Author: Americana Music News

Shadowboxers step into spotlight with new album

 in Reviews
The Shadowboxers at the 30A Songwriters Festival.

The Shadowboxers at the 30A Songwriters Festival.

By Ken Paulson

— Nanci Griffith cancelled her show this afternoon due to illness, giving the Shadowboxers a chance to step up to the 30A Songwriters Festival’s biggest venue. The young Atlanta band charmed the crowd at Gulf Place Amphitheater with a well-paced set fueled by in large part by ’70s era soul and funk.

When is the last time you heard a young band and leaned over and said “That sounds a lot like Stevie Wonder?”

The songs from the band’s new album Red Room were tight and energetic, with impressive harmonies throughout. The biggest surprise was the band’s cool cover of Big Star’s “13.”

As the band exited the stage, audience members lined up more than 20 deep to buy the band’s album, set for official release Jan. 22 on Vanguard.

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Review: Mary Chapin Carpenter at the 30A Songwriters Festival

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Mary Chapin Carpenter at the 30A Songwriters Festival

Mary Chapin Carpenter at the 30A Songwriters Festival

By Ken Paulson

— Mary Chapin Carpenter’s first band date of the new year came this afternoon at the 30A Songwriters Festival. She’s still touring in support of Ashes and Roses, an album she described today as being dark and serious in tone. Still, she said, the album does take a hopeful turn midway through.  That said, she proceeded to play one of the saddest songs on the album, “What to Take and What to Throw Away.”

Carpenter has had a long and successful touring career, and she once again demonstrated why, sprinkling new and more challenging songs among hits like “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” and “ I Feel Lucky.” She was joined on the latter by Tift Merritt and Marti Jones.

Carpenter still has a terrific band with John Jennings on guitar, Jon Carroll on keyboards and Don Dixon on bass. Still it was a surprise to hear Lucinda William’s “Passionate Kisses” and “The Hard Way,” both long-time concert favorites, turned down a notch, and played at a slower tempo.

Overall, it was a compelling set and at time playful. Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam, it seems, have lost their appeal for the woman who name-checked them in “I Feel Lucky.” Her new heartthrobs? The stars of “Dexter” and “Breaking Bad.” Clearly, times have changed.

(Photo copyright Ken Paulson 2013)

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Suzanne Vega at 30A Songwriters Festival

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Suzanne Vega

Americana Music News — Suzanne Vega played a brisk set at the Gulf Place Amphitheater today, the first headliner at the 30A Songwriters Festival.

It was a career-spanning set and the audience listened attentively under surprisingly dark skies. The sun broke through, along with the hits, at the set’s close. “Luka” and a spirited “Tom’s Diner” (complete with top hat) closed out Vega’s performance.

(Photo copyright 2013 Ken Paulson)

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Sun209: The week in tweets

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30A Songwriters Festival: Nanci Griffith and Lucinda WIlliams

 in Americana Music
Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams

Americana Music News — The 30A Songwriters Festival wraps up on Sunday with headliners Nanci Griffith and Lucinda Williams, two highly respected artists who have carved out long and successful careers by following their own creative paths.

Griffith is touring in support of her new album Intersection and will perform at 1:30 p.m. at Gulf Place Amphitheater. We saw Lucinda Williams on the Cayamo cruise last year and can only say that anything can happen. She takes the stage at 3:30 p.m.

Other intriguing shows on Sunday:

–  Holly Williams and Homesick Elephant at the Hibiscus at 10 a.m., followed by Gretchen Peters and Eliza Gilkyson.

–  Amy Andrews and Brigitte DeMeyer at the Hibiscus at 6:30 p.m.

–  Shawn Mullins and Chuck Cannon at Bentley’s at 8:30 p.m.

–  Humming House at Pandora’s at 9:30 p.m.

–  David Olney, Tommy Womack and Webb Wilder at Rosemary Beach Town Hall at 10 p.m.

You’ll find ticket details and maps to venues at the 30A Songwriters site. And here’s a look back at the 2012 festival.

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Saturday’s Best Bets at the 30A Songwriters Festival

 in Americana Music

CarpenterAmericana Music News — The 30A Songwriters Festival is clearly trying to corner the market on female singer-songwriters.  There are literally dozens in Walton County, Florida, this weekend, including Saturday’s headliners Mary Chapin Carpenter and Suzanne Vega, both appearing at the Gulf Place Amphitheatre Saturday afternoon.

Ashes and Roses, Carpenter’s latest album, stakes out somber turf, but her live shows range from highly personal songs to her often-energetic hits.   Vega’s “Luka,” a hit song about an abused boy, was the unlikeliest way to launch a career, but foreshadowed years of thought-provoking and adventurous recordings.

