Del McCoury to Release “Moneyland”

  • Del McCoury’s new release,  Moneyland (7/8), wants to raise awareness of serious economic issues facing Americans today through a thoughtful selection of six new (or newly recorded) songs, mixed with eight neglected gems and classic favorites that offer a hard-hitting look at today’s economic injustice. In addition to songs from the Del McCoury Band, the album features songs from Marty Stuart, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Bruce Hornsby along with the Fairfield Four, Chris Knight and others.
  • The Dallas Morning News’ Mario Tarradell opines on the mixed success of several pop country crossovers.
  • PopMatters.com really digs Alejandro Escovedo’s new release “Real Animal” (Back Porch). They also dig (though a tad less so) a newly discovered treasure for me Slim Cessna’s Auto Club’s “Cipher” (Alternative Tentacles)
  • Kathy Mattea performed at the Roseburg’s Stewart Park Music on the Half Shell summer free concert series.
  • From Country HoundAfter an eight-year hiatus, Randy Travis is making his return to the Country Music industry with his new album, Around the Bend (7/15.)

George Jones to Release “Burn Your Playhouse Down”

A collection of unreleased George Jones duets entitled “Burn Your Playhouse Down” (Bandit Records) will be released on August 19. The recordings range from the mid-70s with his ex-wife Tammy Wynette to the most recent recording from 2007 with his daughter, Georgette, the only child from the union of George and Tammy.

Seven of the recordings are extra songs, not included in The Bradley Barn Sessions that MCA Records released in 1994. Produced by Brian Ahern, the Bradley Barn recordings brought together superstar musicians and singers from both the country and rock world. Recorded during the worst ice storm in Tennessee history, the 1993 sessions, which took place over the course of several weeks, brought together Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Leon Russell and Marty Stuart – as the core of the studio band with Keith Richards, Mark Knopfler, Emmylou Harris trading off as instrumentalists and vocalists on many of the songs.

The top players in Nashville – Eddie Bayers, Mac McAnally, Jerry Douglas, Glenn Worf, Brent Rowan, Glen D. Hardin, John Jennings, Harry Stinson, Richard Bennett and many more made the icy trek every day to Mt. Juliet,  about 30 miles outside of Nashville. No one wanted to miss these historic sessions which paired Jones with a selection of superstars influenced by the artist they considered the greatest living country singer. Ahern produced the classic Jones hits as an acoustic project to give the songs a different feel than the originals.

The complete track list for Burn Your Playhouse Down includes:
• “Burn Your Playhouse Down,” Keith Richards
• “Window Up Above,” Leon Russell
• “Selfishness In Man,” Vince Gill
• “She Once Lived Here,” Ricky Skaggs
• “I Always Get Lucky With You,” Mark Knopfler
• “You’re Still On My Mind,” Marty Stuart
• “When The Grass Grows Over Me,” Mark Chesnutt
• “I Always Get It Right With You,” Shelby Lynne
• “Tavern Choir,” Jim Lauderdale
• “Rockin’ Years,” Dolly Parton
• “Lovin’ You, Lovin’ Me,” Tammy Wynette
• “You And Me And Time,” Georgette Jones

Review – Kathy Mattea – Coal (Captain Potato)

On her latest release Grammy-winning singer Kathy Mattea has assembled a collection of songs that pay tribute to the Appalachian music of her home of South Charleston, West Virginia and tells the stories of miners, their families, and the impact that mining has had on Appalachia. But “Coal” is more than a study of her Southern upbringing, it’s a personal testament of Mattea’s roots. Both her grandfathers were miners, her mother worked for the local UMWA. Fortunately her father was rescued from the mines by an uncle who paid his way through college.

The catalyst for “Coal” was the 2006 Sago Mine Disaster, which killed twelve miners in West Virginia. The tragedy dredged up memories Mattea had as a child of the 1968 Farmington Disaster when 78 miners were killed at the Consol No. 9 coal mine near Farmington, West Virginia. From her site: “When Sago happened, I got catapulted back to that moment in my life and I thought, ‘I need to do something with this emotion, and maybe this album is the place to channel it’. And so I knew the time was right.” “This record reached out and took me. It called to me to be made,” Mattea says. “If you go through your life and you try to be open, you try to think how can you be of service, how can your gifts best be used in the world…if you ask that question everyday, you find yourself at the answer. And it’s not always what you thought it would be when you asked.”

Choosing that material on the release needed to be particularly exacting. “When I decided to do this, I wanted to be very careful about the songs I chose. I wanted some labor songs, some songs that articulated the lifestyle, the bigger struggles, and I wanted a wide variety musically,” Mattea says. “Most of all, I wanted it to speak to the sense of place and the sense of attachment people have to each other and to the land.”

