Tag Archives: Robert Earle Keen

Twang Nation Podcast Episode 10 – Chris Knight, Buddy Miller,Jim Lauderdale, John Fullbright, Gurf Morlix

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podcastEpisode #10 (alright double digits!) of Twang Nation Podcast pulls from my first 10 of a list of 21, Cream of the Crop selections from 2012. It’s been a great year for Americana and roots music. T Bone Burnett has done a fine job of sliding roots artists like Lindi Ortega and Shovels and Rope within a Music Row soap opera with ABC’s Nashville. The Americana Music Association continues to burnish the brand and their conference and wards show set attendance and submission records. Even that bastion of Music Row glitz, CMT, saw crossover potential and launched CMT Edge which has featured artists like Jason Isbell and Justin Townes Earle.

2013 shows no signs of slowing down with upcoming releases from Kris Kristofferson, Dale Watson as well as joint releases from Kelly Willis and her hubby Bruce Robison and Emmylou Harris and ex Hot Band member and legendary songwriter Rodney Crowell.

As the Americana music culture and industry grows and becomes more of a mainstream staple, with bands like Mumford and Sons and the Avett Brothers leading the way, I applaud the advantages and the opportunities for musicians and we who cover them. As I’ve said, I want the performers I cover to get more prestigious gigs, better recording facilities, more gear and to leave their touring vans behind and be bale to afford the relative comfort of a touring bus. I don’t believe musicians should suffer for tier craft (much!) Here’s to mutually rising boats.

In the new year I resolve to do my best not to follow the hyped path most traveled and do what I’ve always done, follow my heart and my ear to places more interesting and authentic for the love of music. I hope you come with me in and enjoy what I discover.

Thanks you for reading the site, following on twiiter , Facebook, Google+ and my work over at Grammy.com.

Happy holidays and a safe and happy New year to you all.

Opening Song – “Mr. D.J” – by Dale Watson
1.Chris Knight– song:”Little Victories”- Album: “Little Victories” (Drifter’s Church Productions)
2.Malcolm Holcolmbe – song: “Gone Away at Last”- Album: “Down the River” (GypsyeyesMusic – out now )
3.Darrell Scott – Song: Hopskinville – Album: Long Ride Home (Full Light Records)
4.Corb Lund – song: Gettin’ Down on the Mountain Album: Cabin Fever (New West Records)
5. Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale That’s Not Even Why I Love You. – Album: Buddy and Jim (New West Records)
6.Iris DeMent – song:Sing The Delta- Album:Sing The Delta (Flariella Records)
7.Dwight Yoakam – song:A Heart Like Mine- Album:3 Pears (Warner Bros. Records)
8.Turnpike Troubadours Song: Gin, Smoke and Lies- Album:Goodbye Normal Street (Bossier City Records)
9.John Fullbright song:Satan and St. Paul- Album:From The Ground Up (Bossier City Records)
10. Shovels & Rope– song:Fire On The Hill- Album:O’ Be Joyful (Dualtone Records)
11. Gurf Morlix – song:Present Tense- Album: Gurf Morlix Finds the Present Tense – Out March 5, 2013)
12.Robert Earl Keen– song:Merry Christmas from the Family- Album: Gringo Honeymoon

Twang Nation Podcast Episode 3

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Due to either 1) all the great and positive responses from listeners and bands, or 2) my general bullheadedness, here it is friends, Episode 3 of the Twang Nation Podcast just in time for the holidays! This episode is festive a mix of gritty (Possessed by Paul James, Doc Dailey, Matt Woods ) and glorious (Laura Repo, Whitehorse, Matraca Berg) and concludes like an empty Tecate can perched on top of a silver tensile Christmas tree, with the classic Robert Earle Keen’s Merry Christmas from the Family. Remember you can leave requests or feedback below or emeuial me at baron(at)twangnation(dot)com.

Twang Nation Podcast Episode 3

1. Possessed by Paul James – song:  Four Men From The Row -  album: Feed the Family (Hillgrass Bluebilly Records 2010 )
2. Root Jack – song:  The Good Life -  album: In The Pines
3. Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil – song:  Sunday School  album: Victims, Enemies, & Old Friends (Southern Discipline Recording Company)
4. Eleven Hundred Springs  – song:  Texas Afternoon -  album: Country Jam (Palo Duro Records)
5 Laura Repo  – Song: Like to call you honey album: Get Yourself Home (Independent)
6. Whitehorse – Song: “Killing Time is Murder – album: self-titled debut  ( Six Shooter Records in October )
7. Matt Woods – Song: Beating Down My Door  – Album: The Matt Woods Manifesto (Lonely Ones Records)
8. Whiskey Daredevils – Song: Party Plates  – Album: Introducing the Whisky Daredevils (Lonely Ones Records)
9. Matraca Berg – Song: Your Husband’s Cheating On Us  – Album: The dreaming Fields (Dualtone Records)
10. The White Buffalo – Song: Matador – Album: The White Buffalo ep
11. Robert Earle Keen  – Song:  Merry Christmas from the Family – Album: Gringo Honeymoon

