roots rock twang news

The Roots of Rock History / April 25-May 1

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Cheap Trick doing the Beatles, Elvis Costello covering Nazareth, Springsteen climbs a wall, and U2 bombs.
April 25
Just days after completing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1967, The Beatles lay down tracks for “Magical Mystery Tour” at Abbey Road studios in London.
Cheap Trick version of a classic tune from “Abbey Road” – just because we can…:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUio17-eZKE]
April 26
ABC’s telecast of “U2: A Year in POP” in 1997 becomes the lowest-rated prime-time program in the history of major network television.
Here’s what part of that broadcast looked like, with Dennis Hopper doing narration:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0sZNsBGN8A]
April 27
Ray Stevens releases what would be his biggest hit, “The Streak”. The novelty tune would make it to the top of the US charts next month.
April 28
Blondie brings a touch of New Wave to the Hot 100 when “Heart Of Glass” reaches #1 in 1979.
April 29
Aretha Franklin releases “Respect” in 1969, her soon-to-be signature tune.
April 30
Elvis Presley records “Jailhouse Rock” in 1957. The song will go on to top the US Best Sellers list, the Hot 100, the R&B chart and even the Country and Western chart. It will also become the first single to enter the UK chart at #1.
In 1964,The Beatles receive $140,000 for the rights to having their pictures included in packages of bubble gum in the USA.
After playing Memphis during a southern tour in 1976, Bruce Springsteen climbs the fence at Graceland in an attempt to see Elvis Presley. Security guards stop him and he is escorted off the grounds.
Twiggs Lyndon, the road manager for the Allman Brothers Band, is arrested in 1970 for murder after he stabbed a club manager during an argument over a contract. At the ensuing trial, Lyndon’s lawyers will argue that he had been temporarily insane at the time of the incident and that touring with the Allman Brothers would drive anyone insane. Incredibly, Lyndon will be acquitted.
Then there’s the case of 51 year-old Darrell Sweet, drummer of Nazareth, best remembered for their 1976 hit “Love Hurts”. He suffered a fatal heart attack in 1999 before a show in New Albany, Ind., when he began feeling ill and within minutes went into cardiac arrest. He was rushed to the New Albany Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris performing “Love Hurts”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojsVB7idTLw]
May 1
In 1955, Leonard Chess signs Chuck Berry to a recording contract after he came highly recommended by Muddy Waters.

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Pink Floyd’s, “Dark Side of the Moon” finally drops off the US albums chart in 1988, after a run of 725 weeks (almost 14 years).

Hear Four New Songs from Upcoming Hold Steady Album

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Heaven Is Whenever, the new album from the Hold Steady can be heard – at least some of it – on the web. Four songs from the record are online: “Hurricane J”, “Rock Problems”, “The Weekenders” and, “Barely Breathing”.
 Stream it at Stereogum
The album comes out May 4, and the band rocks “The Colbert Report” on May 13.
Now without longtime keyboard player, Franz Nicolay, The Hold Steady will slightly tilt how they have sounded for the past half-decade. Nicolay announced he was leaving at the end of January, believing his ideas were a bit, shall we say, stifled?
He gave a majestic, elegant layer of sound to The Hold Steady, and was an important ingredient in their musical soup – I would argue as important as the spoken-sung vocals or the snarling guitars.   Irreplaceable?  Probably not.  Judging from the new music, they’ll be fine.  But different, subtly or more.
For the man who’s always seemed to be either the subliminal genius or annoying little brother in the band, he is on his own, with his solo debut album “Major General”. Nicolay, famous for the Rollie Fingers-like moustache, Roy Bittan sound, and the near-bombastic (for a sideman) stage manner, told Paste Magazine that “(The Hold Steady) have their one big idea — making literate, wordy lyrics over big anthemic rock — and the last two records were about as good as I felt like I could do with that idea.”
“I told the band I’d be leaving in early September, and played my last show with them in Minneapolis around Thanksgiving” he wrote on his website.
Nicolay says he took part in recording sessions for the band’s new album last September, but his parts were re-recorded by another keyboardist.
He talks of banjos and tap dancing in most of the interviews I read online, so adjust your expectations accordingly.

