Well, we’ve just about reached the half way point of 2011, and let me level with you folks, so far this has been a down year for music. Yes, there’s been a few good projects and some surprises as well, but generally speaking it’s been pretty bleak compared to 2010, which was such a bumper year for music.
If country music was like old-school wrestling (and now that I think about it, it kind of is in a bad way) then Ted Russell Kamp would be one of the good guys. Possibly best known as “Shooter Jennings’ bass player”, this moniker does little justice to the breath of Ted’s talents as a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter. The strength of Kamp’s music is his songwriting, and his voice.
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.
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.
First off I want to apologize to everyone about all the drama that has been happening in some of the comments sections of recent articles. When I started this website, I did so with a strict philosophy that everybody should have a place to voice their opinion, and that discussion and disagreement when done with respect can contribute to a healthy community. I have always encouraged criticism and dissenting viewpoints. I have also always had a strict distaste for censorship in any and all forms. So if I or anyone else posted something on the site, it was there for eternity…
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…
Saving Country Music needs a theme song. And instead of emailing individual bands to beg for assistance, I thought we could have a little fun with this and make it into a contest, where bands and artists submit their songs, and readers vote on them. Hopefully this will result in a good theme song, and some good exposure for the bands and artists that turn in submissions.
I’m not giving any answers here, only questions and concerns. Not criticisms, just observations. I have severe, deep loyalty to Hank III, but I am loyal to the music above any man. As inexplicable as it is to think that Shooter Jennings has now taken the helm from Hank III in the effort to help highly-talented up and coming country bands, it is also undeniable.
Rachel Brooke’s new album Down In The Barnyard has been creating a lot of buzz lately, and on Wednesday she talked with Jashie P of Outlaw Radio Chicago about the album, her upcoming tour with Those Poor Bastards, a proposed 7-inch release on Farmageddon Records, and how Shooter Jennings is helping her with his “XXX” movement.
I’ll level with you folks. I do not like tribute albums. At all. Any of them. Period. No matter who the albums are in tribute to, or who is doing the tributing. I’m not going to give some long-winded intellectual treatise about why, I will fully admit it simply comes down to taste. They are just not my speed. Chide me all you want, I probably deserve it.
As the name implies, Hillgrass Bluebilly Records defines the nexus of where hillbilly, country, bluegrass, and blues meet. This rich and diverse environment that has been created in the independent/underground music world embodies all roots music as unified expressions of purity and soul, regardless of the origins. Keith Mallette and co-founder Ryan Tackett have created a burgeoning homespun record label that is getting…
Shooter Jennings’ talk of forming a new genre of music called XXX has been all the talk of this website and others, and a few days ago he offered up an exclusive an extensive interview with Jashie P of Outlaw Radio Chicago about the XXX idea, about his latest and controversial album (to some) Black Ribbons, his feelings on country music and if he has “turned his back on it,” and about his long-standing, one-sided feud with Hank Williams III.
Alright look. I know that some of you have already grown tired of the back and forths talking about what to call music and how to manage it, and rather we all spend more time focusing on the actual music itself. I agree, and that will continue to be the main focus of Saving Country Music. But right now, I do not think there is a bigger issue facing the music we all love than this proposed XXX genre. I have already made my initial thoughts known, and had many critical things to say . . .
A while back it was brought to my attention that industrial rocker Shooter Jennings, along with No Depression blogger Adam Sheets had crafted the idea of starting a new genre of music, or more specifically, a radio format, called “XXX” after the nomenclature found on the front of moonshine bottles. The idea is to give a home to music that “is too rock for country, and too country for rock.”
For the birthday of baby Jesus, Shooter Jennings is offering up a free album Missed The Boat: A Collection of Demos and Rarities in exchange for your email addy. The album covers a wide swath of Shooter’s career, including demos as far back as 1998, a few remixes and leftovers from his recent Black Ribbons album, and a few live recordings as well.
For those that missed the Hank III interviews with Outlaw Radio Chicago and Big G of the Real Deal, they are now both archived, HERE and HERE. But for those who are unable or willing to listen to the full interviews, below you will find a summation of the meatier nuggets: From Outlaw Radio: Jashie […]
I picture a post-Apolcolyptic scene: ghost towns full of crumbling buildings and rubble, smoke filling the sky and blocking out the sun, the result of a society that gave no value to art, heritage, and truth; a vast wasteland of grayness. Then all of a sudden in the midst of all the death and decay, […]
(Note: This is a COUNTRY music website. But because we’ve followed Shooter’s transition from country to rock, because his father is the Flying W, and because he was playing at the Roger Alan Wade show I was at, I decided to write a review. No bellyaching; we will resume our regular countrified programming shortly.) When […]
Well ladies and gentlemen, we were a week late, but we got the REAL Country Roundtable Volume 2 done. Topics discussed include: Why so many REAL country bands are coming out of the Midwest and Upper Midwest (and not the South). Has the .357 String Band “lost something” since mandolin player Jayke Orvis left. And […]
I’m gonna start this off with a prediction: Either this album will be some groundbreaking marquee release in rock n’ roll history, or it will be the most curious find in the bargain bin in short order. It is pure genius, or an unforgivable stroking of ego. Either way, Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon, is […]
As I reported back on Nov. 21st, Shooter Jennings will be releasing his new album Black Ribbons on March 3rd. The first single “Wake Up” will be released on December 22nd, but you can listen to it now through the link below. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN It has also been revealed that the album will […]
On March 3rd, Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon Jennings will be releasing his fourth album, and it will be about as country as concrete fields. It is entitled Black Ribbons, and the first single “Wake Up” will premier on Dec. 22nd. ““Black Ribbons” features the debut of Shooter’s new band Hierophant, who inspired him to […]
When I first asserted that Shooter Jennings was quitting country music, there were some that said good riddance, others saying “say it ain’t so,” some that outright disagreed with the premise that Shooter could do such a thing, and a few who were looking forward to this potentially new direction. There were also some hoping […]
First thoughts that Shooter Jennings might be calling country music quits surfaced when Shooter’s label, Universal South announced that they were releasing a Greatest Hits album, Bad Magick: The Best of Shooter Jennings & 357’s. Since it hasn’t been even five years that Shooter has been doing the country thing, this release seemed a little […]