Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers "Dinero"

Saturday, Miss Abbey Road of Luckenbach threw a simply marvelous blues festival. The Fifth Annual Luckenbach Blues Fest was an all-day affair, but I got there as the sun was going down; set to the strains of Johnny Nicholas, WC Clark, Guy Forsyth, Band Of Heathens, Seth Walker and Ruthie Foster. Great line up and a fun hang. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to canvas backstage for auction items for tonight’s Bastrop Wildfire Benefit at Hill Country Barbecue Market in Washington, DC. If you are in DC, come by for the show! Dallas Wayne, The Deep Dark Woods, Sons of Bill, Chris Berardo and the DesBerardos, and Ruthie and the Wranglers will all be on hand. As will Senator John Cornyn, and Congressman Michael McCaul. Gonna be a fun night for a great cause, as we raise money for those that lost their homes in the Bastrop Wildfires in September. Dinero...gimme some! Well not me, actually, The United Way will collect and administer, along with the Bastrop City Council. Hill Country is at 410 Seventh Street, NW Washington, DC 20004. See you at 7 pm. And yeah, thanks to all for the cool collection of stuff from Todd Snider, Cory Morrow, Guy Forsyth, Bloodshot Records, Band Of Heathens, Gary P. Nunn, Luckenbach, and photographer Robbyn Dodd.

Today’s tune IS “Dinero,” from Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers. Nobody has enough, it seems. Of course if you do, you can make plans now to head to Sandy Beach, next to Chango's Bar near the Sea of Cortez for fireworks, sombreros, Mexican Moonshine and more than four hours of rock-n-roll! Roger and company know how to throw a party, so put Circus Mexicus XXI on your calendar for June 9 in Rocky Point, Mexico. Music Fog caught up with RCPM last year during MusicFest at Steamboat Springs in January. Here is the result, our recording of a song you will find on the most recent Unida Cantina album. Here are Roger Clyne, Jim Dalton, Nick Scropos, and PH Naffah  with “Dinero.”

-Jessie Scott

Wilco & Popeye "Dawned On Me"

This diatribe is for anyone who has had their stuff in storage for an extended period. It has been two and a half years for me, and I had conjured up an overwhelming amount. I have been living with a minimum of “things” for the last couple of year. Not wanting for anything mind you, but a really spare and somewhat utilitarian existence. It has been freeing to know you can survive with so few material pleasures. It has been reassuring knowing where everything is. I am about to take delivery of my 8’X16’ POD. Virtually half of what is on it is music; CDs, vinyl, assorted boxes of tapes from reel to reel, to cassettes of my radio shows from different cities. I am excited. I reconnoitered today, and there was no boogie man to be found when I opened the door of the POD. It is good to be reuniting with the artifacts of the different eras, and I can’t wait to start digitizing the music.

Today I unearthed an old Philco table top radio from the 40s, a set of carved stone ‘see no evil,’ ‘hear no evil’ and ‘speak no evil’ monkeys, and some drum sticks from a Steely Dan concert in the mid-90s. So while I wax nostalgic about my immersion in the land of possessions, let’s do an animation today that revisits the Popeye era, well sort of, anyway. It is a new video from WILCO, and features the whole gang; WILCO as cartoon characters, and Wimpy, Bluto, Swee’ Pea, and Olive Oyl, who somehow winds up holding hands with Jeff Tweedy, much to Popeye’s chagrin. The song is one of the tracks from the album Whole Love, here is “Dawned On Me.” Oh yeah, check out the WILCO Spinach Can at the end. I want that!

- Jessie Scott

Keep The Light Alive "Weight of the World"

Wow. The year is off to a very fast start. January is almost gone, and I have two quick trips coming. First up is the Bastrop Wildfire Benefit on Monday night at Hill Country Barbecue Market in Washington, DC with Sons of Bill. The Deep Dark Woods, Dallas Wayne, Chris Berardo and The DesBerardos and Ruthie & The Wranglers. Then coming up the next weekend, I head to Corpus Christi, Texas for a Wounded Warrior benefit, as The Pear Ratz will be performing. You will be able to watch that on their website. Later in February, I am contemplating trips to New Orleans, and then maybe Memphis for Folk Alliance.  It is certainly hard to return to these events that were once attended by Music Fog’s whole crew, but I carry on.

One of my primary reasons for going is to this year’s Keynote Speaker, Bob Lefsetz. He is a brilliant observer and acerbic critic of today’s music landscape, and it will be a fired up speech, for sure.  So for today, we take you back on the Music Fog bus from Folk Alliance 2010 for a song from Dan Navarro, Freebo, and David Glaser in salute to Eric Lowen, Keep The Light Alive, Celebrating The Music of Lowen & Navarro. On the album, the song “Weight Of The World” is performed by Jackson Browne, for the Music Fog version, we  were honored to have Dan, Freebo, and David. Eric, as you probably know, retired in 2009 because his ALS made performing and travelling too much for him, but I am happy to report his kids just celebrated their 18th birthday, and he was there to share it. With love to carry on, here is the Music Fog recording of “Weight Of The World.”

- Jessie Scott