Song Premiere: Craig Gerdes "Redneck Sonsabitches"

Photo by Al Steinz

Here's a brand new song from honky-tonker Craig Gerdes. It's a rowdy, plain-spoken tale about struggling against the country machine on Music Row. A very outlaw point of view that fits in perfectly with other anti-Nashville anthems like Shooter Jennings' "Outlaw You" and Dale Watson's "Nashville Rash."  RIYL: Dale Watson, Dallas Moore, Billy Joe Shaver.

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Gerdes' forthcoming record, Smokin', Drinkin' & Gamblin' (out February 16) features pedal steel and production work from Jim Vest (Johnny Paycheck, Willie Nelson, David Allan Coe), as well as steel from Robby Turner (Waylon Jennings, Chris Stapleton). Gerdes has also recently collaborated with Jeff Tweel (Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers), and has shared bills with country legend Billy Joe Shaver.

Smokin' Drinkin' & Gamblin' is full of outlaw-country rug cutters and ballads about strong heads and weak hearts. Fueled by nostalgia, Gerdes' songwriting talent turns old habits into dependable crutches, nursing the phantom pain of distant love. The nine-track album is full old-school four-to-the-floor honky tonk that calls to mind country legends like George Strait, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.

New single “Red Neck Sonsabitches” is a chicken pickin’, honky-tonkin’ country song detailing Gerdes’ experience as a working musician in Nashville before deciding to buck the system and go his own way, back into the rural landscape of central Illinois. Bright, twangy production and a brash, anti-Nashville attitude give this song a timeless outlaw country feel that recalls the genre legends of the 1970s.

More information about Craig below the song player!

CRAIG GERDES - SMOKIN' DRINKIN' & GAMBLIN'

Craig Gerdes is a singer whose voice is steadied by the legion of angels he believes watch over him. He tells stories at a Southern pace, with a soft voice and slow drawl. His new album Smokin', Drinkin', and Gamblin' is full of outlaw country rug cutters, and ballads about strong heads and weak hearts. Fueled by nostalgia, his songwriting talent turns old habits into dependable crutches, and nurses the phantom pain of missing lovers. 

Though he hails from rural Illinois, his sound is four-to-the-floor, old-school honky tonk, reminiscent of greats like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard. As great songwriters often do, he spent time as a writer in Nashville, where he had some success, and learned that his songs were too country for the cosmopolitan elite. 

"Redneck Sonsabitches" eloquently details the story of his Nashville experience, one that put him in front of great outlaw songwriter Billie Joe Shaver. Shaver laughed with him about the difficult road honest songwriters sometimes face on Music Row, and asked him if he'd ever been to Texas. Another man of faith, Shaver ensured Gerdes they'd meet again, and three years later Gerdes opened a show for him outside La Grange. The song he penned about it is a swaggerin' chicken-pickin' electric two stepper. The band careens through a tempo change where he namechecks Shaver, who told him "Son, I know just how you feel," before he remembers what record companies remarked about his work—"You long haired redneck sonsabitches are not wanted here in Nashville, Tennessee."

Gerdes began playing country music at the age of 10 in the band of his father, who, as a child, would crowd around the radio with his family waiting for the wind to blow in just the right direction so they could pick up the faint signal from the Grand Ole Opry. The songs his father loved—by country icons like George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash—provided the foundation for Craig's work. By age 12, he was already a capable songwriter and musician. And by 16, he'd wandered from the narrow path. "In the same summer," he recalls, "I totaled my car, broke my best friend's neck, dropped out of high school, got arrested and got married."

A few years later, after a chance meeting with a Nashville band, Gerdes wound up living on Music Row. For a time, he literally slept on the floor of a studio where greats like George Jones and Jerry Reed had recorded, a place that's now a one bedroom apartment. "I was hoping to soak up some of that mojo," he jokes about harder times. While Gerdes was able to gain traction with a publishing company and even do some co-writing, his traditional songs just didn't fit in. After years of the seven-hour commute back and forth from his family in unincorporated Pattonsburg, Illinois. (pop. 348), every weekend, he decided to go his own way, leaving Nashville behind and returning full-time to rural life. During this point in his life, while Gerdes was on a hiatus from songwriting to concentrate on raising his kids, his 16-year-old cousin was killed in a car wreck. He was compelled to write again by an angel he believes is her. 

