The 9513 - Country Music Blog

• Jimmy Buffet and the Zac Brown Band are booked for the next CMT Crossroads.
• Charles Kelley, one-third of Lady Antebellum, as an older brother by the name of Josh Kelley who has made a name for himself as a pop singer-songwriter. Convinced by Charles to switch formats, the elder Kelley hopes to release a soul-flavored country music debut next year. He told EW.com, “Country is where I’m going to live out the rest of my career.”
• @joenichols: “Merle Haggard sang me a song that he wanted me to record over the phone today. How cool is that?”
• Robert Earl Keen told Paste magazine what records he’s listening to and loving.
• In his most recent blog post, Tom Russell explains his affinity for Johnny Cash.
  

  How important is Johnny Cash to our culture? His face should be carved in granite next to Mount Rushmore, along with Hank Williams and Crazy Horse. He is our Black Moses. His voice defines an honesty which cuts to the heart of how human beings love and hate and hurt. That voice was not so much “beautiful,” as it was raw and truth-filled and in your face, with real poetic news that needed to be heard, swallowed, spit out and heard again.

• Owen Temple named five records that inspire him for Sounds Country. (P.S. That’s my favorite Jerry Jeff Walker record, in case you care.)
• Leave a comment about your favorite holiday snack at Country California for a chance to win a copy of Sugarland’s new holiday album, Gold and Green.
• Country Music Hall of Fame member Bill Anderson will be honored on December 12 as part of the Museum’s quarterly programming series Poets and Prophets: Legendary Country Songwriters.
• Listen to Tom Russell perform “Guadalupe” live in KUT’s studio 1A.
• Lyle Lovett relays the story behind “It’s Rock and Roll,” a song on his latest album co-written with Robert Earl Keen:
  

  “There was a theater group at A&M; I know that sounds like an oxymoron,” Lovett said, laughing again. “In 1980, they were doing a spoof play, a rock opera, and asked us for a song. That’s where ‘It’s Rock and Roll’ came from. I pitched it for that ‘Dewey Cox’ movie, but they didn’t use it. But I found the demo tape and I used it.”

• Harper Simon (MySpace), the son of Paul Simon, is a self-professed “hippie country” fan and The Columbus Dispatch describes his recently-released, self-titled debut album as “a folky, country-tinged style heavy with acoustic and slide guitars.” (via That Nashville Sound)
• An upcoming reissue of a 1978 television special titled Country’s Greatest Stars Live: Volume 1 and 2 will feature nearly seven hours of performances and behind-the-scenes footage of stars like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, and many more at the Grand Ole Opry House.
• Austin City Limits posted a video interview with Ray Benson and Willie Nelson about their collaboration earlier this year on Willie and the Wheel.
• Paste magazine’s Cory Alberston just wants a cohesive record for Christmas, unfortunately Sugarland’s Gold and Green is not it:
  

  As with Sugarland’s previous studio efforts, lead singer Jennifer Nettles suffers from a vocal identity crisis on the duo’s new holiday-themed Gold and Green. [...] Here, such shifts seem contrived, robbing Nettles of any relatable authenticity. What little sincerity the set has comes from Kristian Bush singing lead [...]

• Listen to A.A. Bondy cover the Hank Williams classic “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” live in the KUT’s studio.
• Test your country music knowledge with Chet Flippo’s brief quiz.

• Music Fog: Madison Violet – “Crying”

I’m no cardiologist, but I’ve always thought old heartaches were the worst kind, festering like some sort of flesh wound turned gangrenous. However, these artists make a good case for the sharp pain of the new heartache. You know, should you ever find yourself in a heated debate over the subject.

• 5. “Brand New Heartache” – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

  Jeff Hanna sings “I swore that the last time/I’d learned from my mistakes/But I think I’m headed for a brand new heartache.” Perhaps he should form a support group with the other artists on this list, as they all appear to have the same learning disability.

• 4. “This New Heartache” – Vince Gill

  There’s no better soundtrack to a new heartache than an old country song, says Gill on this classic sounding track from These Days. Listening while curled in the fetal position, a bottle of Evan Williams cradled against your chest is purely optional.

