Author: Americana Music News

Hayes Carll holiday-flavored set makes for a great time

By Paul T. Mueller

Singer-songwriter and Texas native Hayes Carll launched his Grateful for Christmas Tour with a couple of sold-out shows at Houston’s Heights Theater. The second, on Dec. 2, was a great time for all concerned. Carll, in fine voice and fine humor, performed only a couple of actual holiday songs (his own “Grateful for Christmas” and Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy.” But he threw in nice covers of John Prine’s “Christmas in Prison” and Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” as well as some others that he described as sort of holiday songs in that they at least mentioned drinking. Scattered throughout were funny and sometimes touching anecdotes from his years growing up in the Houston area (his parents were in attendance) – and frequent declarations of his gratitude for his audience. 

Emily Gimble, Melissa Carper, Hayes Carll, Allison Moorer, Rebecca Patek Photo by Paul T. Mueller

Singer-songwriter and acoustic bassist Melissa Carper opened the show, accompanied by pianist Emily Gimble and fiddler Rebecca Patek. Highlights included a nice rendition of “Christmastime Is Here,” familiar from the holiday classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Carll opened his set solo with “Beaumont” (which is set in December) and then brought out the band (including guitarist Scott Davis, bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Mike Meadows, plus Patek and Gimble) for the lovely “Love Is So Easy.” He followed with longtime favorite (and Ray Wylie Hubbard co-write) “Drunken Poet’s Dream.” Others old and new ensued, before Hayes turned over the stage to his wife, singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, and Gimble, for a theatrical and comically steamy duet on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Gimble followed with “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem,” accompanied by Carper and Patek.

Returning to the stage for more familiar tunes (“Jesus and Elvis,” “KMAG YOYO,” “Nice Things” and a few not so familiar, Carll closed the 22-song show with a fine rendition of the sad but sweet “Family Reserve,” a meditation on life and death by fellow Texan Lyle Lovett.

A brilliant showcase from Lori McKenna and Brandy Clark


By Paul T. Mueller

There’s a belief in some quarters that everything coming out of Nashville these days is formulaic dross, but Lori McKenna and Brandy Clark put that idea to rest in their Sept. 28 co-headlining appearance at Houston’s Heights Theater. The 90-minute show, the first on an 11-date tour, amounted to a two-person guitar pull that drew heavily from the singer-songwriters’ recent releases. Taking turns performing their finely crafted songs, McKenna and Clark rewarded the capacity crowd with a brilliant showcase for their writing, singing and playing, with some bonus comedy thrown in.

Brandy Clark and Lori McKenna (Photo by Paul T. Mueller)

McKenna, who lives near Boston but spends time writing in Nashville, is a master at capturing the nuances of human emotions and experience. She performed several songs from her new album 1988, including “Happy Children,” “The Old Woman in Me” and “Town in Your Heart.” There were older favorites as well – “People Get Old,” a wistful but clear-eyed look at aging; the rueful “All the Time I Wasted on You,” and the sad and haunting “Halfway Home” – the last performed, she said, at the request of one of her Texas fans.

Clark featured songs from her self-titled fourth album, produced by Brandi Carlile and released earlier this year. She paid heartfelt tribute to a beloved grandmother with “She Smoked in the House,” while “Northwest” was a love song to her home state of Washington. One of the biggest moments came near the show’s end, with “Dear Insecurity,” recently featured as a duet with Carlile during the Americana Music Association’s annual awards show. Clark’s fine older material included the regretful “Who You Thought I Was” and “Pawn Shop,” a ballad about broken dreams, both from 2020’s Your Life Is a Record.

The ”encore” consisted of one song each from McKenna and Clark, each of which became a hit for a more mainstream Nashville artist. The two alternated verses on “Girl Crush,” written by McKenna, Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose, and recorded by Little Big Town. Clark closed the show with a rousing rendition of “Mama’s Broken Heart,” a co-write with Shane McAnally and Kacey Musgraves that found success with Miranda Lambert.

McKenna and Clark got excellent support from guitarist Cy Winstanley and bassist Vanessa McGowan, transplanted New Zealanders who also perform as Tattletale Saints. Louisiana native turned Nashvillian Brandon Ratcliff opened the show with a six-song solo set that featured his strong songs, excellent guitar and vocal skills and engaging stage presence.

2nd Nashville Fundraiser for Frank Sass set for August 20

Gretchen Peters performs at the Dave Sass benefit at the Eastside Bowl on August 13.

The Eastside Bowl in Nashville is hosting fundraisers for well-known sound engineer Frank Sass, best known for his work at the Exit/Inn. The first, held this afternoon and evening, featured Gretchen Peters, Bill Lloyd, Kim Richey, Dave Pomeroy, the Shazam and Homemade Sin.

The second, set for August 20 beginning at 2 p,m., will feature Tommy Womack, Tim Carroll, Walk the West, Dave Coleman, the Raelyn Nelson Band and the Sour Ops. It’s great music for a good cause.

Gretchen Peters’ graceful exit from touring

By Paul T. Mueller

Gretchen Peters, wrapping up a long touring career, gave her fans in Houston a fine show to remember her by. The prolific singer-songwriter and her husband and musical partner, Barry Walsh, performed for a nearly full house at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on June 22, the final show in the church’s Coffee House Live spring concert series.

Peters fittingly opened with “The Show,” a ballad about the life of a touring musician. The next few songs included some dark stories of violence and death, including “Wichita” and “Blackbirds” (she introduced the latter by noting, “There’s always a high body count at my shows”). The murder tales eventually gave way to gentler fare, including a lovely rendition of Tom Russell’s “Guadalupe” and “When You Love Someone,” one of the dozens of songs Peters has written with Canadian singer Bryan Adams.

Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh (photo by Paul T, Mueller)

Walsh alternated between piano and accordion and provided vocals on most of Peters’ songs. He got a turn in the spotlight mid-show, performing the instrumental “Belgian Afternoon” from his album Silencio. Peters returned for a lovely rendition of “Say Grace,” a call for compassion and forgiveness from her 2018 album Dancing With the Beast. Other highlights included a fine performance of “Independence Day,” with Peters accompanying herself on piano, and a sweet version of “On a Bus to St. Cloud,” with a callout to the late Jimmy LaFave, who memorably covered the song.

Peters closed with another song appropriate to the occasion, “To Say Goodbye” (she has announced her retirement from touring, although she does plan to play some festivals and other gigs). After a standing ovation she sat on the edge of the stage and crooned an excellent rendition of the Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer classic “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” accompanied by Walsh’s excellent piano. After the show she and Walsh stayed to sign autographs and share memories with their many fans and well-wishers.

Michelle Malone spans decades in Houston show


By Paul T. Mueller

Georgia-based singer-songwriter Michelle Malone brought decades’ worth of songs and showmanship to her May 13 show in Houston. The show at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, featuring Malone on acoustic guitars and Doug Kees on electric, included a career-spanning 14 songs. All were fueled by Malone’s powerful vocals, ranging from a delicate croon to an all-out roar.

She led off with the evocative “Dust Bowl Man” from her 2022 album titled 1977.  Other highlights included the anthemic “Just Getting Started,” from 2017’s Slings and Arrows, and “Not Who I Used to Be,” also from 1977. The latter wrapped in a bit of Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” with a powerful solo by Kees.

