Photo Credit: Eric Holland.

Former The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn and Canadian singer/songwriter Kathleen Edwards visited WFUV for a chat about Finn‘s latest album Always Been, which Edwards sang backing vocals on for 6 songs. Also playing was a world premiere of Edwards’ song, “Save Your Soul,” from her new album, Billionaire. Hear the interview HERE.

Photo Credit: Nina Westervelt, PR.

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jason Isbell appeared at WFUV for an interview with pre-recorded acoustic performance (at The Beacon Theatre in a special soundcheck WFUV set) of 3 songs taken from his new album Foxes in the Snow: “Bury Me,” “Foxes in the Snow,” and “If We Were Vampires.”  Hear the songs along with the chat HERE.

American blues, country, and Americana singer, guitarist, and songwriter Charley Crockett is back with a new album, The Man from Waco. It’s a laconic, elegant song cycle that tells the story of a fictional character who has some things in common with the artist but who has a life of his own. Charley and I touched upon a little bit of all of that in our conversation in a WFUV Live session. Check out the interview and 3 song live performances here.
Charley Crockett Photo Credit: Gus Philippas

Steve Earle’s new album is called Ghosts of West Virginia. In this recorded interview, Steve chats with me about what inspired the songs on the album and covers some wide-ranging topics. Steve performs 4 of the songs in a WFUV Live session. The interview can be heard, and performances can be seen here.

Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood Do Yankee Stadium – July 8th and 9th, 2016

The first country music concert ever at Yankee Stadium happened on Friday night followed by the second one the following evening. These were the first shows for Garth Brooks since the freebie in Central Park that drew between 300,000 and a million depending on who you’re talking to. Regardless, he‘s got brigades of loyal fans who filled up the Bronx joint twice without any problem.

Brooks spoke highly of George Strait, Chris LeDoux, and Billy Joel in the press conference on Friday prior to the show. He characterized Strait as an idol and LeDoux as someone he “stole everything he could” while pointing out his bona fides as a cowboy as well as a musician. He saved his highest praise for Joel however, who he covered during his performance as well as Bob Dylan. Brooks appeared on stage with Joel in 2008, wearing a Mets jersey no less, at Shea Stadium when the piano man played a guest star studded string of shows to mark the closing of that Flushing Meadows venue. Regarding the spectacle, the Tulsa born artist mentioned Queen and Kiss as acts he looked towards when designing the stage and show.

When I spoke to Brooks one on one for a few minutes after the press conference, he mentioned that he was unsure of his own pen after not writing songs for so long. That’s the reason he co-wrote only 3 of the 14 songs on Man Against Machine. He’s getting back in the groove these days and promises that his next album will feature more melodies and lyrics of his creation. In addition to the Christmas Brooks/Yearwood duet album on the way that will include their first song (it’s about Thanksgiving) written together, he’s got a new radio station on Sirius/XM and she has a cooking show on the food network.

Note: Saturday night’s show was delayed for hours because of thunderstorms so Yearwood did not open but appeared as a mid-set special guest.

SXSW 2016: Iggy Pop To Loretta Lynn To ASAP Ferg To Infinity And Beyond 3-15 through 3-20-2016

I’ve never seen a more exciting performer on stage than Iggy Pop. Therefore, my top priority in Austin was connecting with Ig along with his recently minted group spearheaded by his new mainman Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age, Kyuss, Eagles of Death Metal, and Them Crooked Vultures fame. This pair was complemented by Dean Fertita (also QOTSA and Dead Weather), Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders and multi-instrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen (QOTSA) and guitarist/bassist Matt Sweeney whose worked with a slew of artists from Bonnie Prince Billy to Neil Diamond. The Post Pop Depression album that came out this week and was recorded as a quartet of Ig, Josh, Dean, and Matt – is very much in the vein of The Idiot and Lust For Life. Those were the two albums, both released in 1977, that Iggy recorded with David Bowie in Berlin. If The Stooges with the throttle open was Iggy’s fastball then the sound sculpted at Hansa Studio by the wall was his devastating curve. Wednesday night on the ACL Live at the Moody Theater stage, the band exuded that vibe with the Post Pop Depression material and upped the ante by including the most essential songs from the Berlin deuce: Lust For Life (the opener no less), Sister Moonlight, The Passenger, and the showstopper served up with three guitars China Girl. It was glorious.

