If you have always wanted to attend the Newport Folk Festival, you can at least watch a number of the acts live this year on your computer, thanks to National Public Radio. The festival starts Friday, July 27 and goes through the weekend with acts that include Wilco, Patty Griffin, Jackson Browne, Iron & Wine, and My Morning Jacket. Check out the NPR website for a full list of the acts and information about how you can watch the performances live. Below is a video about the festival.
What is your favorite memory of the Newport Folk Festival? Leave your two cents in the comments.
This month is the anniversary of Uncle Tupelo’s album March 16-20, 1992, which for some strange reason is the only album in my collection where I remember the exact date it was made. The album, which was produced by R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, was recorded on the dates in the title, featuring both original songs and traditional songs.
This third album from Uncle Tupelo reflected the band’s frustrations with its record label, so the band decided to record music they wanted to record without regard for popular tastes. Below is Uncle Tupelo performing one of the traditional songs on the album, “Moonshiner” in Columbia, Missouri on November 13, 1992.
The CD also featured the Louvin Brothers classic, “Atomic Power.” Here is Uncle Tupelo performing the song on April 30, 1994 in St. Louis, Missouri at their second-to-last show together.
The first song on the album, “Grindstone,” is one of my favorites of the CD. I could not find a live Uncle Tupelo performance of the song. But after Uncle Tupelo broke up, Jay Farrar, who wrote “Grindstone,” performed it with his new band, Son Volt in Minneapolis on October 16, 1995. Check it out below.
Uncle Tupelo was at the forefront of the alt-country/Americana music scene in the 1990s. And the title of their first album, named after a Carter Family song, gave the name to the leading magazine of the genre, No Depression. But after March 16-20, 1992, the band released only one more CD, Anodyne (1993).
After the band’s final album, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy dissolved the band in 1994 to go on to create more music with new bands, including fantastic work with Son Volt and Wilco, respectively.
But those five days in March on this date all those years ago, they created one of the albums that defined their permanent place in music history.
What is your favorite Uncle Tupelo song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In December, three music heavyweights got together backstage at the Civic Opera House in Chicago and jammed on The Band’s classic song, “The Weight.” Wilco, Nick Lowe, and Mavis Staples took turns on the verses.
Staples is no stranger to the song, having performed the song with her family and The Band on Martin Scorsese’s classic rock film, The Last Waltz.
The song’s writer, Robbie Robertson, as well as other members of The Band have commented on the song’s meaning through the years and the fact that the characters in the song are named after people they knew. For an interesting detailed analysis of the lyrics — such as “Who was Crazy Chester?,” check out this article from Peter Viney. For example, it is “Fanny,” not “Annie” in the chorus, and the Nazareth is in Pennsylvania. The Dallas Observer has a recent short article about the song “The Weight,” including some discussion of how the song abides along with links to some other versions.
What do you think of the jam version of “The Weight”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
I recently discovered Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls through their Twitter account and checked out their website to discover some wonderful rootsy rocking music. Check out their video for “California Wine,” and I guarantee you will be singing the catchy song the rest of the day.
Their website describes their music: “Firmly entrenched in organically American music, the band mines elements of rock, country and folk coupled with rich storytelling and the poking and prodding of emotional contexts both personal and worldly.” Those are some fancy words, but the music speaks for itself. You may hear more of their songs on their music page. Also, on their website you will find downloads and a sampler EP of Packed for Exile as well as their debut album, The Vain Hope of Horse (2008), which includes some help from Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Nels Cline of Wilco.
Our readers who are Springsteen fans may be interested to know that the Greedy Souls include Jason Federici, the son of the E Street Band’s late Danny Federici, playing accordian and organ, of course. Along those lines, Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls recorded a version of Springsteen’s “4th of July, Asbury Park” available for free download at Backstreets.com if you click on the song title here. Other members of the Greedy Souls along with Jason Heath include Ben Perdue, Abe Etz, Jonathan Chi, Aaron Gitnick, Chris Joyner, and Ysanne Spevack.
The band is located in California, where Heath grew up and met drummer Abe Etz when they both were in sixth grade. They planned to create a band even before they could play instruments, and, unlike usual childhood dreams, they worked to make this one come true.
If you enjoy the music, check out their website and support the band. Also, for all of the fans of Springsteen, the Greedy Souls, and the Federici’s, do not forget to check out the DannyFund to help fight melanoma, which took Danny Federici away from us way too soon.