Michelle Malone copyright Paul T. Mueller

Malone’s solicitation of requests from the audience yielded a sweet rendition of “32 Seconds,” harking back to her 1990 album Relentless with former band Drag the River, and “Butter Biscuit,” which she called a “silly song” but one that’s often requested. Near show’s end came a new song, “Like Mother, Like Daughter,” in honor of the hours-away Mother’s Day.

Mastersons’ folk with a rock ‘n’ roll heart

By Paul T. Mueller

The Mastersons – guitarist/singer Chris Masterson and multi-instrumentalist/singer Eleanor Whitmore – finished up their current tour March 12 with a matinee show at the Old Quarter Acoustic Café in Galveston, Texas.

Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore (Photo by Paul T. Mueller)

The duo, longtime – and now former – members of Steve Earle’s band, The Dukes, got rhythmic support from Eleanor’s sister Bonnie on bass and drummer Falcon Valdez, playing 12 songs, including several from their most recent album, 2020’s No Time for Love Songs. The Mastersons’ sound might be described as folk with a rock ‘n’ roll heart – thoughtful lyrics and two- and three-part harmonies backed by Chris Masterson’s skillful guitar and Eleanor Whitmore’s excellent violin, guitar and synthesizer. Highlights included “Eyes Wide Open,” an anthem to taking life as it comes, and an encore cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “No Place to Fall,” in honor of Van Zandt’s March 7 birthday. Bonnie Whitmore, also an accomplished singer-songwriter, performed a couple of her own songs mid-set – “Fine” from her 2020 album Last Will and Testament and “Cardiac Disaster” from an upcoming EP. Opening the show was a set by the Whitmore Sisters – same players, different name – featuring six songs from their 2022 album Ghost Stories.

Cayamo 2023 soars with diverse sounds


By Paul T. Mueller

Neilson Hubbard, Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris (Photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Like any established music festival, Cayamo – the festival-at-sea that just wrapped up its 15th edition – faces the challenge of attracting new attendees while keeping returning guests interested. Sixthman, the Norwegian Cruise Line subsidiary that produces Cayamo, was up to the task this year, putting together a lineup that combined well-known veterans of the festival and less-familiar newcomers. As a bonus, the 2023 group was much more diverse than most previous years, featuring a considerable number of performers of color, a relatively large number of female artists, and a good balance of younger and older musicians. The result was, by consensus, a highly successful event, with scores of shows spanning a range of genres including folk, country, blues, bluegrass, rock, soul and others. 

Absent from the lineup were some “big names” from previous years, such as Brandi Carlile, Lyle Lovett, Buddy Miller, John Hiatt, Emmylou Harris, and of course John Prine. But the cast of performers also included some familiar names, including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Neko Case, Andrew Bird, Paul Thorn, David Bromberg and Trampled by Turtles, among others. The full lineup can be seen here.

As always, the festival, held February 10-17 aboard the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship, featured a full schedule with many conflicts. Here are some highlights from notable shows.

The first-day sailaway show by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
In their debut appearance on Cayamo, the veteran bluegrass/country outfit performed a fine pool deck set that was short on originals (“Fishing in the Dark,” “Ripplin’ Waters”) but long on popular covers, including Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” John Prine’s “Grandpa Was a Carpenter,” Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles,” and Rodney Crowell’s “An American Dream” (with lyrics modified to reference Cayamo). The set closed with a lively sing-along on “Jambalaya.” Front and center for much of the show was guitarist and singer Jaime Hanna, son of NGDB co-founder Jeff Hanna.

History lessons and music from Jake Blount
Blount, who said he’s planning graduate studies in musicology and ethnomusicology, began with a haunting rendition of “Stolen Souls from Africa,” a mournful lament of slavery sung a capella over a recorded synthesizer track. The rest of his set consisted mostly of traditional tunes accompanied by fiddle and banjo, with explanations that were as educational as they were entertaining. For example, he pointed out that Black culture in the Americas originated on slave ships, where captives from various African countries and cultures intermingled and developed common ground in the form of music. Blount was aboard as part of the Black Opry Revue, a touring project of Nashville’s Black Opry, a collective of Black artists involved with American roots music. 

Caitlin Canty Photo by Paul T. Mueller

A fine set by Nashville-based singer-songwriter Caitlin Canty
Backed by bassist Miss Tess and pedal-steel and mandolin player Thomas Bryan Eaton, Canty performed several songs (“Heart of My Country,” “Come By the Highway Home,” “Wild Heart”) from her forthcoming album Quiet Flame. Canty charmed the audience with a bright and engaging stage presence to back up her thoughtful lyrics. Extra credit for overcoming distracting dinner-time noise from nearby bars and restaurants.

A raucous Rolling Stones tribute show
Wild and crazy folksinger Steve Poltz played emcee at this pool deck show, backed by a “house band” that included guitarists Larry Campbell and Anthony Da Costa and keyboardist John Fullbright.  Poltz kicked things off with an excellent take on “Far Away Eyes.”  A wide range of performers followed: Jazz-flavored bluegrass quartet Twisted Pine with “Dead Flowers,” Fullbright with a powerful take on “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Honky Tonk Women,” teenage vocal trio The Burney Sisters with lovely renditions of “Ruby Tuesday” and “Wild Horses,” Da Costa with a wildly energetic “No Expectations,” and so on.  The show’s emotional peak came mid-set with “Gimme Shelter,” featuring all-star drummer Brady Blade on lead vocals, strutting and gyrating with, yes, moves like Jagger. Meanwhile, Campbell and Da Costa traded Stones-worthy riffs, and Teresa Williams, Campbell’s wife and musical partner, gave an all-out effort on the song’s ominous choruses that would have made original singer Merry Clayton proud. Another highlight, near show’s end, was an all-hands-on-deck singalong of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

A soul music tribute, billed as “Motown vs. Stax”
The show, on the pool deck stage following the Stones tribute, was performed by mostly younger artists for a mostly older crowd, harking back to the days when popular music was a bigger tent. Nashville-based singer-songwriter Devon Gilfillian, emcee for the event, led off with an excellent take on Smokey Robinson’s “Cruisin’,” followed by Adia Victoria with “Heard It Through the Grapevine.” The rest of the show was pretty much a hit parade of ’60 and ‘70s soul and R&B: Black Opry Revue performer Julie Williams with “Where Did Our Love Go?,” the Rainbow Girls quartet with “Please Mr. Postman,” Raye Zaragoza with “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” and “Captain” Shawn Mullins with “That’s How Strong My Love Is,” among others. Singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt, in the last performance before a sudden downpour ended the show, did a fine version of “I’ll Take You There,” featuring a crowd-roaming performance by trombonist Ray Mason.

“Dirt Does Dylan,” a set of Bob Dylan songs performed by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and guests
The band started this Stardust Theater show with a sweet rendition of “Forever Young” before moving on to such classics as “Girl From the North Country,” “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” (with Jeff Tweedy and his children), “Meet Me in the Morning” (with Amy Helm and longtime Dylan sideman Larry Campbell), “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” (with David Bromberg) and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (with emerging superstar Allison Russell). The show concluded with an emotional “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” that had much of the audience singing along, some through nostalgic tears.

