Today's Membership Drive edition of Greetings from Nashville on WXNA is up on the archive. You can listen and look into becoming a sustaining member of the stations at wxnafm.org. HERE is a directly link to the show on the archive.
6:00am Greetings from Nashville by Jason and The Scorchers on Still Standing (EMI/EMI Records (USA))
6:03am Burdens Down (Live) by Kyshona Armstrong on Live from the Sanctuary (Kyshona Armstrong)
6:08am Thank Me Later by Devon Gilfillian on Black Hole Rainbow (Capitol Records)
6:12am I Wonder (feat. Patrick Dailey, W. Crimm Singers & Caroline Randall Williams) by Louis York on American Griots (Weirdo Workshop, LLC)
6:20am We Shall Be Free by Jason Eskridge on We Shall Be Free – Single (Jason Eskridge)
6:23am Quarantine Funk by Otto Gross on Quarantine Funk – Single (Otto Gross Music)
6:27am Frustrated by R.LUM.R on Afterimage – EP (PRMD)
6:32am Freedom by The New Respects on Before The Sun Goes Down (Credential Recordings (CRE))
6:35am South Gotta Change by Adia Victoria on South Gotta Change – Single (Atlantic Records)
6:39am Black Like Me by Mickey Guyton on Mickey Guyton – EP (Capitol Records Nashville)
6:44am Crazy Things by Lauren McClinton on Dawn (Lauren McClinton)
6:47am Feeling the Pain by The Shindellas on Hits That Stick Like Grits (Weirdo Workshop, LLC)
6:52am Break N’ Lude 1 by Daru Jones & Bobby J From Rockaway on One Mic & Drum Breakstrumentals (Fat Beats Records)
6:56am Sword and Stone by Victor Wooten on Sword and Stone (Vix Records)
Well, first off, I have to say that night 2 of the Brian Wright and the Sneak-Ups Residency at The 5 Spot somehow manged to top the first week. Guest Audley Freed (The Black Crowes, etc.) sat in for a couple of songs - including a killer version of "Cortez the Killer". Brian Wright and his incredible band put on a great rock n roll show. From the exaltation of "Glory Hallelujah" to the emotional gut punch that is "Heavy Metal Shed Kids" - it was one of the best live shows I have experienced in a good while. Brian Wright has been a favorite of mind since I first heard his music. When he plays solo, it can be amazing. Full-band - it is something else entirely. And this new band (Wade Cofer, Jon Latham, Matty Apples, Jimmy Matt Rowlan, Rob Crowell, Sally Jaye, and Kristen Englenz) is just out of this world. They still have two weeks to go, and I can wait to see where they take it from here.
Next, more about the Magnolia Roads American Roots Hoedown IV. As if the music artists we've already mentioned were not enough, the nights will also include a community canvas and more. The silent auction, which I previously mentioned, and which benefits the Ben Eyestone Fund of the Musicians Health Alliance, is going to have many incredible items. The auction will be done all on-line - so even if you can't make it to the shows, you can still participate. I will be posting the links when they are available. One of the items comes from Wilco, an autographed poster book and more...signed poster, signed toy, scarf, bar towel, CD and pin.
Now, let's get to today's shuffle. It is Wednesday, and I think this shuffle lives up to the "Wild" designation. Besides being wild, it is also filled with excellent music (both new and not as new). Let's go!
Feeling very grateful and filled up with life right now. The feeling probably won't last, but I'm digging it.
After work yesterday, I had the incredible opportunity to spend some time with Reckless Johnny Wales and get a early listen to his forthcoming album. First of all, the album is fantastic and I can't wait until the world gets to hear it. Second of all, Reckless Johnny is a larger than life figure and also a very wonderful man. He has some amazing stories and a very unique perspective on the "New Nashville". I even got to give him a copy of The Foresters' CD.
Next, I headed to a run-through in preparation for my very first music video appearance which is scheduled to be shot on Sunday. Details to come.
Next, I headed to The Family Wash to catch some of Bill Lloyd's CD Release show. I was able to catch the end of the acoustic set and the beginning of the electric set. It was as awesome as you would expect a Bill Lloyd show to be. He is a power pop songwriter of the highest caliber.
