Reno, Nevada’s Hellbound Glory has announced plans for a brand new album. The working title is Damaged Goods, and it is set to be out by the end of this summer. But wait Don Pardo, there’s more. Frontman, singer, and songwriter Leroy Virgil is also working on an EP for his more signer/songwriter-oriented side project called “The Excavators” that has the tentative title of Underground.
For 14 years, Hank III struggled under the oppressive control of Curb Records, who did little to promote his music, held up his album releases with legal wrangling, and stifled his creative freedom. Revival Fest will be the first time Hank III will be able to play whatever he wants without worry of handing over intellectual property to Mike Curb’s evil empire.
On the same day Curb Records released Hank III’s Hillbilly Joker, marketed as a “new” album on displays at Hastings and other outlets even though the album is 8-years-old, they filed suit against cash cow and perfume magnate Tim McGraw for breach of contract. McGraw has been trying to get Curb to release his Emotional Traffic album that he turned into Curb last Fall.
The altercation happened after Coe hit the jackpot on a slot machine. There was confusion as security guards gave him orders that he did not comply with because, as he states, he couldn’t understand them because of hearing loss. The situation escalated until Coe was tackled by two sheriff’s, detained, and eventually jailed for a brief period.
Country Music Hall of Famer Charley Pride will be portrayed in a new biopic about his life by former pro wrestler turned actor/comedian Dwayne Johnson, aka “The Rock”. Though many outlets will love to portray that “The Rock” is “Going Country”, in truth he is just signing up to play a role in a movie (though current Saving Country Music/Las Vegas odds of The Rock parleying the role into a country music career are a very generous 3 to 1) .
Family Tradition, The Three Generations of Hank Williams, a new book by Susan Masino chronicling the lives of Hank Williams, Hank Jr., and Hank III, was just released today via Backbeat Books…she was given “unprecedented access” to Hank III, and being the first print book to deal with his story in detail, it carries a lot of before unknown facts and information about the youngest Hank Williams.
Thursday, August 4, 2011 will be the inaugural run of the “Johnny Cash Music Festival”, put on by Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, with direct help and participation from members of the Cash family. The focus of the music festival is to raise funds for the “Johnny Cash Boyhood Home project” in Dryess, Arkansas. The lineup is star studded to say the least.
Judd Films and Neltner Creative have just launched the website louvinfilm.com in support of the upcoming documentary Charlie Louvin / Still Rattlin’ The Devil’s Cage, now targeted for a July 15th release date. In breathtaking cinematic quality, the film covers the final concert, and final days of the Country Music Hall of Famer, and interviews with notables such as Marty Stuart, George Jones, John McCrea of Cake, and Emmylou Harris.
Country music might ignore Record Store Day (RSD) this Saturday (April 16th), the worldwide event that has become an international holiday for audiofiles, but Saving Country Music won’t. Neither will Bloodshot Records, who has a number of releases and events planned for the day meant to prop up the ailing mom and pop record store.
May 20th will be the release of the movie Bloodworth, starring Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam, Hilary Duff, and Val Kilmer. The movie is based off the novel Provinces of Night by William Gay, and originally the movie was going to have the same name. The movie also contains some contributions from some lesser-known country artists.
Shooter Jennings, son of country music Outlaw legend Waylon Jennings, along with his long-time partner and fiance, Drea De Matteo, most famous as “Adriana” from The Sopranos have given birth to a baby boy with a famous first name: “Waylon Albert “Blackjack” Jennings.
