Ollabelle and Guy Clark are new to this week’s Americana Music Association chart, with their new albums ranked seventh and eighth respectively. The marketing and merchandising around the Guy Clark live CD “Songs and Stories” has been fascinating. It was available as an MP3 for one day on Amazon for $3.99, but you can also buy the CD, an autographed print and a T-shirt on Clark’s website for $125. Clearly he’s an artist for all income groups.
Robert Earl Keen’s “Ready for Confetti” moved up to fourth place, following John Hiatt, Gillian Welch and the Jayhawks, who again hold down the top three slots.
New to the chart is Greg Brown’s “Freak Flag.” (Pictured) Among the albums with the most adds this week are Joy Kills Sorrow’s “This Unknown Science” and Johnny Winter’s “Roots.”
Tag: Greg Brown
New acts added to 2012 Cayamo line-up
The bookers for Cayamo have been busy. Newly-added acts for the floating Americana music festival set for February 2012 include Joe Purdy, Bobby Long and Deep River.
They join an impressive line-up that includes Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Keb’ Mo’, John Hiatt, Buddy Miller, Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, Greg Brown, the Civil Wars, Sara Watkins, James McMurtry, Iris Dement, Shawn Mullins, Edwin McCain, Maia Sharp, The Belle Brigade, Works Progress Administration, Angie Aparo, Chuck Cannon, Enter the Haggis, Winterbloom, Holly Williams, Shannon McNally,Ryan Montbleau Band, Sarah Lee & Johnny Irion, Beth Wood, Aslyn, Sarah Jaffe and Levi Lowrey.
Jeff Bridges: High profile and low-key music
You don’t hire T Bone Burnett to produce a vanity project.
Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for playing a ragged country singer in “Crazy Heart”, but his aspiration to do it for real is more than fantasy. His new album
is credible, distinguished by talented players and songs from fine Americana music writers. It’s also uneven and not particularly interesting.
The album starts strong with “What A Little Bit of Love Can Do,” a jangly tune written by the late Stephen Bruton. If Buddy Holly had lived to 2011, this would have been his new single, “It’s So Easy” revisited.
From there the album shifts into a different gear, dominated by slow and even draggy songs (the interminable “Slow Boat.”)
The best tracks are John Goodwin’s contributions “Maybe I Missed the Point” and the Guy Clark-flavored “The Quest,” along with Greg Brown’s “Blue Car.”
There’s a lot of talent here, including guest vocals by Rosanne Cash, Ryan Bingham and Sam Phillips, but “Jeff Bridges” the album just isn’t in the same league as Jeff Bridges the actor.