Charlie is in the fight of his life with medical bills mounting, and that is why Judd Films has put together a creative way to preserve this historic anniversary concert, while helping out Charlie. With help from Keith Neltner, Judd Films has started a Kickstarter account to help with the hard production costs to get a DVD made of the concert, that will later be sold with all the proceeds going back to Charlie.
When reviews and videos began to surface from Bob Wayne’s recent tour with Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, the big buzz was about Bob’s new fiddle player named Liz Sloan. Not that Bob hasn’t had great musicians in his band before, quite the contrary, and not that a woman should be considered out of place in Bob’s band, but still Liz’s presence intrigued me wildly because I knew there must be a good story behind it.
This is not John Denver and Olivia Newton John ruffling feathers by winning country awards. This isn’t Garth Brooks flying over stadiums on wires. This isn’t Rascal Flatts rehashing classic rock songs, or even Taylor Swift playing with a fiddle player hidden in a dark corner. This is it. This is the bottom of the slippery slope. This is country music’s ‘rock’ bottom.
On New Year’s Day in 1953, country music’s first superstar Hank Williams died of what could be considered an early-era overdose–heart failure due to a lethal combination of morphine and alcohol. He was the first superstar musician to die in this manner, issuing in an era that would see the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Elvis, and many many more.
Today was going to be the release date for Bob Wayne’s new album Outlaw Carnie, but despite a big press push the last few days, it will not come out until January 25, 2011. Wayne had originally been warning folks the new album wasn’t going to be out until early 2011, but then Oct. 26 had been thrown out there as the date. The new album also at one point was going to be called “From The Camper to the Cadillac.”
Justin Townes Earle has officially left a rehabilitation facility and is back at his home in New York City.
Earle entered rehab and canceled his tour after an incident at Radio Radio in Indianapolis that ended with Earle spending the night in jail and being charged with assault against the venue owner and his daughter.
Like JD Wiles of Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers said in part 2 of this series, the revitalization of lower Broadway started in the mid 90’s, but it was in the late 90’s when it really became “special.” Part of the reason for that was undoubtedly the presence of hillbilly royalty, from the bloodline of the man who helped build those buildings.
UnIncorporated is a fun album with great songs that is not afraid to get too deep, or at times to be refreshingly immature.
The beauty of this album is it’s roots in truth. When so many Nashville products try to sing about the common man’s common struggles, they have to do it from the outside looking in. What Ronnie is doing is getting what is inside out, to keep his sanity.
Texas country music legend Billy Joe Shaver will receive a lifetime achievement award nicknamed the ‘Rusty’ on November 17th. The award is named for another Texas music legend, Rusty Wier, and is being bestowed by Love & War in Texas. Scheduled to appear and perform at the ceremony are Gary P. Nunn, Tommy Alverson, Mark David Manders, and the Tejas Brothers.
Any review for Those Poor Bastards should probably start off with a disclaimer that gothic country is not for everyone. Nor do I claim to be an expert of the music; I’ve always felt like I’m on the outside looking in. Having said that, I have really become intrigued and entertained with what Those Poor Bastards do, and think of Lonesome Wyatt as virtually peerless in procuring sounds to set the exact mood he envisions for songs.
83-year-old Charlie Louvin, suffering from pancreatic cancer, is heading out on the road to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Louvin Brothers release of the landmark album Satan Is Real. Charlie, Country Music Hall of Famer and member of the Grand Ole Opry for 55 years, is showing no signs of slowing down. And when he leaves on the road, he will not be playing the usual venues Hall of Famer’s play…
This week it was announced that Toby Keith’s Bullets in the Gun album is the new #1 in country. However this is the worst-selling country music #1 album since stats like this have been kept according to Billboard. A sheepish 71,000 copies sold, and even this is addition by subtraction, as the main reason it’s #1 is Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey went in a 64% tailspin…
The band that has the strongest candidate for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year so far has officially left their label. Reno, Nevada’s Hellbound Glory has left Gearhead Records after months of minor spats and disagreement between the two sides, and is now working with Rusty Knuckles. “We were afraid that we would get overlooked if we were on a label that wasn’t actively putting out new records,” says lead singer and songwriter Leroy Vrigil.
