The first video is a mini documentary about him and his farm. This video really  shows what a humble guy he is and you get to see where the inspiration for some of his songs come from:

Next is the promo video that came out before his last record, Field Songs, was released :

Here is the official video for “Field Song”

And finally, here is a live clip of him performing “Who Stole the Soul” from Animals in the Dark :

If you like what you hear visit www.WilliamElliottWhitmore.com for tour dates and album sales.

For the longest time I only knew Rod Picott as the guy who co-writes a bunch of songs with Slaid Cleaves. This thought kept going even after I had purchased a few of his earlier records, whether it was just not having enough time to listen to them intently or my own laziness. When Welding Burns came out last year I made it my mission to give this guy the proper time and effort to see what I actually thought of him. Man am I glad I did.

I’ve seen a lot of people talk about the blue collar subject matter and feel of this album, and no doubt it’s very much here. More importantly this record is American and not in the cheezy over the top patriotic way, but in that all of the characters of the songs live in our neighborhoods. The tired, down and out, blue collar workers that build what is left being built stateside and occupy the bar stools at the corner pub and fill the auditoriums for high school basketball games are all here in this album. Picott doesn’t write and sing about them like an anthropologist observing from the sidelines, instead he immerses himself in their lives. When you listen to this album you come away with the feeling that Picott has hung sheet rock, toiled away in a dying factory and in fact does have the welding burns that lend their name to the title of the record.

As far as the sound and feel of the songs, they are perfectly matched with the subject matter. The slow tired sound of “Rust Belt Fields” is perfect as is the up tempo beat and guitar work on the more frantic “410″ . Picott’s vocals are something I have definitely overlooked in the past and here they are often front and center on the songs.

The highlights of the disc start right at the beginning with “Rust Belt Fields” ,a co-write with Cleaves, where a factory has closed and the narrator offers one of the greatest group of lyrics I have ever heard,

“They’ve figured it out, shipped the elbow grease

down to Mexico off to the Chinese

I’ve learned a little something about the way things are,

no one gets a bonus for bloody knuckles and scars,

no one remembers your name, just for working hard”

From one closed factory to another, in “410″ the laid off worker chooses a 410 shotgun as his new tool for his newly created job robbing liquor stores. The desperation of a broken man really shines through in this one. After tackling some people that have lost their jobs, Picott moves on to the story of a guy who can’t seem to get rid of his job. In “SheetRock Hanger” the protagonist feels that he never is going to get away from his employment even after death as he’s “pretty sure the devil runs a sheetrock hanging crew” . The comments in this one make you believe there is no way that Picott has not spent some time on a construction site.

In the end, I am so glad I gave this record my complete attention, as it has found it’s way into the permanent rotation at my house. Picott has managed to capture the feelings and lives of an entire nation on this album. People say that Springsteen writes for the common man and that is his appeal, those people need to hear Welding Burns and see what it’s like when someone really does so. Check out Picott on his website: www.rodpicott.com .

For today’s list I am going with 5 upcoming albums that I am really excited about. It seems like every year I think that there is just so much great stuff being released at once or throughout the year. I am always thinking of how it so much better than the previous year, but when you say that every year it really isn’t true. I think that when you like so much music and it’s such a big part of your life, you can always get pumped up for a new release.

Having said all of that, the next 5 releases really do get me excited and it’s going to be a fantastic stretch for new tunes coming up, as these are only 5 new ones coming out among  many.

Without further ado here is today’s list:

1. Todd Snider : Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables – Release Date March 6th

I thought I would get the obvious out of the way. Any time Todd puts out a new record it’s an event at my house. The release of the excitement plan seemed to be postponed for 25 years as he put out eps and such to throw us off the scent.  Perhaps, I’m not quite as plugged in with the Snider fan community as I was before, but this new release kind of blindsided me. I knew he had some new songs and that he was in the studio working (Jason Isbell tweeted that he was a special guest and went and recorded with Todd a couple months ago) but, I assumed that would mean two more years with Todd. Anyways in March we get to see what direction he has headed in. Yesterday Chad Staehly of Great American Taxi informed the Snider email list that he, Paul Griffith, Eric McConnell along with guests Amanda Shires (vocals/ fiddle) and Isbell (guitar / backing vocals), back Snider on this one. Todd is also gearing up for a tour with the McConnell and Griffith as the rhythm section.

