Coming Jan. 26 is “With All Its Thorns,” the third album from Laura Benitez, who melds traditional country, rockabilly, Cajun and Mexican music in highly engaging fashion. A sample:
Top 100 albums in Americana music
The Americana Music Association has just released the Top 100 Americana Albums of the year based on radio airplay. No surprise in the top two slots, with Jason Isbell and Christ Stapleton leading the way. But it’s a treat to see multiple generations in the upper reaches, with Steve Earle at #5 and his son Justin Towns Earle at #7. Lukas Nelson is at #8, while his father Willie Nelson holds down #11.
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New: Eric Brace’s “Cartes Postales”
We’ve long admired Eric Brace’s work, from Last Train Home to his solo work and collaborations with Peter Cooper, and his new “Cartes Postales” shows us a new side of his art. The album honors his father’s life and love of music and nine of the ten tracks are sung in French, his father’s home country. The music is beautiful, thanks in part to the many contributions of Rory Hoffman. A sample, taken from Eric’s appearance on Music City Roots:
Preview: Grant-Lee Phillips’ “Widdershins”
By Ken Paulson
One of my projects each year is to put together concerts that celebrate free speech. This year we had a new recruit.
Grant-Lee Phillips turned in great performances in Nashville at the Family Wash on the 4th of July and at the Bluebird Café in September, closing the latter concert with a roaring take on “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
So it makes perfect sense that Phillips’ new album “Widdershins,” set for release on Feb. 23 on Yep Roc Records, reflects his perspective on today’s free world.
“I made a commitment to myself not to sink into despair,” Phillips said in a release. “I’m tracing a longer narrative here. We’ve been through some of this before – not just our country, but the civilization as a whole.”
Here’s a preview track from the new album:
Bill Lloyd interview: “It’s Happening Now”
By Ken Paulson
Bill Lloyd of power pop and Foster and Lloyd fame has a new album out this week and it’s a musical departure. Rather than the Beatles/Byrds-infused sounds of “Set to Pop” and “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants,” “It’s Happening Now” is a refreshing collection of quieter, well-crafted compositions, long on melody and wry observations. We had the chance to catch up with Bill right before a performance in Nashville on Saturday to talk about his career, musical heroes and his new songs, including the only-in-Nashville “Pedal Tavern Girl.” As he notes in the interview, if you’ve liked Bill’s past work, you’ll enjoy “It’s Happening Now” as well. Highly recommended.
Coming soon: John McCutcheon’s “Ghost Light”
“Ghost Light” is John McCutcheon’s 39th album, set for release early next year, and continues his tradition of combining traditional folk with fresh perspectives.
“The Machine,” a reflection on the events in Charlottesville in August, 2017 is particularly compelling. There’s also the sheer joy of “She Just Dances,” about a granddaughter discovering dancing, and “When My Fight for Life Is Over,” a new song built around a fragment of a Woody Guthrie composition. Highly recommended.
Kris Kristofferson’s “Life and Songs”
By Ken Paulson – Just released is “The Life and Songs of Kris Kristofferson,” a three-disc set with guest spots from Buddy Miller, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowell, Alison Krauss and many more. Recorded in Nashville on March 16, 2016, the collection contains two CDs and a DVD of the concert.
Kristofferson’s voice is singular, but his songs work for just about everybody and there’s a surprisingly consistent level of quality, despite more than 20 artists coming to the stage.
There are deeply touching moments here, with Reba McEntire beckoning Kristofferson onstage to wrap up “Me and Bobby McGee” and Highwaymen family members Jessi Colter and Rosanne Cash delivering their own memorable performances. Jennifer Nettles nails “Worth Fighting For,” as do Jamey Johnson and Alison Krauss on “For the Good Times.”
It’s a must-have for Kris Kristofferson fans.
On the topic of Kris’ life and career, we had the opportunity a while back to interview him for our “Speaking Freely TV show:
The ultimate Woody Guthrie tribute
In the wake of Woody Guthrie’s death in 1967, “Woody’s children” – as daughter Nora Guthrie calls them – gathered at Carnegie Hall in 1968 and the Hollywood Bowl in 1970 to celebrate his life and music.
