Band of Heathens - Somebody Tell The Truth

The Band of Heathens via last.fm

Band of Heathens

Band of Heathens on Lone StarMusic

The Band of Heathens are an Americana band from Austin, Texas.

The three principal songwriters - Colin Brooks, Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist - shared the bill at Momo's, an Austin club. Originally, each singer/songwriter performed his own set. However, they eventually started sharing the stage, and collaborating together with bassist Seth Whitney.


The Wednesday night series was billed as "The Good Time Supper Club". A misprint in a local paper billed the act as "The Heathens." In 2007, drummer John Chipman joined the band.

Also notable is a version of "Ain't No More Cane", a traditional prison work song of the American south. The Austin based Band of Heathens included their distinctive arrangement of the old song on their "Live at Momo's" album.

In November 2008 the Americana Music Association announced the Top 100 Albums of the Americana Charts for 2008 and The Band of Heathens came in at No. 8, thus referencing the Band Of Heathens Album as the 8th most played record on the Americana Airplay Charts for 2008.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Band of Heathens - One Foot In The Ether (roughstock.com)

Sam Baker - Juarez (Song to Himself)

Sam Baker

Sam Baker on MySpace

Sam Baker on Music Road Records

Sam Baker thinks of "Mercy" as a collection of atonal story songs — little movies backed by instrumentation that feels like film scoring. It's a good description.

"Intellectually, I knew his songs were great from the moment I heard them. But on a personal level, I was deeply moved," says Austin musician Walt Wilkins, who co-produced Baker's first two albums. "What Sam writes about — and where he writes from — is completely universal."

After the critical success of "Mercy," Baker thought in longer terms — wanting to release two more albums, similar in tone and instrumentation, that would comprise a reflective trilogy. As "Mercy" was about fate, his newly released "Cotton" is a sophisticated record about forgiveness and forgetting. "Pretty World," released second in line in 2007, is in fact the final installment a message of gratitude.

Baker grew up in Itasca, Texas, a small, rural town of about 1,200, on the prairie between Waco and Fort Worth. “There were 35 people in my high school class—1972. And everybody did everything. Everybody played in the band; I played football, basketball, baseball. You had to.”

He graduated from North Texas State and briefly worked as a bank examiner, but a restless spirit led him to many jobs and eventually, like Phil Ochs, to wander the world.

From his bio: "...In 1986, at age 32, Baker was traveling in Peru when, as he says, “I got in the middle of somebody else’s war.” A terrorist bomb (the Sendero Luminoso or “Shining Path” Maoist group) blew up the train he and some friends were riding on. Several passengers died, including a German boy and his parents, who were sitting next to Baker. Though he nearly bled to death, Sam survived but suffered a constellation of injuries and aftereffects—shrapnel in his leg, renal failure, brain damage, even gangrene.

“Right now, the loudest thing I hear is the ringing in my head,” he says of the Tinnitus, which will never go away. The other obvious reminder of the blast is his left hand, the fingers of which are permanently scrunched and twisted. Fortunately, he has enough dexterity to grip a pick—after re-learning to play guitar left-handed (fretting with the less-injured right hand)—so that he can sing and play some of the most vivid, compelling, truly original songs of any artist working today..."

Sir Douglas Quintet - She's About A Mover

Sir Douglas Quintet was a rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Despite their British sounding name, they came out of San Antonio, Texas and are perhaps best known for their 1965 hit single written by Doug Sahm, the 12-bar blues "She's About a Mover" named the number one 'Texas' song by Texas Monthly. With a Vox Continental organ riff provided byAugie Meyers and soulful vocals from lead singer and guitarist Doug Sahm, the track features a Tex-Mex sound. Other influences came in from blues, jazz, and contemporary rock.

In addition to "She's About a Mover," (1965) the band is known for its songs "Mendocino," (1968) "Can You Dig My Vibrations?" (1968) and "Dynamite Woman" (1969). "Mendocino" was released in December 1968, and reached #27 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 by early 1969, spending 15 weeks in the chart. It was more successful in Europe selling over three million copies there.

