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Austin in Nashville
September 20, 2008
AMA Notes #5
NASHVILLE. What’s the best thing I’ve seen this week? Folks keep asking me that this morning, as I contemplate whether or not it’ll be worth walking down to the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Ford Theater, where they’re screening the “Meet Glen Campbell” documentary, with the star of the film on hand. Since this prgram is also open to anyone who buys museum tickets, it should be an overflow crowd. Think I’ll pass and wait out my 4:45 p.m. flight until they kick me out of Panera, where I’ve been using the free wi-fi because the hotel is charging $13 a day to go online.
Let me talk about price gouging for a second. Why do hotels overcharge for everything, like $5 for a bottle of Fuji water in the room and $14 for a cheeseburger and fries from room service? They’re supposed to be in the hospitality business, but then they take advantage of their “captive” clientele.
I was all revved up for Cross Canadian Ragweed last night, having become a fan of the band’s explosive live shows, but the acoustics of Cannery Row muddied up everything. It didn’t help that Jeremy Plato’s bass was making my jeans tremble. It was way too loud. When publicist Heather Bohn saw me and whisked me to the side of the stage to watch, the set sounded much better. The monitor mix was much better than what the crowd was getting.
Right before CC Ragweed (still can’t call them CCR), at the adjoining Mercy Lounge, I happened upon Paul Thorn, the former boxer (he fought Roberto Duran in the ’80s) who packs a roundhouse wallop with his soulful brand of rock. I only caught the last song and the encore, but I’m sold on this son of a Pentecostal preacher, who fired up the packed crowd. The best thing I saw at AMA was the Levon Helm “Ramble at the Ryman” on the opening night, but Thorn was a close second. I intend to be there the next time the Tupelo, Miss. native plays Austin.
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Carlene Carter's second act
NASHVILLE. The irreverent wild child, who once did cartwheels in a mini-skirt at the end of shows, has pulled herself up from the depths of heroin addiction to reclaim her place in country music’s First Family. In a jubilantly-received set at the Country Music Hall of Fame museum store Friday, Carlene Carter proved that older and heavier is better than dead.
“All I ever wanted was to be a Carter girl,” she said introducing “Me and the Wildwood Rose,” the nostalgic number that received a full minute of applause when it was over. Even with the new “Stronger” album to push, the singer spent most of her 40 minutes on the tiny stage, backed by two guitar players, going back to those simple days as the granddaughter of Maybelle Carter and the daughter of June Carter Cash. Much of the oldish crowd of around 200 was there because of the Carter name and Carlene played up to them with an exaggerated drawl and corny asides about divorce, getting old and how Mother Maybelle drove like a bat out of hell. With a little refinement, this act could play at Branson.
Still, the show was a stirring return that was not short on emotion. Opening with the old number “Sweet Meant to Be,” 52-year-old Carter immediately showed that the voice is as strong, as buoyant as ever. “Break My Little Heart In Two” was the best of the new songs, though “Judgement Day,” written about losing longtime companion Howie Epstein to a drug overdose, proved most dramatic. “True love never dies,” Carter sang in a voice that threatened to break, “it just walks away.”
Because of her spunk and slinky good looks, you sometimes forgot just what a good songwriter Carter was, but when she sang “It Takes One To Know Me,” which she wrote at age 17, the talent was unmistakable. Yes, this act could excite the tour bus crowds, but it could also make magic at the Cactus Café.
The set was supposed to end with the rocker “Every Little Thing,” which harked back to her early ‘90s heyday, but at the behest of a nephew, Carter picked the Carter Family classic “Wildwood Flower” on her under-amplified guitar. At one point she forgot a verse, but the audience sang it for her until she was back on track. It was much more warmth than you’d expect in a souvenir shop, but Carlene Carter’s still got a bunch of it left to generate.
Thank God for that.
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September 19, 2008
Notes from AMA #4: Westies representin'
NASHVILLE. “Thanks for coming out,” musician Tim O’Brien said Friday afternoon at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Ford Theater. “We would be doing this anyway, but it’s much better with an audience.
