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Music Americana Americana Archive by category "Folk" (Page 2)

Folk from the Texas Hill Country – Possessed by Paul James – There Will Be Nights When I’m Lonely

Now maybe if I had caught this quote in No Depression back in 2010

“If I were to make a list of the 20 most important singer/songwriters of our time, Konrad Wert / Possessed by Paul James, would undoubtedly be among those at the very top.”

or this one from The Onion ??? back in 2007…..

“One-man band Konrad Wert grew up in a Mennonite family, raised by preacher father and a piano player mother, which accounts for both the baptized-in-fire-soul and musical versatility heard in his gritty Old World music. Wert’s mix of blues and vintage folk howls with a sense of explosive freedom and latent rage-not unlike an Amish kid emerging from the wilderness to discover America that instills his simple guitar/fiddle/stomp-box arrangements with unusual passion.” – The Onion 2007 read more

Musical Thoughts about that Parent Child Relationship (Videos)

As I was working along last night at Target, my thoughts drifted back to Andrew, Meaghan and little Oliver and the perilous journey that they are embarking on. We took that trip four times, well maybe we’re still on the journey, and it seems that the results so far, have been very successful! But it’s a tough trip and there are many obstacles along the way. many wrong words to say, many wrong actions to take and all you can do is try to keep them safe, try to help them develop a strong moral character. Often as my children were growing I told them, you know what’s right and what’s wrong so do the right thing! Finally love them unconditionally, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be wrong, or do things that you don’t like and at that point in time, you may not like then very much but you never stop loving them!! And beyond those things you just hope for the best! And I think we got it right so far!! read more

An ADD Lunchtime Takes Me From The Nutopains to Phil Ochs to Neil Young Covering Phil Ochs!!

Yesterday, after I posted my blog article about Aztec Two-Step, I received a Tweet from The Nutopians thanking me for the Tweet and saying that they forwarded the post to Rex and Neil. They then asked if I had heard The Nutopians. I didn’t get a chance to respond, but if I had I would have said, no. Later in the afternoon I went to Spotify and found their album,Lennon Re-Imagined, which is a salute to the music of John Lennon. I listened to a little of the album and thought it sounded pretty good. Duh, the album won the Independent Music Awards Vox Pop “2010 Tribute Album of the Year” for interpretations of John Lennon’s Beatles and solo compositions! You can check it out at CDBaby! read more

Life’s Soundtrack – An afternoon with the songs of Wyatt Easterling from Goodbye Hello!!

So today I spent time listening to two artists whose albums are currently on the Folk DJ Chart for January. The first was Wyatt Easterling whose album Goodbye –Hello is #33 and the second Steep Ravine and their album Trampin’ On which sits a little higher on the chart at #20. Neither of the artists names were familiar to me.

After listening to the really well written songs on Goodbye–Hello, especially my particular favorites “Teach Me How to Say Goodbye”, “If A Tree Falls” and “A Soldier Comes Home” I wondered where this new songwriter came from, what I found out is that this young songwriter released his debut album Both Sides of the Shore, on Moonlight Records (Warner Bros.) in 1981. Then he headed off to Nashville to make his way in the music business. To pay the bills, while he searched foe another record deal, he wrote for various song publishers. Then instead of writing songs and performing them, he became head of A&R for Atlantic Records. and that led to a twenty year career as a songwriter, producer, executive and/or session player. That career has been full of chart-topping songs including cuts with Dierks Bentley, Joe Diffie, Billy Joe Royal, Paul Thorn, Neal McCoy, Sons of the Desert, Robbie Hecht But these days, Easterling is embracing the life of a troubadour, focusing his energy on bringing his music and his stories directly to his audience. His new CD, Goodbye-Hello, is rich with wisdom, acceptance and optimism. “I must say it’s the most personal album I’ve recorded to date.” read more

Thoughts about Dave Van Ronk “The Mayor of MacDougal Street”

So I want to go and see the Coen Brothers new movie: “Inside Llewyn Davis” and surprisingly my wife does, too. I really don’t think she knows that the story is based on Dave Van Ronk’s memoirs because I don’t think she’s a fan of Van Ronk’s music! Anyway, until we get to go I thought that I’d like to read the book The Mayor of MacDougal Street first.So I used some of the money from a Barnes & Noble gift card that my daughter-in-law;law’s parents gave me for Christmas and bought it the other night. I’m not that far into it yet but I’m loving it already. Van Ronk always has had a flair for telling stories and he puts it to good work in his memoirs!! I’ll tell you more about it as I work my way through it. But tonight though my first thoughts were how about I go look up some videos from some of the musicians that populated MacDougal Street back in the day.One of the first names to pop into my head wasn’t Dylan, but Fred Neil and then I thought, hell, why not Van Ronk. The first music from Dave that came to mind was a piece that I heard every Sunday night back in the 60s and 70s and that would be the “St. Louis Tickle”. I heard it as the Gene Shay Folk Radio Show came in and out of commercial breaks. The song is an old piano rag that Van Ronk transcribed to make it a guitar piece. Here’s a good over of the song. read more

A Good Run and Happy Birthday, Greg Trooper!!

