Decades Old Recordings Discovered In Pennsylvania Barn

Brody Vercher | March 23rd, 2009 Email Share

Last year, truckloads of tapes were pulled from a barn in Pennsylvania. On the tapes were thousands of unreleased live recordings by Ken Alexander, who traveled to concerts setting up sound systems for venues. The recordings were made at high schools, dances, fairs, festivals, and auditoriums and include performances from George Jones, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams Jr., Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Tammy Wynette, Buck Owens, Charley Pride, and other icons. The Boston Globe correspondent Tristram Lozaw has the full story as well as future plans for the recordings.
When Justin Townes Earle performed the autobiographical “My Mama’s Eyes” at Antone’s on Thursday night, Austin Music Source’s John T. Davis says “it was one of those moments when the proverbial pin dead-solid dropped.” (listen on MySpace)
Davis also covered Saturday’s show with Jimmy Webb and the Webb Brothers at SXSW. It was the first time the hit songwriter performed with his four sons, who mainly backed their dad on standards like “Galveston,” “The Highwayman” and “Wichita Lineman.”
Watch Garth Brook’s performance of “Rodeo” from last week’s Tonight Show, which also featured Obama. I don’t think anyone could have been happier than the guy on acoustic guitar behind Brooks — the dude has a perma-grin.
In other Garth Brooks news, the semi-retired superstar has a new 352-page autobiography coming out on May 28. The Garth Factor: The Career Behind Country’s Big Boom is written by Patsi Bale Cox, who has co-authored Wynonna Judd, Tanya Tucker, and Loretta Lynn autobiographies.
Eric Church loathes Dancing With the Stars, but reveals he has a couple of Britney Spears songs on his iPod in a Q&A with Gayle Richardson for The Boot.
Alex Hannaford published a few choice quotes from the Slaughtering Sacred Cows panel at SXSW. The panels’ moderator, Dave Marsh, believes the music press today has become much more a part of the music industry process and Jason Gross, founder of the long-time online magazine Perfect Sound Forever, says music journalists won’t come close and can’t compete with blogs and bulletin boards. On the other hand, The Austin Chronicle’s Michael Bertin attended the Bloggers Are Now in Charge panel and concluded that blogs are simply aggregators of information for the lazy, another source of info, and a filter to save you from sifting through the crap.
Shooter Jennings compiled a list of his favorite songs and albums for CMT. He’ll also be featured with Jamey Johnson in an episode of CMT Crossroads tonight.
The Houston Chronicle’s Joey Guerra on Taylor Swift after witnessing Friday night’s RodeoHouston performance:

It was after so many days of established rodeo acts, a jolt of electric youth. She was alternately sassy and demure, working the stage like a seasoned pro. And her voice has gotten stronger and more commanding.

Unfortunately, Brooks & Dunn’s Saturday night show was predictable and uninspired.
The blogger for Lonesome Music posted a few song samples from A Tribute to Utah Phillips: Singing Through the Hard Times.
Ben Nichols performed tracks from Last Pale Light in the West — his new solo EP based on characters from Cormac McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian — honored Lucero requests and even debuted new material at his Friday night set for SXSW.
My Kind of Country’s J.R. Journey recommends Terri Clark’s “Nashville Girls,” a novelty number she recorded with Reba McEntire, Sara Evans and Martina McBride that was scheduled to be released last year.
John Rich says something that Country California’s C.M. Wilcox thought he’d never say in this week’s “Quotable Country.”
CMT has behind-the-scenes video from the set of John Rich’s filming for “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” with a couple of clips of Mickey Rourke and Kris Kristofferson. Talking about the success of the song and his career with The Tennessean’s Cindy Watts, Rich said, “People want to do what I’m doing. They want to climb off a helicopter in a fur coat with a cocktail having a blast.”
Country Universe’s Kevin J. Coyne listed ten songs from throughout Aaron Tippin’s career that he considers required listening.
Dolly Parton ranked 10th in a survey of the most powerful people in Tennessee by the Nashville-based business publication BusinessTN.
She recently talked to CMT Insider about the video shoot for “Backwoods Barbie” (which you can watch on YouTube) and the Cracker Barrel re-release of the album Backwoods Barbie.
One of the better lineups at this year’s SXSW was hosted by the Music Fog blog in the backroom at Threadgill’s, but even more impressive was their setup which allowed them to get videos online almost as soon as they were shot. Check out two of those videos: Ray Wylie Hubbard performing “Down Home Country Blues” and Ben Kweller, who only played one set during SXSW, on “Wantin’ Her Again.”
Three days until the New American Voices tour officially kicks off at Adair’s Saloon in Dallas, TX. Since Drew Kennedy and Rodney Hayden will be spending a lot of time traveling for the tour, let them know what attractions they should check out (especially those of you on the East Coast). They’ll be updating the site from the road with blog posts, twitters and videos, so maybe one of your suggestions will pop up in a story.

