Paul Thorn Live Webcast Tonight

Tonight is the night! Music Fog is on site to produce the first ever Paul Thorn live pay per view concert from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. We Foggers are a veritable beehive of activity, working diligently through all the issues, checking lights, camera angles, sound and staging, with the occasional dip into the hot tub for chill time at the Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa. Especially spa, ahhhh! As I sit in the soothing water, Webb Wilder's Last of the Full Grown Men Credo comes to mind, "Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need ’em.” Webb, originally from Hattiesburg, was just inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall Of Fame last week, on January 18th. He joins Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Leontyne Price, Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty, the Staples Singers, Mose Allison, Sam Cooke, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley! (And someday soon may Paul Thorn join that illustrious list.) SO proud of Webb, and of the MMHOF for the recognition. Webb was my compatriot on X Country from the early days of our XM launch.

Of course, we played a bunch of Paul Thorn on X Country. He was raised in Tupelo, Mississippi, as was the abovementioned Elvis. I could listen to his deep, soulful accent until the end of days. I could watch him fry Spam® for sandwiches forever. And when he performs, well that is another thing entirely. I am thinking he has a voice like Red Velvet cake. It is rich and evocative. The band cooks. Paul's songs range from confessional to jubilant, from delicate to raucous. I have loved him from the first time I heard him, and from the first time we met, for lunch at Wendell Smith's 'meat and three' near Charlotte Pike in Nashville.

So here is the drill for tonight's show live from Muscle Shoals: We'll see you starting at 8 pm CST (click here to convert to your time zone) for a solo Paul Thorn set, to be followed by a Paul Thorn Band set. Log on to join in at paulthorn.com/ppv. As we get closer to the show, many of your fellow fans will be signing in, so you may want to get things rolling early as not to miss any of the concert! This whole night's entertainment is just $6.99, which you know is cheaper than an album, and cheaper than admission to a club...not to mention drinks are cheaper at your house! What with the price of gas these days, to be able to watch in the comfort of your home might just be a double savings! If you can't join us live tonight, you can still see the show until March 1, 2011 at the same link for the same small price of $6.99. And you can watch it as many time as you want for the whole month. So here we go, break a leg to us all!

- Jessie Scott

Midnight River Choir "My Friend"

They call New Braunfels, Texas home. They also call it the 'heart' of the Lone Star State; a vortex of cool that might just be the center of the universe. Considering its size, New Braunfels is an especially happening place. It is the home of one of America's great radio stations in KNBT. There are several wonderful venues, including Whitewater Amphitheater, Gruene Hall, The Phoenix, River Road Ice House, Tavern In The Gruene, just to name some. There is also a community of talented artists living there that call one another brother (and sister). Another thing that NB is known for are float trips, and Midnight River Choir became a band from a 27 person, 6 raft excursion on the Guadalupe River. This a meandering affair, where you can trail your beer in the water to keep it cool. Fun, frolic, nirvana. Oh, and did I mention that this fateful event took place at night, under a full moon? And so the Midnight River Choir was born.

Just up I-35 a few miles, in San Marcos, the Cheatham Street Warehouse is yet another cool venue. It is Kent Finlay's place, and he has been a mentor to countless neophyte musicians since he opened the doors of this legendary honky tonk in 1974. Cheatham Street has been the Tuesday night home of the Midnight River Choir since November of 2008. The four principal members play a myriad of instruments. They are apt to change positions on stage multiple times a night. For our Music Fog session, lead singer Eric Middleton was on rhythm acoustic guitar; Justin Nelson played lead acoustic guitar; Mitchell Pyeatt was on drums, and Jeromie Yager played bass. And they all sang backup vocals. MRC released their first CD in November of 2009, Freedom Wine. They are working on album number two. They might have even been working on it when they came to our studio at the Steamboat Grand during MusicFest. They laid down a track that they had just worked up a couple of days prior, and it even got named in our presence, a song written by Mitchell, called "My Friend." So, here is the first ever recording of that tune, on Midnight River Choir's Music Fog debut!

- Jessie Scott

Randy Rogers "I Met Lonely Tonight"

Bonnie Bishop was back in Texas briefly last week as she was invited to play the Inaugural Ball for the Governor of Texas, on the bill along with the Eli Young Band, Clay Walker, and Pat Green. So I found myself at the Palmer Center in Austin a week ago Tuesday. Bonnie and the band rocked it hard to open the night's entertainment. Yeah! And you just never know who you are going to run into backstage at one of these gala events. There was Kevin Fowler, and then Randy Rogers. I watched both of them and their beautiful wives pose for the photo op with Governor Rick Perry. Then Randy and I were chatting. Said he, "Hey are you ever going to put my video up? Did you even record it?" "Yeah," I said, "It is coming this week." And then I told him about how many hits the Cody Canada & The Departed (with Seth James) video had gotten already. He said, "Oh yeah??" in such a way, that I knew it was a throw down for Texas-Red Dirt fans everywhere. So here we are with a friendly competition! Which video will grow faster? Now you have to realize that the CC&TD went up on Music Fog on January 7th, so it has an unfair head start. But Randy and band just played the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 14th, and when something like that happens, we Music Foggers have watched our video views go crazy from the Google and YouTube searches that follow. That's big time stuff.

None of that surprises me at all. Randy Rogers and the band just keep doing remarkable things. The new album Burning the Day (GREAT title!) came out in August of 2010, and is their 6th studio album. Randy told us about a magical afternoon with Bruce Springsteen they recently had---talking music with The Boss for an hour during soundcheck. If their latest single "Steal You Away" sounds familiar, that's because there is a version of it on the new Country Strong soundtrack, by the songwriters The Mulch Brothers and Jeff Middleton. There is another song that lives on the compilation When They Come Back, an album to benefit our troops. Who says good guys have to finish last. I had a chat with Randy a year ago Labor Day, at the Red Dirt Roundup in Ft. Worth. He said, "You have to believe in yourself." And in that is a lesson to us all, that everything really is possible. We are so proud of you guys!

- Jessie Scott