So when I turned on my Runmeter app this afternoon, the first thing I saw was my last run – November 18, 2013 and I cringed! I knew it had been a long time since my last run, but I thought that the last one was closer to the end of the month!! It was about the time that the clocks got set back and it started getting dark at 5 o’clock! And then the weather turned nasty and cold and Christmas came along and before I knew it December was gone!! But then I also admit that I am a fair weather runner, when it gets dark and cold, this old body doesn’t really want to go out and run!! But today was nice the high temperature was in the upper 50s and it was sunny with hardly any wind!! I was also off, due to lack of work, (ugh!) and the gave me the opportunity to run in the sun!! I certainly told myself that all I wanted to do was get a 30 minute run in. I didn’t have to set any world speed records and I did a good job throughout the run of slowing down. I often use that trick that if you can talk comfortably you are running comfortably, and I often ask myself (out load) how I am doing and I respond back! If folks are watching they may think I’m crazy,but then again they probably just think I’m on the phone!! Don’t you love that when you are walking along and people come up from behind you and you here their voice and turn to respond only to find that they are talking on the phone!! Happens to me all the time at Target I hear a voice and turn and oh yeah!! But I digress, back to the subject at hand running, or at this point jogging!! So after many thoughts of cutting the run short and mentally figuring where I should turn around I made it to the second mile at between 21-22 minutes and I knew I could make it to the 3o minute mark!! The final distance for the 30:14 minute run was 2.8 miles for an average pace of 10:44 min/mile and I am satisfied with that now I just have to keep going!! The soundtrack for the run was a Prog Rock Album Clessidra from an Italian Prog Band Laviantica. You can read about it at FreeWheelin’ Music Safari When I signed on to Facebook this morning I saw that it was the birthday of one of my favorite Americana musicians, Greg Trooper! Greg was born on this date in 1956 in was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Little Silver. I first listened to Greg’s music sometime around 1999 when his release Straight Down Rain,found its way into my library. That album was quickly followed by his prior release Popular Demons which had been released in 1998, on Koch Records and produced by Buddy Miller. His current release Incident on Willow Street is currently number 2 on the Roots Music Report’s Roots Rock chart! Here’s Greg performing “All the Way to Amsterdam” one of my favorites from Incident on Willow Street! Happy Birthday, Greg!! read more

“Into the Morning” with the music of Mark Erelli -“Volunteer”

So tonight I was thinking, I would post a song from one of my favorite folksinger songwriters. The first one that popped into my head was John Gorka, thoughts of John were quickly replaced by thoughts of Mark Erelli. I listened to Mark’ most recent release Little Vigils the other night and was reminded of what a great songwriter he is. .So I thought that I’d post a video, maybe of one of my early favorites songs “They do it every day” but there was no Youtube video,for the song. Then I thought “Compass and Companion”,but then I spotted this video for his song “Volunteer” on Don Was’ My Damn Channel and I listened once again to this powerful song and again was blown away! Here’s what Don Was writes: read more

2013 Folk – No More Pennies from Canada’s East Coast’s – Dave Gunning!

The other night when I was reviewing the East Coast Music Association 2013 Awards, several of the nominees were familiar. One of the familiar artists was Dave Gunning. I don’t remember when I came across his name, but I remember listening to his 2009 release We’re All Leaving. I remember I enjoyed it, but evidently it was one of those albums that I may have listened to all too briefly, and as I listen to it now, I can’t figure out why?? Because what I hear is great. Anyway Dave was nominated in several categories and “These Hands” a song he co-wrote with George Canyon was awarded Song of the Year at the 2013 East Coast Music Awards! Here’ some awards that he’s won….. read more

Today in History October 16, 1937 – Barry McGuire is born!!

Among today’s birthdays is singer-songwriter Barry McGuire. From Wikipedia – Barry McGuire

…..an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song “Eve of Destruction”, and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian music. In 1963, McGuire along with Randy Sparks (the founder of The New Christy Minstrels) co-wrote, and sang lead vocal on, the Christys’ first and biggest hit single: “Green, Green.” He left the Christys in January 1965, after recording the album,Cowboys and Indians; however, on the 1965 album Chim Chim Cher-ee, he sang only on the title cut….. As a folk rock solo singer in the 1960s, he was best known for his hits “Eve of Destruction” and “Sins of the Family”, both written by P.F. Sloan. His other chart successes were “Child of Our Times” and “Cloudy Summer Afternoon (Raindrops)” (penned by Travis Edmonson of the 1960s folk-duo, Bud & Travis). “Eve of Destruction” sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[1] McGuire’s LP, The Eve of Destruction, reached its peak of number 37 on the Billboard 200 chart during the week ending 25 September 1965. That same day the single of that name went to number one on both charts. McGuire was never again to break into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. According to McGuire, “Eve of Destruction” was recorded in one take on a Thursday morning (from words scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper) and then he got a call from the record company at 7:00 the next Monday morning, telling him to turn on the radio—his song was playing. The recording includes an “ahhh” where McGuire could not read the words.^[2] The Temptationsreferenced McGuire’s song “Eve of Destruction” in their song “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)”. For other references and covers of “Eve of Destruction” see the article: “Eve of Destruction”. read more

Today in Music and History – 1879 – Joe Hill was born!!

As I was closing tabs on my Opera browser tonight I caught a glimpse of Today’s Birthdays in Music from MusicOrb. The page was all the way to the top and birth years ranging from 1698 to 1880 were visible. There in 1879 was a name familiar to most folk music fans, Joe Hill. While I knew the name and the song “Joe Hill”, which has been covered by many artists, I realized that I didn’t know much about the man beyond the fact that he was a labor activist. That meant I needed to go to Wikipedia to find out more about Joe. From Wikipedia: read more

Category: Folk