Neil Young is in the final stages of mixing his new album, which he recorded with U2 producer Daniel Lanois in a Los Angeles house earlier this year. “We cut a couple of solo acoustic songs, but the rest is very electric,” Lanois told Rolling Stone. “There’s no band, but I got in there with my sonics. There’s nothing else out there like it.”‘ In other Neil Young news, the second volume of his Archives box set is coming out. It will contain at least three unreleased albums (1975’s Homegrown, 1977’s Chrome Dreams and 1978’s Oceanside-Countryside) as well as live recordings from Young’s 1976 tour with Crazy Horse.
Richie Hayward, the drummer best known as a founding member of the band Little Feat, died last Thursday. He had been battling liver cancer. He died from complications of lung disease at a hospital in Victoria, British Columbia while awaiting a liver transplant.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z-GwdaKrn8]
roots rock twang news
NPR, PBS continue rootsy music dominance w/ Mellencamp, Prine; New Americana music from Mic Harrison
NPR and PBS continue to be among the best at chronicling live music and singer/songwriters.
AUDIO: Hear John Prine (with Indiana’s Jason Wilber on guitar) – Live at Newport Folk Festival.
Listen Here
VIDEO: John Mellencamp has been on the PBS Tavis Smiley program all week, talking Monday about his new album and playing music on each of the next four nights. Mellencamp.com has put together a very nice compilation of the apearances. And what’s the connection between Mellencamp and the host? Smiley went to IU, and used to go to the early John Cougar shows.
Watch video (interview and performances) here
AMERICANA ROCK BAND ALERT: Mic Harrison and The High Score have a new album, Great Commotion. The word is that the Tennessee guys all have day jobs, and took a six month break to write and record the new album. The cut below hits into an Elvis Costello-ish vein, with jangly, rootsy, midwestern guitars and REM drums.
Harrison, a native of Bradford, Tennessee native was a member of the twang/roots-rockers V-Roys, joining just as the band was being signed by Steve Earle’s label. He hung with Scott Miller and the rest of the band for three albums, and toured everywhere before they disbanded in 1999. Mic released two solo albums, and then hooked up with The High Score in 2007.
Great Commotion is the first release totally recorded and produced by the band, and was mastered by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (Dan Baird, Bottle Rockets) – roots rock with power pop.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gStlgPv-xe0]
VIDEO: J. Geils Band at Fenway Park – 3 songs
The J. Geils Band is one of the great rock and roll bands of all-time – and I ain’t bullshittin’ ya. A band’s legacy isn’t worthy of a title like that unless they come with it live, night after night, tour after tour. And they did. Sweaty, R&B, bluesy rock and roll. Frontman Peter Wolf is deserving of every accolade you might hear about Mick Jagger or Robert Plant or Steven Tyler.
The band is back this summer for some dates, and played a double-bill with Tyler’s Aerosmith at Fenway Park last Saturday. Wolf and the Geils boys opened. They fought some odds: It was daytime, the crowd wasn’t crazy drunk, and the small stadium is still a cavernous place to see a rock show. But the J. Geils Band still has it. Wolf is still Wolf. And here is a video we found of the end of “Lookin’ for Love” and all of “Whammer Jammer”, and “Ain’t Nothin’ But A Houseparty”, together in one long, take-me-there video. Shot side stage by a videographer from the Boston Phoenix alternative paper.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L_GeBGITxw]
NOTES: According to Boston.com, Tyler didn’t want Wolf to use the ramp that extended into the audience and told him so the night before the show. According to a source, the singers had a “heated argument’’ in the outfield as a few dozen workers put the finishing touches on the stage Friday. In the end, Tyler relented, but he told Wolf to also get the OK from Joe Perry, which Wolf did.
Just letting you know I
Just letting you know I passed on Phish at Deer Creek tonight to take in the big free Rick Springfield show at the State Fair…
New Mellencamp tour includes five Indiana shows
John Mellencamp announced the first leg of the No Better Than This Tour will begin in late October. The tour will be “an evening with,” type of show, and will play mostly theater-sized venues, although one of the most interesting bookings announced is a November 11 show at Hinkle Fieldhouse, one of five Indiana shows. The tour, anticipated to continue through the Spring of 2011, will begin on October 29 in Bloomington.
The format of the show is three pieces: an acoustic set, Mellencamp fronting a small combo, and a full rock band segment. The tour’s opening act is a documentary film by Kurt Markus called It’s About You. Shot on Super8 film over the course of last year’s Bob Dylan-John Mellencamp-Willie Nelson tour of minor league baseball stadiums, it chronicles the creation of the album No Better Than This. which comes out August 17.
TOUR SCHEDULE
Oct. 29 – Bloomington, IN – Indiana University Auditorium
Nov. 1 – Cincinnati, OH – Music Hall
Nov. 3 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
Nov. 5 – Kansas City, MO — The Midland
Nov. 6 – St. Louis, MO – The Fabulous Fox Theatre
Nov. 8 – Indianapolis, IN – Clowes Memorial Hall
Nov. 11 – Indianapolis, IN – Hinkle Fieldhouse
Nov. 13 – South Bend, IN – Morris Performing Arts Center
Nov. 16 – Fort Wayne, IN – Embassy Theatre
Nov. 17 – Cleveland, OH – Palace Theatre
Nov. 19 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
Nov. 20 – Pittsburgh, PA – Heinz Hall
Nov. 22 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre
Nov. 23 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre
Nov. 26 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
Nov. 27 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
Tickets to all shows except in Pittsburgh and Chicago go on sale this Saturday (August 14) at 10am.
mellencamp.com
Roots Rock News: Todd Snider in NY Times, Bruce doc in September, Truth & Salvage Co. video
A piece in the New York Times captures the essence of Todd Snider. I remember in 1996, seeing Todd and the Nervous Wrecks perform a sweaty blowout of a show at the Patio, and later that year, at the Vogue, and thinking then that he was pretty damn special. And I figured the road ahead to any mainstream success would be a long one. Truimphantly, he has persevered to create a solid spot for himself in the pantheon of Americana singer/songwriters. Viva Todd.
Read article here
Hear the BoDeans as they played both new and old music at Studio 92, in advance last week’s show at the Vogue. Brad Holtz chatted with them about returning to Indy, their new album, and writing “Good Things” in Bloomington. They played a set featuring “Idaho,” “Stay,” “Shine,” and “Good Things”.
Hear it on WTTS website
Americana songman Jethro Easyfields has two shows scheduled in Indianapolis on his birthday this Saturday. First, he is at Spencer’s Stadium Tavern from 7:00-11:00pm before hustling north for a rockin’ midnight set at Locals Only with his band The Arrowheads.
Wanna hit a show just south of Indy? Jennie DeVoe plays on the lawn at Mallow Run Winery in Bargersville Saturday night at 7:00pm. Tickets are $15 and available at the winery. Kids 12 & under are free. It s a blankets-and-lawn chair gig.
Truth & Salvage Co., who showed why they are a band to remember when they came to Birdy’s back in May, is taping Jimmy Kimmel Live on August 16. They have a Gap-related video from Bonnaroo that is pretty sweet. Click here to watch
And as has been speculated for more than a year, official word now arrives that confims Bruce Springsteen is working on completing a new package related to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town,‘ and it will include the new Thom Zimny film “The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge Of Town.”
The documentary will premiere at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival on September 14, according to Shorefire Media, Bruce’s PR people. The film reportedly has a ton of footage from the 1970s and has been rumored to have been in the works for a couple of years, as has a box set or re-release of the Darkness album tracks, plus some unreleased music from the sessions.