The Sir Douglas Quintet is considered a pioneering influence in the history of rock and roll for incorporating Tex-Mex and Cajun styles into rock music. However, early influences on the band's emerging Texas style were even broader than this, and included ethnic and pop music from the 1950s and 1960s, such as doo-wop, electric blues, soul music, and British Invasion. The Quintet brought the older styles into a contemporary context, for instance by adapting the doo-wop feel, beat, and chord progressions. Perhaps even more off-beat for a late 1960s rock band than some inclusion of doo-wop type songs was that the band also played in styles like Western swing and polka (a Country & Western form and rhythmic style, from theTexas Hill Country, rather than a straight European style). They approached these styles with an instrumental line-up that was typical of blues bands: one guitarist, keyboardist, bassist, and drummer, and a member who could play either trumpet or saxophone.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Big Broadcast: Top 10 Texas Recordings With Tom Moon (texasmusicmatters.kut.org)

The Royal Jesters - Yo Soy Chicano

Royal Jesters on MySpace




Doo-Wop "...hits like "My Angel of Love," "We Go Together" and "That Girl" placed the Royal Jesters in rock and roll's '50s and 60's halls of history. Later those hits led to mega success for the Royal Jesters in the emerging Chicano music scene of the 70s where they struck a new chord with "Yo Soy Chicano," "Me Voy Pa Houston" and "Carino Nuevo." 

The Royal Jesters were born in the summer of 1958 after Oscar Lawson and Henry Hernandez met at a church talent show in San Antonio's West side. Some of the members wanted to name the group the Jesters, others wanted the Royals. "We decided to use both of the names," says Henry. "That's the way we did things. I gave in to Oscar's ideas and he gave in to mine. That's why we worked so well together." Their team work paid off. By the Spring of 1959, they had recorded "My Angel of Love," written by Lawson and sung in harmony with all the soul of a music that simply made you want to rock and roll. 

A string of hit singles-- in the 50s and 60s complete albums were not the norm they are today-- made the Royal Jesters the preferred group of the day. Successive recording contracts with Harlem Records (who also recorded Dough Sahm), Bell Records (the same label that recorded the Fifth Dimension) and Tower Records spread their name and their three-part harmony across the country and as far away as Europe. Apart from the many singles they recorded and released, The Royal Jesters recorded two complete English language albums, "We Go Together," and "Chevere." But the Royal Jesters had their eyes set on the future. And for Oscar and Henry that meant recording in Spanish. "Oscar had been reading in industry magazines that Chicano music was a sleeping giant that would one day wake up," tells Henry. So the group jumped right in. In 1973 the Royal Jesters teamed up with producer Manuel "Manny" Guerra, and began recording their own kind of Tex-Mex music that many fans still remember most. Under MGP Records they recorded "Yo Soy Chicano," "The Second Album," and "The Band."..."  Chito de la Torre

Miss Leslie and Her Juke Jointers - Done With Leaving

Miss Leslie Blog
Miss Leslie: The Music

This group describes their music as 'Country music with a hardwood floor sound'. Combining some original material along with obscure country tunes that they have unearthed from the 50s and 60s, the band opens up new sounds in a retro honky tonk setting.

Leslie Ann Sloan sings a gutsy, belting lead that has been compared to the likes of Patsy Cline, Leona Williams and Connie Smith. The band's stage show features a real upright piano, pedal steel guitar, fiddle, small drum kit and a twangy Telecaster reminiscent of the Don Rich sound.

While Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers are a relatively new group on the scene, the band has played professionally with nationally touring acts. Randy Lindley, who plays electric guitar, has played and recorded with The Coleman Brothers, The Sullivan Family, Bill Grant and Delia Bell, Rebel Records' David Davis & the Warrior River Boys, and Rebel Records' Karl Shiflett and the Big Country Show.

Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers have been nominated for Houston Press Music Awards in 2004 and 2005. In 2005, they were nominated for Best Original Band in the Houston Chronicle's Ultimate Houston Awards.

Sunny Sweeney - Lavender Blue

Sunny Sweeney
Sunny Sweeney on Lonestar Music

None of this Taylor Swift, ersatz, American-Idol "country" music for Sunny Sweeney. Not only no, but hell no. Sweeney is hardcore country with soul from Longview, Texas and a thick east Texas accent to prove it.

Lydia Mendoza - Collar de Perlas

Lydia Mendoza (May 21, 1916 – December 20, 2007) was an American guitarist and singer of Tejano music. She is known as La Alondra de la Frontera (The Lark of the Border).

Mendoza was born into a musical family in Houston, Texas. She learned to sing and play stringed instruments from her mother and grandmother. In 1928, as part of the family group Cuarteto Carta Blanca, she made her first recordings for the OKeh company in San Antonio. In the early thirties, Mendoza came to the attention of Manuel J. Cortez, a pioneer of Mexican-American radio broadcasting. Her live radio performances set the stage for her recordings for the Blue Bird label in 1934. One of her recordings, "Mal Hombre", became an overnight success, and led to an intensive schedule of touring and recording. After World War II, Mendoza recorded for all the major Mexican-American record labels. One of the relatively few songs she personally wrote, and a personal favorite, was "Amor Bonito", dedicated to her husband. Lydia Mendoza continued performing and recording until slowed by a stroke in 1988. In 1982, she became the first Texan to receive a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. In 1999, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and in 2003, she was among the second group of recipients of the Texas Cultural Trust's Texas Medal of Arts.

In 2001, Oxford University Press published a 235-page-book on her by Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez, entitled, Lydia Mendoza's Life in Music. From the introduction:Known as a lone artist and performer, Lydia Mendoza's voice and twelve-string guitar-playing figure prominently in her ability to both nurture and transmit the vast oral tradition of popular Mexican song with beauty and integrity. She sang the songs of the people across generations in the old tradition; all are indigenous to the Americas, and many of them to Texas. It is the music that emerged from the experiences of native peoples (on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border) within the colonial context of the nineteenth century.Mendoza's prominence and stature as a Chicana idol stems from her sustained presence and perpetual visibility within a complex network of social and cultural relations in the twentieth century. Along with being one of the earliest female recording and touring artists, she is loved as a voice of working-class sentimiento , sentiment and sentience, through song, which is one of the most cherished of Chicana/o cultural art forms. Through her vast repertoire and unmistakable interpretive skill in the shaping of songs she is a living embodiment of U.S.-Mexican culture and a participant in raza people's protracted struggles for survival.

Josh Abbott - Buried Me

Josh Abbott Band
Buried Me:



JOSH ABBOTT BAND WEBSITE
JOSH ABBOTT BAND ON LONESTAR RECORDS


Formed in early 2006, The Josh Albert Band was founded by fraternity brothers Josh Abbott, Austin Davis, Drew Hurt, and Neel Huey. After playing mostly acoustic open mic night shows at The Blue Light, Josh and Austin called on Drew and Neel to give the band a rhythm section. On their debut night, The Blue Light packed in a full house and a sense of something special was present. After a year of picking up local shows and greek parties, the band released a self-titled LP in 2007 featuring four tracks. Immediately, the band recorded a music video for "Buried Me" and entered it in the Music City Madness competition on CMT.com. After beating out over 600 other videos, the live concept video made the final cut.



I really hate when you call me late at night.
I didn’t answer cuz I didn’t wanna fight,
or hear you say things you don’t mean;
and drive my heart again down Misery Street.

So go ahead and arrange the flowers,
and prepare my eulogy.
Call my brothers to be pall bearers,
cuz what you did already buried me.

