(AUDIO) Rosanne Cash to release The List on October 6 2009

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”

Tommy Castro: Free Download

Download “Monkey’s Paradise” from Tommy’s forthcoming Alligator release “HARD BELIEVER”

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE NEW Tommy Castro Band CD, “HARD BELIEVER”! All pre-order CDs will be signed and shipped on the CD release date, August 11.

Free MP3: Roy Rogers releases Split Decision – first album in seven years

Acclaimed producer and slide guitar legend Roy Rogers has released “Split Decision,”   his first studio recording with his band, The Delta Rhythm Kings, in seven years,  The album offers a unique blend of Blues, Americana, and Roots coupled with innovative, mind-blowing guitar.

Thanks to Blind Pig Records TCB is able to offer a free download of the track:

FREE MP3 – “Requiem for a Heavyweight”

Listen to more tracks from “Split Decision” on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/royrogersslideguitar

MP3 — Dale Ann Bradley releases Don’t Turn Your Back

MP3 Dale Ann Bradley – Don’t Turn Your Back

It’s 9  a.m. on a rainy January day in Nashville, five  days into 2009.  Dale Ann Bradley is coming  up the studio steps without a raincoat, carrying  a guitar and a folder full of lyrics.   She’s been on the road for 14 straight days,  it’s 25 degrees and pouring, but never mind all  that.  She’s been shaping the concept of  her new project, the follow-up to her Compass  Records debut Catch Tomorrow, for  months, and she can’t wait to kick off the first  song. She’s let her heart guide her way through  stacks of songs, looking for those that capture  something beyond great music, something that  gives voice to what she’s been living and  breathing in her own life for the last year.  

So take a seat around the coffee table  at the Compass Sound Studio–where Dale Ann  Bradley sits with an old D-28 and producer and  banjoist Alison Brown puts her gentle mark of  genius on arrangements–and let Dale Ann tell  you about Don’t Turn Your Back in her  own words: “It needs to be more than a record,”  she’s says. “This is my dream album. I want it  to inspire people to hang in with whatever  they’re facing–to find the hope and inspiration  to keep going. I want to share the music that’s  touched me and I want to put everything into it  that has been given to me over the past  year.”

This is Dale Ann Bradley. She’s  the 2007 & 2008 IBMA Female Vocalist of the  Year and has been hailed by Alison Krauss and  Ricky Skaggs as one of the greatest vocalists in  country and bluegrass music. A former Coon Creek  Girl and mainstay at Kentucky’s Renfro Valley  Barn Dance, Bradley commands a list of awards as  long as Highway 40, yet a few minutes with her  tells you she is something even more than  extraordinarily gifted–she’s extraordinarily  human. A Primitive Baptist preacher’s daughter  out of the hills of Kentucky where no musical  instruments were allowed, Bradley grew up in a  self-described “backwoods holler” down a rural  road where electricity and running water weren’t  available until she was in high  school–something she has more in common with  the first generation of bluegrass than her  contemporaries in today’s scene.

Dale  Ann Bradley is nothing if not a great  storyteller, but her ability to step into  someone else’s shoes and make their story her  own for a few minutes, that is what allows every  note sung and played on Don’t Turn Your  Back to be believable. In the company of  some of best bluegrass pickers and singers  including Stuart Duncan (fiddle/banjo), Deanie  Richardson (fiddle), Alison Brown (banjo), Gena  Britt (banjo), Steve Gulley (vocals), and Mike  Bub (bass), Bradley explores Don’t Turn Your  Back’s undeniable themes of bravery and  hope through the eyes of mothers, lovers,  trains, and one shiny, soon-to-be-lucky penny.  

Staying true to her  daughter-of-a-preacher roots, Don’t Turn  Your Back includes three bluegrass gospel  numbers: the humorous “Rusty Old Halo”, The  Carter Family’s “Fifty Miles of Elbow  Room”,  and the traditional “Heaven”, which  features reigning IBMA Entertainers of the Year  Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent. Sharing her  love of classic rock and its influence on her  music and voice, Bradley includes bluegrass  versions of Fleetwood Mac’s “Over My Head”and  Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”, yet stays close  to tradition with the Kentucky mountain ballad  “Blue Eyed Boy”. Courage is the silver thread  running through all twelve tracks of Don’t  Turn Your Back, and it is in these songs  that Bradley lays out all she’s got: “Anybody  Else’s Heart But Mine” teaches us how to push  through a broken heart, “Will I Be Good Enough”  (Branscomb, Claire Lynch on guest vocals)  whispers hope to uncertain parents, and “Music  City Queen” (Bradley/Branscomb) documents the  dauntlessness of those who come to Nashville  seeking stardom. The title track calls for  giving life’s highway one more  chance.

