Music: Levon Helm - By Jim James
Here's a piece by Jim James of My Morning Jacket on the great Levon Helm. It's from Rolling Stone's list of "100 Greatest Singers Of All Time"
Check out the whole list here.
"There is something about Levon Helm's voice that is contained in all of our voices. It is ageless, timeless and has no race. He can sing with such depth and emotion, but he can also convey a good-old fun-time growl.
Since Papa Garth Hudson didn't really sing, I always felt that, vocally, Levon was the father figure in the Band. He always seems strong and confident, like a father calling you home, or sometimes scolding you. The beauty in Richard Manuel's singing was often the sense of pain and darkness he conveyed. Rick Danko had a lot of melancholy to his voice as well, but he could also be a little more goofy. They were all different shades of color in the crayon box, and Levon's voice is the equivalent of a sturdy old farmhouse that has stood for years in the fields, weathering all kinds of change yet remaining unmovable.
The best thing about Levon is that he has so many sides, from the sound his voice gave to the Band's rich harmonies to how he can rip it up on songs like "Yazoo Street Scandal," "Don't Ya Tell Henry," "Up on Cripple Creek" and "Rag Mama Rag." He can pop in for sensitive moments, such as in between Manuel's vocals in "Whispering Pines." And he laid down one of the greatest recorded pop vocal performances of all time: "The Weight." I was fortunate to get to go to one of his Midnight Rambles a few years back when My Morning Jacket were recording up in the Catskills. To see him walk out on that stage and sit down behind the drum kit in person was a thrill. No one else plays the drums or sings like Levon, much less doing it at the same time.
There is a sense of deep country and family in Levon's voice, a spirit that was there even before him, deep in the blood of all singers who have heard him, whether they know it or not."
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Music: Sunday Mornin’
JC doin' Sunday Morning Coming Down. Written By Kris Kristofferson.
Have a good one.
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Music/Livin': Fixin’ to Boogie
We posted this video again, 'cause the song is just undeniable. Kenny Wayne Sheppard featurin' Neal Pattman and Cootie Stark doin' a blazin' Prison Blues. Please check out our friends over at The Music Maker Foundation. And if ya purchase any Southern Brand Tees, a portion of the proceeds go to their foundation, to help keep the blues alive. We've got tees for Lil' Ones available now and we're launching our Southern Man & Southern Belle lines in a couple weeks, so check back. Kenny Wayne Sheppard is playin' down here in Florida tonight - you bet we'll be there.
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Music: Hank Williams - The Daddy of American Music
The clip above is from Honky Tonk Blues - The Story Of Hank Williams.
From Wiki: Hank Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who has become an icon of country music and one of the most influential musicians and songwriters of the 20th century. A leading pioneer of the honky tonk style, he had numerous hit records, and his charismatic performances and succinct compositions increased his fame. His songbook is one of the backbones of country music, and several of his songs are pop standards as well. He has been covered in a range of pop, gospel, blues and rock styles. His death at the age of twenty-nine helped fuel his legend. More...
And here's a link to an interestin' article from the New York Times last Sunday. Enjoy.
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Music: Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Born In Louisianna
Miraculous fingers, majestic vocal chords and a river barge full 'o boogie. The great Gatemouth blessin' the folks in the crowd with
some honey for the soul.
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Music: Mornin’ Ya’ll
I'm amazed - My Morning Jacket
This song makes me happy. Enjoy for yourself.
Get well soon Jim James.
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Music: Band Ya Oughta Know: High On Stress
Every so often we'll try bending yer ear about a band that ya oughta know about, need to know about or just might darn near improve the quality of your life.
High On Stress is our inaugural artist and not just cause their name describes our current situation. Outta Minneapolis - with lyrics that cut through the haze of a Wednesday night at the bar and make you sit up and feel like someone is commiserating with you.