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass – Friday Picks

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If this years 10th annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is anything like last years it will be jammed with people. I guess the word got out that the best Americana and Roots music festival in the country was FREE!

As always there is no shortage of great live music to see, the only problem is getting from one of the 5stage to the other in time to see the. Sometimes an impossibility since performers like the Flatlanders, Steve Earle and Robert Earle Keen, are often playing opposite one another. What’s a Texan to do?!

Here’s my pass at who to see and when. There is some overlap or outright conflicts. i did this list believing that i could time travel and be at any stage at any time,blogger’s license. Look it up. Your mileage may vary so if this doesn’t lift your skirt head over to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and make your own damn list.

Fri Oct 1 (10:30am – Noon & 2pm – 7pm)

The early part of Friday on the Star stage PMW and MC Hammer will perform special educational program for local schools. My daughter is going to this. i hope she comes home singing “Can’t touch this.”

1:45 – Rooster Stage: Jerry Douglas w/ Omar Hakim & Viktor Krauss – A musician’s supergroup. Viktor Krauss (Lyle Lovett, Bill Frisell) on bass, Omar Hakim (Weather Report, Sting, Dire Straits) on drums and the man I consider the Jimi Hendrix on the Dobro Jerry Douglas (Ray Charles, Phish, Dolly Parton, Paul Simon, Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello, and Johnny Mathis, performed on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack)
2:00pm – Banjo Stage: The Ebony Hillbillies – billed as the “Only New York City Black String Band.” Being Gotham-based may may not sound like a ringing endorsement for mountain music but this group delivers.
2:45pm – Rooster Stage: Patty Griffin – Fresh from Robert Plant’s Band of Joy where Griffen is pure joy to watch. Will Percy make an appearance?
3:00pm – Banjo Stage: Blue Highway – This band is one of the only real Bluegrass bands on the three-day bill. even though the band if based in East Tennessee heir hot-shot Dobro player,Rob Ickes, is from the Bay Area. Represent!
5:45pm – Arrow Stage: the subdudes – New Orleans’ R&B swamp boogie at its finest.
5:45pm – Rooster Stage: T Bone Burnett Feat. Punch Brothers & Special Guests Karen Elson and The Secret Sisters -  The reigning Americana producer brings a stripped-down version of his Talking Clock Review to the HSB stage.

News Round Up: RIP Vic Chesnutt

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Welcome to 2010 folks, not let’s get a cup of joe and roll up our sleeves, and get into the latest in music happenings…

  • The New York Times features an article, Nashville Inches, Ever So Grudgingly, Into The Future, where it compares the lack of innovation in Music Row to the stubborn (and suicidal) stance to the recording industry over the last decade. Country music has learned tat “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” in as much as it’s attained it’s current  brand of pop-country. This is where the article overlooks Nashville’s history of of style assimilation over the past 50 years from co-opting the 1940’s crooners to the current filching of bad 70’s rock.
  • New York City twangers need to head over to the always excellent Rockwood Music Hall on Tuesday, January 12 to see friend of  Twang Nation Joe Whyte (the King of NYC Americana)  who will be appearing with his full band, Cat Popper (Grace Potter, Ryan Adams) on bass, Rob Heath (Kevin Kinney, Jill Sobule) on drums, and Dan Marcus (Norah Jones, Ana Egge) on guitar. Whyte will be playing current favorites as well as premiering new music to appear on his follow up to Devil in the Details.
  • American Songwriter’s newest legend’s issue features Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earle Keen, Bobby Braddock, Rickie Lee Jones, Richard Thompson and John Prine.
  • If you didn’t hear, died on Christmas Day at his Athens, Georgia, holidays singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt took his own life by overdose of muscle relaxants.  Paralyzed from the waist down after a 1983 car accident, Chesnutt was wheelchair-bound since the age of 18 and suffered from years of depression. His music is a unique blend of idiosyncratic folk/Americana, bracing in its beauty as much as in its honesty. Here are some tributes: PopMatters.com, Online Athens, the New York Times and the Guardian.uk.