• 3. “Brand New Heartache” – Cherryholmes

  According to Cherryholmes patriarch Jere, banjo-pickin’ daughter Cia “never had a boyfriend or been on a date or anything,” yet was still able to write this excellent bluegrass song about being done wrong by a fella. (Link)

• 2. “I’ve Got A New Heartache” – Ray Price

  The smooth-voiced Price has a new heartache over an old sweetheart who’s back in town. The version below is a duet between Gene Pitney and George Jones, no slouches in the vocal department either.

• 1. “Brand New Heartache” – Gram Parsons

  This “Brand New Heartache,” written by husband and wife team Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (”Rocky Top,” “Sleepless Nights,”), takes the Number One spot on today’s list thanks to the magical combination of Gram and Emmylou. A new guy moves into town and your gal is three hours late for your date? And the same thing happened last time a dude moved in next door? Sounds like a brand new heartache to me.

Nobody can accuse Jerrod Niemann of false advertising: “One More Drinking Song” is exactly what its title promises, and not a scosh more. Although it’s a bit tempting to reward anything country-sounding in light of the debacle that was last Wednesday’s CMA Awards show, the truth is that if the neotrad generica represented by Niemann’s single were the only alternative, the turning of tides toward Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum might be for the best.

Thankfully, though, some artists are still recording good country songs, and good country drinking songs. The superb “An Old Friend of Mine” was a highlight of Joe Nichols’ recent album. The 9513 columnist Miss Leslie independently released “Drunk Dialer” just a few months back. Even Brady Seals’ “Been There, Drunk That” and Rodney Atkins’ “Fifteen Minutes” (both from 2009 releases) were a fair bit of fun.

Yes, good country drinking songs are still being recorded. This just doesn’t happen to be one of them, probably because it never aspires to anything more than competence. It’s template traditional country designed to go down easy, but in striving to make no negative impression, it doesn’t make much of an impression at all. The singalong tempo and Niemann’s affable baritone will have you humming while you listen, but you’ll be hard-pressed to remember any of the details minutes later. Because they don’t matter, possibly not even to Niemann himself. This isn’t a song for a lasting career; it’s just something else to sing, another track to fill an album.

Points have also been deducted for the cutesy sound effect over a not-so-racy line about getting laid and the barroom singalong at the end, both standard ingredients of this song type that appear all-too-predictably and bespeak a general lack of innovation.

In response to the song’s own question – “Hey hey hey, what’s so wrong/With one more drinking song?” – nothing, nothing at all. But if it doesn’t distinguish itself through an especially clever turn of phrase, a fresh musical take, an outstanding vocal performance, something on which to pin an identity – if it even seems to delight in its own nondescriptness – I’m left wondering why anyone would choose to listen to this particular drinking song in the first place. Especially given all the fine alternatives.

Listen: Jerrod Niemann – “One More Drinking Song”

• The 2010 George Strait tour with Reba McEntire just got a little more can’t-miss with the addition of Lee Ann Womack.
• Sugar Hill Records compiled a list of its top 50 must-have tracks from the past three decades and made them available for download through iTunes for a mere $19.99. The list includes stalwarts like Ricky Skaggs, Doc Watson, Townes Van Zandt, and newcomers like Red Stick Ramblers, Joey+Rory, and Sarah Jarosz. It’s a pretty killer lineup. (via The Bluegrass Blog)
• Big Kenny filmed his latest video in the mountains of Edmonton, Calgary with the Blackfoot Confederacy and Blood Indian tribes, who performed a headdress ceremony and gave him his blood name, Chief Mountain Boy. Watch the video for “Wake Up.”
• Having been fascinated with Merle Haggard since 1967, one fan, John Reddick, publicly confessed his feelings for Haggard’s music after reading the recent featured article in Rolling Stone.
  

