tuck's music journal

I write about local music stuff in West Virginia and nearby Ohio. I post lots of information about the Greens and musical benefit events I organize for my non profit organization. Americana music focused.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

April Fool's Guitar Pull/ Song Swap

Tomorrow night is the April Fool's guitar pull / song swap I've organized here at our storefront on St. mary's Ave in Parkersburg. 7 pm. I have been getting some pretty good buzz about it; so we'll see if that translates into people actually coming out. I still think its a fun concept, and will not be daunted by a low turnout, to keep trying ideas like this. The concept is: bring a song (or songs) with "lyrics that don't make sense." You know the spacy, psychedelic songs, the nonsense songs, the kids songs, the funny songs.

Andy's side project

Andy reported he has been playing with a few folks in a "side project" for him, they are calling "Big Shiny Gun." He has a demo CD that I'd like to hear. He is playing some mandolin with this crew. He described some covers they have worked up that are definitely in the genre of my world. Stay tuned to hear an update on this project!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Greens show last night

Well, first, everyone was euphoric about the WVU Mountaineers win in the NCAA tournament just before the show; they are on to the Final Four! So, the show HAD to start with a rousing rendition of "Let's Go, Mountaineers" (as a sound check!) and then it was repeated about 3/4 of the way through the night's set list too!
The Tide Turns Again, was the opening song after that. The Greens had a second guitarist playing with them last night (Stephan - spelling?) who contributed to the sound not unlike how Tony used to contribute with some good guitar solos, and solid backing rhythm on songs throughout the night. The night quickly turned into a dance night; so it was a little light on the ballads and slow songs. There was a good crowd out, a re-gathering of many of the area Greens fans, since their appearances are more limited over this way. The Greens keeping them happy for 4 solid hours!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Greg Brown's song Downtown

I picked Greg Brown's song Downtown for the song of the day. I look for little snippet's of something that trigger a song name. I walked downtown this morning to the post office to get the work mail. Then Wendy said she had to go downtown before she went to Marietta. So that got me singing.
"Yes I could stay home, I could read a book or two
I could try to get a little bit better at some of the bad things that I do
but the night is young. So I'm out for a little while
I'm gonna put on my hat and coat and pants and boots and my smile.

'N' I'm gonna go downtown tonight
All around the town,
checkin' out all the sights.
I'll be back in the morning
Feelin' bad or good
Gonna do what I want and I ain't gonna do what I should."

Saw Joe Harris, Steve and Susan Low at Der Dog Haus last night; talked of seeing the Greens tonight (after the big basketball game for everybody in WV)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Greens Saturday night in Parkersburg- 6 Pence

The Greens return to Parkersburg Saturday night at 6 Pence for a show. This is now the pattern of a once a month show there, and so we'll be eager to see and hear them and catch up a bit. Come on out and enjoy a great evening of music and comraderie. Now that spring is here, there will be a little less driving tension; pre-occupation with the cold, snow, road conditions; to just enjoy. "Runnin' around in ur Thunderwear." Come to church with Bob Marley. you know.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Songs About Hank Not Sung by Guys Named Hank