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8 Comments

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Drew
March 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm Permalink

Wow, wouldn’t that be awesome if they released those recordings sometime in the near future… here’s to hoping.
Barry M
March 23, 2009 at 4:03 pm Permalink

When Justin performed “My Mother’s Eyes” in Nashville week before last, with his mother on hand, sitting near the stage at The Basement, misty-eyed, that, I betchya, was even more poignant.
Leeann Ward
March 23, 2009 at 4:18 pm Permalink

I love that JTE song.
Kevin J. Coyne
March 23, 2009 at 4:39 pm Permalink

Thanks for the shout-out. It’s always appreciated!
Rick
March 23, 2009 at 5:44 pm Permalink

Kevin’s list includes my two favorite Aaron Tippin songs “My Blue Angel” (great yodeling) and “Ain’t Nothing Wrong With The Radio”. The other song I would have selected off the “Read Between The Lines” album is “I Miss Misbehavin’” as that song just smokes. Aaron sang “…Radio” on his most recent Opry appearance and it was great to hear it live.

I sorta feel about Eric Church’s music the way he does towards Dancing With The Stars. At least DWTS redeems itself with pretty girls in skimpy outfits (like Sara Evans in her cowgirl get up). The only thing that surprises me about the Britney Spears songs on his iPod is that there are so few of them.

It sounds like Joey Guerra has fallen under the spell of Taylor Swift! Or maybe he just doesn’t want to feel the wrath of Houston’s ‘tween screamers…
Stormy
March 23, 2009 at 7:25 pm Permalink

I have finally figured out John Rich–He is secretly Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Gregg Geil
March 23, 2009 at 9:12 pm Permalink

I was at the Antone’s show with Justin Townes Earle last week. It literally was quite an surreal moment when he rolled into Mama’s Eyes. At that moment, we were all a part of JTE’s life for a brief second. It was pretty amazing and quite indescribable.
Brady Vercher
March 23, 2009 at 9:24 pm Permalink

I first heard “My Mama’s Eyes” back in December ‘08 at the Cactus Cafe. It was Justin’s first time to play the venue, which Townes always used to play and a picture of him still hangs beside the stage. It was the perfect venue for the song. JTE said he knew it was a little lopsided before playing, so while it seems touching, it comes across as equally harsh towards his father.

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Ben Kweller // Ben Nichols // Buck Owens // Charley Pride // Dolly Parton // Drew Kennedy // Eric Church // Garth Brooks // George Jones // Hank Williams // Hank Williams Jr. // Jamey Johnson // Jimmy Webb // John Rich // Johnny Cash // Justin Townes Earle // Kris Kristofferson // Loretta Lynn // Lucero // Martina McBride // New American Voices // Ray Wylie Hubbard // Reba McEntire // Rodney Hayden // Roy Acuff // Sara Evans // Shooter Jennings // SXSW // Tammy Wynette // Tanya Tucker // Taylor Swift // Terri Clark // Wynonna // Wynonna Judd

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Decades Old Recordings Discovered In Pennsylvania Barn

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