Whew! This weekend is the aforementioned video shoot, and Sue and I will have our 15 Minutes of Fame as we preview Double Shot with Joe and Sue at WXNA. That will air at 2pm Sunday but really stay dialed in to WXNA all weekend (starting at 10:15a.m. Saturday) and then forever after that!
It is Friday, and we play "featured" music on Friday. Enjoy!
THANKS!!!! To all the bands, the guests, The 5 Spot, and all the kind words from near and far! The 5 Year Anniversary Extravaganza was a smash hit (as far as I am concerned). Let's do it again some time soon! (not a 5 Year Anniversary Extravaganza but you know what I mean!)
A recap: First of all, I had the great pleasure of meeting and having dinner with The Foresters and their parental entourage. Really awesome folks! Then, I made it back to the 5 Spot for Will Kimbrough with a full band who was incredible as always and somehow better than ever. Will was followed by the one and only RB Morris - poet, songwriter, musician, and bandleader - called the unofficial poet laureate of Tennessee. I seriously implore you if you have not made any of the first three shows of his residency, do not miss the final week!
Then, it was time for the Extravaganza to begin (why oh why did I not call it an Anniversary Bash?)..
I had the pleasure of welcoming the aforementioned The Foresters to the stage for their debut Nashville performance (not counting the recording they did at Third Man Records earlier in the day and the live stream they did after that from their Airbnb. They were amazing, and I think they won over some new fans in Nashville.
Next up was Julie Christensen, Sergio Webb, and Chris Tench who rocked the house with lots of guitars. Julie's legendary voice was in fine form. They performed songs from The Cardinal and some new music, too. The full Stone Cupid band will be playing next Wednesday at The High Watt - you do not want to miss that one!
Then, Maritime Laws were put into effect has Patrick Kinsley and a Fistful of Dollars rocked the house with some new arrangements of old songs and some new music.
BARK (the duo featuring Tim and Susan Bauer Lee of Tim Lee 3) brought their massive two piece wall of sound in a high-energy performance that exceeded my high expectations.
And finally, Adrian + Meredith closed out the night with a powerhouse full-band performance (doing a lot of songs from their highly anticipated upcoming album). Their band propelled by Adrian's incredible songs and Meredith's awesome fiddle work featured Paul Niehaus on pedal steel and a guest appearance by the awesome Nashville Horns.
The performances were all top-notch, I loved seeing so many good friends... the between song music was a shuffle (what else) of a special Spotify playlist that I created featuring music from the first 5 years of E2TG. I heard such favorites as Jon Latham, Joe Nolan, and Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray (who were all in attendance), plus Marla Mase, Black Jake and the Carnies, Lost Romance, Artur U and the New City Limits, Strange Majik, and more...
Let's get back to the business of posting - as the next 5 years starts now!
Well, guess what? I'll tell you what, we have reached the end of this weird week... and that means it is time for the ever popular* feature here at E2TG, Featured Friday. Where we cut out all the classic, obscure prior year tracks from our playlist and just spin songs of a more recent vintage. These are either tracks that were submitted to me or just newer music that I wanted to feature.
Let's get right into the shuffle which takes some interesting twists and turns....
I have seen the dystopian future of Buck Owens tribute bands, and it's name is Buck N Stuff!
Okay, let me start from the beginning... So, I ended up spending almost the same amount of time at The 5 Spot last night as I did at work yesterday. No wonder I am tired today...
Paul Burch and the WPA Ballroom began their February residency with special guest Kevin Gordon who played lead guitar all night. The band was hot, the songs were great, and the vibe of cool. The only thing missed were the people. Come on Nashville! You got three more week of this residency. You gotta get there!
The late show, kicked off with Darrin Bradbury doing a pretty rare solo set and pulling out some chestnuts like "Zoey" (aka the ka-ka-cool song), "Conversation with Superman", and "Yardsale". Jon Latham was up next accompanied by Sean Quinn. Latham picked up on shoeless singer-songwriter mantle from Darrin Bradbury (who now wears shoes usually) and he did not hold back - making the pain of "Hand Me Down Heart" palpable. A highlight was his extended riffs on "Take It Easy" and "Boys of Summer" into his rendition of his summer anthem "Major Key".
