Shoal band Lauderdale released their 2nd record this week titled 'Moving On'. It is a mighty fine one that you should add to your collection. The song 'Grant Hotel' is one of the most rocking whore-house songs you'll every encounter.
Great band from the Shoals with 5 days left on their Kickstarter. They are close to their pledge amount. Keep in mind that they won't get any of the pledged cash unless they meet the stated goal.
Drop a few bucks today on Lauderdale. Totally worth it.
Another wave of great music coming from The Shoals. Pick in some coin to help Lauderdale release their sophmore effort. Including a rocking-ass song about a whore-house in Sheffield, AL, it promises to be a dang good'urn.
"But let us be your abacus — it represents an extremely powerful new power trio called The Head Cat, comprised of no less than Lemmy Kilmister from Mot�rhead, Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats and Danny B. Harvey of Rockats renown."
An overcast tone sometimes still harbors a little optimism at the core. A pedal steel’s heartbroken whine is comforted by Elliott McPherson’s reassuring voice in a song that tries and fails to be modest. The Dexateens “can’t explain granddaddy’s mouth,” just like you can’t explain the subtle beauty of the song, but it’s there."
"'When we go to see the Truckers play, we wear diapers so we don't have to go to the bathroom,' declares a young female fan early on in The Secret to a Happy Ending, a documentary about Southern rock band the Drive-By Truckers.
Similar devotion to the Athens, Ga.-based Truckers led Washington, D.C.-area filmmaker Barr Weissman to spend nearly six years making what he calls 'a love letter to rock 'n' roll.'"
"Did you grow up in a union home (or ever belong to a union yourself), or was work an important part of your upbringing?
MC: My dad was a Teamster for a few years. He drove dump trucks, hauling asphalt and gravel.
PH: My dad and I have both been members of the musicians union. My dad has been there for over 40 years. I was also partly raised by my great uncle who was a Teamster. He drove trucks for International Harvester from 1946 through 1976. I have very strong working-class roots, even though my dad is a lifelong musician. He was always more on the working man’s end of al of that (being a session musician)."
"Three years ago, Troy Gentry pled guilty to shooting a domesticated, caged bear named “Cubby.” This year the ACM gave Montgomery Gentry their humanitarian award. As horrible as that may be, it still shows more integrity than giving them an award for their music."
Not much DBT content this week, but next week I'll have a special Hardly Strictly post with video from Booker and DBT's set along with some other amazing stuff from other artists.
First time out with a new video camera, so lots to clean up. My rookieness will be apparent, but some good stuff to be seen. Mo' later.
Here are a couple of pics.
On stage (no shit. I could have picked up an instrument and played along) with Billy Joe Shaver.
And here's backstage at the main stage. This is quickly become on of the all time favorite pictures I've ever taken. I've got a big ass version on my MAC desktop and I find something new in the pic everyday.
Lee Anne Vavra - Hi! I wanted to show you my "Sweet Annette" painting I just finished. I have the words to the song in the background and a dedication to DBT on the back. xo
Excellent, excellent work, Lee Anne!
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OK, since you asked nice and all.....
Here's a fan YouTube from Hardly Strictly.
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Dexateens
NBA Playa Paul Shirley's got great taste in music, but he's off about Dexateen's studio work. That shit is the bomb.
I rush into the grounds with visions of greatness in my head. Chris has been raving about a band he helps manage, The Dexateens, for months. I've listened to two of their albums, but left each encounter with their recorded work thoroughly underwhelmed.
Lee Bains leans into the mike and says, "We're the Dexateens, and we're from Alabama." Thirty seconds later, I can tell that the Dexateens are what the kids call the real deal. I decide that the band needs to hire a new recording engineer because whatever it is that they are doing onstage has not yet been translated to an album. Aping the Drive-By Truckers' legendary Three-Axe Attack (which I've always wanted to write -- it means there are three guitars), the 'teens form a wall of dirty Southern rock sound that is complemented by the harmonizing of Bains, John Smith and Elliott McPherson. I like the band's sound. I like their happy, dancing bassist. I like that most of the group is driving to New Orleans for a show that night. And I really like that they have to be back in Alabama by tomorrow morning, because one of their members has to play in church.
