Brody Vercher | August 14th, 2008 Email Share
- Jamey Johnson is joining Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews for the Farm Aid music festival in New England on Sept. 20. Maybe this will end up being the first step towards a Jamey Johnson and Willie Nelson studio collaboration. Or maybe I’ll just keep on dreaming my dreams.
- Keeping with the Jamey Johnson theme, Chris Neal has a short Q&A with the new age outlaw in Nashville Scene:
Did you have any hesitation about sharing all that darkness with the people who are going to hear the album?
You always do. Believe it or not, I’m a pretty private guy. I don’t really welcome that many people into my direct situation. But when you go to write a song, you owe it to your listener to give them complete honesty, to tell them the full story in a way they can hear it, understand it and apply it to their life. If you can’t do that, it’s like peeing in your pants: You might get a warm feeling, but nobody else really cares to know. [Laughs.] I’m putting one out there to the guy or girl sitting at the end of the bar who doesn’t understand the feeling they’ve got going on because somebody left ‘em. I want to let those people know it’s going to be all right. Hell, I’m laughing about it already.
- Ralph Emery will serve as a special guest emcee for the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony on Aug. 16 in Carthage, TX. The inductees are Buck Owens, Mickey Newbury and The Whites.
- Peter Cooper lists a few of the artifacts to you can look forward to if you plan on visiting the humble, yet informative Kitty Wells exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
- Edd Hurt has his own piece on the Kitty Wells exhibit, but focuses more on telling her story chronologically.
- If you missed the May release of The Wager, a movie starring Randy Travis in the leading role, fret not, Real Country Radio has a review and links to a press release and the movie trailer so you can get a feel for Travis’ acting chops.
- Lost Highway Records will release the new Lucinda Williams album, Little Honey, on Oct. 14.
- Lyle Lovett took the audience on a two-and-a-half hour tour through his 20-year catalog on Tuesday night at Austin’s Long Center. John T. Davs says this year’s edition of the Large Band was typically top-heavy with talented veterans, including mandolin maestro Sam Bush, George Strait’s fiddler Gene Elders and A-list session drummer Russ Kunkel.
- Watch the new video for John Michael Montgomery’s “If You Ever Went Away.”
- The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum may be forced to pony up $1.5 million if it wants to keep a mandolin owned by Bill Monroe, Mother Maybelle’s guitar and two other guitars owned by Johnny Cash. The instruments were donated to the museum by the late Robert W. McLean, who used investors’ money from a Ponzi scheme he was operating to purchase the instruments. When he took his life last September, he owed the investors more than $63 million. (via The Bluegrass Blog)
- Check out the new song, “Too Hard To Say,” from Danielle Peck on her MySpace.
- Although Patsy Cline is one of the most celebrated country singers in history, Craig Shelburne says you’d be hard pressed to find much in her hometown of Winchester, Va. that honors her. But a not-for-profit organization called Celebrating Patsy Cline is trying to change that.
- Listen to Suzy Bogguss on Mountain Stage via NPR.
- Ray Waddell describes the new Waylon Jennings/Shooter Jennings collaboration album titled Waylon Forever:
The album features relatively faithful, if edgier, renditions of Jennings standards like Neil Young’s “Are You Ready for the Country,” Rodney Crowell’s “Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This,” and Jennings’ own “Waymore’s Blues”; a stirring ballad reworking of “Outlaw Sh*t” (previously released as “Don’t You Think This Outlaw Bit’s Done Got Out of Hand”), a cover of Cream’s “White Room,” as well as the never-released, Waylon-penned “I Found the Body.”
- Nashville Star winner Melissa Lawson has a date with the Grand Ole Opry on Aug. 16.
- If you’ve started planning next year’s vacation and need help deciding on a destination, check out the Grand Ole Opry Classic Country Cruise. Opry stars Mel Tillis, John Conlee and Jeannie Seely along with T.G. Sheppard and Mandy Barnett will provide entertainment, answer questions and share stories.
