Minnesota based Jeremy Messersmith is methodically (and melodically) dedicated to his song craft, though he notes on MySpace that he is a nerd. His delivery is sweet, Zen gentle; you have to listen close. The musician and storyteller has issued his latest album The Reluctant Graveyard, which is the third and final installation in his trilogy. The others are The Alcatraz Kid from 2006, and last year's The Silver City.
The video we bring you for Halloween is the latest collaboration between Jeremy and Austin based animator Eric Power. It is a return engagement for the two, as Eric's visual art accompanied Jeremy's songs "Tatooine" and "Organ Donor." The new video, "A Girl, a Boy, and a Graveyard" chronicles a love story, featuring two werewolves, a graveyard or two, spooky birds, a spider, and Frankenstein thrown in for good measure! Wishing you lots of treats, and no tricks...
Marshall Chapman's newsletter is called "The Tall Girl Skinny." She wears pearls, and her drawl recalls a more elegant era, but she was a groundbreaking female in the macho world of making music in the 70's. She is a singer songwriter, and a writer, too, having just put out her second book, They Came To Nashville. You can read a preview passage here, that talks about much of her time with Emmylou Harris. It is the follow up book to her memoir Good Bye Little Rock and Roller which references that her life is "the triumph of rock and roll over good breeding." Marshall was a debutante in Spartanburg, SC, thus the pearls. And she picked up an electric guitar back when the landscape was populated by mostly folkie females with angst. She was a revelation, a balls to the wall tour de force. To wit, check out "Rode Hard and Put Up Wet," which was the song that introduced me to Marshall, on her album Me, I'm Feeling Free in 1977.
Since there is a grand scope to the work of Marshall Chapman, it shouldn't surprise you that there is a new CD out, her twelfth, called Big Lonesome. Marshall comments:
"I recorded this album after my best friend in music, Tim Krekel, died in June 2009. He was 58. We were planning to record a duet album called Sweet Talkin’ and had booked gigs throughout the summer, including a couple in San Miguel, Mexico. I wanted to end the album with a live recording (like Waylon did on Dreaming My Dreams). So we decided on 'I Love Everybody' from the 2003 Belgium Rhythm & Blues Festival. Tim plays lead guitar and harmonica and sings on this track, so it seemed right and good. The only problem was we didn’t have a multi-track. (Our performance had been directly mixed in Belgium Radio 1’s mobile recording unit.) Regardless, the track sounded pretty damn good, so we decided to go with it."
And we think this solo performance from the Music Fog sessions in Nashville, during Americana Fest, sounded damn fine too! Tim, we are missing you.
Corb Lund is a real deal cowboy from a rodeo and ranching family, 100 years in Canada, having migrated from raising cattle in Utah and Nevada. He was on a horse as soon as he could walk, roping steer in the rodeo as a teenager. Losin’ Lately Gambler is his 6th album, produced by Handsome Harry Stinson, drummer and vocalist from Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives. If you are not familiar with Corb's work, there is that sense of truth that shines through it. You see the characters, feel the scenarios, relate to the stories; he is channeling life. And it doesn't matter whether you share the same landscape. These truths are universal. Corb says, "A lot of my ancestors pop into the songs. I’ve got quite a cast of characters to draw from. I feel a real kinship with the old West. A lot of my ancestors were ranchers, but one of my great-grandpas was a road gambler in Montana in the 1880's. I’ve got some miners in there. My grandpas in particular were full of lore – they had lots of stories."
Corb Lund and The Hurtin' Albertans hit the road and keep on going, as November dates give way to the XXXMas Tour in December. They are in Peterborough, Ontario tonight, and then take a swing down the east coast into the Appalachians. I asked him once about the frequently traveled route he took, touring from Alberta south through the Rockies to Texas. He said that was pretty seamless, that it all felt anchored with a similar spirit. I suspect he will find it on this latest trip as well. We are a nation of restless pioneers. Seekers, searchers. And sometimes we lose our way, without the anchoring of family, society, and mores.
Corb's great-grandfather might just be the model for the hard-luck gambler of the song “A Game in Town Like This.” Have you been obsessed? By love, by drink, by drugs, by video games, by partying until the sun comes up, and going home in your evening clothes when everyone else is going to work? Then you just might see yourself in the telling of this tale. Even if you have hung your butt over the edge, you can still come back. New dawn, new day, new chance to make it right. Every day. It's so good to have Corb Lund in front of the Music Fog cameras again, recorded last month in Nashville at the Americana Music Festival.