2. Otis Gibbs : Harder Than Hammered Hell – Release Date February 28th (digital download available now)

I was turned on to Otis Gibbs right before his last album, Joe Hill’s Ashes, was released. I got a copy of the album to review and the site became something I had no time to run. What I did have time for was getting every Gibbs record and absolutely loving them all. Gibbs’ writing style is amazingly honest and heartfelt and his vocals are perfect for the songs of the everyday man that he writes. I knew this was in the works and earlier this week he put the entire album up on his site to stream or buy digitally. I will be reviewing this one hopefully next week as I purchased it today and have to really listen to it a few times all the way through. Here is the stream of the album:

3. Justin Townes Earle : Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me – Release Date March 27th

I have liked everyone of the younger Earle’s records so I’m sure this one will be no exception. The way he continues to evolve while still keeping that “Old Timey” feel that made all of us fall in love with his songs in the first place is great. This record was cut live with the band in the studio which should enhance that same vintage feel. Here is a little trailer for the record that appears on the front page of his website:

4. The Band of Heathens : The Double Down: Live in Denver Vols. 1 and 2 – Release Date March 20th

The Band of Heathens are back with yet another live record or two as the case may be. Recorded in Denver last fall these two volumes cover material spanning all of their records and both come with an audio disc and a DVD of the shows. You can pre-order both of them now or only $30 and you receive an immediate download code to two more EPs ! The EPs are cover songs from the weekend one is 5 Grateful Dead Songs and the other is standard Heathens’ cover tunes. Now that is what I call a great deal 4 cds of Heathens and 2 DVDs for only 30 bucks. I also have to mention that all of their live releases have been phenomenal thus far and most of the time I find myself listening to them in lieu of their studio counterparts, and I’m excited to get live versions of the songs from Top Hat Crown and the Clapmaster’s Son. Here is their promo video for this release:

5. Tommy Womack : Now What ! – Release Date February 21st

I have been waiting for this record for nearly 5 years or as soon as I got There, I Said It ! , Tommy’s last record which by the way is easily on my top 25 albums of all time list.  Womack says that Now What ! is literally a sequel to that record. I have heard quite of few of the songs that will be on this one at one live show or another and I can honestly say they are as good if not better than anything he has ever written. Every artist puts themselves in their songs in some way and I have written this before, no one puts so much of themselves on display on a record or on a stage as Tommy Womack. And the amazing thing? He doesn’t come off as the least bit arrogant or pitiful (which many people do when talking or singing about themselves), Tommy just comes off as real. He is probably tired of me emailing him and asking for updates on this album (it has been 5 years) and now he will not have to field those emails for at least a month or two while I soak this one in and then begin wondering about the next masterpiece. As soon as I get my grubby little hands on a copy of this the review will be up on the site. Here is a humorous ten minute trailer for the record that Tommy put up on YouTube:

Well there you have it, the first Friday List of 5. Hopefully I have peaked your interest in these albums, if not, oh well I’m still bursting with excitement. Tomorrow I plan on posting a late review of one of my favorite records released last year, Rod Picott’s Welding Burns.

This album was a long time in the making, but the wait was well worth it. Weber continues to hone his songwriting abilities while really creating an “album” feel. In the day and age of Itunes singles it is still refreshing when someone sets out to make a complete record. When you listen to Women all the way through, you get to travel the emotional roller coaster that Graham experienced during the  aforementioned year.

The reason for the album’s title is quickly apparent as Weber has enlisted a talented crew of female vocalists and musicians to help convey his feelings. The list includes Betty Soo, Carrie Rodriguez, Amanda Shires, and his wife, Michelle Keffer (another perk of making up with his talented wife) on vocals.

