Eric Brace & Peter Cooper "Silent Night"

Happy Holly Jolly Holidays from all of us at Music Fog. As the year comes to a close, we wish you all good things for this very special time when we leave the minutia of everyday life behind to immerse ourselves in something grander, slower, and more glorious. The spirit of Christmas is in one’s heart. Hope you can spend time with people you love, enjoy the food and drink and companionship. Do something good for someone and be kind to all, especially yourself.

I am on an adventure! I am excited to be doing some end of the year rambling. I stopped by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on Friday to tour the incredible IM Pei designed building. While there, I attempted to absorb as much of the history of rock and roll as I could in one day (which is simply impossible, a week wouldn’t be enough for me!). I was honored to use the studio to record an interview with Eddie Spaghetti on the making of the new Supersuckers record, Holdin’ The Bag. After pit stops to see dear friends, I am in Nashville and looking forward to returning to The MusicFest in Steamboat Springs, which is coming right up. Abbey Road and I will be there capturing audio moments with a full dance card of artists. You will be able to hear some of the songs from these sessions on my Sun Radio show, Monday through Friday from 11am to 3pm CT.

Today we bring you music from the Fog Bank. We originally published this on December 24, 2010 from Eric Brace and Peter Cooper. By the way, Peter has a new album out, Depot Light: Songs of Eric Taylor. That is a great point of entry to yet another amazing songwriter that indeed you should get to know. From Music Fog’s AmericanaFest 2010 sessions, here is “Silent Night,” written by Jon Byrd.

- Jessie Scott

Elephant Revival "Remembering A Beginning"

It is just a couple of weeks away from The Americana Conference and Festival in Nashville. Managers, publicists, labels and bands have been beating a steady path to our door to see if we will put them in front of our cameras during the event. Sorry to have to keep repeating the same message, but Music Fog will not be in attendance.

Now, it just might have happened if every request was accompanied by a hundred dollar pledge to pay for our travel and allow us all to take a week off from work to do production. (Lol) Obviously, it is too late, so it won't make a difference for AmericanaFest this year. But, we all would welcome a grassroots effort to get us to the next gig, which is MusicFest at Steamboat Springs, just so you know!

Today, we revisit a session from AmericanaFest two years ago. From the FogBank, it's "Remembering A Beginning" from Elephant Revival. The band made their Music Fog debut with this song, which was an unreleased tune at that time. Yesterday they released a brand new album, The Changing Skies, which features their studio version of this fan favorite song!

- Jessie Scott

Tommy Womack - Now What!

Happy Mardi Gras. Party up today, for lent is nigh. It is the season of discipline, not indulging in something you love until Easter. Can you give up meat or cigarettes, or a luxury of some sort, for the forty days of the Lenten season? Yikes, discipline, my dear! But today, you have to get it all out of your system. Party until midnight, when Cinderella’s coach turns into a pumpkin at day’s end. Have you ever been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans? They take this revelry thing mighty seriously, ya know. And you can go from a refined dinner with the family; pearls and dinner jackets; to frontal nudity in the street. To each his own.

Tommy Womack would be fun to take to New Orleans. His eccentric observations would be quite worth the price of admission. His might even be the voice of reason, the counterpoint to the debauchery. Tommy’s new CD comes out today. It is the sequel to There I Said It!, and is called Now What! Music Fog had the great good fortune of doing the intro video for it, which you can watch above. And we had the honor of filming Tommy at Folk Alliance in 2010, which you can enjoy below. (By the way, the Folk Alliance is just kicking off in Memphis this week.) So we bring you the Music Fog recording of one of the songs that you will find on the new album. “On & Off The Wagon,” one from the Fog Bank, with Lisa Oliver-Gray. Maybe the “wagon” starts at midnight. Forty days, huh…?

- Jessie Scott