If you've been reading lately, then you know that the Americana Music Honors and Awards Show is taking place tonight at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville, TN. I've covered the nominees in a few of the major awards so far. This post is just to wrap up every other category and give you an overview of the rest of the awards. The award show will be broadcast live on Sirius/XM Radio's Outlaw Country Channel and webcast live by NPR Music and Folk Alley beginning at 6:30 Central Time. [...]
For me, this is the biggest award of the night. Call me old fashioned, but I still believe that the album is the highest form of artistic expression for an artist. Even as it seems many artists and record labels are focusing more and more on singles these days, I'll always take a great album over a great single. I also find it very telling about the Americana Music Association as a whole that their radio airplay charts are based on album spins rather than airplay for specific singles. How many other charts do that? [...]
The recipient of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting is John Mellencamp. It's hard to believe that the Indiana farmboy who was raised in a Small Town full of Little Pink Houses has been making music for roughly 35 years now. He is one of the rare artists who has achieved mass commercial appeal and mass critical praise. His newest album No Better Than This (produced by T. Bone Burnett) is out now on Rounder Records. Here are a few classic Mellencamp tunes... [...]
Today, we take a look the nominees for what I consider to be the most confusing category... Best New/Emerging Artist. Last year's award was won by Justin Townes Earle in his second year of being nominated (New Artist nominee two years in a row?). One of this year's nominees actually won Best Song last year, a year in which he was NOT nominated for New/Emerging Artist. Even though the nominating criteria seems to be a bit nebulous, the assembled nominees are all worthy of some sort of recognition. [...]
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." Today we feature something different... Lohio , a band out of Pittsburgh led by songwriter Greg Dutton and what sounds like several dozen of his closest friends. Although the band lists only four official members, somehow they manage to sound like a large collective of musicians not unlike larger ensembles such as The Cloud Cult or Polyphonic Spree. [...]
It's almost that time again. The annual Americana Music Honors & Awards are set to take place September 9th at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville as part of the 2010 Americana Music Association Conference. As I do every year, I plan on spending the next couple of weeks reviewing the nominees for each award and attempting to handicap the competition. We'll start with the nominees for Duo/Group of the Year. I was largely unfamiliar with the Avett Brothers when I saw them perform for the first time at [...]
It's almost time again for the Americana Music Honors & Awards show... the annual event that takes place each year at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium to honor the very best in Americana music. This year's show is September 9th, and as I've done in the past , I plan on using this space to preview and handicap the awards races to try to pick a winner. Today's Weekend YouTube (new name, same feature) will take a brief look at this year's Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance winner, Wanda Jackson . Jackson was known [...]
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." I already had a copy of Mic Harrison and the High Score's Great Commotion before it showed up in my ReviewShine inbox a couple of weeks ago. Mic is a local artist, and local albums seem to have a way of finding me. In the interest of trying to get things back to a normal [...]
Just checking in to let everyone know that things are going wonderfully with the new baby, but my free time has completely vanished for the current moment. My sabbatical from blogging may be a bit more prolonged than I had originally anticipated. I'd love to tell you about cool new releases from Samantha Crain, Paul Thorn, Luke Doucet, and a few other new releases that I've been enjoying lately. I'd love to, but I just haven't been able to. Maybe soon... I have, however, spent a lot of time listening to music with my [...]
I get to take my new daughter home from the hospital today... and this song has been running through my mind repeatedly in the two days since she arrived. Scott Miller wrote it for a friend on the occasion of his son's birth, and it's full of heartfelt well wishes for a newborn child.
I'm going to try to keep up with my YouTube posts while on my little sabbatical. Thanks to Sally for sending me the link to Alejandro Escovedo on the David Letterman show earlier this week.
As you've probably noticed, things have slowed down a bit around here lately. I've mentioned that my wife and I are expecting our first child next week, and I've spent a lot of time recently preparing for her arrival. With that in mind, this will likely be my final post here for the next few weeks. I plan to take a couple of weeks off from work getting to know my daughter, and I think it best to take some time off here as well. I'll keep listening to new stuff, and I may pop [...]
I'm not sure where it came from, but I really got on a Velvet Underground kick Friday night... And one of Lou Reed by himself...
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." We'll start today with 22-year-old singer/songwriter Kelsey Waldon. Waldon hails from Western Kentucky and records under the name Anchor in the Valley . Waldon's newest effort as Anchor in the Valley is a self-titled release that inhabits some fairly mellow territory. Waldon's sound is built on easy folk melodies and fleshed out with various indie elements that [...]
Back in March, I introduced you to a really cool roots/rock band out of L.A. called Drunk on Crutches. I have to admit that I gave the band a first listen based mostly on their name. I just had to know what something called Drunk on Crutches would sound like. I don't really know what I was expecting from their album People. Places. Things. , but what I got was one of my favorite new discoveries of the year. This is [...]
You can read my review of the new album from Crooked Still over at Country Standard Time . And while you're doing that... here are a couple of YouTube videos of songs from the album.
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." Today's artist comes to us from Los Angeles, California in the form of the five piece band, Rose's Pawn Shop . The name comes from the time the band had all their equipment stolen by vocalist/lead guitarist Paul Givant's jilted ex-girlfriend and later found their gear in the hands of a local pawnbroker. Next month, the group will [...]
This is the week A Fifty Cent Lighter & A Whiskey Buzz celebrates two years on the scene, and I honestly can't believe I've kept it up for this long. I certainly didn't know how much work it was going to be when I started it. If I had, I might not have done it. Writing was never something that I ever particularly enjoyed throughout my academic career, and I had no reason to think that would ever change. Somehow... something about this whole blog thing has turned me around. [...]
I was all set to go with a different artist today, but I was so completely blown away by this group last night at Ferd's Friday that I had to feature them here instead. The Spirit Family Reunion hail from Brooklyn and finally made it to Knoxville Friday night after some van troubles left them unable to make their scheduled spot on the Blue Plate Special on Thursday. I'm sorry they broke down, but I'm glad I got to see them perform their blend of gospel/folk/punk. [...]
This is a call for help from any tech savvy readers or fellow bloggers who might be reading this. I've been contemplating this for a while now, but something happened today that I think finally has me ready to move this site away from Blogger and try to find my own hosting. When a post is removed that contains no mp3, no YouTube vid, no links of any kind in fact... it's time to move on. I've had a few of these takedowns lately after making legitimate posts, and I don't want [...]
A Fifty Cent Lighter & A Whiskey Buzz
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
