Harvey Relief Concert Set for September

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Announced earlier this morning on Good Morning America, ‘Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Harvey Relief has been set to aid those affected by Hurricane Harvey on Tuesday, Sept. 12. The one-hour special will feature celebrity participants and performances including songs from Country Music icon and Texas native George Strait, live from his benefit concert at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre. Joining him includes 6-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year Miranda Lambert, reigning CMA Male Vocalist of the Year Chris Stapleton, 4x GRAMMY Award winner Lyle Lovett and Texas Heritage Songwriter Hall of Fame member Robert Earl Keen. Select performances from Majestic Theatre will air on ABC, CBS, CMT, Fox and NBC on Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. EST on the East Coast and replay on the West Coast at 8 p.m. PST. The telethon broadcast as well as Strait’s Hand in Hand Texas show will also be available internationally via live stream on Facebook.

Strait, a Country Music Hall of Fame member, pledged to lead the country music world with this concert serving as the start of his ongoing relief efforts, with all proceeds from the show benefiting Rebuild Texas Fund thanks to event sponsor Cavender Auto Family and with assistance from the Majestic Theatre, Ticketmaster, VER, Bill Young Productions and the City of San Antonio.

Tickets to Strait’s Hand in Hand Texas show at Majestic Theatre will go on sale Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017 at 10 a.m. CST at Ticketmaster.com. IT SOLD OUT IN LESS THAN AN HOUR.

Proceeds from the one-hour telethon will benefit United Way of Greater Houston, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, Direct Relief, Feeding Texas, The Mayor’s Fund for Hurricane Harvey Relief (administered by the Greater Houston Community Fund) and RebuildTx.org through the Hand in Hand Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund managed by Comic Relief Inc.

Phone lines, text messaging, and digital donations will be open at the beginning of the show and will conclude one-hour after the show ends. For more information, updates and a link to donate, please visit handinhand2017.com.

Sony Music Nashville CEO Gary Overton is Right (And So What?)

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GaryOverton

When Sony Music Nashville CEO Gary Overton told the Tennessean, “If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist.” it caused a minor kerfuffle between country music bloggers and country artists, like Aaron Watson and Charlie Robison, that felt they , and country msuic’s integrity, were in his contemptuous crosshairs.

I even took it apon myself to decry Overton’s statement on Twitter and retweet links to essays taking him to task.

But after some reflection, I am willing to concede that Overton is correct in his statement.

First context.

Overton made his incendiary remarks while attending the annual Country Radio Seminar in Nashville, where 2,424 attendees, exhibitors, panelists and sponsors came to discuss the future of the industry. That’s the Country Radio industry. Not the roots americana industry. Not the historical preservation of country music.

As with any trade convention quality was not the focus, unless there is a direct line between it and profits.

It’s about return on investment. Period.

No more clear symbol of this was the surprise appearance of Garth Brooks to announced the year’s Country Radio Hall of Fame inductees in both the Radio and On-Air categories.

Whether you like Brooks’ music, or believe he’s the beginning of genre cross-over hell and the end of everything that was good about country music (he wasn’t), with 8 Academy of Country Music awards and a RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) listing of as the best-selling solo album artist of all-time (surpassing Elvis Presley) with 135 million units sold, he is the the gold standard by which radio play, record sales and concert attendance is measured.

Jimmy Rodgers mights be the father of country music, but Garth is it’s first superstar.

This is the ontological existence of which Overton refers. The world made possible by Garth.

When your music is no longer a nuanced craft and becomes a replicable commodity, you exist. If your personality and looks are a marketers dream, you exist. If your income far exceeds the label’s output, you exist. If you’re willing to run that gilded hamster wheel ad infinitum until the end of your short days, you exist.

If you’re willing to use your talents to grease the music row production machine, to achieve potential fame and admiration of millions, you exist.

Short of that piss off.

It’s not all gloom. When an industry behemoth refuses to adapt to customer tastes and industry trends alternatives spring up.

The Nashville Sound led to Buck, Merle , Willie and Waylon. The Urban Cowboy fab resulted in Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett and kd Lang.