Thursday night, beneath the banner of the Arkansas state flag on the back wall of White Water’s stage sat Brian Gosdin, drummer for the Dexateens, BAMA emblazoned across his T-shirt, attending his houndstooth-adorned drum kit, just in case there was any confusion about where these boys hail from.
Typically, the Tuscaloosa country-rockers’ lineup has featured three guitarists, but last night, founding member John Smith was nowhere to be found. Pre-set, front man Lee Bains III admitted that Smith had abruptly split from the band not days ago, this just before their first showing at the Austin City Limits music festival. It was clear Smith’s exit had rocked them, but luckily for us, as musicians are wont to do, the Dexateens managed to unload all that anxiety into their show
Jason Molina and Will Johnson Collaborate on New LP, Plot European Tour
Call this the Phantoms of Folk. Call this two lone wolves running together for one dark blissout of a night. Two of the finest indie-folk songwriters of the last decade come together under the Texas sky to quietly lay to tape 14 crushing, haunting tunes, leaving space enough in each to match their surroundings. In this collaboration between Jason Molina and Will Johnson, each seem to hold the other’s talents to fire and elevate both performance and creativity. In the friendly sharing of ideas, Molina and Johnson become two poet’s poets in a workshop, aimed to craft a singular, searing elegy.
Will Johnson describes this alignment of two red stars: “For ten days we wrote, co-wrote, workshopped, complimented, scrutinized, drank, invited friends to come play music, smoked, made lots of notes and drawings, drank a little more and shot the BB gun off the back porch when we just needed some time and space. In the throes of all this, our record was made in the late February sun.”
"WUTK radio show and more.. This friday we will be at Barley's Taproom in Knoxville, Tn. opening for the Dirty Guv'nahs. They are a great band with a great following in the Knoxville area. We are very excited to have the opportunity of being exposed to their fanbase.
For those of you in Knoxville that can't make the show we will be promoting it with an interview and live performance that afternoon around 4 p.m. (eastern time) on 88.7 WUTK.
For those of you outside of the area the radio show can be streamed live at www.wutkradio.com Assuming that most of you listening will be from our neck of the woods, that will be the central time zone, so you'll want to tune in around 3 p.m.
We will be perfoming several songs from our upcoming album that has yet to be released. This might be the only chance to hear a good quality recording of these songs for quite some time so check it out.
lauderdale."
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Muscle Shoals Sound
Can't remember if I posted this previously and too lazy to look at the last couple of WIRs, so...
"Donnie Fritts only had two conditions that had to be met before he agreed to perform a series of shows in Japan.
Because of his health, he needed a break between shows and he insisted he be joined by the The Decoys, the local rhythm-and-blues band that frequently serves as his backup band.
A Japanese concert promoter Fritts has known for more than 35 years agreed, and now Fritts and The Decoys will be taking Muscle Shoals R&B and funk to audiences in five Japanese cities beginning Saturday.
'I called him and told him what I had in mind,' Fritts said. 'I'd love to do some shows in Japan, but I had to bring The Decoys. I don't want to play with anyone else. I know these guys, we play well together and they know my songs.'"
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Last, but certianly not least..... Peter Grumbine.
I'll have more on this guy next week. He's alright for a South Carolinian... If yer into that type of thing.
