The Appalachian ballads of American folk singer and songwriter Ola Belle Reed echo through modernity: best remembered for penning Bluegrass standard High On A Mountain , the Smithsonian honoree is a respected songwriter and radio personality in the annals of country and traditional folk music, both for her interpretation of traditional song and for the hundreds of original tunes she wrote during her four decade career. Add a yearly festival held in her name in her native North Carolina, and note that Amy Helm and friends named their band in her honor, and it's [...]
I had something else planned for this weekend's feature, but even as Massachusetts downgrades the danger, the "perfect storm" barreling towards the East Coast is clearly atop everyone's minds, smothering election news in its wake, and leaving us resigned to yet another reminder that no matter how advanced our civilizations become, our lives are still lived on earth's fragile lifeboat. It's a lesson that we've learned well, here in our tiny rural Massachusetts town. Last October, still reeling from the aftereffects of the massive tornado that slammed through our downtown area and left five [...]
As we noted over the weekend in The Year's Best Coverfolk, Part 1: Tribute Albums and Cover Collections , it's been a good year for full-album coverage. Overall, though, despite the fact that, in terms of sheer mass, covers from tributes overwhelm singletons in my collection, what I've found this year is that a significant majority of the songs that lingered, and demanded overplay, came from a mixed bag of borderline genre albums and single shot coverfolk tracks, via the usual sources, from YouTube, Soundcloud, studio appearances, website and bandcamp singles, and more. [...]
This was a slow week here on ninebullets. The week opened with some hosting issues which prohibited us from posting anything until Tuesday afternoon and then we just never found our stride. That said, there were posts and this is where we recap them: There were videos! First we had Bingham Barnes doing his best Napoleon Dynamite impression and then we were treated to an interview with Two Cow Garage's Micah Schnabel . There were exclusives! Lizzie Huffman has a new 103 coming out and we [...]
The first talking point you'll usually hear about NY's Ollabelle is that they feature the voice of Amy Helm, daughter of the incomparable Levon Helm, drummer, vocalist, and mandolinist for The Band . Several of Ollabelle's members perform in the Levon Helm Band, alongside Larry Campbell , at Levon's weekly Midnight Rambles at his barn/studio in Woodstock. Ollabelle played a large part in Levon's two comeback albums, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt , and they also backed Jim White on his 2008 album Transnormal Skiperoo . [...]
Perception and reputation are 9/10th of the law in the music biz. Even on the tertiary level where I roam. If this song was from any other artist I may have passed on it. I may not have given it a chance to develop. But since the band in question is Amy Helm's NYC roots supergroup Ollabelle I gave it a chance and another and another. I'm still a little torn as the song's style, lyrical theme, and Amy's breathy vocals are not my favorites. But the groove is hard to resist. [...]
M83 at Webster Hall (11/14/08) Photo : Tim Griffin ( more ) Sep 11 Sun Don Fleming & The Folding Men, Brute Force Mercury Lounge New York, NY 07:00 PM Buy Tickets [...]
We keep our eyes peeled for new tour dates announcements each week and compile them on Tuesdays for this handy column… As live music junkies we get really excited when our favorite bands reveal a new batch of tour dates, but when two of them decide to team up to hit the road together, it makes us feel like a kid on Christmas morning. This was the case last week when news dropped that Blitzen Trapper and Dawes will be traversing the country together come this fall. The two Cosmic Americana acts will [...]
Originally posted, with slight modifications, in August 2009. Because it's one of my favorite sets...and because bloggers need vacations, too. We're in Truro for a short weekend, just like in 2009, in the same rented beachhouse high on the dunes above the Cape Cod sound. Wakeless trawlers and shore fishermen, beach wanderers and bathers are few and far between, mere specks on an otherwise natural landscape that fills the sense with color: green grasses, faded yellow sand, the variable [...]
Ollabelle - It's been five eventful years for this rarified, acoustic roots/Americana band since 2006's Riverside Battle Song , a period of personal change, side projects and beginning a fresh DIY, label-less existence...new self-produced indie project includes five original tracks, two traditional songs arranged by the band, plus covers of Paul Kelly, Taj Mahal, Chris Whitley and an Ollabelle take on Stephen Foster's "Swanee River" // Release : Neon Blue Bird (August 16) // Sounds like : gospel, blues, country and folk seamlessly merge in graceful harmony throughout an album that [...]
