I See A Darkness, an illustrated biography of Johnny Cash, is set for release on October 1 according to amazon.com. The book follows Cash from his early years at Sun Records in Memphis all the way up to his late career comeback on Rick Rubin’s American label.
This new book should not be confused with the “other” Man In Black comic book biography, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” that was published back in 1976 by Christian Knight Comics. Click here to download it in PDF format.
There’s a new single called “Mean Old Man,” written just for him by Kris Kristofferson, posted on The Killer’s website. Apparently he’s releasing an entire album of country songs in late ’09/early ’10. So, yeah, that’s something to look forward to.
When I first read this news I was a little skeptical. Dylan never struck me as the type to release a Christmas album, and certainly not one of holiday standards. After reading the details though, the whole project sounds kind of cool. It’s one of those rare Christmas related products that isn’t just cashing in on people’s yuletide cheer.
From BobDylan.com:
“All of the artist’s U.S. royalties from sales of these recordings will be donated to Feeding America, guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to more than 1.4 million people in need in this country during this year’s holiday season. Bob Dylan is also donating all of his future U.S. royalties from this album to Feeding America in perpetuity.
“Additionally, the artist is partnering with two international charities to provide meals during the holidays for millions in need in the United Kingdom and the developing world, and will be donating all of his future international royalties from Christmas In The Heart to those organizations in perpetuity. Details regarding the international partnerships will be announced next week.”
Cheers, Bob. Here’s the full story from his official site: http://www.bobdylan.com/#/news/christmas-heart-be-released-october-13
Guy Clark’s new album, Somedays The Song Writes You, is set for release on September 22nd.
In addition to the new album, Clark’s record label, Dualtone Records, is offering a chance to win a trip to Nashville for a songwriting session at Clark’s home workshop. For more info, check out the official website, guyclark.com.
If you haven’t already been reading, Nathan Rabin, the head writer and hip/hop specialist over at the Onion AV Club, has been writing an ongoing feature about country music called Nashville Or Bust. Coming into the project with very little knowledge of the genre, he’s devoted a year to researching and writing about the history of some of it’s most important artists.
He’s covered many of the greats already, the one namers like Hank, Johnny, Willie, and Merle, as well as equally important, but perhaps lesser known performers like Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, and Billy Joe Shaver. It’s refreshing to read along as someone discovers a great artist for the first time, gives a fresh perspective on what made them so great in the first place, and, ultimately, shows you a thing or two that you might have missed.
New articles are posted every other Tuesday, with the next installment arriving September 1st. Here’s the introduction if you want to get caught up: http://www.avclub.com/articles/nashville-or-bust-introduction,24585/
One of my favorite things about country music has always been the wild stories from behind the scenes, tall tales about taking a life of excess to sometimes ridiculous degrees. From early songs about moonshine to the music that was formed in the old honky tonks, booze and country have always gone hand in hand. I’m going to try to regularly post some of the more infamous moments in country’s long, sordid history, and what better way to start than with The Possum himself, George Jones?
It’s almost hard to even know where to start with Jones, there are plenty of stories and they’re all plenty entertaining, but there’s definitely one that stands out, the ever-popular lawn mower incident. Here’s the story, in George’s words:
“Once, when I had been drunk for several days, Shirley (Corley, his second wife) decided she would make it physically impossible for me to buy liquor. I lived about eight miles from Beaumont and the nearest liquor store. She knew I wouldn’t walk that far to get booze, so she hid the keys to every car we owned and left. But she forgot about the lawn mower.
“I can vaguely remember my anger at not being able to find keys to anything that moved and looking longingly out a window at a light that shone over our property. There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower rotary engine under a seat. A key glistening in the ignition.
“I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did.”
Jones’ third wife, Tammy Wynette, wrote about another riding mower-related incident in her 1979 autobiography:
“About 1 am I would wake up and look over to find he was gone. I got into the car and drove to the nearest bar 10 miles away.
“When I pulled into the parking lot there sat our rider-mower right by the entrance. He’d driven that mower right down a main highway. He looked up and saw me and said, `Well, fellas, here she is now. My little wife, I told you she’d come after me.’”
Jones has never been one to shy away from his past. After receiving the nick name “No Show” Jones (for his ironically predictable habit of being too drunk to get on stage and play) he embraced the title, going as far as getting “NO SHOW” vanity plates for his tour bus. In that same spirit, Jones later paid tribute to the mower incident(s) on his 1996 single, “The Honky Tonk Song,” hilarity ensues:
I feel I should also point out that George “No Show” Jones will turn 78 years old next month. If that’s not inspirational, I don’t know what is.
If you live in the Northwest and have any interest in alt.country/Americana/roots music/whatever you want to call country-flavored music that doesn’t get played on the radio, you’d better get your tickets to the first annual No Depression festival in Redmond, WA on July 11th. The line-up’s pretty damned impressive, and let’s face it, for $45 you can’t afford not to go.
Click here for tickets
Here’s a round-up of the performers:
Gillian Welch
Iron & Wine
Patterson Hood & The Screwtopians
Justin Townes Earle
Jesse Sykes And The Sweet Hereafter
Jessica Lea Mayfield
Seattle Roots Music All Star Revue w/ Star Anna, Sera Cahoone, Ian Moore, Zoe Muth, Mark Pickerel, Kristen Ward, and members of the Maldives and North Twin, backed by a core band featuring Ty Ballie, Jeff Fielder, Erik Eagle and Rebecca Young
Zee Avi