In the choice of material by some of the greatest songwriters in country and roots music – Jean Ritchie, Billy Edd Wheeler, Hazel Dickens, Si Kahn, Utah Phillips, Merle Travis, and Darrell Scott – Mattea succeeds greatly, as she does in her choice in Marty Stuart as a producer as well as the musicians that accompany her, Byron House on upright bass, longtime collaborator Bill Cooley in guitar Stuart Duncan offers mandolin, banjo, and fiddle, John Catchings on cello, Mattea band member and studio veteran Randy Leago contributes keyboard and accordion accents, Marty Stuart pulling double duty on plays guitar, mandolin, mandola and legendary steel player Fred Newell makes a guest appearance.

The album leads off with two selections from traditional songwriter Jean Ritchie, “The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore,” with a mournful fiddle intro, and “Blue Diamond Mines” featuring Marty Stuart and Patty Loveless on background vocals. Both songs are testaments of the cultural and economic hardships faced by the poor Appalachian communities and their dependency on the coal industry for not only livelihood but for some small connection with outside world.

The Billy Edd Wheeler tune “Redwing Blackbird” is a metaphorical lament on a miner’s hardships. Mattea’s voice takes an almost sorrowful Gallic phrasing atop a sparse arrangement. Another Wheeler tune “Coal Tattoo” is a spry piece detailing an escape of the miner’s life and dreams of better things to come. Si Kahn‘s “Lawrence Jones” is a cautionary tales about the dangers of mine work and is contrasted next by Utah Phillips’ “Green Rolling Hills” idone as a Spiritual-style sing-along which allows a moment of hope.

Stuart Duncan then displays his adept banjo skills on the traditional instrumental transitional track, “Sally in the Garden.” Darrel Scott’s excellent “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” is covered with a beautiful despondency by Mattea.

The first time I heard the classic Merle Travis’ “Dark as a Dungeon” was on Johnny Cash’s “Live at Folsom Prison.” Cash’s booming voice boomed this lament about the danger and drudgery of being a coal miner in an Appalachian shaft mine that was later used as a rallying song among miners seeking improved working conditions.

Mattea makes it her own beginning with a single looming piano accompaniment that slowly breaks into a sparse guitar, mandolin, and cello compliment.Another Wheeler’s song “Coming of the Roads” Features a cascading acoustic guitar, and violin (not really a fiddle-style on this piece) tells the story of the double-edged sward of the pathway to the outside world brought by accessible roads that bring economic opportunity

Finally, Mattea leaves us with a lament from the great songwriter activist Hazel , Dickens entitled “Black Lung.” The hazards of deadly mine environmental conditions on the health of the poor miner sung a cappella as a chillingly mournful conclusion to this dazzling if somber work.

Kathy Mattea – Coal Tattoo – Joe’s Pub – New York City

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af926HzO6-4[/youtube]

Porter Wagner’s Comeback in Full Swing

The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press have some nice articles on Porter Wagoner. When I saw Wagoner a few months ago at Joe’s Pub, and and a few weeks ago opening for the White Stripes and Grinderman at Madison Square Garden (both backed by Mart Stuart) he seemed at the top of his game and has gone on to do other live dates and even a stop on the David Letterman show.

All the while “The Thin Man from West Plains” seems deeply appreciative for the response this comeback has given him. Blessed as he has said.

If you get a chance, go see him. If you can’t go out today and buy his newly released “Wagonmaster” (Anti Records) and remind yourself what country music can sound like it’s performed by a legend that helped invent it.

An excerpt from the AP: “I stopped making records because I didn’t like the way they were wanting me to record,” he sighs. “When RCA dropped me from the label, I didn’t really care about making records for another label…”

That was 1981, after he had been with RCA almost 30 years. Except for the Grand Ole Opry and work on the now defunct Nashville Network, his career dried up like an old corn stalk.

His comeback began in 2004 with a series of gospel records. Soon, he and Marty Stuart, a fellow Opry member, were plotting an album that would recreate the sound and feel of Wagoner’s vintage recordings.

 Porter Wagoner on David Letterman – Albert Erving

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jptVTVMucc0[/youtube]

MTV Urge Interviews Porter Wagoner

Country music’s legend, Porter Wagoner, sits down with MTV Urge for an interview and discusses his start as well as serious health problems he had to overcome to record his new album, Wagonmaster.

You can find the interview here. You’ll need to download the Urge software first, but it”s worth it.

An excerpt: URGE: Your first big break came on Red Foley’s “Ozark Jubilee” show, the first nationally televised country music program. How did you develop your trademark flashy, Nudie-suit image there?

