These country and Americana music classics go out to all  you moms out there!

Johnny Paycheck (with Merle Haggard)- “Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised”

Carter sisters & Johnny Cash – “Dear Mama”

Tammy Wynette -  “(You Make Me Want To Be) A Mother”

Willie Nelson – “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”

Justin Townes Earle “Mama’s Eyes”

Merle Haggard – “Mama Tried”

By Baron Lane
Yaab

An Easter vacation was the perfect opportunity to listen to  “Mercyland: Hymns For The Rest Of Us” a compilation release by singer/songwriter, producer and musician Phil Madeira. As the title suggests the thematic underpinning of the album is spirituality but, luckily, this is not the God-as-backdrop trotted out in too many Music City productions. Nor is it a blandly fuzzy new-age soundtrack to glaze your eyes.

Community runs deep in Mercyland. Started by Madeira as a project on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter, the project achieved it’s funding goal of $5,000 and went on the an an additional $32,205 on top of that.

Like one of the albums contributors and fellow traveler, Buddy Miller, Madeira reminds us that the divine can come from common places. Reaching back to a source of faith that nourished bands like the Louvin and Stanley brothers and later by Johnny Cash and Billy Joe Shaver, these are songs of common experiences of love, hope and grace.

Some of Americana music’s finest have gathered here to bear witness. Miller, Emmylou Harris, The Carolina Chocolate Drops and others work as missionaries that work across faiths and genres to create a unifying spirit of music.

The Civil Wars begins things with joyful noise as with “From This Valley”  John Paul White strums his acoustic guitar and hollers “Woo hoo!” He and Joy Williams voices intertwines and soars like morning doves.

Shawn Mullins’ follows with a simmering swamp-blues “Give God the Blues.” Mullins calls out creeds, saints and sinners alike, tears down the walls of division and assures all that none have a monopoly on the Lord’s love. He assures us all that “God’s above all that.”

Buddy Miller has a long career of testifying without sermonizing and on his calmly spirited “I Believe in You” he deftly commands this force of song-craft.  Like an old-style tent revival run up against a traveling medicine show the varied spice of life is tasted. The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ banjo-driven gospel “Lights In The Valley.” Madeira’s self-titled contribution  “Mercyland” is a New Orleans-style story of hope and redemption. Madeira joins Cindy Morgan in the gloriously yearning “Leaning On You.”

Developing allegory is a tougher job than just using ready make symbols for threadbare religious shorthand. The concept of spirituality is a tougher job for a lazy songwriter than just rhyming “Jesus comes” with “bangin’ drums.”
The greatest and most enduring gospel songs, from The Great Speckled Bird to Amazing Grace, are master works of allegory and allow a richer and deeper musical expression and broadness in narrative to speak to beauty, devotion and sacrifice.

Phil Madeira and his musical congregation do good and great work on this collection of songs that inspire without beating you over the head with the Good Book. They also don’t put you to sleep in the pew to dream of post church fried chicken. That’s a miracle it itself.

Official Site  |  Buy

By Baron Lane
Yaab

Some great videos from user prestoff2000 from the Los Lobos’ first Cinco de Mayo Festival at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles. The festival featured Los Lobos, X, Dave Alvin, Mariachi El Bronx, Neko Case and the legendary Flaco Jimenez. Check the greatness:

By Baron Lane
Yaab

Poor Moon could have easily been lost to obscurity. After it’s initial label shuttered the album was left without production, distribution, and chief singer/ songwriter MC Taylor was left near bankruptcy. Thankfully the album was seen to be worthy of rescue by the small North Carolina label Paradise of Bachelors and was set to be their second in-house release. If you snatched up one of those quickly sold-out, 500 hand-numbered vinyl editions you were in possession of 13 songs of spare,  skewed country soul.

The next step in the Poor Moon saga is Tompkins Square Records. The The California/New York label  is no stranger to uncovering and promoting great-but obscure performances and must have seen a kindered spirit in the beleaguered album as they have reissued it on CD and online, giving the album a deserved wider distribution and an opportunity to gain a wider audience.

We are all luckier for the opportunity. Durham North Carolina-based MC Taylor and Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Scott Hirsch, make up the core of Hiss Golden Messenger. The duo are joined by an impressive list of guests including members of D. Charles Speer and The Helix, Black Twig Pickers, Brightblack Morning Light, and member’s of their old band The Court and Spark.