Among the shows we’re most eager to see on Saturday:

–  Don Dixon and Marti Jones at 723 Whiskey Bravo at 7 p.m.

–  Freedy Johnston, Susan Cowsill and Vickie Peterson at Rosemary Beach Town Hall at 7 p.m.

–   Allison Moorer, Gretchen Peters and Parker & Parker at the Boathouse at 7:30 p.m.

–  Webb Wilder, Tommy Womack, Mike Whitty and Angel Snow at Fish Out of Water at 8:30 p.m.

–  Kim Richey and Holly Williams at Bentley’s and Maddog’s at 9 p.m.

–  Will Kimbrough, Sugarcane Jane and Grayson Capps at Caliza at 9:30 p.m.

–  Tift Merritt at Fish Out of Water at 10 p.m.

You’ll find ticket details and maps to venues at the 30A Songwriters site. And here’s a look back at the 2012 festival.

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Opening night at the 30A Songwriters Festival

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David Olney

David Olney

 Americana Music News — The 30A Songwriters Festival in Walton County, Florida opens tomorrow with a varied and intriguing   line-up.  Some of the best bets on Friday night:

–  Webb Wilder, Jimmy Hall and Parker & Parker at the Boathouse at  7:30 p.m.

– David Olney and Don DiLego at Shorty’s Topside at 7:30 p.m.

– Freedy Johnston and Charlie Mars at Bud and Alley’s at 9 p.m.

– Tommy Womack and Will Kimbrough at the Boathouse at  9:30 p.m.

–  Jeffrey Steele at Fish Out of Water at 10 p.m.

–  Fastball at Caliza at 10:30 p.m.

You’ll find ticket details and maps to venues at the 30A Songwriters site. And here’s a look back at the 2012 festival.

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Buddy and Jim at #1, Carrie Rodriguez, Colin Linden chart

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Buddy and JimAmericana Music News — The Americana music radio airplay chart is back after a  holiday hiatus, so there’s plenty of new talent on this week’s list.

In the top spot is Buddy and Jim, from Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale, followed by Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson’s Wreck & Ruin.

Carrie Rodriguez’s Give Me All You Got posts an impressive chart debut at # 7. Other new entries include Colin Linden’s Still Live, Black Prairie’s A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart, Ben Harper and Charles Musselwhite’s I Don’t Believe A Word You Say and Shovels and Rope’s O’ Be Joyful.

Most added this week: Carrie Rodriguez, Paul Kelly’s Spring and Fall and Mary Gauthier’s Live at Blue Rock.

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30A Songwriters Festival: Lucinda Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter

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30a_logo_largeAmericana Music News — There’s an impressive line-up booked for this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival in Walton County, Florida. The festival, set for Jan. 18-20, will feature Lucinda Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, Will Kimbrough, Jeffrey Steele, Suzanne Vega, Fastball, Tift Merritt, Allison Moorer, Webb Wilder, Eliza Gilkyson, Freedy Johnston, Gretchen Peters, Tommy Womack, Brigitte DeMeyer and many more.

Here’s a link to our coverage of the 2012 festival, which included outstanding sets from the Bangles, Rodney Crowell and Steve Forbert.

The 2013 schedule hasn”t been posted yet, but you’ll find a list of artists and information about tickets on the festival’s site.

Tommy Womack will be among the artists performing at the 2013 30A Songwriters Festival

Tommy Womack will be among the artists performing at the 2013 30A Songwriters Festival

Sun209: The week in tweets

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RT @Dreamspiderweb: Show review –> Appalachian Jamwich » Leftover Salmon and The Lee Boys – 12-27-12 = The Vogue – Indianapolis, IN  … 7 hours ago

Steeldrivers plan two Nashville dates

 in Nashville music

steeldriversAmericana Music News — The SteelDrivers will be home in Nashville for two shows in February, showcasing their new album, Hammer Down.

The band will appear on Feb. 6  on the Music City Roots show beginning at 7 p.m. at Loveless Cafe and again at the Station Inn on Feb. 8 at 9 p.m.

You’ll find the Sun209 review of Hammer Down here.

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Tennessee Waltz: Patti Page at the Ryman

 in Americana Music

 

Americana Music News — We’ve seen many special shows at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, but one of the most memorable was from a woman in her late ’70s whose biggest hits were recorded a half-century earlier.

Patti Page passed away this week, and obituaries inevitably mentioned ’50s hits “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?” and “Tennessee Waltz.”