As lower Broadway became a hoping place in the mid 90’s drawing talent from all around the country, competition for choice time slots at the best bars became fierce, and if you didn’t keep the patrons entertained, there was no money in the tip jar. With so much talent and so few bars and dollars to go around, competition became hyper. In this environment, talent and originality were pushed to their limits and it created some of the most dynamic frontmen in any genre of music at any time.
Amazon.com has made available 50 country albums for only $5, and once again, they’ve put titles from independent artists and legends right next to the more popular artists. Of course your average consumer will take whatever they can get for however cheap or free they can get it, but the conscientious music consumer wants to make sure that their favorite artists get paid, and that the most music dollars possible get directly into the artists’ hands.
Sometimes Nashville’s major labels behave so ridiculously, they do things you thought could only exist in a make-believe world, and this is the case with Curb Records and their incessant, redundant “Greatest Hits” album releases for perfume magnate Tim McGraw.
This is an important album. It is important for the burgeoning country scene in Michigan. It’s important for Bloodshot Records. And it’s important for all REAL country fans. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but in some ways that’s what makes it so important. It is straightforward, honest to goodness, good old fashioned country music delivered with no frills, and it’s about time something like this found its way back into “New Release” listings.
I know some of you think that I’m a little crazy for touting Austin’s 15-year-old fiddling phemon Ruby Jane so highly. That is because you have never seen Ruby Jane live. If you had (or have), then you know that despite all of my ridiculous accolades, nothing I’ve written about her does any justice to how astonishing a Ruby Jane Show is. It is the best music I have ever seen live.
Every once in a while an album comes along that you can tell the extra effort was put out to make it right. It’s far beyond just a collection of songs, it unfolds like a story, with all the songs together becoming stronger than the sum of their parts. Its an album that shows patience and wisdom. There’s a grand vision, and more importantly, that vision is realized in the final cut. Deguello Motel is one of those albums.
Right now the #1 country song in America is Kenney Chesney’s “The Boy’s of Fall.” How anybody can even take Kenney seriously after he clearly lip synced his performance at at the ACM Awards in April, I have no idea. Well I’m feeling froggy, and I find this song a little offensive, so I think it is time to take the cover off the smoker, get a bag of Kingsford, throw some mesquite chips on top, and do a little roasting.
Roger Alan Wade, one of the best songwriters out there, has released his new album called Deguello Motel, created from sober reflection of 30 years of hard living. Wade, known just as much for his irreverent songs and being the cousin of Jackass’s Johnny Knoxville as he is for penning songs for Waylon Jennings and Hank Jr., took a more serious approach with this album than his previous two. . .
I am happy, proud, and humbled to announced that two of the best podcasts out there, Outlaw Radio Chicago hosted by Jashie P, and The Reverend Nix shows of Stink Finger Radio and the Mojo Medicine Show are now permanent fixtures (till I figure out how to screw it up) of the SCM LIVE media channel. Outlaw Radio has been archiving their show on the site for a while, but now it will be broadcast here LIVE!
The Ryman is what lower Broadway revolves around, and it is easy to think that however it goes, so goes lower Broadway. When The Ryman was virtually shuttered in 1974 and The Grand Ole Opry moved to the Opry House, that is when the seeds of the lower Broadway decline were sowed.
This is not music that you sit back and marvel at the eloquence as your foot taps. It is like a chest-thumping ritual that makes you succumb to the carnal cry of the country. Imagine the music you would hear coming out of a ramshackle shack far out deep in the woods in the dead of night, with a dusty light and the raw energy of people and music bleeding out between the cracks of the old boards that are perceptibly pulsing to the sweaty beat. This is Hillstomp.
