Tag: “Foster and Lloyd

Americana Music Festival opening night: Spanning the decades

The reunited Foster and Lloyd

There’s plenty of time-tripping to be done tonight as the Americana Music Festival opens in Nashville.

It’s a measure of the genre’s wide embrace that performers who first hit their stride in every decade since the ’60s – and songs that were written years before that – are in the mix of showcase performances.

At the Rutledge at 9 p.m., country music legend Connie Smith will perform. She had her first number one record in 1963 with “Once A Day” and just released a new album, “Long Line of Heartaches.”

Marshall Chapman, playing at 8 p.m. at the Station Inn, began her recording career in 1977, and has long been one of Nashville’s most respected and irreverent songwriters and storytellers. Some of her performances include readings from her very entertaining books. The latest is “They Came To Nashville.”

The reunited Foster and Lloyd (pictured) emerged in the mid-’80s, when they brought a fresh sound to country music with songs like “Crazy Over You” and “What Do You Want From Me This Time?” Their new album “It’s Already Tomorrow” may be their best.

You get the idea. Just look at the line-up at the Cannery Ballroom tonight. From the Muscle Shoals tribute to The Blind Boys of Alabama (founded in 1939), to the very contemporary breakout duo The Civil Wars, the bill and the festival cut a wide swath across American music.

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 Wright
9 pm The Greencards
10 pm Lake Street Dive
11 pm The Dirt Daubers

The Station Inn
8 pm Marshall Chapman
9 pm The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore
10 pm Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison
11 pm Peter Rowan

The Rutledge

8:15 pm Marty Stuart

9 pm Connie Smith

10 pm Mountain Heart

11 pm David Mayfield Parade

The Mercy Lounge

8 pm The Gourds

9 pm Kenny Vaughan

10 pm Foster and Lloyd

11 pm Hayes Carll

The Cannery Ballroom

8 pm Muscle Shoals Tribute

10 pm Blind Boys of Alabama

11 pm The Civil Wars

Triumphant “Tomorrow:” Foster and Lloyd Reunite

I first saw Bill Lloyd on stage at a club in downtown Nashville in 1997. I was impressed with his power pop-flavored set and cover of the Kinks’ “This is Where I Belong.” I figured he was an up-and-comer with impeccable taste in covers.
It wasn’t until later that I learned that he was the Lloyd of Foster and Lloyd, a country duo, once up-and-comers with impeccable taste in everything. Over a four-year run, Foster and Lloyd released three well-received albums with reviews that brought comparisons to the Everly Brothers, Byrds and Rockpile. They were that good.
By 1991, Foster and Lloyd were no more, and Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd embarked on solo careers as performers and songwriters. Since then, there have been occasional one-off reunions. There were two successive New Year’s Eve dates at the Bluebird Café in Nashville, a track on a Nick Lowe tribute CD and a performance of “In the Ghetto” at our annual Freedom Sings salute to free expression.
Then came a benefit for the Americana Music Association, with new material and a delighted audience. That set the stage for “It’s Already Tomorrow,” the first new Foster and Lloyd album in 20 years. It was worth the wait.
Reflecting their individual music growth over the years, the new album is both the most musically adventurous and cohesive of their career. Most likely it’s the liberation of no longer worrying about the country radio market and just letting the music flow. It rocks and charms in equal measure.
The additional years also bring a different perspective to the songwriting. The buoyant title song marvels at the passage of years and celebrates a long relationship: “Two young lovers across the aisle, they make me think of us and I smile.”
Closing out the album is “When I Finally Let You Go,” an acoustic number destined to be the bride’s father’s dance at hip wedding receptions. These and songs like “If It hadn’t Been For You” and “Watch Your Movie” couldn’t have been written or performed by a young Foster and Lloyd.
Not that the sly wordplay of earlier records is gone. “Let Me Help You Out of that Freudian slip” they sing in “Can’t Make Love Make Sense”, while the joking boyfriend in That’s What She said” protests that “I can’t stop my innuendo, that’s one thing she can’t comprendo.”
Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick plays bass and electric guitar on “Hold That Thought,” and is a co-writer of “Lucky Number,” a melodic and rocking song about a confident young woman, with back-up vocals by Beth Nielsen Chapman.
Foster and Lloyd revisit their own “Picasso’s Mandolin,” a co-write with Guy Clark, freshening it with a new verse and a guest turn on mandolin by Sam Bush.
In a bit of whimsy, the CD cover is designed to look like a worn and discolored album jacket. The packaging may be weathered, but the music certainly isn’t. Foster and Lloyd are as fresh and vibrant as ever.

Ken Paulson