Roots Twang News: Jethro Easyfields, Henry French, John Prine Opera

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Americana (and other) artists Bobbie Lancaster, Tim Grimm, Jan Lucas, Tim Brickley, Michael Shelton, and Jenni Gregory will perform in the show Positively Prine at the Phoenix Theater May 7-9 and 13-16. It’s the stories of six characters told through the music of John Prine. Worth a look for fans Prine fans I’m certainly one. His debut is one of the best in rock and folk history. Bryan Fonseca directs this production, which they are calling an “operetta”. And anything Tim Grimm touches is usually really good, just so you know…

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Roots rocker Jethro Easyfields is taking a break from recording his new album “Bloodletting” to play Spencers Stadium Tavern on April 24th with “some very special guests”.
Finally, Henry French is set to rock Friday, May 21 at Radio Radio.

Indianapolis Music Blog Going Not-For-Profit?

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One of the gems of the Indianapolis (and all of Indiana) music scene, musicalfamilytree.com, has an interesting post on their blog this week about potentially becoming a not-for-profit and what that might mean. Worth reading. And I want to remind you how this site is important. It excels as a clearinghouse for lots of smaller-but-talented Indiana bands and their music. Lots of non-released (on CD) music. There is hard-to-find Elms music (plus the acoustic version companion album they released with their new “The Great Midwest Range” album.) and dozens of tracks from prolific artists like Jethro Easyfields, who records albums sporadically but has lots of music at the site for comsumption. Plus, the similar artists feature engine they are using is right on. I looked up Indiana roots rock singer/songwriter Rusty Bladen, a Tom Petty kind of artist from Madison. While I could listen to a number of his songs, there was also a list of similar artists on the right side of the page, and checked out some Chevy Downs tracks because they were there. And it’s free for everyone, both artists and users. Find it…
Roots-Rock Video: Joe Pug is known in music circles as the guy who sent existing fans copies of a free 2-song sampler CD (more than 15,000, according to his website) to pass along to their friends, with a personal note inside each. He’s been on the road for more than two years, and has created a buzz.
Click here for video from a recent SXSW appearance on a”The Guest Apartment online segment. He has some Midwest dates scheduled after he gets back from the six shows in Ireland, but not Indy yet – only as close as Chicago (May 15 at The Vic w/ Josh Ritter)

Twang Report: Drive-By Truckers, Truth & Salvage Co., Ryan Adams, Dropkick Murphy's

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Maybe the biggest and best-est band playing American Rock?: Drive-By Truckers getting a ton of good press about their new album, “The Big To-Do”, out this week. They’ll appear on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” on Wednesday, March 31st and are releasing a series of webisodes that tell the behind-the-scenes story of each song from the record. Recorded in the studio in Athens, Georgia, plus as the band performs the new songs at sound check and in concert, and it includes interviews with the band. Here’s the first installment and it is damn good – both in content and with the production.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6MVhVuWnQc]
Circle The Date: I wrote about Truth and Salvage Co. last time (from the cuts I’ve heard, maybe the best Americana album of 2010 – to be released in May), and Indiana guy Tim Jones’ contribution to the band. They hit Birdy’s May 6 – a nice “get” for that club. Thought it might make sense to remind you of one of Tim’s other projects, Chevy Downs, before we leave Mr. Jones alone. And, just so you know, I’ve always liked bands that include guitar whiz John Byrne as a member. Remind yourself of their sound here
OK. Shoulda seen this one coming up the highway: Conan O’Brien is taking his act on the road. He announced a 30-city theater tour, and Andy Richter and the former “Tonight Show” band (maybe the best talk show band ever) will join Conan for The “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour” that begins April 12 concludes June 14. Word today was that a documentary will be filmed around the tour (not exactly a new idea, but makes plenty-o-sense).
Finally, on Ryan Adams’ website, the alt-country crazy man says: “We’re going to begin pressing ORION — my most legit METAL record — on vinyl next week.”
check out ORION – ELECTROSNAKE
I leave you with this from the Dropkick Murphy’s, wholly appropriate for March 17th.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L4Br6faBPM]

