http://www.americansongwriter.com American Songwriter Magazine Sun, 20 May 2012 14:47:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/V_bT1VS39HU/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/ruby-tuesday-the-rolling-stones/#comments Sun, 20 May 2012 14:47:48 +0000 Jim Beviglia http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=84183
“Ruby Tuesday” defies expectations in a couple of ways. First of all, it’s a tender ballad courtesy of The Rolling Stones, so you might expect it to be a Mick Jagger creation. You’d be wrong though: As Mick told Jann Wenner in 1995: “It’s just a nice melody, really. And a lovely lyric. Neither of [...]]]>
“Ruby Tuesday” defies expectations in a couple of ways. First of all, it’s a tender ballad courtesy of The Rolling Stones, so you might expect it to be a Mick Jagger creation. You’d be wrong though: As Mick told Jann Wenner in 1995: “It’s just a nice melody, really. And a lovely lyric. Neither of which I wrote, but I always enjoy singing it.” Keith Richards actually did most of the work on the song, writing the lyrics after coming up with the music with the help of Brian Jones. That music is the second reason that “Ruby Tuesday” is such a surprise. Melodic ingenuity was supposed to be the domain of the Stones’ chief rival, The Beatles. Yet this song, which was a #1 hit here in the U.S. in 1967, has a downright gorgeous tune, aided by Jones lovely work on the recorder, proving that those things that we all had to play in grade school music could indeed have a purpose. Richards claimed at different times that the lyrics were based on a groupie and on his mid-60’s girlfriend Linda Keith. Given his reputation, you can understand how Keith’s recollections might be fuzzy, but it’s impossible to deny he came up with a first-rate song. And he wisely left it in Jagger’s hands to deliver a moving vocal. Even though the girl has left the narrator behind, his admiration for her elusiveness shines through. Richards manages to paint a portrait of his wayward muse in just a few short strokes. The very first couplet lays out her worldview: “She will never say where she came from/Yesterday don’t matter if it’s gone.” As the song progresses, the case Ruby makes for her peripatetic behavior becomes more and more compelling. “She just can’t be chained/To a life where nothing’s gained/And nothing’s lost,” Jagger sings. Indeed, if we are “dying all the time” and time is running out on all of us, maybe this girl’s way of living, spurning all attachments and moving from one paramour to the next, isn’t all that reckless after all. In the end, the narrator can’t hold her back any more than he could hold back the wind, so he bids her a fond farewell: “Goodbye Ruby Tuesday/Who could hang a name on you/When you change with every new day/Still I’m gonna miss you.” Through the tears, he can see clearly now that he never could have kept her, but it hurts just the same. Such sentiments aren’t often expressed so eloquently in rock music, let alone by a band and songwriter more known for bluesy abandon. To sum up the unexpected beauty of “Ruby Tuesday,” perhaps it’s best to quote Keith Richards’ idol Chuck Berry: It goes to show you never can tell. "Ruby Tuesday" She would never say where she came from Yesterday don't matter if it's gone While the sun is bright Or in the darkest night No one knows She comes and goes Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday Who could hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you Don't question why she needs to be so free She'll tell you it's the only way to be She just can't be chained To a life where nothing's gained And nothing's lost At such a cost Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday Who could hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you There's no time to lose, I heard her say Catch your dreams before they slip away Dying all the time Lose your dreams And you will lose your mind Ain't life unkind? Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday Who could hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday Who could hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you Written by Jagger/Richards]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/ruby-tuesday-the-rolling-stones/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/ruby-tuesday-the-rolling-stones/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/ZuASYXh3USE/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/daily-discovery-jessica-frech-reality/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 14:54:06 +0000 American Songspace http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=84161