Dale Ann Bradley’s mountain  soprano has been called “shimmering” (The  Washington Post)

Steve Earle to release “Townes” May 12 – Free MP3 here…

Free mp3 -To Live is to Fly

Los Angeles, CA — Steve Earle is set to release Townes, his highly anticipated follow up to the Grammy Award winning album Washington Square Serenade, on May 12th via New West Records. The 15-song set is comprised of songs written by Earle’s friend and mentor, the late singer-songwriter, Townes Van Zandt. Townes will also be available as a deluxe two-CD set, as well as double Limited Edition 180 gram vinyl.

The album was produced by Earle at his home in Greenwich Village, at Sound Emporium and Room and Board in Nashville, TN and The Nest in Hollywood, CA. The track “Lungs,” was produced and mixed by the Dust Brothers’ John King and features Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine/The Nightwatchman on electric guitar. Earle’s wife, the acclaimed singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, is featured on backing vocals on “Loretta” and “To Live Is To Fly.” Three songs cut in Nashville, “White Freightliner Blues,” “Delta Momma Blues,” and “Don’t Take It Too Bad” feature a bluegrass band consisting of Dennis Crouch, Tim O’Brien, Darrel Scott and Shad Cobb.

Earle met Townes Van Zandt in 1972 at one of Earle’s performances at The Old Quarter in Houston, TX. Van Zandt was in the audience and playfully heckled Earle throughout the performance to play the song “Wabash Cannonball.” Earle admitted that he didn’t know how to play the tune and Van Zandt replied incredibly “You call yourself a folksinger and you don’t know ‘Wabash Cannonball?’” Earle then silenced him by playing the Van Zandt song “Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold,” not an easy feat due to its quickly-paced mouthful of lyrics squeezed into just over two minutes of song. Their bond was immediately formed. On Townes, Earle and his son, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle (named after

Van Zandt) trade verses on the tune, a song the two of them have been playing together since Justin was a teenager.

The songs selected for Townes were the ones that meant the most to Earle and the ones he personally connected to (not including selections featured on previous Earle albums). Some of the selections chosen were songs that Earle has played his entire career (“Pancho and Lefty,” “Lungs,” “White Freightliner Blues”) and others he had to learn specifically for recording. He learned the song “(Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria” directly from Van Zandt, and taught himself “Marie” and “Rake” specifically for the album’s recording. Once a song he played during his live show, Earle relearned “Colorado Girl” in the original Open D tuning that Van Zandt played it in. Earle recorded the New York sessions solo and then added the other instruments later on in order to preserve the spirit of Van Zandt’s original solo performances to the best of his recollection.

When speaking about Townes, Earle stated, “This may be one of the best records I’ve ever made. That hurts a singer-songwriter’s feelings. Then again, it’s some consolation that I cherry picked through the career of one of the best songwriters that ever lived.” Townes Van Zandt’s debut album, For The Sake Of The Song, was released in 1968. His last, No Deeper Blue appeared in 1995. His life and songs are the subject of the critically acclaimed 2006 documentary film, Be Here To Love Me. Van Zandt died in 1997 at the age of 52.

While being a protégé of Van Zandt, Earle is a master storyteller in his own right, with his songs being recorded by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, The Pretenders, Joan Baez and countless others. 1986 saw the release of his debut record, Guitar Town, which shot to number one on the country charts and immediately established the term “New Country.” What followed was an extremely exciting array of twelve releases including the biting hard rock of Copperhead Road (1988), the minimalist beauty of Train A Comin’ (1995), the politically charged masterpiece Jerusalem (2002) and the Grammy Award Winning albums The Revolution Starts…Now (2004) and Washington Square Serenade (2007). Earle also produced the Grammy nominated album,

Day After Tomorrow, by the legendary Joan Baez in 2008.

