The top three slots in this week’s Americana Music Association Chart carry overfrom last week, with the Jayhawks’ “Mocking Bird Time” at number one, followed by Robert Earl Keen’s “Ready for Confetti” and John Hiatt’s “Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns.” The top entry on the Americana chart is Ryan Adams’ just-released “Ashes & Fire,” breaking in at number 16, with…
Preview: Americana Music Festival 2011 in Nashville
The 2011 Americana Music Festival lights up Nashville this week, bringing a remarkably diverse and talented range of artists to the city’s venues. And of course, it also prompts the question: “What is Americana music?” Peter Cooper of the Tennessean took a stab at it in 2003: American music is “country music that is too rooted and true for contemporary…
Americana Music Festival schedule: Wednesday, Oct. 12
Sun209: The Americana Music Journal will be providing extensive coverage of the Americana Music Festival in Nashville all week. Here’s a quick look at opening night: 7 pm Music City Roots at the Loveless Barn, featuring Grayson Capps, The Wilders, Elephant Revival, The Milk Carton Kids, and Scott Miller and Mic Harrison of the V-Roys The Basement 8 pm Brian…
Americana Music Festival schedule: Thursday, Oct. 13
The big event in Thursday’s Americana Music Festival schedule is the Honor and Awards show at the Ryman Auditorium. Here’s a quick look at the showcases that follow: The Basement 10 pm Amanda Shires 11 pm Malcolm Holcombe Midnight: Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three The Station Inn 10 pm Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore 11 pm JD Souther…
Americana Music Festival schedule: Friday, Oct. 14
Sun209: The Americana Music Journal will provide extensive coverage of the Americana Music Festival in Nashville all week. Here’s a quick look at the showcase schedule for Friday, Oct. 14: The Basement 8 pm Meg Hutchinson 9 pm Tommy Womack and the Rush To Judgment 10 pm Ian McLagan, formerly of the Faces 11 pm Henry Wagons Midnight: New Country…
Americana Music Festival schedule: Saturday, Oct. 15
Sun209: The Americana Music Journal will have extensive coverage of the Americana Music Festival in Nashville this week, but here’s a quick look at shows scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 15: Free programs: The 1861 Project, a new album revisiting the Civil War in song, will be showcased at the The Southern Festival of Books at Legislative Plaza at 2:30 p.m.…
Saluting Duane Allman and southern rock
In remembrance of Duane Allman and on the 40th anniversary of his death, the Country Music Hall of Fame will host “Brothers and Sisters: The Rise of Southern Rock.” The Oct. 29 program will feature figures who were pivotal to the history of Southern Rock, including Charlie Daniels, Bonnie Bramlett, Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie, Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd…
Review: Chip Taylor and the Grandkids
Chip Taylor’s new album is a family effort, teaming him with his grandchildren for a refreshing and engaging kids’ record. Golden Kids Rules (Smithsonain Folkways Recordings) features songs they wrote and performed together. The title song sets the positive and loving tone: “5-6-7-8 who do we appreciate? Kids, even if they’re breaking some rules.” “Big Ideas” is sweet and melodic,…
Saluting Buck Owens and the Bakersfield Sound
Fans of the Bakersfield Sound have plenty to celebrate. First there’s the just-released Buck Owens collection “Bound for Bakersfield 1953-1956: The Complete Pre-Capitol Collection.” The Rockbeat album collects songs that Owens recorded for the Pep, Chesterfield and La Brea labels before a much more successful run on Capitol. It’s a mixed bag of honky tonk and early rock ‘n’ roll,…
Americana Music Festival preview: The 1861 Project
The upcoming Americana Music Festival in Nashville will feature a number of free shows open to the public. Prominent among these is an Oct. 15 performance of songs from the 1861 Project, a new album that recounts the civil war through song. From the original Sun209 review: This ambitious, engaging and yes, educational project chronicles the Civil War through the perspectives…
Will Hoge, Wilco surge on Americana Music Chart
The top five spots in this week’s Americana Music Association Chart remain unchanged, with the Jayhawks, Robert Earl Keen, John Hiatt, Gillian Welch and Guy Clark ranked one through five. Will Hoge’s “Number Seven” jumps from #26 to #13. Fresh off two triumphant nights at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Wilco enters the chart at #21 with “The Whole Love.”…
D.J. Fontana to be recognized as “Nashville Cat”
The Nashville Cats series of conversations with pivotal country, rock and Americana music artists continues Oct. 22 at the Country Music Hall of Fame, as Bill Lloyd interviews legendary drummer D.J. Fontana. Fontana was the drummer on Elvis Presley’s earliest hits and appeared on almost 500 Presley recordings. He was also a prominent session player and has recorded with a wide…
Jayhawks top Americana chart
The Jayhawks, with founding member Mark Olson on hand for the first time since 1995, have the top album on the Americana Music Assocation chart this week. “Mocking Bird Time” (Rounder) replaces Robert Earl Keen’s “Ready for Confetti” after a one-week run at the top. New to the top ten is Ry Cooder’s “Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down”…
Del McCoury featured in new in-studio video series
Three years ago, Steve Fishell, a one-time member of Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band and later a producer of a number of cool country and Americana acts, launched the Music Producers Institute in Nashville. It was a studio with a twist. Fishell’s business model gave artists an economical way to record a new album, while inviting recording students and fans to…
Concert review: Elvis Costello at the Ryman Auditorium
Roy Acuff wouldn’t have approved. There on the stage of the legendary Ryman Auditorium tonight was a go-go dancer moving to the music of Elvis Costello and the Imposters. The dancer’s cage – and the multi-colored “Spectacular Spinning Songbook” that drove the setlist- contributed to a carnival-like atmosphere and an entertaining and outlandish show. This was in sharp contrast to…
Jackie DeShannon: “When You Walk in the Room”
“When You Walk in the Room,” Jackie DeShannon’s first album in 11 years, is a remarkable retrospective of songs she wrote and others she made famous. DeShannon is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but you have to wonder why she’s not also in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Like Carole King, she wrote songs for some of…
Mark Twain: Words and Music
It’s been a good month for Americana music fans who love history. First came the fine 1861 Project , which chronicled the Civil War. New today is “Mark Twain: Words and Music,” a fundraising project for the Mark Twain Boyhood Home in Hannibal, Missouri. We haven’t heard the two-CD package yet, but the spoken word and music set features a…
Robert Earl Keen’s “Ready for Confetti” tops Americana chart
Robert Earl Keen’s “Ready for Confetti” hits number one on this week’s Americana Music Association Chart. That’s no surprise. The album first appeared on the chart a month before release and its climb has been relentless. John Hiatt’s “Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns” falls to third after a long run at the top. Elsewhere in the top ten, the Jayhawks…
This day in Americana music: Gram Parsons died in 1973
Sept. 19: On this date in 1973, Gram Parsons died of a drug overdose at age 26. His recordings spanned just seven years, but his melding of rock and country was hugely influential, and established a foundation for what we now call Americana music. From his role in the Byrds and “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” to the founding of the…
Nick Lowe’s “The Old Magic”
Someone somewhere once told Nick Lowe to act his age and he took the advice seriously. His new “The Old Magic” is a masterful album, impeccably performed and produced, but it’s also sad and subdued, a quiet declaration that “the Basher” has abandoned any thought of actually rocking ever again. You can’t knock that. Lowe has decided to croon through…