We will be back once the flu season has released its grip. To be honest, the timeline is as vague as our cognitive skills right now, but hopefully for us and you it won’t be too much longer…
Please follow the guidelines for protecting yourself and your loved ones from all viruses including H1N1 — its tough going out there folks..
James Hand will be at the Broken Spoke on Sept 4th, 2009 in Austin, TX for the CD release party for SHADOW ON THE GROUND on Rounder Records.
You can visit: http://www.jamesslimhand.com/music.html for audio clips! It sounds just like James — classic and country.
We’ve got our feet back on the ground after a wonderful summer break. When I think of September, this is the first song that comes to mind…
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash will release her 12th studio album, entitled The List, on Manhattan Records on October 6th, 2009. This stunning work features Cash’s contemporary interpretations of 12 classic songs culled from a list of essential country tunes that her legendary father Johnny gave her in 1973, and filtered through her own unique, sophisticated perspective.
Known primarily for her stellar songwriting, Cash showcases her incredible voice on The List — her first-ever covers record. As a result, the album is Rosanne Cash like you’ve never heard her before as she embraces her heritage and sings for the pure love and beauty of these songs which have shaped who she is as an artist.
The idea for The List came about while Cash was on tour promoting her 2006 studio album, the critically heralded, Grammy-nominated Black Cadillac — a reflective song cycle about the loss of her father, mother Vivian Liberto, and stepmother June Carter Cash. During the well-received multi-media event Black Cadillac: In Concert, Cash told audiences how, when she was 18, her father became alarmed that his daughter appeared to lack a deep understanding of country music (having been obsessed with The Beatles and steeped in Southern California rock and pop music). Johnny gave her a list of the “100 Essential Country Songs” and told her that it was her education and she should learn them all.
“The list was far-ranging and thorough,” Cash says. “It was assembled from my father’s intuitive understanding of each critical juncture in the evolution of country music. There were old Appalachian folk ballads, and the songs of Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie. The influence of gospel and Southern blues were crucial. Then he segued into rockabilly and the birth of modern country music by way of Hank Williams, and up to the present, which was then 1973. He also included a couple of his own songs. I endeavored to learn them all and it was an education,” she says. “I looked to that list as a standard of excellence, and to remind myself of the tradition from which I come. This album enables me to validate the connection to my heritage rather than run away from it, and to tie all the threads together: past and future, legacy and youth, tradition the timelessness.”
Through her stylish interpretations, Cash manages to transcend genre on The List, proving that these songs deserve a permanent place in the American Songbook. Produced and arranged by Grammy-Award winner John Leventhal (Cash’s husband, who also contributes striking guitar work throughout), The List includes Cash’s covers of songs by The Carter Family (“Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow”), Hank Williams (“Take These Chains From My Heart”), Jimmie Rodgers (“Miss The Mississippi and You”), Hank Cochran/Patsy Cline (“She’s Got You”), Merle Haggard (“Silver Wings”), and Bob Dylan (“Girl From the North Country,” famously done by Dylan and Johnny Cash in 1969). The album also features a host of special guests whom Cash admires, including Bruce Springsteen (on “Sea of Heartbreak”), Elvis Costello (on “Heartaches by the Number”), Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy (on “Long Black Veil”), and Rufus Wainwright (on “Silver Wings”).
The List is the first album Cash has made since she underwent surgery in 2007 for a benign brain condition, from which she has fully recovered. When it came time to record a new album, Cash was happy to step back from the heavy themes of Black Cadillac and do a covers record that showcased her voice. It also has enabled her to finally share with the world the list of songs her father passed down to her alone.
“If my father had been a martial arts master, he might have passed a martial arts ’secret’ on to me, his oldest child,” Cash says. “If he had been a surgeon, he might have taken me into his operating room and pointed out the arteries and organs. If he were a robber baron, he might have surveyed his empire and said, ‘Honey, some day this will all be yours!’. But he was a musician and a songwriter, and he gave me The List.”
AUDIO
“Sea of Hearbreak” feat. Bruce Springsteen–
imeem: http://bit.ly/iwtMP
iTunes: http://bit.ly/UK8lj
“Long Black Veil” feat. Jeff Tweedy–
imeem: http://bit.ly/3XipTf
Jeff Tweedy discusses ‘The List’ with Meredith Ochs on Sirius|XM’s Outlaw Country channel–
The track-listing for The List is as follows:
1. “Miss the Mississippi and You”
2. “Motherless Children”
3. “Sea of Heartbreak” (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
4. “Take These Chains From My Heart”
5. “I’m Movin’ On”
6. “She’s Got You”
7. “Heartaches by the Number” (w/ Elvis Costello)
8. “500 Miles”
9. “Long Black Veil” (w/ Jeff Tweedy)
10. “Silver Wings” (w/ Rufus Wainwright)
11. “Girl From the North Country”
12. “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow”
Billy Lee Riley, a rambunctious performer who helped develop the Sun Records sound as a studio musician for other headliners, has died. He was 75.
Riley’s singles included “Red Hot” and “Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll,” the latter of which led him to call his band “The Little Green Men” for a time. Riley died Sunday in Jonesboro, according to Dillinger Funeral Home in Newport, which is handling arrangements. He had been suffering from colon cancer, and it had moved to his bones, his wife, Joyce, told The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis, Tenn.
