The Mavericks Reunite; ACM Brings Back Songwriter of the Year Award; The Rise of Pentecostal Rural Tarts
- The Mavericks (Raul Malo, Robert Reynolds, and Paul Deakin) will reunite in April 2012 at the Stagecoach Festival in California. Following Stagecoach, they plan to tour North America and Europe.
- “Waiting For a Train,” “Devil Woman,” and “Give It Away” all make Merle Haggard’s list of ten songs he wishes he’d written.
- Radley Balko of the Huffington Post ponders Americana: America is a nation of mongrels. American culture is a fluid, organic mix and hybridization of other cultures. It seems appropriate, then, that the most well-known champion of Americana music at the moment is Robert Plant, a British rock ‘n’ roll god who rose to fame by mimicking (sometimes rather blatantly) American blues artists.
- The Academy of Country Music is bringing back the Songwriter of the Year category for the 2012 ACM Awards show. The award’s only recipient to date? Roger Miller.
- Peter Cooper spoke with John Carter Cash about new book House of Cash. “I know a lot of people see him as a staunch, dark figure,” says John Carter. “And maybe the darkness is the thing that leads a lot of people to him. But his humor is one of the most important aspects of who he was, and that’s been sadly overlooked. My dad was sometimes downright goofy, in a good way.”
- Chet Flippo’s favorite trend in country music: Pentecostal Rural Tarts.
- Farce the Music interviewed singer-songwriter-novelist Drew Kennedy.
- Keith Burns (of Burns & Poe) is holding a charity golf outing to benefit his teenage daughter, currently suffering from leukemia.
- American Songwriter goes backstage with Jonny Corndawg.
- Becky Buller, formerly of Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike, chats with the Prescription Bluegrass Blog about her recent career change.
- Razor X took a look back at Merle Haggard’s Serving 190 Proof over at My Kind of Country.
- Brad Paisley comes in at #78 on Country Universe’s list of country’s 100 Greatest Men.
- Stay posted on the Steep Canyon Rangers’s recent time in the studio via their Twitter account.
- Saving Country Music posted a feature on Ray Lawrence, Jr., a songwriter who went from staying in a Phoenix homeless shelter to appearing on a Hank3 album. The Triggerman also wrote an article about the underrated Caleb Klauder.
- Jo Dee Messina and her husband are expecting their second child.
- In other baby news, Adam and Tina Steffey welcomed twins.
- Taylor Swift is just like us, sitting alone and watching Law & Order.
- LoCash Cowboy Ryan “Troop” Jones passed away due to complications from pneumonia.
- The Tennessean is giving away an autographed Oak Ridge Boys CD.
- Shania Twain sang on “White Christmas” for Michael Buble’s upcoming holiday album.
- Martina McBride stopped by Rhapsody HQ for a video interview, where she talks about a project she’d like to do (a big band record) and what she’d do if she wasn’t a country singer (plan parties).
Tagged In This Article
Adam Steffey // Becky Buller // Brad Paisley // CAleb Klauder // Chet Flippo // Drew Kennedy // Jo Dee Messina // John Carter Cash // Jr. // Keith Burns // LoCash Cowboys // Merle Haggard // Oak Ridge Boys // Peter Cooper // Ray Lawrence // Robert Plant // Roger Miller // Shania Twain // Taylor Swift // The Mavericks // Tina Steffey // Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike
Current Discussion
- Luckyoldsun: Amazing One, " “Given credit as the ‘artist” by who? " Um, by the movie studio, by the critics, by the Academy. It's ...
- Jon: Well, that's just gibberish. When Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald sang on the silver screen, they were the artists ...
- Barry Mazor: Thanks for straightening me out LuckyOlSunbody. "Given credit as the 'artist" by who? Take it up with the Screen Actors ...
- Luckyoldsun: Barry: As far as the comparison to movies: The person who's given credit as the "artist" of a movie is the director--not ...
- Jon: I've got to say, I think "Lots More Blues, Rags, and Hollers" was a better record.
- Janice Brooks: As for new releases, I love the new Don Rigsby and Mike Scott. Will also dig up a cut of ...
- Barry Mazor: Look, one sort of music reporting/reviewing I like to do best is reporting on live performance, the interaction with the ...
- nm: That's probably why I generally don't watch music on a screen in my home, except for films of live shows. ...
- Jon: If you are watching music on a screen in your home, you're not going out to a show, are you? ...
- nm: I don't think the problem with lip-synching (for me as a member of the audience at a live event) is ...
14 Comments
RSS for comments on this post
October 21, 2011 at 11:51 am
I love the notion that Americana (after 16 years!) is a “new” classification. In the same sense, I guess, that hillbilly music was a “new” classification during World War II–only if you hadn’t been paying attention! I’ll speak to this in the next Roots Watch column.
October 21, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Is Caleb Klauder any relation to Clifton Clowers? Talk about a name from the hills! You know, that would make a perfect new character name on FX’s “Justified” TV series. Hmm…
I haven’t had a chance to read the Chet Flippo column yet, but my first reaction to the link was “Gee, I didn’t know Those Darlin’s had a religious background…”.