When I think of you I get in my car,
but I can never escape from where you are.
And I can’t forget the words that you said
the night you shot me in the heart and left me for dead.

Who am I kidding, I’ll never be over you.
So put me ten feet deep, and I won’t face the truth.



Related articles by Zemanta

• Josh Abbott Band - She's Like Texas (roughstock.com)

Steve Earle - The Revolution Starts Now

Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and country music as well as his political views. He is also a published writer, a political activist and has written and directed a play. In the later part of his career, after troubles with the law, drug addiction and his uncompromising viewpoints, he has become known as "The Hardcore Troubadour".

Earle was born on January 17, 1955, at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. He is the eldest son of Jack Earle, an air traffic controller, and Barbara Earle. Although he was born in Virginia where his father was stationed in the military, the family returned to Texas before Earle's second birthday. They moved often during his childhood, primarily within Texas, but he spent several of his formative years in Schertz,Texas. He dropped out of school in the 9th grade to move to Houston and learn more about the music business. Earle released his first album, Guitar Town, in 1986. His sister, Stacey Earle, is also a musician, having toured with Steve in the 1990s and sung on the song "When I Fall" on Steve's 2000 album Transcendental Blues.

Earle has been married seven times, including twice to the same woman. His wives were Sandra "Sandy" Henderson, Cynthia Dunn, Carol-Ann Hunter (with whom he had his first child, Justin), Lou-Anne Gill (with whom he had a second son, Ian), Maria Teresa Ensenat, Lou-Anne Gill a second time, and finally, in 2005, singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. His first son, Justin Townes Earle, is also a musician, and is named for Townes Van Zandt. Earle and Moorer are expecting their first child together in March 2010.

Steve Earle Official Website
Original Unofficial Steve Earle Website
Steve Earle on Amazon

I was walkin’ down the street
In the town where I was born
I was movin’ to a beat
That I’d never felt before
So I opened up my eyes
And I took a look around
I saw it written ‘cross the sky
The revolution starts now
Yeah, the revolution starts now

The revolution starts now
When you rise above your fear
And tear the walls around you down
The revolution starts here
Where you work and where you play
Where you lay your money down
What you do and what you say
The revolution starts now
Yeah the revolution starts now

Yeah the revolution starts now
In your own backyard
In your own hometown
So what you doin’ standin’ around?
Just follow your heart
The revolution starts now

Last night I had a dream
That the world had turned around
And all our hopes had come to be
And the people gathered ‘round
They all brought what they could bring
And nobody went without
And I learned a song to sing
The revolution starts now

Related articles by Zemanta

• Songwriter Steve Earle will channel Townes Van Zandt at Seattle's Moore Theatre (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Randy Brown - Ophelia

Randy Brown
Ophelia:


Randy Brown Website
Randy Brown On My Texas Music

Randy Brown covers The Band's classic "Ophelia" with a straight-ahead Texas dancehall lilt, and makes it his own.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Texas Country, here to stay (and spreading) (countrystandardtime.com)
• Josh Abbott Band - She's Like Texas (roughstock.com)

Austin Collins - House Without Windows

AUSTIN COLLINS WEBSITE
AUSTIN COLLINS ON LONESTAR MUSIC

Houston-born Austin Collins, currently headquartered in Austin, is garnering respect and considerable airplay on Americana and Texas Country radio stations...and beyond. Hardly a surprise. Collins combines knotty but thoughtful lyrics with a spare hard hitting rock sound (with echoes of folk phrasing in his vocals).