Porter Wagoner: Nudie [Cohn] came to the Ozark Jubilee one day, and I didn’t know who he was. It was in the real early ’50s. He said he made suits for cowboys and people in the movies. And he had a new idea for suits that included rhinestones and sequins … people hadn’t seen anything like that. My answer was, “It’ll probably cost so much I can’t afford it,” because I was barely getting by then. He said, “If this don’t work, they won’t cost you anything. If it does, then I’ll make some money off of making clothes for you throughout your career.” About three or four weeks later I got a big package that had a suit of clothes in it, and a shirt to match it and a pair of boots. It was a peach-colored suit, and it had a big covered wagon across the back of it. It was just unbelievably beautiful. It was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. That weekend I wore it onstage, and boy, people just went “wow.” That was the first one he’d made for anybody. He had made a lot of different clothes for cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, but they didn’t have the sparkle or the glitz.

URGE: You had a life-threatening illness shortly before recording Wagonmaster. How did you bounce back?

Wagoner: I had surgery this past year, July the 14th. I had an aneurysm I had to have taken care of. It got into my kidney. We was talkin’ about doin’ an album at that time, and of course that stopped everything. I started healin’ up, but it took me a long time to get my strength back. Marty [Stuart, album producer] talked to me in the hospital several times [saying], “Let’s get together with a couple of guitars and we’ll sit down and pick some together, and I’d like it if you sang some for me, too.” That really gave me a lot of encouragement, knowing that he was still interested. On the first day, I think we worked 30 to 45 minutes, maybe. He said, “Let’s don’t do too much the first few times here.” And that’s the way we did it. I got to singing and pretty much got my voice back. I was so thrilled to be able to sing again that it really just gave me new inspiration. I was just very fortunate to have somebody like him. Marty loves me like a brother. I had no idea how brilliant he was in the studio. I produced a lot of records, and produced Dolly’s records all the time when she was with me, but he knew new things that I didn’t know. He made a believer out of me. If you could imagine how proud I am of the project. I feel like it’s a touch of brilliance, I really do.

Porter Wagoner – Committed To Parkview

Porter Wagoner Opens for White Stripes at the Garden

From Country Standard Time – Wednesday, June 6, 2007 – Fresh off his just released brand new CD, “Wagonmaster,” Porter Wagoner can look forward to playing Madison Square Garden in July. With a band featuring Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, Wagoner will open for White Stripes July 24.

Stuart produced Wagoner’s new release for L.A.s Anti-label. His video for the Johnny Cash-penned “Committed To Parkview” is getting some play on CMT. He also recently celebrated his 50th anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry with Dolly Parton and Patty Loveless participating.

Marty Stuart Announces Late Night Jam Lineup

Country Standard Time reports – Marty Stuart will host his annual Late Night Jam to benefit MusiCares during CMA Music Fest on June 6 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives (Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson, Brian Glenn) will perform and host the unstructured marathon of live music with guest performances this year by singer/songwriter Neko Case, Muzik Mafia founder John Rich (Big & Rich), Eric Church and Ashley Monroe,Charley Pride, Pam Tillis and Porter Wagoner.

“I try never to lose sight of the fact that Nashville is considered Music City,” said Stuart. “When it is time to book the Late Night Jam, it is always my goal to make every form of music welcome. That’s why the Ryman is such a great setting for this concert. It is the Mother Church. Every year, I always feel like its the best we’ve ever had, and this year proves to be no different.”

Marty Stuart’s 6th Annual Late Night Jam has raised more than $70,000 to date for MusiCares, the philanthropic arm of The Recording Academy.

That same week, Stuart will release “Compadres: An Anthology of Duets,” which includes a lifetime of musical collaborations with friends such as Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Steve Earle, George Jones, BB King, Mavis Staples and others. He will also debut an historic museum exhibit titled “Sparkle & Twang: Marty Stuart’s American Musical Odysse” at the Tennessee State Museum that week featuring treasures from the late Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Elvis and more.

Porter Wagner/Marty Stuart – Joe’s Pub – New York City – 3/30/07

At one time Porter Wagner was something of a visionary. A TV star before most of country music had anything to do with the new-fangeled contraption. Wagner’s TV show was syndicated out of Nashville and was the most popular country show of the ’60s, growing from 18 stations in 1961 to over a hundred stations in the early ’70s ( In 1981, after nearly 30 years, and his television show went off the air). Crooning and strumming guitar bejeweled in his Nudie suits and flanked by a young, buxom newcomer named Dolly Parton – who’s career was launched on his show. Dolly and Porter won the Vocal Duo of the Year by the Country Music Association for the years 1968, 1970 and 1971.

The Thin Man from West Plains, Missouri, was coming to Manhattan for the first time in nearly 20 years to play some of his many hits and showcase some work off his forthcoming CD from Anti records, the Marty Stuart produced “The Wagonmaster.”. I find myself at a 7:30pm sold-out show at Joe’s Pub on the East Side (claustrophobic even by Manhattan standards) among the devotees.

