No Halloween themed mix-tapes or song postings from me today. Just a picture of my dog in a witches hat.

This may have been established elsewhere but this morning was the first time I had seen a hard date mentioned for DBTs new cd; Brighter The Creations Dark. I quote from Patterson’s latest message to the fans:

Lots of folks have been asking us about our plans for New Years Eve.
We have a long tradition of playing with our dear friends Centro-matic for NYE.
That is all still being worked out, but there is a hitch:
The new album hits the streets on january 22 (21 if you’re in Europe).
With a new album hitting so close to the holidays, there is a big concern about playing a town right before.
All of that is still being worked out by the powers that be (fingers crossed) but it is out of our hands. Soon as we know something we’ll pass it along to you.

So there you go. New DBT in January…judging from the bootlegs coming out of the Dirt Underneath shows it’ll be their best effort since Decoration Day. Here are my favorite two tracks they’ve been playing.

Drive-By Truckers - Ghost to Most
Drive-By Truckers - Daddy Needs A Drink

This site’s namesake: Drive-By Truckers - Nine Bullets

This came up on a mailing list I subscribe to and I found it highly interesting so I’ve decided to repost it here. It is by an artist called Nate Harrison.

EDIT: If you enjoy this video go watch Nate’s Baseline Baseline piece on the Roland 303. Good stuff.

There are certain definites in my life. I am gonna throw something at some point during football season, I am gonna look up some form of porn this week, and if the wife and I go out this Saturday night and get too drunk, we will eat Cracker Barrel on Sunday morning. For us, there is nothing like fried foods and gravy to help you get over the hangover hump. Inevitably, if you go to Cracker Barrel you are gonna have to wait for a table, and during that wait you’ll probably walk around the general store waiting area thing. Such was the case for us last week.

While we were waiting for a table, I was going through the Cracker Barrel cds (believe it or not, CB has been putting together magnificent country albums for years now) and noticed a Merle Haggard cd with a sticker reading “6 New Songs”. After a predictably delicious and fattening breakfast, I bought the cd.

Working Man’s Journey was released back in May and features 6 new songs and 6 Haggard familiars; “Shade Tree Fix-It Man”, “Workin’ Man Blues”, “Kern River”, “Are the Good Times Really Over”, “Rainbow Stew”, and “If We Make It Through December”, all re-recorded for this release. They aren’t reinterpretated, modified or messed with. Just re-recorded with modern techniques and with Merle’s voice as it is now. Of the re-recorded songs, I think “Are the Good Times Really Over” fared best. In fact, I think the renewed version eclipses the original. Maybe it’s Merle’s further aged, more weary voice, maybe it’s the higher production quality…or maybe it’s just me getting older, so the sentiment of the song resonates with me more, but I feel it’s hands-down the best track on the album.

Of the new tracks, “Songman” is easily my favorite. I can imagine Merle singing it while being pushed aside by the Nashville bobbleheads. To quote Darrel Scott’s song “Long Time Gone” (also covered by The Dixie Chicks); “We listen to the radio to hear what’s cookin’ / But the music ain’t got no soul / Now they sound tired but they don’t sound Haggard“.

All in all this is a wonderful album for both those familiar with Haggard, as well as those who are newly discovering this American gem.

Merle Haggard - Are The Good Times Really Over
Merle Haggard - Songman

Merle Haggard - Misery and Gin (the one song I wish would have been included)

Dixie Chicks - Long Time Gone

Merle Haggard’s Official Site, Buy Working Man’s Journey

I ain’t got shit for y’all today. I am still trying to recover from a really long weekend and prepare for a 3 shows in 7 days week. In an effort to gain perspective I dropped by the record store and picked up some albums today. One of them is Peeping Tom’s cd. I had heard the album once before and was unmoved but decided to give it a fresh listen after seeing them perform Mojo on The Rollins Show a few weeks (maybe months) back.