These musical progeny were legends in the making, including Bob Dylan and the Band, Pete Seeger, Odetta, Richie Havens, Tom Paxton and many more, all demonstrating the lessons they learned from Woody.
Bear Records has released an extraordinary document – a better term than box set in this instance- that captures both concerts, and includes almost 80 tracks, recorded remembrances and two substantive illustrated books. It’s pretty special to hear the Band before its “Big Pink” album debut backing up Dylan on “Grand Coulee Dam,” “Dear Mrs. Roosevelt” and “I Ain’t Got No Home,” but there are treasures throughout.
We don’t often post trailers on our site, but this Bear Family video nicely captures what’s so special about this set:
Nov. 17: Robbie Fulks in Nashville
Don’t miss:
Robbie Fulks is back in Nashville this Friday at the Station Inn in support of his latest album “Upland Stories.” It’s always a great show, as this performance attests:
Jon Latham: “My first word was ‘Bruce'”
Jon Latham delivered a great set for WMOT in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to encourage residents to support downtown businesses after a planned white supremacist rally wiped out business the previous weekend. In this interview with Americana Music News, he talks about the influence of Bruce Springsteen.
New: Billy Burnette’s “Crazy Like Me”
Billy Burnette has a fun new album “Crazy Like Me” that chronicles his career in music, including his years in Fleetwood Mac. We caught up with him at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville.
New: Brian Dunne’s “Bug Fixes & Performance Improvements”
We first saw Brian Dunne on the Sandy Beaches Cruise and came away impressed. His new album is called “Bug Fixes & Performance Improvements.” Among the highlights:
New: Christian Lopez’s “Red Arrow”
Christian Lopez’s excellent new album “Red Arrow” continues to climb the Americana Music radio chart, moving to 32 this week. Our favorite tracks: “1972” and “Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight.”
Willie Nile on “Positively Bob”
We’re written here about the terrific Dylan tribute “Positively Bob.” Here he tells how the album came about and reveals his granddaughter’s favorite Dylan song:
New: Lee Ann Womack’s “The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone”
By Ken Paulson
Lee Ann Womack has been enthusiastically embraced by the Americana music community and with good reason. 2014’s “The Way I’m Livin'” and her new album “The Lonely, Lonesome & The Gone” were of a kind with her debut hit “Never Again Again.” She really just came home to the genre.
As suggested by the title and the weary cover image, the new collection has its share of sadness and struggles. “Old songs make it sound so cool/to be a half-drunk heartbroke fool/But when the fool is you, it’s not,” she sings on the title track co-written with Adam Wright.
That collaboration is a rich one, with Womack and/or Wright and sometimes others) penning six of the album’s cuts, including the comparatively upbeat “End of the End of the World.”
The album also features a chlling take on the timeless “Long Black Veil” and a cover of George Jones’ “Take the Devil Out of Me.”
“The Lonely, Lonesome & The Gone” has two elements that run throughout the album: Womack’s compelling delivery and powerful songwriting. It’s among her best.
Kris and Emmylou: “The Pilgrim Chapter 33”
A classic from the new “Life and Songs of Kris Kristofferson” CD/DVD collection:
Margo Price’s “All American Made”
The first single from the new Margo Price album:
Lucinda Williams revisits “This Sweet Old World”
By Paul T. Mueller
Why would an artist remake a widely praised and much-loved album from early in her career? In the case of This Sweet Old World, Lucinda Williams’ fresh take on her Sweet Old World from 1992, only Williams really knows. But the new album can speak for itself as an ambitious project that mostly succeeds, while leaving a few things to be desired.
The remake resembles the original in several respects. It includes the original 12 tracks, in slightly different order (one of them, “He Never Got Enough Love,” is retitled as “Drivin’ Down a Dead End Street” and features additional verses and a different chorus). The instrumental backing is similar, featuring two guitars, drums and a bass. Williams’ current touring band – Buick 6, consisting of guitarist Stuart Mathis, bassist David Sutton and drummer Butch Norton – provides the basis this time, assisted by Greg Leisz on guitar and lap steel and engineer and mixer David Bianco on organ.