From Twangville:
"...I like lyrics that refuse to take the easy way out. This song, which musically is reminiscent of Whiskeytown’s “16 days”, could be George Strait’s “Easy Come, Easy Go”, where everyone involved is happy and ready to move on, but it doesn’t go that route. Picture the light “Easy Come, Easy Go” vibe with a casual middle finger waving effortlessly at this chick who done him wrong and then you have the right picture. The track where I feel that producer Johnson’s fingerprints are most evident is “House Without Windows”. The gritty, moody, muted guitar intro is a prime example of what you might hear on a future Centro-matic record (if you aren’t familiar with Centro-matic, you should be. They are DBT’s Patterson Hood’s favorite band, people!!) Again, lyrically this isn’t a song that chooses the stale, easy, country-cool path. When Collins strains his voice, he laments his “lead-based dreams”. We are left wondering how dangerous such dreams are when the chorus reminds us that his is a house “without windows...”

Willie Nelson - Stella Blue

Image by annableker

The idea of Willie Nelson covering a Grateful Dead song might seem to be something of a head-scratcher, at least at first. But Willie has always been first and foremost a songwriter, and the Dead were always open to traditional folkways. Their classic album American Beauty is a milestone in the development of Americana as a viable musical genre.

WILLIE NELSON
WILLIE NELSON ON AMAZON

STELLA BLUE:

All the years combine
They melt into a dream
A broken angel sings
From a guitar

In the end there's just a song
Comes crying up the night
Through all the broken dreams
And vanished years

Stella Blue
Stella Blue

When all the cards are down
There's nothing left to see
There's just the pavement left
And broken dreams

In the end there's still that song
Comes crying like the wind
Down every lonely street
That's ever been

Stella Blue
Stella Blue

I've stayed in every blue light cheap hotel
Can't win for trying
Dust off those rusty strings just one more time
Gonna make them shine

It all rolls into one
And nothing comes for free
There's nothing you can hold
For very long

And when you hear that song
Come crying like the wind
It seems like all this life
Was just a dream

Stella Blue
Stella Blue

Guitar Shorty - Please Mr. President

"Please Mr. President lay some stimulus on me.
Please Mr. President place some stimulus on me.
Cause I'm just a working man tryin to feed my family.

I used to have a good job working forty hard hours a week.
Had money in the bank and a mortgage I could meet.
But then they started to lay off and got a hold of me.
Now that mean ol' banker trying to put me in the street.

Please Mr. President lay some stimulus on me.
Please Mr. president place some stimulus on me.
Cause I'm just a working man tryin to feed my family.
I'm playin this for you, Mr. President!

Now I sure don't mind workin'- I'm not scared to break a sweat.
I'm not lookin' for a bailout, but I gotta pay my debts.
I don't know how to be a bad guy, I'm not gonna steal and rob.
But if I'm gonna feed my children, I gotta have some kind of job.

Please, please, please Mr. President lay some stimulus on me.
Please Mr. President place some stimulus on me.
Cause I'm just a working man tryin to feed my family.


I've got to have it, you know I need it.
Everybody needs stimulus."

GUITAR SHORTY
GUITAR SHORTY ON AMAZON

Credited with influencing both Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy, Blues veteran Guitar Shorty has been electrifying audiences for five decades with his supercharged live shows and his incendiary recordings (beginning in 1957 with a Willie Dixon-produced single on the Cobra label). Through the years, Shorty has performed with blues and R&B luminaries like Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, B.B. King, Guitar Slim and T-Bone Walker. Although he had recorded a handful of singles for a variety of labels, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the wider world opened its collective ears to one of the blues’ most exciting performers. His albums since then all received massive critical acclaim, and his legendary live performances have kept him constantly in demand all over the world.


Guitar Shorty (born David William Kearney, September 8, 1939, Houston, Texas) is an American blues guitarist. He is well known for his explosive guitar style and wild stage antics. Billboard magazine said, “his galvanizing guitar work defines modern, top-of-the-line blues-rock. His vocals remain as forceful as ever. Righteous shuffles…blistering, sinuous guitar solos.”

