Mary Gauthier "Drag Queens In Limousines"

On the plane from New Orleans to Nashville, and then heading to Bonnaroo today. Somehow in the last week, I have visited eleven states, and have spent time in some of my favorite cities. Yes, I am tired, but exhilarated too, as this kind of movement rocks me. 24 hours in New Orleans is always a good touchstone. The part of town I was staying in reminds me of where I live in Austin; the other side of the tracks, a dicey, transitioning area. We needed some extra hands, so I talked to the man working on the house next door. He said, "Hell, I wouldn't want to hire anyone from around here." OK! New Orleans is on the slow comeback. There are still totally blighted areas, but the charm and spirit of the people is immediately enticing. You feel that things are regarded differently, just from the comebacks you get when you greet someone.

We bring you a New Orleans refugee, Mary Gauthier, who is now a Nashville resident. And a wholly appropriate song from her, that captures a snapshot  of NOLA back when Mary lived there. We recorded it in September 2010 in Nashville at AmericanaFest. And while we are on the subject of Americana, make sure you pick up the latest issue of Spin, titled The New Americana Revolution. Here, here!

Mary is doing a bunch of touring this summer, here is a taste, "Drag Queens In Limousines."

-Jessie Scott

Over the Rhine "Oh Yeah By the Way"

This week, Music Fog will hit 4 million views on YouTube. We thank you for coming back to our site, and for sharing us with your friends and family. Running down some quick stats, the most recent million took less than three months. By comparison, the first million views were 18 months in the making. What does this all mean? I have no idea, but we know the seismic shift is underway, from old media to new, and we ride that wave wherever it is taking us.

When Music Fog started, it was to bring you Americana music, to forge out a spot for music discovery, to shine a light on worthy musicians, as well as to cast an eye on the superb technical skills and bedside manner of the Foggers. We are more accomplished now than when we started, and we stand at the ready to create documentaries, shows, DVDs, Pay Per View concerts, and live webcasts. This is the brave new world we are talking about, the new world order, and the past is crumbling. But the really good news about all this is that music is not dead, in fact it is just the opposite, there is so much great stuff out there that it is hard to keep up!

Today's video is an homage to love not working out. To write from the heart, to explore the nooks and crannies of emotion, and to lay bare the sorrow,the regret, the vulnerability.  We have moved on, but if only we could have done it differently, if, if, if...  All delivered with a delicious melancholy. Here is Over the Rhine from their most recent album, The Long Surrender, which was recorded with GRAMMY® winning producer, Joe Henry. This song, "Oh Yeah By The Way," was written by Linford Detweiler. Here is the Music Fog recording from Americana Fest in Nashville last September.

-- Jessie Scott

Ray Bonneville "Nightwalker"

On Wednesday night, as the sun was going down, I was at Steak Nite in Waring, Texas wrapping up a wonderful dinner with homemade peach cobbler, and homemade chocolate cake with the creamy frosting that melts in your mouth. On the way out to the Hill Country, I passed hogs and goats and cattle. Real deal one lane roads, arroyos and signs with markings for alerting one to the height of the water in case of floods. Not that that has been our issue in Texas this year, nope, it has been dry as a bone. In fact the flooding down the Mississippi should have been apportioned as rain to the south of the I-10 corridor, instead of it all going north. We met up with some folks that live in New Orleans a few days ago at the Cherokee Creek Music Festival, and they were remarking how dry it had been there this winter, too.

One of the artists we hooked up with at Cherokee Creek last weekend was real deal Ray Bonneville, with plenty of that New Orleans cadence woven into his music. And this time, it was an especially magic recording, as Ray was joined by Rad Lorkovic, and John Fullbright. Thanks to Chip Dolan for leaving the keyboard with us. And watch out Mike Meadows...Rad might just have passed you in Music Fog MVP appearances, having played on four different sessions in just one day!

We love it when we capture something one of a kind, and we hope this one grows wings. This was recorded in an old ranch house on the grounds, just 100 yards from a loud festival stage, with the musicians playing the song together for the first time, in one live take. See what you think.

- Jessie Scott