ARTIST: Jessica Frech SONG: "Reality" BIRTHDATE: October 30, 1991 BIRTHPLACE: Orlando, Fl AMBITIONS: To make music that makes people laugh and smile. TURN-ONS: Someone fluent in Spanish. TURN-OFFS: Mustaches. DREAM GIG: Hosting Saturday Night Live. TV ADDICTIONS: House, The Office MY GO-TO FEEL GOOD RECIPE: Any kind of cupcake with cream cheese frosting. PETS: 2 [...]]]>
ARTIST: Jessica Frech SONG: "Reality" BIRTHDATE: October 30, 1991 BIRTHPLACE: Orlando, Fl AMBITIONS: To make music that makes people laugh and smile. TURN-ONS: Someone fluent in Spanish. TURN-OFFS: Mustaches. DREAM GIG: Hosting Saturday Night Live. TV ADDICTIONS: House, The Office MY GO-TO FEEL GOOD RECIPE: Any kind of cupcake with cream cheese frosting. PETS: 2 Bullmastiffs (Elvira and Rufus) CELEBRITY CRUSH: Purrfect (Cee Lo Green's Persian Cat) 5 PEOPLE I'D LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Conan O' Brien. Tina Fey. Amy Poehler. Zooey Deschanel. Ingrid Michaelson. I WROTE THIS SONG: “Reality” was really an “escape” song for me. It's all about knowing that there are brighter places and days. Honestly, I think the chorus hit me when I was sitting in class studying, so the song came from a large case of day dreaming. Stream “Reality” and more music from Jessica Frech at American Songspace.]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/daily-discovery-jessica-frech-reality/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/daily-discovery-jessica-frech-reality/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/bV5ZKJvIaFI/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/pieces-of-the-sky-the-legacy-of-gram-parsons/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:46 +0000 Davis Inman http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=82667
(Photo: Robert Altman) Gram Parsons is often credited with the creation of country-rock, and his influence hovers over a huge cross section of songwriters and musicians today – from those who worked with him like Emmylou Harris and Chris Hillman, to modern rock and rollers like Ryan Adams and Jeff Tweedy. “Every single generation has [...]]]>
(Photo: Robert Altman) Gram Parsons is often credited with the creation of country-rock, and his influence hovers over a huge cross section of songwriters and musicians today – from those who worked with him like Emmylou Harris and Chris Hillman, to modern rock and rollers like Ryan Adams and Jeff Tweedy. “Every single generation has an amazing legion of young people that are so dedicated to Gram,” says his daughter Polly Parsons, who now runs the Gram Parsons Foundation in her father’s honor. Maybe part of what attracts us to Gram today is his mysteriousness. There’s very little video footage of him. In one clip, from the Maysles Brothers’ film Gimme Shelter, he’s on stage with The Flying Burrito Brothers at the infamous Altamont concert singing the trucker anthem, “Six Days On The Road.” In another video, a promo shot by A&M Records in 1969 for the Burritos’ first single “Christine’s Tune,” he’s strumming a Telecaster and wearing his famous Nudie suit, looking waifish and feminine. An enigmatic but dedicated artist, Parsons was on a mission to share a new type of music with the world. “It’s hard to describe how deeply Gram loved his music,” writes Keith Richards in his autobiography, Life. “He had one foot in country and one in rock and roll,” says Emmylou Harris. “I think they were both very real for him because of his upbringing and his generation.” “I think pure country includes rock and roll. I don’t think you have to call it country-rock,” Parsons once said. “I was brought up in the South. I never knew the difference between gospel music and country music. It was all the same to me.” ***** “We were rock kids into music, or whatever you called it at the time,” says Luke Lewis, who went to high school with Parsons at Jacksonville’s Bolles School, and is now President of Universal Music Nashville. In 1962, while they were at Bolles, Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds In Country & Western was released, and it had a big influence on both of them. “It was probably the first time either of us had a clue about country music.” Lewis lost touch with Gram after high school, but later founded the revered record label Lost Highway, which has been home to artists like Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, and Johnny Cash. “We were just kids. I taught him how to surf at Ponte Vedra beach,” remembers Lewis. “Gram was one of those guys who we thought, ‘This guy is gonna be a star.’ You could tell he was gifted and special and was totally dedicated to it. He had whatever ‘it’ is, which is sort of magnetic. He was a reader and had taken piano lessons. He was really musical and literate. And he had tragic stuff happen to him when he was really young.” ****** In 1966, Gram moved to Los Angeles, after dropping out of Harvard, where he’d studied theology. The Los Angeles of the late 1960s that attracted him was already ripe for a fusion of country music and rock and roll. Al Perkins came to California from Texas in the late ‘60s with a band called Shiloh (whose drummer was future Eagle Don Henley), and would later join The Flying Burrito Brothers. He also played pedal steel on Gram’s two solo records, GP and Grievous Angel. “Back then, they knew when a longhaired steel guitar player crossed the state line, so I got a few calls from people who were doing this new edgy country,” recalls Perkins. “They weren’t calling it any specific thing but it was a very creative time and it was in the air.” In a few years, Jerry Garcia would play pedal steel on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Teach Your Children,” and the Grateful Dead would release the country music-indebted Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. Bands like Poco, Country Joe McDonald and The Fish, and Dillard and Clark were also incubating in the country-rock scene. By July 1967, Gram and his Harvard friend Jon Nuese had begun recording tracks like “Blue Eyes” that would end up on Safe At Home, The International Submarine Band’s debut album (Nuese and Parsons formed the band in 1965). But by the time the album came out in March 1968, Gram had already joined The Byrds. “My instinct says that he knew he had a lot to do in a very short time,” says Polly Parsons. “I can’t help but think he really had some type of profound knowledge that he wasn’t going to be here for a long time.” ]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/pieces-of-the-sky-the-legacy-of-gram-parsons/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/pieces-of-the-sky-the-legacy-of-gram-parsons/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/w6ox3TFg8jg/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/good-vibrations-a-qa-with-mickey-hart/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:41 +0000 Michael Verity http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=84111
From his early days working in his Dad’s drum shop through his years with the Grateful Dead to his diverse work as a solo artist and ethnomusicologist, Mickey Hart has been fascinated with the inner workings of rhythm, melody and harmony. His latest album, Mysterium Tremendum, combines the lyric poetry of Robert Hunter, the rhythmic [...]]]>
From his early days working in his Dad’s drum shop through his years with the Grateful Dead to his diverse work as a solo artist and ethnomusicologist, Mickey Hart has been fascinated with the inner workings of rhythm, melody and harmony. His latest album, Mysterium Tremendum, combines the lyric poetry of Robert Hunter, the rhythmic celebration of a Dead concert and the science of light turned into sound into a critically acclaimed and wholly satisfying musical experience. While on tour in Seattle, he took a moment to share his thoughts on his long relationship with Robert Hunter, his departed colleague, Levon Helm, and how the music of the spheres found its way onto his new album. How’s the tour been so far? It’s been really uplifting. The band (which also appears on the record) is playing beautifully. The groove is right; the rhythm is right. It couldn’t be better. A lot of people don’t realize you co-wrote Dead songs like “Fire On The Mountain” and “Playing In The Band.” What were your contributions there? “Fire On The Mountain” and “Playing In The Band” are actually my songs. A lot of the music of the Grateful Dead I birthed or helped birth. It’s something that I’m very proud of. And those songs pop up during our current performances, different ones every night. Can you tell us a little bit about the new album, Mysterium Tremendum? What I’m doing is investigating the sonority of the universe going back 13.7 billion years ago to the beginning of time and space, the moment of the creation of the universe. “Beat one,” you could say. I take visual cues from epic moments in the universe, because space doesn’t support sound. Once I find those light waves, I can change their form into sound. Then I make music out of it to have a conversation with the infinite universe. Every star, every planet sings its own song, its own tune. So there’s an orchestra going on up there and I’m just tapping into it and having fun with it. When did you start writing the music on this album? Almost three years ago, during the last Dead tour. That’s when I started introducing celestial sounds into The Rhythm Devils in the Drums and Space segments. Many reviews of Mysterium Tremendum have focused on the “spacey” aspects of the album, suggesting