The Sunday Soul Session, led by The Fairfield Four
Held on a warm and sunny pool deck stage, the show started with several a capella songs by the Nashville gospel quartet, the third iteration of the group since its founding in 1921. Other performances included “I Saw the Light,” featuring guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, singer-songwriter Amy Helm and Jeff Hanna; “Love You Anyway,” by Devon Gilfillian and his band, and “Gloryland,” performed a capella by Helm, who noted that she had also sung it with her father, the late Levon Helm of The Band.

Mary Gauthier & Friends
This Stardust Theater show was something of a career retrospective, ranging from Gauthier’s early “Drag Queens in Limousines” to “The War After the War,” from her Songwriting with Soldiers project, to the title track of her newest album, Dark Enough to See the Stars. Gauthier fully commanded the stage with stories – sometimes funny, sometimes painfully honest – about her musical journey, interspersed with her powerful songs. She got musical backing from singer-songwriter Jaimee Harris and drummer Neilson Hubbard, who also produced Dark Enough.

And so many more: Jeff Tweedy, Patty Griffin, Shovels & Rope, Paul Thorn, Wilder Woods, the Jerry Douglas Band, Joshua Radin and on and on.

Other fun moments:

Yasmin Williams Photo by Paul T. Mueller
  • Matraca Berg’s surprise vocal appearance on “Strawberry Wine” during the “Party On, Garth” tribute to ‘90s music hosted by Kelsey Waldon. Berg, who wrote the Deana Carter hit with Gary Harrison, wasn’t given her own set in the festival, but made occasional guest appearances at other artists’ shows.
  • The Burney Sisters’ sweetly harmonic take on Brandi Carlile’s “Right on Time” in the Soundcheck Showcase, which featured the three winners of the Soundcheck competition for new artists.
  • Fellow Soundcheck winners Twisted Pine with their jazzy rendition of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (Raye Zaragoza was the third Soundcheck artist.)
  • Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams’ excellent Spinnaker Lounge set, closing with a fine version of “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” with guests Tommy Emmanuel and David Bromberg.
  • Acoustic guitar virtuoso Yasmin Williams, making a big impression on her first Cayamo with shimmering New Age-ish tunes featuring a mix of strumming, picking and what she called flat-tapping, augmented by shoe-tap percussion and the occasional use of a small keyboard instrument called a kalimba. Williams’ mastery of her instrument was matched by her enthusiastic stage presence.
  • Amy Helm’s refusal to let a broken wrist slow her down. She suffered the injury early in the cruise during a run-in with a wind-blown deck chair, but carried on, cast and all, earning big ovations later in the week.

Concert review: The Arc Angels in Houston

By Paul T. Mueller –

For a band that made only one studio album – 30 years ago – Arc Angels has quite a devoted fan base. That loyalty was clear at Houston’s Heights Theater on November 16, when the band drew an enthusiastic near-capacity crowd for its third Houston show of 2022.

Arc Angels – named for the Austin Rehearsal Center, or ARC, where the band came together – originally included drummer Chris “Whipper” Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon (aka Double Trouble, the rhythm section that backed Stevie Ray Vaughan) plus singer-songwriter/guitarists Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton. For the current tour at least, Eric Holden is handling the bass duties.

Doyle Bramhall II, Chris Layton, Eric Holden, Charlie Sexton (Photo by Paul T. Mueller)

In a high-volume set of bluesy rock that lasted an hour and 45 minutes, the band ripped through most of its self-titled album’s 12 tracks, starting with the bad-behavior tale “Paradise Café.”  Most of the songs found Bramhall (son of Vaughan’s late running buddy Doyle Bramhall) and Sexton (who spent years in Bob Dylan’s band, among others) trading licks and solos, while Layton and Holden supported them with a steady and seemingly effortless groove.

About midway through the show, Sexton led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to Layton (67, for those keeping score). A bit later, the band launched into Charley Patton’s “Oh Death,” prefaced by Sexton’s joking apology to Layton for playing such a song so soon after the birthday wishes.

The main set wrapped up with three of the stronger songs from the Arc Angels album – “Spanish Moon,” “Shape I’m In” and “Living in a Dream.” After a short break, the band returned for a one-song encore, the powerful “Too Many Ways to Fall.”

Austin-based quartet Madam Radar opened the show with an energetic 40-minute set. The band’s sound, and appearance, featured something of an early ‘70s hippie vibe, fueled by the rock-star posturing of guitarist/singer Kelly Green and the cool elegance of bassist Violet Lea. They closed, fittingly, with a faithful rendition of Golden Earring’s “Radar Love.”   

Outlaw Country West cruise: A wide net of rocking, raucous music

By Paul T. Mueller

Despite its name, the inaugural Outlaw Country West music cruise wasn’t just about country music. Producers Sixthman and Renegade Circus cast a wider net, including a couple of Southern California punk bands as well as several purveyors of West Coast country and rock. The floating festival departed Los Angeles on November 3 aboard the Norwegian Jewel, making stops at the Mexican ports of Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada before returning to Los Angeles on November 8.

X and Social Distortion, longtime mainstays of the Southern California punk scene, brought rock ‘n’ roll energy and attitude to the festival, an offshoot of the well-established and mostly Miami-based Outlaw Country Cruise. Artists offering a purer country sound included Jim Lauderdale, Wade Sapp, James Intveld, Deke Dickerson and Elizabeth Cook. Also featured were East LA roots music icons Los Lobos, cowpunk pioneer Dave Alvin, bluesy folksinger Lucinda Williams, rockabilly guitar-slinger Rosie Flores and Texas iconoclast Terry Allen, among many others.

Lucinda Williams (Photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Some highlights from the packed schedule of nearly 60 shows and numerous other activities:

Los Lobos got things off to a rocking start with a first-day sailaway show on the pool deck that featured hits such as “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Will the Wolf Survive?” and “Kiko and the Lavender Moon.” The band also threw in some excellent covers, including a joyous rendition of “Not Fade Away” and the Grateful Dead’s “Bertha” to close the show.

Terry Allen brought his offbeat West Texas style to the Jewel’s Stardust Theater the first evening. Allen has long been a favorite in his home state, and his sets, supported by the brilliant Panhandle Mystery Band, won him a slew of new fans. High points included some Allen originals possibly better known from being covered by others – “Amarillo Highway” (Robert Earl Keen), “New Delhi Freight Train” (Little Feat) and “Gimme a Ride to Heaven” (The Flatlanders).

Also impressive were less-familiar songs such as “Death of the Last Stripper,” “All These Blues Go Walking By” (featuring powerful vocals by Shannon McNally), and “City of the Vampires,” which Allen said was based on suggestions from his 9-year-old grandson. Later in the cruise, veteran singer-songwriter and activist Steve Earle interviewed Allen for his SiriusXM radio show, giving Allen a venue for fascinating and often funny stories about growing up in Lubbock and working with artists such as Guy Clark and David Byrne.