"It's a cash machine advance, don't it make you wanna dance?" Go the lyrics and the music is just right. You listen harder. "Red-eyed girls - go home in fancy cars - after all night parties drinking at the hip hop bars" and then - "Half is spent before the you pay the rent - half is spent before the money is sent -- it's a cash machine advance -- don't it make you wanna dance?" Aw, c'mon now, this is good.
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Nick Leet writes these great tough songs while Mark Devaraj handles drums, and Jim Soule on bass guitar and backing vocals and Chad Wheeling on guitar and organ gloriously fill out the foursome. This is more rock than country but it's mined from that vein that we all love about good country music. Leet, a refugee on the run from North Dakota, (which he describes on one song as full of "cover bands, bad punk rock and things that I can't stand") manages the feel of alt. rock while holding onto a rather large (to these big ol' ears) classic country influence.
I hear The Replacements in there, and I hear Wilco. I hear Uncle Tupelo, I hear that Americana sound wraslin' with those indie rock influences in a cage match reffed by great big catchy choruses.
I hear the sound that plays as a pretty college girl tells you her problems with SoCo on her breath on her hundredth desperate-fun night at a bar. I hear the sound of making sense of it, when what pours out of the speakers between beers 3 and 7 is perfect and you're invincible and you understand the whole sad world.
In High On Stress I hear music for a good but serious time. Tied up in knots and keeping the tempo light. A quick look through their myspace tells you that critics have taken notice of the way their lyrics and images pop out at you like countrified U2.
Their first album, Moonlight Girls, is full-up with 'heart on sleeve and heat of the moment'. A new band with influences varied enuff and talent big enuff that it always doesn't sound like someone else, it just sounds like your favorite new song comin' on the jukebox.
Their new album Cop Light Parade is out now. Those great new songs are already out there in the ether, after being snuck to friends and on myspace. We actually got us a CD here at Southern Brand, and have 'bout worn it out. The whole thing is great but stand-out tracks include White Sugar, My White Pages, Partner in Crime and We Could Have Been Nobody. (ya can buy it at CDbaby.com by clicking here)
This here is the kind of American goodness that'll keep your toes tappin' and heart beatin' while you're reminiscing 'bout all them lost and crazy whiskey-soaked nights - real or imagined. Keep 'em flying fellas.
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Music/Livin': Sad Day at Southern Brand
Jerry Reed has passed on.
To me Jerry Reed's music has a joy and energy that's rarely been matched. And he seemed like such a fun lovin' fella, I couldn't help but smile every time I'd come across a clip of the "hairy-legged, guitar-pickin' man." To this day, I start bouncin' and kickin' and gigglin' whenever "Amos Moses" or "She got the goldmine, I got the shaft" comes on.
Mentored and urged to play more guitar in his unique finger-picking style by the great Chet Atkins, Jerry was that rare cat who could do it all and seemed to make everything seem effortless, from acting to great guitar to writing great songs, Jerry's magic came at you like it was the most natural thing in the world. A redneck renaissance man.
I remember watching him act with Burt Reynolds in W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, and get directed by Burt as a real bad guy in Gator. He was a laugh riot in The Waterboy with Adam Sandler. And he was great in a flick Dom Deluise directed where he played a cop (Hot Stuff - theme song by who else? Jerry Reed), and I loved him with Robin Williams in the comedy The Survivors as a crook.
Musically, just like with acting, he made it all look easy. From the funk-country-- (did he invent that? I think he did!) that drives When You're Hot You're Hot, to the country boogie jump of East Bound & Down (From Smokey and the Bandit where he was redneck-unforgetable as Cletus Snow - The Snowman)
He wrote Guitar Man and then played on it when it was recorded by the King, as well as U.S. Male at the same session.
Amos Moses is swamp-boggie-country-glam - I mean this cat from Alabama could do it all. The wiki entry is linked here. This man was more than just a sum of his achievements, wide and varied. He was 100 percent an American Original. Got a long way to go but a short time to get there. RIP wild man.
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