Many of Gerdes' songs embody the life of the traveler. While listening to the radio on a trip, he heard the story of a man found cut up in a box and was inspired to write the murder ballad "Dead In A Box In Kentucky." There's a Spanish guitar solo during the bridge that dances into a climactic finish that concludes with a Hitchcockian fratricidal twist. Gerdes' voice is at its strongest on "Almost To Alabama," where he's joined by dobro, imagining the end of the road, and distant lovers. The title track, "Smokin' Drinkin' Gamblin'" is another song only a road-weary rambler could write. It's the apex of country music, where the rhythm section leads in a thudding backbeat, and steel guitar has room to wander all over the beat, while Gerdes moans about "ramblin' my young life away."

Gerdes sings a mean cheatin' song as well. His ribald song "Learned From The Best" and his cover of Johnny Paycheck’s  "Slide Off Of Your Satin Sheets" bookend the album, the latter a fitting choice—on the surface, Paycheck’s lyrics are about an illicit affair, but under the covers it's about class distinction; the sleek countrypolitan image the music industry creates, and the actual people they use to make the music they desire. 

While Gerdes' songs about smokin', drinkin' and gamblin' aren't necessarily gospel fare he is for certain "spreading the gospel of country music." His experiences and his angels guard him from writing songs "with no heart or soul." Rarely has classic barroom country been so crossover capable. Give it a listen and you, too, will believe.

Exclusive Premiere: Chris Porter & The Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes "Stoned in Traffic"

Chris Porter was a good dude. An extremely talented songwriter and musician with a voice you might have to get used to, but once you do, you love it. Beyond all that though, he was just a good dude. Chris was always friendly and funny. He's a Couch by Couchwest veteran. He personally sent his music to Farce the Music and was always gracious whenever we'd post about him. I miss him.

Today, we're exclusively premiering a new track (from the forthcoming release Don't Go Baby It's Gonna Get Weird Without You), "Stoned in Traffic," from Chris and his all-star band The Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes, who consist of John Calvin Abney, Will Johnson, and Shonna Tucker. A lineup doesn't get much better than that, and this is a cool song. Hope you dig it. And stick around - below the player is a lot more information about this great artist and stellar human who left us far too early.

On October 19, 2016, tragedy struck on on I-95 in North Carolina when Chris Porter and his bandmate Mitchell Vandenberg, were killed in a van crash on their way to play a show in Baltimore. Even before his budding solo career, Porter had been a cult favorite amongst his fellow musicians, an adored staple of the Americana scene, touring all over the country with his bands Some Dark Holler, The Back Row Baptists and Porter & the Pollies. 

Prior to his death, Porter—along with an all-star cast of musicians including producer Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, Monsters of Folk), ex-Drive-By Truckers bassist Shonna Tucker, Chris Masterson & Eleanor Whitmore (The Mastersons, Steve Earle) & John Calvin Abney (John Moreland, Samantha Crain)—had just finished writing and recording what would be his swan song, Don't Go Baby It's Gonna Get Weird Without You. The album is the follow up to Porter's acclaimed solo debut, This Red Mountain. Now, with the help of his friends and family, this brilliant posthumous record from Porter & the Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes is slated for an Oct. 20 release on Cornelius Chapel Records.

New single "Stoned In Traffic" is a raunchy guitar and cowbell-driven rocker with a boot-stomping groove and a chorus that begs to be blared out of the windows of a truck rolling down the highway on a sunny day. It feels reminiscent of Uncle Tupelo's more upbeat work, with a hint of power pop added by a synth pad that fits right in, despite what genre purists might think at a glance. 

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Chris Porter (1980-2016). Photo by Alex Hooks.

CHRIS PORTER - DON'T GO BABY IT'S GONNA GET WEIRD WITHOUT YOU

On October 19, 2016, tragedy struck on on I-95 in North Carolina when beloved Americana artist, Chris Porter, and his bandmate Mitchell Vandenberg, were killed in a van crash on their way to play a show in Baltimore. Long before his budding solo career, Porter had been an adored staple of the Americana scene, touring all over the country with his bands Some Dark Holler, The Back Row Baptists and Porter & the Pollies. 

Prior to his death, Porter—along with an all-star cast of musicians including producer Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, Monsters of Folk), former Drive-By Truckers bassist Shonna Tucker, Chris Masterson & Eleanor Whitmore (The Mastersons, Steve Earle) & John Calvin Abney (John Moreland, Samantha Crain)—had just finished writing and recording what would be his swan song, Don't Go Baby It's Gonna Get Weird Without You. The album is the follow up to Porter's acclaimed solo debut, This Red Mountain. Now, with the help of his friends and family, this brilliant posthumous record from Porter & the Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes is slated for an Oct. 20 release via Cornelius Chapel Records.

