Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer Perform Toegther; Country Stars Land Roles in New Civil War Mini-Series; Free Rodney Crowell
- Up until this past fall, sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer have kept their musical lives separate. Recently though, they’ve performed several intimate shows together as part of what they’ve dubbed their Side By Side tour. NPR is streaming a collection of songs that they performed live in Studio 4A, including the song they open each show with and used to title the tour.
- Dwight Yoakam, Laura Bell Bundy, Kix Brooks and members of Rascal Flatts all have roles in an upcoming HBO mini-series about the Civil War.
- Alan Jackson on sharing business advice with younger artists:
I don’t talk to a lot of them. But just recently, when Zac Brown and I were talking, he’s kind of the same way. I don’t really understand, but he’s on a label that’s two different companies and they’re trying to figure out how to do things on the Internet. I could hear things in his voice that I heard when I was a young artist, saying, “They’re not doing this.” Just the same frustrations that you have as an artist. I think a lot of labels are probably hurting for money. When I came along, they were a little more free with their money — promoting you and marketing you and spending on videos.
- Kristian Bush‘s last-minute holiday gift guide. (via Country Music Tattle Tale)
- The Boot: Country Christmas Songs: Top 10 Tunes to Get You in the Spirit
- Here’s video of Keith Urban performing “I’m In” at the Grand Ole Opry.
- Among the things keeping Amber Digby busy these days is an increased co-writing schedule. HoustonPress’ William Michael Smith says she’s written with Dani Flowers, Dale Dodson, Odie Blackmon, and Eddie Perez lately, and will even have a co-write with Vince Gill on his next album on a song titled “One More Thing I Wish I’d Said.” With all of Digby’s hard work, Heart of Texas Records head honcho Tracy Pitcox sees big things in her future:
“I see Amber as being a lot like Elizabeth Cook,” he says. “I know I’m prejudiced, but I think Amber sings as well as any female country singer ever has, and I think she’s going to cut something that takes her to the next level soon.
Pitcox is even willing to sacrifice Digby to a bigger label if it helps further her career, he says, and opens the door for similar artists: “When she makes that next step, she’s going to help all the traditional country acts striving to get somewhere higher.”
- Watch the new video for Steel Magnolia‘s song “Last Night Again” at CMT.
- No Depression’s Grant Alden appreciates the Ray Price version of the Willie Nelson-penned song “Night Life.”
- Steep Canyon Rangers signed with Rounder Records. The band has a new album planned for 2011 with guest appearances from Paul McCartney and the Dixie Chicks.
- The Austin Chronicle‘s Jim Caliguiri says the new Hank Williams box set The Complete Mother’s Best Recordings … Plus! is impressive:
Williams comes across as a quick-witted charmer, opening up about his life in a most disarming manner. He sings unexpected selections like “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Cool Water,” “Cherokee Boogie,” and “On Top of Old Smoky,” but predictably includes a solemnly rendered gospel number in each show.
- In addition to writing a memoir, Rodney Crowell recorded a new acoustic live album while on tour with Will Kimbrough and Jenny Scheinman, which can be downloaded at his website. Three tracks can even be had for free.
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December 16, 2010 at 11:46 am
Okay, my first thought when I saw “Free Rodney Crowell” was “Where is he being held?”
December 16, 2010 at 11:52 am
Thanks for the Amber Digby link. If anyone has the talent to make traditional country appeal to the mainstream, it’s her.
December 16, 2010 at 12:39 pm
FYI. It’s Danny Flowers that Amber Digby has been writing with, not “Dani”– he also wrote Tulsa Time, Before Believing, and co-wrote Gulf Coast Highway, among other songs.
December 16, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Another co-writer with Digby is Dale Dodson, not Doson. He’s a favorite of Lee Ann Womack’s.
Also, besides the live NPR tracks, a lengthy interview with Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer ran on “All Things Considered” last night and is available to be streamed. They sing together on it as well.
