Music City Roots Radio

Oh Pep! / Raised by Eagles / Ruby Boots / Rick Price / Mark Moffat

    

 

 

Review: Reaching the Whole World

“Nashville has my heart,” said Bex Chilcott aka Ruby Boots during her set this week at Roots. I think she spoke in some way for just about all the Australian artists who took the stage this week for our annual night of Down Under overdrive. Aussie Night features artists who have worked very hard and established enough bona fides in their home country to qualify for travel money and promotion from Sounds Australia. And the end of their 10,000 mile journey is Music City, for good reason. Others have come before, from Keith Urban to that sweet O’Shea couple, establishing careers. This is the place where you can put a U.S. career together. And as Bex said, contemporary Nashville with its open-hearted community of creators, is very special. And we’re all about welcoming pilgrims, especially when they’re as talented as these folks.

Shemekia Copeland / Joel Rafael / Whitehorse / The Mavericks

    

 

PREVIEW: Mavericks By Nature

The dictionary defines a maverick as “an unorthodox or independent-minded person” with synonyms including individualist, nonconformist, dissident and free spirit. Isn’t it kind of weird, in a nation built on the ethos of the individual and premised on free thought, that we even need a word for such people? I’ll bore you with my opinions on this in the realm of politics over beers if you like, but here I’d just like to observe that maverickism is pretty much a given in the realm of Americana music. It’s a format born of independent thought and nonconformism and it’s been giving shelter to maverick musicians for 15 years. The band that took the name The Mavericks was fortunate indeed, as it conjures just the right kind and degree of courageous uniqueness, not to mention a certain country/western aura. Now, the sprawling Americana community is gathering in Nashville for its annual festival, and we are proud to be hosting a showcase for the fifth year. The Mavericks may be the best known to us Nashville-based folks, but this will be a night of mighty mavericks down the line.

Stephen Simmons / T Sisters / Monroe Mandolin Camp / Annie Moses Band

   

 

 

Review: Strings Attached

I caught the first half of Stephen Colbert’s first Late Show on Tuesday and finished it after arriving home from Roots on Wednesday night. Little did I know that on top of our fine night at The Factory, I was in for one of the most exciting media moments for Americana music since O Brother. Please see my personal blog for extended remarks on this, but let’s say if we feature the Nashville Jam, Late Night’s closing number (“Everyday People”) was a magnificent National Jam and one that foretold a major new platform for roots, jazz, soul and generally excellent American music. By bringing on New Orleans/New York musician Jon Batiste as band leader (and special opening-night guests like Mavis Staples, Brittany Howard, Derek Trucks and Buddy Guy), Colbert is placing trust in the public and bringing intelligent music curation to network television, something that’s been lacking for decades.

Dirty Bourbon River Show / Nick Moss Band / Aquavelvet / Mary Gauthier

    

 

 

 

Review: A River Show With Flow

The night’s first good omen was arriving at The Factory and hearing a saxophone blowing outside. Leaning against the brick was a guy with a hat on his head, tattoos on his arms and an instrument, warming up and running arpeggios. Then I enter the backstage and I’m face to face with a burnished, well-used Sousaphone on a stand, with a trombone next to it. I took a picture. These – the dude outside and the instruments inside – belonged to the Dirty Bourbon River Show, the act from New Orleans that was waiting to close out our Wednesday night at Roots with their hurricane of wild spirit. It’s great to have things to look forward to.

Honey Island Swamp Band / Gnarly Parkers / Jake Shimabukuro / Andrea Zonn W/ Vince Gill, Trace Adkins, Mac McAnally & More

   

 

Review: The Love Show

Get comfortable; this could take a while. Wednesday’s Roots was like two shows in one, each with its own personality and integrity. Act One featured three wildly different but complimentary musical visions. Act Two was a coming out party for a superb album by a beloved Nashville musician. Together they added up to a night of immeasurable heart and joy. The musical skills on display in both halves were stunning for sure, but the evening affirmed that technique can get you on the highway but it can’t take you all the way home. Because home is about heart. I think the reason I gravitated toward roots music and away from the fashionable main stream had to do with temperature. Like a migrating bird, I needed to move away from the cool and toward the warm. Radio pop/rock depends on a posture that’s aloof, guarded, stylish and kind of cynical. The world’s harsh and ironic and touch-less as it is. I want my music to wrap me in something comforting and I don’t have time for masks. If something can be transparently beautiful, then why not?