"I think Porter wanted things loose and wanted things to rock a little more on this record," says friend and producer Will Johnson. "He was ready to turn the guitars up a little more and let the band be the band.  He'd experienced a great deal between This Red Mountain and Don't Go Baby—he'd settled into Austin, toured relentlessly, had fallen in love again, and experienced the difficult loss of his dog just a couple months before the sessions. I can only guess he wanted this record to represent a clear-eyed document of the road traveled since This Red Mountain, and a look at whatever the road ahead might have held for him. There was a lot going on."

The first track to surface from the album, contemplative mid-tempo rocker "Shit Got Dark"—presumably about trying in vain to break free of the chains of your hometown—takes on a deeper, almost chilling significance in the wake of Porter's untimely death...

Shit got dark, whole town fell apart

The place that healed your heart began to die

Shit got tragic, goddamn he almost had it

They say this town is magic when you’re high

Is there something in the air that makes ‘em go so young in Alabama

Well I might have to question all the reasons that I run

Count the stars and stages on the walls that hold up Birmingham

Try to live ’til next year, when I come

Well I got low, how was I to know

Wrapped around me slow and burned like fire

Did I get past it, or did I just outlast it

Or am I next to go from darker times

Is there something in the air that makes us grieve so long in Alabama ...

"Porter survived a lot of heartache in his short life and I think you can tell on this album," says, Porter's fiance, Andrea Juarez, who—along with several of Porter's closest musician friends—was instrumental in making sure his final album would see release. "He was tired of touring, tired of hustling and not making it. He was tired of Austin turning into nothing but high-end condos and $7 dollar tacos. But he loved his music, and we loved each other. Our game plan was to get the album out, get married, buy a house in Nashville and split time in Austin.

"I've never heard a guitarist play the guitar like Porter did. He had this way of stroking the guitar strings as he played—I can close my eyes and see him do it and hear it. He was so damned proud of the songs he wrote on this new album. He'd always been a part of something—The Stolen Roses, The Back Row Baptists, Porter & The Pollies, Some Dark Holler—and then the previous album he made with Bonnie Whitmore's help. Don't Go Baby was truly the first time he stood alone and he knew that. He was ready and he put his heart and soul in it."

After the album's Oct. 20 release on Cornelius Chapel Records, there will be a pair of album-release shows in Porter's two former hometowns, where his life will be celebrated by his many musician friends, who will be paying heartfelt tribute. The first, in Austin, Texas, is scheduled for Oct. 21, and the second, at Syndicate Lounge in Birmingham, Ala., will be Nov. 4.

Exclusive Song Premiere: Johnny Dango "Western Front (War Hymn #2)"

Today, we've got a new song from Johnny Dango called "Western Front (War Hymn #2). It's a fun, psychedelic, honky-tonk tune with sing-along vocals and almost ragtime instrumentation contrasting the serious lyrics about wartime. Really unique and memorable stuff. RIYL: Kris Kristofferson, King Oliver, Flying Burrito Brothers, Commander Cody, Phosphorescent, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Dango has worked alongside Stoney Larue and Will & Lily Courtney (Brothers and Sisters), and has shared bills with Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker, Alejandro Escovedo & more. His upcoming record Recluse in Plain Sight was recorded by Steven Collins (Doug Burr, Deadman) at The Troubadour Studio in Austin, and comes out September 1. Dango has recently premiered tracks at PopMatters & No Depression, and was featured in the Americana Music Association's most recent newsletter...

Recluse in Plain Sight contradicts the standard, formulaic approach to Americana, toggling between timeless California Country string-infused ballads, psychedelic honky-tonk tunes, and last-call alt-country singalongs. The new LP effortlessly chronicles an arsenal of movements in the Country music genre while simultaneously channeling '60s Stones and Beatles psych grandeur. 

You can pre-order Recluse in Plain Sight at his Bandcamp page.

More information about Johnny after the song player...

Johnny Dango - Recluse in Plain Sight (out September 1)

From the hushed fields of Stillwater, Okla., to the raucous barrooms of Austin, Texas, the hard work and bloody fingers of singer/songwriter Johnny Dango have given rise to a cosmic honky-tonk thunder, a deliciously irreverent mix of downhome Americana and heady classic rock. Dango has paid his dues in bands such as Brothers & Sisters and The Memphis Strange, and as a sideman for country-rocker Stoney LaRue. And he’s shared bills with legends such as Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker and Alejandro Escovedo, over the years developing a unique and gorgeously tumbledown aesthetic that is potently concentrated in the neon avenues and creaking front porches of his debut solo album, Recluse in Plain Sight.

“I’m not into paint-by-numbers,” Dango says. “I have no interest in making another generic Americana record. There are already plenty of ‘em out there.”

