Seth Walker "Are You Open?"

The waiting is still the hardest part. We live these days with drama and stress, and the unknowable length of this marathon before we can stem the tide and start returning to normal. It is still one day at a time. And a day and another day, they string together like pearls. I actually had to think about whether we had summer yet, and realized that yes, we are almost at the end of 2020, so we must have had. At the beginning of the year, I had the good fortune to go on a Caribbean cruise, Delbert McClinton’s Sandy Beaches. We were in port in Old San Juan, when I ran into Seth Walker coming around the corner, we chatted for a few minutes, catching up on what was new. He was performing on the ship, along with many other folks I consider friends.

Photo Credit: Chad Crawford

Seth has used the quarantine time to put pen to paper, and just announced that he will be releasing his first book after the first of the year, Your Van Is On Fire: The Miscellaneous Meanderings of a Musician. It’ll be part memoir, part meditation, and part art gallery. There is a sucessfully funded Kickstarter campaign to aid and abet its release. Seth does it all so effortlessly. Well, that is how it seems.

Seth’s most recent album is Are You Open? Today we bring you the Music Fog edition of the title track, filmed in a private performance in Nashville last year. Easy peasy!

- Jessie Scott

Joe Robinson "Whisper Your Name"

We were so sad to hear over the weekend of Jerry Jeff Walker’s passing. He was a Texas singer songwriter extraordinaire, and a revered elder statesman, and moreover, he was a friend. Jerry Jeff was a pied piper, connecting the next generation after Willie, to what came next---Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green, Jack Ingram, The Robisons, Ragweed and Randy Rogers. And, of course, today there is yet another generation of truth tellers crafting music for our times. When I joined XM Radio in 2000, and we sat down to conceptualize my channel, X Country, I asked where Jerry Jeff, Doug Sahm, and Gram Parsons music would live. And those artists became how I anchored it. Back in the 70’s, it was called Progressive Country, and that's how we referenced it at XM, before we transitioned to Americana as the descriptor a few years later. I have lots of fond memories of Jerry Jeff Walker, the most recent earlier this year when he reached out to ask how I was. He told me he could no longer sing, but that he cared enough to make contact will be forever in my heart.

Photo Credit: Kane Hibberd

Today’s tune is a prayer and a wish for peace of mind through the turbulence from guitar maestro, Joe Robinson. Originally out of the Australian Bush, he studied with the master, Tommy Emmanuel, and has worked with Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, and Robben Ford during his relo to Nashville. Music Fog was happy to have him on camera last year during our 10th Anniversary Sessions, as his new album Undertones was just releasing. Joe has been working on a new album in quarantine, and we can’t wait to hear what he has cooked up on the forthcoming Borders. In the meantime, here is the Music Fog capture of a tune that is pure spirit from his 2019 release, this is “Whisper Your Name.”

- Jessie Scott

Watson Twins "Southern Manners"

The Watson Twins most recent album, Duo, came out in 2018. I don’t know about you, but that feels like a lifetime ago! Long ago and far away there was a time of fraternity and community. It doesn’t seem possible now, but back then people actually helped each other. Yes, there were standards, mores, and a social code that most of us agreed upon. Now, I am not suggesting a return to the bad old cookie cutter days of the 50’s, because that was so buttoned down that it was stifling, but I do wish we could just get along.

Chandra and Leigh Watson, and Chandra’s husband, multi-instrumentalist, producer Russ Pollard, take us back to their first release, the Southern Manners EP from 2006 in this Music Fog performance. And they return us to a simpler time of gentle breezes and being good to each other. This is the title song, “Southern Manners,” filmed in a private session last year in Nashville. Take a moment to bask in the quiet beauty of it all, while you remember the innocence.

- Jessie Scott