Blackie & The Rodeo Kings "I'm Still Loving You"

There are some people, I believe, that you are just destined to meet. In the late 90s, living in Nashville, I haunted the clubs; Exit/In, 12th and Porter, 3rd and Lindsley, making the rounds to immerse myself in the most imaginative and celestial music the era and the city had to offer. And there were fellow travelers, ones with whom I shared many an evening, though in many cases I didn’t know their names, I just recognized them from their attendance at the same shows as me all the time. Some emerged out of the mist of anonymity. One was Colin Linden. I would see him in his Amish style hat and we would greet each other by the glint of an eye, of being a fellow traveler. After months of finding ourselves in the same spaces so often, we finally introduced ourselves and started getting to know each other. And through the years since, I have watched with glee as Colin plied his abundant craft. There are his solo projects, others that he produced, and then there is the entity Blackie & The Rodeo Kings.

Photo Credit: Bob Lanois

The band, Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing and Colin Linden, formed in Ontario, Canada fifteen years ago. They spent the last two years or so working on an album they had been thinking about for way longer, Kings and Queens, on which they have lots of well-respected folks contributing. Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Pam Tillis, Serena Ryder, Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Amy Helm, Janiva Magness, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sam Phillips, Sara Watkins, Exene Cervenka, Patti Scialfa and Holly Cole. It was a very satisfying exercise indeed. I saw the trio in Boulder, Colorado this August and made my plans to get them before the Music Fog cameras in Nashville, during the Americana Music Festival. They brought their Nudie suits (Manuel, actually) and Bryan Owings and John Dymond along to play.

- Jessie Scott

Sunday Valley "I Wonder"

Busy, busy, busy! This time of year in Texas the weather is still warm enough to do outdoor events. Saturday, I rode out to the town of Bee Cave to The Backyard for the First Annual LaGrange Fest, with ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jamey Johnson, and Corey Taylor of Slipknot. A portion of every ticket sold was donated to the Texas Wildfire Relief Fund as well as Lake Travis Fire Rescue and Bastrop Fire Department, as support to those who lost everything and the firefighters who are risking their lives to battle the worst wildfire season in Texas history. There is another benefit at The Backyard this Friday night, with Bob Schneider and friends. It is still relentlessly sunny here, not enough rain, but at least it is not in the triple digits. We are still praying for rain.

We're back from Americana Fest, with the first of 32 artists to share with you. Sunday Valley is one of a new crop of bands that we recorded. They were all different sonically from each other; but each brings an integral part of the roots music scene. Sunday Valley’s music has been called Cow Punk and Bluegrass Rock. Whatever you call it, it will propel you. Their first album is To the Wind and On to Heaven. It WILL rock your world. Here is a taste, with pictures even! It’s the Music Fog Fall Marathon recording of “I Wonder,” filmed at Marathon Recorders. And you may notice, with this first video from our Nashville sessions, that we've upgraded to high definition cameras. Now the Music Fog "look" is even more spectacular!

- Jessie Scott

Mike Farris "I'm Gonna Get There"

Today, everything seems so normal. The blistering heat wave of this summer in Austin has given way to a couple of days with the highs in the 70s. Birds are chirping, kids are walking to school. I am doing the usual things to get back in the saddle after a road trip; cleaning, vacuuming, laundry, general puttering around. Life in order. It is an ebb and flow kind of thing, that is for sure! Oh there is still plenty on the pile to be chipped away at, including the initial decisions for Aaron Lee to assess what we captured in Nashville during our Fall Music Fog Marathon. 32 bands in three days is a lot of content to sift through, so this week, we are bringing you videos we shot at other events, while we formulate our plans for the unveiling of the new stuff. We do hope you enjoyed our streaming. It was definitely a peak behind the curtain at the vibe of the recording studio. It was not meant to be a show delivered exactly on the clock, and we did try to stick close to our schedule, but there are always things that need to be done. What was the line, “We will sell no wine before its time.” Yeah, it’s like that. Though, you can get a look at the unedited raw feeds, for a limited time, over on our Nashville Broadcast Archives page.

Never fear, we will start rolling out the latest crop of music next week, but today, we revisit a session from last year’s Americana Fest. I am in love with Mike Farris. His voice, his phrasing, his ear. He is, as they say, the total package. His music enriches our lives. Mike is in the midst of recording a new album. We’ll be looking for that in 2012. Today’s tune comes from the groundbreaking album Salvation In Lights. Hard to believe that one will be five years old next year! Catch Mike in concert soon. Here is the Music Fog recording of “I’m Gonna Get There.” Say amen!

- Jessie Scott