Next up, were two singer-songwriters that I was not familiar with: Elli Perry who is in town working on a record, delivered a loose and awesome set with Robbie Crowell of Deer Tick playing drums and producer Adam Landry on bass. For the last song, Crowell and Landry switched instruments. That last song was a soulful, slow motion dirge that was wildly unexpected and disorientingly awesome.
Chris Watts is a Louisiana born singer-songwriter - whose back story includes being shot in the leg while serving with the National Guard at the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina. Watts played with a stand-up bass player and a drummer - injecting pep and good humor into his songs. He has a new CD coming soon, and he will be playing a CD release show in March at The City Winery.
The night ended (well past midnight) with the aforementioned Buck N Stuff. This power trio lead by Adam Kurtz and featuring Cameron Carrus and Lemuel Hayes play nothing but Buck Owens songs, and they play them like you have never heard Buck Owens before. This was their second ever live show (following a $2 Tuesday gig that I missed last week), and I am so glad I did not miss this one. The styles flew wildly from Reggae to Hard Rock/Punk to Cosmic Country - lots of echo-y vocals and looped guitar parts and Adam Kurtz bouncing all over and off the stage like the madman genius he is - all the while, Carrus and Hayes held the whole glorious mess together. Hands down among the most fun sets I have seen a while.
Tonight, I will take in some of Tim Carroll Rock and Roll Happy Hour and then head over to The Country for The Tangled Hearts and Saint Luke's Drifters.
Oh, and we still have a featured Friday shuffle to get to....
Let me preface what is likely to be another gushing paragraph or so about what an amazing time it is to be a music fan in Nashville with the following: I write a bunch about Nashville's live music scene because that is where I am and it is what I am experiencing. I do know that there are some amazing pockets of awesome musical stuff happening all over the world. Through writing this blog, I have been fortunate enough to "discover" tons of great music from all over and get a peak into some of these pockets of creativity and collaboration. In that spirit one of my goals for E2TG in 2016 is to forge some partnerships with other writers so that this site can dig deeper into more of the great music happening. Truth be told, I cannot even adequately cover Nashville's music so I would like to also forge some partnerships here in town. I will be posting more as I move forward, but if you read this and have some ideas or interest, please contact me at e2tgmusic@gmail.com. Be sure to put E2TG2016 as part of the subject line to make sure I see it.
For the last three weeks, iconic Nashville musician/singer/songwriter Jason Ringenberg (Jason and the Scorchers, Farmer Jason) has been doing a residency every Wednesday at The 5 Spot. For me this has been a fantastic combination of the music I listened to in my musical formative years and one of my favorite haunts of this later phase of my life. The music has been fantastic, the guests have been spectacular, and there have been wonderful surprises every week. Last night, Jason was joined by Tommy Womack - one of the best this town has to offer. Tommy Womack played some music from his forthcoming new album, some of his timeless classics, and a pretty darn cool Jason and the Scorchers cover. Jason played a great mix of songs from his long history, an awesome Tommy Womack cover, and then the two of them played some songs they wrote together.
If you've missed the first three week, you have one more opportunity to catch Jason at The 5 Spot. Next week, he will be joined by Fats Kaplin and Kristi Rose for what should be a wonderful finale.
Here we are! The final regularly scheduled shuffle of 2015. (I'm not ruling out a shuffle tomorrow but no promises). But first, we have one final bit of business to wrap up the debut edition of the "Earie" Awards. Remember: The "Earies" it sounds strange, but it's not really. The final award is the Golden "Earie" Award (aka the E2TG Artist of the Year).
Since we have a bunch of new readers, I thought I would indulge in a brief history of the award.