  Xuan Loc (Swan Lock), South Vietnam is a crazy place to associate Merle Haggard music with, but that’s where it all started. My friend, Staff Sergeant Willie Parker, a dedicated soldier since the Korean War, was also a huge Merle Haggard fan. Willie, being a man of color, delighted in taking me into the all-black social club on the dusty “strip” in Xuan Loc. He would walk in, take off the Sam and Dave or Aretha Franklin album, whatever soul music that was on the box at the time, and put on “Swingin’ Doors, a Juke Box and a Barstool”, Merle’s latest hit song and an all-time anthem of Honky Tonk Music. Though Willie wasn’t a man of significant stature, nobody messed with him. As Merle twanged “and thanks to you I’m always here till closin’ time,” the resulting buzzkill mood in the room was evident in the growly faces being directed my way…..”Don’t look at me man, I’m with Willie.”

• Music Fog: Gabriel Kelley – “Panic”
• Gene Watson has been added to the lineup for the Rhonda Vincent Bluegrass Cruise, which departs from Fort Lauderdale, FL next February.
• CMT’s Craig Shelburne interviewed Guy Clark:
  

  I spent the weekend listening to your older albums, and I like how you use harmony singing like it’s another instrument.
  Yeah, I never did like choruses — four or five people all blending together and ooo-ing in the background. I like one voice, up there like it’s a duet. And I’ve always felt that was more effective. I like it better than big choruses.

• My Kind of Country’s Razor X imagines how country music icons Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Dolly Parton, and Reba McEntire might fare if they were just starting out in today’s musical climate.
• The CMA Awards boosted album sales for those who performed on the show, with the Zac Brown Band and Jamey Johnson benefiting the most percentage wise.
• Watch the preview for Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D.
• Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts attempts to separate the fact from the fiction with Dolly Parton:
  

  “True or false,” Roberts said. “You once lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest.”

  “True,” Parton said. “At a Halloween contest years ago on Santa Monica Boulevard where all the guys were dressed up like me and I just overexaggerated my look and went in and just walked up on stage. … I didn’t win. I didn’t even come in close, I don’t think.”

• Gloriana beat out the Zac Brown Band to represent country in the breakthrough artist category at the 2009 American Music Awards and is campaigning for support to best the remaining nominees: Lady Gaga, Keri Hilson, and Kid Cudi. (via Country Music Tattle Tale)
• WFMU posted radio spots of artists promoting the 1962 observance of National Country Music Week, which was from Nov. 4 – Nov. 10. Not only do the discs have spots from Connie Francis and the Kingston Trio alongside those of Faron Young and Chet Atkins, but they also have back to back tracks from Eddie Arnold and Eddy Arnold.
• In an interview with The Tennessean’s Peter Cooper, John Fogerty talks about the unrelenting hours he’s dedicated to practice in order to be a better musician.
  

  I practiced scales, and positions I’d never cared about when I played rock ’n’ roll. I was atrocious, horrible, but I knew it was the path. I thought it might take me a couple of years. From 1998 it took until 2009. Being 48 and knowing it might take 17 years, I don’t know if I’d have done it. But I can be in a room now with Buddy Miller and not have to go, “Aw, shucks.” I don’t have to apologize.

• Country Universe guest contributor Michael Allan counted down his 25 favorite songs by Wynonna.

• If the purpose of a movie trailer is to increase anticipation, then I do believe the trailer for Crazy Heart has done it’s job.

In the mid-‘90s, she was the rare female hat act among a sea of young studs in Stetsons. Now, Grand Ole Opry member Terri Clark is standing out once again with The Long Way Home, her first self-released disc since leaving Mercury late last year. Unable to fit onto country radio’s rigid playlists (four American singles failed to crack the top twenty since her sole #1 hit, 2004’s “Girls Lie, Too”), Clark has returned to her native Canada and explored a more-organic sound that supports some of her most candid writing. Passing up the polished songcraft south of the border, Clark exceeds expectations on this tight-knit, yet diverse set.

For the first time, it’s hat’s off: Clark’s ready to let her roots (a dark-auburn color, by the way) show on the album cover, and the contents here are just as revealing. Clark’s seventh studio album shows a newfound wisdom and focus as the singer enters her 40s with new challenges in her career and home life. Musically, the album isn’t far removed from Nashville product; it’s the weighty material that lifts it a cut above Clark’s major label albums. As the sole producer, Clark laces these ten tuneful tracks with mournful moments of fiddle and steel that echo her recent turmoil. The corny novelty of “What Happens in Vegas (Follows You Home)” is the one weak link on a disc that deliberates her major-label departure, her mother’s battle with cancer and a recent divorce; these songs ring with a pure, vulnerable heartache.

