Jim Lauderdale joined Suzy Bogguss, Will Kimbrough and Eric Brace in an in-the-round show at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville last night. It was as engaging and entertaining an evening as that line-up suggests.
Lauderdale has been Americana music’s best friend, hosting the annual awards show at the Ryman auditorium, while also releasing some of the genre’s best music. His new album Reason and Rhyme just received a Grammy nomination for best bluegrass album.
We spoke with him after the show last night, while the room was still buzzing and folks were still loud, as evidenced by the background noise on this interview. Here Lauderdale talks about working with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and his great respect for Americana music.
Category: Interviews
Lisa Oliver-Gray’s solo debut: Dedicated to Love
Tommy Womack wrote an enthusiastic ode to Lisa Oliver-Gray and her first solo album Dedicated to Love on Sun209.com earlier this month.
He didn’t oversell it.
You can tell this was a liberating project for all involved. Lisa steps up front with a fresh and powerful voice and her DADDY bandmates and co-writers deliver songs that are largely buoyant and reassuring.
The album opens and closes with the joyous and melodic “Everybody Wants to Be Loved,” written by Womack and Tom Littlefield, celebrates a relationship that works on “I Can Count On You,” written by Lisa, Tommy Womack and Michael Webb, and honors a beloved grandmother on Lisa’s self-penned “Lucille.”
In other words, this is an album about real people and relationships, but with a decidedly positive perspective. The songwriting and the band, which includes Womack, Kimbrough, album producer Michael Webb, Tim Marks and Paul Griffith – are first-rate.
Here’s Lisa talking about her first solo album:
(Photo by Paul Needham)