West Virginia was in the house at a tribute concert to 1920s fiddler Blind Alfred Reed. From the opening three-part harmonies of Westies O’Brien, Kathy Mattea and Todd Burge on “There’ll Be No Distinction There” until Connie Smith’s show-stopping “Please Don’t Let Her Die,” the 90-minute program was a marvel of musicianship. The mid-show addition of drummer Kenny Malone, bassist Wayne Moss, Russ Hicks on steel and McCoy on harmonica and piano made for a virtual reunion of Barefoot Jerry, the southern rock pioneers.
The show was put together to help promote the Blind Alfred Reed tribute album “Always Lift Him Up,” featuring many of the performers. Paw Paw, West Virginia native Ray Benson is also on the album, doing “Black & Blue Blues.”
- “What is Texas Music?” Texas State University professor Gary Hartman opened Friday’s “Lone Star Legacy: The Role of Texas In Shaping Americana Music” panel with that broad question, then opened things up with a thumbnail history of Texas music. The question was then answered musically by songwriters Radney Foster from Del Rio, Rosie Flores of San Antonio, Bruce Robison from Bandera and New Braunfels resident Cody Canada, who’s originally from Oklahoma.
“Childhood Memories” by Flores was especially poignant, while Robison brought the garage rock on solo acoustic with “It Came From San Antonio,” the tale of Doug Sahm’s quintet trying to pass as British.
There’s another big difference between panels at the Americana confab vs. SXSW: much more live music. And the Texas quartet represented well.
- Best t-shirt: “Keep Lubbock Flat” using the same font as the “Keep Austin Weird” tees.
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Notes from AMA #3: Genesis of 'Jesus'
NASHVILLE. Hayes Carll is touring in England so he couldn’t be on hand for his mildly surprising win as Song of the Year at Thursday’s American Music Awards at the Ryman, but “She Left Me For Jesus” co-writer Brian Keane was there to “thank God” at the podium.
Cormer Austinite Keane, who moved to Nashville with girlfriend Rachel Loy about nine months ago, detailed the inspiration for “Jesus” after the show. He had been seeing Loy, who still plays bass for 54 Seconds, for a few months when she decided she wanted to live a more Christian life. “She left me for Jesus,” Keane said. “It was an easy song to write.” Keane wrote the chorus of the hilariously sacriligeous song, but couldn’t finish it, so he brought it to Carll. The two kicked around ideas one day and Carll wrote down all the good ones. “I said, ‘OK, now we gotta make it rhyme,’” Keane recalled, “but then I looked on the paper and Hayes had already done that, as he was writing the ideas down.” A true collaboration, in other words.
One of the musical highlights of the awards show was when Joe Ely, who’s like Bono in this crowd, joined rising star Ryan Bingham on “South Side of Heaven.” Bingham, who is not to be missed at ACL, is a former bullrider who’s been called “the Tom Waits of West Texas” for his raspy delivery and pinpoint lyricism. He’s the guy you’ve heard on KGSR and asked, “wow, who is that?”
It’s admirable to see just how much younger bluegrass players come out and support each other. Thursday night at the Station Inn, a legendary picker’s palace, the audience was full of players- including members of Austin’s Belleville Outfit (who’ve just signed to powerhouse Nashville agent Bobby Cudd) - to cheer on Crooked Still. The Boston band’s ingenue looks belied a wild streak, that especially came out on a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Oxford Blues.”
Nashville has its own Erik Hokkanen in Casey Driessen, an incredibly instinctive violinist whose jazz trio set at the Station Inn Thursday floored everyone, including Tommy “Ramone” Erdeyli, the last surviving original member of the punk pioneers. In recent years, Erdeyli has switched to bluegrass, playing mandolin, banjo and singing in Uncle Monk. Driessen is also a member of Abigail Washburn’s Sparrow Quartet.
Will ACL Fest offer personal port-o-johns next year, or was Charlie Walker of C3 joking? Bet on door number two, as Walker was just trying to inject some life into Thursday’s touring and festivals panel. “The demand for VIP ammenities is going up faster than anything else,” Walker said.
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September 18, 2008
Notes from AMA #2: Sarah signs
Seventeen-year-old mandolin player and singer Sarah Jarosz has been signed to Sugar Hill Records, who’s label boss Gary Paczosa, is coming to to Sarah’s home town of Wimberley next week to produce her new record. Best known for his work with Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton and the Dixie Chicks, Paczosa says he hasn’t been as excited to be working as a project as he is with the Jazosz project. The old-timey youngster will co-produce at the Blue Rock Studio, which Paczosa calls “my favorite studio in the world right now.”