Though these rebels were never fully integrated into the machine itself they did send waves into record sales and radio execs had take notice.

Now the so-called Bro-Country fad has Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark, Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell rocking the mainstream country boat.

But like McDonalds facing a healthier eating public, or Budweiser facing a less people willing to swill their sun-par product, Music Row can only partially assimilate. The assimilation will also lead to the application of the Garth standard of success, of existence, so songs will be optioned and the same flavorless production sauce will be slathered over extraordinary songs rendering them worthy of mainstream radio play and consumptions of an always shifting, faceless and fickle demographic.

So Overton is correct. By the Garth standard of rendering cultural artifacts into mass consumption radio fodder, most musicians don’t matter. Thier work or image doesn’t fit into the already prefabbed sonic and stylized containers.

But luckily the Garth standard is not the only one that counts.

There the already mentioned Bakersfield /Outlaw standard of creatively seeing untapped opportunities and bucking (hehe) conventional (and played out) trends.

There’s the model of artists like Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Gretchen Peters, Vince Gill, Chris Knight, Guy Clark and others that straddle the commercial and artistry territories without compromise.

There’s the vibrant and thriving Americana model that cultivates and champions the best of country music, and country music sourced genres , new and older talents. And has created a thriving , and lucrative, community.

And then there’s the Hank III model of giving the finger to Music Row and bringing in a whole new demographic from the ground up, to build a loyal, enthusiastic and sustainable fan base.

Some say the Garth standard of mega sales, and celebrity status, is dead, or dying, in a music industry in transition.

I certainly have no crystal ball telling me where all this is headed. But I take comfort is knowing that Overton and his ilk are on their heels as their concept of existence crumbles beneath them.

Or as singer/songwriter, and one-time potential Voice contestant, Jason Isbell so eloquently tweeted:

“Of course major-label execs are saying crazy things these days. Have you ever heard the kinds of things people say when they’re dying? ”

Austin City Limits Season Finale: Wille Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett + Premieres Feb. 14

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Austin City Limits (ACL) celebrates 40 years on television with a grand finale featuring musical highlights and inductions from the first-ever Austin City Limits Hall of Fame presentation. Hosted by Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, this special showcases highlights performances and collaborations from the ACL Hall of Fame ceremony held April 26, 2014. , featuring Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Buddy Guy, Robert Randolph and more.

The program honors the inaugural class of Hall of Fame inductees, featuring two legendary music acts, Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, and a pair of individuals who played an invaluable role in the genesis of the series, show creator Bill Arhos and Texas Longhorns football head coach and ACL supporter Darrell Royal. The hourlong season finale premieres February 14th at 8pm CT/9pm ET.

For this extraordinary occasion ACL returns to its original Studio 6A, where the series taped its first episode in 1974—featuring Willie Nelson—to honor the artists and individuals who have inspired the iconic television series throughout its four decade run. The intimate performances include inductee Willie Nelson, joined by Lyle Lovett and Emmylou Harris for stunning readings of Nelson-penned classics including “Funny How Time Slips Away”, “Crazy” and “On the Road Again”. Matthew McConaughey inducts his friend and fellow Texan, saying “There would be no Austin City Limits without Willie Nelson”.

Austin blues-rock giants Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble are honored with a stirring tribute and their signature songs are performed by special guests backed by Double Trouble’s Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon and Reese Wynans. Guitar ace Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Grammy-winning singer Mike Farris perform a scorching rendition of “The House Is Rockin’”. Blues titan and ACL veteran Buddy Guy says, “I wasn’t here when Willie started, but I came soon after,” then demonstrates his incredible guitar prowess with an electrifying take on “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. Steel guitar dynamo Robert Randolph performs a fiery version of “Give Me Back My Wig” joined by Doyle Bramhall II. The special comes to an epic close with an all-star reading of a Lone Star classic as a stellar lineup of guitar slingers blaze through “Texas Flood,” a song Stevie Ray Vaughan made iconic when he performed it on a now-classic 1983 ACL appearance.