Terry Allen (photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Lucinda Williams, continuing her strong comeback from the stroke she suffered about two years ago, played a powerful first-night set in the Stardust with her excellent band, Buick 6. She drew from her extensive catalog with older songs such as “Right in Time,” “Lake Charles” and “Those Three Days,” and newer tracks such as “Big Black Train” and Memphis Minnie’s “You Can’t Rule Me,” which she dedicated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Williams hasn’t yet regained her ability to play guitar onstage, but her voice sounded better than it has in a while, despite some occasional glitches (“Dammit! Son of a biscuit baker!” she said at one point while reaching for her throat spray). One couldn’t help but be moved by the care and support shown by her band members – guitarist Stuart Mathis, bassist David Sutton and drummer Butch Norton.

Exene Cervenka and John Doe of X (Photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Dave Alvin and his band, The Guilty Ones, packed the Stardust for a Friday show featuring Alvin’s sometimes dark songs about the California experience. Alvin, in remarkable form after some recent health issues, led his excellent outfit through “The King of California,” “Ashgrove” and “Dry River,” among others. Jimmie Dale Gilmore, who’s been touring and recording with Alvin in recent years, was scheduled for the cruise, but he came down with Covid-19 and was unable to participate. His son Colin Gilmore, a fine singer-songwriter in his own right, filled in for him, joining Alvin for “Billy the Kid and Geronimo” and his father’s “Dallas.” Also making guest appearances were two members of Los Lobos, guitarist/singer David Hidalgo and saxophonist/keyboardist Steve Berlin.

A wide range of artists converged on the Stardust for a Sunday evening tribute to California native Merle Haggard. The setlist included Jim Lauderdale with “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive,” Shannon McNally with “Mama Tried,” John Doe of X with “Silver Wings,” Terry Allen with “Okie from Muscogee,” Rosie Flores with “My Own Kind of Hat,” Dave Alvin with “Kern River,” and Norm Hamlet, longtime steel guitarist with Haggard’s band, The Strangers, with “Today I Started Loving You Again.” Everyone returned to the stage for the big finale, “Sing Me Back Home.”

Southern California punk rockers Social Distortion brought their high-energy, high-volume songs of anger and pain to a Monday pool deck show as the Jewel departed Ensenada, Mexico. Founder and lead singer Mike Ness rather sheepishly owned up to enjoying the clearly non-punk experience of cruise ship life before launching into powerful renditions of “I Wasn’t Born to Follow,” “Sick Boys” and “Ball and Chain,” among others. Longtime Social D guitarist Jonny Two Bags was absent, reportedly because of an injury, but Josh Jove (Eagles of Death Metal) filled in capably.

A Monday evening guitar pull in the Stardust drew a large crowd for a song swap featuring Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams (with Stuart Mathis handling the guitar work), Charlie Sexton (filling in for Jimmie Dale Gilmore), and Dave Alvin. The show featured some excellent performances — Sexton honoring Gilmore with a rendition of the latter’s “Treat Me Like a Saturday Night,” Alvin’s moving take on Tom Russell’s “Blue Wing,” Williams’ wistful “Passionate Kisses.” Other high points included Alvin’s funny story about once having had to follow the legendary Barrett Strong in a songwriter round, and Sexton’s amazement at being chided for talking too much by none other than the notoriously loquacious Steve Earle.

All of this hardly scratches the surface, of course. The festival’s big lineup and short duration made it pretty much impossible to see every artist, let alone every show. But by all accounts, there were fine performances by Steve Earle, Elizabeth Cook, Chuck Prophet & the Mission Express, Big Sandy & His Flyrite Boys, Deke Dickerson & the Whippersnappers, Rosie Flores, Lillie Mae, Jim Lauderdale, the Slim Jim Phantom Trio, the Beat Farmers, the Long Ryders, Charlie Overbey, Jo Harvey Allen, Mojo Nixon & the Toad Liquors, Andrew Leahey & the Homestead, Jade Jackson, James Intveld, Norm Hamlet & Mario Carboni, Wade Sapp and Roger Alan Wade & Honky Tonk CIA. There was also a previously unannounced appearance by guitarist Wayne Kramer of the Detroit-based band MC5, who sat in with Lucinda Williams, Rosie Flores and the Long Ryders, among others.

Despite illness, Rodney Crowell shines in hometown show at Heights Theater


By Paul T. Mueller –

Sometimes seeing what a performer is overcoming to deliver a performance is as impressive as the performance itself. Early in his Oct. 18 show at Houston’s Heights Theater, singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell announced that he was battling “the mother of all colds.” But despite a voice that often sounded hoarse and strained, and taking an occasional break to cough (“It’s not COVID!”) or swig from a water bottle, he pushed on for nearly two hours, delighting the capacity crowd with signature songs from his long career and readings from his recent book, Word for Word.

Crowell is the closest thing to royalty in country and Americana music, and he looks the part – still slim at 72, with white hair and a vintage black Gibson acoustic. Without a band to back him up, he played and sang with a confidence born of decades onstage, clearly basking in the love of the hometown crowd.

Rodney Crowell in concert at the Heights Theater

He led off with “Highway 17,” the tale of a career criminal who buries his ill-gotten gains and spends years in prison dreaming of what he’ll do when he gets out and recovers it – only to find that it’s been forever lost under a newly built interstate highway. Afterward he explained that the song is based on a true story involving a family he knew as a child. “Grandma Loved That Old Man,” about his beloved grandfather and the wife who put up with his faults and flaws, got a similar treatment. And so it went, with fine renditions of instantly recognizable songs interspersed with funny stories about how they came to be, and about how their author became a top-tier songwriter and performer.

The show, something of a career retrospective, included songs from Crowell’s days as a hotshot mainstream Nashville artist (“I Ain’t Living Long Like This,” “She’s Crazy for Leaving,” “ ‘Til I Gain Control Again”) as well as several from his more recent phase as an independent, more introspective artist (“East Houston Blues,” “Anything But Tame,” “Telephone Road,” “I Don’t Care Anymore”).

Crowell won enthusiastic responses for some songs he wrote with or about the late Guy Clark, a good friend of his for decades – “Stuff That Works,” co-written in the wake of his divorce from Rosanne Cash, and “It Ain’t Over Yet,” an imagined conversation between Crowell, Clark and Clark’s wife, Susanna.

After wrapping up the main set with “Please Remember Me,” Crowell acknowledged the standing ovation, put in one final plug for his book (“Christmas is coming, just saying,” he had noted earlier) and finished with “The Flyboy & the Kid” from his Tarpaper Sky album, a song he’d dedicated to Clark.

Health issues notwithstanding, Crowell headed quickly for the venue’s lobby, where he spent quite a while posing for pictures with fans and writing personalized inscriptions in the books they’d bought – and apparently loving every minute of it.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Whitley and Joe Galante enter the Country Music Hall of Fame

By Ken Paulson

It would be difficult to imagine a more unlikely group of inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame than the class of 2022, honored Sunday night in the hall’s annual Medallion ceremony.

One had his career disappear after marrying a 13-year-old girl, who also happened to be a relative. Another’s life was cut short by alcoholism, just two albums into his career. The third was a New York label executive who reluctantly moved to Nashville to work with country artists.