Alejandro Escovedo - Bury Me Hard Road

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO


ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO ON BLOODSHOT RECORDS




Hometown: Austin, TX

"Musically, Alejandro Escovedo is in his own genre." David Fricke, Rolling Stone

Storyville - Rain of Love

STORYVILLE ON MY SPACE


STORYVILLE ON AMAZON



Storyville was a blues-rock band formed in 1994 in Austin, Texas, USA. Drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, former members of Arc Angels and the rhythm section for Stevie Ray Vaughan's band Double Trouble, formed the band with Malford Milligan after a jam session at Antone's.

After releasing an album on November Records in 1994, the band won a total of nine Austin Music awards; they became stalwarts on the local music scene and toured nationally. They subsequently signed to major label Atlantic Records, for whom they recorded two albums before breaking up. The single "Born Without You", from their 1998 release Dog Years, reached #28 on the BillboardMainstream Rock chart.

Members:
Malford Milligan – lead vocals
David Grissom – guitar/vocals
David Holt - guitar/vocals
Tommy Shannon – bass
Chris Layton – drums

Houston Marchman - Viet Nashville

HOUSTON MARCHMAN


HOUSTON MARCHMAN ON LONESTAR MUSIC


"I was just 22 when I hit the road. Searching for truth, passion, and gold. I had an old 6-string, beat up and cracked. Hitched all the way and I wasn't coming back from Nashville , Viet Nashville.

I hit town in the middle of the night Walked 16th, stared at the light. My soul was on fire, passion it rose. I had a young man's dream, but I was an old man's fool in Nashville, Viet Nashville

Gotta little harder there every day. Texas got farther and farther away from Viet Nashville, yeah Viet Nashville.

Well I started pushing my songs and knocking on doors. Most everyday I felt more like a whore. A man said, "son, son you gotta write for an 8th grade level divorced housewife in Nashville," Viet Nashville.

He said, "It's about money, boy, money in the bank. Country ain't into no existential angst. Write for the cash, not for the soul." Right then I knew man I was bound to roll Outta Nashville, Viet Nashville Viet Nashville, Viet Nashville

Yeah, I found me this friend, I called him ponytailed Johnny. Had hair to his ass, the pot made him melancholy. Got us in this gig down on lower Broadway. He told us bout a joint man, they never could pay us in Nashville, Viet Nashville.

We'd play em our songs, we;d play em some covers. Their favorite tune was "Redneck Mother." We got fired one night down in the 4th set. To get out alive, I'd've lost that bet. This big biker chick, she grabbed Johnny's hair. Never seen a woman get hit by a chair Hell, 'cept Nashville, Viet Nashville.

Ten years later in the middle of the night Skipped out of town, but I was feelin' alright Nashville, I owe you a lesson in life Stand up for yourself and what you thinks right Play what you feel play it straight up If you don't hear a sing man I don't give a fuck about Nashville, Viet Nashville Viet Nashville, Viet Nashville."

Ray Wylie Hubbard - Kilowatts

RAY WYLIE HUBBARD


RAY WYLIE HUBBARD AT AMAZON

Ray Wylie Hubbard (born 13 November 1946 in Soper, Oklahoma) is an American country music singer and songwriter.


Hubbard grew up in southeastern town of Hugo, Oklahoma. His family moved to Oak Cliff in south Dallas, Texas in 1954. He attended Adamson High School with Michael Martin Murphey, who had his own band at the time. Hubbard graduated in 1965 and enrolled in college as an English major. He spent the summers in Red River, New Mexico playing folk music.

During his time in New Mexico, Hubbard wrote "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother", made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker's 1973 recording. Hubbard recorded for various labels but struggled with sales; his mix of country, folk and blues elements didn’t find an audience. After leaving the scene and struggling with personal problems, he returned to recording with Lost Train of Thought in 1992 and Loco Gringo's Lament in 1994.

Today Ray Wylie Hubbard is an elder statesman of the Texas music scene. From New Braunfels, Texas, Hubbard hosts a Tuesday night radio show in called "Roots & Branches". This program promotes new and established Americana artists. Like some other performers in his genre, he is perhaps as popular in Europe as in the US--Hubbard has been invited by record companies in the Netherlands to produce albums. His most recent recordings have been produced by Texas guitarist Gurf Morlix.