Paczosa has also signed the Greencards, whose next record is being produced by Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin’s “Flaming Red.”)
During a panel on festivals and touring, C3 Presents’ Charlie Walker broke up the room when asked how ACL Fest determines which Austin acts to book. “It seems that most of ours are related to people at the office,” he joked. I know Charles Attal’s nephew Sledd is in We Go To 11. Any other instances of nepotism? I mean, besides Electric Touch.
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Notes from AMA Conference #1
NASHVILLE. There was only one daytime party on Thursday, the official start of the Americana Music Association conference (which should bill itself as “SXSW without the crowds”), so I ended up going to more panels on one day than I have at SXSW in the past ten years. This is a one-ring circus, with only 60 showcase slots for three nights (compared to 2,000 at SXSW), so I ended up at the “Freedom Sings” presentation, a scripted, multi-media, musical journey towards understanding the First Ammendment. Sounds brutal, but it was anything but. After 90 minutes of (occasionally windy) narration by veteran newsman Gene Policinski, interspersed with songs and medleys sung by Bill Lloyd, Jonell Mosser, Don Henry and others, the audience of about 100 leapt to its feet without a thought.
“Freedom Sings,” which grew up of sessions at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville nine years ago, has never been to SXSW. But since South By’s panelist coordinator Andy Flynn is up here scouting, maybe we’ll see “Freedom Sings” in Austin in March. It’s truly powerful.
- That one daytime party was co-hosted by Justice Records, whose band nelo played last. Seating near the front at the Second Fiddle club were Bob Roux of Live Nation and producer Steve Fischell, who seemed to be getting into the band’s melodic vibe. Two new songs, “The Note” and “Breakthrough” especially played to singer Reid Umstattd’s fluid phrasing. Even in search of an identity, nelo was a fresh breath after all the bad country and rock heard up and down Broadway. Lotsa potential there.
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Live review: Levon Helm at the Ryman
NASHVILLE. What a way to kick off a music conference that one attendee called “South By Southwest without the emo.” The ninth annual Americana Music Association conference and festival hosted the Levon Helm Band’s infamous “Midnight Ramble” blowout Wednesday night at the Mother Church of country music and such surprise guests as Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Sheryl Crow, John Hiatt, Steve Earle and Delbert McClinton showed up to vocalize with the legendary singer drummer. The great band, lead by guitarist Larry Campbell (ex-Dylan) and elevated by sensational keyboardist Brian Williams, was augmented by Buddy Miller and Sam Bush, two of Nashville’s highest regarded players, for much of the night.
It was “The Last Waltz” without Canadians.
The 68-year-old Helm is in the midst of an incredible comeback from throat cancer: “Dirt Farmer,” his first solo album in 25 years just won a Grammy and is up for “Album of the Year” at tonight’s AMA Awards show. The audience was clearly in love with Helm, whose voice was strong early on with “Ophelia” from the Band days and new song “Got Me a Woman.” Every number received a standing ovation, and not just because the Ryman pews flattened fannies that begged to stretch back out. But about 2/3 into the two and a half hour show, Helm’s vocals started getting raspier, which actually made “Anna Lee,” with beautiful harmonies from daughter Amy Helm and Teresa Williams, more poignant. But the raggedness was uncomfortable on “Rag Mama Rag.”
Luckily, the show had all those guests. Plant and Krauss were the biggest surprise, doing Leadbelly’s “In the Pines” early in the show. Where that superstar duo seemed to have a limo with the motor running at the stage door, Sheryl Crow was there to soak in the fun, even staying onstage for perfunctory backup singing after duetting with Helm on “Evangeline” and doing a terrific “No Depression,” by the Carter Family. She stuck around for the stage-filled audience singalongs of “The Weight” and “Forever Young.” Another crowd fave was 80-year-old bluesman Little Sammy Davis, who’s a regular at the Midnight Ramble, which Helm holds occasionally in his barn near Woodstock, N.Y.
On leaving the show, everyone seemed to be talking about what they’d just witnessed, but one gentleman put it best when he said, “That’s the closest I’m ever gonna get to seeing the Band.”
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