Willie Nelson Signs Legacy Deal; Alan Lomax Archive to Hit Internet; AKUS Added to Paul McCartney Tribute
- The 2012 Lone Star Music Award nominees have been announced; they include Drew Kennedy, Sunny Sweeney, The Damn Quails, Lloyd Maines and lots more. Here’s the ballot, if you want to vote.
- Willie Nelson has signed a deal with Sony’s Legacy Recordings. From the press release: As curator of his catalog, Willie will work with label archivists to select recordings, including previously released and previously unreleased tracks, for release in newly compiled collections and as bonus material on new editions of existing titles. The newly curated Willie Nelson titles will provide fresh perspective and context to the artist’s profoundly influential and successful career. Under the new agreement, fans can look forward to five brand-new Willie Nelson albums, with the first slated for release in spring 2012.
- Taylor Swift donated 14,000 Scholastic books to the Nashville Public Library; the books will be given to the library’s 21 branches as well as to daycares, preschools, and low-income children.
- Rosanne Cash taught a master class on songwriting to the students of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Philadelphia Inquirer music critic Dan DeLuca reports on Cash’s visit. Here’s some video, too.
- Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country charts.
- Steve Earle’s Guitar Town made Paste’s Best 80 Albums of the 80s countdown. A couple other roots and folk albums can be found on the list as well.
- Alan Lomax’s archive, which includes over 5,000 hours of sound recording, will soon hit the internet. You’ll be able to stream the tracks for free, and eventually be able to purchase mp3s or CDs.
- The CMA Foundation donated $1.4 million to benefit music education programs in Nashville public schools.
- Ryan Adams played a few for KCRW yesterday.
- In fake news, Blake Shelton passed on “Beer on a Truckbed” from the Peach Pickers: “Fun song, guys, but it’s basically just a bunch of country cliches wrapped around repetitions of the title phrase,” wrote Shelton. “In fact, it sounds like almost everything else you’ve written for the past 5 years. I think maybe you should start giving the listening public a little more credit for not being a bunch of dumb hicks that want a bunch of country stereotypes parroted back to them all the time.”
- Singer-songwriter Nile Peaytt plays for kids suffering from cancer. From Peter Cooper’s Tennessean column: Peaytt has enlisted dozens of Nashville singers and songwriters in his cause, and he can show you photos of Billy Currington, Jimmy Wayne and plenty of others, singing for the kids. Sometimes he brings his songwriter friends to the kids’ living rooms, porches or bedsides, and sometimes performers accustomed to playing for roomfuls of beer-swiggers and music impresarios are daunted by the notion of playing for quiet little children.
- Alison Krauss and Union Station have been added to the MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute, which will salute Paul McCartney on February 10.
Tagged In This Article
Alan Lomax // Alison Krauss and Union Station // Blake Shelton // Drew Kennedy // Lloyd Maines // Nile Peaytt // Peach Pickers // Rosanne Cash // Ryan Adams // Steve Earle // Sunny Sweeney // Taylor Swift // The Damn Quails // Tim McGraw // Willie Nelson
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February 2, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Let’s see, I owned all of 3 of those albums on the Paste 80′s list as I quit listening to rock music during 1980. I had the albums from Steve Earle, X, and Dire Straits and that was it. Although I might need to give that Marshall Crenshaw album a listen since he did such a fine job compiling old Capitol label country tunes for the album “Hillbilly Music Thank God, Volume 1″. Unfortunately it appears no further volumes were ever issued in that series.
Gosh, that female artist category on the Lone Star Music ballot was a toughie! I wound up voting for Amanda Shires rather than Sunny Sweeney just because Amanda is a more obscure indie artist. I’d love to see Sunny win that category though as she might actually have a shot.
Its a shame those Blake Shelton comments to the Peach Pickers is “Fake News”. Its about time some artists with clout started such a movement to put some intelligence and integrity back into AirHead mainstream country music. But then again its the Top 40 AirHead radio programmers that wield the most power over what does or doesn’t get played.
Yet another link to LA’s own version of Pravda radio KCRW! Egads! The only thing worse would be an in studio KCRW live performance by Dex Romweber! (lol)
PS – Jon Weisberger performed on stage at Music City Roots last night so I got to see him in action with his stand up bass. Good job Jon keeping up with all those whipper snappers! (lol)
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