The songs range from the full band feel of the opening track, “Sweet Virginia Brown” that comes complete with Hammond B-3 and a saxophone to the sparsity of the heartbreaking  “Baltimore”, where Graham stands alone with an acoustic guitar and his vocals. The production on this record is in my opinion the best on any of his records to date, as his songs are backed and highlighted by the backing music perfectly.

I always try to throw out my favorite tracks on a record and that was a difficult process with this one. “Baltimore” appeared on his last live release, so I was definitely looking forward to hearing it on record.  “All About You” has Graham handling the vocals alone and is him telling his lost love that the songs have always been about her, and that the happy songs are the hardest to play without her in the crowd.

Michelle shows up in “Black and White” which is Weber looking at an old black and white photo of the two of them (provided in the inside cover) and longing for the time and mood of when the picture was taken. Co-wrote with Graham’s mentor Slaid Cleaves, “Still Be Mine” brings Carrie Rodriguez in on harmony vocals as Weber seeks to get his girl back by his side.

Finally, “Sleep it Off” features Betty Soo on vocals and ends the album on an upswing as the two separated lovers are once again back together and looking towards the future as they sing, “We’ll sleep it off and start it all again”.

Overall, this is the best complete album in Weber’s relatively short recording career. He continues to show that he is an amazing wordsmith and displays the ability to blend seamlessly with all of the vocal styles of his female guests.

To purchase Women, visit Graham Weber’s Website.

The first video is a 10 minute mini-documentary that introduces people to Jerry:

This is my favorite Jerry Joseph song: “Back in the Hole”

This is probably his most known song because it is a Widespread Panic staple : “Climb To Safety” performed with John Bell of Widespread

Mondays are for YouTube clips, Tuesdays and Thursdays are for reviews, Wednesdays I will post something random and Fridays will be a list of five.

Starting in March of this year the Artist of the Month will be restarted as well. I am going to try my best to resurrect the podcast series, starting by locating and posting the long lost Scott Miller podcast that was recording in the Fall of  2010 and never put up due to technical difficulties.

I figure that if I can stick to this schedule and perhaps get our old friend George Douglas back in the fold and maybe another writer or two this site can be kicking again.

Now, I know I just said that Mondays are for YouTube clips but, in memory of the late great Etta James, here are a couple of live Etta clips:

Now, I know I just said that Mondays are for YouTube clips but, in memory of the late great Etta James, here are a couple of live Etta clips:

On The Devil Stole the Moon, O’ Connor shows that he’s has continued to grow as a songwriter and performer. The record has a very dark feel, with the seedy characters that you have to love that populated his release with Adam Carroll last year.

With a rhythm section consisting of Rick Richards on drums and Jack Saunders (Bass), O’ Connor fills in the rest of the record by playing everything short of the kitchen sink. The ability to make a record that sounds complete without over production, shows that musically O’ Connor is a force to be reckoned with. Another thing that I noticed while listening to the album is the similarities to Warren Haynes’s vocal style, another singer that I believe to be thought of as a guitar player before a vocalist. In both cases, I believe this to be a great injustice as their vocal qualities are what drew me to both artists.

Michael’s songwriting has always been phenomenal and this release is no exception, as he wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. While I love his work as a sideman especially with Slaid Cleaves (and I’m sure those gigs pay his bills) , The Devil Stole The Moon really hammers home the fact that O’Connor should be doing his own thing full time at this point.

Highlights on this record include a couple co-writes with the aforementioned Carroll, “Raining on the Dark Side” and “Rough Side” which would have felt right at home on Hard Times. The title track rivals “Devil’s Lullaby” as my favorite O’ Connor track to date, with lines such as “…with the courage for the blade, but not for the blood…” this sinister sounding song really showcases his ability with word play.

“Burn”, the story of a tired rock n roller, features some really classic O’ Connor guitar work, where he seems to know exactly what to play and when. The song really captures what I imagine it feels like to continue touring and playing shitty bars long after it has lost its appeal. Following that is the “Homesick Boy” the album’s closing track that is somewhat the singer songwriter companion to “Burn”,  with lyric so good I could quote them all here.

After only one listen of this album, I was convinced it was his best effort to date, and I love his other records.  It is available now on his website and other places that you can purchase music.