Songs About Hank Not Sung By Guys Named Hank
• 13. “If Ole Hank Could Only See Us Now” - Waylon Jennings
The second Jennings song to make the list ponders what Hank would think about the changes that occurred in the 30 years following his death. There’s not much to it, but it’s enjoyable and has an amusing ending that’s perfect for ending the list.
• 12. “If You Don’t Like Hank Williams” - Kris Kristofferson
“If you dont like Hank Williams, honey, you can kiss my ass.” And that’s all I got to say about that.
• 11. “Thank You Miss Audrey” - The Geezinslaws
The Geezinslaws have built their band around off-kilter ditties, but what’s a list about Hank without mentioning his inspiration for the songs he wrote.
• 10. “Rollin’ and Ramblin’ (Death of Hank Williams)” - Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris’ narrative on the life and death of Hank Williams is a worthy tribute that doesn’t embellish the legend without covering his faults as well.
• 9. “Long White Cadillac” - Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Yoakam is one of the only artists who is able to come close to delivering a vocal performance that injects that same loneliness and sorrow felt in a Hank song. This song is unique in that Yoakam sings from the perspective of Hank in the back of that Cadillac the night he died.
• 8. “Hank Williams Wouldn’t Make It Now In Nashville Tennessee” - Eleven Hundred Springs
A lot of songs by unknown artists that follow the same reasoning as this one seem to drag Hank Williams down in order to prop themselves up, but Eleven Hundred Springs covers the subject without dragging anyone down or making excuses for their obscurity. This is one band that doesn’t deserve the obscurity and should be representing country music instead of the pop bands of today. Jason Boland has a good rendition floating around as well.
• 7. “Hank Williams Said It Best” - Guy Clark
Another song by Guy Clark describes himself perfectly: “Ain’t no money in poetry / That’s what sets the poet free / I’ve had all the freedom I can stand.” This song is pure poetry and despite only quoting Hank Williams from his rendition as Luke the Drifter of “Be Careful Of The Stones That You Throw,” it’s a subtle comparison to Jesus who said “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone.” Porter Wagoner had a good cover of the Hank Williams’ tune as well, if you’re interested.
• 6. “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” - Waylon Jennings
Jennings’ commentary on the state of Nashville. It seems even more apt today when everything sounds the same and they don’t know how to market you if you sound different. Is that the way Hank done it? And where are did country music’s roots go? How many artists or songs of today pay respect to the greats without just shamelessly name checking them?
• 5. “Hank’s Cadillac” - Ashley Monroe
I don’t know what to say about this song that Matt hasn’t already said. The traditional arrangement and Monroe’s delivery are killer. You have to wonder, though, would Hank be as legendary today if he didn’t die when he did?
• 4. “The Ride” - David Allan Coe
“Have you paid your dues, can you moan the blues, can you bend them guitar strings? He says boy, can you make folks feel what you feel inside?” It’s a pretty fitting description of Hank’s music, and I suppose it should be since it came from the ghost of Hank Williams himself. I miss good story songs like this classic from David Allan Coe.
• 3. “Just Like Hank” - Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros
Hank Williams lived the music he sang. He may have fooled around with his life, but he didn’t fool around with his music. The studio was his sanctuary. Wilkins put this one out this year and it’s a showcase for his awesome vocal performance.
• 2. “Tramp On Your Street” - George Jones
George Jones singing a Billy Joe Shaver penned tune about Hank Williams. Need I say more? Seriously, does it get more country than this?
• 1. “Midnight In Montgomery” - Alan Jackson
This is what happens when everything comes together. The perfect production, vocal, song, and arrangement to create a haunting tribute that pulls you in and sends chills down your spine. There are stories of Jackson dropping by Hank’s grave to pay his respects after a show in Montgomery and giving an acoustic performance of Hank covers to a handful of people that happened to be there. The man knows and respects his roots.
Listen: Songs About Hank Not Sung By Guys Named Hank

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Alex Chilton- lead singer of the Box Tops dies

Alex Chilton, lead singer (starting at age 16) of the Box Tops died yesterday. I put "soul deep" as the song of the day in his honor. (My baby just wrote me The Letter) was their most famous hit. Check out the likely reflections on his musical career that are out there- blogs and such.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Its about time for ME to do some more interviews....

Its about time for ME to do some more interviews..... I like the previous post me with Todd Snider...... anybody want to be interviewed?

interview with Todd Snider by Andrew Dansby

By ANDREW DANSBY Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010, 11:21AM

Todd Snider knows his place. He's respectful and reverent toward the great songwriters he's learned from: John Prine, Randy Newman, Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker, Roger Miller and numerous others.

But the guy who sang My Generation Part 2 is my favorite songwriter of my generation. Snider's isolated from the bargain bin cynicism that pockmarked so much rock from the '90s.He's also not much for cryptic trench-coat poetry.
As a writer, he's direct, poignant and very funny. He's a jester and a player who feels bad, writes about it and makes others feel good (sometimes), much like his heroes did, except for Newman, who probably doesn't care how people feel.