Yet Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Whitley and Joe Galante all made the kind of impact that leads to country music’s greatest honor.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Lewis, already a member of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, was unable to attend the Country Music Hall of Fame induction due to frail health, but both the vibrancy and diversity of his music came through loud and clear.

 Chris Isaak, accompanied by Jen Gunderman on piano, rocked the room with his take on “Great Balls of Fire.” The McCrary Sisters gamely (and movingly) performed a Lewis arrangement of “My God is Real” that reportedly got him kicked out of a Bible school. Lee Ann Womack drew on Lewis’ post-scandal country career with an outstanding version of “Middle-Age Crazy.”

Chris Isaak performs
Chris Isaak , with Jen Gunderman on piano (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Before his performance, Isaak recalled a Lewis show he saw during the punk era. A group of young men with plenty of attitude pushed their way to the front of the stage just before Lewis’ performance. When Lewis came out, he headed right to the group, staring at them for 90 seconds, before they stepped back.

“The punks just wilted,” Isaak laughed. 

The induction was done by Hank Williams Jr., who reminisced about Jerry Lee teaching the young Bocephus a few things about playing rock ‘n’ roll piano,

“Imagine how you’d feel if Jerry Lee asked you to share his piano bench while he played,” Williams recalled.  Jerry Lee told me that my father was one of his heroes and if he couldn’t meet his hero, he would meet his hero’s son and teach him how to boogie woogie.”

In his remarks, Williams described the free-spirited Lewis’ most admirable traits, a number of which he found “familiar.”

“Jerry Lee doesn’t walk on stage and politely thank an audience for being there,” Williams said. “Jerry Lee doesn’t ask for your attention. He demands it.”

Williams was joined by the now-retired Kris Kristofferson in unveiling Lewis’ plaque. Politically, the two men are on different planets, but have long shared an admiration for Lewis.

Induction of Jerry Lee Lewis
Kris Kristofferson, Hank Williams Jr. and CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Kyle Young (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Keith Whitley

Keith Whitley had a brief, but influential career, with just an EP and two albums released during his lifetime. He began as a teen bluegrass player in tandem with a young Ricky Skaggs. Both joined the legendary Ralph Stanley’s band before moving on to solo careers.  

It’s a measure of Whitley’s talent that he’s been named to the Hall of Fame despite a recording career that spanned just 4 years before his death in 1989. A number of his biggest hits were posthumous.

Whitley had fans in high places, including Garth Brooks, who called him “one of the greatest voices ever to grace country music.”

Brooks recalled that an early knock on Whitley from country radio programmers was that he was ‘too country.’

“That’s like saying that something’s too good,” Brooks said shortly before performing Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes.”

Also on hand to celebrate Whitley were Mickey Guyton, who performed “When You Say Nothing At All,” and a trio consisting of Ricky  Skaggs, Molly Tuttle and Justin Moses doing a rendition of “Tennessee Blues.”

Mickey Guyton (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Joe Galante

Joe Galante was recognized for his work helping build the careers of Whitley, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Clint Black, Brooks and Dunn, Alabama, Miranda Lambert and Kenny Chesney, with the latter three honoring him Sunday night with performances.

Joe Galante (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Alabama sang “My Home’s In Alabama,” Lambert performed her breakthrough hit “White Liar,” and Chesney performed “The Good Stuff.”

Kix Brooks presented the award and recalled that he and Ronnie Dunn had concluded that their run as Brooks and Dunn was probably over after an album had lackluster sales. Then Galante told them he wanted to work with them, opening the door for another decade of hits. He was “Joe Frickin’ Galante,” he said of the duo’s decision to continue recording.

Cimarron 615: A new band with Poco roots

By Ken Paulson –

A tribute to the late Rusty Young of Poco has paid a welcome dividend: the birth of a new band.

Five artists, all with significant ties to Young and Poco, teamed up late last year for My Friend: A Tribute to Rusty Young on Blue Elan Records. The quintet, dubbed Cimarron 615 for the recording, contributed five songs to the collection and apparently had enough fun to continue as an ongoing band.

Tonight Cimarron 615 took the stage at the 5 Spot in Nashville for what was described as their “first real live gig.”

Photo of Cimmaron 615 on stage
Cimarron 615 at the 5 Spot in Nashville

These are true veterans of country rock and that showed throughout their lively set.

The line-up:

  • Jack Sundrud, who first joined Poco in the ’80s and was also a member of Great Plains.
  • Tom Hampton, who joined Poco shortly before Young’s passing, and a member of Idlewheel along with Sundrud.
  • Bill Lloyd of Foster and Llloyd, who formed the Sky Kings with Young, and who has sat in with Poco many times while maintaining his own solo career.
  • Michael Webb, a member of Poco since 2010, and a touring musician in both John Fogerty and Hank Williams Jr.’s shows.
  • Rick Lonow, a member of Poco since 2016, also wrote the group’s hit “Call It Love.

There’s a lot of Poco DNA in that band and harmonies abound. The songwriting appears to be evenly divided among all 5 members, but it all holds together, unified by a very familiar sound.

The set was just 10 songs long, cut short either because of Webb’s looming laryngitis or because that’s all this new band has mastered. Either way, the show was an eye-opening introduction to Cimarron 615, a group that taps into decades of collective experience to create a compelling sound today.

New in print – Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble

By John W. Barry

Mention the late Levon Helm to a fan of Americana music and you’re likely to get a very strong response.

The quick comeback could focus on The Band, for which Levon played drums and mandolin, and sang. And there are, of course, those iconic Band songs that Levon sang, “Up On Cripple Creek,” “Ophelia” and “The Weight” among them.

Levon and The Band performed and recorded with Bob Dylan. Levon played on Ringo Starr’s First All Starr Band tour in 1989. And after recovering from cancer of the vocal cords and nearly losing his home-recording studio to the bank, Levon during the early 2000s staged a colossal comeback.

Design by Mike DuBois, photo by Dino Perrucci

And after recovering from cancer of the vocal cords and nearly losing his home-recording studio to the bank, Levon during the early 2000s staged a colossal comeback.

His winning formula revolved around house concerts he held at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York, that he called the “Midnight Ramble.” What started out as rent parties and a last hurrah ended up saving Levon’s home and setting him on a path to triumph. The Midnight Rambles were presented to a bankruptcy judge as a source of revenue, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Rambles drew sold-out crowds and attracted the likes of Emmylou Harris and Ricky Skaggs. These intimate performances set the stage for three Grammy-winning solo albums, and as they reconnected Levon to his loyal fans, the Rambles introduced him to new ones.

But for all that he accomplished in the music industry, the Levon Helm that I got to know, while collaborating on a book with him, has more to do with things that may seem a bit more, well, routine.

When I think of Levon Helm, I recall the guy who grew up in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, and never lost his passion for farming, tractors and harvest time. Let’s not forget that the Midnight Rambles were based on the traveling medicine shows Levon saw as a kid, growing up in Phillips County, Arkansas. And his 2007 comeback album was called Dirt Farmer.

The Levon Helm I knew loved to watch college football. He indulged his passion for sushi and Popeye’s chicken. And he liked a lot of ice in his beverages of choice—Coca Cola and Boylan’s grape soda—which he drank in a red plastic Solo cup, slipped inside another red Solo plastic cup.