"The Drive-by Truckers have long made “People Who Died” a staple of their live shows. If you go back to 1999’s sadly out-of-print Alabama Ass Whuppin’, the early line-up of the band tears through the song with abandon. Muddling the verse order, and shuffling and adjusting lyrics as he goes, Patterson Hood’s delivery of the song is a howling maelstrom of grief. There are times where his vocals become muttered and incoherent, others where the pain is howled into the Plutonian shore. Imagining the narrator now in the small towns of the deep South, where friends are people you’ve known since you were born, not just the guy you met hustling on the street the other week, the deaths rack up in a much more serious way. As friends drop left and right, everything that seemed true is revealed in the harsh light of reality. The guitars, thick and raspy, convey something much more guttural and deeply troubling than the skittish chug of Carroll’s original. You can only take so much pain in a lifetime. Sometimes, it just can’t hurt any less. words/ j. neas"
ATLANTA, GA - Drivin' N' Cryin' will put out their first record in twelve years.Great American Bubble Factory will be released on September 29, 2009 on Vintage Earth Music with marketing and distribution provided by Thirty Tigers/RED. "This record is the perfect crescendo to a long twenty-plus year career of the band. I think we've found the true essence of what we started to build back in 1985," says Kevn Kinney.
Drivin' N' Cryin' originally started recording demos for this album on September 10, 2001. After 9/11 the band abandoned the sessions after deciding the time wasn't right for their stories of blue-collar optimism. They returned to Sonica Studios in Atlanta earlier this year where the band produced the album in collaboration with Anton Fier, who produced their 1987 album Whisper Tames the Lion and James Barber, their ex-manager-turned-producer.
This record moves from the "Midwestern Blues" to the Flannery O'Connor South of "This Town" to the industrial grind of "Detroit City" to the optimistic anthem (and Dictators cover) "I Stand Tall" to the genuine pining for home in "I See Georgia."
The current DNC line up is: Kevn Kinney (guitar & vocals), Tim Nielsen (bass, mandolin & backing vocals), Mac Carter (guitar), Dave V. Johnson (drums, percussion & backing vocals). The band will be on tour throughout the fall, tour dates will be announced soon.
"We are honored to share footage of Rockestra performing “Counting the Scars” at their Good Records performance in Dallas on Aug. 30th. Rockestra is a Rock n Roll Youth Orchestra that contains vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keys, synths, strings, horns, etc ages 12-17. Here’s a hearty salute to them and their lovely version of this song."
"I attempt to avoid comparisons to other bands, especially when it shows my age, but I have heard others compare Dexateens to bands like Son Volt, or others of the same strain. But I think it is more apropos to say many of us are just now catching on to Dexateens’ sound that is 110% their own making."
"The following series of photographs are from the first weekend in August. Lauderdale and Shotgun Lover shared bills at Speakeasy and the Alabama Music Box. We always have a blast playing shows and acting like pirates with those guys. I saw them last Friday night here at home with Doc Dailey and Magnolia Devil. It was a good show and a great reminder of my intentions to post these photos. This club circuit that we're on most weekends seems as if it's becoming the world's largest, most dysfunctional family. We're a handful of hard-working bands from all over the place who are perpetually crossing paths and closing down bars."
BOULDER,CO-The Emmitt-Nershi Band will release New Country Blues on September 29, 2009 on SCI Fidelity Records.Prior to the release of the album, a free download of the title track, New Country Blues will be available online.The bands website,emmittnershiband.com, also features information on contests and ordering the new album.Fans have a chance to win an autographed guitar, as well as autographed albums.
Throughout the new album, Drew Emmitt and Bill Nershi exemplify the forward-thinking modern bluegrass musician. As linchpins of two legendary jam-bands --Drew with Leftover Salmon, Bill with the String Cheese Incident--both men have traveled the world and played in front of hundreds of thousands of people.The Emmitt-Nershi Band is rounded out with Andy Thorn on banjo and Tyler Grant on bass and guitar.
The title track is available for free download at the link below:
"15th Street Dinah is a blog primarily about music coming to and coming from the Tuscaloosa, AL area. From time to time, we might veer off course...but for the most part, that's our thing.
We're named in honor of the great Dinah Washington, Tuscaloosa native and 'Queen of the Blues'."
"A few years ago I heard about a band that was doing a kind of updated country-rock thing and went to seem them play Irving Plaza. They played for about an hour and half, dazzling what otherwise would have been a jaded New York crowd with their proud, aggressive songs and the brutal realism of their lyrics. After the last chord was struck and the world started spinning again, I went over to their merch booth to pick up as many of their records as I could fit in my pockets."