Snider doesn't subscribe to trough generation rules that suggest hippies are to be reviled and mopers are to be hailed.

He's a patron saint for pugnacious peaceniks who like good storytelling and self-medication, though the latter has caused its share of troubles. Snider's latest, The Excitement Plan, is a third consecutive masterpiece, showing Snider exercising a precision in his craft that he only hinted at when he released his debut 16 years ago.

The work hasn't made him rich — “They call us alternative country, I like to call it unsuccessful country,” he quips — but it's made him fondly relatable and quietly admirable as guys with guitars go.

Q: So is The Excitement Plan curing people's ills as you said it would?

A: Oh, that liner-note jive thing? Really, my dad used to say that all the time. He was a grifter. All this talk about money all the time. Dad used to talk about this thing, the “Excitement Plan” is what we called it in the family. He'd do it, con somebody out of their money, and then we'd have to move.

Q: Randy Newman was a reference point I didn't get until this record, but now I hear him in some of the older stuff too. You a fan?

A: I've been hearing that a bit more lately. Jerry Jeff's phrasing and Prine's phrasing are two things I accidentally lean on all the time, especially the old records. But the Randy thing, I feel like it's been sitting there. I'm glad if it finally worked its way into my stuff. My hope when making albums is to find some sort of unique place to stand at that party. I don't know if I've accomplished it, but I've gotten around the world a few times by trying.

Q:There was a vulnerability on his latest album that I thought was an interesting complement to Newman's usual style. And that reminded me of your stuff.

A: I listened to it once, but sometimes it's painful to hear a good record when you're working on something. When Dylan put out Modern Times, I was staying on a houseboat. I listened to it one time and got my lyric book and threw it in the lake. I met Newman on a plane once and learned a lot. He's a very honest person. There's no pleaser in him. We were playing a music festival together, and I asked if he was going to see Buddy Guy play. He said, “No, I don't like music.” What? He said, “I know all those (expletive) chords.” Maybe that's how I felt, too, I just didn't know it was OK to say it.
He told me his kids liked me. And he said, “I've never listened to you because my kids like you. If I played you and liked it, it'd ruin my day, and if I played you and hated it, it'd ruin my day.” (Laughs.)

Q: Well, you can't call him a softie.

A:No, but I get it. I feel more than ever lately that music has been a way of practicing to die. It sounds morbid, but it isn't really. But I don't want music to be distraction from my doom. I want it to be a way to face it and embrace it and ask forgiveness for it. I haven't been making up songs since the last one. I don't know, it feels like I'm about to be a happy person and maybe even a sane person.

Q:A lot of people say they're done with the next one by the time an album comes out. That doesn't sound like you.

A: No, it's never been that way with my songs. I've never been the aggressor. I make up songs all day every day, but I have no massive desire to record them. It's like people gotta beg me, “Let's make an album!” Really? Why? Me and (producer Don Was) sat down to make this record and I asked him “What (expletive) good reason is there in 2009 for anybody to make a record?” And Don said, “There is no (expletive) good reason.” And I thought, well, at least we're on the same page. People say albums are like kids, I never felt that way. I don't have kids either. I never thought about songwriting as a precious thing.

Q:Disorganized Crime shatters my ignorant perception of Portland, Ore. So it's not full of people drinking coffee and reading books?

A:Yeah, well that's the other Portland. Man, they used to shanghai guys in Portland. There'd be bars with trap doors, and if you fell through you were gone. Willie Pendleton ran the whole thing. They hung him and his wife by their feet and shot him nine times in the head.

Q:That's thorough.

A: Yeah, it certainly is. He was my dad's drinking buddy. They never figured out who did it because there were too many people with motives. He was a coke dealer and a snitch. Eventually he got murdered, and too many people in the town were happy. And I was one of them. He wreaked some pretty serious havoc in my life. He played a big role in breaking up my home.

