The Trishas "Moses"

ACK! I have the creeping-crud-sore-throat-sinus-infection that so often accompanies the rock and roll lifestyle. The kissing and handshaking of a festival, and then the dastardly plane ride home. In this case, taking an extra three hours because San Francisco was fogged in, and we were unable to take off. So the trip home became a 12 hour affair. So I had to visit the walk-in clinic today for some antibiotics. It hurts to talk, and well, that's just bad. Well maybe my silence is not bad for some people. Just ask Beans, and he'll say it's hard to get a word in edgewise with me. So my laptop becomes even more essential. I also met a singer at the clinic today who said she'd had this throat thing going on for a month. Perish the thought! I am living on ice pops and Hall's® Mentho-Lyptus, and typing away. Life is grand.

It is a good week when you can see The Trishas twice. Not that we expected that, but when we brought you the Raul Malo video for "Sinners & Saints" on Tuesday, there they were, in all their glory. The new CD They Call Us The Trishas is out, though they call it a mini-album, not an EP. We look forward to more from them soon, as this is a time for writing, growing, and becoming everything their promise holds. The road trip continues for them tonight in Conroe, Texas for the Cajun Catfish Festival. Mmmmnn, that sounds DELICIOUS. And fun! They have lots of other Texas dates coming up, and will be back to play the MusicFest at Steamboat Springs in Colorado this coming January. It is an incredible lineup there again this year. Meantime, click here for the rest of The Trishas' schedule. We bring you a SXSW 2010 performance of the song "Moses."

- Jessie Scott

Uncle Lucius "Keep the Wolves Away"

Labor Day Weekend found me down at the beach. It is a four hour drive southeast from Austin to Corpus Christi. In Texas, four hours is nothing, just around the corner. The land changes along the way as it flattens out toward the Gulf Of Mexico and the barrier reef islands of Padre. Just before you get to paradise, you pass through an industrial area. There is an exit for Corn Product Road. Hmmm, wonder what they make there? On the other side is Carbon Plant Road, accompanied by exactly the kind of oil smell hanging in the air that you would expect. It stands as a stoic reminder to how our society functions, what with energy and agri-business. And then you get to the beach and can put the odor and the memory of it behind you. Seems like a good time to mention that there is another way to live, and that Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope for America is coming up on Saturday, October 2nd, at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI. If you're not in the Milwaukee area, you can catch it live in HD on DirecTV's The 101 Network beginning at 6pm ET/5pm CT. They'll also be running the concert on the Farm Aid website, if you don't have access to DirecTV. The lineup is stellar, as usual, with Jeff Tweedy, Randy Rogers Band, and Norah Jones joining Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews, just to name a few. See the complete lineup here. I'm happy to see Randy on the Farm Aid lineup. It is always interesting to me to see how bands reach the next level, and watching what is happening with Randy is awesome! I feel there is so much music that should be seen by a bigger audience. That there are so many worthy musicians that could totally blow up if only the opportunities line up celestially. Life. A giant game of Chutes and Ladders!

So two things, we give Randy and company a big thumbs up for weaving through this crazy environment to get to where they have gotten. And a big thumbs up to the artists we get to bring you on the Music Fog website, long may they wave too. Uncle Lucius is one of them. No, they are not playing at Farm Aid this year, but maybe someday! The news is that Uncle Lucius, along with Randy Rogers Band, are playing The MusicFest in Steamboat Springs in January 2011! This will be their debut at MusicFest, and is a welcome and praised invitation. Before that comes around, though, they are going to spend nine days holed up in a cabin in the Tennessee mountains next week, and then they hit the road starting on October 15th. They are a hard boogie-ing, soul meets rock unit that delivers organic joy. We bring you another of their tunes from our Threadgill's SXSW shoot. It's a song that highlights a similar landscape to the above-mentioned one that I drove through Labor Day Weekend. "Keep the Wolves Away," is an unreleased track that your favorite Uncle wanted to share with you on the Fog!

- Jessie Scott

Shawn Camp "The Grandpa That I Know"

Marty Fitzpatrick and I got the opportunity to work together after a two year absence, to host the Folk Alley webcast of the Americana Honors & Awards Show from The Ryman Auditorium a couple of weeks back. It felt like old times, as he was the Music Director, and I was the Program Director at X Country on XM. But in an even earlier incarnation, Marty and I used to meet every week to produce the syndicated show "This Week In Americana," which I hosted and he produced. We got together at his studio in Nashville to construct the one hour weekly show. Marty and I are both from New York originally, but heard the muse calling, and we both wound up gravitating to Nashville. Marty says proudly that Shawn Camp was one of the first friends he made as a newcomer to town. That's hitting the ball out of the park! During our tenure at XM, we loved having a home for Shawn, as he is somewhat of an unsung hero.

Sixteen years ago, Shawn Camp recorded his second CD, having had a first blush of success with his self titled debut. Back in those days the conventional wisdom was that you had to deliver a similar sounding record. The label wanted him to retool album number two in the image of the first, taking off the fiddles and dobros in favor of electric guitars. He didn't, and the album got shunted away to the "no zip sorting bin." Last year, Warner Music Nashville President John Esposito happened into an impromptu guitar pull with Shawn Camp. Afterwards, he facilitated the vault being unlocked, and the dust being blown off, and the issuing at last of the newly renamed CD 1994. Shawn comments, "This is an unchanged snapshot of that moment 16 years ago." The album contains A-list collaborations with Bill Monroe, Jerry Douglas, Patty Loveless, and his earliest tete-a-tete with Guy Clark in "Stop, Look And Listen." Speaking of snapshots, that is what Marty Fitzpatrick is doing these days...he's a professional photographer.

Photo Credit: Marty FitzpatrickWhen Shawn visited us during the Americana Music Festival, he shared this song, which will be on the "new" album being released tomorrow. "The Grandpa That I Know." Amen.

- Jessie Scott