Peeping Tom - Mojo (album version)

Peeping Tom - Mojo (Rollins show version):

There is plenty to do this weekend, so why not get off the couch and go out, instead of bitching on some message board that there isn’t anything to do and this area sucks…

Friday Night: Shannon McNally will be at the Tamiami in St. Petersburg

This will be a nice, chill show. Perfect for some whiskey drinks on a Friday night after a long week. Performing self described ‘North American Ghost Music’, her voice has been described as sultry, swaggering, and striking a stylistic pose between the R&B grittiness of Bonnie Raitt and the softer jazz/pop edges of Nina Simone. If that sounds like your cup of tea at all, then come down to the Tamiami for “an exposition of Americana/bar-band motifs delivered with a fire and finesse that set them well above most practitioners.”

Shannon McNally - Bohemian Wedding Prayer

Sunday Night: Laura Love will be at Skipper’s Smokehouse

If you do not burn it too hard at Guavaween on Saturday night, you can head out to Skipper’s Smokehouse Sunday for one of the greatest female singers/performers you’ve heard of. I’ll quote myself:

Laura’s music is best described as an afrocentric meshing of bluegrass, funk, and folk that is impossible not to move to. Lyrically her songs run the gamut from humorous, to political at times, sometimes personal, but always thought provoking. Then there is her voice. In a word I would have to describe her voice as amazing. Listening to her cover Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” and the acapella song “Blind Bartimus” off Octoroon literally gives me chills. You never know where the songs are going. One song she’ll be reciting nursery rhymes and the next she’ll be talking about watching her ass grow. All of this meshes into pure delight.

You can read more about Laura Love here. Hell, even if you do party too hard on Saturday night, is there any place better than Skipper’s to get over a hangover? I think not.

Laura Love - Can’t Understand

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Buck 65’s much anticipated new cd, The Situation, is streaming in it’s entirety over on his myspace profile.

Check it out.

AUTOPSY REPORT: This thing is ridiculously good.

What is Hangar 18? I quote from Ear Farm:

Behold, ladies and gentlemen, the first season of Hangar 18: the Bloggers v. Rockers Fantasy Football League. This league pits six bloggers (My Old Kentucky Blog, Gorilla Vs. Bear, Ear Farm, ninebullets, Indie Interviews, and I Guess I’m Floating) against six musicians (Tapes N Tapes, Vicious Vicious, Margot & The Nuclear So & So’s, The Muggabears, Arizona, and Mancino) in a battle to decide who amongst the twelve of us will reign supreme as the Indie Rock CHAMPION of Fantasy Football.

Damnit man. What a crappy week. My favorite teams: Florida State Seminoles, USF Bulls and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Lost, Lost and…..Lost. I got 3 fantasy teams including Hangar 18…..loss, loss and yes, another loss. I am sub-500 so there really isn’t anything to say except for the obvious: I suck.

Rockers vs. Bloggers Fantasy Football Current Standings:

1. My Old Kentucky Blog (6-1)
2. Arizona (6-1)
3. Ear Farm (5-2)
4. The Muggabears (4-2-1)
5. Indie Interviews (4-3)
6. Margot & The Nuclear So & So’s (3-4)
7. ninebullets (3-4)
8. Gorilla vs. Bear (3-4)
9. Mancino (3-4)
10. I Guess I’m Floating (3-4)
11. Tapes ‘n Tapes (Josh) (1-6)
12. Tapes ‘n Tapes/Vicious Vicious (Erik) (0-6-1)

Rockers vs. Bloggers Fantasy Football Week Seven Results:

Margot & The Nuclear So & So’s (88) defeated Ear Farm (66)
Mancino (89) defeated ninebullets (75)
My Old Kentucky Blog (121) defeated Tapes N Tapes (Josh) (85)
Gorilla Vs. Bear (106) defeated Tapes N Tapes/Vicious Vicious (29)
Arizona (95) defeated Indie Interviews (79)
The Muggabears (98) defeated I Guess I’m Floating (63)

Rockers vs. Bloggers Fantasy Football Week Eight Matchups:

Indie Interviews (vs) Ear Farm
Margot & The Nuclear So & So’s (vs) Mancino
ninebullets (vs) My Old Kentucky Blog
Tapes N Tapes (Josh) (vs) Gorilla Vs. Bear
Tapes N Tapes/Vicious Vicious (vs) I Guess I’m Floating
Arizona (vs) The Muggabears

The League’s theme song: Megadeth - Hangar 18
My theme song for this week: Imperial Death March (cause I am a dead man walking at this point)

What the eff is a wrinkle neck mule? Who knows? The band ain’t giving the origin up either. Claiming only that a wrinkle neck mule is a band (4, sometimes 5) of fellas trying their best to make their way in the hyper hyphenated world that is Americana/alt.country/southern-rock. Coming out of Richmond, Virginia the quart/quintet released their third full-length back in May.