Salvation is rarely as ecstatic as depicted in fiction and mythology. Dark and light work within the mundane boundaries of the everyday and M.C. Taylor’s songs well chronicles these illusive interiors. The poet William Cowper wrote “God moves in a mysterious way” in his Hymn “”Light Shining out of Darkness” and the holy ghost certainly takes enigmatic forms in Poor Moon. Whether an agent of abdication as assassin (Jesus Shot Me in the Head) or as a devoted companion in hardship’s throes (Balthazar’s Song) the forms are elusive and not always certain, like faith itself.

Taylor is a believer that question’s his belief existence (or more precisely, his ability to recognize real-world manifestations of his faith.)  He metaphorically skirts heathen’s path while keeping just within the confines of the apostle. He appears to be aman with no clear answers and takes comfort, reveling even, in the ambiguity.

“Poor Moon” is a deceptively straightforward album that surrenders it’s subtle beauty through repeated listening (preferably with headphones.)  Hiss Golden Messenger travels the road forged by the recently departed, Levon Helm and The Band by melding country, folk and soul and creating approachable music that sound timeless as well as surprising. the road is well traveled and in this case, golden.

By Baron Lane
Yaab

As a singer Lisa Marie Presley has a shadow cast across her longer than most.Being the offspring of the man that spearheaded an entire genre has got to be a daunting challenge even for the most daring soul.

When she’s not spending her time as a Humanitarian for child literacy and tabloid subject (cough,,..Micheal Jackson..cough) she occasionally makes music much of which has been forgettable pop-rock fluff.

Presley’s upcoming effort, “Storm & Grace” is being touted as “…album she was born to make – a raw, powerful country, folk and blues collection that finds her embracing her Southern roots and family name,” ( Rolling Stone) Well, with T Bone Burnett producing she certainly hired the right man to shepherd her into this land of pastoral rebirth.

“You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” is the first single from the album and like a “haven’t we seen this movie before” moment. With it’s moody swamp-guitar reverb vibe the song bears a striking resemblance to the cover of Li’l Millet and his Creoles’ “Rich Woman” by a disciple of Presley’s daddy, Robert Plant, on 2007′s Raising Sand. As readers know this was also a T Bone Burnett production.

Presley sounds confident with her husky if limited delivery and the song is good , if not groundbreaking.  That said, I look forward to hearing the rest of the album and ushering in another member of the Americana music family.

By Baron Lane
Yaab

“Why do the best things always disappear?” Ophelia

The other day I read a tweet from Jason Isbell that read “I don’t know what to say.” and then had a link to levonhelm.com. When I followed the link the official site read that  ”Levon was in the final stages of his battle with cancer.” Today at at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City the music legend left this last and final stage.

Helm was a key member of a band brimming with talent. Once backing rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins under the moniker “The Hawks,” and then backing Dylan as he shook the folk culture by bringing it into the electric age. The negative reaction of this event shook Helm to the extent that he returned to his birth state, Arkansas, to work on off-shore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for two years until he was asked to rejoin the band.

Though primarily known for his tight drumming style and distinctive Southern growling vocal style Helm was an accomplished on mandolin, guitar, bass, harmonica and banjo. This wealth of talent allowed him to endure long after the demise of The Band.

As the soul American in the otherwise Canadian The Band Helm’s solo career built on the  foundation shaped from his former band. He  used his Woodstock NY Rambled in his bar as a community jam that helped shape the sound and style we now know as Americana. Helm has won two of the three Americana Album of the Year Grammys that have been handed out since the category (Electric Dirt in 2010 and Ramble at the Ryman in 2011.) This earned Helm the distinction as a founding father of the genre.

When news of Helm’s death started fanning across the web artists began to use twitter to pay their respects and reminisce. Rodney Crowell ? (@RodneyJCrowell) tweeted “Rest in Peace, Brother Levon.” Loretta Lynn (@The_LorettaLynn) tweeted (by way of her Facebook page) “Levon Helm will Always hold a special place in my heart. He was as great of an actor as a musician .. For me watching him play the role of my daddy in Coal miners daughter is a memory I will alway(s) treasure”

Helm is beast known playing the aforementioned stern father, Ted Webb, to Sissy Spacek;s Loretta but he also had parts in a number of other films including the excellent Tommy Lee Jones’ directed and starred in film “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.”