"Baseball through the eyes of Centro-matic singer/guitarist Will Johnson looks like that. On panels of wood, he paints portraits of the men who've served the beloved sport with their life stories, such as Willie Mays and Cool Papa Bell. Johnson frames their faces with words, sometimes words the players famously said and sometimes Johnson's own wide-eyed biographies of the figures.
The night before they set out to record Centro-matic's next record, Johnson and drummer Matt Pence, who's a photographer, will share their work Sunday from 7 t"
A couple of us from the band have started blogs so that we can share our photos, stories and whatnot. We're always taking photos on the road and elsewhere. If you're interested in seeing what's going on inside and outside of the band check them out.
"Bob Dylan, the singer-songwriter who has taken his fans down Highway 61 by way of Lonely Avenue and Desolation Row, is in negotiations to voice a satellite navigation system.
"Bob Dylan has made his latest unpredictable career move: Rolling Stone has learned that Bob Dylan will release a Christmas album October 13th. Entitled Christmas in the Heart, the collection will feature holiday standards including “Must Be Santa,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.” All U.S. royalties from the collection will benefit the charity Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity. Other proceeds from the disc will benefit hunger relief organizations around the world. Get a first look at the album art here."
"A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.
'I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work,' Woolley said."
"But Shante, then 19, remembered a clause in her Warner Music recording contract: The company would fund her education for life.
She eventually cashed in, earning a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell to the tune of $217,000 - all covered by the label. But getting Warner Music to cough up the dough was a battle.
J.D. McCorkle, the budding concert promoter extraordinaire, sent me a couple of pictures to post. Remember, J.D. I'm a lock for the Groupie Wrangler position:
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Russellvillians Amber Arthur and T.A. sent me some pictures from their front row experience.
I don't think that chub fist in the last pic got to stay for the entire show.
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Our dear, sweet Maddy mixes the rock with relationships in her review of the two shows.
"LEXINGTON, Ky. — He is, in every sense of the shopworn rock ‘n’ roll term, a road warrior.
For example, Alabama rocker Jason Isbell was playing a gig two Saturdays ago “on top of a mountain in Utah.” Then, Isbell and his tour-tested, meat-and-potatoes band, The 400 Unit, were coming to Lexington.
“Isn’t that crazy?” Isbell mused via phone, having spent the afternoon driving through Wyoming."
"Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store.
The talks come as Apple is separately racing to offer a portable, full-featured, tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution. The device could be launched alongside the new content deals, including those aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project."
"The Dexateens have been plugging along for the past decade as underground Southern garage rock phenoms. The Alabama outfit formed in the late ’90s out of a songwriting partnership between John Smith and Elliott McPherson, who met at school in Tuscaloosa.
Through four albums the five-piece band has channeled the raw soul of Muscle Shoals with the dusty literary skill to dig into the realities of the rural underbelly like step-ahead contemporaries the Drive-By Truckers. Frontman Patterson Hood of the Truckers produced the Dexateens’ 2007 disc “Hardwire Healing.”
“What we share is a desire to embrace some of those Southern cliches and then transcend them,” said Smith.
“That’s what we’ve inherited from Patterson and the Truckers. I’m not sure we have the depth in the lyrics that they do, but we share an unwillingness to wallow in rebel rock stuff.”
Next week the band will release its fifth album, “Singlewide.” The new disc seems to move the group from the garage to the front porch, as the loud three-guitar attack is toned down in exchange for stripped acoustic country rock in the vein of early Neil Young and Graham Parsons."
"David Lowery has maintained a healthy career as a split musical personality. When he isn’t playing laconic country-tinged pop with his band of 25 years, Camper Van Beethoven, he’s thrashing away at his guitar as the frontman for Cracker, the rock outfit that’s releasing its 10th studio album, Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey, this week. Lowery adds another line to his resume as he guest edits magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him."
"We've just announced new dates with Gomez and Gov't Mule, as well as two new headline dates.