As the varied tracks on this album unfurl, tackling themes of transience and displacement, Dango slowly reveals the inner mechanics of his influences. From the George Harrison-meets-Mott the Hoople guitar lines of “Hole in My Heart” to the psychedelic ragtime theatrics of “Western Front (War Hymn #2),” he continually smashes rules and upends expectations. While drunken rocker “Barfly” lives in the Stones’ world, sleepy piano ballad “Someday Soon”—written in a traffic jam on the way to a gig—tips its worn pork-pie hat to Tom Waits, Randy Newman, and Father John Misty. Traditional rural sentiments and Southern rhythms get twisted up on “I Was Wrong,” Dango’s “failed attempt at a bad country song,” during which he reorients well-worn sounds into potent ruminations that exhale ache. The off-center melodicism of his vocals deftly mirrors Recluse in Plain Sight’s stylistic realignments, an affecting rumble and shiver slithering through each bucolic chorus. And if a song happens to call for some dramatic Jeff Lynne-style synths, then so be it.

Recluse in Plain Sight—co-produced with Steve Collins—is Dango's resolute answer to the recent homogenization of the Americana landscape. This record isn’t stuck in a cycle of self-glorification, nor is it primed to pander to any awards ceremonies—it’s the result of a heart ready for examination and revelation. Driven by a need to stretch the comforts of his own influences, he positions these songs as rustic therapy and as a necessary escape from what has become a commodified musical perspective.

“It’s so weird how Americana spun off from country into its own thing, like, ‘We reject mainstream country music,’” Dango ruminates. “But then to go and behave the exact same way? I mean, they made up a whole new category, just so they could put on an awards shows and give themselves a trophy. It’s such a bunch of self-congratulatory bullshit.”

Instead of positioning himself as some sort of quasi-country savior, Dango takes solace in the creative freedom of his work, which reflects in equal measure the bold, psychoactive experimentation of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s and the lost years when nascent country music was guided by torn hearts and the need to pass stories from one generation to the next. With the touring that will encircle the release of his upcoming record, Dango will be burning up the highways in search of like-minded souls for whom these authentic sounds represent more than just a passing interest. With Recluse in Plain Sight, he wants you to hear the past and future collide.

Song Premiere: Tom Irwin "Delicate Flower"

Check out the new single, "Delicate Flower," from heartland Americana singer/songwriter Tom Irwin.  It's a spare, heartfelt poem of a ballad that's somehow both plaintive and positive at once. Very nice tune.

Irwin's debut LP, All That Love, was produced by Wilco's John Stirratt, who also plays on the record. For decades, Irwin has performed over 200 Midwest regional dates per year, sharing bills with Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams, Chuck Prophet, Hank Williams III & more, and was named "Best Americana Band" in 2015 in the Illinois Times Readers' Poll.

Tom Irwin is the idyllic sixth-generation Country artist, sonically answering all of Hank Williams’ and Willie Nelson’s revivalist prayers. All That Love's eleven tracks deftly blend classic Country and modern Americana, twisting decades of influence into a familiar-yet-progressive signature sound. New single, “Delicate Flower” showcases Irwin's sentimental side, with its mix of delicate, fingerpicked acoustic guitar and dreamy backup vocals that lend the track an air of comprehensive tranquility.

Find Tom on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/Tom-Irwins-Hayburners-1515565211995793/

https://tomirwinmusic.com/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tomirwin/all-that-love-songs-by-tom-irwin-produced-by-john

Bio below the player.

"Tom’s skills as a songwriter and performer have only deepened in the intervening 20 years or so, and he has also experienced a considerable amount of personal growth." - Illinois Times

“Tom’s songs get stuck in my head and I don’t mind it.” - G. Wiz (drummer for Norah Jones)

Tom Irwin - All That Love

Born a sixth-generation central Illinois resident, singer-songwriter-musician Tom Irwin, uses his long standing local roots as a sound base for a world wide view of a life in the music arts. The 50-something, guitar playing guy, called “a modern day troubadour” by John Stirratt of the Grammy-award winning rock band, Wilco, spent a lifetime making a living making music in the Midwest with occasional forays into the rest of the country. When Stirratt played a gig at the Castle in Bloomington, Illinois with Chicago rockers Candy Golde (Bun E. Carlos, Nick Tremulis and Rick Rizzo), Irwin’s group the Hayburners opened the show and caught the ear of the acclaimed bassist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and arranger. It took a few years of scheduling to get it all together, but the outcome of the collaboration is All That Love, the latest music collection from Irwin and one that “catches the vibe these songs needed,” according to Stirratt. 