In the wake of Levon’s death in 2012, I continued to work on the book we were collaborating on. Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble—The Inside Story of the Man, the Music and the Midnight Ramble was recently published and I think that Levon would have been as proud of the final product as I am.

One reason for this is that Rock, Roll & Ramble—with a foreword written by Ringo Starrcovers the ups and the downs of Levon’s life, rather than just his successes.

I traveled often with Levon during his Midnight Ramble era, and during those trips to concerts in the Northeast, and a journey on his tour bus to Bonnaroo in 2008, I recorded our conversations and used them to write the book.

In February 2009, I was traveling with Levon from Manhattan back to Woodstock, after the Levon Helm Band had performed on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

This was during the early stages of the book and I asked Levon if he was comfortable talking about his cancer, his bankruptcy and nearly losing Levon Helm Studios to foreclosure. I am paraphrasing here, but he replied by explaining that a stool needs three legs to work properly, and if you only have two legs, it’s going to fall over. In other words, Levon was saying, we needed all three legs of the stool—we needed to tell the entire story, his entire story.

And so I am very proud to present these excerpts from that story, from Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble—The Inside Story of the Man, the Music and the Midnight Ramble:

“We were just about at the end of our rope financially,” Levon said. “So the Midnight Ramble was going to be one big rent party or go out with a bang. We were going to have one more tear ‘em down night or two, and all of a sudden, the thing started getting legs of its own and people started wanting to come and pay to get in.

“That was just about the time when the shit was ready to hit the fan. All of a sudden, you’re sick and you can’t work and you haven’t been able to work and the bills don’t stop and they’re still coming in. You’ve got your hands full trying to get well, and then to have the other stuff heaped on top is certainly an unfair way to go. Those radiation treatments, after a while, they can get ahold of you. It’s a little bit raw. The bankruptcy part—that was just getting ready to cloud over and really rain—that don’t scare you after all that radiation.”

On growing up in Arkansas:

“I’ve been to all day sing-alongs with dinner on the ground,” Levon said. “They’d lay out those cotton sheets—a big row of them. And putout a couple of tubs of iced tea at the end of one of them; another tub full of Kool-Aid. And all up and down those cotton sheets would be platters of cold fried chicken and coleslaw and potato salad. My mom would always make chicken salad. I would stand right in front of her chicken salad while the blessing was getting said and I’d attack that first.

“I’d go up and down the row of sheets, looking for stuff like angel food cake, things I’d never seen before. That angel food cake was something else. That was the wildest damn thing I’d ever chewed on. Anything you could chew on that was cold, they’d have a bunch of it. It was all gospel groups. In the morning part would be the local church and their choir people. Then everybody’d eat dinner, then other churches would bringin their choir. I could eat, fight and raise hell and listen to music all at the same time”

On The Band, Band manager Albert Grossman and Bob Dylan:

“There weren’t any real albums after the first two, first three. Everything else was ‘Best of,’ ‘Live at You-Know-Where.’ The Band was just a miserable fucking deal. The Band wasn’t never no fun, shit. The Band always, you know, Albert always wanted to lock everyone in the room, have that stand-offish bullshit, like with Bob. ‘You can’t see Bob.’ Fuck all that, you know? I don’t want to be like that. Shit. There is a lot of arrogance to that bullshit. In fact, that’s why I never could stomach that shit. That ain’t me. No. Uh-uh.”

On the Midnight Ramble:

“The easiest thing I’ve ever done. The whole place turns into a temple for me. There is nothing else and time and everything else is kind of suspended. All I’m conscious of is the pitch, if the pitch is correct. There are no echoes or fancy sound devices. And about 50 percent of what you hear, even on a full electrical tune, is acoustic.

“And walking out of your living room and playing a show—it’s the best. It’s the best. Especially the way the room responds. All I have to do is go shave, take a shower and head out there. We usually stop when it feels like it’s time to stop. When the show’s over, I just walk next door and take my boots off. I believe this might be my payback for all the traveling and stuff. Musicians, their years are like dog years. All that traveling around and now, all of a sudden—I don’t know how we got it to happen. They’re coming here and we don’t even have to crank a car. We leave everything set. And we’ve got all my best equipment; we can sound better here than we can anywhere.

“Each band plays at least an hour, and we probably play at least twohours. By the time we quit, which is between 11:30 and midnight, they’ve had four-to-five hours of music and that’s just about enough in one day. You really can lose the outside world and all those aggravations. At the end of each tune, you can kind of feel that embracement, where you start to realize—music being medicine, you know?

“There is no pressure around here. When you play, you can start prettymuch and finish when you want to and play what you want to. We try to leave it that way, let it be what it wants to be.”

And here are some of my thoughts from the book, as the author, regarding Levon Helm:

When Levon sang, you could feel your own heart aching in his voice. The conviction with which he sang gave you courage. His signature vocal tone was part growl, part roar, part plea for help and it served as a lightning rod for all of our troubles, not just for a few hours at a gig, but across generations.

When Levon sang—with one turn of a phrase, one note, one lyric—he somehow managed to capture the despair we all feel, the hope that keeps us going and the resolution for which we never stop longing. He tapped into that terrifying sensation of solitude that every one of us has experienced, at those times in our lives when you feel like you haven’t got a friend in the world. But Levon also made you feel like he was right there with you, clinging desperately to any solid ground that remained, as his world fell apart in a manner that wasn’t much different than the way in which your world might be falling apart.

Levon Helm had resolve. He did not give up. And he maintained that

sparkle in his eye and that laugh in his gut through all the calamity. Levon Helm represented much of what we value in those we admire, and a lot of what we wished to be true of ourselves.

All of this resonated so strongly with his audience because just like you and me, Levon was forced to manage the madness of life and make sense of insanity. There was a bond of familiarity he shared with millions of people he never met.

To quote Levon about Levon, “There was a guy who never met a stranger.” Here’s a Coke, have yourself a chair, I’m glad to know ya.

John W. Barry first met Levon Helm while working as music writer for the USA Today Network/Poughkeepsie Journal in New York’s Hudson Valley.

You can learn more about Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble by visiting rockrollramble.com and https://amzn.to/3Q7FHOI.

15th Cayamo Cruise opens booking to the public

Americana One – We’ve spent a lot of time on music-based cruises over the past decade, but the Cayamo cruise remains one of the most consistent and adventurous. They’ve just opened reservations to the general public with a line-up that includes Jeff Tweedy, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Neko Case, Shovels & Rope Andrew Bird and Trampled By Turtles,

Grace Potter performs on the Cayamo cruise in 2022. (photo by Paul T. Mueller)

This year’s cruise runs from Feb. 10-17 and includes stops at St. Maarten and Tortola, BVI.

Here’s the full current list of performers.

BettySoo celebrates release of “Insomnia Waking Dream”

By Paul T. Mueller – Texas singer-songwriter BettySoo’s July 7 show at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck in Houston celebrated the release of Insomnia Waking Dream, a CD-only collection of 15 demos recorded over more than a decade and assembled with the help of fellow singer-songwriter Curtis McMurtry. BettySoo was the sole performer on the album, but for this show and others on her current tour, she was accompanied by guitarist Jon Sanchez and bassist Gary Calhoun James, both of whom provided excellent support. BettySoo performed the entire album, including three songs solo, showcasing her beautiful vocals and skillful guitar playing.