Clark’s singing is stout, cocksure and, when necessary, it shines with a poignant intimacy that adds gravity even to lighter fare such as the gently-chugging “If You Want Fire” and the groovy “Poor Girl’s Dream.”

From a girl dropping her hard-earned cash on laundry detergent (“Poor Girl’s Dream”) to an older woman at the bedside of her dying best friend (“If I Could Be You”), Clark instills her characters with the understanding and compassion that come from her own experience. The most telling ballad is “A Million Ways to Run,” with a woman recounting days “at the bottom of a bottle, getting numb with every swallow.” Perennial harmony partner Vince Gill lends his sweet tenor on the stripped-down “The One You Love,” where Clark admits “When someone’s slippin’ away right before your eyes/How useless we are is a painful surprise,” seemingly haunted by her own helplessness.

She’s still got her feisty, fearless spirit, though, steering her twangy alto towards hope and even humor when the blues arrive. That winsome wit’s most evident on first single “Gypsy Boots,” a sultry, playful midtempo that shows she’s built of restless stuff. “I’m a country song, the kind that makes you cry,” she admits to a would-be mate. After all these years, she knows those are the ones you remember long after the last note. Likewise, The Long Way Home, the album of Clark’s career, is one for the memory banks.

The new Chet Atkins tribute album is brought to you by Steve Wariner, c.g.p.

The acronym stands for “certified guitar player,” a designation given by Atkins to a select few musicians who he felt made significant contributions to the world of guitar–Wariner was one of only four to receive this honor (the others were Jerry Reed, Tommy Emmanuel, and John Knowles).

Atkins, who died in 2001, is one of music’s most important figures. He worked with Red Foley, toured with Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, released over 100 albums, influenced countless guitar pickers with his unique style, and, of course, spearheaded the Nashville Sound movement. He was also the man who signed Steve Wariner to his first recording contract at RCA in 1977 (Wariner was still a teenager when he got his start playing bass for Dottie West and Bob Luman, and was barely in his 20s when he signed with RCA) then subsequently “fired” Wariner as his bass player when Steve’s solo song “Your Memory” cracked the Top 10 a few short years later. The two men were dear friends, and this friendship/mutual admiration is tenderly displayed in the music and liner notes, which feature pictures of the two as well as the revelation that they called each other “Big Hero” and “Little Hero.”

My Tribute to Chet Atkins is generally arranged in chronological order, interspersing biographical Wariner-penned originals with songs that Atkins recorded during his six decades in the music business; the album is bookended by “Leavin’ Luttrell,” a song representing the start of Atkins’ musical career and “Silent Strings,” a moving eulogy in which Wariner pays tribute not only to his dear friend, but the guitar he left behind. As Wariner makes very clear in the liner notes, “You can’t out-Chet Chet.” He doesn’t try to, eschewing Atkins’ arguably best known singles “Yakety Axe” and “Mr. Sandman” in favor of songs that hold personal meaning, such as “(Back Home Again in) Indiana,” (recorded for the 1954 album A Session with Chet Atkins.) a song that Wariner, an Indiana boy, listened to religiously.

A highlight of the album is “Producer’s Medley,” a compilation of eight songs that Atkins produced, including “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “End of the World,” and “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot.” According to the liner notes, Atkins used to play “Producer’s Medley” on the road, but never recorded it. Here, Wariner reconstructs the medley, making it all sound incredibly effortless, as though certified guitar playing is no more difficult than a marathon session of Guitar Hero.

For the most part, My Tribute to Chet Atkins is an instrumental album, letting the masterful fingerstyle guitar work–often supported by fiddle and piano–speak for itself. However, “Chet’s Guitar” features Wariner singing his lifelong admiration of Atkins, beginning with a childhood spent listening to “the touch and the tone and the twang of Chet’s guitar” on his father’s 45s, playing dive bars as a young man, and eventually making the Opry stage, “fingers all flying up and down the frets/Playing every lick that [he] stole from Chet.”

