8 Ball Aitken "Refugee"

Call me a commie pinko, if you want. I don't often get political here, but I just have to say something. In our travels the last couple of weeks, there have been way too many for rent and for sale signs. There have been storefronts and warehouses abandoned in too many towns, even in places you would not expect. Outsourcing and unemployment is taking its toll on America. One of the shopkeepers we talked to in Telluride categorized it by telling us, "The deeper the dreadlocks, the richer the trust fund," as he talked about how that town has changed in the past 30 years, from a hippie enclave to a wealthy playground. And no, it is not healthy for a democracy. It's even harder on the less fortunate in our society. There is a man I know who has received a continuance to stay in his house for another couple of months. My heart went out to him when he told me if he loses his house, he has no place to go. No work, no hope. Many of us are only a paycheck or two away from crisis. Many of us no longer have paychecks, and have been forced to scramble in the last couple of years to make ends meet, often without a safety net. I don't know what it will take to set the ship of America back on course. To get us back to work. To get America manufacturing again. To allow the American Dream to be revived from its doldrums. Or we will, once again, all be refugees in search of better lives.

8 Ball Aitken comes from Australia with a National Resonator guitar on his knee, and brought his Australian blues to us in Memphis, TN during Folk Alliance last February. "Refugee" comes from his 2004 CD Behind The 8 Ball. It rings true worldwide, no matter who you are or where you are.

- Jessie Scott

Gordie Tentrees "Alfred"

He has handsome bearing, with a face that appears to be chiseled out of fine marble. Gordie Tentrees looks strong, determined. Like he means business, because he does. Gordie comes from the Yukon Territory, and has plans to tour through November! Busy, busy, busy! And that includes some dates with one of his influences, Fred Eaglesmith, on his Southern Picnics!

On Gordie's third album, Mercy or Sin, the song “Alfred” is a dark, poignant, acoustic tale. “Walks with a hitch, right side hip, reads a dirt palm, right before he spits, thinks on the rain, hollers for the end, Alfred is old his blood ain't thin.” Subject matter meets texture. I remember an interview with Bonnie Raitt from eons ago, where she said that the slide guitar's sound drew her in because it sounded human. Like mourning, wailing, crying. I love how evocative different instruments are. What tone Ken Hermanson gets. It immediately transports you. And then there is Jennie Sosnowski on upright. Sweet harmonies all around. Gordie Tentrees, "Alfred." And we did it on a bus!

- Jessie Scott

Ray Bonneville "Stand Real Still"

We are far from standing real still, as we're enroute to WoodyFest, the 13th annual event honoring Woody Guthrie. Denise and I are heading north from Austin, the guys are westbound from Maryland, and we'll meet in the middle. Come to think of it, their drive is a little longer than ours, and I guess the actual geographic middle of the country is Lebanon, KS. Well, we are gonna be close enough anyway! More celebration of this great land of ours. It feels especially amazing when you string a bunch of these trips together like Music Fog is about to do.

Photo Credit: Sandy DyasI just can't get on the open road without marveling at the depth and breadth of America. And then there is the depth and breadth of the music created in America. We bring you one of the purest forms today. The blues, with the masterful Ray Bonneville. Born in Canada, and relocating to the Boston area in his early teens, he calls himself a North American. With dual citizenship, he toggles between Montreal and Austin. Perfect. You can hear the New Orleans influence all over his stuff, too, as if the heat of those streets got absorbed into his veins in the 80's when he moved between that city, and Seattle and Paris, France. Ray is working on CD number six, due out this fall. "Stand Real Still" is from the CD Roll It Down from 2004. Here is Ray with Mike Meadows on the Black Swan, and other percussive stuff, from Folk Alliance this past February.

Incidentally, Mike Meadows and Rad Lorkovic are vying (they don't know it, though) for our MVP acknowlegement...Most Video Performances as a side-man in front of the Music Fog lights! I estimate they've each had at least seven appearances!

- Jessie Scott