Category: Americana

So this afternoon I put Victor  Wooten‘s album A Show Of Hands 15 on the iPhone and listened to it on the way back from meeting with my All State Agent where I protected myself against mayhem and saved over $ 600 on my insurance with discounts I didn’t know I qualified for!! So I started listening to Victor in a pretty good mood! Now I must admit that I really didn’t think that a solo bass album could be that good, and I will say that I haven’t listened to the whole album yet, but now I believe that I have a new album and artist to listen to at work – overall what I heard was marvelous! As I was listening to Wooten, my mind wander to the music of another musician whose work is in my music library, but I haven’t written a lot, if anything, about and that’s Brooks Williams. There’s just something about the both Wooten and Williams that link them together in my mind. Both are masters of their respective instruments. Both can conjure up riffs and ,melodies that stay in your mind for a long time, Both also teach:. Read More

So last night, when I went to Target to pick up a few things, I listened to the last release from a band that I’ve had on the iPhone for a little while now Fruition, Just One of Them Nights. Now when I came home from work tonight, as I was eating and getting ready to go to work at Target. I wrote a good amount about the band and the album, then the screen blinked and before I knew what was happening, I was back to the WordPress sign-in screen. That meant that everything that I had just written went away. I will try to recreate it tomorrow, but for now, let’s go “off to work” and “into the night” with the title track from this terrific Americana album!! Read More

So last Monday August 5th was the 52nd anniversary of the birth of fiddle player/violinist and composer Mark O’Connor. I did a lot of reading that day about the great Americana music that he’s produced over the length of his career, but couldn’t decide on what to play. So I think I posted something else. Anyway here’s some background about Mark: Read More

So there once was a group of musicians that lived back in the woods, and they played traditional American roots music, with story songs about, hangings, murder, and moonshine running, with titles like “Hillbilly Hick”, and Sons O’Dixie. After the release of their début album, they will be touring throughout the country playing dates in Rougham Suffolk, Cambridge, Wisbech, Cambs and in October they will be playing sets both days at the Prickwillow ploughing festival and country fair near Ely, Cambs. Not sure what part of the south they’re from – well you should be because this terrific new band is from jolly old England!!Rattleshack is their name and playing great American roots music is their game!!  Their début album is self-titled and great. According to the band they were: Read More

So on this date 1937 in Littlefield, Texas an Americana music legend was born. Waylon Arnold Jennings.(June 15, 1937–February 13, 2002) Waylon along with Willie Nelson is responsible for the kind of music that I love. Waylon had recorded music for many years, when in the mid 1970s he said no to Nashville’s sound. You know the one with too many strings and a pop inflect. Waylon wanted it too sound his way…. so he became an “Outlaw” and along with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash created a ragged, maverick image and a music that was independent from Nashville. The movement went on to become a significant force in music during ’70s, and laid the foundation for Americana music, a genre that adheres to its hardcore honky-tonk roots! Read More