The song selection on the record bridges a lifetime of writing with some tunes recently penned, a few others that were written over thirty years ago and what ever else John and Tom agreed to from the hundreds of original compositions in the prolific songwriter’s back catalog. Stirratt enlisted members of his other band The Autumn Defense, including New York City’s Greg Wieczorek, aka, G. Wiz, on drums (Norah Jones) and Chicago-based musician and owner of Lakland Music, John Pirruccello on 12-string guitar and pedal steel. The multi-talented Scott Ligon (NRBQ, the Flat Five) played an assortment of instruments including piano, organ, accordion, bass and guitar. Theresa O’Hare added flute to the title cut and Paul Von Mertens (Brian Wilson, Poi Dog Pondering) blew sax on the song, A Maybe Moon. Irwin’s hometown band, the Hayburners covered the sounds for three songs on the record with Stirratt playing bass, acoustic guitar, odd sounds and background harmonies as needed. The recording took place at Wall to Wall studios in Chicago, a downtown studio staple for 40 years that was recently demolished to make way for luxury condos.

From his beginnings in music as a teenager learning Deep Purple songs with friends and Johnny Cash tunes from his dad, Irwin soaked up the deep and flowing current of American popular music. By the time he started his first band at age 14, through a run with a regionally successful, new wave band called Condition 90 in the mid-80s, the concept of music as a lifestyle was well set in place. By the late 80s, Irwin had embarked on a solo career consisting of a guitar, a voice and plenty of self-penned songs with regular independent recording releases that continues through today. Consistent regional gigs of over 200 dates a year for decades, garnered him several “Best of” awards for music in the Springfield-based, weekly newspaper Illinois Times Readers Poll, ranging from Best Folk Band in 1992 to Best Americana Band in 2015 and several Best Male Musician and Vocalist in between. In 2001 he opened up for Willie Nelson and Family at the Illinois State Fair grandstand with his band the Hired Hands to a boisterous crowd of 5,000 Willie fans. After a 20-year run of almost every Sunday night at the Brewhaus, a legendary local bar, Downtown Springfield, Inc., made Irwin the one and only recipient of a “Downtown Music Legend” award, presented for “achievement in the arts to the community at large” as a token of appreciation to his dedication to live music and original artistry in the area.

During this decades-long, decorated music career, Irwin helped raise three sons to adulthood, received a Master’s of Arts in Liberal & Integrative Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield, released eight full length independent recordings and since 2000, penned Now Playing, a weekly column on local live music, for Illinois Times.

Now with the new album in hand, Irwin begins the process of reaching out to a national audience through the time-honored practice of promotion and publicity, touring and traveling, but mostly through doing what he’s always done — play good songs well with a dedication to the spirit and emotion of a life based in original music and heartfelt performance.

Exclusive Song Premiere: Nathan Bell "The Long Way Down"

We've got a new song to debut today, and it's a good one.  Veteran songwriter Nathan Bell brings us his new tune "The Long Way Down" from his forthcoming LOVE>FEAR album. It's a simple and spare production with hard hitting lyrics and a memorable melody. "The Long Way Down" tells the story of a working class man's fall from grace and his fears of loneliness and destitution. It's a powerful and timely song. RIYL: Springsteen, Prine, Guthrie, Tom Russell, Dylan, Earle

More about Nathan Bell below the song player.

Here's the album details:

ALBUM: LOVE>FEAR (48 hours in traitorland)

RELEASE: June 30 via Stone Barn Records

PRE-ORDER: www.nathanbellmusic.com/store


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Nathan Bell. Photo by Guy Johnson.

“One of those increasingly rare finds: an unpretentious, unified set of literate and witty songs, impeccably performed." - Rolling Stone 

"Nathan Bell may be the Woody Guthrie we need in the age of globalization." - The Bitter Southerner 

Bell has created a song cycle that is both moving and timely." - Paste

“A gifted and thought-provoking songwriter." - No Depression

"His mellow, world-weary folk music chronicles the endless grind of all shades of the working person in America, from mine workers to middle managers." - PopMatters

“A crisp, literary quality, a tough blue-collar sensibility and a terse, muscular musicality." - Nashville Scene

"With his crisp, handcrafted playing and intimate, incisive lyrics, Bell documents an America teetering on the edge."  - Acoustic Guitar Magazine

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Nathan Bell - LOVE > FEAR (48 Hours in Traitorland)

Nathan Bell is a songwriter’s songwriter—at 57, the troubadour’s weary voice bleeds experience. He made his bones sharing bills with legends like Townes Van Zandt, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal and Norman Blake. The son of a poet and professor, the Iowa-born/Chattanooga-based Bell has a keen eye for detail and an unapologetic penchant for the political, populist humanism of his literary heroes John Steinbeck, Jack London and Studs Terkel. So it’s no surprise that the 2016 presidential race—culminating the election of Donald J. Trump—was a powerful catalyst for Bell’s affecting new album Love>Fear (48 Hours in Traitorland). 

