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Oct 2006 - Jan 2007 Page
1, 2, 3,
4, 5,
6, 7
Page Index:
Quick
Notes: Lucinda Williams, Son Volt, Johnny Cash
Burritos
Co-Founder "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow Dies
The
History of Americana Music and the Grammys
Grammys
Announce Initial "Americana" Nominees
Clapton
and Cale Take The Road to Escondido
Coachella
Festival to Welcome Americana Artists
Classic
Bluegrass on DVD
"Australiana":
The Australian Influence on Americana
2006
Americana Music Awards
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AMERICANA
NEWS Quick
Notes:
Lucinda Williams, Son Volt,
Johnny Cash Lucinda
Williams' latest release entitled West will be
available in the US on February 13. Lost Highway Records has
made several songs from the record available for preview. Click
here to check out the new tracks. Williams will also hit the
road for a handful of tour
dates in March to promote the new CD. JayFarrar.net
reports that the upcoming Son Volt release - The Search
- will feature an eclectic mix of instrumentation including guitar
pedal loops, keyboards, "Memphis-style horns," and
"Eastern-style electric guitar." The new CD will be
released on March 6. NME.com
reports that a compilation of gospel songs recorded by Johnny
Cash will be released on March 6. The CD is entitled Cash:
Ultimate Gospel. NME.com
also reports that an auction featuring a variety of Cash memorabilia
will take place on January 21 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Items to be
sold include handwritten lyrics to "Folsom Prison Blues"
and a Martin guitar featuring the lyrics to "I Walk The
Line." (January
21, 2007)
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AMERICANA
NEWS Burritos
Co-Founder "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow Dies Pedal
steel guitarist 'Sneaky" Pete Kleinow has passed away in
Petaluma, California from complications resulting from Alzheimer's
disease. Kleinow was a founding member of the Flying Burrito
Brothers together with Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman. The
innovative guitarist helped to redefine the role of steel guitar
in popular music. According to country-rock historian Peter
Doggett, "Kleinow never imitated the polite melancholy of the
acknowledged steel masters. Instead, his instrument rasped like a
car-horn. In his hands, the hillbilly emblem became a freak flag,
prompting press hyperbole that Kleinow was 'the Jimi Hendrix of
steel guitar.'" Kleinow
left the Burritos in 1971 and thereafter focused his attention on
studio session work around Los Angeles. Though he played an
instrument traditionally associated with country music, Kleinow
appeared on studio releases by artists such as John Lennon,
Fleetwood Mac, Joe Cocker, Jackson Brown, Frank Zappa and Stevie
Wonder. In
the 1980s, Kleinow withdrew from the music industry and became
involved with the creation of special effects for the motion
picture industry. His work appeared in films such as The
Empire Strikes Back, The Right Stuff, Gremlins
and the Terminator movies. More
recently, Kleinow had returned to performing with his new
country-rock band Burrito Deluxe. Sadly, he was diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease within the past couple of years and his
condition quickly deteriorated. Kleinow passed away on
January 6 at the age of
72. (January
9, 2007)
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COMMENTARY The
History of Americana Music and the Grammys The
recent addition of the term "Americana" to the Grammys
reminds us of the difficulty inherent in defining Americana as a
unique musical category. As America's most prestigious musical
award, the Grammys have used a variety of labels to categorize
Americana music since the inception of the awards in 1958. The
very first Grammy Awards held in 1958 did not contain an
Americana, folk or traditional music category. It also failed to
recognize the burgeoning rock 'n roll movement. The initial
awards did contain a category entitled "Best Country and
Western Performance" which included the Everly Brothers
"All I Have To Do Is Dream" and the category
winner "Tom Dooley" by the Kingston Trio. "Tom
Dooley" would eventually sell 5,000,000 copies, become a
major pop hit, and launch the folk music revival of the 1950s and
1960s. This was obviously a very broad definition of "Country
and Western." The
following year the Grammys added a new category called "Best
Folk Performance." The category was maintained for 10
years and included nominees such as Harry Belafonte, Big Bill
Broonzy, Bob Dylan, Flatt & Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Leadbelly,
John Hartford and Woody Guthrie. In
1970, the folk category was dropped and replaced by a category
called "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (Including
Traditional Blues)." Perhaps reflecting the end of the folk
revival, the new category was a musical hodge-podge including
blues artists (T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee
Hooker), folk performers (John Hartford, Doc Watson), and world
music artists (Ali Akbar Khan, Keiko Matsuo). By the mid-1970s,
however, the category had become dominated by blues artists.