After a warm and heartfelt introduction by Mart Stuart, which included a story of when Stuart was shopping the CD around Nashville nobody was biting. “So we went to Los Angeles and approached Anti / Epitaph, that’s right we had to go to a punk label to make real Country Music.”

Then the man hisself entered the stage looking younger than his almost 80 years, still tall and thin and donning a spangled white Nudie suit and jeweled boots. Maty and Porter then took seats donning acoustics and began a trip through a simpler time, starting the show with “Satisfied Mind.”

Stuart played backup guitar like the master he is while Porter strummed occasionally on his acoustic and read the lyrics from his music stand.

Porter was in a jovial mood and joked with the audience like that did back in the day. He missed some of the lyrics and explained it away as “That used to be Dolly’s part. I called Dolly and told her I was coming to New York said “They are some of the nicest people you’ll meet.” First time she ever told me thee truth.” He cracked.

Porter sang the song that sat in Stuart’s studio for about 30 years after Johnny Cash gave his then band guitarist (and son-in-law) a song about being institutionalized (Porter and Cash were both) “Committed to Parkview.” Marty told the story “John said ‘I’ve got a song for Porter; it’s about a stay in Parkview, which is an asylum at the edge of Nashville. Porter and I both have been guests there.’ Cash gave me a cassette of the song in 1981 and asked me to get it to Porter. I never got around to it until we started collecting songs for this project. I searched my warehouse and found the envelope with ‘Committed to Parkview’ on it, with a note from John to Porter. now you got it!” Porter laughed.

Then came the “Big Sandy River,” “The Rubber Room” and the classic “Green, Green Grass of Home.”

Porter told a tale (after prompted by Stuart by a ‘fan question”) about seeing Hank Williams play in Arkansas when he was Young and then honored Hank by preforming Luke the Drifter morality taleMen with Broken Hearts” and “Lonesome Whistle.”

Then the pair played the solemn “Cold Hard Facts of Life” and the ironically funny “I’ve Enjoyed As Much of This As I Can Stand.”

Marty played a blistering mandolin solo and then it was on to “Dooley”, “..about a man who created a wood picture beautiful woman.” Porter said as he introduced the song.

The fact that Porter Wagner was sitting here in this room was even more miraculous after Porter tells the story of how before recording the new CD last summer he almost died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. “I’m truly blessed to be here.” He said, tearing up a moment. “I’m truly blessed.”

As were we.

McMurtry, Cash, Crowell Top Americana Nominees

James McMurtryfrom Billboard – June 16, 2006, 10:45 AM ET
Phyllis Stark, Nashville
tops the nominees for the fifth annual Americana Honors & Awards, announced yesterday (June 15) in Nashville. McMurtry earned three nominations for album, artist and song of the year.

Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell and Marty Stuart each earned two nominations. Cash and Crowell were separately nominated for both artist and song of the year and Stuart got nods for artist and album of the year, the latter for his “Soul’s Chapel” set (Superlatone/Universal South).

The nominees were announced by recording artists Steve Earle and Allison Moorer at a reception hosted by BMI. Other nominees include the Dixie Chicks, Delbert McClinton and Neil Young.

The Americana Honors and Awards show is set for Sept. 22 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It will be hosted once again by artist Jim Lauderdale and will feature an all-star house band led by Buddy Miller.

The show will air on both Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, as well as on BBC Radio 2 and Voice of America around the world.

Here is a complete list of nominees:

Artist of the Year:
Rosanne Cash
James McMurtry
Marty Stuart
Neil Young

Album of the Year:
“Childish Things,” James McMurtry (Compadre)
“Cost of Living,” Delbert McClinton (New West)
“Souls’ Chapel,” Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives (Superlatone/Universal South)
“The Outsider,” Rodney Crowell (Columbia)

Duo/Group of the Year:
Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockrell
The Drive-By Truckers
Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch & Fats Kaplin
Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez

Instrumentalist of the Year:
Jerry Douglas
Tim O’Brien
Bryan Sutton
Kenny Vaughan

New/Emerging Artist of the Year:
The Greencards
James Hunter
Robinella
Uncle Earl

Song of the Year (presented to songwriter):
“Black Cadillac,” Rosanne Cash; appears on “Black Cadillac” by Rosanne Cash (Capitol)
“Don’t Get Me Started,” Rodney Crowell; appears on “The Outsider” by Rodney Crowell (Columbia)
“Not Ready To Make Nice,” Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Dan Wilson; appears on “Taking The Long Way” by the Dixie Chicks (Open Wide/Columbia)
“We Can’t Make It Here,” James McMurtry; appears on “Childish Things” by James McMurtry (Compadre)