At 81 And With Two Albums Due This Year, Charlie Louvin Isn’t Slowing Down
- At 81 Charlie Louvin isn’t slowing down; he has two albums slated for later this year. The first, Steps to Heaven, will be new versions of traditional gospel songs along with two tracks from the duo he started with his brother. The second, Charlie Louvin Sings Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, is self-explanatory.
- Amber Waves of Twang’s Chip Frazier recommends the John D. Hale Band (MySpace) and Austin Collins (MySpace) for those who like Reckless Kelly’s new album, but prefer more country undertones.
- Howard T. Owens, executive producer of Nashville Star, responds to the Tennessean’s readers accusations that the competition isn’t country enough for a country music show.
Howard believes the show, which this season made the leap from USA Network to NBC, is already pretty hard-core country. “If you look at the country charts today and look at the Keith Urbans, the Carrie Underwoods, the Bon Jovis, the Sugarlands, I would argue that our show is way more country than your average country top chart.”
…
“I feel like the show in past weeks, we were either singing songs from George Jones or George Strait, I don’t know how much more country we can get. To what your readers are saying, we certainly hear that and want to be as country as possible, and going forward, we’re going to make that a big goal.”The whole thing is worth a read. Thoughts?
- NPR has live performances from Joe Ely and Joel Guzman on Mountain Stage.
- Honky-tonker Jesse Dayton is set to helm Mike Stinson’s next album and compares him to Roger Miller, calling him “the wittiest writer out there right now.” Fans of Dwight Yoakam might recognize Stinson’s work from Yoakam’s Population Me album; he wrote “Late Great Golden State.”
- Moot Davis posted the first, in what he describes as a weekly series, of video podcasts and it features a generous dosage of tongue-in-cheek humor.
- Charlie Haden, primarily known for being a Jazz bassist, is releasing a record, Ocean of Diamonds, featuring traditional country and Americana music on September 23rd. Most of the vocal duties will fall to family members (all accomplished musicians in their own right), but Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello, Dan Tyminski and Rosanne Cash make appearances as well. And if that doesn’t sound exciting enough, one of his triplet daughters, Tanya to be exact, is married to Jack Black, and he’ll be taking a turn on “Old Joe Clark.”
- In her interview with Roughstock’s Matt Bjorke, Becky Schlegel describes the music scene in Minnesota, what the internet has meant for her and names some of her favorite artists.
- Is this interview with Kenny Chesney from the September ‘96 issue of Playgirl magazine really real?! (via Country Music Is Love)
Q: Have fans ever told you that they make love while listening to one of your songs?
A: No, but it’d be cool if they did.
- Watch Kristen Kelly and Joe Churchill from the Modern Day Drifters (MySpace) perform John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery.” That song kicks so much ass.
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Austin Collins // Becky Schlegel // Charlie Haden // Charlie Louvin // Dan Tyminski // Dwight Yoakam // Jesse Dayton // Joe Ely // Joel Guzman // John D. Hale Band // John Prine // Kenny Chesney // Mike Stinson // Modern Day Drifters // Moot Davis // Nashville Star // Reckless Kelly // Ricky Skaggs // Rosanne Cash // Vince Gill
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6 Comments
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July 10, 2008 at 10:23 am Permalink
Chesney’s quote sounds like somthing Matthew McConaughey said in Dazed & Confused…
July 10, 2008 at 10:50 am Permalink
Unfortuantely for Howard the time to make Nashville Star a country show was 8 months ago. Or 8 years ago. Now is too late.
And Charlie–you got the wrong color. Jack WHITE is the one you want.
July 10, 2008 at 12:06 pm Permalink
Mike Stinson is an LA guy, so I see him out all the time, and I’ve worn out both of his records, and I’d say that discounting working legends (Willie, Billy Joe, Kris, Steve Earle) Stinson is the best working country songwriter in the world today.
I’ve heard a lot of the songs that are going to be on the next record and unless something goes horribly wrong, it’s going to be another must have record for any fan of real country music.
In my humble opinion, Mike Stinson = the guy.
http://www.myspace.com/stinsoncountry
July 10, 2008 at 12:37 pm Permalink
Definitely going to look into Mike Stinson.
That Howard T. Owens considers the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant stuff “bluegrass” says a little something a bit about his country music knowledge base. And last time I checked, Bon Jovi only had one country hit, and that was largely (maybe entirely) thanks to Jennifer Nettles.
I think the main thing this guy doesn’t seem to get, though, is that country music isn’t inherently about “farmers, pig farmers, mother[s] of five” (nor marines) – it’s about a certain approach to storytelling, a certain sound. It’s not a matter of demographics; it’s a matter of spirit, and the kind of music that arises from that spirit.
July 10, 2008 at 6:23 pm Permalink
best news all day…carrie underwood in a bathing suit
http://www.tmz.com/2008/07/10/carrie-puts-the-wood-in-under/
July 10, 2008 at 8:24 pm Permalink
Um… I didn’t know where to post this, so I’ll put it here. For sugarland fans, amazon.com’s page on love on the inside has a fairly good description of every single track, and it looks like it’s shaping up to be quite an album. I think “It Happens” is going to be my favorite track.
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