Q: I heard you didn't start writing songs until you were 19. Was there no pull to do it earlier?

A:Not really. I'd been out of my house for maybe three years, just a sofa kid sleeping on people's couches. A bum, really. Then I saw Jerry Jeff Walker, and it sounded like he was singing about my life only with bouncy chords that made it sound fun. I thought, “Wait, am I missing the fun? I thought I was broke, but Jerry Jeff says I'm free. Maybe this isn't bad.”

Q:Houston was home for a while, right?

A:Yeah, that was the first time I ran away from home. I was about to be a sophomore or junior and our family had fallen apart. We were broke and moved to Houston for a job. The summer we moved there I felt like I could see what was going on. My parents told me the economy was bad. I thought, “The economy is definitely going to be bad for everybody who does cocaine all night. Having multiple girlfriends and (expletive) will run up the tab. I don't know if Jimmy Carter's the reason we don't have any money.” I got in a car and got back to Oregon. I'd rather sleep on somebody's sofa than be a part of all that lying.

Q:There was a time you were asking fans to throw flowers on stage instead of drugs. Did you find it heartening that they did?

A: Yeah, and they sure did. Y'know in music, nobody just gives their drugs away. If you're in a bar at home, nobody is like, “Here's some weed,” and then walks away. They always want something. Man, from the concert to the bus people want to hand you the biggest bags of drugs. It's astonishing. So I wrote that if you wanted to throw something, throw flowers. I was trying to be funny, but the next time we played there were all these flowers. And then I couldn't get free drugs on stage anymore, so it was a huge mistake.

andrew.dansby@chron.com

announcement for Mid Town Family Resource Center coffee house

Unfortunately, we are having to cancel the previously announced coffee house for this Friday, Roger has a conflict. Lisa will be putting her creative thinking cap on and coming up with another youth drop in center activity for the night, possibly a movie. Stay tuned.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Todd Burge and the Odd Urges last night's show

I went up to Marietta to see Todd Burge and the Odd urges show at Washington State Community College last night. Todd put on an entertaining show from start to finish- some solo songs early, working through several different CD's songs, incorporating the backing musicians throughout, and then the second set was the entire new CD, Distraction Packed. He incorporated some audio and visual things into the show for a nice creative touch, including the finishing song- which included his two kids singing along on a song (recorded, while he played live!) I have not seen Todd much with other musicians (mostly just solo shows) and he's got a good group playing with him, and adding some good harmonies and instrument work. Billy Matheney plays a great variety of instruments throughout, showing lots of talent in his versatility. Look for Todd to be playing this music around the state and region!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

some recent "songs of the day"

Over there on my facebook page, some recent "songs of the day" have included: Home Remedy, by Adrienne Young and Will Kimbrough; John Hiatt's Homeland, John Prine's "People putting people down" and Iris Dement's "When my morning comes around."

Mid Town Family Resource Center coffee house

We haven't had a coffee house in a while. A neighborhood young music lover took the initiative to come over and offer to play a coffee house, so we lined something up for this coming Friday, March 19th at 7 pm. Roger Adkins (and possibly some friends) will play some blues music that night, for our coffee house. We hope this creates some momentum to get things back up and running with coffee houses in our storefront here on St. Mary's Ave. in Parkersburg.

April Fools Day song swap/ guitar pull

We will be hosting a song swap/ guitar pull, on Thursday April 1st (Fools Day!) here at our offices at 1739 St. mary's ave. Parkersburg (suite 3) at 7 pm- no charge, donations accepted. The theme is songs with lyrics that don't make any sense. I got the idea from a recent Mountain Stage, where the Sweetback Sisters performed a cool version of Roger Miller's My Uncle Used to Love me but she died." I'll brush off a few songs to perform to get things started, and hope people come with the spirit of levity and have some musical fun.