“Right before we did the deed and elected an oligarch, PT Barnum-style scam artist, I started thinking it was time to collect some of thepolitical songs I’d written over the years, and combine them with some of the new ones I’d been working on," Bell says. "I’ve always been resistant to slogans and catchphrases, so Traitorland is more an album of pointed stories about people affected by the callousness of thewealthy and the power brokers. Nowadays, they’re so disconnected from the working class—they’re even more cruel than Carnegie was. Paul Ryan—I don’t know how he sleeps at night. I don’t know how a man like Steve Bannon is allowed to spend a day near whoever’s in power. My family’s half Jewish, and I look at Bannon and think, ‘Great, we’re either gonna have to run or fight again.’ So the album comes from that.”

Bell is no Johnny-come-lately at speaking truth to power. Back in the ’70s, his first gig as a teenager was a rally against the Vietnam War. “I’ve been doing this—and, trust me, it’s not the most profitable way to navigate the music industry—for a long, long time,” Bell says. “I’d take more credit for it, morally, except I don’t think I could’ve done it any other way. I never set out to be a songwriter—I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to be Steinbeck or Hemingway. But I can’t write prose the way I can write songs. Now, Hemingway—as famous, wealthy and full of shit as he sometimes was—when he saw there was something to say about the Spanish Civil War, he said it. And he didn’t do it by getting on a soapbox and writing some heavy-handed political poem—he did it by telling stories about people.”

Turns out Bell and his literary heroes are pretty damn simpatico. On Love>Fear, his characters are portrayed with such painstaking detail and emotional depth, you wouldn’t flinch if they walked straight out of your stereo speakers, sat down on the couch and asked you for a cup of coffee. There’s a tattooed failure with nowhere to turn. A broken widower in the midst of a crisis of faith. A first-time mobile-home owner staring down a foreclosure. A beautiful woman struggling to be appreciated for her talent, intelligence and hard work. An obese veterinarian in love with a skinny, secretly transgender patent-attorney rodeo clown. The impoverished sick committing armed robbery to pay for healthcare. An active-duty soldier turned conscientious objector who opts for the stockade over the battlefield. A middled-aged man caught in the for-profit prison system, his best years slipping through his fingers. These songs are stories about real Americans—there is no black & white, no oversimplification, no us-vs.-them Left/Right posturing, just beautiful, inclusive, somehow vibrant shades of grey.

“There are people all around us who believe differently than we do,” Bell says. “Good people. And in the basics of their daily life, the political sign in their yard is no reflection on who they are to their neighbors. Over the last few years, we’ve forgotten this, and a certain level of humanity has disappeared. To me, the whole point of liberal politics is, we let people in even if they’ve made a mistake. I was out walking my dogs a few weeks ago, and I ran into one of my neighbors down the street, and she says, ‘Hey, I voted for Trump, and I'm scared shitless. Did you vote for Trump?’ Now that's a golden opportunity. I said, ‘No, I didn't vote for him. He scares the hell out of me, and he's got a Nazi working with him.’ So we stood there and talked for awhile, and I find out she's a fiscal conservative, she's a little bit socially conservative, but like a lot of people in the South, she's got six gay cousins she likes just fine. So we had a conversation, which is what we're supposed to do. Let the other side be exclusive, keep people out, and pretend everyone should be divided up into groups; at the end of the day, no matter how hard we fight, even if it means physical dissent, when the war is over, people are still people. It's how you avoid theHutus and the Tutsis warring back and forth, chopping each other up with machetes. If someone comes to you and says, 'Look, I shouldn't have voted for assholes the last 12 years. How do we put our country back together and make sure everybody's protected?' then you've got to accept that. It's hard, but you've gotta look some assholes in the eye and accept that maybe they've changed. I can't forgive a fucking Nazi, I think—until I meet some guy who was a skinhead for 25 years, and spends the rest of his life working in the AIDS ward trying to atone for it. There's always some reason for you to doubt your certainty.” 

Love > Fear captures the stark, unadorned directness of Bell’s solo acoustic performances. Many of the tracks were recorded live-in-thestudio in front of a small audience. There’s no doubling and almost no overdubs—just a man with a harp around his neck and a guitar in his weathered hands, singing and playing his heart out. At times, the sound is earthy and optimistic, a silver glimmer breaking through theclouds above an Appalachian peak; other times, it’s sparse, haunting and distant, a warning flare erupting across the dusk. But no matter the track, it’s unvarnished and immediate, the songs given room to shine in all their expertly constructed glory, shot through with the grace & grit of the finest American prose.