Folk-oriented performers essentially disappeared from the Grammys
altogether. In
1982, the Grammys re-tooled their categories once again.
Recognizing the need to deal with blues as its own unique genre,
the awards created a specific category for blues called "Best
Traditional Blues Recording." The old "ethnic and
traditional" category was renamed the "Best Ethnic or
Traditional Folk Recording." On its face, this was
attempt to create a specific category for folk music, but once
again the category became a home to a variety of performers that
didn't really fit anywhere else. Nominees included Quen Ida (zydeco),
the Chieftains (Irish folk), Ravi Shankar (Indian), Clifton
Chernier (zydeco), and even reggae artists. In 1985, every nominee
in the category represented cajun or zydeco music. The
following year, the Grammys introduced the concept of traditional
and contemporary folk music. For the first time since 1970,
folk was once again singled out by the Grammys. The Best
Traditional Folk Recording essentially replaced the Best Ethnic or
Traditional Folk Recording which had previously existed.
Nominees continued to include cajun, zydeco and world music
performers, together with the occasional traditional folk artist
like Doc Watson and Norman Blake. The
Contemporary Folk Category became an exclusive home to folk
singers, singer-songwriters and other American roots music
performers. The first set of nominees in 1986 included John Prine,
Nanci Griffith and Loudon Wainwright III. In the years
since, the category has embraced artists such as Guy Clark,
Rosanne Cash, Jerry Garcia, T Bone Burnett, Bob Dylan, Steve
Earle, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Thompson and Jimmie
Dale Gilmore. The contemporary folk nominees have included a broad
range of pop, rock, country and folk musicians whose sound was too
distinctive for the other traditional Grammy categories. These are
Americana artists in every sense of the term. Last
year we joined a chorus of Americana voices to encourage
the Grammys to rename the Contemporary Folk category as the
"Americana" category in keeping with the more
commonly used term. The new "Contemporary Folk /
Americana" category is a recognition of the growth and
development of Americana as a unique musical genre. Now
let's see how long it
lasts. (December
10, 2006)
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AMERICANA
NEWS AND COMMENTARY Grammys
Announce Initial "Americana" Nominees The
nominees for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards were announced on
December 7 in Los Angeles. For the first time, the nominated
categories include a specific reference to "Americana."
The Best Contemporary Folk Album category has been renamed the
Best Contemporary Folk / Americana Album category. The
nominees in the newly named category are:
 Solo Acoustic Vol. 1
- Jackson Browne
Black Cadillac - Rosanne Cash
Workbench Songs - Guy Clark
Modern Times - Bob Dylan
All The Roadrunning - Mark Knopfler & Emmylou
Harris The
Grammy nominees provide additional evidence of the broad sweep of
Americana music. None of the albums nominated by the Grammys
were nominated for Album of the Year by the Americana Music
Association earlier this year. (Click
here for our discussion of the AMA nominees.) In fairness, two
of the Grammy nominees - Workbench Songs and Modern
Times - were released after the AMA nominees were announced. Another
contrast with the AMA nominees is the nature of artists nominated.
Whereas the AMA nominees were dominated by maturing "country
music" artists, the Grammy nominees include a mix of maturing
country, folk and rock artists. The obvious characteristic shared
by all of the nominees is their longevity in the music business.