She did those favorites and songs from her then-new album Brand New Tennessee Waltz at the Ryman in the spring of 2000. She was in good voice and the show was remarkably contemporary. The concert and her album – a collaboration with Victoria Shaw and others in the Nashville music community – were reminders of Page’s enduring talent and charm.


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In review: A last-minute look at worthy albums

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By Ken Paulson

bright—So much music. So little time.

At the close of 2012, we find ourselves staring at a stack of albums we intended to write about. Here’s a quick take on some of the best:

I first saw the duo of Bright Littlefield in 2010 at Nashville’s Family Wash and was amazed by their ukulele covers of Replacements songs.  The  Treatment Bound album which collected those covers was remarkable and much more than a novelty.  I’ve always respected Paul Westerberg’s songwriting, but heard it in a new and very positive light on this album.

Now the album is getting overdue national distribution and recognition. The irony is that the sticker on the album says “bound to make fans fall in love all over again.” That may be true, but I’ve found that friends who were never into the Replacements love this album on its own terms:  stripped-down, tight and often buoyant. Buy it.

Covers loom large in two other impressive new albums. The first is a no-brainer, the collaboration of Americana music godfathers Jim Lauderdale and Buddy Miller. Buddy and Jim supplements first-rate originals with covers of Joe Tex’s “I Want To Do Everything For You, ” Johnnie and Jack’s “Down South in New Orleans,” Jimmy McCracklin’s “The Wobble” and Flatt and Scruggs’ “The Train That Carried My Girl Away.” Terrific from start to finish.

On Bring It on Home, Shannon Whitworth  and Barrett Smith deliver gorgeous covers of a wide range of songs, from the soulful title track to a fresh take on the oft-recorded closer, “You Are My Sunshine.” Favorites: “Duncan” and “I’ll Be Your Lover, Too.”

Chris_Stamey_album_cover-350x350I’ve admired Chris Stamey’s solo work, his tenure with the dBs and his partnership with Peter Holsapple, but his new Lovesick Blues (to be released in February) is distinctly different. This is the most intimate and acoustic album he’s ever recorded, and it took repeated plays to truly embrace it. Now it’s my favorite Stamey album, poetic pop that brings Paul Simon and Al Stewart to mind.

There’s no better introduction to the music of Carrie Newcomer than Kindred Spirits, a collection of 17 outstanding songs from her 12 albums on Rounder Records, plus two new songs. She’s an accomplished folk performer who records consistently compelling and thoughtful compositions.  These lyrics from her new “Speed of Soul” are representative of her art:

Mr. Gatling made a Gatling gun

He said it would end war

For who could send some mother’s son

Through such a door

But the bullets move at the speed of cold

Drones do as they’re told

And the men go home at night

And kiss the wife

And watch TV

And never see

All those souls untethered

Whew. It’s powerful songwriting, but like Mary Chapin Carpenter’s work in recent years, unrelentingly earnest.  Couldn’t Carrie and Chapin just go grab a beer at the Twist and Shout on occasion?

We met Howlin’ Alan at the American Music Festival and he was kind enough to follow up  with a copy of his Back to Plan A album, which we like a lot. It’s straight-ahead folk and rock, with one song fittingly titled “Tom Petty.”  We also enjoyed Davey Craddock and the Spectacles’ Coming Home. One listen to “Anti-Folk,” and you’ll hear the distressingly cheerful  “Bob Dylan’s dead” refrain for the rest of the day.

Also new and noteworthy: Grassmarket’s You Are the Ocean, The Delta Saints’ Death Letter Jubilee, Mike Cullison’s The Barstool Monologues, the Red Dirt Skinners’  Home Sweet Home, Ronnie Fauss’ I Am the Man You Know I’m Not, Drew Gibson’s The Southern Draw, Bex Marshall’s The House of Mercy, Patrick Fitzsimmons’ Hope Is, Birds of Chicago and Vicky Emerson’s Dust & Echoes.

And on to 2013… Happy new year!

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Sun209: The week in tweets

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A very Wooten Christmas in Nashville

 in Nashville music
Joseph and Victor Wooten at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville.

Joseph and Victor Wooten at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville.

 

Joseph Wooten, keyboard player for the Steve Miller band and a solo artist, invited his brothers for a reunion and Christmas party in Nashville on Dec. 21. Soul classics prevailed, plus the funkiest version of Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song” ever performed.

 

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Review: The Steeldrivers’ “Hammer Down”

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steeldriversBy Ken Paulson

–The Steeldrivers are back with a new line-up, but remarkably consistent sound on Hammer Down, to be released on Feb. 5.