Clocking in at approximately 35 minutes long, My Tribute to Chet Atkins, may run a little short for some listeners’ tastes, but it’s a masterful tribute to a great friend and a legendary figure in American music that simultaneously showcases Wariner’s c.g.p. skill. He doesn’t deliver a carbon copy of Chet’s musical style, but instead pays homage to the man and the artist with a sense of understated grace that makes each song a joy to hear.

Will guitar-loving kids pick along to this just like Steve Wariner did to Atkins’ records so many years ago? It wouldn’t be surprising.

• On December 3, Christie’s will hold The Country Music Sale, its first sale dedicated to the creation, history, and evolution of Country Music. The foundation of the sale consists of property from the estate of Hank Thompson, but also includes memorabilia from Roy Rogers, Hank Snow, Hank Williams, and many more classic country artists. There are 150 items in all, ranging from boots, belt buckles, and hats to the more expensive Nudie suits and instruments. Browse all the items on Christie’s website.
• Whether you’re looking to improve your songwriting or need a slice of humble pie, Guy Clark suggests reading Dylan Thomas.
• Ronnie Fauss (MySpace), who released his debut EP New Songs for the Old Frontier, Volume 1 earlier this year followed recently by a three-song release, I Can’t Make You Happy, shared his list of favorite country albums with Country California.
• Taylor Swift reached a deal with American Greetings Corp. to write and design greeting cards.
• The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 maintains that if an artist or author sold a copyright before 1978, they or their heirs can take it back 56 years later, and if the artist or author sold the copyright during or after 1978, they can terminate that grant after 35 years. That means it won’t be long until record labels start poopin’ cinder blocks — or losing valuable copyrights. Epicenter’s Eliot Van Buskirk notes that one way labels are trying to work their way around the impending loss is through re-recordings of the originals, or digital remasters, which they believe would reset the copyright claim. (via The Bluegrass Blog)
• Faith Hill and her business manager of 16 years parted ways.
• Because of personal experience, My Kind of Country’s Occasional Hope is drawn to the subject of adoption in country songs and asks if you actively search for songs of any particular topics.
• Texas artist Aaron Watson is in the process of building a Nashville team and will self-produce his next album, due out in the spring.
• A new music magazine, M Music & Musicians, will launch in January, covering everything from rock, pop and hip-hop to R&B, country, folk and jazz. The head honchos consist of former Performing Songwriter staff, including Chris Neal, who is leaving Country Weekly. Big congrats and lots of luck to him and the rest of the M crew.
• For week 23 of Nashville or Bust, Nathan Rabin covered George Strait’s early career.
  

  Before I began Nashville Or Bust, I had a vague sense that Strait was popular, but I didn’t grasp the full extent of his enormous popularity. He’s sold nearly 60 million albums, making him the 10th best-selling American artist in history. From the comments in this column, it seems like Strait is the Exception that proves the rule that contemporary mainstream country sucks. He’s the mainstream, incredibly popular country act that even people who don’t like mainstream country enjoy. He’s like the Garth Brooks it’s okay to like.

• Twangville is giving away four copies of the new Wrinkle Neck Mules album Let the Lead Fly.
• Maxim listed the hottest women of country music, but GAC’s Jason Mease feels the list could have been improved with the addition of a few more women.
• Stephen Deusner on the new Carrie Underwood album:
  

  Carrie Underwood’s new album isn’t meant for iPods or headphones—or, for that matter, for individuals. It’s a more public record than a private or personal one, sometimes for better but usually for worse.

• On a slightly belated note, The 9513 hit the three year mark three days ago and continues to grow daily, so thanks to everyone who reads, comments, and tells their friends about us. And a special thanks to all our writers who hit their one year marks with The 9513 in the past month: C.M. (Oct. 22), Karlie (Nov. 10), Pierce (Nov. 14), and Juli (Nov. 18).

After having the song “Angels In Waiting” land in the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart back in 2001, Tammy Cochran could easily be included as one of the many in Nashville who have used tragedy and heartbreak as the motivation for a hit song. Describing her experience watching her two older brothers, Shawn and Alan, live and eventually pass on from Cystic Fibrosis, the track was a personal and strangely inspirational snapshot of Cochran’s life. It would be one of six songs that Cochran would place on the charts between 2000 and 2002.

