Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2010 > January > 15
Friday, January 15, 2010
Willie Nelson signs with Rounder
Rounder Records announced today that it has signed Willie Nelson to a recording contract and will release his T-Bone Burnett-produced “Country Music” album April 13. 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the Cambridge, Mass.- based roots music label, so expect a huge presence at South by Southwest this year.
Here’s the track listing:
“Man With The Blues” (first song Willie ever wrote).
“Seaman’s Blues”
“Dark As A Dungeon”
“Gotta Walk Alone”
“Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down”
“My Baby’s Gone”
“Freight Train Boogie”
“Satisfied Mind”
“You Done Me Wrong”
“Pistol Packin’ Mama”
“Ocean Of Diamonds”
“Drinking Champagne”
“I Am A Pilgrim”
“House of Gold”
“Nobody’s Fault But Mine”
Last week, Burnett told Austin Music Source that the record has been mistakenly referred to as Willie’s bluegrass departure. “It’s pre-bluegrass,” Burnett says, with much of the material written in the 1920s and 1930s, before the heyday of Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
Austin musicians plan concert for Haiti relief
Not a lot of details yet. What we know: Joe Ely is working on rounding up musicians and the show will be Jan. 24 at Austin Music Hall. From a news release:
“We still have a lot of pieces to put together,” Ely said. “When we saw how bad the situation there is, we felt like we needed to move fast.” Further details - including ticket prices, showtimes and charitable partner - will be made available early next week.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Van Morrison cancels January shows, including Jan. 23 at Bass
From a news release that just landed in our inboxes:
VAN MORRISON CANCELS UPCOMING BASS CONCERT HALL SHOW TICKET REFUNDS AT ORIGINAL POINT OF PURCHASE
Mr. Morrison has reluctantly had to cancel his January shows owing to severe exhaustion. This includes the show scheduled for Saturday, January 23 at Bass Concert Hall at The University of Texas at Austin. Tickets purchased will be refunded at the original point of purchase.
Customers that purchased tickets online or by phone may contact Texas Box Office at 512-477-6060 to arrange refunds. Canceled shows have a two-year window to obtain a refund.
Please contact Texas Box Office for further questions regarding refunds.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment
Portugal. The Man to headline two nights at the Parish
Ceaselessly sunny pop quartet Portugal. The Man — probably the second-most famous group of people to hail from Wasilla, Alaska, in recent memory — will headline a two-night stand at the Parish on March 5 and 6, just before the crush of South by Southwest.
The band will be supporting the release of “American Ghetto,” their upcoming album, currently expected to drop sometime in the spring of this year. It’s the follow-up to last year’s “The Satanic Satanist,” possibly the cheekiest, most amusing title for an indie rock record since Yo La Tengo’s “I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your (Expletive).”
Tickets, $12.50-$20, will go on sale tomorrow, Jan. 16. Port O’Brien and the Dig will open.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Dixie Chicks side project will debut at SXSW
The Dixie Chicks side project Court Yard Hounds, featuring guitarist and banjo player Emily Robison and fiddler Martie Maguire, will make its live debut at the 2010 South by Southwest Music Festival, reported Rolling Stone earlier today.
The two sisters have recorded an album together that they plan to release in May. With lead singer Natalie Maines on indefinite hiatus, Robison will sing lead vocals on the new album, which Rolling Stone says was recorded mostly in Austin.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW 2010
Review: Fat Man and Little Boy at the Whip In
(Fat Man and Little Boy perform Thursday at The Whip In. Photo by Laura Skelding AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
“We’re gonna play without a mic,” announced Little Boy at the onset of Thursday night’s gig. “Normally we can place blame on a (bad) sound system … .”
“Or a bad sound man,” added his counterpart, Fat Man.
A mic might not have been a bad idea for Fat Man and Little Boy, otherwise known as the Atomic Duo, purveyors of “struggle” music for our modern day Depression. The setting was Whip In, a convenience store off the I-35 frontage road in South Austin, where the din of chatter and clanging of silverware born of the dozen or so diners communing over scrumptious Indian food and on-tap craft beers in the store’s refurbished eating area made for sometimes indiscernible lyrics.
But Fat Man and Little Boy were oblivious. They were too wrapped up in their self-deprecating banter and knock-knock shtick, and in making sense of live renditions of the mountain, swing, bluegrass, Dust Bowl, and Tin Pan Alley songs on their self-titled album. The album came out in November but because Fat Man had a torn rotator cuff then, the Atomic Duo’s just now celebrating its release, with a January residency at Whip In among other Texas dates.
Vocals were split fairly evenly between Fat Man (Mark Rubin, Austin’s resident advocate of old-time music, most notably with the trio Bad Livers) and Little Boy (Silas Lowe, an East Coast transplant equally enamored with Old, Weird America). Traditional and original songs were buoyed by ersatz country voices and the high lonesome sounds of mandolin, banjo and resonator guitar, and occasionally were assisted by vocalist Jenn Miori, fiddler Wayne “Chojo” Jacques, and harmonica player Sean Tracey.
“Texas City” spoke of the 1947 explosion of ammonium nitrate aboard the French vessel SS Grandcamp, which killed hundreds of people in the port town. “Turpentine Farm” was about “sadomasochistic animal husbandry.” And “Rope Stretchin’ Blues” affirmed the notion of an eye for an eye, wherein the song’s protagonist busts a home intruder’s head with a club.
Fat Man and Little Boy excelled at turning heartache into humor, with a vibe on par with White Ghost Shivers and the Gourds. For one departing customer, the lack of a mic was no big deal.
“You sounded great,” she told the duo.
“If you stick around,” Fat Man said, “we can fix that.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
Bobby Charles 1938- 2010
Cajun singer-songwriter Bobby Charles, who wrote “Walking To New Orleans” for his idol Fats Domino, died Thursday after collapsing at his home in Abbeville, La. A soulful singer, Charles defined the swamp pop genre with such songs as “See You Later Alligator” (recorded by Bill Haley and the Comets) and “(I Don’t Know Why I Love You) But I Do,” which was recorded by Clarence “Frogman” Henry. No white performer has ever sounded blacker.
Born Robert Charles Guidry in southern Louisiana, the Bob Dylan favorite was uncomfortable in the spotlight and rarely performed in recent decades. Citing health reasons, Charles opted out of his scheduled comeback show at the 2007 New Orleans Jazzfest and was replaced by such artists as Austin’s Marcia Ball performing his songs.
Charles and Dr. John had recently completed the album “Timeless.”
