Curb to Release Hank Jr. Walmart Exclusive CD; Jim Lauderdale Documentary to Air in Australia; New Album Releases

• Chris Thile finds the first two Nickel Creek albums “unbearably smug.” 

• Old-time fiddler Joe Thompson passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Thompson influenced several musicians, including the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Here is a 2007 performance at the Kennedy Center.

• George Jones and Tammy Wynette and Rosanne Cash and Rodney Crowell are featured in Geoffrey Himes’ article on musical couples.

• Ralph Stanley and LeAnn Rimes are featured in an electronic music documentary called Re:Generation. Here they are on a remixed, re-imagined version of “Wayfaring Stranger” from that documentary.

• Gretchen Peters was on All Things Considered over the weekend.

• Here’s Alison Krauss and Union Station’s version of The Simpsons theme song.

• Al DeLory, who produced and arranged songs such as “Galveston,” passed away earlier this month.

• Kix Brooks’ “New to This Town” is headed to radio March 19.

• The newest Quotable Country features Marty Stuart, Darrell Scott, Larry Gatlin, and others.

• Dierks Bentley talks about Home with CMT.com. An excerpt: I really want the Nashville songwriting community as involved with this record as possible. I kind of did that on the last record, Up On The Ridge, and I really found out how much I enjoyed listening to great songs — whether they’re new songs or old songs — discovering songs and seeing how they work into my album and fit into the whole piece. For this record, I cut six songs I didn’t write, which is odd because I’ve written more for this record than I’ve ever written for anything else. But I really wanted to find a way to make those songs work with my material and come up with the best overall album. I found some killer outside cuts.

• A Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers video for “Me and Paul Revere” will premiere on Rolling Stone’s site today.

• On March 27, Curb is releasing Hank Jr. retrospective All My Rowdy Friends. It’ll be available exclusively at Walmart.

• Tim O’Brien talks Woody Guthrie: Like Woody Guthrie, I come from a small town and left there with music as my main source of income. And like him, I gained perspective about my home by traveling away from it. Using his music to make the world a better place, Woody provided a great example to those who followed him. He meant to perform and to write songs in such a way as to give people not only entertainment, but also hope and solidarity in their common struggles. He taught me that music is best when it brings people together.

• Pistol Annies’ “Hell on Heels” and David Nail’s “Let it Rain” have gone gold.

• The Band Perry were the first act to hit the new Ryman stage.

• The Triggerman of Saving Country Music recently wrote a feature on James Hand, who’s currently working on a new record.

• This week’s releases:

Moot Davis – Man About Town

Ann Claire – Honkytonk Princess

Chieftains – Voice of Ages

Wrinkle Neck Mules – Apprentice to Ghosts

Lonesome River Band – Chronology, Vol 1. (MP3 version available on 2/24, CD on 2/28)

The James Low Western Front – Whiskey Farmer

Various Artists – Act of Valor (Soundtrack)

Various Artists – Another Jubilee: Old Time Country & Cowboy Singing

• Heads up, Australia: The King of Broken Hearts, a documentary about Jim Lauderdale directed by Jeremy Dylan, will premiere March 6 on the Country Music Channel. Here’s the trailer: