Americana Music Festival & Conference Awaits

It's coming soon! We are just over two weeks away from the Americana Music Association's event of the year! The Americana Music Festival and Conference kicks off September 8th. Here is the current list of artists playing in five of Nashville's coolest venues over four nights.

18 South  •  Abigail Washburn  •  American Aquarium  •  Danny Barnes  •  Ryan Bingham  •  The Black Lillies  •  Paul Burch and the WPA Ball Club  •  Rayland Baxter  •  Cadillac Sky  •  Hayes Carll  •  Carolina Chocolate Drops  •  Rosanne Cash  •  Peter Case  •  Troy Cassar-Daley  •  Exene Cervenka  •  Chapmans  •  Cherryholmes  •  Elizabeth Cook  •  Susan Cowsill  •  The Defibulators  •  Tommy Emmanuel  •  Frazey Ford  •  Frontier Ruckus  •  Mary Gauthier  •  Kevin Gordon  •  Ray Wylie Hubbard  •  Wanda Jackson  •  Sarah Jarosz  •  Richard Julian  •  Peter Karp & Sue Foley  •  Will Kimbrough  •  Randy Kohrs Band  •  Jon Langford & Skull Orchard  •  Shelby Lynne  •  Charlie Louvin  •  Corb Lund  •  Raul Malo  •  Chuck Mead  •  Micky and the Motorcars  •  John Oates  •  Over the Rhine  •  Joe Pug  •  Dex Romweber Duo  •  Steeldrivers  •  Sara Storer  •  Stonehoney  •  Stone River Boys  •  Sweetback Sisters  •  Todd Snider's Rock and Roll Revue (featuring Jason D. Williams, Dan Baird and Friends)  •  Chip Taylor  •  Todd Thibaud  •  Paul Thorn  •  Tristen  •  Tony Joe White

Wow, that'll make ya' dizzy! Stay tuned, as more artists are announced. And if you just want to attend the evening's shows in the clubs, wristbands are a steal at just $50, and can be purchased by clicking here. Don't forget the Americana Honors and Awards Show that takes place in the venerable Ryman Auditorium on Thursday evening, September 9th. Lifetime Achievement will be honored, and a listing of the yearly award nominees are to be found by visiting here. What can I say...I CAN'T WAIT!!! It's gonna rock. Be there or be square, (ahem). Oh, by the way, the host hotel for the conference this year is the Sheraton Nashville Downtown, where there is a special $169/night room rate, just ask for the Americana Group rate when you make your reservations. See you there!

- Jessie Scott

Catherine MacLellan "Old Tin Can"

Sweet. I am in New Jersey, the Garden State, so named for its one-time ability to feed the city of New York, not to mention itself. No, it is not all highways and exits, as billed. There are little towns, and everything from the shire, to dense industrial areas, to farmland contained within. Whatever your expectations of the place, there are other defining vistas as well. And the state is a whole lot bigger than you think it is, too. Locally grown tomatoes, corn, and blueberries are found in road side stands, the bounty of summer. I can't believe I am talking food again today, but Jersey takes her cuisine seriously! There is this way cool restaurant called the Reservoir Tavern that we ate at - a "neighborhood" Italian roadhouse that has been serving up awesome food since the 1936 "Happy Motoring" days.

Catherine MacLellan has recently posted a blog about her garden, up north from here, in Canada. She's growing garlic, and songs of course. A quote from it, "This note is to say, there is food growing in the garden, songs getting ready for recording, ideas running about my head, and summer flying away as I write this." She and Chris Gauthier came to the Music Fog stage during our SXSW 2010 stay at Threadgill's in the back room. The song "Old Tin Can" is from that session, and is slated for her forthcoming album, which we think will be released in 2011. I am thinking the Old Tin Can reference might be about the clunky headphones we used to wear in the studio, as we called them "cans." The songwriter's story contained within chronicles their journey over the border from Canada to New York, and then on to Nashville, which happens to be the next stop for Music Fog, in early September, too.

- Jessie Scott

Phil Lee with Tom Mason "Les Debris, Ils Sont Blancs"

Have you ever been to New Orleans? I haven't been back since Katrina (and I gotta turn that around, yeah, you're right!), but for a while there I had been visiting every year. I would take my time to pick though The Quarter for treasures, taking in the sights and sounds, and the food, of course. One year, I hooked up with an old friend, Steve Popovich, who I knew from his long tenure doing promotion at Epic Records in New York. He took me to Mother's Restaurant for a debris sandwich. In this case, debris is defined as the meat that falls off the roast into the cooking juices and fat in the pan. We bought enough for our respective families back home. The cab ride back to the airport was accompanied by the overwhelming aroma, there wasn't a square inch of open space left. Yes, I need to go back!

Phil Lee came aboard the Music Fog bus in Memphis, at Folk Alliance 2010, with Tom Mason and performed a debris song of a different sort. I loosely translate it as "White Trash Girls," but then, it has been since high school for me and French. Feel free to chime in. What I do know is that before this song I never noticed that Phil Lee has a Kinky Friedman-like approach to music, as Kinky, too, would say anything, no matter how politically incorrect it was. And so does Phil. You gotta watch this video. Pay special attention to how Phil is dressed. Everything, all the time. "Les Debris, Ils Sont Blancs" is on the CD The Mighty King Of Love that Phil put out in 2000. Phil continues barnstorming through the south on the "I Saw Him Before He Died" tour.

- Jessie Scott