FTB podcast #209 puts the spotlight on two new albums. Sky Blue DeVille by ADAM KLEIN and Carnival by NORA JANE STRUTHERS. Also new stuff from STEVE EARLE, SARA JOHNSON and MUD, BLOOD & BEER. Here's the direct link to listen now!... The great GEORGE JONES passed away at the age of 81...His funeral took place on Thursday at The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Here's PETER COOPER's story about the memorial, "George Jones's life: A Joyful Song"FTB has a Spotify "Best Songs of 2012" playlist show... more news
Coming soon... CHIP TAYLOR, THE DEL-LORDS, ASHLEIGH FLYNN, RANDALL BRAMBLETT, JEFFREY FOUCAULT & COLD SATELLITE, JUDE JOHNSTONE, JASON BOLAND, JOHN FOGERTY, WARREN HOOD BAND ...more new releases. There is now a Americana Boogie with more detailed new CD releases & comments.
Try the FTB podcasts... now on iTunes... The Freight Train Boogie "terrestrial" radio show can be heard live Thursday nights, 8 to 10 PM pacific time, on KRCB in Sonoma County, CA, which can also be heard on the internet.
FTB tip jar, thanks!
YEP ROC RECORDS has a big online sale featuring many of their greatest albums for only $5! Through May 17th...
The Freight Train Boogie is dedicated to Americana Music: which includes the edgier country & folk singers, hillbilly twang, some bluegrass, blues and rock. We place a special emphasis on "Alt.Country", Roots Rock and many small label and independent releases. We love Country music, as long as it's "real" Country.
Americana music is influenced by elements of rock, country, blues and folk. Many of the more established artists you've probably already heard of: Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Gram Parsons, sometimes Neil Young, Wilco or Lucinda Williams. Many people come to this music after feeling disconnected from rock or country that's heard on commercial radio. Perhaps the best way to illustrate what Americana music is, is to list a hundred or so Essential Freight Train Boogie Artists.
The Reviews section is where we write about new CD releases, and there's a huge archive of past reviews. The FTB News is mostly links to current Roots music articles and information on the web and in other media, including info on upcoming CD releases. The Links section is of course, links to other good, interesting or useful websites, although it's a little out of date. FTB Editor Bill Frater also does a biweekly radio show on KRCB-FM and a works weekends on KRSH in Sonoma County, California.
FTB podcast #210 features the 3rd release from ERIC BRACE & PETER COOPER, slyly entitled The Comeback Album. Also new music from EMMA HILL, THE DAVID MAYFIELD PARADE and J.R. SHORE. Here's the iTunes link to subscribe to the FTB podcasts and this is the direct link to listen now! Here is the RSS feed: http://ftbpodcasts.libsyn.com/rss
Taylor follows his string of critically acclaimed Americana albums with an album of moody, sometimes foreboding songs that find dark clouds everywhere but a few silver linings as well. The songs were born out of a somewhat dark period for Taylor following the 2011 Norway massacre. Taylor was in the country at the time and in the wake of the killings he wrote and performed a new song, "This Darkest Day", at a benefit in honor of the victims. The experience led to some of the most somber and serious songs of his long illustrious career. And for the first time since he was a teenager, Taylor allowed someone else, Goran Grini, to guide the project.
Over the last year Rod Picott put together a compilation CD to benefit a youth shelter in Boston called Bridge Over Troubled Waters. The CD has unreleased songs by Rod Picott, Gurf Morlix, Greg Trooper, Slaid Cleaves, Mary Gauthier, Sam Baker and others. Everyone along the line has donated their time and the royalties from the tracks etc to help Rod put the thing together. In addition Village Records has put up the money to get this manufactured and we are forgoing all of our profits for this as well.
May 15 marks what would have been the 95th birthday of Eddy Arnold. This tribute album features many artists from outside the mainstream country realm paying tribute to the singer. Jason Isbell, Mandy Barnett, and Frank Black are three of the artists involved on the set, as is punk legend Cheetah Chrome. The former Dead Boys guitarist can be heard on the project doing the song that became Arnold's first number one hit in 1946. "Well, the one I ended up choosing is 'What Is Life Without Love," he told Billboard. "The reason I chose it was the lyrics are so happy, yet the music was so sad. So, I decided to take a different approach, and it took on a New Orleans-kind of direction." The artist is not only involved with Plowboy on the Arnold project -- he is also one of the founders of the label along with journalist Don Cusic and Arnold's grandson Shannon Pollard.
Coming out soon... JEFFREY FOUCAULT & COLD SATELLITE, JUDE JOHNSTONE, NEW COUNTRY REHAB, CLAIRE LYNCH, JOHN FOGERTY, RED DIRT RANGERS, MARSHALL CHAPMAN, CLARENCE BUCARO, WARREN HOOD BAND, JOY KILLS SORROW, JASON ISBELL, AOIFE O'DONOVAN, ELIZA GILKYSON , DAN HICKS & THE HOT LICKS, SLAID CLEAVES, DELBERT McCLINTON & GLEN CLARK ... more new releases
Co-produced by Griffin and Craig Ross, American Kid is her seventh and first for New West. Since her last album of new material Children Running Through, she made the Grammy-winning Downtown Church and became a member of Band of Joy alongside boyfriend Robert Plant. Most of the 12 songs on the album are about her father, a World War II veteran who returned home to live for a time in a Trappist monastery before becoming a high school science teacher and raising seven children. “The bulk of the record was written at a time where I knew my father was passing away,” Griffin says in a video explaining the album, which is part of the Deluxe Edition of the album.
Moody is a two-time Juno Award winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Winnipeg, Manitoba and founding member of The Wailin' Jennys. These Wilder Things features the haunting gospel sounds of "Trouble and Woe" to the bluegrassy One Light Shining (featuring Jerry Douglas) to the Irish-flavored "Life Is Long". Mark Knopfler lends his guitar and vocals to the moody "Pockets". "The album deals with some darker themes and has more of an urgency to it", Ruth says. "It can be scary to go to some of those darker and deeper places, but it was rewarding to face it all head on--that is where the real emotional intensity lives and I think that's what moves people."
FTB podcast #210
CHIP TAYLOR
Various Artists
Various Artists
PATTY GRIFFIN
RUTH MOODY
