The Infamous Stringdusters "You Can't Stop the Changes"

The six members of the Infamous Stringdusters trooped into our temporary studio at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown, and our audio guy extraordinaire, Aaron Lee, proceeded to crawl on his belly like a reptile to set them up. Not a small feat for Aaron at 6'8"! What we ask him to do is a complicated process that is painstaking, and almost not able to be accomplished in the allotted time. Major pressure to get it right the first time, knowing there is another artist on the way, and another after that. Someone, while watching us and learning of us recording 36 bands in 3 days, once surmised that we were doing this on a dare. Nope, this is how we function when there are a lot of musicians around. We try to spread the Music Fog love as far as we can, in an effort to bring you the most music that we can squeeze in, and still get 5 hours of sleep a night. Truth is, I think Aaron might have the hardest job when we are on site, as he is in perpetual motion. We have to make sure he eats! But the sound that he gets is truly amazing. Of course it doesn't hurt to have the caliber of talent that we get to come visit us!

"The Infamous Stringdusters epitomizes the ethic of today's young 'new-grass' artists. Their instrumental virtuosity is front and center, but it's paired with an insouciant curiosity for everything from shiny Nashville harmonies to jam-band wonkery." - Los Angeles Times

Do you know we Foggers have a "word of the day?" Well we do, and today's is insouciant. YES! Travis Book, Jeremy Garrett, Andy Hall, Andy Falco, Jesse Cobb, and Chris Pandolfi make beautiful music together. Jamming music. Riffing on a theme music. And they take you on a trip. They have a new CD out called, Things That Fly, and they are embarking on a tour in November with thrash-grass band Trampled by Turtles, who also have a new CD out called Palomino. So the tour is being called "Fly Palomino." But first comes The Festy, The Stringduster's own two-day event happening on Columbus Day weekend in Nelson County, VA. That is southwest of Charlottesville, where my Grandmother met my Grandfather, but that is a whole other story. Cool lineup, with Railroad Earth, Josh Ritter and The Love Canyon String Band, Tony Rice Unit, and others joining in. But back to the matter at hand, a tune from the Infamous Stringdusters' new CD that transfixed us as we recorded it in our studio at the 2010 Americana Fest in Nashville. "You Can't Stop The Changes," this ain't your granddaddy's bluegrass, as their press release says, "...unless your granddaddy is Jerry Garcia."

- Jessie Scott

Susan Cowsill "The Way That It Goes"

I wanted to take a minute and tell you the tale of Sheila Francis, whom we met on our very first outing to MusicFest in Steamboat Springs 2009, as the fledgling company called Music Fog. It was the last day, and Ben Krech was hell bent on executing an idea he had for a "Gondola Concert Series," getting artists to play while in motion in a confined space, and filming it. We tweeted for a "contest winner" to take the ride in the gondola with Paula Nelson and George Devore for this private mini-concert up and down the mountain. Sheila answered the tweet, and magically appeared in the allotted 5 minutes. Since then, she has gamely interned on many other Music Fog road trips, and contributed articles from events we didn't cover; all while she was getting her degree in accounting! A couple of road trips back she wound up behind the Music Fog camera, as an operator, and though that was neither her career path intention, nor ours, we are digging what she is putting down! Don't forget the Music Fog motto is, "How hard can it be?" So, most of our Nashville sessions feature Sheila on camera two, and you can clearly see that she "gets it." Some beautiful shots there!

Our last session on the last day at the Americana Fest in Nashville was with a legend. I have a policy of not telling anyone on the crew when they are going to be in the presence of royalty, so I didn't say Susan Cowsill of THE COWSILLS, though I guess it's not that common of a name, is it? Susan was also with the Continental Drifters, one of the most amazing live bands I have seen over the last 20 years! Susan and band - Russ Broussard, Sam Craft, Jack Craft, and Mary Lasseigne - came in early, and sussed out our 'studio set' the Sweet Suite at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown. Susan checked out the fine guitars we had on hand from Gibson, and decided to play the Hummingbird. She broke a string towards the end of this song, the first in her set, so she grabbed the Songwriter Deluxe Standard for the remaining songs. Nice choices, huh?! The drum kit was on loan from Somebody's Darling, who you will see very soon here at Music Fog. The feeling of tiredness was catching up with us from having recorded 36 previous sessions, the struggles to stay on schedule, and the OMG moment of coming back to our space that morning to discover that a vendor had mistakenly tore down our set; they had removed our "mojo." Frantic phones calls, emails, and texts yielded their return, and then the race was on to rebuild and get the set ready for the day. What originally took over three hours to build, was reset in about twenty minutes! And magic ensued on that last session of the last day.

Susan Cowsill's latest CD is Lighthouse, and was beautifully reviewed by David Fricke in Rolling Stone magazine. In a song that is guaranteed to make you cry, to make you ponder the ebb and flow of the seasons, the eternal pull of the cycle of life, here is "The Way That It Goes," which can be found on the new album.

- Jessie Scott

Ray Wylie Hubbard "Screw You, We're from Texas"

How many times have you heard an artist on stage, stating misgivings for having written a song? Announcing that discomfort, especially if the song has traction with the audience; knowing that there was expectation for them to perform it. This is especially true if there is irony involved in the song. (It's like sarcasm in email---it's hard to know what the sender is REALLY saying!) "Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood." That is indeed what happened with the song "Screw You, We're from Texas," from Ray Wylie Hubbard. At its heart, it is a celebration of Texas music legends, and the music that grows organically out of this soil. The thumbing one's nose, swaggering part makes for a discomfort for Ray now, and when I asked him to play it for us, he really didn’t want to. But when he wrote and released it, on the CD Growl, I watched the phones light up at XM's X Country in support of it, and the sentiment of it, from all over the country. It is after all, an anthem with a rocking groove. Me, I think RWH should have nothing to feel bad about. Texas has yielded and nurtured an amazing crop of musicians of every stripe through the years.

Austin musicians, in particular, share a strong bond of brother and sisterhood, sometimes even above the broader Texas music pride. HAAM is the Austin Health Collective that takes care of its own, offering health solutions to those artists that don't have insurance, and let's face it, most of them just don't. This Tuesday, September 21st, is HAAM Benefit Day. It is a city wide effort to raise money, with businesses all around town donating 5% of the day's proceeds to HAAM to support musicians' health. Musicians, most of whom are HAAM members, are performing throughout the day at retail stores, outside stages, City Hall and more. And we do mean ALL DAY, as it will start at 6am and run well past midnight. If you are visiting Austin, or live here, you are invited to shop, eat out, listen to great live music, and know you are supporting a most necessary cause! Ray Wylie Hubbard is one of over 130 artists participating, and his set is at 1 pm this Tuesday, at the Sixth St & Lamar Whole Foods Market in Austin. Hell yeah, We're From TEXAS.

- Jessie Scott