A couple of spanking new albums have just dropped that you should be abreast of. The first is the long-awaited album from songstress Little Lisa Dixie. It seems like Little Lisa has been around forever, but this is her first serious, full-length, self-titled release on Another Mile Records. It comes up in discussion often how many underground country bands are from the upper Midwest, and how many are NOT from the deep South. The Honky Tonk Hustlas are an exception…
The Country Music Hall of Fame has just announced that on April 16th, 2011, they will honor Hank Williams in a special presentation called “I Saw The Light, Songwriters Salute Hank.” I Saw the Light, which is presented in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy…will feature Rodney Crowell, Ashley Monroe, the Secret Sisters and Steve Young. During the program, which will be hosted…
Only six months removed from releasing the Saving Country Music Album of the Year called Deguello Motel, Roger Alan Wade is right back at it, just releasing a brand new album that is light years away from the sober and reflective DeGuello, called Too Fat To Fly. Roger made the announcement about the release on Blue Ribbon Radio Episode #50…
Ralph Mooney was the best steel guitar player ever. Period. End of story. And anybody who disagrees with me, I will come to where you are and personally kick your ass. And beyond the steel guitar, he was one of the most important and most influential musicians in country music history. Top 5. Maybe even top 3. Hell, right now I can’t even think of one I would put above him. Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs? Yeah, I would include him in that company.
In June of 2010, Hank III set out on his first Canadian tour in years, and ended the run playing a string of shows from Washington State back home to Nashville. Opening for Hank III on that stink was the self-proclaimed “steampunk crooner” (before Sugarland stole the “steampunk” bit) Izzy Cox, but unfortunately Izzy didn’t make it very far.
The Outlaw Carnie Bob Wayne can go toe to toe with just about anybody when it comes to dedication to the road and touring. When his recent album Outlaw Carnie came out through Century Media on January 25th, he was touring in Europe. Well now he’s back, and with little rest he will be hitting the road on an American tour in support of the new record, and in the latter half of April, in support of the legendary Wayne “The Train” Hancock as well.
Country has been the very last of the major genres to embrace the revitalization of vinyl, with one exception: Hank Williams III, who has been releasing his records on vinyl for years, and has his full catalog available in the format. In conjunction with Record Store Day this year, 700 limited-edition colored vinyl copies of his albums…
As if Nashville needed anything else to be more like the Hollywood of the South, celebrity news outfit TMZ set up shop in the Music City this week, specifically on lower Broadway. “I wanted to get a new batch of stars,” explained Harvey Levin on the show that originally aired Friday, 3-4-11. But instead of getting “tim, Faith, Dolly, and Carrie,” they got the barely-known but boysterous Bridgette Tatum, and “Slim Chance…
A couple big bits of news have just oozed out of the deep cracker swap of interior Florida like Jed Clampett’s bubblin’ crude. The first is that up and coming one man band “Lone Wolf”, who was heard first right here on Saving Country Music’s SCM LIVE on Reverend Nix’s “Mojo Medicine Show” has announced his debut album, and Lowebow Fest will be broadcast in its entirety on SCM LIVE!
Yes Spring is beginning to sprung, in some places at least, and as highways are reopened and paroles lifted, the great mass of musicians get ready once again to hit the open road. Of greatest importance to Saving Country Music, this includes the 2010 Album of the Year winner Hellbound Glory, and fast-rising neo-traditionalist Lucky Tubb & his Modern Day Troubadours. Full tours have just been announced from Road Bound Booking (see dates below), as well as additional dates for Wayne “The Train” Hancock & Bob Wayne. (See full Road Bound Booking calendar).
In a few recent interviews, Justin Townes Earle has let slide some tidbits about big plans for the upcoming year. It was just announced today that he would be playing The Nelsonville Music Festival in the middle of May, and Bonnaroo in June, but sometime afterward he will be heading to the old continent to make some new music inspired by Memphis.
I feel the need to iterate to you some observations for last night’s 2011 Grammy Awards, if only to get them off my chest. This is not entirely going to be a bitch fest. Every year they air the Grammy’s, and every year people are left scratching their heads and feeling hopelessness for music, and so it was to be expected that this year would be no different…
The Pickathon Festival, Aug 5-7 out in Portland, OR boasts of having “The best festival experience in the country.” And having been a participant of it in 2009, I can vouch personally for this bold statement. But Pickathon and others don’t throw this statement out to create a rabid desire for tickets with the idea of shattering previous attendance numbers in a yearly cash grab. . .