By our calculations, Rosanne Cash at 51 years of age is the
youngest of the Grammy nominees. Once again, we will ask the
same question we asked of the AMA nominees. Where are the
"younger" performers like Old Crow Medicine Show, Neko Case, Shawn Mullins, BR549, etc.? All had compelling
releases in 2006, but none garnered even a mention by either the
AMAs or the Grammys. It is interesting that the editors of
Amazon.com named Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood as
the best
CD of 2006, but poor Ms. Case can't even garner a single
nugget of recognition from the Americana music
establishment. Of
course, there in nothing wrong with the actual artists nominated.
Each nominee is fantastic in its own way. But we remain concerned
that "Americana" continues to be viewed by many as the
place where established artists go when their records aren't
played on commercial radio anymore. (December
9, 2006)
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NEW
RELEASE Clapton
and Cale Take the Road to Escondido
 On
November 7, J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton released their first
collaborative release entitled The Road to Escondido. After
more than three decades of mutual admiration, the two performers
finally entered the studio together for the first time in August
of 2005. The resulting 14 songs - 11 of which were written by Cale
- are a testament to the artistry and musicianship of the two
performers whose careers have been intertwined since the beginning
of their respective solo careers in the early 1970s. Over this
period the two artists established a personal relationship which -
until now - had never manifested itself in an actual musical
partnership.
In
the mid-1960s, Oklahoma native Cale found himself in Los Angeles
after a brief period as a session man in Nashville. In L.A., Cale
recorded a handful of songs which included an early demo version
of a song called "After Midnight." Success eluded
Cale on the West Coast, and he soon returned to Tulsa after
another unsuccessful attempt to launch a recording career in
Nashville.
Meanwhile,
Clapton was embarking on a solo career after the demise of the
ill-fated supergroup Blind Faith. Clapton’s first solo project
was produced by Delaney and Bonnie co-founder Delaney Bramlett.
Bramlett had befriended Clapton after the Oklahoma-based band
opened for Blind Faith on their U.S. tour. Clapton then joined
Delaney and Bonnie on tour and used the band as support on his
self-titled debut release in 1970. During the recording sessions,
Bramlett introduced Clapton to Cale’s rough early version of
"After Midnight." Clapton loved the song and
recorded the memorable cover version for his solo debut.
The
success of Clapton’s version of "After Midnight"
provided Cale with the financial reward and public recognition
which had eluded him for years. Cale responded by writing material
which would soon be recorded and assembled for his solo debut. The
resulting album - entitled Naturally - would emerge as a
landmark recording featuring a re-recorded version of "After
Midnight, " the timeless "Call Me the Breeze"
(later covered by Lynyrd Skynyrd), and "Crazy Mama."
Cale’s
1976 release Troubadour would provide another source for
Clapton material. "Cocaine" would emerge as one
of Clapton’s biggest hit singles. Meanwhile, "Travelin’
Light" would appear on the guitarist's 2001 release Reptile.
On
his 1977 release Slowhand, Clapton not only scored a hit
with "Cocaine," he also found success with "Lay
Down Sally" which was written and recorded as a tribute
to Cale. Clapton’s follow-up release Backless included
yet another Cale tune - "I’ll Make Love To You Anytime."
Despite
the symbiotic relationship between the two artists, Clapton and
Cale avoided the opportunity to collaborate until the 2004
Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas. Clapton invited Cale to
perform at the event and the two musicians performed together on
stage in one of the highlights of the event. The pairing led to
Clapton’s invitation to Cale to produce his next album. The
project evolved into the full-fledged collaborative effort The
Road to Escondido.
Joined
in the studio by artists including John Mayer, Taj Mahal, Derek
Trucks, Albert Lee and the late Billy Preston, the result is a
surprisingly refreshing collection of laid-back county, rock, folk
and Americana. Cale’s influence is most striking. In addition to
the 11 songs penned by Cale, the CD bears his unmistakable
influence and laid-back groove.
Given
that this was undoubtedly the sound which Clapton sought to
achieve, The Road to Escondido is the perfect marriage of
two performers whose years of mutual respect have culminated in
this remarkable musical document.
