A few days ago I found myself driving from Taos, New Mexico to Austin, TX; a junket I dubbed the “Waylon Jennings Historic Tour”. As I drove in on Farm to Market road 54, I noticed the name change to “Waylon Jennings Blvd”, and when I reached the heart of town, at the corner of Waylon Jennings and Hall Ave., I found what I was looking for in the form of “Waymore’s”.
When Justin Moore’s “Outlaws Like Me” comes out, I will listen to it with the most un-bias perspective I can muster, and try my best to judge the music beyond the marketing. But in the meantime, I am not going to look at him as the problem, I am going to look my self and ask, “What did I do wrong? How can I resolve this? What can I do to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future?”
Old Highs and Hellbound came into my music world at the same time, so attention for their first major release from 2008, Scumbag Country, got pushed aside for the more up-to-date project. But having recently seen the band at South by Southwest, it spurned me to go back and really delve into the recorded versions of these songs. And I dare say, as much as I’ve showered Old Highs with praise, Scumbag Country might even be better…
Whitey Morgan and his bass player Jeremy Mackinder have a very similar symbiotic relationship that made the pairings of Waylon Jennings and his drummer Ritchie Albright, Willie Nelson and his drummer Paul English, into such successful, productive duos: a working relationship that just works, where creativity can flourish while nuts and bolts tasks still get done. During SXSW I sat down with the pair for a chat.
On March 27th, 2011, Hellbound Glory made a tour stop at Will’s Pub in Orlando, FL. Down a man on the tour to begin with, then down their bass player a few nights before, with their fill-in steel player filling in on bass the day after getting beat up by a bunch of bikers, the remaining members rallied, reached down deep, and pulled out a remarkable, rememberable performance as a power trio that will forever be known as “The Concert in the Cracker Swamp”.
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.
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…
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.
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.
Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson were part of the recent Kennedy Center Honors festivities honoring Merle Haggard in Washington, and during the numerous functions, the three country music legends apparently had some time to discuss the possibility of a supergroup. Previously Merle had discussed plans of doing an album with Willie . . .
George Strait might have put out an album called Twang, but Ghost Train is the one that delivers it. This album is heavily guitar-driven from the start, turning the twang on the Telecasters to 10 and leaving it loud in the mix. Its the kind of twang that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Then add some Ralph Mooney pedal steel on top and Ghost Train might be the freshest, funnest and truest traditional country album to come out of Nashville in years.
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.
This is going to be a long one. So for those short of attention, let me summarize by saying that compared to most of the independent/Outlaw/underground country I am used to listening to and reviewing, this album is somewhere between mediocre and average. But compared to the rest of the material coming from major labels in Nashville, this album is remarkable.
When Amazon announced 50 $5 albums for August I thought it was a one off deal, but September has dawned with 50 new ones, and just like last time, there are killer names right beside the mainstream ones.
Hey Ryan, it’s me, Country Music. I’ve been hearing some interesting things lately, about how you’re eager to dispel that your music is country. This puts me in a weird position, because I’m used to people using my name to call things “country” that are not. But I heard your first two albums, and though I wouldn’t say they are solidly country…
I had no idea what to expect when driving down into Dallas to see Willis Alan Ramsey perform. Information on the legendary, but somewhat reclusive songwriter is scant at best. No website, calendar or social network sites to help. If you’re not religiously scanning the fine print of your local alternative newsweekly, and you don’t live in or near Texas, you’re likely to miss him.
When it boils right down to it, what is it going to take to Save Country Music? Hard work, education, and grass roots efforts are one way, but the magic bullet would be an artist that could rise above all the arguments dividing country music, and offer widespread appeal through a new approach while also […]
I’d love to tell you that I know a lot about Larry Jon Wilson, who died Monday at 69 from a stroke, but truth is I only know him through the bits of his music that have passed under my nose over the years, and from his appearance in the documentary Heartworn Highways. There isn’t […]
Today we’re met with the sad news that actor Dennis Hopper has died of cancer. As a star in films like Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now and others, and as a long time friend of Willie Nelson, Dennis could could be seen as an honorary country music Outlaw so to speak. Especially since he was right […]
The sheer speed at which American pop country is devolving before our very eyes can only be described as “awesome.” It is the evolutionary equivalent of if we could witness a species of apes evolve into a new race of humans in the length of a football season. As the creatively bankrupt boardrooms of Music […]
I’m going to have a lot to say about this record, but the upshot is that its damn good. It is an improvement from Hank III’s last offering Damn Right, Rebel Proud. It may not be his best album, or the album of the year, but considering all the different factors Hank had to juggle […]
When you hear the name Roger Alan Wade you’re likely to hear somewhere before or after “Johnny Knoxville’s cousin.” Not that anything is wrong with being Knoxville’s cousin, or even maybe using that to help your music career, but Roger has songs numbering in the hundreds. He’s written for Johnny Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson, […]
Today is the day that original country music Outlaw Billy Joe Shaver faces trial for shooting 50-year-old Billy Coker in the cheek outside of Papa Joe’s Saloon in Lorena, TX, on March, 31st of 2007. Shaver’s charged with aggravated assault. The incident has been memorialized in the song Where Do You Want It? from the […]
As I first reported here, Michigan-based honky tonk band Whitey Morgan & The 78’s have signed with Chicago-based independent label Bloodshot Records. Both times I saw them at South by Southwest, their live show did not disappoint. Whitey might be the closest thing to Waylon you can see these days. There’s a lot of bands […]