The Flatlanders - Stars in My Life

THE FLATLANDERS


THE FLATLANDERS ON AMAZON

The Flatlanders are a country band with considerable country-rock influence from Lubbock, Texas founded by singers/songwriters/guitarists Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock.

They garnered little attention during their brief original incarnation (1972-73), but when the band's three core members later found success in solo careers, interest in The Flatlanders was rekindled, and the band has reformed a few times since.

The Flatlanders formed in 1972 in Lubbock, Texas. Gilmore, Ely and Hancock formed the group, with Gilmore as the main songwriter and singer, with several other collaborators: their friends Steve Wesson, previously a non-musician, on autoharp and musical saw and Tony Pearson on mandolin and backup harmony, as well as Tommy Hancock (no relation) on fiddle and string bassist Syl Rice.

One of the band's first appearance was at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1972, where they were named one of the winners of the inaugural Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Singer/Songwriter Competition.

The band's first recording project was produced in 1972 by Shelby Singleton, the then-owner of Memphis, Tennessee's famed Sun Studios. A promotional single, Gilmore's "Dallas", was a commercial failure, and the planned album, All American Music, was all but scrapped, being released only in a small run on 8 track tape in order to fulfill contractual obligations.

The Flatlanders performed through 1973 before disbanding. By the end of the decade, however, Gilmore, Ely and Hancock had all found success as solo performers, and rumors of their earlier obscure collaboration began to circulate. In 1991, Rounder Records issued the 1972 sessions as More a Legend Than a Band, now recognized as a milestone of progressive,alternative country, at once reminiscent of early country music from the 1930s and '40s, and with an otherworldly quality from Wesson's shimmering musical saw and Gilmore's mysticalleanings, as on his song "Bhagavan Decreed."

The three musicians continued to reunite for occasional Flatlanders performances. In 1998 they contributed to the soundtrack of The Horse Whisperer, and then in 2002 released their long-awaited follow-up album, Now Again, on New West Records. In 2004 this was followed with Wheels of Fortune, again on New West. In 2004, New West released Live '72 a live recording of the then-unknown country band performing at the One Knite honky-tonk in Austin, Texas.

The Flatlanders' new album, Hills & Valleys, was released by New West on March 31, 2009. The album features the classic vocals of the three members with the ephemeral sounds and lyrics that have made The Flatlanders popular.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jimmie Dale Gilmore: "Imagine" (texasmusicmatters.kut.org)

Jack Ingram - Keep on Keepin' On

Jack Ingram


Jack Ingram on Amazon

Jack Owen Ingram (born November 15, 1970) is an American country music artist signed to Big Machine Records, an independent record label. He has released eight studio albums, one extended play, six live albums and seventeen singles. Although active since 1992, Ingram did not reach the U.S. country Top 40 until the late 2005 release of his single "Wherever You Are". A number one hit on the Billboard country charts, it was also his first release for Big Machine and that label's first Number One hit. Besides this song, Ingram has sent six other songs into the country Top 40: "Love You," a cover version of Hinder's "Lips of an Angel," "Measure of a Man," "Maybe She'll Get Lonely," "That's a Man" and "Barefoot and Crazy."

Ingram was born in The Woodlands, Texas. He started writing songs and performing while studying psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Ingram toured throughout the state of Texas in the early 1990s, opening for Mark Chesnutt and other acts. His first release was the self-titled Jack Ingram in 1992 via the Rhythmic label, followed by Lonesome Question in 1995. Warner Bros. Records eventually signed him and released a live album entitled Live at Adair's, and re-issued his first two indie albums.