I fell in love with the Mules the first time I heard their 2003 debut, Minor Enough. Matter a fact, had this blog existed back then the cd probably would have made my top 10 list of 2004 (when i heard it for the first time). It was a perfect album for fans of Lucero/Drive-By Truckers and that ilk. Then along came Pull the Brake. Interesting cd that one was. I really couldn’t sit here type anything bad about it but, really, in the end I couldn’t type anything good about it either. Which was a real bummer cause I was so excited to talk about that cd on here but in the end, it just felt bland and uninspired to me. It couldn’t hold my attention and quickly got replaced by Minor Enough in the car again. Now; along comes The Wicks Have Met. Was Pull the Brake just a sophomore slump or were the Mules heading in a different direction than myself? That very question is why it took a little under 5 months for me to finally move The Wicks Have Met from my wish list to a cd I actually owned.

A third cd can be quite defining for a band. Think Southern Rock Opera. Think Believe. Think Tennessee. Think III. All albums that one could arguably define those bands by….and that’s not a bad thing…not by any means. When you figure that a bands first cd is basically a greatest hits release of their barroom days the second cd can sometimes lack the connection to the band that the first one had and by the time you get to the third cd usually the band it used to their recording status and what you see is what you got.

Verdict?

Looks to me like we got a band whose pieces have come together and formed a single alloy. The Wicks Have Met takes the production quality of Pull the Brake and meshes it with the captivating songwriting of Minor Enough and that makes it an easy entry into my essential listening list for this year.

Wrinkle Neck Mules - Bells and Whistles
Wrinkle Neck Mules - 17 Years More
Wrinkle Neck Mules - Bottomland

Wrinkle Neck Mules Official Site, Wrinkle Neck Mules on MySpace, Buy The Wicks Have Met

Man, you know you’re living right when you plop down with a bottle of Beam on your day off and crank this out over two days. That’s pretty much what Brock Zeman and Dan Walsh have done. Accomplished musicians in their own rights, it seems they wrote this album while just screwing around. I quote Dan:

Back in Septemeber 2006, while on a day off from a tour with Brock Zeman, we decided to stop off at the Cozy Little Shack on Lake Erie where I run my little studio and record some songs that Brock had written over the last little while just for fun.

So, we stepped into the studio, cracked a bottle of Jim Beam and pressed the record button and let the machine roll. After about the 3rd track I started lookin’ at Brock with this real weird face and said “Am I loaded (I was) or is there some real good shit happening here?” He replied “You’re an idiot and please don’t talk while I’m singing, biatch.”

We wound up tracking 24 songs over 3 sessions and then carried on with our ridiculous little tours. Over the month of January 2007, I put on my lab coat and started tracking some instrumentation on 13 of these songs along with Brock. We invited this great guitar player from Carleton Place, ON named Joel Williams who wears stupid hats to play a little guitar and sing on few cuts, and then we had LeeAnne Wesseling sing a duet with Brock on the final cut.

Lemme tell you, their drinking session gave birth to one hell of an album, and the real shame is that no one is talking about it. Reviews of other albums like to compare Brock’s voice to Steve Earl. For me, it is really reminiscent of Dave Loggins.

Dave Loggins?
One hit wonder…Kenny Loggins cousin…
….sigh….
(sings) Please Come To Boston…

This album, along with their solo material, is available via Busted Flat Records, and based on the superhero strength of The Bourbon Sessions, I am gonna be placing an order for that solo stuff with my next paycheck…..but for now I am gonna go cook up some pork stew and have a bourbon session of my own.

Brock Zeman and Dan Walsh - Blood on the Hardwood Floor
Brock Zeman and Dan Walsh - Don’t Tell Jimmy
Brock Zeman and Dan Walsh - Ridin’ on the Rims

Dave Loggins - Please Come To Boston

Brock Zeman’s Web Site, Dan Walsh’s Web Site, Buy The Bourbon Sessions