Headline Shows: Sunday, May 31: Carbondale, IL @ PK's Saturday, July 11: Whitesburg, KY @ Summit City
With Gomez: Monday, June 1: New York, NY @ Terminal 5 Wednesday, June 3: Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Small's Thursday, June 4: Covington, KY @ Madison Theatre
With Gov't Mule: Sunday, July 26: Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre Street Stage"
"Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament was the victim of a violent robbery outside Southern Tracks Recording studios in Atlanta, where the band is recording their ninth studio album with producer Brendan O’Brien. According to a police report, Ament and a band employee pulled up to the rear of the studio on the afternoon of April 27th when three assailants brandishing knives emerged from the woods wearing black masks, gloves and pants. The robbers smashed the windows of a rented Jeep and grabbed a BlackBerry before demanding more money. In total, Ament was robbed of $3,000 in cash and $4,320 worth of goods."
"Alice Cooper will be opening for Barack Obama before the ceremony begins. Cooper will warm up the crowd of nearly 65,000 graduates and guests by performing 'School's Out' with his son Dash. 'Of all the people I've ever shared a stage with, Obama is the biggest rock star,' says Cooper, adding wryly, 'and I'd like to thank him, in advance, for changing the national anthem to 'School's Out'.'"
"Martin 'is the Bernie Madoff of the music promotion world,' says Robert Vickers, who performs as the lounge-lizard comedian Bud E. Luv. Vickers claims Martin wrote him $5,000 in bad checks and failed to repay $500,000 allegedly borrowed from one of the comedian's friends."
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I continue reviewing my Dag obsessions from the 90s. I really should do a separate post on Dag sometime soon.
"It was the second edition of the video game 'Guitar Hero' that inspired Eastep to pick up real musical instruments. The timing that the game demands helped him speed through learning instruments, he said."
I was looking over some of the Rock Band forums to see reactions to 3 Dimes Down and here are some samples. DBT got lots of mentions on there and almost everything was positive."
"It was the second edition of the video game 'Guitar Hero' that inspired Eastep to pick up real musical instruments. The timing that the game demands helped him speed through learning instruments, he said."
"So it's 2009 and we've been pretty low key for a few months now. The band has been rehearsing and recording with what I believe to be our strongest lineup to date. Along with Daniel's addition as second guitarist last year, we've recently added Ben Tanner on keys and Chris James (former Sons of Roswell) on bass. These guys both bring so much to the table and are valuable assets to the band. Lauderdale is a 5-piece band for the first time. I think it's safe to say I speak for everyone involved when I say that the new sound is better than ever. Tracking on the second album started last week and was a very pleasant experience. Because we all have jobs, school and families this will more that likely be a slow moving process. We will hopefully be able to put the record out early this summer. We'll keep you posted for sure. In the meantime, keep an eye on our show schedule, as we are planning on coming to your town this summer. We've added a few dates and will be adding lots more very soon. -patrick and don't forget we've got several live shows available for free download at archive.org. Thanks Russ, for putting those out there!"
"Muscle Shoals - Filmmaker Wallace Sears wants to go back to the beginning and create an accurate account of how the Shoals became a mecca of sorts for recording artists.
Sears, a former executive with Alabama Public Television and owner of In The Family Productions, is in the pre-production stages of a documentary tentatively titled 'Sweet Home Alabama - The Music of Muscle Shoals.'
'We will be concentrating on the '60s and '70s, when things really started and took off,' Sears said.
The full-length film will be geared toward a theatrical release and is being produced through a partnership with the Alabama Music Hall of Fame."
Often an artist's 2nd album offering is called a 'sophomore' release with the unfortunate 'slump' following as the assumption is that the 2nd edition hardly ever lives up to an artist's 'freshman' debut.
However, with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit's upcoming, self titled record there's nothing 'sophomore' or 'slumpish' about it.
Its very difficult to apply 'sophomore' to valedictorian and DBT road veteran Isbell, a man made for grade skipping. Hell, Isbell is so smart he figured out a way to insert a coda track into the middle of JI400-self titled.