Roots-Rock Music News: Truth & Salvage Co., Levon Helm, Legendary Shack Shakers

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Tim Jones, the voice and guitar from Bloomington’s near-legends Old Pike, has spent 10 years banging around the LA music scene, and he’ll resurface in a big way with a new band that has the chops and sound to break out. In California since 2001, he’s now part a band called Truth & Salvage Co. They’ll release a debut album May 25, produced by the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson (the bands are on the same label – Silver Arrow Records).
Truth & Salvage Co., featuring guys from Georgia, Ohio, Indiana and New Orleans, sounds like – well, a lot like Old Pike. Rough-and-ready vocals, sweet harmonies, a great space-filling Hammond B3 sound tumbling around inside a band cranking out American rock and roll. Does that interest you? It should. You can hear three cuts from the album here
They’ve landed a slot opening for the red-hot Avett Brothers tour all through April, and play their own show at Birdy’s here in Indianapolis on May 6, as part of a Midwest trek that includes St. Louis, Columbus and Chicago.
When I listen, I hear a group that sounds ready for their moment. When critics start to write about them, you’ll hear comparisons to The Band, Tom Petty, the aforementioned Avett Brothers, maybe even Old Crow Medicine Show, and inevitably, the Black Crowes, though not nearly as jam-happy or blues-based. While they pull their sound from all of those influences, it’s still midwest rock, filtered through the harmonies of California and the gospel of the American South. Worth finding the music and the noting the upcoming show. They are my new favorite band.
hear in-studio live performance at daytrotter.com
→ The Band’s Levon Helm’s has lived a rough and glorious life: He’s survived throat cancer, bankruptcy, drug addiction and the tragic loss of band mates Richard Manuel and Rick Danko. His last two solo records (especially Electric Dirt”) have been acclaimed (rightly so) as the return of a legend. His voice is one of the most recognizable in the history of rock music. And now “Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm” will take a look at all of it, making its premiere at the SXSW Festival through March 21.
Read a great blog post about making the film from it’s director, Jacob Hatley
EXCERPT
“It’s late and you’re sitting around Levon’s kitchen table. It has a hazy glow about it. Crew and cast have slept until at least 11 am that morning. Nothing is scheduled for the next day. Your mind is limber.
“So Levon just starts talking.
“He describes the duckbilled platypus (“the absolute baddest thing you can get a hold of”), he reenacts his favorite scene from The Wild Bunch, he talks about an old boy he once knew who rode his mule into town to go to a dance and on the way swapped his .38 for a .22 because you just can’t move around with a big .38 in your pocket. He remembers living in hotels in Canada, the simple existence when you didn’t owe anybody anything and you told the maids to just leave some towels, and you spent your days watching Peter Cushing double features and your nights playing hard driving rockabilly music.
“It’s loose but goddamn it’s vivid. And you realize you want your whole film to be nothing more than this: an A, number 1 certified hangout movie. A movie, as Howard Hawks put it, that’s no plot, just character.
“But then things do happen. Levon records his first record in twenty-five years. He loses his voice. He runs into serious financial trouble. He is told he will receive a Lifetime Achievement Grammy for The Band and he rejects it. Suddenly, events loaded with dramatic potential swarm around you. Stuff documentary filmmakers supposedly dream about. But the thing that keeps nagging at you: ‘What about the duckbilled platypus?'”
→ In other new release notes, Gothic-country punkers The Legendary Shack Shackers will release their seventh full-length album, “Agridustrial”, on April 13th on their own Colonel Knowledge label. Loud and thrashy, with a bit of a twang.
Get a free download of “Sin Eater” from the new record
→ The Court Yard Hounds (Dixie Chicks sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire) take the stage during the Americana Music Association showcase at Antone’s at SXSW next Thursday (March 18th) and will go on to do a string of intimate shows across the country. The CD, on Columbia (meaning it’s more than just a side project) is out May 4.
listen to four cuts here. Very Sheryl Crow-like…