As this period in Iggy’s career was so strongly invoked, it’s likely blogger types will cast Josh Homme in the role that David Bowie played in Berlin: the co-writer and trusted second pair of ears who makes his own musical contributions and elevates the project. Such a comparison is apt but Iggy, as much of a deity as he is, is still underrated. Any hails of a ‘return to form’ would be made only by those who haven’t been paying attention to the outstanding albums he’s made in the last thirty years. See the Iggy-oozing charm of Naughty Little Doggy from 96, the criminally underrated Avenue B of 99, and – returning to the baseball pitcher metaphor, the delightful knuckleball of Preliminaires from 2009.

Peaches teamed up with Iggy on her 2004 song Kick It and when I spoke to her on Tuesday night, she mentioned she saw the man in Austin and he offered her kind words to the effect of ‘You’ll be ten feet tall on stage.’ That was pretty much the case as she easily stood out from the SXSW din. Full Peaches post coming tomorrow. Please also return here for upcoming reports featuring performance video and interviews with Thao of Thao and The Get Down Stay Down, Sunflower Bean, Bloc Party, Ra Ra Riot, and PINS. Enjoy the excellent work of my cohorts at WFUV too who covered scads of other worthy artists.

SXSW always offers choices. Too many choices. Sometimes you stay too long at one place and get shut out of another. I showed up at two separate hip hop showcases only to be turned away at the door so I missed Nas (oof!) plus Khaled, Just Blaze, and Pusha T as well as French Montana. At least I captured Harlem’s own ASAP Ferg on vid along with Marty Baller. His new album Always Strive and Prosper came out today. The accompanying video offers brief peeks Ferg along with The First Lady of Country Loretta Lynn, dynamite Brooklyn trio Sunflower Bean, and Baltimore’s intoxicating Lower Dens.

Rosanne Cash Crushes Carnegie Hall (Headlining) Debut 2-20-16

One might have thought that an artist of the stature of Rosanne Cash would have headlined Carnegie Hall before but that was not the case and it was clear that Rosanne was excited about the show.  She and her husband of 21 years John Leventhal have both been honored recently.  This past fall, Cash was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Leventhal won the Instrumentalist of the Year at the Americana Music Honors & Awards show.  The River & The Thread, the most recent effort released by Cash on which they co-wrote the songs, was award winning too and as well-received as any album from her body of work that started with a self-titled LP in 1978.  Still, the Grammys that The River & The Thread pulled in were received in Los Angeles and the songwriting and Americana awards were accepted on Nashville stages.  Saturday night was different.  It was New York where Cash has lived for 26 years and at what Rosanne called ‘America’s venue.’  Damn strait – she was excited.  This was a celebration of her whole career and a triumph of her grit, her determination and perseverance, and most of all her talent.

The band, led by Leventhal on guitar, was of of course stellar: Kevin Barry guitar, Glenn Patscha (of Ollabelle) on keys, Zev Katz – who first worked with Cash on The Wheel and has been crossing paths with Leventhal since the mid 70s – on bass, Dan Rieser on drums, David Mansfield on fiddles as well as guitar, and Catherine Russell on backing vocals and percussion.  Jeff Tweedy who, unless I missed one, last guested on a NYC stage with Dinosaur Jr in December, came on in the second set to sing some a couple of lovely duets with RC and some welcomed bonuses like California Stars.  

Tim McGraw unleashed a new album this month, his fourteenth: Damn Country Music.  He marked the occasion by punching under his weight at the (tiny by his standards) 1,400 person capacity Edison Ballroom.  This was in marked contrast to the 65,000 he performed for yesterday at the Homestead Miami Speedway prior to the Ford EcoBoost 400 won by Kyle Busch.  The Edison Ballroom event was a hootenanny sponsored by Pandora Internet Radio who, to their credit, have put on a number of these shows featuring heavyweight talent in small rooms in New York.

Tim is the son of Tug McGraw, a mean relief pitcher for The Mets and Phillies, and as husband of Faith Hill, half of the ultimate modern country music couple.  (The adjective modern used to nod at Johnny Cash and June Carter.)  Big and Rich guest on the track California on Damn Country Music and Tim and Faith’s eldest daughter Gracie, an 18 year old college freshman, joined her dad to sing a duet on the album Here Tonight.  Longtime fans of McGraw and/or Taylor Swift will remember the latter named her first single ever for the former back in 2006.  She co-wrote it with Liz Rose when she was just a freshman in high school! 

Country star Luke Bryan delighted the crowd at FarmBorough Festival earlier this summer.  Now the Georgia native is coming back to New York City, where he was asked for directions during his last visit, to celebrate the release of his new album Kill The Lights…

Brad Paisley and Justin Moore led the charge on the rainy Saturday of the first ever FarmBorough Festival on Randall’s Island, Manhattan.  “New York City’s Brand New Country Music Festival” happened Friday through Sunday, June 26 – 28 2015.