 

“I felt like this record was my chance to use what I’ve been doing for a long time, what I feel most comfortable doing, and that’s telling stories,” Bell says, “giving people a chance to use their knowledge of others to feel hopeful. Sure, there’s some sad shit on there, but ultimately it’s a hopeful record. My big goal in life is to make it so much better to love people that, after a while, hating people seems like a lot of work. You only need one commandment, right? If you love everybody, then all the other commandments are unnecessary. I'm not a religious man at all. As a matter of fact, I'm completely anti-religion. But if I could give everybody just one commandment, it would be, love each other."

Exclusive Song Premiere and Interview with Austin Lucas

FTM Exclusive

Coming to a living room near you: Austin Lucas puts intimate twist on crowd-funding forthcoming album

By Kevin Broughton

It had been about eight months since we last spoke.

“Hey, Austin! How you doing? How’s Sally?”

A reasonable question, as ubiquitous as she was on his website, his publicity photos, his tour. She curled up in his guitar case on stage, periodically getting up and moving closer to him as he sang.

“Sally died, man.”

Ugh. For a guy who’s been so up-front about his struggles with depression and anxiety, it could’ve been a crippling blow to Austin Lucas. But it hasn’t been. Such loss – on the heels of a messy label breakup that delayed the premiere of a wonderful record by a couple of years – forced him to confront his sadness and pain, and he’s emerged both hopeful and innovative.

Lacking the financial punch a guy of his stature would have from a major indie label, Lucas has come up with a twist on crowd-funding: He’ll use a “House by House” tour to finance the production of his next record, Immortal Americans, with all kinds of goodies and contribution levels available. You want value? How about $25 for an in-person house show and two records? Please visit his site here, now.  

Austin Lucas Crowdfunding Campaign from Mark Bookwalter Media on Vimeo.

And because he’s a fan of our site, Lucas has given us an exclusive premiere stream of the demo of “Between the Leaves.” It’s a very Austin Lucas song.

So, Austin Lucas, you had a pretty good record last year. We ranked it highly in our critics’ poll. Want to catch people up on what’s happened in your life since the release of Between the Moon and the Midwest and the tour you went on to support it?

Well, as a lot of people know I guess, Sally passed away. She was my dog who toured with me and was onstage with me when I played, so that was a big life event. I also fell in love with an amazing woman, which is wonderful, but she’s also had her share of health problems. But I can’t say that I’m sad; it’s been tough, but it’s also been one of the most rewarding periods of my life.

I’ve been able to use songwriting to describe a lot of things that were happening in my life, and have come out, luckily, feeling pretty good about myself. A lot of people know I’ve had my own share of problems, and as time has gone on, I’ve gradually become a healthier person, both physically and mentally.

Tell me what led to the idea of crowd-funding your next record with an interactive component. Seems like the listener – when geographically close enough – gets tangible value under your scenario.

I was driving a lot and having a lot of conversations with my tour manager in Europe. It was a pretty crazy tour last winter; Sally died while I was on that tour. I don’t want to get too deeply into it, but it was a very dark period in my life. Thinking about making my next record, I knew I needed to raise the funds for a real publicist and real marketing. I wanted to birth something, and give this one something my previous albums never had.

I asked myself what was it that I really enjoyed doing, and could I offer some of that to other people. And the answer is, I could come into their lives directly – I’ve always loved doing these house concerts – and give them something tangible when they go home.

It’s obvious that intimacy with your audience is something you really dig.

Yeah. [House shows have] been sort of a stop-gap to make a little extra money between gigs on tours in the past, but I love being in a room full of people who actually give a damn about me.  At club shows I do get to interact some with my audience; but with house shows there’s a limited amount of tickets and the opportunity to actually look every person in the eye. And engage with them, shake their hands and thank them for caring.

Good dog. Rest in peace.

Sort of a voluntary captive audience.

Yeah, exactly. It won’t be folks who paid a cover and walked in because they wanted to have a drink.  I suppose it’s easy for some folks to take for granted that their music is important to people and that people care. It’s never been that way with me; it’s always blown my mind that people like my music.

It’s impossible to respond to every single person who does a post about me or sends me an email, but I spend a good portion of every day trying to respond to as many as I can. Making real connections in these intimate settings with people who care is rocket fuel for a guy like me.

 

It looks like you’re going to start in Memphis March 10 then head generally toward Austin in time for SXSW. How many of these house gigs are solidly locked in? Put another way, will the venue of your March 31 in Seattle show – for example – be decided between now and then, depending on interest level from that city?

No, these venues are all pretty much locked in. If you look at that calendar – I think there are about 50 dates on there – maybe five of them are even remotely flimsy. I’ve been working on this tour since December.