Townes Track Listing:

1. Pancho and Lefty

2. White Freightliner Blues

3. Colorado Girl

4. Where I Lead Me

5. Lungs

6. No Place To Fall

7. Loretta

8. Brand New Companion

9. Rake

10. Delta Momma Blues

11. Marie

12. Don’t Take It Too Bad

13. Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold

14. (Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria

15. To Live Is To Fly

Steve Earle will be touring in support of Townes with tour dates announced shortly.

FREE MP3 Raul Malo – Lucky One (coming March 3 2009)

 Raul Malo is set to release his first album of original songs in a decade on March 3rd 2009.  

TCB plans a full review of the album later this week, in the meantime circle that release date on your calander and enjoy this free MP3 of the album’s title track.

Lucky One – MP3 

Raul Malo’s Fantasy Records label debut album, Lucky One, finds him fully shedding his musical shackles. “I have been fighting my whole life against people who want to pigeonhole music. I feel like I’ve got no restrictions anymore.” Malo is known for his work as the frontman of the Grammy Award-winning, globally platinum- and gold-certified band the Mavericks. Following two albums of covers, Lucky One is Malo’s first album original material in seven years.

The CD will hit the streets on March 3rd, fronted by the lead single “Hello Again.”

Malo has earned much critical respect over the years. USA Today applauded “a voice that seems to have no limits of range or versatility.” The New York Times said, “Malo has an exceptional voice, a burnished tenor that harks back to Roy Orbison and the great Cuban singer Beny Moré.” Rolling Stone added, “Raul Malo has a voice on par with the best of ‘em: Sinatra, George Jones and Orbison.” And The Wall Street Journal opined: “Malo’s superb voice is big and melodic with a natural vibrato. Exquisite.”

Malo wrote Lucky One over a two-year period at his Nashville home and was so happy with the results that several of his home demos appear as final versions on the CD. For the balance of the album, he once again enlisted Steve Berlin, best known for his work with Los Lobos and who worked on Malo’s 2001 Today album, as co-producer. “I trust Steve musically,” Malo says. “Art comes first with him. That’s the most important quality of all. Nothing gets in the way of that.”

Lucky One follows You’re Only Lonely and After Hours, two CDs of cover songs written by Malo’s favorite tunesmiths including Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson and Roger Miller.

“How could that not influence my songwriting on Lucky One?” Malo asks. “It certainly had an effect on how I wrote for this. There’s an appreciation for song structure, melody and lyric that these guys certainly had.”

Songs on Lucky One range from the upbeat “Moonlight Kisses,” to songs like “One More Angel” and “Rosalie,” which take on mortality and the loss of life. “Hello Again” is a deceptively upbeat, swinging tale of heartbreak, and the closing track “So Beautiful” is an ultimately uplifting benediction influenced by events in and outside Malo’s home.

Free James McMurtry Download

“We Can’t Make It Here” (LIVE)

Just before the 2004 Presidential Election, James McMurtry gave away a free download of his state of the union anthem, “We Can’t Make It Here.” The song struck a chord with the public and went on to win Song of the Year at the Americana Music Honors and Awards. Author Stephen King described it as the “best American protest song since ‘Masters of War'” in his Entertainment Weekly column. On the brink of the 2008 election, McMurtry is giving away a previously unreleased live version of “We Can’t Make It Here” from his 2008 concert at Southpaw in Brooklyn, NY.

Click on the link below to access the free MP3:

  http://www.lightningrodrecords.com/cantmakeithere.php

Free MP3 from the upcoming Waylon Jennings’ Posthumous Album: Waylon Forever

Free MP3: Waylon Jennings: Outlaw Shit
(courtesy of Vagrant Records and Take Country Back)

WAYLON JENNINGS’ POSTHUMOUS ALBUM
WAYLON FOREVER
OUT OCTOBER 21 ON VAGRANT RECORDS
ALBUM REVEALS COUNTRY LEGEND
WAYLON JENNINGS’ FINAL RECORDINGS OF UNHEARD MATERIAL

On October 21, Grammy Award Winner and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Waylon Jennings’ final recording Waylon Forever will be released on Vagrant Records. The eight-song collection of cover songs and originals feature the vocals of Waylon Jennings backed by his son Shooter Jennings and the .357’s. 