(December
3, 2006)
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AMERICANA
NEWS Coachella
Festival to Welcome Americana Artists The
promoter of the annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
held in Indio, California recently announced that the festival
will expand to include an extra week dedicated to country music.
The first weekend of the festival will be held on April 27-29 and
will feature a variety of rock performers to be named in early
2007. The following weekend (May 5-6) the festival will welcome
country, bluegrass and Americana artists for the first time. The
main stage will feature country music performers, including George
Strait, Kenny Chesney and Sugarland. The festival will dedicate
secondary stages to alt-country and Americana artists (including
Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams) and bluegrass performers
(including Ricky Scaggs, Earl Scruggs and Nickel Creek). The
festival has emerged as the West Coast’s premier rock festival
since its inception in 1999. (December
2, 2006)
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NEW
DVD RELEASES Classic
Bluegrass on DVD
Fans
of classic bluegrass should take special note of two recent DVD releases
featuring rare performances by some of the pioneers of the
Appalachian-based musical genre. These documentaries provide a
intriguing look at several bluegrass icons in the early 1970s when
bluegrass was enjoying a brief resurgence in mainstream
popularity.  In
1971, Albert Ihde produced and directed the first feature film dedicated to bluegrass music. Bluegrass
Country Soul captures an important piece of musical history
and features a mind-boggling array of bluegrass icons performing
at their peak on Labor Day weekend in 1971. Ihde had originally
intended to make a motion picture about a fictional country music singer.
The financing fell through on the motion picture project, but one
investor was intrigued by preliminary scenes involving a bluegrass
festival. Ten days later, Ihde took his film crew to Camp Hill,
North Carolina to film Carlton Haney's 1971 Labor Day Weekend
Bluegrass Music Festival. The resulting film featured a timeless
collection of classic bluegrass performances. The project has
recently found its way to DVD and is now available to bluegrass
fans everywhere. Here are some
of the amazing highlights:
Ralph
Stanley performing "Man of Constant Sorrow" with
his Clinch Mountain Boys almost 30 years before the song's
rediscovery as part of the O Brother Where Art Thou
soundtrack. Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys include a
couple of teenagers who went on to have successful careers of
their own - Ricky Scaggs and Keith Whitley. A
young Del McCoury singing "White House Blues"
with his then backing band the Dixie Pals. The
Osbourne Brothers performing their original classic version of
"Rocky Top" and a contemporaneous take on the
John Denver hit "Take Me Home Country Roads." The
Earl Scruggs Revue's bluegrass version of "Country Comfort"
- a song from an up-and-coming British singer named Elton John and
his lyricist Bernie Taupin. (Elton John and Earl Scruggs would
perform the song together 30 years later on Scruggs' 2001 release Earl
Scruggs and Friends.) Rare
documented video footage of The Bluegrass Alliance - an early
version of New Grass Revival featuring a 19-year old Sam Bush
- performing "One Tin Soldier." A
young Tony Rice performing with The Bluegrass Alliance and J.D.
Crowe. A
rare festival appearance by Roy Acuff performing "Wabash
Cannonball."  In
addition to the amazing collection of performances featured in Bluegrass
Country Soul, Earl Scruggs fans should check out the recent
re-issue of Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends on DVD.
The documentary was filmed in 1972 and originally aired on PBS.