I have to start this review by stating a couple things. First, I love live albums and second I have been eagerly awaiting a live album from Slaid Cleaves.

Sorrow and Smoke : Live at the Horseshoe Lounge, will be officially released this coming Tuesday and no doubt will have a lot of people excited to hear what Slaid has to offer.  The record was recorded at the famous club that Slaid immortalized in song on his album, Brokedown, over two shows in the first half of 2010.

Alongside Slaid on this one is longtime lead guitarist/ backing vocalist, Michael O’Connor and multi-instrumentalist,Oliver Steck.  As always Slaid’s voice is in top form, Michael’s guitar work is spot on and Steck’s contributions really fill out the songs in a live setting. I have never had the pleasure of seeing Cleaves live, but if I do I would be quite happy if this were the lineup as the three of them play well off each other and give the songs a great over all sound.

Now for the songs that appear on this double disc set. The selection of tracks on this record is perfect. They span Slaid’s entire career and include every one of my favorite Cleaves’ originals as well as a couple yodeling Don Walser tracks. If I were to create a setlist for a Slaid show this album would not be far off of what I would write down.

Highlights for me pretty much consist of my favorite Slaid songs, there are great live versions of “Brokedown”, “Drinking Days” and obvious crowd favorite, “Horseshoe Lounge”. The aforementioned Walser Yodeling set is preceded by what Slaid calls a warmup yodeling song, “Horses”.

It was also nice to see that a few of the best tracks from 2009′s studio effort, Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away, are also included on this set. So often when someone releases a live album they avoid songs from their latest release and if that were the case here it would have been highly disappointing. Included here are the Rod Picott co-write “Black T-Shirt”, “Tumbleweed Stew” and another co-write this time with Adam Carroll, ” Hard to Believe” .

A few more standouts include the crowd participation heavy, ” Breakfast in Hell”, in which the audience is turned into a logging crew as they assist the hero Sandy Gray break a log jam, before, he, like so many other folk heroes, gives his life for the cause. Also my all-time favorite Cleaves track, “One Good Year” shows up towards the end of the second disc. This song includes the line “I’ve been chasing grace, but grace ain’t so easily found” which has been a favorite line of mine from the first time I heard it and live the song has an even deeper feeling of desperation. Closing out the set is the previously unreleased “Go For The Gold”, a spiritually based song about the one rule we all should follow regardless of religious beliefs.

After just the first listen of this live record, it landed on the short list of my favorite live offerings and definitely one of the best things to be released this year. It only makes me want to check out a Slaid show even more than I already did. My only complaint about the record is that he avoided the cover songs from his album, Unsung. While I understand the reasoning behind not putting a ton of covers on the album, and really wanting to highlight the Cleaves’ songs and co-writes, I do really like some of the songs on that album of covers and would love to have heard some live versions.

With only that small complaint this album is wildly successful in my book and is absolutely a must own. I do believe the release day is this Tuesday so go over to Slaid’s website and order your copy today !

I used to read an online forum about Fred Eaglesmith called “The Digest” as religiously some folks follow their favourite sports team. That’s the first place I heard about Audrey Auld after she and Bill Chambers had played at the Roots on the River Festival in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Bill’s daughter Kasey Chambers was breaking big in North America with her album The Captain around that time and I remember being excited when I heard that title cut on a Sopranos episode.