I began writing the blog in May 2011. That year, I named a "Band of the Week" every week. As the end of the year approached, I thought it would be fun to have a Readers Poll to select a "Band of the Year". So, I created an on-line poll that included all of the Bands of the Week. Being new to on-line polls, the poll was wide open meaning you could vote as many times as you wanted. The polling was spirited and fun with several artists really getting into it. At the end of the poll, The Mobbs (a UK band) flooded the ballot box and were named Band of the Year. Howard Rabach's band Ubiquity Machine finished second and Don Ryan from New Jersey finished third.
Because the poll was so much fun (and brought a lot of page views to the blog), for 2012 I decided to have a Band of the Month poll - which I did. At the end of 2012, all of the Bands of the Month plus some "Wildcards" competed for Band of Year. The now defunct but totally awesome Skeletons in the Piano from upstate New York were the second Band of the Year.
By 2013, I had kind of grown tired of the polls. It seemed like some artists were more into it than others plus I kind of decided it was a distraction from what was really important - being the music. When 2013 year end came up, to me there was one obvious choice for Band of the Year. The End Men, of Brooklyn, remain to this day the most tagged artist on #E2TG. Beyond that they are really wonderful people. They had a big 2013 and (as I expected) they had an even bigger 2014.
In 2014, once again the choice was obvious. Darrin Bradbury emerged from a Wal-Mart parking lot and began to conquer Nashville. He dominated Ear to the Ground - at one point I think there was at least one DB song in the shuffle everyday for almost a month. In 2014, I probably saw Darrin play life on average 2 or 3 times a week. Also, as expected, in the year that followed (2015), he continued to excel and made me very proud to have him as my Artist of the Year (I had to rename it because he wasn't a band).
Which brings us to the 2015:
The choice this year became pretty clear to me early in the year. my anticipation of Jon Latham's debut album was so high. But, anticipation does not equal awards. Real Bad News managed to exceed my very high expectations. My review can be read HERE. And the album alone is almost enough to make Jon a lock for Artist of the Year. But, there were several great albums released in the past 12 months. But wait, there is more! Jon is one of the kindest people I know. Some people may say that has nothing to do with music, but I would disagree. Grant it, there is long list of really amazing artists who happened to be assholes, however, in the case of Jon Latham, his kindness comes through in just about every song. Beyond that, Jon's knowledge and interest in a wide variety of music is almost encyclopedic. Again, at least in the case of Jon Latham, that depth of knowledge is, I think, crucial to his craft as a songwriter.
As 2015 rolled along, people began to take notice of Jon Latham. The Sin City vs. Guitar Town Eastside Throwdown was a turning point. Jon Latham backed Aaron Lee Tasjan in one of the most electrifying sets I have seen all year. Playing acoustic guitar and singing bgv, people took notice. Since then, Jon has opened shows for Aaron Lee and for the legendary Malcolm Holcombe. Real Bad News has garnered international acclaim and made some best of 2015.
You have one more chance to see the 2015 Artist of the Year in 2015. Jon will once again be joining the incredible Aaron Lee Tasjan in an opening slot for Christ Knight at the Exit/In on New Year's Eve. On Monday, you can catch 2014 Artist of the Year Darrin Bradbury as he kicks of his residency at The Basement East. 2015 Artist of the Year Jon Latham is on the bill for that night. I, for one, am excited!
Basically, those who get it, will understand right away why Jon Latham is my Artist of the Year. If you don't get it, check out the video playlist below and you probably will. Some of Jon's best moments (plus if you look closely in one video you will see the jean shorts clad leg of 2014 winner Darrin Bradbury). A couple of bonus clips that I came across: one is a clip I had heard about but not seen, Jon doing a song that does not often make it to his playlist these days. The touching and tender, "Put It in Your Butt" plus so that we didn't end on that note, a rare clip of the Latham Family Band doing a Dawes cover.
Congratulations Jon! Terry Rickards take note: 2013 Band of the Year, The End Men played the 2014 Post-Americana all-day marathon show at The Basement, 2014 Artist of the Year, Darrin Bradbury, played the 2015 Post-Americana all-day marathon show at The Basement East. I'm just sayin' American Fest will be here before we know it.
Now the last shuffle of the year.... a short commute and walk, and some longish songs means only 5 songs in the shuffle