As musicians and fans tweeted the news “RIP Levon Helm” , “The Last Waltz” and “TheBand” were all listed as trending topics on the main page. Helm’s official Facebook page currently has 5,780 comments on the news of his death. It’s heartening to see a man so steeped in tradition being celebrated in these online communities.

I believe it’s not a day of sadness bit of a celebration of a great life well lived. I was fortunate to see Helm perform live when he brought the Ramble on a rare road trip to San Francisco in August 2010. I’ll leave you with a video from that extraordinary performance.

By Baron Lane
Yaab

If you do live in a place with at least one independent record store, and love music, then you need to know about the upcoming Record Store Day. This internationally celebrated day is observed on the the third Saturday in April of each year. The event was originally conceived by Chris Brown, VP of  Portsmouth, NH’s Bull Moose music store, and founded in 2007 by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner. Exclusive and limited vinyl and CD releases made just for the day by hundreds of artists in hundreds of US and international stores to draw attention the the disappearing mom and pop music stores being affected by a tough economic climate the dwindling customer base that are flocking to buy music online.

This is the fifth year for the event and will offer special releases from Ryan Adams,The Civil Wars, Townes Van Zandt, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Patterson Hood and many more. There many great one offs and creative packaging (where else are you going to find a Buck Owens Coloring Book with a flexi disc?!)

I put together a quick list below of Americana and country artists participating in the event. There’s a good chance that I overlooked something so check the official list of goodies and also check the official participating stores list to make sure yours is on the list. And remember to call ahead for items as not all store will be carrying all releases.

The Black Twig Pickers – Yellow Cat
Format: 7″ 45
Label: Thrill Jockey Records

Blitzen Trapper – Hey Joe b/w Skirts on Fire
Format: 7″ 45
Label: Sub Pop

Bonnie Prince Billy- Hummingbird
Format: 10″ LP
Label: Spiritual Pajamas

Buck Owens Coloring Book w/flexi disc w/ download card 
DETAILS
Format: Book
Label: Omnivore

Richard Buckner – “Willow” “Candy-O.”w/ download card.
Format: 7″

Caitlin Rose – ‘Love Is a Laserquest’ & ‘Piledriver Waltz’ (Arctic Monkeys covers)
Format:  7″
Label: Domino Records

Our friends at Domino Records commissioned Caitlin to cover two songs by the Arctic Monkeys as a very limited edition 7 inch release for Record Store Day this Saturday, April 21st.

Carolina Chocolate Drops/Run DMC
You Be Illin
Format: 7″ 45
Label: Warner Bros.

Freakwater – Feels Like The Third Time (reissue)
Format: LP
Label: Thrill Jockey Records

Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames – New Multitudes
Format: 10″ LP
Label: Rounder

Justin Townes Earle – Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now
Format: 7″ 45
Label: Bloodshot

Lee Hazlewood – The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes, & Backsides (1968-71)
Format: LP
Label: Light In The Attic

Patterson Hood & the Downtown 13 (featuring Mike Mills) After It’s Gone
Format: 7″ 45
Label: ATO

Richard Thomspon – Haul Me Up
Format: 7″ 45
Label: Beeswing Records

Ricky Skaggs & Tony Rice
Format: LP
Label: Sugar Hill

Ryan Adams – Heartbreak A Stranger / Black Sheets Of Rain (Bob Mould cover)
Format: 7″ 45  colored vinyl
Label: PAXAM

Sara Watkins featuring Fiona Apple/The Everly Brothers – You’re The One I Love
Format: 7″ olive green and black splatter
Label: Warner Bros

The Civil Wars – Billie Jean (Live)” Micheal Jackson / Sour Times (Live)” Portishead
Format: 7″ 45
Label: Columbia Records U.K.