And the way it’ll work is, when people donate to my crowd-funding campaign, they’ll get an e-ticket or tickets, depending on the level of the contribution. We’ll send out the address for the show via email – the only way to get the address is to buy a ticket. There will still be a limited number of tickets for certain shows available from my website. But there are a lot of perks that come with contributing. For instance if you buy a ticket, you get a recording of the show you go to, plus you get a copy of my new album once it’s finished. So, pay $25, see a show and get two records, basically.  

How will your next album, Immortal Americans be different from Moon/Midwest? And if you’re about to say this one will be “more personal,” the last one seemed pretty introspective in its own right.

All records are introspective, man. I’m the kind of songwriter who writes about human emotions, and the ones I understand best are the ones that come from inside me. I think this will be more profound than the last one, and the focus will mostly be on my guitar and my voice. Also, I’m not in production yet, so the record I’m thinking of may not end up being the record I make.

Do you have a tentative production schedule?

Right now, the plan is to be in the studio sometime in mid-May.

How many songs do you have written right now?

Man…that depends on what you consider to be “a song.” [Laughs]

Well, I’d consider “Between the Leaves” to be a song.

Yeah, that’s close to a completely finished song. Completely finished? Right now maybe 12. Best guess, when I go into the studio in May I’ll have around 15.

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Okay, Farce the Music peeps, it’s time to step up. We do two things here, and we do them well: bust on disgraceful, no-talent hacks; and promote deserving artists trying their best to bring integrity to country music. It’s an uphill fight for guys like Austin Lucas. Let’s give him a boost. Here again is the link to his funding page. And if you’re in one of these 50 or so cities, get a ticket. I can tell you that seeing him in an intimate setting will have a profound effect on you. Thanks.  

Song Premiere: Caroline Reese - Airshow

Today we've got a song premiere from Pennsylvania songstress Caroline Reese. Caroline grew up outside Reading, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia where the rust belt meets Amish country. Her mom ran a horse farm and her dad sold antiques, both facts which certainly inform the old-soul tendencies in her songs. She and her band, the Drifting Fifth, deal with vulnerability and trying to move on in life and love on the new album.

She and the Drifting Fifth have toured nationally and opened for Grammy nominees and winners including Chris Stapleton and Brandi Carlile. Reese has also opened up for americana stalwarts John Hiatt, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Corb Lund, and the Secret Sisters.

We're premiering "Airshow" from Reese's forthcoming album Tenderfoot, out January 6th. It's a bouncing, twangy pop-rock tune with the longings and explorations of adolescence pumping through its veins.

Reese says of the song: "The lyrics in 'Airshow' were inspired by a World War II re-enactment in my hometown every year and a Rainer Maria Rilke quote that I heard the songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard say to the audience - 'Our fears are like dragons guarding our most precious treasures.'

The narrator is probably in her late teens, and the story is about being that age in a county fair or carnival setting and looking for trouble. The music, like the narrator's night, has highs and lows. But I wanted the end of the song to feel like taking off in a rocket ship underneath that final line, 'Fears are dragons, fears are M-16's.'

Enjoy!

Song Premiere: The Dexateens - "Alabama Redneck"

We've got a cool song premiere today from The Dexateens, who are happily back in action these days. I think you'll see (hear) that the song is highly appropriate for a FTM premiere.  The Dexateens are a highly recommended band for fans of Lucero, Arliss Nancy, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, and Two Cow Garage. 

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Back in 2011, the group was poised for a breakthrough when singer/guitarist Elliott McPherson decided he was through with touring and the group disbanded. In the off years, bassist Matt Patton went on to become a full-time member of Drive-By Truckers, and guitarist Lee Bains left the band to launch a promising solo career on Sub Pop Records.

A major casualty of The Dexateens’ breakup was their classic lineup's unreleased Southern-garage swan song, Teenage Hallelujah, which—for the last five years—has been sitting completely finished collecting dust in storage. Until now. The recently reunited Dexateens—with the exception of Bains, whose spot has been filled by Taylor Hollingsworth (Dead Fingers, Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band)—are playing shows once again, and have also been working on a new record with Mark Nevers of Lambchop. But in honor of the brilliance that was, Teenage Hallelujah is finally being released Oct. 7 on Cornelius Chapel Records.

New single "Alabama Redneck" is a scathing garage-country critique of modern pop country music as told through frontman Elliott McPherson's acerbic wit and southern drawl.



 Social Media: Facebook - www.facebook.com/dexateens

Website - www.dexateens.org

Twitter - @dexateens

Preorder: Itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1141188799?ls=1&app=itunes

Cornelius Chapel Records: http://corneliuschapelrecords.com/dexateens-teenage-hallelujah-pre-order/