Two weeks since the storm, and by most accounts, we're making real progress in our tiny town. Houses once broken disappear overnight, leaving empty spaces; others, chimney-less and battered, cover their gaping roofholes with tarps, until the valley below the town hall begins to look like a patchwork quilt: patches of peaked sky blue, newly exposed summer lawns, lumber, the stone grey of bare foundations. People go to work, and school. The local news moves on to other topics; there are long moments when I forget that the place where I live and love [...]
There's little a humble folkblogger could add to the cultural conversation about the Rolling Stones . Heck, without a quick glance at Wikipedia, I can't even name all the players, though after three and a half decades of modern radio culture, I can certainly hum along with their radio hits. There's certainly no dearth of Stones covers out there, either. Yet interestingly, though the songs of Jagger and Richards seem to lend themselves to soul, heavy metal, and both mainstream and alt-country wonderfully, I find few covers from the folkworld in my [...]
My favorite songs are the ones you feel in your bones, the ones that bubble up effervescently with that passion which has to explode out your extremities in the form of claps, stomps, and other forms of bodily percussion. A few months ago, fellow blogger Adrian and I started knocking around the idea of a Stomp/Clap mix with all the best samples of these songs. This has been an absolute joy to assemble (with suggestions from you guys) and is the perfect late-Spring soundtrack. While everything outside is coming back to life, these songs [...]
We're in Truro for a short week, in a rented beachhouse high on the dunes above the Cape Cod sound. Wakeless trawlers and shore fishermen, beach wanderers and bathers are few and far between, mere specks on an otherwise natural landscape that fills the sense with color: green grasses, faded yellow sand, the variable blues of sky and water. At night the lights of Provincetown shine brightly just on the edge of the vista, a line of stars marking the difference between pitch-black sea and an invisible sky. Last [...]
Last year, I was infatuated with Light In The Attic's reissue of Cold Fact , the rediscovered lost classic of psychedelic-soul and folk-rock from a guy simply known as Rodriguez . The 67 year-old singer-songwriter will embark on his first ever North American tour this spring that kicks off on April 10 in Madison, WI with scattered dates through the end of June including a stop at NYC's Bowery Ballroom on May 15 that I'm eagerly anticipating. If the music [...]
Jim White ( here and here w/Hellwood) is a musical archaeologist much like Ry Cooder or David Byrne. But instead of mining the world music scene for inspiration he concentrates on the lost, forgotten or ignored sounds of America, particularly the deep south. He was so enamored by the culture of the southern states that he made a critically acclaimed documentary called Searching For The Wrong Eyed Jesus (trailer below). Jim White (no, not the hip one who made that record with Nina Nastasia) has released his new [...]
Both songs today are from Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster. I had played several of the songs when the album was first released and thought I'd finish it off today. MP3 File
The big news around these parts is we will be leaving these parts. For Thanksgiving , The Duchess, Duke Jr. and I are flying back to the Midwest. To stay at my parents house on the Mississippi River . To get me (and you all) in the mood for my time at the river, here are 30 “ river ” songs, and 3 “ Mississippi ” songs (1 overlap) and one named after the woman who is named after my hometown. Some you’ve heard here before, some you haven’t. [...]
Listen to Podcast #33- Betty's "Dark Tales on Desert Roads"Mix! Like what you hear?? Subscribe HERE! Or through iTunes by Advanced Podcast menu. Subscribe to podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Bu nchOfBettysPodcast1 Bunch of Bettys Podcast #33- Betty's "Dark Tales on Desert Roads" Mix! (RIGHT-CLICK TO DOWNLOAD ENTIRE PODCAST) Or Listen Here... [...]
"Summer was gone and the heat died down/ And autumn reached for her golden crown/ I looked behind as I heard a sigh/But this was the time of no reply" Last night I got a great fortune: “ Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening all at once. ” I don’t know if it’s the fact that [...]
Cover Lay Down
Nine Bullets
songsillinois
Bumpershine.com
Hidden Track
Direct Current
I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS
Keep the Coffee Coming
The Late Greats
Bunch of Betty's Podcast MP3s!!
The Canals
Nueva canción de Arctic Monkeys: Do I Wanna Know
Kanye West – Yeezus
M.I.A. – “Bring the Noize”
