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Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Big State Festival not happening in ‘08
Apparently, C3 Presents couldn’t get Rodeohead. In a brief email from publicists Fresh & Clean, C3 has finally announced that they’re throwing in the towel on this year’s Big State Festival, the country music event which had been planned for the Dallas suburb of Frisco. C3’s Charlie Walker cited “a lack of top tier talent” as the reason the fest isn’t happening this year. I’d say a lack of available top tier talent is a problem with the country music industry as a whole.
Last year’s inaugural Big State, which hoped to be a country music answer to C3’s popular Austin City Limits Music Festival, took place over a weekend in College Station, with a cast of high-paid headliners, including Tim McGraw, Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson. Walkup ticket sales to the two-day event were no doubt hindered by depression following Texas A&M’s drubbing at the hands of Texas Tech in Lubbock on the first day. Nothing kills a buzz like 35-7.
Earlier this year, C3 bailed on plans to produce a big festival in Vineland, New Jersey when a competing fest snagged Radiohead as headliner. C3 has given up entirely on Vineland, but it’s not known whether Big State will return next year.
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ACL Fest: Meet the bands - South Austin Jug Band
We sent out questions via e-mail to all the acts playing ACL this year (Robert Plant, perhaps your answers are stuck in our spam filter). Here, James Hyland of South Austin Jug Band shares his thoughts:
Music Source: How do you plan to cope with Austin summer heat, will it cramp your onstage style?
James Hyland: Tour the Northwest… it feels GREAT!
What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at the festival?
Beck.
What’s the last CD you paid full price for?
Lyle Lovett, “The Road to Ensenada”
When you think of Texas music, who or what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Willie Nelson
What’s the one thing you can’t live without on your tour bus/van?
Can you say “ganja” online?
Do you have a celebrity crush you’re willing to reveal?
Randy Marsh and Sally Bretton
What’s the one song you’ve always wanted to cover but never have?
“Hot for Teacher”
What’s the one thing everyone should do before leaving Austin?
Spend a night with the South Austin Jug Band.
Before ACL on Sept. 28, South Austin Jug Band is scheduled to play Sept. 12 at the Parish.
(Photo by Tammy Perez FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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ACL Fest: Meet the bands - Elizabeth Wills
Music Source: How do you plan to cope with Austin summer heat, will it cramp your onstage style?
Elizabeth Wills: I will have plenty o’ h2o on hand. It won’t cramp our style at all. I grew up in texas and I am no heat sissy. And it doesn’t hurt that we are playing in the morning.
What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at the festival?
Neko Case, Patty Griffin, Allison Krauss, David Byrne and pretty much anyone else i can get to in time to see. The line up is stellar.. as usual!
What’s the last CD you paid full price for?
Joni Mitchell’s latest, ‘Shine.’
What’s the one thing you can’t live without on your tour bus/van?
My feather pillow. It fits in a tiny bag and I can even take it with me when I fly!
When you think of Texas music, who or what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Amazing songwriting and Willie Nelson.
Do you have a celebrity crush you’re willing to reveal?
Yes, willing, but not able.
What’s the one song you’ve always wanted to cover but never have?
Anything by Annie Lennox.
What’s the one thing you want to make sure to do before leaving Austin?
Turn off the stove.
(Photo courtesy of myspace.com/elizabethwillsmusic.)
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ACL Fest: Meet the bands - Nicole Atkins
Music Source: How do you plan to cope with Austin summer heat, will it cramp your onstage style?
Nicole Atkins: I’m trying to wear less taffeta onstage. trying to find a good summer dress with some armpit ventilation.
What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at the festival?
I’m playing on Sunday so I’m looking forward to seeing Neko Case, the Raconteurs, and Band of Horses. I wish I was gonna be there on the first day for David Byrne. Shucks!
What’s the last CD you paid full price for?
The Parlor Mob “And You Were a Crow,” the best rock ‘n’ roll cd that’s come out from a band that’s my age.
What’s the one thing you can’t live without on your tour bus/van?
Headphones and a good book. A pillow too!
When you think of Texas music, who or what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Cotton Mather!!!!
Do you have a celebrity crush you’re willing to reveal?
I was really into Jack Nicholson during his “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” days.
What’s the one song you’ve always wanted to cover but never have?
“Echoes” from Pink Floyd.
What’s the one thing you want to make sure to do before leaving Austin?
See a thousand faces and rock them all! Ha ha!
(Photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Redd Volkaert on Jerry Reed
“This is such sad news,” Austin’s Telecaster master Redd Volkaert said Tuesday, in response to the news that Jerry Reed had passed away at age 71 in Nashville. “His playing was so funky, so jacked up, yet so articulate,” Volkaert said of Reed, who became better known as an actor (“Smokey and the Bandit,” “The Waterboy”) than a guitar picker later in his career. “Nobody played like Jerry Reed,” said Volkaert, who would watch Reed’s appearances on “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” with a guitar in his lap. “You couldn’t really learn his stuff. He was like Django Reinhardt, with all those intricate patterns.”
