George Jones Announces Tour Dates; Real Gone Music to Reissue Two John Hartford Records; Album Releases

• George Jones announced several farewell tour dates.

• Out January 23 on Omnivore Records: Don Rich Sings George Jones and Buck Owens’ Honky Tonk Man, a collection of previously unreleased recordings.

• Flaco Jimenez played an NPR Tiny Desk Concert.

• Wanda Jackson’s got a new video for “Am I Even a Memory,” her duet with Justin Townes Earle. (Due to the holiday, Ken’s regular Monday morning video roundup has been bumped to Wednesday.)

• Carrie Underwood donated the proceeds of last Friday’s Atlantic City show to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

• Craig Shelburne wrote a feature on Dwight Yoakam for American Songwriter. Here’s an excerpt in which Yoakam remembers working with Roger Miller on “It Only Hurts When I Cry”: “He was at my house, we were hanging out and he was just a sweet guy,” Yoakam recalls. “The big thrill was being called up by Roger when it [became a] hit and him being elated! I thought, ‘My gosh, Roger Miller, of all people …’ That’s what’s right about it. He was still excited about having a hit. I mean, he had so many hit records from that run in the ’60s from “Dang Me” and the King Of The Road album. As a lyricist, he was one of the handful of geniuses ever in pop music or country. He and Chuck Berry are not given enough credit for the genius of their lyricism.” 

• RollingStone.com posted “Good Things Happen to Bad People,” a song from Richard Thompson’s forthcoming record, Electric.

• Real Gone Music is reissuing John Hartford’s Aereo-Plain and Morning Bugle. The two-disc collection will also include four unreleased tracks on each album.

• John Fogerty’s memoir will be released in 2014. (via press release)

• Here’s a new Quotable Country.

• Stream Mary Gauthier’s live version of Fred Eaglesmith’s “Your Sister Cried.” It’ll be on her upcoming album, Live at Blue Rock (out February 5).

• Jewly Hight interviewed Sara Watkins for CMT Edge.

• Lucinda Williams, Gretchen Peters, and Nanci Griffith are among the artists slated to play the 30A Songwriters Festival in January.

• Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit’s Live from Alabama can be streamed on Spotify a week before its release.

• Music Tomes’ Eric Banister interviewed Fred Bartenstein, editor of the new Uncle Josh Graves memoir, Bluegrass Bluesman.

• ABC picked up a full season of Nashville.

• Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm will hit movie theaters in North America early next year.

• Jason Heller of The A.V. Club gives Bettye LaVette’s new memoir a B+.

• Taylor Swift will ring in 2013 with a performance on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.

• New album releases:

Bobby Bare – Darker Than Light

Patsy Cline – Patsy Cline On Air: Her Greatest TV Performances

Terri Clark – Classic

The Departed – Adventus

Mike Cullison & The Regulars – The Barstool Monologues (you still have time to enter our giveaway)

Carrie Newcomer – Kindred Spirits: A Collection

Old Man Luedecke – Tender is the Night

Steven Clawson – Miles to Go

Tom Skinner – Tom Skinner

Punch Brothers – Ahoy!

Aaron Lewis – The Road

Nels Andrew – Scrimshaw

Jesse Dayton – Jesse Sings Kinky

• And a couple recent books:

Willie Nelson – Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road

Carter Robertson – Playin’ on the Tracks