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/132082946/shelby-lynne-and-allison-moorer-musical-sisters
December 16, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Thanks for the corrections. The Dodson typo was my fault, the other one came directly from the article.
December 16, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Hmmmm. I just checked and it’s possible that Amber Digby IS writing with a Dani Flowers because after googling, I see that there’s a My Space page for a singer of that name. However, I would hardly describe her as a “Music Row heavyweight” the way the article does, whereas Danny Flowers is a well-established Nashville songwriter, and I think it’s more likely that she’s writing with him than her.
December 16, 2010 at 3:07 pm
@ollie Amber co-wrote “After It Breaks” with Dani Flowers for her latest CD, so I assume that is whom the article is referring to. The term “Nashville heaveyweight” may contain some jounalistic license.
December 16, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Seems like Danny Flowers has been a little more active lately, too.
Music bidness, blah blah blah, here’s *the* quote from the Alan Jackson interivew:
“As far as the basic music part of it, I don’t know that it’s changed that much. There’s always different styles of songs you hear. There’s always been people down on Music Row, young kids coming to town and writing hard country stuff like I do. Then there’s a lot of them who come to write with a pop sound or a Southern rock sound. It’s always been that way even before I came here. There was more pop-sounding stuff on the radio in the early ’80s than there is now.”
And from Amber Digby (love the band name, BTW!):
“”You can’t buy what co-writing teaches you,” she adds. “Mostly humility.”
That’s the other side of the coin from all the pondering on a loss of individuality via co-writing.
December 16, 2010 at 3:31 pm
sorry ’bout that– and apologies to Dani Flowers….
December 16, 2010 at 6:06 pm
I wonder how they’re going to shoehorn The Voice’s frosted hair into the special… probably not too much of that going on in the 1800′s.
December 16, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Gosh, I hope Laura Bell Bundy is playing either a Madame or “soiled dove” in that Civil War mini-series. She looks so good in trashy outfits! (lol)
Gosh, I’m a huge fan of both Elizabeth Cook and Amber Digby but don’t grasp the comparison Tracy Pitcox is making(?). Well unless he means they are both really talented and yet have had very limited commercial success. At least Elizabeth is supported by the Nashville Americana bunch and the Opry while Amber is just doing her thing in the dance halls of Texas. I just want Amber to do some touring outside of Texas and the Western Music Association annual convention for a change! Go Amber!
December 16, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Nothing would please me more than to see more people getting to know and hear what Amber Digby does. I was especially big on her duet album with Justin Trevino this year, btw..
December 16, 2010 at 10:33 pm
Thanks for the Rodney Crowell tip!
December 16, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Hey, now, Will Kimbrough is not chopped liver!
December 17, 2010 at 3:12 pm
WooHoo! I just purchased a ticket online to the “Dierks Bentley and Friends” gig at LA’s Troubadour Club on February 12th! I am so hoping Jamey Johnson and Miranda Lambert will be there to do a live “Bad Angel” just like on the music video. That alone would make the ticket purchase worthwhile. Again I say WooHoo! (lol)
December 17, 2010 at 5:10 pm
…you being in such a state over a ticket purchase of a mainstream act plus, perhaps, two more mainstream friends of his is kinda hard to believe. has something serious happened to president obama that i might have missed?
December 17, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Thomas, getting to see those artists have fun and get loose on stage together in a tiny club sounds like an entertaining gig! The only downside is The Troubadour sells so many tickets you wind up packed in like a sardine. Standing room only in their case means not enough room to bend over to tie your shoe!
As for Obama, I’m just hoping the lame duck Obamikaze blitzkrieg session of destructive socialist legislation comes to an end soon! My Christmas wish came true on November 2nd when a lot of folks with still functional brains around the country voted a Republican majority into the House of Representatives! Of course my home state, the despicable “Libtard Republic of Mexifornia”, slipped even further into the blue state demographic of useful idiocy…