this is a sort of New Age record. But there’s funk, soul and gospel permeating the music, too. You’ve managed to reconcile the scientific with the human. You have to remember I am human and I play music of the whole earth. That’s what I know how to do. So this is combining celestial music with the music of the whole earth. You’re absolutely right: it is a great combination. It is spacey but it’s not without a deep groove to dance to. How did the collaboration with Robert Hunter come about? As always, Robert writes my words. I usually create the music partially and he takes it and writes the words. Usually he comes up with the themes; he’s a master at that. But this time I asked him to concentrate on the theme of man and the universe. This was the first time we worked like this but, of course, he delivered the mother lode. It’s just beautiful. So he tuned in right away to what it was that you wanted to do? Yes. He was very interested and challenged by it. So he broke away for a couple of weeks and really focused on that message. How would you categorize his lyrical style relative to some of the other great lyricists we have in our world today? When you’re in a situation in the future and you can’t explain it, very often a Hunter line or two or three will explain something that’s unexplainable. Is there a Grateful Dead song you would single out as one of his greatest works? Every one of them has the same features to them. Multiple meanings, hidden metaphors, all kinds of stuff. He’s not prone to being interviewed. Do you have any insight into why he doesn’t want to talk about his lyrics? Well, he doesn’t want to have to explain the words. The words should be a very private thing as far as your interpretation of them. You can’t explain magic. That’s what he’s after. And the listener gets to apply to his own surroundings, as well. That’s right. Hunter doesn’t know where you’re hearing these things, and how, in what situation and what meanings you bring. Why limit it? I don’t even ask him what he means. Only once in awhile do I ask him a question because I like to figure it out. What does he say? “Figure it out for yourself?” No. He doesn’t do that. Is the same true with music? Absolutely. You should interpret it personally. We create it, we give it up. Then it’s up to you to figure out what it all means. Or let it just reside in your consciousness and you make the call. It’s so much better, so much more magical than someone telling exactly what you they were thinking. It’s probably not as good as what you conjure. How well did you know your brother behind the drum kit, Levon Helm? Pretty well. He was an amazing guy. He had a great groove, a great backbeat and a very swinging, rolling way of playing the drums. He was a very powerful player. He was an original … and a very nice fellow, too. What are you listening to these days? I’m listening to Native American music quite a bit: recordings done in Maine in the 1890s and some that was recorded for a 1940s radio show in Oklahoma called Indians for Indians Hour. They recorded all kinds of drums and singers and blasted them around eight or nine states on one of those big AM radio stations.]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/good-vibrations-a-qa-with-mickey-hart/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/good-vibrations-a-qa-with-mickey-hart/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/41r32PTsreI/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/punch-brothers-american-pickers/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:22 +0000 Rick Moore http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=82683
(PHOTOS: Danny Clinch) Imagine what Bill Monroe might be doing today if he were 30. Just as he did some 70 years ago, he might be revolutionizing the role of the mandolin in modern music, and sometimes singing in a falsetto, while fronting a modern quintet featuring only the best musicians on mandolin, guitar, banjo, [...]]]>
(PHOTOS: Danny Clinch) Imagine what Bill Monroe might be doing today if he were 30. Just as he did some 70 years ago, he might be revolutionizing the role of the mandolin in modern music, and sometimes singing in a falsetto, while fronting a modern quintet featuring only the best musicians on mandolin, guitar, banjo, fiddle, bass and harmony vocals, while mostly, but not always, performing original material. While Chris Thile may never have meant to evoke such a comparison, the parallels can’t be denied. A 21^st century version of the Bluegrass Boys is exactly what Thile ended up with when he pulled some musician friends together for his 2006 album How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, and ended up fronting a band called Punch Brothers. After