“The return to Studio 6A was a night filled with many emotions,” says ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “A lot of history was made on that weathered wood stage, so it was only fitting that we come home for this special night to launch the ACL Hall of Fame. It almost felt like a time warp seeing Willie back up there, and we could feel the spirit of Stevie Ray in the room. There was magic in the air, and it shows!”

ACL recently announced the inductees for its second annual ACL Hall of Fame and the first round of tapings for the series’ upcoming Season 41, which include the Grammy nominated country rebel Sturgill Simpson, acclaimed rock outfit The War on Drugs, and new ACL Hall of Fame members Asleep at the Wheel, joined by special guests including The Avett Brothers and Amos Lee, in a special tribute to the late Bob Wills, King of Western swing.

Austin City Limits 2014 Hall of Fame Setlist:
Willie Nelson | “Whiskey River”
Willie Nelson & Lyle Lovett | “Funny How Time Slips Away”
Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris | “Crazy”
Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris & Lyle Lovett | “Pancho & Lefty”
Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris & Lyle Lovett | “On the Road Again”
Kenny Wayne Shepherd & Mike Farris | “The House Is Rockin’”
Doyle Bramhall II | “Change It”
Robert Randolph & Doyle Bramhall II | “Give Me Back My Wig”
Buddy Guy | “Let Me Love You Baby”
Buddy Guy | “Mary Had A Little Lamb”
All-Star Finale | “Texas Flood”

BBC Lost Highway: The History of American Country

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If you haven’t seen the BBC’s “Lost Highway: The History of American Country’ then you’re in for a treat.

This four-part, four-hour documentary follows the musical lineage from the Bristol Sessions to Nashville, from Texas to Bakersfield, and brings it all together in a beautiful story of heritage and style any songwriter would love.

The history of it’s roots in mountain music, through bluegrass it’s first super star Hank Williams and honky tonkers. From the jazz fusion of Western Swing to the dominance of the adult-pop Nashville Sound through the extraordinary and game-changing emergence of female performers and the evolution of newer forms of the genre – country rock to alt.country and Americana.

Featuring contributions from Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Hank Williams III, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam and Dolly Parton among others. Lost Highway: The Story of Country Music is produced by William Naylor; the series editor is Michael Poole.

Sit back with your favorite drink and enjoy.

Asleep at the Wheel To Release ‘Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys’ 3/3/2015

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Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys,

“I think the…Western swing, or whatever you want to call it, will slack off for a little while and then I think some of these younger boys will come out here one of these days with a golden voice and it’ll build again.”—Bob Wills

After attending the Bob Wills Festival and Fiddle contest in Greenville, TX over the winter I developed a deep love for the Western Swing genre and for it’s creator, Bob Wills.

But I’m ready for more.

Luckily early in the new year Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel will again honor the legendary Bob Wills with ‘Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys,’ out March 3 on Bismeaux Records.

Exemplary Americana and country artists like The Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Buddy Miller, Elizabeth Cook, Lyle Lovett, Shooter Jennings, Brad Paisley and George Strait join the band on new interpretations on classics on, what looks like, a release that will best the previous two Will’s tributes from the band.

For over 40 years, Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel have been the deft practitioners and caretakers of Western swing craft, carrying Wills’ traditions across generations and the into the 21st century.

This release will be band’s third full-length Bob Wills tribute following 1998’s ‘Ride with Bob’ and 1993’s ‘A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills,’ with four GRAMMY awards and over half a million copies sold collectively.

From the press release:

“The new album features genre-spanning collaborations with critically acclaimed artists, old friends and new favorites including Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Jamey Johnson, Merle Haggard, George Strait, The Avett Brothers, Amos Lee, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lyle Lovett, Kat Edmonson, Robert Earl Keen and Tommy Emmanuel, among many others. The album is available for pre-order via PledgeMusic and iTunes with the track “Tiger Rag,” featuring Old Crow Medicine Show, delivered in advance of the release date as an immediate download. Asleep at the Wheel will be performing at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on March 4 with spring tour dates to be announced. Watch the exclusive video teaser HERE. Please see the full track listing below.

