The 2010 Americana Music Association nominations were announced this week, and for fans of the Americana/alt-country rock-and-twang genre (like me), it’s an interesting little list:
Album of the year nominees:
The List – Rosanne Cash (…gonna win because Johnny gave his daughter aformentioned “list” – and Springsteen duets on one of the songs)
A Friend of a Friend – Dave Rawlings Machine (…co-writers and performers include Old Crow Medicine Show, Bright Eyes, and members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
Downtown Church – by Patty Griffin (…most beautiful voice of the four – and many more)
A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is no c) – Ray Wylie Hubbard (…legend, but not the best album)
Artist of the Year
Ryan Bingham (…wrote two tunes – and sang them – for “Crazy Heart”, the Jeff Bridges film = winner)
Patty Griffin (…see note about her from above)
Levon Helm (…still has the great foghorn voice of the Band days)
Steve Earle (… tribute album, Townes, with 15 songs written by his late friend and musical mentor Townes Van Zandt. Interesting that the album is not nominated but he is)
Ray Wylie Hubbard (…well-loved in the alt-country field, but not gonna win)
Duo/Group of the Year
The Avett Brothers (…how can they not win? One of the hottest bands of the past year)
Carolina Chocolate Drops (…too new to win, but are playing a folk festival in Madison in a little more than a week, so that counts for some love here)
Band of Heathens (…I really like the way they rock = but not enough of a widespread buzz for them just yet)
Dave Rawlings Machine (…underdog)
Song of the Year
“The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)” Written by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett-performed by Ryan Bingham
“Drunken Poets Dream” Written by Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard – performed by Ray Wylie Hubbard
“Ruby” Written by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch – performed by Dave Rawlings Machine
“I and Love and You” Written and performed The Avett Brothers
Rob Nichols
Indiana Americana: Jethro Easyfields
Jethro Easyfields cracks me up. I did a piece on him for NUVO back in early 2009, just after the releases of his Elixer album. The Indianapolis singer/songwriter has a slanted, “kinda like-the Silo’s” take on Americana/alt-country. The shit is unique, but familiar. Isn’t that what makes great music ? Still, some of it is homemade Wilco-crazy shit. But if you hit the stuff on just the right minute of the right day, Jethro sounds like a cutting edge, American Hero music genius that Levon Helm would call a friend. But it’s always a slab of music that’s slightly askew.
As are his Facebook postings. Friend him, and join in the fun. Plus he has a new album “Bloodletting” apparently on the way, judging from a recent post, reprinted here. Rock on, my brother.
The Neo-Americana of Truth & Salvage: Interview with Tim Jones
The six guys, four singer-songwriters among them, who eventually formed Truth & Salvage Co. met at Hollywood’s Hotel Cafe, where Indianapolis native, guitarist and songwriter Tim Jones was talent booker.
Jones, ex-leader of Bloomington’s split-too-soon alt-country band Old Pike, which officially broke up in 2000, left for California around the turn of the century. His cohorts in the band hail from the Eastern half of the country: Atlanta, New Orleans, Tupelo, and smaller towns in Ohio.
Starting with impromptu jam sessions, they began to nail down a sound that eerily captures Old Pike’s anthemic Springsteen chord changes, not to mention the Bloomington band’s splash of church organ, rootsy guitars and rock and roll rhythm section.
Truth & Salvage Co.’s self-titled debut record, produced by Black Crowes leader Chris Robinson, releases on May 25. The band has already hit the road for an April tour with the red-hot Avett Brothers, and played at Birdy’s May 6.
Jones spoke to NUVO from Los Angeles a few days before heading on the road.
NUVO: Why’d you move to LA?
Tim Jones: Old Pike had all kind of split. The writing was on the wall and I really didn’t think that there was much more that I could do in Indianapolis. It wasn’t like there were A&R people in every corner. There was a producer in LA that I had worked with that said, “You know if things don’t work out with Old Pike, I’ve got a studio here. You can come out here and work with me for free.”
Three years ago or so, I started playing with all these other guys and music became fun again. It is what playing in a rock and roll band was like when I was in college, you know? When everybody got together just to play for fun. When Old Pike signed a major label record deal, a lot of the fun got sucked out of it. And it just became career-driven and success-driven, instead of music and soul-driven.
I always wanted to be in a rock and roll band and I loved that about Old Pike. After all these years, we finally get that back, where it’s more about, “Well, let’s make great music.” We have so many songs with four or five songwriters in the band that we just get to pick and choose from a wealth of material – it ends up making it easy.
NUVO: How did Truth & Salvage Co. hook up with Chris Robinson?
Jones: We were called the Denim Family Band for a while. We all took ourselves seriously as songwriters and musicians, but when we came together and play, it was like we just were having fun. Pete Angelus had been the Black Crowes manager since 1990. He found us through a mutual friend and was like, “I may know somebody who might like this, my good friend Chris Robinson.” And [Robinson] was like, “We’re starting our record label and were looking for artist”. So he came and checked us out two years ago this July and really dug it. And six months later, we’re signing our record deal and making a record.
Concert Review: Truth & Salvage Co. in Indianapolis
It was 50 minutes into the Truth & Salvage Co. concert Thursday night that the band, in the midst of a bang-bang-bang succession of songs from their upcoming self-titled album, leapt, without a bit of irony, into a cover of The Band’s “The Shape I’m In”.
The group, six guys who joined together in LA, though none from there, decided to reach into the songbook of the one band — The Band — that is so obvious of an influence, that by playing the song, Truth & Salvage Co. gave a wink to those who thought they might not want to hear the comparison.
They had been building up to some sort of musical climax. Within each song, and from one song to the next, they piled harmony upon four-part harmony, two guitars, drums, electric piano and Adam Grace’s thrilling and spiritual Hammond B3 on live versions of nearly every cut on the new album, due out May 25.
With abandon and smiles, the happy gang of six jumped, hopped, sang and looked at each other like they had found the magic. They took the great original version and gave it a shot of Midwest spark, something they did routinely during the 70-minute show.
The Lowdown: Four (or Five) Roots/Rock Shows in Indy This Week
In my world of loosely-defined roots rock and roll, these four shows all fit, and there is a bit of a story to tell on each artist. And there is even a fifth band I thought should get added to the list, after I had decided I was already finished…
South Carolina guitarist/songwriter Zach Deputy plays Tuesday night Birdy’s (May 4), and is touring in support of his new record, Sunshine. He, according to a press release we got at NUVO, is “earning tremendous cred on the jam band circuit with his innovative blues, pop, calypso, soul blend”. They go on to mention Sunshine was named Album of the Year for 2009 by Homegrown Radio Network.
I dug into some of his online stuff, and especially checked into the YouTube videos he has posted. Here’s the deal: he’s a one-man jam band, using loops created live on stage to build up his songs and drive the young hippies and Dave Matthews fans into a groovin’ little dance trance. Definitely grab a puff and check this one out at Birdy’s, if that’s your thing, because I think he’s pretty damn good at what he does.
Indiana Americana: Bobbie Lancaster previews new album; live version of "What You Do to Me"
Bobbie Lancaster’s new album “What You Do To Me” is out in the next few weeks, and she played live at WFHB (Bloomington) last weekend as part of their community radio fundraising. She forwarded me song she performed, and we share it courtesy of the fine music folks at WFHB (you can contribute@ 812.323.1200 – or visit their website wfhb.org. They are a great little radio station).
Lancaster has one of the great Americana voices in Indiana and this debut solo album sounds like it will be terrific. This is a tasty acoustic version of the title cut.