The most noticeable difference, at least on first listen, is Williams’ singing. In 1992 she sounded like a poetic singer-songwriter, grounded in folk and blues but still exploring her place in the music world – a little bit shy, a little bit uncertain. A quarter century on, the diffident vocals have been replaced by a confident but weathered version with a smaller range, both acoustic and emotional, than Willliams’ younger voice.
The feelings are still there – the pain of unrequited love (“Six Blocks Away”), the longing for connection (“Something About What Happens When We Talk”), the joy of real love (“Lines Around Your Eyes”), the shock of suicide (“Pineola”) – but at times they feel muted. Maybe that’s down to the wear and tear of 25 years in the music business, or the sheer number of times Williams has sung many of these songs, or the inevitable temporal disconnect between the woman who wrote the songs and the woman she’s become. In any case, with Williams having co-produced the album, it’s clear that this is how she wants to present these songs today.
On the plus side, and without taking anything away from the original, it’s hard to say enough good things about the playing on the new album. The interaction between Mathis, who seemingly can do anything he wants to with an electric guitar, and the equally virtuosic Leisz is nothing short of sublime. Their parts soar above the solid rhythmic foundation provided by Sutton and Norton, with Bianco adding keyboard flourishes as needed.
The album includes four bonus tracks – Williams’ excellent country blues tune “Dark Side of Life,” the traditional “Factory Blues,” the cryptic “What You Don’t Know,” by Americana icons Jim Lauderdale and John Leventhal, and John Scott Sherrill ‘s “Wild and Blue,” which was a 1982 hit for John Anderson.
New: Flamin’ Groovies’ “Fantastic Plastic”
By Ken Paulson –
It’s fitting that one of the best tracks on the latest Flamin’ Groovies album Fantastic Plastic is a cover of NRBQ’s “I Want You Bad.”
Like NRBQ, the Groovies were more a cult band than commercial group, and their line-up has had seismic shifts over the years. And like NRBQ, they’re out there touring in support of a current album, drawing on a rich catalog and having as good a time as they can.
The new album features founding members Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson, and it’s a consistently entertaining mash-up of Byrds, Rolling Stones and the Who. It’s also a record collector’s fantasy object, with cover and label design drawn from Capitol and Laurie Records, and a Jordan illustration that salutes the late Jack Davis.
Best of all for those who live in Music City, the Flamin’ Groovies are set to play the Basement East on Oct. 25 in East Nashville. Tickets available here. Openers: The Shazam and TV Sisters.
Radney Foster showcases new book, album
By Paul T. Mueller
Radney Foster can now add “author” to his already impressive résumé. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter recently published For You to See the Stars, a collection of short stories related in some way to lyrics from his songs. He simultaneously released a CD with the same title, on which some of the 11 songs share their titles with stories from the book. Foster featured songs and a story in an in-store appearance at Houston’s Cactus Music on Sept. 30, in the middle of a two-night stand at the nearby McGonigel’s Mucky Duck.
Strumming an acoustic six-string, with impressive accompaniment from Eddie Heinzelman on electric guitar, Foster kicked off the event with “For You to See the Stars,” a reflection on adversity and our response to it (note to self: when writing a song, hope to include a line as good as “rock bottom is just solid ground to start again”). Next came a nice rendition of “Raining on Sunday,” an older song, co-written with Darrell Scott, that became a hit for Keith Urban.
The literary part of the show consisted of Foster’s reading of “Bridge Club,” a funny coming-of-age story of sorts. He noted that the story, which revolves around a memorable day for a young boy and his mother’s bridge club, is fiction, although the dark twist at the end involves an event that was all too real.
Two more songs followed: “Greatest Show on Earth,” a lively account of Foster’s introduction to music via family music parties, and “Howlin’,” about the way a generation of young people was introduced to rock ‘n’ roll in the early ’60s by DJ Wolfman Jack, who broadcast over a powerful “border blaster” radio station across the Mexican border from Foster’s hometown of Del Rio, Texas.
Radney Foster stuck around for quite awhile after the music ended, signing autographs and chatting with enthusiastic fans.