john Arthur martinez "Utopia"

The opening guitar riff of "Utopia" immediately sets the tune up for pictures of wide open spaces. It's real easy to get lost in the story and forget that you're being taken for a ride. john Arthur martinez gets to deliver a clever piece of writing from John Greenberg (Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros) & Bill Murray, too, with the lines, "For fifteen battered years we lived out of a pickup truck. When she told me to make my bed, I'd just put the tailgate up." I love that! If you like this acoustic version, by all means pick up the album track---there are so many beautiful layers to it...dobro, organ, fiddle, and electric guitar all perfectly set in their proper tone and space.

If you look closely at JAM's guitar in this video, you'll see Emmylou Harris' signature just southwest of the bridge. The guitar lives at The Mansion on O Street, as a memory from Emmylou's performance there, and they asked JAM to play it for our session, and his performance later that evening. The guitar's got stories, too...

-Aaron

Reckless Kelly with Micky Braun "I'll Hold the Bottle"

Every once in a while, a band changes up and does an album that feels like the right thing to do, even if it is a departure from what might be considered the norm for them. Reckless Kelly pays homage to one of their heroes, Pinto Bennett, on their latest project Somewhere In Time, out tomorrow.

Pinto BennettCody Braun commented for All Access Music Group, "We had more fun making this record than we ever have before. Partly because it was a record we have been wanting to make for almost 10 years, and partly because we were in complete control. Another treat for us was having Pinto Bennett and friends in the studio with us for a few days."

Of course, the Reckless Road Trip continues in support of the new CD with lots of Texas dates, and a swing up to NYC! Catch them if you can, but for the meantime, here is one of the tunes from our Steamboat sessions.

-Jessie

Phil Lee at Po' Monkey

Last year at Folk Alliance, Phil Lee came up on the Magic Bus, and in between songs, he told us about the Po' Monkey. Said he wanted to do his album release party there. That it was a Juke Joint in a cottonfield, past Clarksdale, keep on going, when ya think you've gone too far, ya haven't gone far enough! And Mr. Lee is doing it! Merigold, MS next Monday night, yep, on his way to Folk Alliance, where Music Fog will catch up with him again!

-Jessie