a couple of personnel changes since that album, Punch Brothers – banjo player Noam Pikelny, guitarist Chris Eldridge, Thile’s childhood fiddler pal Gabe Witcher, and bassist Paul Kowert – have received Grammy nominations, backed up country star Dierks Bentley, and released acclaimed recordings, including the new Who’s Feeling Young Now. Punch Brothers have become the present-day equivalent of Monroe’s outfit, taking acoustic music to the masses via stage and television just as Monroe and crew did via the Grand Ole Opry, Bean Blossom, and whatever radio show would have them. And in an era where many of today’s performers look like they just crawled out from under their tractors, Punch Brothers, like Monroe’s band, even wear ties. Having played music professionally for some two decades, first with Nickel Creek and now with Punch Brothers, Thile has developed an almost organic approach to how music is made and how songs are written. Punch Brothers don’t worry a lot about things like A-B-A-B-C-B structure or if an intro is too long for radio. They just get together and create. “There are as many different processes to writing for us as there are songs,” Thile says. “I think that to write songs you need to live in such a way that your ears are always wide open, and the boys and I try to do that. When we come together to write, and an idea takes root and starts to grow, it can come fairly quickly and naturally. Music is an abstract language, but we all speak that same musical language to a great extent.” Take away the songs, though, and you’ll have a group of men who are all acclaimed instrumentalists, who manage to live up to the review hyperbole of titles like “The World’s Greatest Mandolinist” or “Groundbreaking Banjo Player.” To create their one-of-a-kind sound, Punch Brothers use a combination of top-quality, and sometimes rare and vintage, acoustic instruments whose sounds are enhanced by the technology of today. * * * * * After using mandolins made by East Tennessee luthier Lynn Dudenbostel, Chris Thile acquired a 1924 Gibson F-5 Lloyd Loar mandolin a few years ago. “I got it from a dealer named Crawford White in Nashville,” he says. “It was supposedly purchased new by a guy from Kansas who played it in a mandolin orchestra for a year, then got married and never played again. After he died I ended up with it.” Since he got the F-5, Thile has played it pretty much exclusively. “I have other mandolins, but that’s the only one I play right now.” For amplification, he says, “We all use (Audio-Technica) ATM35s, which in my case clips onto an arm rest, and we just started using actual pickups to simulate the tone that we got on Who’s Feeling Young Now. Both the lyric content and musical content of the new record demanded that we make a change in our live sound to communicate that musical urgency, and that necessitated using pickups.” “I’m using a K&K ‘twin internal’ pickup that Joe Glaser in Nashville set up for me,” he continues. “I didn’t want to enlarge the soundhole, I didn’t want to change the wood. So I had him make a new endpin that we fed a wire to the pickup out of and we mounted a quarter-inch jack on a Tone-Gard.” Thile uses Blue Chip picks and Elixir strings, and he and the rest of the band sing through Shure SM58 microphones. On his 2004 solo album Deceiver, Thile played more than 30 instruments, but doesn’t really have much to say about any of them, or whether or not he might play a different instrument on a future Punch Brothers recording (though he did play some guitar with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, fiddler Stuart Duncan and bassist Edgar Meyer on The Goat Rodeo Sessions). “I guess I might do something like that sometime,” he says, “but I don’t just want to do it because I can. I’m more concerned with playing one instrument well, that’s what I’m focused on. The mandolin is what I do.” ]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/punch-brothers-american-pickers/feed/ 1 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/punch-brothers-american-pickers/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/Mq7fLW_jw8E/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/song-premiere-jamie-mclean-band-natalie/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 16:56:06 +0000 Evan Schlansky http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=84130
"'Natalie"'is a tribute to actress Natalie Portman," says Jamie McLean of bluesy rockers Jamie McLean Band. "There was a billboard of her plastered around New York City one winter that sparked the idea of a love song combining Natalie's ‘girl next door’ image with a classic Hollywood Werewolf character. It's a twisted, rock and roll [...]]]>