Fast forward seven years: With her brand new album 30 Something And Single, Cochran has again used a difficult story in her life–albeit this one with a happier ending–as inspiration in her songwriting. Several of the years between her hit singles and this new album were spent in a tumultuous and grueling adoption process that eventually ended up with the arrest and conviction of a Florida-based adoption facilitator who was assigned to handle Tammy’s case.

“I was just one of several victims of this facilitator. Unknown to me, she used an attorney that was banned by the U.S. Embassy. I sent my money to who I thought was a lawyer. Instead, it ended up being the housekeeper of the lawyer.” In an effort to contain the situation, Tammy recalls, “Just weeks away from bringing Shawn home, I was threatened that my adoption would stop if I went public with my story.”

Cochran never gave up and after a second push for adoption, she brought home a healthy baby boy. What resulted is a tune called “Half The World Away (Shawn’s Song),” a story written during the time in which she wasn’t sure that her adoption would ever go through.

She has written all but one of the songs on the new album and has included many additional stories drawn directly from her life. The one exception is her favorite classic, Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man.” It takes her back to childhood when she and her brothers would sit around the record player listening to her parents play old country records. Now she plays the same music for her own son, named after those same brothers. It’s comforting to know that music remains the ties that bind for families like the Cochrans.

KEN MORTON, JR.: Before we touch upon the new album, tell me all about your high school band TC Country. Was that “big time” back in the day?

TAMMY COCHRAN: (Laughing) Oh boy. That was a band that did bars, Elks clubs, local fairs and stuff like that. It was a just your basic run-of-the-mill country band that would play anything that was on the charts at the time. It was fun, though!

KMJ: Let’s jump ahead to the brand new album. How would you describe 30 Something and Single?

TC: I describe it as something that is who I am and shows all aspects of my personality. It has some serious songs and some songs that are funny and tongue in cheek–which I haven’t been able to do thus far in my career. I’m really excited about folks hearing this side of me–the side that can make light of situations and look at things more fun.

KMJ: Who or what were some of your influences on this album’s sound?

TC: Greg Cole produced the project for me and I’ve known Greg for years. He’s done a ton of great work. He’s worked on projects for Darryl Singletary and a bunch of different acts. I met Greg when I first came to town and he knew my style and how I wanted this album to sound. So we sat down and talked about it making an amazing album of songs that are totally me. I wanted songs that were a sound that would represent me, production that would represent me. I wanted bouncy fun songs and serious songs, all that are pretty country. There’s a couple songs that are more on the contemporary country side, but for the most part, they’re all on the other side. A song like “30 Something And Single” is a traditional country ballad.

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• Jack White is scheduled to produce a forthcoming album for Wanda Jackson.
• Trace Adkins is the new celebrity spokesperson for BC Headache Powder. The only other country artist the company has worked with in its 100-year history is Faron Young.
• The title track to Jerry Lee Lewis‘ recent EP release, Mean Old Man, was written by Kris Kristofferson, but it’s not the first time the two have collaborated.
  

  He and Shel Silverstein wrote ‘Once More with Feeling,’ a hit for Jerry Lee in the early ’70s. “I remember Shel and I sat with Jerry Lee over in [producer] Jerry Kennedy’s office, and he played our song over and over, maybe 30 times,” Kris recalled. “Shel leaned over to me and said ‘Can you believe this,’ and Jerry Lee stopped the tape. He looked at Shel and said, ‘Killer if you want to talk, go outside.’