Todd Burge- show tonight in Marietta at WSCC

Todd Burge, and the Odd Urges, will play a show tonight in Marietta at Washington State Community College, at 8 pm- a free show, part of the Evergreen Series. Todd is using this as a CD release for a new CD that he has been promoting heavily on his various social networking sites.

John Hiatt's new CD

I have now listened through John Hiatt's new CD enough times to really get into it; loving the place it fits into his whole body of work. No Depression (on line) held a contest this week, to have folks identify their favorite John Hiatt song; and they were barraged with good entries. Homeland is my favorite off this new CD, and several others have caught me, too. Its called Open Road.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Traveling Music - too much to remember.....

A trip to Washington DC and back this weekend; too many CD's to remember the full list. Guy Clark; Tommy Womack; Adrienne Young; Angel Band; Robert Earl Keen; Fred Eaglesmith; John Hiatt- John Hiatt's new CD The Open Road. A Great CD, builds on his great body of work, good story songs- good wry observations of the human condition. Some interesting uses of his voice on this one!!!! Malcolm Holcomb on this trip, too. Will Kimbrough's Wings.

Review of a Todd Snider show in NYC

A Bit Wry and Rough at the Edges


Published: March 7, 2010
Barefoot, his shirt untucked, a hat pulled down over his forehead, the 43-year-old alt-country singer-songwriter Todd Snider looked the epitome of a scruffy modern troubadour ambling along a rutted Southern highway on the way to nowhere.

Skip to next paragraph

Richard Perry/The New York Times
Todd Snider at the Allen Room, a move up from “the sofa circuit.”




But the setting wasn’t East Nashville, where Mr. Snider lives; it was the Allen Room in Frederick P. Rose Hall, where he appeared on Thursday evening as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series.

In the stripped-down area where country meets folk, sometimes called Americana, there hasn’t been a phrasemaker as wryly quotable since when — the heyday of Kris Kristofferson and John Prine? “I am a runaway locomotive/ Outta my one-track mind/ And I’m lookin’ for any kinda trouble I can find,” goes Mr. Snider’s “Play a Train Song,” which describes a swaggering blue-collar archetype who appears in many of his songs. He may not be one of them, but he understands them.

The 90-minute show drew a devoted plaid-shirt-and-jeans crowd that seemed to know every Snider song lyric. In the Rose Hall elevator to the Allen Room, some fans even carried beers.

As Mr. Snider strummed his guitar, played harmonica and told stories of his adventures, a scuffling live-by-your-wits world of brawling in country-music bars, crash pads and substance abuse came alive. Mr. Snider told of his years spent on “the sofa circuit,” when he stayed wherever there was an available couch. One amusing tale involved an encounter with a grifter named Tony Bennett who helped him paint his car, then stole $65 from him as they hugged farewell.

Mr. Snider’s country-blues songs are deceptively casual and charming. The more you contemplate them, the sturdier and deeper they seem. He presents himself as a live-and-let-live fatalist who has seen too much of the world to pass judgment on anyone. Early in the show he declared that he had no opinions. Later he mocked the notion of such a thing as “a serious song.” Sad? Yes. Serious, no.

But his anthem, “Conservative Christian, Right Wing, Republican, Straight, White American Males,” has the ring of an oppositional retort by a performer who is on the side of “tree huggin’, love makin’, pro choicin’, gay weddin’, widespread diggin’ hippies” like himself.

Speaking of phrasemaking, here is an excerpt from “Easy Money”: “Everybody wants the most they can possibly get/ For the least they could possibly do.”

This is the same down-at-the-heels ethos that Mr. Kristofferson summed up four decades ago with the catchphrase that in some ways began it all: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Sign in to RecommendNext Article in Arts (18 of 27) » A version of this article appeared in print on March 8, 2010, on page C6 of the New York edition.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Listening to some Hank music

Well, now that the Johnny Cash tribute has passed by, and we are looking ahead to the Hank Williams Tribute in April, I broke out some Hank tribute CD's for a quick trip to Charleston and back last night. A Legends CD (Timeless) with tribute versions, and a Cd with the three "Hanks" -