"'Natalie"'is a tribute to actress Natalie Portman," says Jamie McLean of bluesy rockers Jamie McLean Band. "There was a billboard of her plastered around New York City one winter that sparked the idea of a love song combining Natalie's ‘girl next door’ image with a classic Hollywood Werewolf character. It's a twisted, rock and roll romance song." Check out the track, from the band's new album Live at Gibson, out May 22nd on Decision Records, below. You may also know McLean from his stint as a guitarist in the New Orleans outfit Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Live at Gibson, recorded at the Gibson Showroom in New York City, features the band's original tunes and fiery covers of The Allman Brothers' “Midnight Rider” and Otis Redding’s “Mr. Pitiful.” ]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/song-premiere-jamie-mclean-band-natalie/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/song-premiere-jamie-mclean-band-natalie/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/uUc8rZDHwEY/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/daily-discovery-the-electric-hearts-be-mine/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 15:14:16 +0000 American Songspace http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=84104
ARTIST: The Electric Hearts SONG: "Be Mine" BIRTHDATE: Cinco de Mayo 2010 BIRTHPLACE: A Garage on Acklen and Marlborough AMBITIONS: Not really TURN-OFFS: Juggalos and Ambitions TURN-ONS: T-Rex recording artist, T-Rex the Dinosaur, a clean bill of health, and sock puppets. DREAM GIG: Opening for David Bowie...on the MOON! MY GO-TO FEEL-GOOD MOVIE: The Room [...]]]>
ARTIST: The Electric Hearts SONG: "Be Mine" BIRTHDATE: Cinco de Mayo 2010 BIRTHPLACE: A Garage on Acklen and Marlborough AMBITIONS: Not really TURN-OFFS: Juggalos and Ambitions TURN-ONS: T-Rex recording artist, T-Rex the Dinosaur, a clean bill of health, and sock puppets. DREAM GIG: Opening for David Bowie...on the MOON! MY GO-TO FEEL-GOOD MOVIE: The Room 5 THINGS ALWAYS IN MY FRIDGE: Air, lights, cold, shelves, and dreams. YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN LOVE WHEN: he goes to Jared. PETS: Huckleberry, Ollie, Otis, and Linus. WORDS TO LIVE BY: Hey...you're Awsum! I WROTE THIS SONG: Too soon (he didn't go to Jared). Stream “Be Mine” and more music from The Electric Hearts at American Songspace.]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/daily-discovery-the-electric-hearts-be-mine/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/daily-discovery-the-electric-hearts-be-mine/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/v1cuFWEhyxU/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/song-premiere-fort-atlantic-let-your-heart-hold-fast/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 15:09:57 +0000 Evan Schlansky http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=84102
Fort Atlantic are the latest band to be added to the swelling Bonnaroo lineup. The brainchild of songwriter Jon Black, Fort Atlantic will be supporting their self-titled debut album, out May 29 on Dualtone. Get a listen to the album track "Let Your Heart Hold Fast," which features an anthemic chorus that uses a choir [...]]]>
Fort Atlantic are the latest band to be added to the swelling Bonnaroo lineup. The brainchild of songwriter Jon Black, Fort Atlantic will be supporting their self-titled debut album, out May 29 on Dualtone. Get a listen to the album track "Let Your Heart Hold Fast," which features an anthemic chorus that uses a choir of disparate voices Black collected over e-mail. "The inspiration for the virtual choir came from a live version of Pete Seeger singing "We Shall Overcome"," Black tells American Songwriter. "It's amazing because Pete's voice is hard to hear due to the audience singing with him. Music should remind us we're not alone and what better way than to have people sing with you? I don't have to invite people over to the studio anymore. Geographical boundaries for the recording studio are starting to blur. One guy even did this on his iPhone during his lunch break at work and emailed it in directly from the parking lot. It was a fun experiment and I hope to do more things like this in the future." If it turns out as good as this one did, we're all ears. ]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/song-premiere-fort-atlantic-let-your-heart-hold-fast/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/song-premiere-fort-atlantic-let-your-heart-hold-fast/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/LHGt10v6n9g/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/old-crowe-medicine-show-return-with-new-album-tour/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 14:35:34 +0000 Evan Schlansky http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=84120