Volkaert, whose new record “Reddhead” comes out Sept. 16, says he picked up the Fender Telecaster as a kid to emulate the Bakersfield guitars of Don Rich (Buck Owens) and Roy Nichols (Merle Haggard). Then later he heard what Reed could do with a Telecaster and it blew him away. “He was Chet Atkins on fire.” Reed’s snappy, chicken-pickin’ style on “Amos Moses” in 1971 still influences country rock guitarists. “Everybody wanted that sound,” Volkaert said.
Reminded that Atkins, considered the greatest fingerpicker in country music history, used to say that Reed was better, Volkaert said, “Even the greats have their heroes.”
Asked if he had a favorite Reed piece, Volkaert mentioned “Lightnin’ Rod,” which Reed played on a classical guitar. Check it out.
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“Guitar Man” Jerry Reed 1937- 2008
I can’t forget the first time I heard “Amos Moses” on the radio in late 1970. Tony Joe White (“Polk Salad Annie”), Dusty Springfield (“Son of a Preacher Man”), Bobbie Gentry (“Ode To Billy Joe”) and Creedence had pioneered the “rural contemporary” sub-genre, bringing the deep down south to the top of the pop charts, but nothing prepared me for that chompin,’ searin’ bayou riff rock that sprung from the guitar and vocals of Jerry Reed. After I picked myself off the floor, I went to the BX at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, and let out a squeal when I found “Amos Moses.” It was my favorite record for a long time.
Reed, who was, sadly, better known as a character actor in Burt Reynolds movies, died Monday of complications from emphysema. He was 71. Most folks don’t realize Reed was a sensational guitar picker before he started having hits with “Amos Moses,” “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft),”and “The Bird.” But the legendary Chet Atkins had always said that Reed was the better fingerpicker.
He also wrote “Guitar Man,” which became a hit for Elvis Presley in 1967. When Presley’s producer couldn’t get the right guitar sound for the sessions, he brought in Reed, who proved to be the only one who could nail that part.
Reed is survived by his wife of 49 years and two daughters.
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An introduction to the blues, Austin style
“A Brief History of the Blues” (Universal)
Charlie Sexton and Tonio K were given the easiest job imaginable when Universal Records tapped the longtime friends to compile a CD that, conceptually, could best explain blues music to extraterrestrials (disguised as Tarrytown housewives?). Universal was no doubt looking for a gateway drug to their blues vaults and what the exec-producers gave them was a collection that aficionados would scoff at as too obvious, when that’s exactly the point.
All the great touchstones of the genre are here, from Bessie Smith’s stroll with Louis Armstrong’s horn on 1925’s “St. Louis Blues” and Robert Johnson’s dusty “Walkin’ Blues,” through the Muddy (“I’m Ready”) and Wolf (“The Red Rooster”) glory years and the barroom soul of “All Your Love (I Miss Loving) by Otis Rush and “Wang Dang Doodle” by Koko Taylor. Of course, “My Babe” by Little Walter and John Lee Hooker’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” are here.
A pair of new productions by Sexton, including Doyle Bramhall II dueting with Erykah Badu on an “Oh, Death” that sounds like it’s from Tom Waits’ “Swordfish Trombones” period, help keep the air from getting musty. This is that rare blues CD without a single throwaway track.
In addition to the co-stewardship of Sexton, this collection has strong Austin ties. The cover portrait of Little Walter is a Suzie Millions painting Tonio K (“Life In the Foodchain”) bought at Yard Dog on South Congress Avenue. And the producers sought input from Mike Buck of Antone’s Record Shop while putting together an album that gets to the core of the blues canon.
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CD review: Young Jeezy ‘The Recession’
Young Jeezy
‘The Recession’ (Def Jam)
The introduction of Young Jeezy’s new album “The Recession” features newscasters talking about gas prices and the economy. The album ends with a song about Barack Obama (“My President”) featuring Nas. Otherwise, it’s basically indistinguishable from his first two albums.
He still raps about crack dealing as self-actualization (“I can show you how to make a mil right now”). He sticks to the same dark, epic orchestrations of his previous hits (“Soul Survivor”). And he faithfully uses his trademark flow - raspy, slow and ad-lib heavy - throughout.
The rare track that varies at all from this formula, like the soul-sampling “Circulate,” stands out as a result. “The Recession” is an 18-track album that seems to contain less than half-a-dozen distinct songs.
But specialization has its benefits. He only makes one type of song, but he makes that song very well, and the customer can count on that same level of quality every time. So if you like the ubiquitous lead single “Put On” you’ll like “The Recession.”
The chorus to his Obama song sums up his philosophy pretty well: “My president is black, my Lambo is blue / And I’ll be (expletive) if my rims ain’t too / My money’s light green, and my Jordan’s light grey/ And they love to see white, now how much you trying to pay.”
He sees the prospect of a black president as inspirational, not to change society, but to make more money. It’s the album’s underlying theme: Times may be bad, but the bills still have to be paid. He may not know Obama’s message very well, but he sure knows America’s.
Recommended: “My President”, “Put On”