The Civil Wars – Live at Amoeba
Format: CD
Label: Sensibility Music LLC

Lydia Loveless – Bad Way To Go / Alison (Elvis Costello cover)
Format: 7″ 45
Label: Bloodshot

Ralph Stanley – Single Girl / Little Birdie
Format: LP
Label: Tompkins Square

Townes Van Zandt – At My Window
Format: LP
Label: Sugar Hill

Uncle Tupelo – The Seven Inch Singles
Format: 7″ Vinyl Box Set
Label: Sony
More Info:
3×7″ box set

By Baron Lane
Yaab

I was tipped off to the bad news of Levon Helms’ (71) turn for the worse by a tweet from Jason Isbell that read “I don’t know what to say.” and then had a link to levonhelm.com. I knew that the drummer of The Band and successful solo artist and man behind the “Ramble” had been battling throat cancer a few years back and it took him a lonh while to recover his voice, so I feared the worst. The message on his site confirmed my fears;

“Dear Friends,
Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey.

Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration… he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage…

We appreciate all the love and support and concern.
From his daughter Amy, and wife Sandy”

Hope and prayers are given from this fan to this rock/Americana music legend and fine man. I hope he finds comfort in this difficult time.

By Baron Lane
Yaab

Modern-day troubadour Shooter Jennings newest release, Family Man, is being lauded as his return to country. Well, sorta….His 2010 psychedelic dystopian album, Black Ribbons, done with his band Hierophant, seemed like a side road homage from a fan that grew up  Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails. Family Man is more in like with his solo debut  Put the “O” Back in Country and sophomore release Electric Rodeo.  One album does not a change in direction make.

Jennings older now. Relocated to New York City with his new wife, the actress Drea de Matteo (the Sopranos, Sons of Anarchy) and new family, daughter – Alabama and son, Waylon “Blackjack” Jennings – the man seems more comfortable working the territory pioneered by his dad and others. This does not mean he’s mimicking styles or settling down. Far from it.

The direction is clear from the opener The Real Me is a twist on the family values country music fair. A day with his kids turns to inebriation, violence, whoring and a dangerous foray near country rap with a single-breath  “I’m a double-talkin’, chicken-lickin’, meaner-than-the-dickens, sick and wicked, hole-diggin’ son of a gun!” His new band, The Triple Crown, formed with childhood friend and master pianist Erik Deutsch, balances a live sound with a studio tightness that supports the songs lijke they’re been together for years.

The Long Road Ahead is a mandolin rambler featuring lovely background vocals by Eleanor Whitmore. The song transforms subtly as Tom Morello, who worked with Jennings on his alter ego The Nightwatchman’s second album The Fabled City, provides a discordant guitar break as only he can, but then settles right back in for the ride.

The album’s first single, The Deed & The Dollar, starts with a pedal steel cry then settles into a 4/4 time shuffle his daddy would have loved. Like the title, the song is peppered with Southern vernacular. “She’s finer than a frogs hair split four ways.” “She’s wild as a june bug on a string.” Rhyming Holler with foller and dollar. If this was done from an outsider is might be seen as irony or snark. Shooter wields country grammar with respect. This song is a fine example of country music’s comfort with sentimentalism despite it’s history of masculine bravado.

Manifesto No. 4 and Southern Family Anthem are swaggering Southern Rock tunes straight from the Put The O Back in Country days.  Summer Dreams (Al’s Song) is a shimmering cut of country pop that recalls the best of Micky Newberry. “Daddy’s Hands” is another trad country celebration of family unity and glorious dysfunction elevated by the familiar harmonica work of Mickey Raphael.

The Black Dog is a spoken-word blues backed by acoustic guitar, mandolin and fiddle. A ghost story, a common theme of Civil war era folk music that the song mirrors, but specter in this case is a faithful companion showing loyalty from beyond the grave by drawing rescuers to the scene of a collapsed mine that has trapped his master.

Jenning’s proves once again despite his significant heritage, he’s his own man. At the helm of the songs as well as production he skillfully skirts the borderland of country music and guides it towards interesting, if familiar, terrain.  Jennings’ recent advocacy of the XXX movement of genre exclusion led me to expect, well, I didn’t know what to expect. But if this is XXX, sign me up. The artwork by Netler Creative, the minds behind Hank Williams III’s iconic hellbilly imagery, is stunning in its attention to detail. Great to see that’s not a lost artform.

Curiously, his most direct shot at Nashville cardboard populism and bravado  “Outlaw You” is missing on Family Man. In spite of the omission of that excellent shot off piss and vinegar this is a damn fine record that reminds us all that country music can evolve in ways that don’t just follow music city’s decree for the dollar.

The apple don’t fall too far from the Tree.

Official Site | Buy

By Baron Lane
Yaab