• New releases for the week of November 17, 2009 include:

  • Bucky Covington – Live From Rockingham (EP)
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

  • David Grier – Evocative
    Amazon | Artist Website

  • Joe Diffie – Live at Billy Bob’s Texas
    Amazon | iTunes | MySpace

• Twang Nation hates on the CMA Awards.
• For her first single, newcomer Margaret Durante covered the song “Use Somebody” from some band called Kings of Leon. Watch the video at CMT.
• Music Row’s David M. Ross asks, “Is Taylor the new Garth?”
• Ninebullets.net recommends Works Progress Administration, the band whose core consists of Glen Phillips, Sean Watkins, and Luke Bulla.
• Watch Carrie Underwood perform “Temporary Home” live from the CMT show Invitation Only.
• John Prine commented on the state of country music in a Q&A with The Arizona Republic:
  

  My dad was a country music fan. I’d sit with him in the kitchen and listen to Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams on the radio. Country music today feels like I’m sitting with my therapist. It has nothing to do with getting drunk.

  Click through to read Prine’s story about being an uncredited writer on “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” (via Country California)

• Visit Country California for an especially good edition of Quotable Country.
• Tommy Cash is not Johnny, it’s a fact that he’s well aware of, but that doesn’t keep him from feeling proud of the career he’s had and what he does for a living.
• Joe Nichols on recording Old Things New, his first album since rehab:
  

  “There were moments when I thought, ‘I’ve lost it, and I might not be coming back from this,’” he said. “I’ve heard of people having a mental breakdown and not being able to sing anymore, and I thought I was on the verge of that. I wasn’t sounding anything like I wanted, or feeling anything like where I wanted to be. I knew it didn’t feel right, and I wasn’t doing it like before, and I had to take baby steps and re-learn how to sing. Even the tiny, simple things I started doing way back when — things that should be easy — were hard. And it scared me. I was climbing up hill, and every step was harder. ”

• A Tale of Two Records: Dierks Bentley plans to release two new albums in 2010; one bluegrass and the other country.
• All Songs Considered’s list of the decade’s 50 most important recordings includes Brad Paisley’s song “Ticks,” the Harry McClintock version of “Big Rock Candy Mountain” from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, and the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss song “Please Read the Letter.”

• Verlon Thompson might be best known as Guy Clark’s sideman, but he’s also a damn fine, albeit unsung songwriter. Listen to his song “Caddo County” at Alt-512 Music Musings.

  And because one can never get enough Verlon Thomson:

At some level, it has always been about the road for Timothy B. Schmit. Before travelling uncountable highway miles playing bass in the country-rock band Poco for nearly a decade, and before charting courses around the world as a member of The Eagles, it was about chasing the song on tires. For this Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, music and home were one as a child in a trailer on wheels.

Close to 50 years after its purchase, Schmit has gotten reflective about the Expando double-wide mobile home trailer that his family upgraded to after his musician father settled down working at a club in Sacramento. After chasing the next gig with his family in tow, Schmit’s father finally put down roots when Timothy was roughly a tween. The brand new shiny trailer with the pop-out sides, nearly twice as big as their old home, was the place where Schmit was raised and bitten by the music bug.

Now, a worn classic advertisement for that trailer is blown up large and is mounted on the wall of Schmit’s studio–partly for inspiration, but also partly for reminding him of his roots and exactly where he came from. Expando is also the title for his latest solo album, released this past month on Lost Highway records.

The 9513 had an opportunity to sit down with the legend and talk trailers and tracks.

KEN MORTON, JR.: Let’s open up by looking back a bit. You got your start in music playing in a band called Tim, Tom & Ron in our hometown of Sacramento at Encina High School. Is that what brought you to music in the first place or was it before?

TIMOTHY B. SCHMIT: It was before. My father was a musician, that’s what he did for his livelihood. From before I was born, he played the club scene and did standards of the day. They were a trio and did a little comedy. He was gone for the first part of my life a lot until I was about five years old. Then, about that time, my parents sold our house down in the Bay Area and moved into a trailer house. He pulled us around from town to town to wherever he was playing. He was probably my first real musical influence. From there, I started playing various instruments in early school. I sang in the chorus at school. I always took to the music thing.

KMJ: What kind of music was your dad playing in those days?

TBS: He was pretty active through the 50s and early 60s actually, in the club scene. The club scene back in the 30s, 40s and 50s was a lot of supper clubs. They would host a group for a week at a time. He was one of those groups that they would hire. It was really standards of the day. It was pre rock and roll actually. It was whatever was popular on the radio at the time. They weren’t songwriters, they’d just interpret the songs.

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