Cindy Bullens "Good At Being Gone"

I was bayside in Corpus Christi on Saturday, and there was a storm looming on the horizon. Low hanging clouds sat just atop the swaying palm trees, the smell of beach and humidity was heavy in the air. Beach towns hold a special fascination for me. I guess I am just wired that way, having been a surfer as a teenager at Gilgo Beach in New York. The nubby plants, the houses with their pastel colors; things just feel different when there is water near. It doesn't much matter where, whether here or out of the country, or north or south, the beach prevails with its particular light. It is its own province.

Since it was a gray and foreboding kind of day, it spoke of winter walks on the sand on the New England shore. That’s where Cindy Bullens is from, Maine, actually. I am certain she has spent hours combing the beach for inspiration and the soothing effect it has on one’s soul. Cindy is part of the group The Refugees, along with Wendy Waldman and Deborah Holland, and they have just released the album Three. We previously filmed them way back in 2009, at Folk Alliance, aboard the Music Fog bus.

As we are doing our Kickstarter fundraising to get the Foggers to Austin in March, for the Spring Marathon at Threadgill’s, we take you back to Nashville for a tune that Cindy recorded for us during a different marathon, the Americana Fest in 2010. “Good At Being Gone,” came out on her album of the same year, Howling Trains and Barking Dogs.

- Jessie Scott

PS: Music Fog is only at about 30% of our Kickstarter goal, with just 9 days left to raise the money for our excursion, production and streaming costs. If you're not familiar with Kickstarter projects, the funds are only collected if the entire goal has been met. Fall short and the entire project is dead in the water; it's all-or-nothing funding. So, please help if you can, share with everyone you know that loves roots music!

The Pear Ratz "Ozona"

I can’t stress how important it is to give back. After a life in the workaday world, the things that seem to recur with frequency these days are benefits and non-commercial enterprises. I am a proud member of two of them, The Americana Music Association and Leadership Music. Of late, there have been plenty of things to raise money for, with the natural calamities especially rife of late. Also, there are so many worthy things to donate your time to; boys and girls clubs, sports teams, houses of worship, doing cleanup in your community. It is all about helping those less fortunate with your time, your money, or your concern. Giving back feels good.

Tonight I am involved in a benefit to raise money for the Wounded Warriors. I see so many military folks in my travels these days, and always hope that a good life awaits them when they are done with their service to our country. Tonight, The Pear Ratz, a band I used to play on X Country back in my XM days, are doing a benefit to raise money for them. I am going to be facilitating a video stream, as it is being filmed for DVD release by Jeff Horny and his crew, and the audio is being captured by Adam Odor. Check it out tonight on the Pear Ratz site.

Here is a video that Jeff did for them in 2010, “Ozona,” which I especially love for the desert vistas.

-Jessie Scott

Blackie & The Rodeo Kings "Another Free Woman"

It seems to me you either deal from fear, or you deal from love. There are so many people damaged by life who cannot forgive, cannot overcome their circumstances, cannot move on. There but for fortune. I don’t know if it is karma, or just bad luck, to be born into a life that creates anger. But I sure do wish there was enough in this world: enough love, enough food, enough roofs overhead, enough water and enough to go around. But that is not the way it is, and whether one is deprived of necessities, or spiritual ones, the result can be the same. Hate to run into people that life has turned mean. I don’t think anyone is born that way. If you need it, there is help out there. Anger management, domestic abuse; there are hotlines, and safe houses. There are people that care. You are not alone, we are all in this together. We are a neighborhood, a community, a union, one planet under the same sun.

Today’s video comes from Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, who put out an amazing album last year called Kings & Queens. They recruited some mighty fine cameos appearances from a wish list that included Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Pam Tillis, Lucinda Williams. Then they recruited other queens, one for each cut on the album, including Exene Cervenka, Holy Cole, Amy Helm, Janiva Magness, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sam Phillips, Serena Ryder,  Cassandra Wilson, Patti Scialfa, and Sara Watkins, who was on the studio version of the song we bring you today. We have had the pleasure of filming her, back a ways at Americana Fest 2009. We caught up with Blackie & The Rodeo Kings at Americana Fest 2011, as we took over Marathon Recorders for our Music Fog Marathon in October. (Wanna help with our next Marathon? Here’s how.)

We bring you the Music Fog version of “Another Free Woman,” (sans Sara) and here are the tour dates so you can see BARK in person, ‘cause they rock!

-Jessie Scott

Tim Easton & The Freelan Barons "Burgundy Red"

My New Year’s resolutions are still in place. I have given up gluten and sugar (beware the white powder…) and laughingly came up with a colorful description: red meat, yellow liquor and black coffee. It hasn’t been hard to keep to this regime for me, and rest assured the yellow liquor is a sometime "thing," not an everyday occurrence. Red wine works too. The other part of my resolution is to dance every day. That is a fairly easy thing to accomplish, even if it’s with my iPod blaring with external speakers in the privacy of my living room. Fun.

You can dance to this song for sure. “Burgundy Red” is a throwback to the rock and roll of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. Tim Easton delivers the locomotion. He is a man on the move, no really! Tim Easton and his family just made the trek east, to the burgeoning music community of East Nashville, all the way from Joshua Tree in California. He will now be in striking distance for a visit to Folk Alliance in Memphis coming up in a few weeks,  before he heads to Europe for a quick tour. We had the pleasure of filming him, along with Alex Livingstone, Aaron Lee Tasjan, and Mark Stepro during our Spring Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill’s last March. BTW, you can help make this year’s Music Fog Marathon a reality by your contribution here. The song “Burgundy Red” came out on Tim’s CD Porcupine. Here is the Music Fog version with The Freelan Barons.

-Jessie Scott

Marshall Chapman "Tim Revisited"

I was in Nashville before Christmas and got to see The McCrary Sisters do an amazing gospel set at the world famous Station Inn. There were a host of people there in the crowd that evening, among them was the indomitable Marshall Chapman. She is a force of nature; multitalented, walking the path with grace, never wavering. She has a couple of books to her credit, and she keeps on exploring the creative process. She is, in fact, getting ready to record a new album as we speak. Adding to that, she landed her first film role as Gwyneth Paltrow’s road manager in the movie Country Strong. She also brought her musical Good Ol’ Girls to off-Broadway.  If you are unfamiliar with her twelve albums, you can catch up for sure, as some of them are now being rereleased.

At Americana Fest in 2010, we had her come to the Music Fog studio, and she touched our hearts with this tribute to the late Tim Krekel. Tim was a member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, as well as being an ace musician, crack writer, an energetic performer, and sweetheart of a guy. Of course, Marshall’s It’s About Time, recorded in a women’s prison, was the first album released on Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville label. Tim died in June of 2009, leaving a huge hole in many people’s hearts, including Marshall’s (and mine, too.) You will find the song on her Big Lonesome album - you will find the Music Fog version right here.

-Jessie Scott