I know Payton already did this exact same post over at This Mornin' I am Born Again , but I had to say something about this too. Most of you may already know this... but I am also a contributing blogger to another site called Star Maker Machine . It's a community blog with fifteen or so regular contributors and a few at large posts each week as well. Each week, a new theme is chosen. All songs posted during that week will have some connection to the theme. The goal is to give [...]
The Old 97's rocked Knoxville's Bijou Theatre last night... and they brought Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Louvin along for the ride. Here are a few highlights... My Top 5 moments from spending Thursday with Charlie Louvin and The Old 97's... 5.) Getting a free CD from Charlie Louvin: I stopped by the merch table to speak with Mr. Louvin before the 97's came onstage. I told him that I work for WDVX and that we still play a lot of the old Louvin Brothers catalogue on our station. He thanked me, gave me a [...]
Just a heads up for everybody... I'm going to be on the air live with The Old 97's later today at WDVX. They'll be stopping by the studio sometime around 4:00 Eastern Time, and you can listen in at http://www.wdvx.com/ . The Old 97's are playing a show at the Bijou Theatre later tonight with Charlie Louvin. I imagine we'll chat a bit about the show and the new album, Blame it on Gravity . Maybe we'll get 'em to play [...]
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 [...]
This week on the Friday Top 5, we're taking a look at the music of one of my very favorite artists... Alejandro Escovedo. I wrote a bit about Alejandro before in one of my very first posts here . Of course, one of the things I love most about his music is how many styles and influences go into his sound. Escovedo draws from pop, country, punk, folk, border radio, and just about any other musical form you can imagine. He then manages to blend all of those disparate sounds into something new that is warm and [...]
Earlier this week, I posted a Robbie Fulks song over at Star Maker Machine . In the comments of that post, I was reminded about another Robbie Fulks song that I hadn't listened to in a while... "Fountains of Wayne Hotline." Robbie Fulks: Fountains of Wayne Hotline ( Buy Single ) This week's theme at Star Maker Machine is "The Music Biz," and this song certainly deals with one aspect of the biz... how to write a hit. In this song, Fulks plays a struggling songwriter who must call on [...]
Johnson County Kentucky is the birthplace of some of the greats of Country Music. Bluegrass pioneer Hylo Brown and Country superstars Crystal Gayle and Loretta Lynn all hail from Johnson County. Recently, singer and songwriter, Chris Stapleton, has also emerged from Johnson County to make a splash with rising bluegrass supergroup, The Steeldrivers. Now, another Johnson Countian, Brett Ratliff has released his debut album, Cold Icy Mountain , on June Appal Records. Like Stapleton, Ratliff was a schoolmate of mine at Johnson Central High School in Paintsville, Ky. Brett was actually a year behind me in school, [...]
A few weeks ago, when I did the first installment of the Friday Top 5, I mentioned how hard it would be for me to actually compile a list of my top five R.E.M. songs. This week, however, I was inspired by a wonderful post over at Pretty Goes with Pretty and the continued brilliance over at Pop Songs 08 to actually give it a try. The problem with doing this is that there are so many R.E.M. songs to choose from (over 300 on my i-pod) that it's nearly impossible to narrow the [...]
Tomorrow is the 35th Anniversary of the death of Gram Parsons. He died September 19, 1973 in Joshua Tree, CA. I'm not going to go into a detailed post about the crazy events surrounding his death. That can be found here . I'm also not going to launch into a treatise on how much I love Gram's music, or his concept of Cosmic American Music, or how much he's influenced some of the artists of today. Today, I'm simply going to offer a song written by Gram's friend and duet partner Emmylou Harris [...]
If you've been reading this blog at all, then you know that the Americana Music Honors and Awards Show will be held tomorrow night in Nashville and will be broadcast live on XM Radio's X-Country channel beginning at 8:oo Eastern Time. This is just one more post celebrating the event and its past winners. I've written about most of this year's nominees over the past month or so. You can read those posts here ... a few of the songs have expired, but most of them are still there. Anyway... today we'll take a look at the [...]
The Americana Music Honors and Awards show is this Thursday night in Nashville at the historic Ryman Auditorium. I have gone through most of the nominees and honorees at this year's event in this space over the last month or so. As we lead up to the event this week, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the previous winners. Today... song of the year. 2002: Jim Lauderdale & Ralph Stanley: She's Looking at Me [...]
Gas prices in Knoxville hit $4.69 for a gallon of regular this afternoon and seem to still be on the way up. Several stations in town actually ran out of gas completely today. Here's an ode to gas-guzzlin' from Scott Miller. Scott Miller & The Commonwealth: Eight Miles a Gallon ( Buy Album )
This week's subject on the Friday Top 5 is none other than singer/songwriter/producer/gui tarist, Buddy Miller. Buddy celebrated a birthday last weekend. Earlier this year, he celebrated being named Aritst of the Decade by No Depression magazine. Later this month, he'll serve once again as leader of the house band at the Americana Honors and Awards show in Nashville. He is, afterall, the most nominated performer in the history of those awards. Buddy Miller has worked with many different artists in many different capacities during the course of his career. He's played in bands with Emmylou Harris, [...]
It's been a while since I posted anything about the upcoming Americana Honors and Awards Show. Since it's coming up next week, I thought I'd better get back on the ball. You can find my previous posts on the Awards here . A full list of this year's nominees can be found here (scroll down). Last month, I started this whole series on the awards nominees by listing the five songs nominated for Song of the Year . Four of the five nominated songs come from albums nominated for Album of the Year. Since [...]
Todd Snider has never shied away from controversy with his music, as evidenced by such Snider classics as "Conservative Christian, Right-Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males" and "You Got Away With it (A Tale of Two Fraternity Brothers)." The first song (from 2004's East Nashville Skyline) attacks exactly who it says it does, people who hate "Tree huggin', peace lovin', pot smokin', porn watchin', lazy-ass hippies" like Mr. Snider himself. The second song (from 2006's The Devil You Know ) lampoons the college days of a certain future world leader with a penchant for evading trouble. [...]
Rodney Crowell's new CD, Sex and Gasoline , was released last week. I've been listening to it for two or three weeks now, and I'm still not sure I've fully formed my opinion on the album. In fact, I've started to make this post a couple of times now with my review. I just haven't really known where to go with it. Friday night, however, I got an email from one of my listeners at WDVX asking my thoughts on the record. I had to tell her that I wasn't really sure where I stand on the [...]
Chris Knight played Knoxville last night with The Hackensaw Boys. I was, unfortunately, unable to attend due to this thing I have called a job. Nevertheless... Chris Knight's appearance in Knoxville last night, coupled with the release of his new CD, Heart of Stone has inspired me to revisit my Chris Knight collection this week. For this week's Top five, I will be dipping into Knight's back catalogue... nothing from the new CD is on the list. It's still a little too fresh right now for me to really tell if anything will crack the list. [...]
In the spring of 2002, I was working as a Graduate Assistant at Morehead State Public Radio in Morehead, Kentucky. I mostly worked in the newsroom writing news and sports copy and anchoring the occasional newscast. On Friday nights, it was my job to sit in the broadcast studio and make sure nothing went wrong while we aired a few nationally syndicated music programs. Essentially, I would introduce a program, do nothing for an hour, and then introduce the next program. I spent most of those Friday nights chatting with friends on line, making fantasy baseball trades, or [...]
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Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