Sometime after that I met my good friend and Austin-based singer-songwriter pal Joe Gee, who was as enthusiastic about Audrey and her music as as a dog is about meat. I have a picture of him sitting in a lawn chair in the pouring rain for one of her shows. Most of my encounters with this pretty, witty, humorous and sometimes ribald lady have been around Fred shows or events around North America.
It was a year or two later that I first saw Audrey at Roots on the River and heard her pronounce “Roots”(in her Tasmanian accent) as a North American might say “Ruts” and tell us that in Australia a root has the same meaning as a rut would over/up here! I next saw her perform at Saengerhalle in New Braunfels, Texas and now her name was Audrey Auld Mezera and she had an album called Texas. That show was the one that turned me into a fan…I bought the CD and played it a lot over the next few years.
In November of 2009 I was lucky enough to travel on a train from Winnipeg, Manitoba up to Churchill to see where I’d been born and to see Polar Bears while there were still some to see. It was a Roots on the Rails trip (www.flyingunderradar.com) with Fred Eaglesmith and his band, Washboard Hank & Lance Loree, Gurf Morlix, Jon Dee Graham and Audrey who was accompanied by the incomparable Andrew Hardin on guitar. What a hoot we had! Performers and passengers totaled around 90 folks and we played and drank and laughed and laughed and laughed our way up from Winnipeg, heading north past where the roads end and the trees get shorter and shorter, across the muskeg and snow to a small town on the edge of James Bay. There were daily open mics where I got to play with Mr. Hardin and Elsabe Kloppers, a naturalist and fiddler, song swaps with various mixes of performers, concert shows from all the pros and the very best part – late night jams in the baggage car! With the side doors open to vent the cigarette smoke and the back doors open where you could see the tracks rolling out from under the car, this was the place to be.
Audrey’s suitcase and beloved Taylor guitar had somehow travelled a different route to Winnipeg than she had and didn’t make it onto the train so she was without them on the two days up to and one of the days there in Churchill. The title cut and album opener ‘Come Find Me’ was written on this trip and may have originated as a little prayer from Audrey. It has a waltz time beat to it and I can’t read the words without hearing the melody in my head. If this CD is the first time you’ve heard Audrey, than this song is the invitation into her words and music.
I was and am a fan of all the performers on that trip but was most excited to get to spend some time around Jon Dee Graham. He was still in a lot of pain from a recent car accident and shortly after the trip he fell from a ladder…but’s he’s tough, profane and resilient and he goes on. Petals (for Jon Dee) is the fourth cut on the CD and is Audrey’s rap song about “The King of Austin”. I had heard the majority of these songs live and on a couple of EP’s before the CD but not this one. It immediately grabbed my attention with it’s poetry and beat. Ms. Auld-Mezera is good at tribute songs, on Texas she used her admiring pen to write about Woody Guthrie and Billy Joe Shaver and on this album she gives us “Orphan Girl”, with the lyrics by Australian Terry MacArthur, about Mary Gauthier, whom Auds has attentively covered in the past. She sings this a cappella to great effect.
I was closer to fifty than forty when I first heard “Forty”, a sardonic, minor key commemoration of that milestone in her life. The chorus of “I’m halfway home” made me think about my own mortality while smiling at the other wry observations in the song. I think Audrey Auld is the only Tasmanian I’ve ever met and she tells us about her birthplace in the song “Tasmania”. She has said in promo material that Tasmania has more trees than people and the song “Tree” examines the nature of beauty in inanimate objects, with a nice melody.
“Just Love” is a co-write with her husband Mez, and if there is such a thing as singles these days this song would be my pick for one. I first heard it at a concert at Gram’s Place in Tampa that was organized by my friends George & Marlene. I’m amazed that someone can write another song about the subject of love and make it profound, memorable and radio friendly all at the same time.
The album has a dozen tracks, the last song being “Bread & Roses”. It takes it’s title from an organization in California that brings artists into prisons to work with inmates. Audrey was working with them, going into San Quentin to do songwriting workshops with the residents and the rules are pretty stringent as to what can be brought into the facility. It’s my favourite song to attempt to sing but a lot easier because it’s included in her songbook “Write out Loud” and is available at www.audreyauld.com.
CD Baby lists Kasey Chambers, Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin as other artists that you may like but this album, I feel, has appeal beyond the country rock or Americana genre. If you’re already a fan, you’ll love this album, if your new to Audrey Auld, accept her invitation to “Come Find Me”, you’ll be happy you did.

With the approaching Civil Rights Game this Sunday, I thought this would be a good place to start. This is Cooper’s song, “715 (for Hank Aaron) and  I have edited the video with archival baseball footage. The video quality is not really all that good. The pedal steel is a little overpowering and as with anything shot in a bar, the background chatter is annoying. Overall though, I think it turned out okay.

It is what it is… enjoy: