The other night I was sifting through my dvd collection (I am preparing to sell it all) when I found a cd that must have fallen off the "to listen to" stack and gotten kicked under the bench seat where my dvd's are stored. That cd was Puritan Rodeo's 2008 effort The Magic Suit Ball . Feeling bad that the cd had been lost for so long (it's street date was May of '08), I immediately put it in my car cd player and you know what....it's pretty fucking good. It's like a mashup of, [...]
The Steeldrivers: Midnight Train To Memphis [ purchase ] I was blown away by The Steeldrivers at last winter's Joe Val Bluegrass festival . The combination of solid Grammy-winning bluegrass session players and Chris Stapleton's incredibly torn R & B vocals and songwriting bring a whole new life to the genre, and even with a major flu running through the band, their energy onstage was unrivaled by anything I've seen then or since, period. I'm not the only one to have [...]
As I have found out the hard way, too much holiday cheer (e.g. booze)..... Reverend Horton Heat - It's Martini Time.mp3 Buy: Holy Roller (1999) Emmylou Harris - Two More Bottles Of Wine.mp3 Buy: Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town (1969, reissued 2004) Danny Michel - Rye Whiskey & Wine.mp3 Buy: Feather, Fur & [...]
Like R.E.M. before them at #10, there is a bit of a sentimental factor behind my inclusion of The Steeldrivers on this list. But, like R.E.M. before them, The Steeldrivers are also on the list based on their own merits after making my favorite bluegrass album of the year. Others seemed to agree with me... as the album was nominated for an Americana Music Award, three International Bluegrass Music Awards, and a Grammy this year. The story of The Steeldrivers is this. A pair of Nashville songwriters, Chris Stapleton and Mike Henderson found themselves writing a lot of [...]
![Top 50 Albums of 2008 [Picks 41-50]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/1408068_lg.jpg)
Choosing 50 albums from a single year should not be excruciatingly painful, but it is. I know I'll have regrets as soon as this list goes live. Thanks to Woody for providing commentary and some healthy debate as we've waded our way through the music of 2008. Let's get started, shall we? 41. The Steeldrivers – Self Titled I already know I'll regret not posting this higher on the list. The Steeldrivers inject soul and blues into their bluegrass sound and the album continues to grow on me. [...]
Just a few links to get you through the week... * Scott Miller has made his new CD For Crying Out Loud available for pre-order at his website . Only 1,000 copies will be offered between now and December 17th online and at Miller's shows... and once they're gone, they're gone. Orders placed before the 17th should arrive by Christmas. If you don't get in on the pre-order, then you have to wait until March for the official release. All pre-order copies also include an enhanced CD feature with a twenty minute video on the [...]
(NOTE FROM AUTOPSY IV: Today's piece comes from a frequent ninebullets.net reader, Adam Fenwick . He emailed me last week asking if he could submit a Rock Report about a festival he'd recently attended. I sad "Of Course" and here it is for y'all.) I've never been one for camping. I'm far too accustom to a comfortable bed and a warm shower in the morning. But when my parents decided they were going to buy an RV to take to music festivals I had no [...]
The creature you see pictured above is my dog, Deacon. My wife is out of town this week... so right now it's just my dog and me here at home. John Hiatt: My Dog and Me ( Buy Album ) This weekend, Deacon and I will hit the road to take in the glorious fall tradition that is the Kentucky Apple Festival in Paintsville, KY. The Apple Festival is your typical small town festival complete with parades, carnivals, crafts tents, food vendors, and concerts. Here, all the concerts take place on [...]
According to Last.FM and Zune.net , these are the tracks that I have been listening to the most over the last few months (one track per artist), although I suspect that the Zune counter is not very accurate as it shows the same tracks every month. By the way, I have no "Zune Friends," so if you have a Zune and use the crappy "Zune Social" and want to be my "friend," search for Aimz54901. 01 The Sadies - Dying Is Easy.mp3 [...]
The Steeldrivers are a virtual super-group of the Nashville background featuring Richard Bailey (Banjo), Mike Fleming (Bass/Vocals), Mike Henderson (Mandolin/Vocals), Tammy Rogers (Fiddle/Vocals) and Chris Stapleton (Guitar/lead Vocals). The first thing about these guys that jumped out to me was Chis Stapleton's 'sandpaper to silk' voice. It immediately seemed familiar. Having worked with so many popular musicians in the current 'pop with a fiddle' country music, scene I wonder if maybe I picked up on his voice in the background of a song at some point. Another particularly interesting thing about the band is that while they do look like [...]
The SteelDrivers' self-titled debut livens up the bluegrass instrumentation of banjo player Richard Bailey, Mike Fleming's upright bass, mandolinist Mike Henderson, and fiddler Tammy Rogers with howling Delta blues vocals courtesy of lead singer-guitarist Chris Stapleton. The album was recorded completely live in "one big room" with no overdubs, which captures the energetic style and raw power of the band's recent performance at Mountain Stage . "Blue Side Of The Mountain" lets you know from the beginning that The SteelDrivers are no mere bluegrass band. The opening [...]
Listen. Steeldrivers - If It Hadn't Been For Love The Steeldrivers are good. Four musicians who have all seen too many Nashville sidewalks, they play 'original' bluegrass music. Much more disciplined than OCMS for sure, still they have enough moments that surprise you. Female fiddlers are also good. The Steeldrivers - Blue Side of the Mountain [...]
Last night I sat among the large audience at the soldout Mountain Stage show featuring Amos Lee , Sharon Little , Peter Bradley Adams , and The SteelDrivers. NPR's radio concert series once again outdid themselves in selecting talented artists, and some of the performances were astonishingly good. I was very happy that the Mountain Stage gang returned to their home venue. I avoid The Clay Center like the plague and though the the May show with Bell X1 at the Civic Center Little Theater was certainly enjoyable, the Cultural Center [...]
By most popular definitions, bluegrass isn't folk music. Where modern singer-songwriter folk teeters on the edge of pop, rock, and blues, today's bluegrass bands find radioplay on the country end of the dial, if at all. And though there are certainly plenty of crossover alt-country and Americana musicians out there who are welcome at both bluegrass and folk festivals, most music festivals tend to be firmly either/or. But as I've noted previously, folk and bluegrass have much in common. Both stem from the same early American [...]
Neglecting certain styles of music can be more harmful than people often assume. Though many people somehow come to the assumption that one genre is limited strictly to one style of play, there are countless numbers of ways to supplement an initial genre with variations of structure, instrumentation, and lyricism. Not to mention, blending several genres together to create an entirely original sound is always fair game. I grew up on the East Coast, so I like to believe that my taste has been developed by a variety of several genres. It used to be that one could easily be [...]
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Star Maker Machine
Minneapolis Fucking Rocks
Rockstar Aimz
A Fifty Cent Lighter & A Whiskey Buzz
HearYa: An Indie Music Blog
Muruch
This Mornin' I Am Born Again
Cover Lay Down
Obscure Sound
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Bison - Quill
SABRINA JOHNSTON + TIEFSCHWARTZ
THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF EDWYN COLLINS (Part 9)
