Lake Street Dive "You Go Down Smooth"

Wednesday night was one of those celestial constellations of people, one of those nights that you know can happen, but that you can’t conjure by yourself. Some nights are touched by the divine. I thought it would be fun for "the girls" to go see the Paul Thorn Band at the Long Center in Austin, as he was opening for Huey Lewis and The News. So we trooped en mass to hang and dance and sing along, for what turned out to be a joyous night of music. And afterwards we were up for a nightcap at the Saxon Pub, where there was an astounding array of world class artists in the house. Paula Nelson, Walt Wilkins, Corby Schaub, George Devore, Cody Braun from Reckless Kelly, Hal Vorpahl from Uncle Lucius, Halleyanna and Ashley Monical, David Beck and Paul Cauthen, and The Damn Quails, to name just some of the folks congregated. It was a magical night. It drove home again why we do what we do. This is about the other music, the underside. These are people who make real music because they have to. It is the path with heart.

We are going to be rolling out videos from our latest adventure in Nashville, during Americana Fest, for a month or more. It is so hard to prioritize, so there is somewhat of a random nature to it. We captured so many gems that we will be basking in the afterglow of it all for quite some time. There were some legends that came before the Music Fog cameras, there were some longtime friends, and there was an array of brand new bands. Today we bring you Lake Street Dive. That is DIVE, not Drive, by the way, though your eyes may trick you. Their new live concert album Live at The Lizard Lounge came out a few months ago. It's available exclusively on their website, and includes video of the performance, too. They marry bop and swing and blues and gypsy jazz. Drummer Mike Calabrese, bassist Bridget Kearney, vocalist Rachael Price, and trumpeter/guitarist Mike “McDuck” Olson first met at Boston’s New England Conservancy. Attention: there is joy ahead, as we dig into “You Go Down Smooth,” from the studios at Marathon Recorders in Nashville.

- Jessie Scott

Elephant Revival "Remembering a Beginning"

I've been thinking about the slogan we had for the workforce at XM Satellite Radio, it was AFDI...an acronym for "actually F***ing doing it." It is so easy to dream, to ponder and scheme, and then to do absolutely nothing about it at all. I suspect that is a very common occurrence. We all have aspirations, though most of us don’t follow through and then the dream dies. I am struck by how musician friends travel the globe, knowing they can’t stay home to make a living, and that they must leave what they love to keep their careers alive. How that act of packing the vehicle and the bags and setting back out on the road becomes the norm, the forward motion.

Photo Credit: Anne Stavely

All I can tell you is that you have to put the 10,000 hours in, and have the fire burn deep within you to make it a reality. You never get done paying your dues; but the mere fact of continuing to walk the path is its own reward. If we had bailed on our dreams, we wouldn’t have encountered Elephant Revival in Nashville during the Americana Music Festival. Wow. Pure and simple, with a Celtic tinge. The five are Bonnie Paine (vocals, washboard, djembe and musical saw), Sage Cook (electric banjo/guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, viola and vocals), Dango Rose (double-bass, mandolin, banjo and vocals), Daniel Rodriguez (acoustic guitar, electric banjo/guitar and vocals) and Bridget Law (fiddle and vocals). Their second album Break In The Clouds, came out in June. The song we're presenting to you today, “Remembering A Beginning,” is an unreleased entrée into their articulate, intricate, and earthy world.

- Jessie Scott

Blackie & The Rodeo Kings "I'm Still Loving You"

There are some people, I believe, that you are just destined to meet. In the late 90s, living in Nashville, I haunted the clubs; Exit/In, 12th and Porter, 3rd and Lindsley, making the rounds to immerse myself in the most imaginative and celestial music the era and the city had to offer. And there were fellow travelers, ones with whom I shared many an evening, though in many cases I didn’t know their names, I just recognized them from their attendance at the same shows as me all the time. Some emerged out of the mist of anonymity. One was Colin Linden. I would see him in his Amish style hat and we would greet each other by the glint of an eye, of being a fellow traveler. After months of finding ourselves in the same spaces so often, we finally introduced ourselves and started getting to know each other. And through the years since, I have watched with glee as Colin plied his abundant craft. There are his solo projects, others that he produced, and then there is the entity Blackie & The Rodeo Kings.

Photo Credit: Bob Lanois

The band, Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing and Colin Linden, formed in Ontario, Canada fifteen years ago. They spent the last two years or so working on an album they had been thinking about for way longer, Kings and Queens, on which they have lots of well-respected folks contributing. Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Pam Tillis, Serena Ryder, Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Amy Helm, Janiva Magness, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sam Phillips, Sara Watkins, Exene Cervenka, Patti Scialfa and Holly Cole. It was a very satisfying exercise indeed. I saw the trio in Boulder, Colorado this August and made my plans to get them before the Music Fog cameras in Nashville, during the Americana Music Festival. They brought their Nudie suits (Manuel, actually) and Bryan Owings and John Dymond along to play.

- Jessie Scott