In 1997, he released Livin' or Dyin' via Rising Tide Records, which produced his first chart single in the #51-peaking "Flutter". Two years later came Hey You via Lucky Dog, a division ofEpic Records, which accounted for a #64 country single in its title track. In 2000, he collaborated with Charlie Robison and Bruce Robison for the live album Unleashed Live.

Electric, his second album for Lucky Dog, was also his first album to enter Top Country Albums, despite not producing a chart single. This album was supplemented a year later by an EPentitled Electric: Extra Volts before he left Lucky Dog. Two more live albums followed before he signed to Columbia Records for the release of Young Man in 2004, which accounted for no singles. Another live album, Acoustic Motel, was issued in 2005.

In 2005, Ingram signed to the independent record label Big Machine Records. Under the Big Machine banner, Ingram released a predominantly live album entitled Live: Wherever You Are. His first single release on that record label, "Wherever You Are", became Ingram's first top 40, and later his first Number One single on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, as well as the first Number One for the Big Machine label. "Love You", the only other studio track on Live: Wherever You Are, was also released as a single, peaking at #12 on the charts. This song was also recorded by Trent Summar & The New Row Mob (whose frontman, Trent Summar, co-wrote it) on their 2005 album Horseshoes & Hand Grenades.

In late 2006, Ingram released a cover of Hinder's song "Lips of an Angel". Ingram's cover peaked at #16 on the country charts "Lips of an Angel" was the lead-off single to This Is It, his second album for Big Machine. This album also produced the #18 "Measure of a Man" (a Radney Foster co-write) and the #24 "Maybe She'll Get Lonely".

He won the Academy of Country Music award for top new male vocalist on May 19, 2008. Ingram also filled in for radio host Bob Kingsley on the countdown show "Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40" for the week of September 20-21, 2008.

According to CMT, Ingram's Big Dreams & High Hopes album has "more guts" and Ellis Paul's "The World Ain't Slowing Down" may be the song that takes Ingram to the "next level".Ingram says "It'll be fun for me to expose people to a fantastic song from an artist who's had a 20-year career of being a very successful folk artist." The song was cut from the album. Its lead-off single "That's a Man" charted in the Top 20, followed by "Barefoot and Crazy," which became his second Top 10 hit.

On August 26, Ingram set a Guinness record for the most radio interviews in one day, when he was interviewed 215 times.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jack Ingram - "Free" (roughstock.com)

Zack Walther And The Cronkites - Down Easy

WebSite


Zack Walther on Lone Star Music



Down Easy:


My baby’s out of sight
Guess the underground’s been treatin’ her right
Been running,
ain’t hard to find comfort there
Yeah you know it gets worse at night
Barely holding it together,
you’re still holdin’ her tight
And I see her everywhere
Rolling like a stone down to the water
Not long ago you were somebody’s daughter
Somebody’s lover but you run them into the ground
I hate to tell you baby,
sugar ain’t medicine
It may taste sweet,
it won’t bring you right up again
You love anything that goes down easy
Spend the night pacing the halls
You’re the one with the habit,
I’m the one with withdrawals
Shakin’,
thinkin’ that the night will never end
I think it’s sad,
you found a new remedy
Your new best friend,
pretty soon will be your enemy
If it goes down smooth you take it in
Rolling like a stone down to the water
Not long ago you were somebody’s daughter
Somebody’s lover but you run them into the ground
I hate to tell you baby,
sugar ain’t medicine
It may taste sweet,
it won’t bring you right up again
You love anything that goes down easy
Rolling like a stone down to the water
Not long ago you were somebody’s daughter
Somebody’s lover but you run them into the ground
I hate to tell you baby,
sugar ain’t medicine
It may taste sweet,
it won’t bring you right up again
You love anything that goes down easy
Rolling like a stone down to the water
Not long ago you were somebody’s daughter
Somebody’s lover but you run them into the ground
I hate to tell you baby,
sugar ain’t medicine
It may taste sweet,
it won’t bring you right up again
You love anything that goes down easy
Goes down easy
Goes down easy
Goes down easy