Opry Alert! Tonight’s Opry will feature Ray Price, recent Survivor competitor Whitney Duncan, Joe Diffie, Mountain Heart, and way too many Opry Legends. Oh well. Grade B
Link: http://www.opry.com/shows/ThisWeek.html
October 21, 2011 at 1:40 pm
I love The Mavericks and regret that I never got to see them live the first time around. But it seemed from interviews with Raul Malo that there was some real bad blood behind the split — and a lawsuit too, if memory serves. I’m surprised they’ve agreed to get back together.
The good news: The ACM is bringing back the songwriter of the year award. The bad news: It’ll probably go to The Peach Pickers.
October 21, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Actually, Caleb Klauder’s from Portland, Oregon.
…a songwriter who went from staying in a Phoenix homeless shelter to appearing on a Hank3 album.
Would that be considered a step up or a step down?
Thankaveramuch, I’ll be here all week…
October 21, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Call me jaded, but I suspect the Mavericks reunion is as much about infusing their bank accounts as it is renewed creative juices. (There was bad blood among some of the members of the band.) That said, I’ll certainly enjoy seeing them live again, especially if they bring some brass players along with them.
October 21, 2011 at 3:53 pm
Call me observant, but the last time the Mavericks were together they were a quartet, not a trio, so not everybody is, in fact, included.
October 21, 2011 at 3:57 pm
@Barry, yes, it will be interesting to see who fills the David Lee Holt/Nick Kane/Eddie Perez spot…
October 21, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Interesting about the Mavericks. I’m surprised too.
I’d love to hear Martina do a big band record.
October 21, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Stagecoach 2012 tickets go on sale October 28th and they only offer 3 day passes starting at $ 149! I couldn’t care less about the big name headliners but Elizabeth Cook, Sunny Sweeney, and Chris Isaak should liven things up a bit. The bluegrassers include Ralph Stanley, J.D. Crowe, Greensky Bluegrass, Del McCoury, and Steve Martin with the Steep Canyon Rangers. The reformed Mavericks will also make an appearance. Its a shame they don’t have the bluegrass and Americana artists area separated with a fence with a lower admission price just to their zone with GA passes having access to everything.
Last year they didn’t even post a daily artist performance schedule online to my knowledge! I miss the old days of paper tickets and one day passes that made the first couple of years of Stagecoach bearable. I’ll gladly take a pass on this over-sized, over-priced, over-regulated debacle.
Link: http://www.stagecoachfestival.com/
October 23, 2011 at 10:58 am
It seems the Mavericks treat the Guitarist role like most other bands treat the drummer role…
October 23, 2011 at 11:36 am
RE: what Matt said. Mr. Malo once told me that Mavericks songs (as opposed to more complicated Raul Malo pop songs) are the ones with the simple chords and approaches and straightahead rhythms. This may explain something about the band’s Guitarist Replacement Syndrome.
October 24, 2011 at 12:25 pm
From talking to them back in the day, I think the Mavericks took a while to find a guitarist who specialized in a certain kind of spare, sustained twang they liked, and one who also could deal with the road life. Nick Kane filled that role quite well for a good spread of the band’s run. But he left in an angry split, filed a lawsuit, and went public with vicious personal attacks, so there wasn’t much chance he’d join a reunion.
From the start, Malo/Reynolds/Deacon made the move alone from Florida to Nashville, and they were always the core players. It’s not that the guitarists were interchangeable, they just didn’t have the history and the bond the others had. I’m sure there were other frictions in the band over the years, but not the kind that would keep them from knowing they had something special together. Their best club shows in the ’90s rank among the most enjoyable live music nights I’ve ever experienced.
October 24, 2011 at 12:48 pm
“Songwriter of the Year” sounds like a worthy award, but the problems/complications will be (1) Do you give it to an artist who performs his/her own songs or one who writes songs for others? and (2) It seems that few big songs are solo efforts anymore: Do you give a writer full credit for any song that his name appears on, or do you give only half-credit if there are two names and one-third credit if there are three? (3) Is the award something of a “lifetime achievement” award or is it really only for the specific year? If it’s the latter, then do you credit a song that was a smash hit this year, but was actually written three years ago and first recorded by a minor artist back then in a record that almost nobody’s heard?
Will there be guidelines that address that, or is every voter supposed to make up his own standards?
October 24, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Never been a problem awarding Songwriter of the Year awards wherever they are done. It usually takes more than one song that year to do it–and the solo or co-write question just takes care of itself. Co-write 5 great songs and voters get the picture! Co-write 3 and write 2, write three great ones alone–I’ve never seen these issues tie anybody up in knots in practice. And the year in question is simply the year the songs reached people–even if they were in a trunk for ten years before that. And every award out there has some guidelines that are (theoretically) followed. Like Employee of the Week!
Leave a Comment