Gurf Morlix "She's A River"

Gurf Morlix is a total enigma. He is one of the people in Austin that lights up a room, that is on the random occasions that he is around. Mostly, I think he is holed up in his studio, creating magic and lending his prodigious skills to folks like Ray Bonneville, Robyn Ludwick, Grant Peeples, Marvin Etzioni, Lucinda Williams, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Slaid Cleaves, Buddy and Julie Miller, and Mary Gauthier. His discography is nothing short of astonishing. Gurf’s most recent album is an homage to his late buddy, Blaze Foley’s 113th Wet Dream. Gurf can rock or he can lay back, but it all has a credibility, an authenticity, and that is unmistakable.

Gurf is a reverse snowbird, as he heads north from Texas in the hot season. I don’t know if he has escaped for that yet this year, but he just did some dates in New York City a couple of weeks ago. Gurf is magnificent whether solo or if you are fortunate enough to see him with full band. He simply smokes the room. I can’t believe we are just a few months away from this year’s Americana Music Association Festival. We hooked up with Gurf solo in Nashville during last year’s Americana Fest in Nashville, our Fall Music Fog Marathon at Marathon Recorders. He played a song originally from his 2009 release Last Exit To Happytown, the beautiful “She’s A River.”

-Jessie Scott

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit "Alabama Pines"

The Americana Music Association's nominations for this year's Honors & Awards will be announced this Thursday at the GRAMMY® Museum's Clive Davis Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Jim Lauderdale will host, and actor John C. Reilly will unveil the list, and then Buddy Miller and The Americana Allstars; Don Was, Greg Leisz, and Don Heffington, will be the backup band for performances by Robert Ellis, Shelby Lynne, and Lucinda Williams. You can watch the nomination ceremony online at The Americana Music Association's Facebook page. Of course, don't forget this year's Americana Fest will take place from September 12-15, 2012 in Nashville, TN, and the Americana Honors & Awards Show returns to the historic Ryman Auditorium on September 12th. Americana Music Festival and Conference Registrations are now available at Early Bird rates through their online store.

Of course, we wish everyone who is eligible 'Bon Chance!' The nominees are unknowable for the moment, but we wonder if Jason Isbell will be on that list. His Here We Rest album solidifies his footprint as a major talent, and his shows with the 400 Unit at places like MusicFest at Steamboat, Cherokee Creek and Luckenbach have made legions of new fans. Jason is playing an intimate solo show tomorrow night at The Mansion On O Street in Washington, DC, and tickets are available in advance only, not at the door. Today, we bring you one of the fine tunes from that album, here's “Alabama Pines.”

- Jessie Scott

Ange Boxall "Fool For Now"

You may think this is crazy talk. I am not sure I quite believe it, but I have spent most of my adult life in radio stations, and I evidently have been absorbing the negative ions that abound there. I was complaining recently that my touch screen phone was ignoring my touch, when someone told me it was because I had spent so much time near radio waves. I have no earthly idea whether any of that is true, but doing some research I guess that is not a bad thing. It appears that negative ions are good for one’s health. And of course being under a waterfall is one of the most energizing experiences ever, and that is smack dab in the cradle of the negative ionization epicenter. But then so is the shower in your house (ahhh!!) Here is WebMD’s take on it. I really don’t know whether radio stations emit these molecules, but it would explain why I have been so happy to sit in a room for 40 years, basically talking into a microphone with no one in sight on the receiving end of that monologue. Sitting in a room talking to yourself…hmm that sounds a little odd. It IS a little odd for that matter.

I am always baffled by the songs that tie the concepts of love and foolishness together. This makes as much sense to me as negative ionization does. If it doesn’t feel good why do it? If you are heading for the rocks, why prolong the agony? My inability to process all this stuff may just be the reason why I am not dating, and honestly, I don’t mind that at all either. Don’t get me wrong, it is great to listen to songs about being love struck. I remember, vaguely, all that love stuff. Tasmanian songstress Ange Boxall played a song for us during our Americana Fest on October in Nashville called “Fool For Now.” I guess you put up with it for a little while, if the sex is good…right? Anyway, here is Ange with Tom Mason on guitar and Bones Hillman on bass, with a song found on her 2011 album, Writing Letters. Here is the Music Fog version, filmed at Marathon Recorders.

-Jessie Scott