Widely considered “The King of Western Swing,” Bob Wills (1905-1975) and his Texas Playboys performed thousands of shows across the United Sates for nearly six decades and recorded prolifically in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s. Early stars of American country music, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were a dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers. “After 45 years of traveling and playing, it still amazes me how well this music, born in the 1920s and ‘30s, thrives in the present day,” says Benson. “The artists playing and singing on this collection range in age from folks in their 20s to former Texas Playboys 92-year-old Billy Briggs and 86-year-old Leon Rausch…certain evidence that Western swing music is alive and well as it cruises through the next millennium.” Bob Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and the National Fiddler Hall of Fame in 2007.

Based in Austin, Asleep at the Wheel formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia in 1970. Since their inception, the band has won nine GRAMMY awards, released more than 20 studio albums and charted more than 20 singles on the Billboard country charts. In 1971, the band signed their first record deal after Van Morrison mentioned they “play great country music” in an interview in Rolling Stone. Their debut record, Comin’ Right At Ya, was released in 1973 on United Artists. The release of Texas Gold in 1975 brought the band national recognition, with the single “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” becoming a top-ten country hit. The band has been awarded “Touring Band of the Year” (CMAs, 1976) and the “Lifetime Achievement in Performance” (Americana Music Awards 2009). In 2010, they earned a GRAMMY nomination in the newly minted Best Americana Album category for their critically acclaimed Willie & The Wheel, on Bismeaux Records.

Owned by Ray Benson, Bismeaux Records has won “Best Local Record Label” three years consecutively in the Austin Music Awards. Between 2005 and 2012, Ray Benson wrote, produced and starred in the Bob Wills musical A Ride With Bob. The production sold 70,000 tickets in 18 cities nationwide including the Kennedy Center in 2006. In 2007, Benson performed with Carrie Underwood & Johnny Gimble on the GRAMMY Awards Telecast in a special GRAMMY Salute to Bob Wills.”

Pre-order here

‘Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys’ tracklist:

1. Intro—Texas Playboy Theme (with Leon Rausch)
2. I Hear Ya Talkin’ (with Amos Lee)
3. The Girl I Left Behind (with The Avett Brothers)
4. Trouble In Mind (with Lyle Lovett)
5. Keeper Of My Heart (with Merle Haggard and Emily Gimble)
6. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (with Kat Edmonson)
7. Tiger Rag (with Old Crow Medicine Show)
8. What’s The Matter With The Mill (with Pokey LaFarge)
9. Navajo Trail (with Willie Nelson and The Quebe Sisters)
10. Silver Dew On The Bluegrass Tonight (with The Del McCoury Band)
11. Faded Love (with The Time Jumpers)
12. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way) (with George Strait)
13. I Had Someone Else Before I Had You (with Elizabeth Cook)
14. My Window Faces The South (with Brad Paisley)
15. Time Changes Everything (with Buddy Miller)
16. A Good Man Is Hard To Fine (with Carrie Rodriguez and Emily Gimble)
17. Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas (with Robert Earl Keen and Ray Benson)
18. Brain Cloudy Blues (with Jamey Johnson and Ray Benson)
19. Bubbles In My Beer (with The Devil Makes Three)
20. It’s All Your Fault (with Katie Shore)
21. Three Guitar Special (with Tommy Emmanuel, Brent Mason and Billy Briggs)
22. Bob Wills Is Still The King (with Shooter Jennings, Randy Rogers and Reckless Kelly)

Watch Out! Lyle Lovett – “That’s Right (You’re Not from Texas)” Conan – 4/3/14

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Lyle Lovett

While in Dallas to produce his show Conan O’Brien has had some fun indulging in some things that make the Great State, well, great. But more often than not O’Brien, and his sidekick Andy Richter, just seemed confused. And many of the jokes in a less-hardly clime might be borderline offensive.

Lucky for O’Brien Texas eats offensive for breakfast.

Besides a brisket-filled Piñata (yes, really) Team Coco had the good sense to invite Lyle Lovett and his Large Band performs his classic song of inclusion “That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas).