Jake Shimabukuro is pushing 40 but his face, his energy and his body language on stage suggest something like half that. You know how Chris Thile can look like he’s about to bounce to the moon he’s so happy about playing? That’s Jake with his ukulele. He came out roaring with a flamenco-infused tune, played in sensitive partnership with only electric bass player Nolan Verner. It was so dazzling he got a full house standing ovation for the first song. (Good start to the night, said the producers silently to themselves.) Then the room hushed for the tender “Ichigo Ichie” and remained transfixed for his signature tune, the expansive arrangement of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” It’s got delicacy and classical counterpoint here and polychromatic rocking power there. It led to some tandem jazz lines between the instruments and a fine bass solo. And the closer (I’m not clear on most of the tune titles at this stage) found Jake building harmonic ideas on a looping pedal and soloing over his own chords in a heavy metal meets blues kind of finale. I got to spend 30 minutes on the radio with Jake before the show and it was inspiring; watch for that conversation on the web site soon.

Allen Thompson Band / Ellis Paul / Phil Madeira / Steelism

   

 

 

Review: Journeymen 

Talking at length with Phil Madeira before this Wednesday’s show was gratifying at many levels, but one theme of our interview (posted to our Soundcloud) was the dignity and worth of the journeyman musician. As I investigated that old world carefully the next day I see the metaphor only goes so far in musical terms, but the dictionary says it’s a craftsman who’s been through apprenticeships and training but who is not yet a master. So for some journeyman is a stage on the way to legendary status. And for many it’s the steady state of being good, reliable and committed to the work, regardless of fame or gain. When MCR Alum Chuck Mead released his Journeyman’s Wager album he embraced the term as an emblem of his own adaptability and tenacity. So that’s how I tend to think of it. To be Americana pretty much means joining a journeyman’s guild, and this week’s superb, original sets at Roots resonated with that spirit.

Chris Jones / Sierra Hull / Travelin' McCourys / The Gibson Brothers

    

Review: Touching All the Basses

One decades-old controversy in bluegrass has been all about that bass, to coin a phrase. Specifically, shalt thou play electric? Some fantastic musicians like Nick Forster of Hot Rize and John Cowan of New Grass Revival lent legitimacy to the electric bass despite getting booed for daring to violate the bluegrass code. I’ll confess that I am passionate about the big wooden double bass that anchors the classic bluegrass or classic jazz band. They make a sound like no other instrument. And this Wednesday at the Factory, when we reached the Nashville Jam on a dreamy all-bluegrass night, the upright bass player from all four bands (Jon Weisberger of Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, Alan Bartram of The Travelin’ McCourys, Mike Barber of The Gibson Brothers and Ethan Jodziewicz of Sierra Hull’s ensemble) assembled like an orchestral section and laid down a groove behind “I’m A Roving Gambler” that shook the stage and subjugated the subwoofers. It sounded huge and delicious. It was merely one of many thrills and smiles we enjoyed in a stellar show. But perhaps because the bass players of the world often receive the least attention, I was motivated to address this week’s Roots from the bottom up.

Carolyn Wonderland / Rex Allen Jr / Bela / Ronnie Reno

    

 

Review: Wonder-full

I love it when my evening at Roots begins with a comfortable sit-down interview with somebody who’s been around the musical block and who has wisdom to share. That happened Wednesday afternoon when I did a half hour on Roots Radio with musical guest Ronnie Reno. He’s a guy after our hearts with his loyalty to classic bluegrass, old school country and his track record of sharing them on stage, record, radio and TV screen. And yet he was also the kid who encouraged the Osborne Brothers to plug in their instruments and scale up their drum set, setting off a family feud in bluegrass that persists to this day. That kind of iconoclastic thinking helped frame this week’s show, with its traditional cowboy songs, its high lonesome grass, its songwriting and finally some blowtorch blues from a fire-haired guitarist and smoking singer who visited us from Texas.

Crystal Bowersox / Sarah Potenza / The Revelers / AJ & the Jiggawatts

     

Review: Beyond the Fringe

Sarah Potenza quoted her always quotable musical pal and fashion consultant Elizabeth Cook on stage at Roots this week. “Let the fringe do the work,” she said as she talked about one aspect of her transition from coffee house singer to stage rocker and the interesting choices and challenges it brings. Sarah’s fringe was long and purple and flowy, like a jungle bird. Her friend and fellow performer Crystal Bowersox sported her fringe on brown leather pants. But there was nothing fringy about their performances or the overall sound of a mesmerizing parade of foundational Americana music in Liberty Hall on July 29. From a folk soul opening to a retro-soul funk-ass finish, it was an epic edition of the program featuring one of the best guest duo performances we’ve ever seen.

Emily West / Smooth Hound Smith / Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams / Mike Henderson

   

 

 

PREVIEW: New Old Masters

Every time we land a genuine American roots music master to play our show it’s a victory and a coup for us. Excitement ripples through our team. We see tickets sell in advance at a faster clip. I find it even easier than usual to research and rave about the upcoming lineup. Sometimes those masters are obvious to the general public because they’ve had breakthrough and crossover careers, like Emmylou Harris or Leon Russell. Others are not widely known beyond the Americana inner circle. And I think that’s where we are this week, twice over. It’s one of those things where you have to just get it. But if you get to the Factory, we’re sure you will.