“He was actually feeling better lately. So the very end was unexpected. But, he went peacefully,” Joyce Riley said.
Riley was one of the early performers who recorded at Memphis’ legendary Sun Records, but he was overshadowed by his cohorts, including Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. Among many other songs, Riley and his band played on the original Sun recording of Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire.”
Riley’s voice at times had a cadence similar to Presley’s but early on he sang with more of a growl. His voice softened in his later recordings, which focused more on blues. A 22-song compilation, “Red Hot: The Best of Billy Lee Riley,” is among records still available.
Born in the town of Pocahontas, Riley grew up in a sharecropper family in northeast Arkansas and learned guitar and harmonica from other families.
In the early 1960s, Riley took his talents to California, where he worked as a studio musician for The Beach Boys, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin. He also played bass, drums and sang.
Riley continued to perform, touring in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s to receptive rockabilly audiences. He kept performing late in life, including a June gig in Memphis with Sonny Burgess, another northeast Arkansas native and Sun performer.
The funeral home said there would be no visitation, and that a graveside service is set for 3 p.m. Wednesday at Walnut Grove Cemetery in Newport.
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It took Wanda Jackson a long time to get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but now that she’s there, the 71-year-old Queen of Rockabilly and her uninhibited voice are busier than ever.
“My name is bigger than it’s ever been before,” she said in her Oklahoma City home during a recent break from touring. “My crowds are bigger. I’m just floored by all this.”
Selling records and filling venues haven’t been a problem for the chameleonic musician with the trademark growl. Her career began 50 years ago with country, then moved to rock ‘n’ roll, to gospel and back. But she says her April 4 induction into the hall as given her some newfound popularity. Since then her engagements have included a two-week stint in Europe and a fundraiser for the Woody Guthrie folk festival.
Terry Stewart, the CEO of the Rock Hall, said Jackson, who was inducted in the early influence category, was unique in music.
“There are a number of others of more obscure fame who sang in that vein,” including Janis Martin, who died earlier this year, Stewart said by telephone from Ohio. “There were girl singers in the area of rhythm and blues that have been inducted, like Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker.
“Wanda was certainly a stand alone in what she did.”
What she did was help spawn rockabilly, a combination of the terms rock n’ roll and hillbilly. Musically, it’s an uptempo blend of blues, country and western swing that emerged during the 1950s when rock and roll was in its infancy.
She was 14 when she won a chance to perform on an Oklahoma radio station in 1952. Country singer Hank Thompson tuned in and was so impressed, he invited her to sing with him and his band and helped her get her first music contract with Decca Records when she was in high school.
Later, when she switched to Capitol Records, she was booked with an up-and-coming singer named Elvis Presley.
“Oklahoma City wasn’t playing his records yet. My cousins down in Texas, I corresponded with them and told them I was working with this guy I’d never heard of, Elvis Presley,” Jackson said. “They said he’s the best singer in the world, sexiest, best-looking guy. Just wait. After I met him I knew what they were talking about.”
Presley encouraged her to try rock ‘n’ roll and the pair worked together from 1955 to 1957.
“He gave me his ring that I wore around my neck, we became boyfriend and girlfriend for a little while there,” Jackson said.
Jackson’s career and persona transformed from a country darling in long-sleeved shirts, a hat and cowboy boots to rock ‘n’ roll singer decked out in formfitting, fringed dresses and skirts her mother made for her.
Her “Let’s Have a Party” peaked at No. 37 in 1960. Jackson’s “Fujiyama Mama,” about a woman who compares herself to a volcano and “Rock Your Baby” proliferated the new sound, but it didn’t translate into big record sales.
“I got to where I’d put a rock song on one side and a country on the other side of my releases to keep my country audiences with the country song but try to gain a foothold in rock and roll,” she said.
Country music won out. Jackson had 30 hits over 20 years and received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Female.
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We need 2,000 Guitar Players/Pickers to join together August 23rd in Luckenbach, Texas to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the LARGEST GUITAR ENSEMBLE! The current record is held by the country of Germany with 1,802 guitarists…..COME ON OUT TO LUCKENBACH TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT AND GIVE TEXAS THE TITLE!!!
Hosted By:
Voices of a Grateful Nation
When:
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Where:
Luckenbach, Texas
“Pickin’ For The Record” Register NOW at: www.voicesofagratefulnation.org This is a great event and a unique opportunity for guitarists from all walks of life…..from experts/legends to students/beginners….from tall to short….from young to old. If you can play the guitar…..DO COME TO LUCKENBACH ON 8/23/09 AND COME TO PLAY. Two songs have been chosen for the event: “Back to the Basics of Love (Let’s go to Luckenbach Texas)”, originally record by the late, great Waylon Jennings and “This Land is Your Land”, a classic American song, written by the folk legend, Woody Guthrie. We want anyone and EVERYONE to join us in Luckenbach to attempt to break the WORLD RECORD!! Sign up early at the Voices of a Grateful Nation website (see above). The registration fee of $10.00 will go into an endowment fund to provide assistance and therapy to our returning military suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). A GREAT EVENT AND FOR A GREAT CAUSE!
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