Austin City Limits Announces Inaugural ACL Hall of Fame in Conjunction With Upcoming 40th Anniversary

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Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits (ACL) announced today the launch of the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in conjunction with the iconic television series’ upcoming 40th Anniversary. This Hall of Fame’s Inaugural Induction Ceremony will take place on Saturday, April 26, 2014 at ACL’s original home, KLRU’s legendary Studio 6A. Recognizing both artists and non-performers who have made the long-running show a music institution, the ceremony will honor the first class of inductees, featuring two legendary music acts, Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, and a pair of individuals who have played an invaluable role in the genesis of the series, show creator Bill Arhos and longtime University of Texas football coach Darrell K. Royal.

Performers for this intimate evening include inductees and Doyle Bramhall II, Mike Farris, Buddy Guy, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Lukas Nelson, Robert Randolph and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Former University of Texas football head coach Mack Brown will participate in the inductions, as well as special guests. More information about performances and additional guests will be announced prior to the event. Details about the physical ACL Hall of Fame will also be unveiled at the ceremony.

Guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan and “Coach” Darrell K. Royal will be inducted posthumously during the ceremony. Willie Nelson, ACL show creator Bill Arhos and Vaughan’s longtime band Double Trouble, featuring Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon and Reese Wynans, will be inducted at the event. The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be an annual event, honoring a new class of inductees each year. This year’s Inaugural ceremony will be an invitation-only benefit for ACL parent station KLRU-TV, Austin PBS.

“There are other Halls of Fame, but none quite like this,” says ACL Executive Producer Terry Lickona. “Austin City Limits has become a unique American institution, in both the worlds of popular music and television. It has such a rich history and legacy that we decided it was time to celebrate and honor the artists and individuals who made it what it is today.”

ACL began broadcasting in 1976 as a live-music show that served to showcase musicians; it has since grown to feature performers of all genres from all over the globe. Since its inception, the Peabody Award-winning series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. ACL continues its mission of producing great television with the debut of its 40th Season in October 2014. The program airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide and episodes are made available online at http://acltv.com/watch/.

Americana For All

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carolina chocolate drops

I’ve been kicking around the ideas to address Giovanni Russonello’s “Why Is a Music Genre Called ‘Americana’ So Overwhelmingly White and Male?” i heard my mom’s advice in m mind,
“just walk away from the stupid.” Part of it was my dad’s voice “Teach ’em a lesson.” i’ve decided to go with dad on this one.

Russonello’s piece frames the recent six-week “Americanarama” tour to argue that the tour’s roster, which included Bob Dylan, Wilco, My Morning Jacket and Ryan Bingham – represents a larger cultural exclusion rampant in the genre.

Setting aside the argument that the “Americanarama” bill does not really represent the contemporary Americana genres, let’s address the premise of “Overwhelmingly White and Male”

Early country, folk and bluegrass have generally appealed to a predominantly anglo audience. Partly because many of the songs are from European source material performed by mostly white people. The trend in these genres have mapped closely to the trends in American society in general and, as opportunities have arisen, woman and people of color have stepped up to represent their unique take on the music.

The difference is that Americana proper (and it’s cousin alt.country) have never been exclusionary.

It’s introduction into popular culture came in the 80’s as MTV gave us the L.A. cow punk band Lone Justice , featuring the gritty soul of Maria McKee, and their “Ways to be Wicked” and “Sheltered videos in rotation with Jason and the Scorchers and The Georgia Satellites on the 24- hour feed.

At the same time kd Lang and Roseanne Cash joined Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam and Lyle Lovett in shaking up Nashville.

Soon after bands like The Meat Purveyoyers, Freakwater , Neko Case, Gillian Welch, the Cowboy Junkies, Hem, Tarnation – all bands prominently featuring female artists – laid the groundwork for Americana.

An allum of the watershed “O Brother where art thou” roster, Alison Krauss, has the enviable honor of having won the most Grammys by a female artist with twenty-seven (!)

Hardly the good-old boys club that article paints for the genre.

Then there’s this:

“… if an art form is going to name itself after this country, it should probably stop weatherproofing itself against America’s present-day developments. And it hardly seems like enough to say you’re carrying on the legacies of black gospel and blues if the performers and listeners venerating them are almost all white.”

