In the spirit of the holiday, a friend posted a link to a 2006 Atlantic Magazine article listing the top 100 influential Americans. I went through the list and was glad to see that three musicians made the cut. The list, compiled by a panel of historians, identified Elvis Presley (#66), Louis Armstrong, (#79), and Stephen Foster (#97) as the…
U2 salutes Johnny Cash at Nashville show
U2 surprised its Nashville audience last night with a performance of “The Wanderer,” a Zooropa song featuring Johnny Cash that had never before appeared in the band’s setlists. Bono spoke of his admiration for Johnny and June, promised to visit their hometown of Hendersonville on his next visit and did a pretty fair job of channeling Cash’s voice on the…
Philip Gibbs: Petroleum Age
Philip Gibbs is a topical singer-songwriter, although his topics come from past and present. He clearly loves his Texas heritage, as evidenced by songs like “Stephen F. Austin’s Blues” and “Sam Houston’s Blues.” But the highlight of his new album is the title song, “The Petroleum Age,” a jaunty protest song about the era of oil dependency. It’s written in…
Keep Austin Weird
Sun209 is based in Nashville, so we’re taking Austin’s claim of being the “”Live Music Capital of the World” with a grain of salt. That said, the line-up at the Keep Austin Weird Festival was truly impressive, particularly the bands that hit the stage in the late afternoon and early evening. There’s some of the Band in Deadman and Motown/Stax…