The show was livestreamed, but in-person audiences at the Duck are usually rewarded with a little extra after the end of the main set. On this night, it was a lovely rendition of Guy Clark’s “Dublin Blues.” 

(The Americana One Postcard series features quick takes on Americana music performances in concerts and on recordings.)

In wake of Judds’ tragedy, Country Music Hall induction celebrates life, love, music

By Ken Paulson

What could have been an evening of mourning instead became a celebration of life and music as the Country Music Hall of Fame inducted its class of 2022.

The sudden death of honoree Naomi Judd might have cast a pall over the event honoring the Judds, Ray Charles, pedal steel guitarist Pete Drake and session drummer Eddie Bayers, but the Hall captured exactly the right tone for the ceremony, respectfully acknowledging Naomi’s passing while celebrating the music that led the inductees to this night.

Wynonna Judd ((Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

If there was any tension in the room, it quickly dissipated when Hall of Fame Director Kyle Young noted that the Judds – mother Naomi and daughter Wynonna – sang in perfect harmony, but didn’t always live that way. Wynonna was quick to add an “Amen!” from the audience.

Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs inducted the duo, recalling that he first met the Kentucky women backstage at a club date in San Francisco and then learned a few years later that they had been signed to a recording contract. They opened for him on a number of tours, but not for long, he noted.

A tearful Wynonna Judd, along with sister Ashley, accepted the award.

“I didn’t prepare anything tonight because I knew Mom would do most of the talking,” she said.

Celebrating the Judds musically were Carly Pierce with a version of “Grandpa, Tell Me About the Good Old Days,” Gilliam Welch and David Rawlings with “Young Love” and Tommy Sims performed “Love Can Build a Bridge.”

Pedal steel guitarist Pete Drake became the first musician on his instrument to be inducted. His work has been at the heart of dozens of country classics and he was tapped by Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and George Harrison to work on their respective projects. Elizabeth noted the Dylan connection with her version “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” followed by Wendy Moten’s stirring take of “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” the George Jones hit fueled by Drake’s playing.

Bayers was honored for his drumming and percussion on decades of country hits, including Vince Gill’s “I Call Your Name” and Trisha Yearwood’s “I Call Your Name.” Both artists performed their songs in Bayers’ honor.

The late Ray Charles was the final honoree for the evening. His 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was groundbreaking in multiple ways, in addition to being both a historic release and commercial success,

Americana artists The War and Treaty performed Charles’ “You Don’t Know Me,” Garth Brooks followed with “Seven Spanish Angels” and Bettye LaVette closed out the salute with an impassioned “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

(L-R) Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount of The War and Treaty perform onstage for the class of 2021 medallion ceremony at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on May 01, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Cayamo 2022’s exuberant rebound


By Paul T. Mueller –

After a year lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cayamo cruise returned in mid-March, rewarding passengers and artists alike with nearly a week’s worth of floating music festival. The chartered cruise, produced by Norwegian Cruise Lines subsidiary Sixthman and held aboard the NCL Pearl, featured more than 40 bands and solo artists and around 2,000 passengers. Cayamo is a happy event in any case, but seemed even more exuberant this year after the unwanted hiatus. It was also an especially poignant year for the festival – the 14th since 2008’s maiden voyage – because of the loss of a number of prominent musicians in the past two years, most notably Cayamo veteran John Prine.

In retrospect, the week is something of a blur of stages, songs and singers. As always, seeing one great show meant missing another scheduled at the same time. Your correspondent was not able to attend every set. But certain moments stand out; here are some impressions from particularly memorable performances.

The Mavericks, Pool Deck, Friday: Cayamoans have been clamoring for The Mavericks for years, and this year they got their wish, with the high-energy band kicking off the March 18 departure from Miami (ports of call were St. Thomas and St. Kitts). The pool deck set was a showcase for frontman Raul Malo’s otherworldly vocals, backed by a very capable three-piece horn section, a tight rhythm section and other instrumentation including guitar and accordion.

Raul Malo (photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Grace Potter and Friends, Stardust Theater, Saturday: The songwriter-in-the-round format has become a Cayamo favorite over the years, and for good reason. It’s highly entertaining to get to see not only artists performing their own songs, but also the reactions of those artists to each other’s performances. Cayamo first-timer Grace Potter’s show featured Malo, the iconic Emmylou Harris, and Taylor Goldsmith, frontman of Los Angeles-based band Dawes. Goldsmith made a big impression with “The Game,” which he described as “my attempt to write a Guy Clark song,” and “House Parties,” an ode to the quiet joys of family vacations. Harris’ selections included a couple of songs from her landmark Red Dirt Girl album – “My Antonia” and “The Pearl (Hallelujah).”

Grace Potter (photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Madison Cunningham, Spinnaker Lounge, Saturday: Singer-songwriter and guitarist Madison Cunningham first played Cayamo in 2020, and this year’s festival was a showcase for her impressive artistic growth since then. Leading an accomplished small band, she played and sang with confidence and joy, with a sound that one observer later described on social media as “Joni Mitchell meets King Crimson.” As is common practice among Cayamo musicians, Cunningham also made several guest appearances during other artists’ sets.

Madison Cunningham (photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Quitters Coffee Acoustic Mornings, The Atrium, Sunday: The 9 a.m. show, curated by Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards, was an enjoyable start to the day for those fans and artists able to answer the early-morning call. Edwards, who famously left the music business several years ago to start a coffee shop named Quitters in an Ottawa suburb, recently quit that business, selling the shop in March. Her guests for the show, the second of the weekend, were Robbie Fulks, Steve Poltz, Aoife O’Donovan and John Paul White. Highlights included Fulks’ rendition of Cowboy Copas’ Sunday-appropriate “We’ll Walk Along Together” and O’Donovan’s lovely take on Joni Mitchell’s “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio.”

Kathleen Edwards (photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Six Questions with Maple Byrne, The Atrium, Sunday: Sixthman staffer Trae Vedder conducted a wide-ranging interview with Maple Byrne, longtime guitar tech to Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller and other Nashville notables. Topics included Byrne’s memories of a late ‘70s tour featuring Steve Martin and Steve Goodman, laundry tips for tour T-shirts (wash them inside out), Byrne’s top 10 Cayamo moments (he’s a longtime veteran of the festival), and his extensive collections of records and musical instruments. It was a fascinating peek behind the curtain with someone who’s played a crucial, if not always very visible, role in the success of Cayamo.

Aoife O’Donovan, Spinnaker Lounge, Sunday: Boston-based singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan brought along an excellent band, but for this show – a full performance of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 acoustic album Nebraska – she was mostly on her own. Notwithstanding the incongruity between her lovely voice and guitar and Springsteen’s often dark tales, O’Donovan delivered a nuanced performance, adding her own twists to the songs while staying true to the album’s roots. She got assists from fiddler and former Crooked Still bandmate Brittany Haas on “Highway Patrolman” and brilliant young mandolinist and singer Sierra Hull on the closing “Reason to Believe.” Audience reactions, aside from pin-drop silence, included not a few tears and too many smiles to count.