The claim that Americana is “carrying on the legacies of black gospel and blues” is specious. True, some artist incorporate gospel and blues within their style, to say that Americana is carrying on the legacy of those sage musical genres is insulting to these thriving genres and their decades of practitioners.

And the argument that since the genre appeals to a particular segments of the population signifies that genre exclusion of others is ridiculous. Much of music is self-identity. If a segment of society don’t see themselves in the performers and their stories it follows that they wouldn’t be compelled to buy the music or attend the shows. Early hip-hop was a primarily African -American cultural phenomenon which has now transcended. As for as I know on one was accusing hip-hop of excluding anglos.

Just as people of color have taken different roads to Americana, and have contributed to it’s evolution. Los Lobos and Alejandro Escovedo bring a uniquely chicano take to the music. The Carolina Chocolate Drops and newcomer Valarie June have infused the genre with African-American string-band and folk-soul influences receptively.

Russonello places Dylan as the “the father of Americana” (I would argue Gram Parsons or Townes Van Zandt) and then points to the current shining light, Jason Isbell, as not heading the lessons of Dylan and providing anything “new.” The argument could be made that Dylan at the beginning of his career, as Isabell still is, brought nothing that hadn’t already been done by Guthrie and Seeger. Russonello then makes the case that “Music gets its power from a keen, contemporary perspective” and then “it feels facile to let this one strain of yellow-page nostalgia represent it.”

This is just lazy. Though the form, the music and singing styles harken back to a yesteryear , topics are either contemporary, like Isbell, Todd Snider and Steve Earle or dealing with the great human truths – love, hate, death – that transcend any time period.

Though the article does a serviceable job of tracing roots music’s trajectory thorough time, the conclusion shows a bias of the writer. Anything this white and male met be a conspiracy..

Americana does reflect an idealized notion of the the past (as Americans are prone to do,) but to confuse the predilections of subjective taste enjoyed by some as a kind of organized Jim Crow-style musical segregation insults a music and musicians that I celebrate daily. It also, ironically, displays a type of bigotry that all cultural forms must undergo some forced, artificial desegregation toward some imagined moral purity.

Let freedom twang!

Americana and Roots 4th of July Playlist

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Johnny_Cash Flag

Ask someone on the street what America stands for and you’ll probably get a different answer from each one. America has a complicated history, as does any combination of human beings, but one thing is certain. We crated in Internet, haolh professional eating competition and make some damn fine music.

Musical independence defines this list. These musicians peruse their vision to sing the tunes they hear in their heart. Here are 10 artists that do it their way and refuse to compromise their pursuit of happiness. These are artists that show the greatness of American roots history and artist ingenuity.

Like all lists it’s incomplete, add your choices in the comments.

Sometimes he overreaches but there’s no denying that Ryan Adams is a man that has followed his own path (and faced his demons) throughout his career.

Throughout his career with The Band and his solo work, Levon Helm generously shared his talent. He did so to the last years as many fans and guest-artist attended legendary shows at his up-state New York farm.

Drawing from classic Texas country and western swing no one sounds like Lyle Lovett and no one puts on a better live performance.

From fugitive to country music legend, Merle Haggard has always empathized with the working class of Americana and given us songs that helped us walk in their shoes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAFmFsb9XM

Nashville taught him about the business side, but the production system also stunted his creativity. Willie headed to Texas to unite the rednecks and the hippies and blazed a legacy with a catalog of classics. The 4th of July is also commemorated by his legendary picnic!

Like his compadre Willie Music City was a professional strait-jacket for Waylon. He risked it all to follow his muse.

Billy Joe Shaver supplied the hardscrabble source material for Waylo the set himself apart and make Billy Joe an accessory to the Outlaw Country movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoiuwUa9oZs

From the fertile soil of Memphis Tennessee, and the pioneering tutelage of Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios, American music was changed forever and Johnny Cash was the country music portion of that that change.

Dylan is the very embodiment of a self-made man. Sure he borrowed from Woody and others but he brought it to another place.

Jimmie Rodgers traded a career in the train industry to playing his signature yodeling songs vaudeville and medicine shows to become the father of Country Music.