Marathon Recorders

Gary Nicholson "Fallin' & Flyin'"

Every year, as Music Fog heads into the great white north for MusicFest at Steamboat, Delbert McClinton takes a merry band of swashbucklers south for the Sandy Beaches Cruise. This year, they'll be sailing from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on Sunday, January 8, 2012, with two stops to visit three ports: St. Barts, St. Kitts and Nevis. And the roster? Well hell, that would be Al Anderson, Marcia Ball, Bruce Channel, Nick Connolly, Bob DiPiero, Fred Eaglesmith, Joe Ely, Jimmy Hall, Tom Hambridge, Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps, J.T. Lauritsen & the Buckshot Hunters, Colin Linden, Big Joe Maher, Raul Malo, Clay McClinton, The McCrary Sisters, Mingo Fishtrap, Jonell Mosser, Lee Roy Parnell, Jill Sobule, Paul Thorn, Wayne Toups & Zydecajun, Seth Walker, Kevin Welch, Mike Zito, Miles Zuniga, Chuck Cannon, Matraca Berg, Eric Lindell, Danny Myrick, Gretchen Peters, Lari White, and Delbert’s longtime friend and songwriting partner Gary Nicholson. For ticket information, check here.

Gary Nicholson came before the Music Fog cameras at Americana Fest last month in Nashville. We were honored to have him, and the added bonus was that he brought Colin Linden and David Roe along with him. His life is a chronicle of the American Music scene dating back decades.  It is an impressive array of sights and sounds, as Gary has explored the roles of performer, songwriter and producer in his illustrious career. The song we bring you today is a classic, and if you remember, was in the movie Crazy Heart, performed by Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell. It was co-written by Gary and the late Stephen Bruton. You can find Gary’s version on the album Texas Songbook, which came out back in June. Here is the Music Fog recording.

- Jessie Scott

Texas Songbook - Gary Nicholson

Eric Brace & Peter Cooper "Grandma's Batman Tattoo"

Ugh, and yikes I am so full I can barely move. I am NOT shopping today, Black Friday or not. Actually, I am in New Orleans and a stroll down Bourbon Street might be just the thing to walk off the overeating of it all. I am appalled, because New Orleans is not a city that you want to be ‘too full’ in. There are $2 pancakes at City Diner- bigger than your face, there are hamburgers reminiscent of your youth at Bud’s Broiler for $3.65, there are beignets at any hour of the day or night. Po’ Boys and muffalettas, and gumbos and it goes on and on. But I am full, and I don’t want any more food! But I am in New Orleans, so maybe the music is the subtext. Last time I was here we posted a song that referenced NOLA, and so it is again today.

Eric Brace and Peter Cooper - I could fill the page with good things to say about them. I am so impressed with the projects they have taken on, they are following their hearts and making some music that will last, like the thing they did with Lloyd Green and Mike Auldridge called the Master Sessions, and the tribute album I Love: Tom T. Hall's Songs Of Fox Hollow. Today’s tune speaks to another kind of permanence, the tattoo. And Grandma, incongruous as that might be to ponder. Today’s grandmothers may have had a wild night on the gulf coast back in the day, and wound up with the Batman tattoo in question, somewhere where it doesn’t show. Oh hell, I’ll let them tell it. Eric Brace and Peter Cooper from the Music Fog Fall Marathon in Nashville with the opus, “Grandma’s Batman Tattoo.”

- Jessie Scott

The Believers "Let It Be What It Is"

It is travel day today for so many people, to grandmother's house we go, ha ha! From an agrarian society traveling by sled back in the day; to the high tech, high speed world we live in now. It is hard to fathom the intensity of the change, and our ability to turn up anywhere in the world with the snap of the fingers. Not to say that it is all easy; some friends are traveling 28 hours to an island in Thailand. Yikes, and there is weather crossing the country, which can make for delays, and we always hate to hear the stories of people trapped for hours on the tarmac. Hope that won’t be me today, as I head to New Orleans for turkey and the fixins with a Cajun twist.

Craig Aspen and Cyd Frazzini, AKA The Believers returned to our cameras last month at Americana Fest in Nashville.  It had been two years since we’d seen them, the first time being when Tara Nevins brought them along with her to the Music Fog bus. It was a fairly late night session, and as I recall, we were all a tad loopy. This time, I am sorry to have missed them, as I had run off across town to anchor the Folk Alley/NPR Music broadcast of the Americana Honors & Awards Show. By the way, I hope you caught ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival on PBS this last weekend! If you didn't, you'll be happy to know it's now available for viewing online.

Craig had been a vagabond songwriter, but didn't start a full time music career until became clean and sober at 35. Cynthia came out of the Seattle rock scene and was a personal chef for the likes of Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Their first song performed together was the Gram Parsons classic, "Hickory Wind," which spurred the pair on to record their first album, Row in 2002. Crashyertown came out next, which was when I got turned onto them. They performed a bunch of as yet unreleased tunes for us this time. Here is one of them “Let It Be What It Is.” Amen.

- Jessie Scott