On July 17, beloved string band Old Crow Medicine Show will return with their fourth studio album, Carry Me Back, on ATO Records. The new, 12-song disc was produced by Ted Hutt (Gaslight Anthem, Flogging Mollys) and recorded at Sound Emporium studios in Nashville, where classic albums like the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, REM's [...]]]>
On July 17, beloved string band Old Crow Medicine Show will return with their fourth studio album, Carry Me Back, on ATO Records. The new, 12-song disc was produced by Ted Hutt (Gaslight Anthem, Flogging Mollys) and recorded at Sound Emporium studios in Nashville, where classic albums like the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, REM's Document, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's Raising Sand were born. Carry Me Back is their first studio album since 2008's The Tennessee Pusher. "For me, Carry Me Back is all about the songs, how they line up, intertwine, switch partners, and promenade home," says fiddler Ketch Secor, who adds,"each of these songs was an accident waiting to happen." O.C.M.S., who are set to headline the ROMP Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky on June 30, will kick off an expansive summer tour July 19 in Indianapolis, Indiana. "The greatness of an old-time string band lies in its performance," says Secor. "The way it percolates, rattling itself almost to the edge. When you've got a top-notch studio like Sound Emporium, and 12 strong tunes in the works, and the time and patience it takes to get it right--that's when great performances can be captured." Old Crow Medicine Show recently appeared with Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros in the film Big Easy Express; read our review. Old Crow Medicine Show Tour Date June 30 - Owensboro, KY @ ROMP Festival July 19 - Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room July 20 - St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant July 21 - Kansas City, MO @ The Crossroads July 26 - Louisville, KY @ Palace Theatre July 27 - Cincinnati, OH @ Taft Theatre July 28 - Nashville, TN @ The Woods at Fontanel with Special Guests August 1 - Richmond, VA @ Maymont Park w/The Milk Carton Kids and Special Guest August 2 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/The Milk Carton Kids and Special Guest August 3 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/The Milk Carton Kids and Special Guest August 4 - Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory w/The Lumineers & The Milk Carton Kids August 6 - New York, NY @ SummerStage, Central Park w/The Lumineers & The Milk Carton Kids August 8 - Portland, ME @ State Theatre w/The Lumineers & The Milk Carton Kids August 9 - Boston, MA @ House of Blues w/The Lumineers & The Milk Carton Kids August 10 - Burlington, VT @ Waterfront Park w/The Lumineers & The Milk Carton Kids August 12 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE w/The Lumineers August 17 - Salem, VA @ Salem Civic Center w/The Lumineers August 18 - Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre w/The Lumineers August 19 - Charlottesville, VA @ nTelos Wireless Pavilion w/The Lumineers & Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three August 23 - Birmingham, AL @ Alabama Theatre w/The Lumineers & Milk Carton Kids August 24 - Knoxville, TN @ The Tennessee Theatre w/ The Lumineers & Milk Carton Kids August 25 - Atlanta, GA @ The Fox Theater w/The Lumineers & The Milk Carton Kids]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/old-crowe-medicine-show-return-with-new-album-tour/feed/ 1 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/old-crowe-medicine-show-return-with-new-album-tour/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanSongwriter/~3/yZox1TM2JMg/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/great-quotations-vince-gill/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 13:23:06 +0000 Evan Schlansky http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=84095
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"Income streams are dwindling. Record sales aren't what they used to be. The devaluation of music and what it's now deemed to be worth is laughable to me. My single costs 99 cents. That's what a cost in 1960. On my phone, I can get an app for 99 cents that makes fart noises -- the same price as the thing I create and speak to the world with. Some would say the fart app is more important. It's an awkward time. Creative brains are being sorely mistreated." -- Vince Gill, (via The Boot)]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/great-quotations-vince-gill/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/05/great-quotations-vince-gill/