WARREN HELLMAN, The Billionaire Who Loved Bluegrass, died in late December, there is a tribute concert set for Feb. 19th in San Francisco, story here...The 2012 Grammy nominations are in with Americana nods going out to LUCINDA WILLIAMS, LEVON HELM, EMMYLOU HARRIS , RY COODER readKim Ruehl's summery... more news
Try the new FTB podcasts... now on iTunes... The Freight Train Boogie "terrestrial" radio show can be heard live Thursday nights, 8 to 10 PM pacific time, on KRCB in Sonoma County, CA, which can also be heard on the internet.
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New FTB reviewer Joe Ross checks in with a 4-star review of MICHAEL JOHNATHON's Front Porch.
The Freight Train Boogie is dedicated to Americana Music: which includes the edgier country & folk singers, Hillbilly Twang, some bluegrass, blues and rock. We place a special emphasis on "Alt.Country", Roots Rock and many small label and independent releases. We love Country music, as long as it's "real" Country.
Americana music is influenced by elements of rock, country, blues and folk. Many of the more established artists you've probably already heard of: Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Gram Parsons, sometimes Neil Young, Wilco or Lucinda Williams. Many people come to this music after feeling disconnected from rock or country that's heard on commercial radio. Perhaps the best way to illustrate what Americana music is, is to list a hundred or so Essential Freight Train Boogie Artists.
The Reviews section is where we write about new CD releases, and there's a huge archive of past reviews. The FTB News is mostly links to current Roots music articles and information on the web and in other media, including info on upcoming CD releases. The Links section is of course, links to other good, interesting or useful websites, although it's a little out of date. FTB Editor Bill Frater also does a biweekly radio show on KRCB-FM in Sonoma County, California.
FTB podcast # #150 features the new album by FRED EAGLESMITH entitled 6 Volts. Also new music from JASON ARNOLD, THE REFUGEES and BRONWYNNE BRENT. Here's the iTunes link to subscribe to the FTB podcasts. Here's the direct link to listen now! Here is the RSS feed: http://ftbpodcasts.libsyn.com/rss.
Chuck says "This my New York. I would never put myself next to Lou Reed, but in some ways that's what it is. The record's an unsentimental (though loving) tour of San Francisco. My effort to tap into the history, the weirdness, the energy and spontaneity that brought me here in the first place. All the songs are SF related somehow." Rootsy rock at it's finest.
Recorded at the Zone Studio in Dripping Springs, Texas, Roosters Crow features,along with The Hardways (bassist Nick Ciola and drummer Scott Wenum) a list of respected and talented Austin-based musicians, including Kelly Willis, Lloyd Maines, Kevin McKinney, Bukka Allen, Chojo Jacques, Billy Bright and Terri Hendrix. Zellar led a 90's early-Alt.Country band called the gear Daddies. Recommended!
Rare studio recordings from the archives of noted L.A. record producer and the father of the folk-rock sound, Jim Dickson (Byrds, Flying Burrito Bros., Country Gazette). Highlights include: the first, never before released recordings of the 60s peace anthem, "Get Together" by it's composer, singer Dino Valenti and rarest of all Byrds recordings: Hamilton Camp & The Byrds with a newly discovered 1965 studio recording of Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changing" plus a rare instrumental recording by David Crosby and jazz musicians Bud Shank and Joe Pass, along with never before released bluegrass-rock recordings of the original Dillards. Very interesting collection and reasonably priced for an import.
Also new this week...
ANNA COOGAN -The Wasted Ocean (self released) DR. DOG -Be The Void (Anti-) BEN KWELLER -Go Fly A Kite (The Noise Company) Various Artists -Hearts Across Texas (Thirty Tigers) JOE LOUIS WALKER -Hellfire (Alligator)
"I was baptized in country music" says Darrell. Recorded in Scott's living room over several days last spring, the project is an intimate homage to the music Darrell remembers from his childhood and the father and mother who presided over that country music baptism. The core band features some of the best... Hargus "Pig" Robbin, Kenny Malone, Lloyd Green, Dennis Crouch, Charlie McCoy, Tim O'Brien and others. Darrell's chops on guitar and steel, and warm vocal tones, have earned him elite sideman gigs like Robert Plant's current Band of Joy. Now on Long Ride Home, the country music that shaped his musical character and that has informed his prior work, comes to the surface. It also features his father Wayne, who just died this past November. The record is passionate, bluesy, neighborly and emotional and an early vote for Album of the Year.
Explaining Hello Cruel World‘s genesis, Peters says, “In 2010 the universe threw its best and its worst at me. Some of it was personal, some global. All of it seemed to demand that I redefine my ideas of permanence and reevaluate what I believe in, to literally rethink what is real.” First the Gulf of Mexico oil spill put an eco-disaster at the doorsteps of the cottage in the Florida panhandle where Peters writes much of her music. Then a friend of 30 years committed suicide, followed quickly by the worst flood in the history of her adopted hometown of Nashville. The title of Gretchen Peters’ new Hello Cruel World is a pun on the famed exit line – sweetens this captivating music spun from a year of turmoil. Peters call it her “most close-to-the-bone work, written at a time when I felt absolutely fearless about telling the truth.”
Bill Frater interviews AMANDA SHIRES, an Americana singer-songwrite who has been touring with JASON ISBELL lately. Recorded in Nashville, TN at the Americana Music Conference and Festival on Oct. 14th, 2011
FTB's Bill Frater interviews Will Kimbrough & Tommy Womack, otherwise known as DADDY. Recorded in Nashville during the Americana Music Association Conference & Festival.
CHUCK PROPHET
DARRELL SCOTT