The inception of Waylon Forever began in 1995 when Waylon asked Shooter to collaborate on an album with him. “I’d been playing my dad the music I was inspired by at the time,” Shooter explains. “Whether it was Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Pink Floyd or Cream he really enjoyed being apart of my musical journey. It was then he suggested we do an album together.” Of the recording process Shooter states, “He was always so creative and inspired by new musical directions and this was my first real album to put together. I buried myself in the studio for weeks constructing the tracks. With 20 or so songs we went into the studio to cut vocals and overdubs. He was so excited for us doing a record together, constantly pushing himself and coming up with new ideas. I was so nervous but he was calm as a gunslinger.” Final recording sessions for the album began in 2006 after Shooter transferred the original tapes to pro tools. Shooter then brought the .357’s into the studio in Los Angeles to cut tracks to his father’s vocals and complete the record. “The tracks I originally made were a little young and messy, but they were still really wild. Now I feel like I been given the chance to take my years of experience and match them to his,” confesses Shooter. “Either way, we did it and we now have a record that reflects his huge creative drive and the boundlessness of his own artistic mind. Waylon forever!”

Waylon Jennings’ career spanned for more than 40 years. During his lifetime he released over 50 studio albums which generated 16 number one singles and four Country Music Awards. In 1978 Jennings was awarded a Grammy for the song “Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys” and in 2001 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In September 2007 Shooter Jennings made his Grand Ole Opry debut highlighting songs from his most recent album The Wolf, which USA Today described as “…Southern-rock stomps, Cajun shuffles and mariachi waltzes.”

Rodney Crowell – Tour Dates and Media Player

Americana literati Rodney Crowell continues down the path blazed by his previous three records with Sex & Gasoline. Crowell bounded onto the music landscape in 1988 with the Top 40 crossover album Diamonds and Dirt, which produced an astonishing five number one singles and a Grammy Award for the single ‘After All This Time.’ As part of Emmylou Harris’ original Hot Band, Crowell’s musical pedigree is unquestionable, at one time even earning him the right to remake Johnny Cash’s singular ‘I Walk the Line’ with Cash himself singing Rodney’s reworked melody. With his new album Sex & Gasoline, he continues to write about contemporary themes. Sex & Gasoline was produced by the legendary Joe Henry and contains what Crowell says are, “some of the best performances I’ve given to date.” For the new material Crowell and Henry brought in some of music’s most skilled sidemen including Doyle Bramhall II (acoustic and electric guitar), Greg Leisz (acoustic and electric guitar, pedal and lap steel, mandolin, mandocello and dobro), Patrick Warren (piano, pump organ and Chamberlin), David Piltch (upright and electric bass) and Jay Bellerose (drums and percussion).

THE SEX & GASOLINE FALL TOUR  

Tues., Oct. 14  ATLANTA, GA  Smith’s Olde Bar
Wed., Oct. 15  NEW YORK, NY  Nokia Theater
Thurs., Oct. 16  ATHENS, GA  The Melting Point
Sat., Oct. 18  CHARLOTTE, NC  Visulite Theater
Sun., Oct. 19  ANNAPOLIS, MD Rams Head On Stage
Tues., Oct. 21  ALEXANDRIA, VA  Birchmere
Wed., Oct. 22  SELLERSVILLE, PA Sellersville Theater 1894
Thurs., Oct. 23  ALBANY, NY  Sawyer Theatre at The Egg
Fri., Oct. 24  NORTHAMPTON, MA Iron Horse Music Hall
Sat., Oct. 25 NEW YORK, NY Town Hall Theatre
Mon.-Tues., Nov. 10-11 HOUSTON, TX  The Mucky Duck
Wed., Nov. 12  AUSTIN, TX  One World Theatre
Thurs., Nov. 13  DALLAS, TX  Poor David’s
Sat., Nov. 15  DENVER, CO  The Walnut Room
Sun., Nov. 16  ASPEN, CO   Belly Up
Wed., Nov. 19  SAN DIEGO, CA  Belly Up

AUDIO PLAYER FOR FULL LENGTH TRACK: CLOSER TO HEAVEN

Song of the Day: If A Song Could Be President

MP3 LINK

If A Song Could Be President If a song could be president
We’d hum on Election Day
The gospel choir would start to sway
And we’d all have a part to play

The first lady would free her hips
Pull a microphone to her lips
Break our hearts with Rhythm and Blues
Steve Earle would anchor the news

We’d vote for a melody
Pass it around on an MP3
All our best foreign policy
Would be built on harmony