The film features the banjo legend performing with a variety of
folk, bluegrass and rock icons. Like Bluegrass Country Soul,
this musical documentary was unavailable for over 30 years until
the recent DVD release. The 90 minute documentary is loaded
with great musical performances, including the following
highlights:
Scruggs
joined by Bob Dylan in Carmel, New York to perform "Last
Virginia Blues" and "Nashville Skyline Rag." Scruggs
and The Byrds performing "Nothin' To It" and
"You Ain't Going Nowhere." Scruggs
with Bill Monroe at the Grand Ole Opry performing "Little
Maggie" and "Nine Pound Hammer." Scruggs
paying a visit to Doc Watson's mountain home for an informal jam
with Doc and his son Merle (the namesake of the annual Merlefest
Americana music festival). These
bluegrass collections capture a specific moment in bluegrass
history which was essential to the development of modern Americana
music. The brief popular fascination with bluegrass music in
the late 1960s and early 1970s gave the musical genre credibility
and encouraged mainstream artists to incorporate bluegrass
elements into their music. Fortunately for all of us, these
rare musical performances were permanently documented for
the entertainment and appreciation of future
generations. (November
21, 2006)
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COMMENTARY "Australiana":
The Australian Contribution to Americana Despite the label, the type
of music we identify as "Americana" is not limited to
the geographic boundaries of the United States. There is a
flourishing roots music scene throughout the world. According to
our website's statistics, almost half of the visitor's to
Americana Homeplace and over half of the listeners to Americana
Homeplace Radio are located outside of the U.S. Over the next few
weeks, we will take a closer look at the growth of Americana music
around the world. One
of the most fertile areas for the growth of Americana music
outside of North America is Australia and New Zealand. Some
Australian artists like Keith Urban and Sherrie Austin have
achieved breakthroughs into mainstream country music. But
Americana, country and other roots music has a long history and
solid foundation "Down Under." Recent releases by Kasey
Chambers, Bernard Fanning and others are a testament to the
fertility and quality of the Australian roots music scene. The
Development of Australian Country Music. The origins of
Australian country music can be traced to the introduction of
radio and the phonograph in the early 1920s and 1930s. American
country music mixed with native Australian music to produce a
variety of bona-fide Australian country music stars such as Tex
Morton ("The Father of Australian Country Music"), Smoky
Dawson and Slim Dusty. By the 1970s, the City of Tamworth
had emerged as Australia's "Country Music Capital." The
Tamworth Country Music Festival developed into a major musical
event establishing the sound and personalities of Australian
country music. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Australian country
music scene mirrored the Nashville trend and moved in a more
mainstream direction, thereby attracting even larger audiences. In
the present decade, many Australian country artists have embraced
rock, pop and folk influences to produce their own version of
alternative country and roots-oriented music. Some of those
artists have even achieved a degree of success in America. Here
are a few of our favorite "Australiana" artists.  Kasey
Chambers. Few Australian
country music artists have had more crossover appeal that Kasey
Chambers. In the 1990s, Kasey Chambers emerged as a major figure
in Australian country music as a member of The Dead Ringer Band -
a family band comprised of Kasey, her parents Bill and Diane, and
her brother Nash. In 1998, Kasey released her first solo album
entitled The Captain. The album was a critical and
commercial success earning Kasey the 1999 ARIA (Australian Grammy)
for Best Country Album. The following year she won the award
for Best Female Artist. She followed The Captain with two
more releases - Barricades & Brickwalls and Wayward
Angel - which broadened her appeal to both rock music fans and
international audiences.
Kasey
recently released her fourth CD entitled Carnival. Her
latest release marks a change in musical direction from
alternative country to a more straight-ahead pop-rock sound.
Nash Chambers continues to serve as Kasey's producer and guest
vocalists include Tim Rogers and Bernard Fanning (see below).
Despite her musical evolution, Kasey Chambers remains one of
Australia's most compelling musical artists.  Bernard
Fanning. Since the late
1980s, Bernard Fanning has served as the lead vocalist for the Australian rock outfit Powderfinger (named after a song from Neil
Young's Rust Never Sleeps album). In 2005, Fanning
released his solo debut album entitled Tea & Sympathy.
The release scored a couple of hit singles in Australia with
"Wish You Well" and "Songbird."
The album was recently released in the U.S. and has generated
comparisons to Ryan Adams. Fanning acknowledges Americana
influences such as Neil Young, Gillian Welch, and even the O
Brother soundtrack. In a year full of great Americana
releases, Fanning's Tea & Sympathy is an unexpected
treat and another testament to the great roots music emanating
from Down Under.
