Watch Lyle Lovett on ‘Austin City Limits’ Tomorrow; Remembering Charlie Louvin; New Site Helps Indie Bluegrass Bands
- Ed Crowell covered the taping of the last Austin City Limits show at Studio 6A for the Austin American-Statesman. It will air on Saturday.
- Alison Krauss, who has a new album titled Paper Airplanes scheduled for an April release, on whether she listens to the melody or lyrics first when choosing new songs:
Lyrics, usually. I’m better at messing around with the melody and chords, altering things to be more suitable, to make more sense to me. Lyrics are kind of the whole thing; it’s the message. Something might have a beautiful melody but if it’s not the truth coming out of your mouth, it’s not appealing.
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If you’ve never heard “A Showman’s Life,” or even if you have, listen to Jesse Winchester‘s performance of the song on Mountain Stage last year (skip to the 4:45 mark).
And here’s a few covers: Buddy Miller | Rodney Hayden | Gary Allan
- A Truer Sound has a new musical obsession and her name is Robyn Ludwick, the sister of Bruce and Charlie Robison. She has a new record, Out of These Blues, due out April 19.
- Here’s video of Brandon Rhyder performing “Freeze Frame Time” in the newest Mount Vernon Sessions series.
- Peter Cooper has a good article in The Tennessean on Charlie Louvin.
He was grateful for the recognition and sought to encourage others to show their appreciation to those who had come before.
“If you have any roses that you would like to lay in front of somebody or put in their hand, do it while they can still smell ’em,” he said. “This deal of saying how great a guy was after he’s gone, that don’t mean squat.”
- Coming in at #94 on Country Universe’s countdown of the 100 greatest men of country music is Ricky Van Shelton.
- Bob Faris created a site to help indie bluegrass bands with the business side of being a bluegrass band.
- Chet Flippo in this week’s Nashville Skyline:
The death this week of Charlie Louvin marked a final farewell to a large and important chapter of country music. He was a frail, final thread to an era of spiritual, old-world, sometimes-spectral country ballads that framed and illuminated the hard and often tragic lives of immigrants who settled into the hardscrabble life of Appalachia.
- The Carolina Chocolate Drops released four-song EP
titledwith Luminescent Orchestrii this past Tuesday. (Amazon) - Austin Music Source’s John T. Davis on former Gonzo bassist Bob Livingston‘s recent release, Gypsy Alibi:
Anchored by his warmly supple and durable voice, Livingston’s performances are almost universally melodic and appealing, ranging as they do from Western swing (the aptly named “Country and Western Swing”) to atmospheric, Norah Jones-style balladry (the title track) to singalong pop (“Dance Like It’s a Holiday”) to a gently swinging folk lament (“Ruby’s Shoes”), yodeling cowboy music (“Oklahoma Girl”), epic storytelling (“Ghost of Vicksburg”) and — most delightfully — a world-beat rendition of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” recorded in Bangladesh in 1991 during one of Livingston’s globe-spanning “Cowboys and Indians” tours.
- Pop & Hiss’ Randy Lewis collected recollections of the Louvins from Lucinda Williams, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart and Chris Hillman.
- The Cumberland Gap Connection sounds promising. Check out clips from the band’s recently released album A Whole Lotta Lonesome on ReverbNation.
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January 28, 2011 at 11:19 am
Capitol Nashville has signed Kelleigh Bannen to a record deal too.
January 28, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Isn’t the Carolina Chocolate Drops release a four-song EP WITH the band Luminescent Orchestrii, not ‘titled’?
Editor’s note: You are correct.
January 28, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Peter Cooper writes a helluva obituary. As a total coincidence regarding Charlie’s point of thanking those who came before while they’re still around, I got the opportunity to thank Johnny Gimble last night for all the years of listening enjoyment he’s provided.
For those in central Texas, there’s a memorial to Gary Claxton at Gruene Hall tomorrow afternoon that ought to provide some stellar music and memories.
January 28, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Opry Alert! Tonight’s Opry will feature Brett Eldridge, Del McCoury, Darryl Worley, Ricky Skaggs & T.G. Sheppard. Rating B+. The two Saturday night Opry’s will feature Laura Bell Bundy (hubba hubba), Frankie Ballard, and Josh Thompson. In addition the final half hour segments will be a “Show Dog” showcase featuring Trace Adkins, Carter’s Chord, and Toby Keith! I wonder how much Toby had to bribe Pete Fisher with to pull that off? Hmm…(lol)
Oh crap, another Robison sibling for Texans to go bonkers over! I always figured two was plenty…
If only Peter Cooper could write song lyrics as eloquent as his farewell to Charlie Louvin! (jk)
Chet Flippo didn’t do half bad in writing about Charlie either considering he’s a left wing, ex-”Rolling Stone” magazine, rock and roller type.
I wish someone would stream that Gary Claxton concert from Gruene Hall! That place needs to get set up like the Loveless Barn is for the excellent quality “Music City Roots” webcasts. Darn.
January 28, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Random question that I wasn’t sure where else to ask – does anyone know of anywhere I can buy/download/listen to Alan Jackson’s version of “Tequila Sunrise” without physically buying the entire various artists Eagles tribute CD?
I cannot for the life of me find it anywhere on the internet.
January 29, 2011 at 12:12 am
Kyle,
That CD isn’t for sale digitally. But considering that the album is available for 75 cents or so on half.com (plus shipping) it’s not too expensive to buy.
January 29, 2011 at 5:51 pm
“…Oh crap, another Robison sibling for Texans to go bonkers over! I always figured two was plenty…”
Or too much.
January 29, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Rick: Charlie’s a Republican.
January 29, 2011 at 6:04 pm
Stormy,
No wonder he couldn’t stay married to ultra-liberal Emily.
January 29, 2011 at 8:08 pm
And yet, liberals don’t hold it againt him.
January 30, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Carter’s Chord made their Opry debut last night (Saturday 1/29) and vocally they sound just as good live, or better, than in their recordings! Those sisters can flat out sing like songbirds. They sang their new radio single “A Little Less Comfortable” (see MattB.’s Roughstock review at: http://www.roughstock.com/blog/carter-s-chord-a-little-less-comfortable-single-review ). Its a nicely constructed song and the lyrics are top notch and well suited to soccer moms, but I don’t know if it has enough “zing” to make it on the charts. Hopefully the path recently blazed by Sunny Sweeney will help this song get some radio airplay.
If Charlie Robison is a Republican, he should have known better than to marry a Ditzy Twit in the first place! Charlie, what were you thinking! (lol)
January 31, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Thanks Matt. ~$4-5 with shipping seems a little steep for one song, but I suppose it’s my only option!
Very bizarre to me that in this day and age, there’s nowhere on the entire interwebz to buy, download, stream or even preview a clip of a song that still gets recurrent airplay.
January 31, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Kyle: The cd also has a lovely rendition of What Ever Happened to Satuday Night by Billy Dean and one of Lorrie Morgan’s better covers with Sad Cafe.