Nashville based roots rock singer/songwriter Pat Anderson (born in Oklahoma and raised in Virginia) has an album out,“Magnolia Road”, which features ex-Jayhawk Jen Gunderman (piano, organ, accordion, harmonium), and the gutsy and greasy rock guitar of Will Kimbrough. It’s a good album made better by Kimbrough, who I will always love from his days as the guitar slinger in Todd Snider’s band The Nervous Wrecks back in the 1990’s.
Do you like Will Hoge? You ‘ll like this album…
It is Petty-style country rock, with ballads, rockers, great production, and Kimbrough.
Not much video on YouTube from Anderson, but go to his website to hear the album, and watch this piece from the BBC, of all people.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-8AIFjBFYs]
roots rock twang news
Tech Stuff: MySpace Wants to Sell? Whoops. They might have missed their moment…
News Corp. has announced plans to sell MySpace. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said that “now is the right time” for a “under a new owner.”
Whoops. “We screwed up by not paying attention and now we want our money back”. Is that what I hear them saying? If so, the money may not be there.
MySpace tried to make changes this year (a crappy ground-up redesign), but the crowd had already left the store MySpace owns. News Corp. should have saved their money with that facelift. People now meet up in a different place, a friendlier address, called Facebook/Twitter/Linked-in.
Almost half of MySpace’s staff was served pink slips at the beginning of 2011, reducing overhead. This piece of the company is bleeding money. So they are selling.
Who’s gonna buy? Is there a value to MySpace? I can’t see anything worth more than a few pennies on the MySpace once-proud-but-ugly dollar. Is there a value for musicians to host songs to share with their fans? At one time (two years ago), there might have been. But the fans are gone from the site, and there are others places that more elegantly serve the MySpace music purpose.
Let it die peacefully. It served us all well back before we knew any better. And even then, we could tell it was wonky and looked like crap.
But is was the only social thing we had. Like a first car; a piece of shit, but we loved it at the time. Got us where we were going.
Now, we can’t believe we drove that thing, with the old radio, ugly paint job, crappy heater and the noise coming from the engine. We look back and laugh at the car. And at MySpace.
Good luck selling what’s left. To me, it’s not much. But I am sure there is some technical innovation the fellas at Facebook would pay a couple pity millions for, right?
New music from Steve Earle, Todd Snider
T Bone Burnett produced the Steve Earle song “This City”, which plays during the closing credit for HBO’s Treme, a drama set in the Treme district of New Orleans which in which Earle plays the character of Harley, a local folk musician who is forming a Cajun band to back him on a tour. According to his website, the song will appear on Earle’s upcoming album which will be also be produced Burnett, and has been described by Earle as his “most country album to date.” I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive comes outon April 26th via New West Records. The album is the anticipated follow up to the Grammy Award winning 2009 release Townes.
Steve Earle, Shooter Jennings, Mojo Nixon, Elizabeth Cook talk Springsteen
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWCkNWpqQC0&feature=player_embedded]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVv5EvyN-eM&feature=related
Todd Snider is working with Don Was and Great American Taxi, recording Jerry Jeff Walker songs to be released next year on the occasion of Jerry Jeff’s 70th birthday. Snider says they are about half way done with the project.
“We did ‘Will There Be Any?’ and were going to do ‘Pissin in the Wind’, he writes on his Facebook page. “I think were gonna do about 15 songs…all but three written by jjw. The others are songs he didn’t write but made famous.”
Follow Todd’s postings on his notes page at Facebook. Snider’s also has a new live album coming out February 1.
Roots Rock: Jayhawks back together, Truth and Salvage Co. to Indy, and Webb Wilder to the Hall of Fame
→ The Band Perry (with former Seymour, now Indianapolis resident) Thom Daugherty on guitar) will get two high-profile TV gigs later this month. The group appears on Ellen on the 27th, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on the 28th.
→ The classic Jayhawks lineup of Gary Louris, Mark Olson, Marc Perlman, Tim O’Reagan and Karen Grotberg has been recording together for the first time in 15 years. Acccording to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the album “…is essentially done. Louris is currently holed up in Tucson, Ariz., working on the final mix of the record at a friend’s studio, Wave Lab.” (read full story) Reissues of the group’s Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass albums come out Tuesday (January 18).
→ Truth & Salvage Co., which includes ex-Old Pike singer/songwriter Tim Jones, returns to Indianapolis for a gig at Radio Radio on February 19th. Last year’s show at Birdy’s earned the top spot on my list of best shows of 2010. We’ll have an interview with Jones closer to the Radio Radio gig.
“She Really Does it for Me” LIVE at Sun Studios
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFdKFsGdaUM]
→ Social Distortion’s Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes is also out on Tuesday. It rocks appropriately – Mike Ness and the band done good.
Listen toSocial Distortion – Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes
→ Roots-rocker Webb Wilder will be inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame at a ceremony Tuesday (January 18) night. A native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Webb will be in good company alongside inductees such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty, the Staples Singers, Sam Cooke, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley.
Long a rock cult favorite, and owner of one minor radio hit, the Associated Press described Wilder’s stage performance as “a glorious amalgamation of grunge chords, killer grooves, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins theatrics, a healthy sense of humor, and great pop melodies.”
Wilder’s most recent studio release is entitled More Like Me.
“Human Cannonball” LIVE
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6KPBn-tj9c]
Fuse to show Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in March
Cable network Fuse will telecast the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on March 14. Inductees include Tom Waits, Neil Diamond, the Alice Cooper Band, Dr. John and Darlene Love.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQdhKUNkdUg]
Visit rock hall.com for artist info.
New album for Duke Tumatoe; Chad Mills opening for Zac Brown Band duo
Singer/songwriter Chad Mills is part of the Redbud Tree House Concert Series this Sunday, January 16 at Radio Radio in Indy’s historic Fountain Square District. He will open for Levi Lowrey and Clay Cook, both members of the Zac Brown Band, who are on a tour between dates with the ZB band.
Indianapolis bluesman Duke Tumatoe’s new album, I Just Want to Be Rich comes out January 18 and he will preview the release with a show at Rathskeller in Indianapolis this Saturday, January 15. He will also be at the Players Pub in Bloomington on February 4.
Hear I Just Want to Be Rich