- Here’s the video for Kenny Chesney’s “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven,” featuring Bob Marley’s band, The Wailers.
- People.com has the first public photo from Jewel’s wedding. Ty Murray proposed to the singer on her birthday back in May and kept it a secret from everyone, including family, until after they eloped. Murray says the couple has already begun work on starting a family.
- Linda from Still Is Still Moving posted the story behind Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s recording of the Townes Van Zandt penned “Pancho and Lefty.” According to Joe Nick Patoski’s biography, Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, Willie stirred Merle from sleep at four in the morning.
Merle shuffled into the studio, bleary-eyed and more than a little spaced-out. Willie handed him the lyrics he’d scribbled on a brown paper bag. Merle ran through the vocals with Willie as they both got a feel for the song about a Mexican bandit and his inscrutable friend, both of them living outside the law. The tape rolled. Merle nailed his vocal in one take and went back to his bus to sleep. The next morning, he found Willie on the golf course and asked if he could do another vocal of the song they’d recorded a few hours earlier.
Willie laughed and shook his head. “Hell, the tapes’ already on the way to New York.”
- A recent Rodney Hayden newsletter says you can still pick up advance copies of his new album, 12 Ounce World, on his website or at a show, but they’ll be running out soon. After that, you’ll have to wait until the first week in November when it’s released by Smith Music Group.
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August 14, 2008 at 11:33 am Permalink
Here’s hoping Lucinda’s new album is better than her last one!
August 14, 2008 at 12:03 pm Permalink
Kenny’s showing scalp.
Also, here’s a pertinent quote from the Wikipedia entry on The Jerk:
“He is the adopted white son of black sharecroppers, who grows to adulthood naively unaware of his obvious adoption. He stands out in his family not just because of his skin color, but also because of his lack of rhythm.”
August 14, 2008 at 2:40 pm Permalink
I could see a Jamey Johnson and Willie Nelson collaboration. Hell, after Julio, Kenny and Maria I could see Willie duet with anyone..
I would love to hear Johnson taking up the Waylon part of “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)”
August 14, 2008 at 4:56 pm Permalink
Regarding the comment about Jewel’s marriage to Ty Murray: “Murray says the couple has already begun work on starting a family.” Ty knows he better hurry up since now that its “married sex” he knows Jewel will lose interest quickly…….(PS – They’ve had 10 years of practice, so making a baby shouldn’t be too difficult).
Based upon the artists booked for the Opry Cruise, I’d expect a median participant age somewhere between 75 and dead….(although Mandy Barnett will at least make the old men’s hearts pitter patter a bit, so they better remember to bring the nitroglycerin pills.)
I love Danielle Peck and its a shame her singing voice isn’t more pleasant to listen to….
As for Melissa Lawson on the Opry, its strange this week because the TV broadcast segments (when they record them) are usually the Opry segment from 7-8 PM Nashville time (CST). Since Pacific Standard Time (PST) out here in California is 2 hours earlier I can watch GAC’s live broadcast or listen live online via WSM starting at 5 PM PST. The Opry.com website shows Melissa in the segment from 8-9 PM Nashville Time which delays everything by an hour. Should be interesting as Guy Clark is on the docket as well for all you Texans (along with Vince Gill and The Grascals). See for yourself:
http://www.opry.com/TicketsAndInformation/ThisWeek.aspx
August 14, 2008 at 4:57 pm Permalink
“Murray says the couple has already begun work on starting a family.”
Pretty suave way to tell people “I sure am having sex with Jewel a lot.”
August 14, 2008 at 7:40 pm Permalink
I’ve heard of screamers… but do you think Jewel is a yodeler?
August 14, 2008 at 8:24 pm Permalink
Funny you should mention that Zach as my favorite cowboy singer Dave Stamey wrote a song about a girl who does just that and I’m hoping it will be on his next album……
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