Amy LaVere "Red Banks"

I would like to coin a term today, in the manner of the adjectives Jeffersonian or Keynesian.  My new word would be Waitsian, and would refer to a particular kind of music; gruff and sparse, growling and noir. Songs like this favorite of mine,  “Heartattack and Vine.”   Yes, Tom Waits has spawned something of a cottage industry in this next generation of musicians, who sat metaphorically at his knee ingesting his art and his aura.   We know that so many people have covered his songs, in kind making them prettier.  The Eagles doing “Ol’ 55,” or “Jersey Girl” from Bruce Springsteen, or Rod Stewart with “Downtown Train.”  

I don’t think it is a stretch to go from there to Amy LaVere.  I am reminded of the expression ‘Still Water Runs Deep.’ She is self-possessed, with such style and such ease with matter-of-fact darkness.  She has recorded three solo projects since 2005.  And she has emerged in film roles as well, including the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and Craig Brewer’s Hustle and Flow. Her first lead role is scheduled for this year, The Romance of Loneliness, which will be filmed in Memphis next month.

 “Acting is very much like singing,” she says. “It’s losing yourself in a story. My favorite escape.”  Amy’s fourth CD, Stranger Me, will be out in July, and she will hit the road to tour.  Just to whet your appetite a tad, here's "Red Banks," an exclusive track we captured at Threadgill’s during our Marathon in March.  - Jessie Scott

Frazey Ford "September Field"

Growing up in the 60s was a politically charged time, painted in stark black and white. There were vicious fights over sunday dinner on the morality of the Vietnam War, pitting generation against generation. There was dissent within the family, with siblings or cousins in different camps. And there was a terrible cloud of hanging over some of us, as we waited to see whose draft lottery number would be called next.

It was a shock, the realization that some of us would die without having had a chance to live. It spawned a cottage industry of doctors who would write the necessary diagnosis to get you reclassified. There was also a new kind of underground railroad, with people crossing the border to Canada. My mother always said if my brother Mitch was called up, that was what we’d do. Fortunately, we never were faced with that decision.

Frazey Ford comes from a family that had to make that choice. Her father escaped to the communes of Canada as a draft dodger. She says this created an atmosphere of the wild west, "crazy and adventurous," and it colored her being and informed her art.

After ten years with Vancouver’s Be Good Tanyas, Frazey Ford emerged with a solo CD called Obadiah, which is actually her middle name. She came before the Music Fog cameras in conjunction with the Americana Fest in September during our shoot in the Sheraton Sweet Suite. You can check out her live show dates here, but today we bring you an opportunity to check out an as yet unreleased song, “September Field.”

-- Jessie Scott

Nudie and The Turks "I'm Tired of Living With No Fun"

So I have been holed up for three weeks now, and I am a whole lot better, though not totally healed.  It just takes time, but I am starting to get antsy. I'm ready to hit some music events, and the season is starting in earnest. 

For instance, today is day three of the Old Settler’s Music Festival out in Driftwood, on the southern edge of Austin. Coachella is rolling into Indian Wells, California, and the Wannee Music Festival  is happening in Live Oak, Florida.  Up in Canada this weekend,  the East Coast Music Association is celebrating in Charlottetown, Canada.  Their awards show is tonight, and looking at the nominees is like stepping through the looking glass, into a world of names that are mostly new to me!  Seriously, we can’t keep up, although Lord knows we try! 

Not far from there, Nudie and The Turks are performing tonight at the Cavendish Beach Music Festival on Prince Edward Island. We had the pleasure of recording them on the Music Fog bus in Memphis of 2010 at Folk Alliance. “I’m Tired Of Living With No Fun” is a previously unreleased tune, and very appropriate for all of us watching from the sidelines, but not able to attend all this music. And it is just going to get crazier from here. The season has started. Yay!

- Jessie Scott