With roots firmly planted in the sticky Alabama red clay of Sirens of the Ditch, JI400-self titled takes on familiar themes and sounds but with variations and branches of freshness that are all at once exciting, informing and audibly, utterly delightful.
I personally title this record Bridges of Lauderdale County due to the excellent musical bridges that inhabit virtually all of the tracks on JI400-self titled.
The albums first cut, "Seven Mile Island, is a North Alabama geographical reference, an Isbell staple, and also serves as an ode to recently passed, harmonica extraordinaire TopperPrice. SMI is full of texture and sound with tom-tom beats supplied by Matt Pence of Cento-Matic reflecting the Native Americans who once inhabited this stretch of land on the Tennessee River and the tinkling of keys by Derry deBorja which calls to mind the eddys that swirl around the banks of this damn produced isle.... and hand claps. I mean, come on, who don't like hand claps in a song!
The track 'Sunstroke', one of my favorites on the new album, contains a bridge which tom-tom tumbles the listener into the depths of the Tennessee River as Isbell sings "Tell me you walk on the water, now", almost a messiahistic plea to be saved, before releasing said listener to pop up to the serene, early morning glass surface of a river still asleep, but caught in a lazy dream as Isbell croons "And here it is morning for some folks". Again, the song is sonically complex and one that requires repetitious listening. Listen for the birds on this one. Good stuff.
"Good", an uptempo rocker rushes along as the protagonist in the chorus states 'I can't make myself be good, I wish I could'. A tornado coming after a petrified old tree. Another great bridge on this one that kicks the end of the tune up a notch.
"Cigarettes and Wine" is a long, tall drink of country. Grab a bottle and your sorrows on this one.
"Money and likker and lust, have taken my heart and my trust".
"However Long" is a rocker. Isbell and company take on the douchebags in our society and gives 'em all a lyrical middle finger. Love this tune:
"There's nothing that you can say or do to usto drown out this 'Amen'. 'Cause however long the night,The dawn will break again."
"The Blue" is another favorite. Bonnie Raitt would give her left teat to of written this back in her hey-day. But it wouldn't have been nearly as good without Isbell's vocals and the harmony that goes along with. As with "However Long", "The Blue" takes the bad and twists it on its head to squeeze some ever-living art/poetry out of it. Pence's rim shots in this song harkens to a metronome and a grandfather clock giving the listener the sense that there's all the time in the world and hardly any time left at all. The bridge in this song makes me want to spread my arms to the heavens and sway. And, it has one of the best lines in the entire album:
"Please dance, so I don't have to think...."
"No Choice in the Matter" is Muscle Shoals soul. Period. Muscle Shoals Soul taken out to the woods and distilled into a clear liquid. And there ain't a man or woman alive that won't relate in the nearest and dearest of terms to the story that is told. Actually, another one of my favorites and the bridge is... just goddamn. Good enough to sober up Winehouse... possibly.
"But you can't tell a man a thing. He's pickin' out diamond rings".
Oh baby, have I been there, done that.
"Soldiers Get Strange". This song will be on the iPod of every solider that has been to our country's twin hell holes of wars. A cathartic tune detailing the hell that war brings home in the form of PTSD. Good on Jason for writing this one.
"Streetlights" is a beautiful song. Another favorite. Something Mellencamp (the best of) about this song that I can't put my finger on. Much more complicated musically than Mellencamp, but there's something......
Lastly comes the terrifying 'The Last Song I Will Write'. Terrifying because before a listen to the story told, one may assume that this is a GBCW (Good by cruel world) song by Jason. Terrifying to think that Isbell wouldn't ever write another song. But, that ain't the case. It is only in the song.
Can't say enough about Pences' drums, deBorja's keys, Jimbo's thump, Lollar's guitar and backing vocals (Lollar also created the beautiful artwork for the album. He's a massive all-around talent) and Isbell's vocals that ooze so much soul it'll have you searching for the perfect biscuit to sop it all up with.
Kudos, boys. A stretch of success longer than a seven mile island lies ahead.
.JPG)