Aoife Donovan (photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Tré Burt, Spinnaker Lounge, Monday: Sacramento, Calif.-based singer-songwriter Tré Burt started off with a nice rendition of John Prine’s “The Late John Garfield Blues” and proceeded through a set of mostly original material, accompanied at times by a young female singer named Levi. Burt’s voice, delivery and lyrics were, to some observers, reminiscent of the early Bob Dylan. A Dylanesque outrage at injustice was certainly evident in “Under the Devil’s Knee,” a pointed commentary on the killing of George Floyd in which Burt called not for sympathy but for action. Burt, who records for the Prine-founded Oh Boy Records label, closed with a sweet tribute to Prine titled “Dixie Red.”

Tré Burt (photo by Paul T. Mueller)

Paul Thorn’s Campfire Sessions, Stardust Theater, Wednesday: This songwriter round, on a stage decorated with fake foliage, a fake campfire and even a fake owl, featured Cayamo veterans Paul Thorn and Richard Thompson along with newcomer Jerron Paxton. Paxton, a California-based artist with Louisiana roots, features an old-timey sound that recalls blues recordings from the early decades of the 20th century. That sound is supported by his astounding command of a variety of instruments, ranging from guitar and banjo to piano and bones. Paxton also dropped one of the best onstage lines of the festival, stopping a song to admonish the audience about clapping along. “The last thing I need is a bunch of white people helping me with my rhythm,” he said with a big grin, earning laughter and applause. Thorn contributed his trademark mix of humor and poignancy, while Thompson applied his virtuosic acoustic guitar playing and expressive voice to “She Moved Through the Fair” and several other songs.

The Mavericks and Friends, Stardust Theater, Thursday: Raul Malo and his merry band opened their cruise-ending set with an impressive rendition of “Us and Them” from Pink Floyd’s landmark The Dark Side of the Moon album. The hit parade went on from there: “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down” by “stowaway” Jim Lauderdale; a sultry take on “Friday’s Child” by Kristi Rose, accompanied by husband Fats Kaplin (“I think I need a cigarette,” Malo said at song’s end, “and I don’t even smoke.”); Kathleen Edwards performing the Linda Ronstadt hit “When Will I Be Loved?” with high energy and unbridled joy; “Moon River,” with Malo crooning to the accompaniment of Australian guitar whiz Tommy Emmanuel; JD McPherson’s energetic take on Little Richard’s “Lucille,” and Nicole Atkins’ brilliant rendition of The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” complete with professional-grade dance moves and backup vocals (and dancing) by vocal trio Rainbow Girls. The Mavericks and all their guests closed out the set with an extended workout on one of the band’s big hits, “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down.”

Of course there was much, much more: An all-star tribute to musicians no longer with us; an “All the Best” show featuring friends of John Prine; another Prine tribute dubbed “Souvenirs: Songs of John Prine”; a nautical-themed sailaway show by Punch Brothers, featuring frequent shouts of “Ahoy!” by frontman and ace mandolinist Chris Thile; a Stowaway Reveal Show with “stowaways” Jim Lauderdale and Steve Poltz, featuring an album’s worth of songs written especially for Cayamo; the popular Sunday morning pool deck show, this year called Sunday Soul Session; Brady Blade’s Drum and Music Extravaganza, featuring the seemingly omnipresent drummer; an onstage conversation between Emmylou Harris and Fiona Prine, John’s widow; Cayamo debuts that included Austin blues legend Ruthie Foster, UK folk-rock duo Ida Mae, and others, and too many other shows and events to mention.

Next year’s Cayamo is scheduled for Feb. 10-17, 2023, sailing from Miami with stops at Tortola and St. Maarten.

John McEuen melds past, present in Franklin Theater show

John McEuen at the Franklin Theater

John McEuen, a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, revisited songs spanning decades in a nostalgia-rich show at the Franklin Theatre in Franklin, TN tonight.

It was an informal and entertaining evening that began with a singalong to “The Ballad Of Jed Clampett” and featured McEuen’ and his band’s rendition of big Dirt Band hits, including “Dance Little Jean,” “Mr. Bojangles” and a traditional take on “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”

The band included Les Thompson, another Dirt Band founder, who left the group in the early ’70s to become a goldsmith. He looked right at home. Here’s Thompson talking about the origins of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

McEuen has a new album called The Nashville Sessions. Here he briefly talks about the new release, as well as the Dirt Band’s biggest record.

Happy 80th Birthday to Steve Cropper

Steve Cropper sits on stage watching the performances in his honor at the Ryman

There was a nice event honoring guitar legend Steve Cropper on his 80th birthday last week. He sat at stage right for the entire first half of the show and then took the stage to play with folks like Felix Cavaliere, 84-year-old Eddie Floyd and Billy Gibbons. “Knock on Wood,” “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,” “Green Onions” and many more. The Ryman was slow in implementing vaccine requirements, and the audience was largely made up of tourists, but they now have some wonderful stories to take home.

Review: James McMurtry’s “Blasted from the Past”

By Paul T. Mueller

Austin’s Continental Club helped sustain James McMurtry over the years. For two decades McMurtry played regular Wednesday night gigs at the Austin club when he wasn’t touring elsewhere. Now the Texas-based singer-songwriter is returning the favor. The Continental, a longtime fixture on Austin’s live-music scene, is closed due to coronavirus restrictions – as are its Houston offshoot and many other live-music venues. McMurtry is responding by donating all proceeds from sales of a recently released digital EP to the club.

Blasted from the Past, recorded live at the club in 2006, features McMurtry and his longtime bandmates Ronnie Johnson on bass, Tim Holt on guitar and Daren Hess on drums. The five-song collection spans a decade’s worth of McMurtry albums – “Rachel’s Song” from Where’d You Hide the Body (1995); “Saint Mary of the Woods” and “Out Here in the Middle” from 2002’s Saint Mary of the Woods, and “See the Elephant” from 2005’s Childish Things. The closing track is “Laredo,” an ominous rocker written by one of McMurtry’s Austin contemporaries, Jon Dee Graham.

Blasted, which McMurtry calls “whiskey-soaked cowpunk from a bygone era,” is an interesting time capsule from an earlier phase of his career. It chronicles a tight band of seasoned road warriors, playing and singing with the kind of intensity that’s sometimes needed to hold the attention of a rowdy bar crowd. McMurtry’s guitar playing (all electric) is ferocious, and his voice has a roughness and an urgency shaped by years of near-constant gigging (and probably some whiskey along the way).

McMurtry these days is performing solo, streaming his shows live from his home in Lockhart, not far from Austin. Drawing from his extensive catalogue, he comes across as relaxed and relatively folksy. His incisive lyrics and brilliant guitar playing (on an impressive collection of six- and 12-string acoustics) are on full display, but McMurtry projects the ease of a man playing for friends in his living room. It’s a more than excellent experience, but it doesn’t include the rock ‘n’ roll power of his full-band shows. Fans of that side of McMurtry will find plenty to love in Blasted from the Past.

The EP is available via download, in a variety of digital formats. via McMurtry’s website or that of the Continental Club.