SoCal Bluegrass hits the number one spot on the Top Ten Songs of the Week for Saturday, August 19, 2017 with Big Bad Rooster singing about southern states on a track from their self-titled release. Chris Blevins weighs in the political climate, Ray Wylie Hubbard wears the skin of “Old Wolf”, Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer read from “The List”, and Rick Estrin and the Nightcats ease your worried mind, assuring that “The Blues Ain’t Going Nowhere”. The ...
Old Crow Medicine Show (from the album 50 Years ...
The Dustbowl Revival (from the album The Dustbowl Revival available on Signature Sound Recordings)
The sound of The Dustbowl Revival stretches out on the recent self-titled album from Venice, California-based musical collective. The eight-piece band reworked Preservation Hall-style Dixieland jazz into an eclectic blend of Roots as a soundtrack for back yard parties on their previous release, With a Lampshade On. Non-stop touring in support of the release provides The Dustbowl Revival with a m...
Banditos (from the album Visionland on Bloodshot Records)
The real-life backdrop for Visionland, the recent release from Banditos, is the now-defunct $60 million theme park built in the late 1990’s in Bessemer, Alabama, near the childhood homes of several Banditos band members. The title track materializes slowly as the audio volume increases dual vocals speak their tale over psychedelic-dosed melodies and roller coaster rhythms. The tune sets a theme for Visionland as the Israel Nash/T...
Pokey LaFarge (from the album Manic Revelations on New Rounder Records)
If insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results, Pokey LaFarge is the sanest man on earth. He sees what is not working and can clearly visualize the prize so that when his feet hit the floor for each new step towards a goal, a different path will be taken. Pokey LaFarge is looking for ‘a good woman and family of your own’ and he is willing to make changes when the harmony prods him along a...
Created by founder and engineer David Royer, Mojave Audio is proud of their microphones. The president of Mojave Audio, Dusty Wakeman, asked Anne McCue to using only two M-50 microphones from the company for recording a tune. Anne did a cover of The Beatles “Fixing a Hole” and a DIY video guide to the creation of the song.
Steve Earle met friend and mentor Guy Clark when he moved to Nashville, Tennessee at age nineteen. Guy’s influence on Steve still resonates in his songs, and his loss still hurts like hell. Steve Earle and the Dukes tribute Guy Clark with the song “Goodbye Michelangelo” from So You Wanna Be an Outlaw.
Los Angeles, California-based Roots musician, Ruby Force, headed out to Santa Ana, entering Pheasant Studios to continue her series with a third session. Performing a track from her recently released album, Evolutionary War, Ruby Force performs a video for “Ode to Vic Chesnutt”.
The Mastersons (from the album Transient Lullaby available on Red House Records)
When The Mastersons offer the title track from their recent release you can be assured that the band know about the song from the inside with “Transient Lullaby” singing the pair to sleep each night once the crackle of the amplifiers subside. The husband and wife team of Chris Masterson (guitar, vocals) and Eleanor Whitmore (fiddle, guitar, vocals) are on their third release as The Mastersons while th...
The Harmed Brothers (from the album The Harmed Brothers available on Fluff and Gravy Records)
Over the course of their career, The Harmed Brothers have evolved from a duo of singer/songwriters into a band, staying on the road to let their songs enjoy the same transformations as they unfold in same the manner as the group. On their recent self-titled release, The Harmed Brothers blend new songs with older tracks that have followed them around through the dive bars and makeshift stages that hav...
Shannon McNally (from the album Black Irish)
Shannon McNally credits an e-mail connection with Rodney Crowell while Shannon was off the musical grid helping out an ailing family member. Shannon recalls that “I had no vim or vigor for a few years. We started this really wonderful thing of just lobbing song titles back and forth’. The results of the conversations is Black Irish, the recent release from Shannon McNally. Rodney Crowell produced the album, penning the album opener, &ld...
Goldrush (from the E.P. Reach High)
In 1974, Goldrush were a long-haired Country Rock Bluegrass band. Goldrush added electric guitars to the instrumentation, along the lines of peers such as The Dillards, post-Byrds Gene Clark, and The Flying Burrito Brothers. The songs Reach High match their peers with the five members (Bob Lucas, Brian Lappin, Nell Levin, John Orie Stith and Tim Duran), pushing the envelope of string band and country music. For many years, the recording session for Reach Hi...
Red Hot (from the album Red Hot, A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records)
Sun Records, and the man that made the label’s name, Sam Philips, are tributed and honored on the recent release, Red Hot, A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records. Luther Dickinson co-produced the album alongside Tamara Saviano, with all proceeds from the Americana Music Society release benefitting St. Jude’s Children Research Center. Luther and his guitar, along with brother and fellow North Mississippi Allstars ...
Tony Joe White (from the album Rain Crow on Yep Roc Records) - On his nineteenth album release, Rain Crow, Tony Joe White stays to the swamps that have been the home for his music over the past few decades. If Rain Crow differs, it is from the mood that Tony Joe instills within the songs. Swamp lore spins its stories, and gives the tales hope within the deep swamp light that never brightens or dims. Produced by his son, Jody White, the album summons the past and its characters as a welcoming w...
Top Ten Reasons We Love Gregg Allman (12-8-47 to 05-27-17)
Born in Nashville, Tennessee on December 8, 1947, Gregg LeNoir Allman will be forever linked to the group he co-founded along with his brother, Duane, and other players as The Allman Brothers Band. Gregg and Duane Allman heard music calling them while in their teens, forming The Allman Joys in mid-1960’s Florida before relocating to Los Angeles, California in 1967 and forming the band Hour Glass. After two album releases on Libe...
In her recent Grammy winning album, The River and The Thread, Rosanne Cash points out that ‘there’s a million shades of Modern Blue’. We agree. The Blues is a genre that is in constant motion. Blues artists are creating a future for Blues that takes cues from the past in both playing and production of music. Artists are making their own instruments, blending Blues with Country, Folk, and Soul, taking the sound of albums back to analog recording days, mixing Rhythm with their ...
In her most recent Grammy winning album, The River and The Thread, Rosanne Cash points out that ‘there’s a million shades of Modern Blue’. We agree. The Blues is a genre that is in motion. Blues artists are creating a future for Blues that takes cues from the past in both playing and production of music. Artists are making their own instruments, blending Blues with Country, Folk, and Soul, taking the sound off albums to analog recording days, mixing Rhythm with their Blues. I...