 The
Waifs. In 1992, sisters
Vicki and Donna Simpson added Josh Cunningham to their group
- then known as Colours. They shortly changed their name to The
Waifs and relocated to Melbourne. A series of albums followed
which led to numerous appearances at folk and roots music
festivals throughout North America. U.S. music television channels
GAC and CMT also picked up the video for the band's recent single
"Bridal Train." The exposure has attracted both
fans and critical acclaim. 2005's A Brief History . . .
[Live] is an amazing live CD which captures the band
performing almost every notable song from their rapidly expanding
catalog of songs. Like many of the other Australian roots artists
discussed here, The Waifs have tremendous crossover potential with
the ability to attract fans from a variety of musical genres.
 The
Greencards. On several
occasions we have sung the praises of the Greencards. Even though
fiddler Eamon McLoughlin hails from the UK, mandolin player Kim
Warner and bassist Carol Young are Australian - which is good
enough to qualify the band for consideration here. Though more
bluegrass-oriented than some of its Australiana contemporaries,
the Greencards' success in the US market is exemplified by the
band's receipt of the New/Emerging Artist of the Year Award at the
2006 Americana Honors and Awards show. (Click
here for more on the Greencards.)
 Audrey
Auld Mezera. Tasmanian
native - and current California resident - Audrey Auld Mezera is
quickly emerging as one of Australia's leading roots-country
exports. Her initial recordings featured Kasey Chambers' father,
Bill, as her collaborator and musical partner. In 2004, Mezera
released her first studio album recorded entirely in the U.S.
entitled Texas. The album received an ARIA nomination for
Best Country Album in 2005. (Keith Urban won the award.) In 2006,
Mezera won the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest in the Country
category at the annual Merlefest Americana festival in Wilkesboro,
N.C.
 Leanne
Douglas. Leanne Douglas has
caught our attention as a wonderful guitar player with an approach
that mixes a variety of musical styles ranging from surf guitar to
straight-forward country music. Douglas moved to Nashville in the
1980s where she toured and released an instrumental solo album.
Douglas recently moved back to Australia and released two new
albums recorded in Nashville prior to her return. Under
The Covers is a collection of country songs re-recorded by
Douglas. Meanwhile, My Yellow Guitar is an
instrumental CD featuring Douglas' Shadows-influenced guitar
stylings.
(October
15, 2006)
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AMERICANA
NEWS 2006
Americana Music Awards The fifth annual Americana
Honors & Awards show was held on September 22 at the historic
Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The show honors the previous year's
top Americana artists and releases (at least according to the
Americana Music Association). This
year's biggest winner was singer-songwriter James McMurtry who
received the awards for Album of the Year for Childish Things
and Song of the Year for "We Can't Make It Here." The
Artist of the Year Award was given to Neil Young who released the
country-influenced Prairie Wind in 2005 and the
politically-charged Living With War in 2006. The Duo/Group
of the Year Award went to Alabama alt-country band Drive-By
Truckers. The New/Emerging Artist of the Year Award was given to
the Greencards. Neither Young, the Drive-By Truckers, nor
the Greencards were present to receive their respective awards. Several
Lifetime Achievement Awards were also handed out at the
event. Vince Gill presented Rodney Crowell with a Lifetime
Achievement Award for songwriting. Guitarist Kenny Vaughan
received both a Lifetime Achievement Award and Instrumentalist of
the Year Award. Additional Lifetime Achievement Awards for
performing and producer/engineer were given to Alejandro Escovedo
and Allen Toussaint, respectively. Elvis Costello joined Allen
Toussaint to perform "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get
Further?" from their latest collaboration The River in
Reverse. As
in previous years, the awards show was hosted by singer-songwriter
Jim Lauderdale and the house band was led by Buddy Miller. For
a complete list of this year's winners, check out the Americana
Music Association's Award's History page. (October
14, 2006)
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