If a song could be president
We’d fly a jukebox to the moon
All our founding fathers’ 45’s
Lightnin’ Hopkins and Patsy Cline
If a song could be president

If a song could be president
We could all add another verse
Life would teach us to rehearse
Till we found a key change

Break out of this minor key
Half-truths and hypocrisy
We wouldn’t need an underachiever-in-chief
If a song could be president

We’d make Neil Young a Senator
Even though he came from Canada
Emmylou would be Ambassador
World leaders would listen to her

They would show us where our country went wrong
Strum their guitars on the White House lawn
John Prine would run the FBI
All the criminals would laugh and cry
If a song could be president

Song, which appears on duo’s The Trumpet Child album, has unexpected timeliness during 2008’s extended-play election season

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A loyal and growing legion of fans of Ohio’s most independent-minded band, Over The Rhine, has cited “If A Song Could Be President” as a standout track from its new album The Trumpet Child. The story of this song hearkens back to the duo’s unlikely invitation to the White House in 2005. Now, as the nation sets out to elect a new president in the fall, the song has a special salience.
 
But how exactly did a moderately well known band from Ohio come to be invited to the White House to begin with? “We were as surprised as anyone,” band member Linford Detweiler says. “It turns out some junior staffers were fans. They had also extended invitations to Bono and Peter Gabriel, who had both previously accepted, and they wanted to sit down with us as well and have a conversation. We were hesitant to accept at first because we had taken issue with a number of the policies of the Bush administration, but we soon realized that so often missing from our current political climate in America were opportunities to sit down face to face and engage in real conversation. How could we possibly be critical of folks we weren’t willing to have a conversation with?”
 
So the band headed to Washington, DC and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There they saw secret servicemen, snipers with machine guns and binoculars on the roof of the Oval office, concrete barricades strewn about that made the whole place feel like it was under siege. They saw FDR’s desk that Richard Nixon had defaced installing a hidden microphone.
 
“According to our hosts,” Detweiler adds, “the talk behind the scenes in Washington often revolves around the enviable direct access to people — and therefore the power — entertainers and musicians have. This caught us off guard. We think of people in Washington as having power, and here they’re telling us that we had power.”
 
The band’s White House hosts asked what Over The Rhine had hoped to accomplish with its music.
 
“We said that maybe first and foremost, we try to give people permission and encouragement with our songs not to live in fear,” says Detweiler. “We expressed our disappointment at how we perceive fear as a manipulative force in so much policy-making in Washington — not to mention the steady drip of fear that informs the way so much of the news is presented on television.” Reportedly, there was an uncomfortably pregnant pause.
 
But the band members soldiered on. They discussed some of the charities with which they had partnered in the past. They looked for common ground — anything hopeful. The White House hosts then talked about why they were fans of certain Over The Rhine albums. The band heard stories about why they believed in the political process and why they wanted to be involved. It was an actual discussion.
 
What the band took away from the experience was this: American music is one of the last remaining communal enterprises in this country. Music and songwriting still have the potential to bring incredibly diverse people together.  Check out an Al Green concert in Cincinnati, an Emmylou Harris show in Indianapolis, a jazz club in St. Paul. Or walk into an Over The Rhine show just about anywhere, for that matter.
 
Detweiler continues: “As we recorded our latest CD, The Trumpet Child, we got to thinking of all the great music America has given the world as a nation — all the musicians who could have only come from here: Louis Armstrong, Patsy Cline, John Coltrane, Johnny Cash, Mahalia Jackson, Bill Monroe, Bob Dylan — all this great music we can be proud of anytime, anywhere. American music!”
 
So as Over The Rhine walked away from its meeting at the White House, members Detweiler and Karin Bergquist wrote an odd little song that celebrates American music and gives a shout-out to a few of their personal faves: Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Prine, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and Patsy Cline, to name a few. “We hope you like the song,” they conclude.
 
The song is called “If A Song Could Be President.”
 
The band hopes it will be adopted as an anthem of positivism in a political season in which we can expect negativism and cynicism. After all, whether a politician plays Elvis on the saxophone or “Sweet Home Alabama” on the bass, music is a potentially unifying factor. A song can indeed make the president if not be the president.
 
Over The Rhine will spend the spring, summer and fall months on the road, crossing America, and looking forward to finding commonality in music. A capital idea.http://www.myspace.com/overtherhine