Chris Stapleton and Mike Henderson are no longer with the band, though some of their songs show up on the new album. Mandolinist Brent Truitt and guitarist Gary Nichols join core members Tammy Rogers, Mike Fleming and Richard Bailey on Hammer Down, the band’s third album.

This is adventurous bluegrass, marrying traditional themes to ambitious and soulful music.

Highlights include the spooky “Shallow Grave” (“I buried my love with a silver spade, laid her down in a shallow grave) and the similarly dark “I’ll Be There,” written by Nichols and the Civil Wars’ John Paul White, available as a free download at http://www.steeldrivers.net.

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Sun209 contributors

 in Americana Music

Will Kimbrough: Spending most of 2011 touring with Emmylou Harris as one of her Red Dirt Boys, Will Kimbrough often performs with Rodney Crowell, Jimmy Buffett and others when not performing his own shows, writing hit songs, working as a session performer or producing others notable artists across various genres.
Will’s songs have been recorded by Jimmy Buffett, Little Feat, Jack Ingram, Todd Snider and others, while he has released 10 artist albums and a 3-CD box set to-date, including five albums as a founding member of DADDY, the bis-quits, and Will and the Bushmen. A new studio album is due out in late 2012. Dubbed an “Alien” performer as a way to explain his un-earthly, masterful performance on the guitar, Will was recognized in 2004 as the “Instrumentalist of the Year” by the Americana Music Association.
His websites: http://www.reverbnation.com/willkimbrough and
http://www.willkimbrough.com

Bill Lloyd: Bill Lloyd is a Nashville-based songwriter, musician, recording artist and producer who is most often remembered as half of the late ’80s RCA country-rock duo, Foster and Lloyd. Lloyd’s diverse musical activities include working as a producer (ranging from Carl Perkins to MTV reality show indie-rockers, The Secret), a session player (from Brit-pop icons like Ray Davies of The Kinks and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze to country legends like Buck Owens and Steve Earle), a sideman (Poco, Marshall Crenshaw and with Cheap Trick when they perform The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper with orchestra) and as a songwriter (with songs cut by Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Sara Evans, Keith Anderson, Hootie and the Blowfish and many more). He has recorded a string of critically acclaimed solo records that blend his melodic power pop sensibility with finely tuned song craft. During his stint as the Stringed Instrument Curator at The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, he created the quarterly series Nashville Cats, that he continues to host. He’s the music director for the First Amendment Center in Nashville. He also organized and plays in Nashville’s high concept cover band, The Long Players

Ken Paulson: Ken Paulson is the editor of Sun209:The Americana Music Journal. The former editor-in-chief of USA Today and a journalist for almost thirty years, Paulson began his career as a music reporter for Chicago-area publications in the ‘70s, and later worked as music critic for the national Gannett News Service and as a music writer for a wide range of magazines, including Goldmine, Environs, Triad and Family Weekly.

Terry Roland: Terry Roland is an Americana-roots music journalist who has published interviews, reviews and feature articles for FolkWorks, Sing-Out, No Depression and The San Diego Troubadour.

Bruce Rosenstein: Bruce Rosenstein is currently Managing Editor for the journal Leader to Leader. His book Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life was published by Berrett-Koehler in 2009.For 21 years, Bruce was a librarian for USA TODAY, where he also wrote about business and management books for the Money section of the newspaper. He has written for such publications as Leader to Leader, Leadership Excellence, American Executive, ONLINE and Information Outlook. He also wrote scripts for a weekly rock music radio show heard around the world on the Voice of America in the 1970s and ’80s, and contributed to such music publications as Trouser Press and ARSC Journal. He and Steve Leeds released one of the first compilations of independent rock music, Declaration of Independents, on their Ambition Records label in 1980. His website is www.brucerosenstein.com.

Joe Ross: Joe Ross of Roseburg, Oregon has been a music journalist and reviewer for over three decades. Now retired from the day job as a civilian with the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe is working full-time on music-related endeavors, including teaching and songwriting. He “edu-tains” with his interactive, fast-paced “Roots of Bluegrass” solo show that traces that music’s evolution while demonstrating banjo, mandolin, guitar, concertina, autoharp and dulcimers. But you might also see him performing a solo show of Latin, Hawaiian or even Beatles music. Performing since age 12, Joe also currently plays with various bands including Irish Crème (Celtic), Umpqua Valley Bluegrass Band (Bluegrass), The Keynotes (Polka Band), Zephyr Duo (Old-Time), and Alamojo (Western Swing). His eight albums, available at Amazon and CDBaby, span multiple genres and also include many original songs. Contact him at rossjoe@hotmail.com

Tommy Womack: A successful singer-songwriter with songs recorded by Jimmy Buffett, Todd Snider, Jason Ringenberg, Dan Baird, Scott Kempner and others, Tommy Womack is the author of the rock memoir cult classic “Cheese Chronicles: The True Story of a Rock n Roll Band You’ve Never Heard Of” and the recording artist behind 2007’s career-defining There, I Said It! album, as well as founding
member of the band DADDY with the Americana Music Association’s
instrumentalist of the year Will Kimbrough. A two-time winner of “Best Song” in the Nashville Scene’s annual “Best of Nashville” poll, Tommy is releasing a new solo studio album – NOW WHAT! – in late February 2012. He is always writing towards his next book. His websites:

http://www.tommywomack.com

Review: Cow Bop’s “Cowlifornia Swing”

 in Americana Music

cow bopBy Joe Ross

The Cowbopsters are back with their fourth album called Cowlifornia Swing, and there are plenty of both western and jazz influences apparent. Much like their last album (“Too Hick for the Room”) we hear guitarist Bruce Forman, vocalist Pinto Pammy (Forman’s wife), bassist Alex King and drummer Jake Reed. The quintet has also added David Wise on saxophone and cornet. On several cuts, guests fill out the new album with tints of piano, fiddle, trombone, cello, mandolin and accordion. All are hot tunesters with solid credentials.  Bruce Forman teaches jazz guitar at USC’s Thornton School of Music, and others in the band are (or were) students there.  Like their last successful album, Thornton alumnus Doug Gerry produced, and faculty member Andrew Garver mastered.

 

“Spade” Cooley coined the term “Western Swing” in the early 1940s, and it’s interesting that “Spade” was a Los Angeles resident like the members of Cow Bop. He had fortune and fame, but was imprisoned in 1961 for murder. Despite the thousands of bands playing all over the West during the heyday of Western Swing, the genre is most closely associated with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Cow Bop pays tribute to them with a boss arrangement of “Roly Poly” that wisely includes Phil Salazar’s fiddle, the only cut with that classic western swing instrument, albeit played electric on this song.

 

Cow Bop’s approach to bovine boogie also taps jazz  standards (“I’ve Found a New Baby”), pop fare (“These Boots are Made for Walking,” “Mambo Italiano”), country (“Cattle Call”), western (“Wahoo”), and some less oft-heard big band tunes (“A Gal in Calico”). The jazz chops predominate in these uplifting tunes and make for an enjoyable listen. We also hear Pinto Pammy’s countrified sounds, like yodeling in “Cattle Call” and call-and-response (with David Jackson) in the novelty number “Wahoo.” She’s also comfortably smooth with a swinging version of “Indian Love Call,” quite unlike the rendition done by Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Six-minute offerings like “What is this Thing called Love?” and “These Boots are Made for Walking” allow multiple instrumentalists to showcase with improvisation between verses. The arrangements are solid, but I wonder if they write any originals.

 

While some of Cow Bop’s influences are clearly organic and corn-fed, Cow Bop’s jazzy twang also provides a copious amount of toe-tapping fun. There may not be many big roadhouses and dancehalls left today, but you can catch this band at fairs, festivals, cafes, rodeos, burger joints and places like the Viva Cantina in Burbank. I haven’t ever been there, but I imagine it as a place where young folks, old-timers, friends and neighbors all know each other and gather for listening or dancing the night away. Hailing from busy and heavily populated Southern California, Cow Bop’s music conveys a rural ethos, but also demonstrates an urban, contemporary understanding. Cowlifornia Swing is music for dancing so roll up the rug, throw some cornmeal on the floor, invite the neighbors over and throw a party to their music.

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Ten most-played Americana music albums of the year

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JD McPhersonAmericana Music News —  The Americana Music Association has just released its list of most-played Americana music albums of 2012, based on airplay reports from Nov. 15, 2011 through Nov. 17, 2012.

The top 10:

1) JD McPherson, Signs And Signifiers / Rounder

2) Darrell Scott, Long Ride Home / Full Light

3) Rodney Crowell, KIN: Songs By Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell /Vanguard

4) Justin Townes Earle, Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way… /Bloodshot

5) Little Willies, For The Good Times  / Milking Bull/EMI

6) Willie Nelson, Heroes / Legacy

7) Lyle Lovett, Release Me / Lost Highway

8) Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Grifter’s Hymnal /Bordello Records

9) Old Crow Medicine Show, Carry Me Back /ATO

10) Ryan Adams, Ashes & Fire / PAX-AM/Capitol

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