Robert Ellis "What's In It For Me?"

Best laid plans…I was heading back to the Northeast for some fun stuff.  But my flight was cancelled, and they put me on the first plane out in the morning.  Now I have to wake up at 4:30 am, an hour I'm most comfortable facing as the end of my day, rather than the start.  While we were all in line getting our reassignments, I was reminded by a fellow traveler that I should give ‘em hell at the desk, the better to extract compensation for my ‘trouble.’  Like for instance that all my luggage is overnighting in Houston, without me?  Or that I wouldn’t ask anyone to take me to the airport at such an ungodly hour.  What’s in it for me?

That is actually the name of the song we bring you today, from the forthcoming album, Photographs, from 22 year old Houston native Robert Ellis.  This song sounds like stuff I played on the radio back in the 70’s at WHN, but with a candor that was not regarded as appropriate back then, when we still clothed things in as euphemistically as possible.  Though we taped him solo, Robert Ellis & The Boys are playing to accolades, so catch them when you can. Photographs, hits the street on July 5th.  We can’t wait to see what happens next.  Here is “What’s In It For Me?” from the Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill’s in March.

-- Jessie Scott

Over the Rhine "Oh Yeah By the Way"

This week, Music Fog will hit 4 million views on YouTube. We thank you for coming back to our site, and for sharing us with your friends and family. Running down some quick stats, the most recent million took less than three months. By comparison, the first million views were 18 months in the making. What does this all mean? I have no idea, but we know the seismic shift is underway, from old media to new, and we ride that wave wherever it is taking us.

When Music Fog started, it was to bring you Americana music, to forge out a spot for music discovery, to shine a light on worthy musicians, as well as to cast an eye on the superb technical skills and bedside manner of the Foggers. We are more accomplished now than when we started, and we stand at the ready to create documentaries, shows, DVDs, Pay Per View concerts, and live webcasts. This is the brave new world we are talking about, the new world order, and the past is crumbling. But the really good news about all this is that music is not dead, in fact it is just the opposite, there is so much great stuff out there that it is hard to keep up!

Today's video is an homage to love not working out. To write from the heart, to explore the nooks and crannies of emotion, and to lay bare the sorrow,the regret, the vulnerability.  We have moved on, but if only we could have done it differently, if, if, if...  All delivered with a delicious melancholy. Here is Over the Rhine from their most recent album, The Long Surrender, which was recorded with GRAMMY® winning producer, Joe Henry. This song, "Oh Yeah By The Way," was written by Linford Detweiler. Here is the Music Fog recording from Americana Fest in Nashville last September.

-- Jessie Scott

Matraca Berg "Oh Cumberland"

We hope you had a long weekend to unwind, and are back at it this Tuesday.  We want to make another introduction today, to Miss Matraca Berg, one of the unsung heroes of the music industry in Nashville.  You know her work as an accomplished songwriter, having penned her first number one hit at age 18 with Bobby Braddock, "Faking Love," a duet with Karen Brooks and T. G. Sheppard.  Reba McEntire had a #1 song with her "The Last One to Know," and Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, Ray Price, Marie Osmond, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Michelle Wright, and Pinmonkey have recorded her songs.

In the meantime, Matraca was forging a singing career as well as she released her debut album Lying to the Moon in 1990. What was to be her follow-up album, Bittersweet Surrender, was recorded in 1991, but the record label wanted a more mainstream-sounding recording, so it didn’t come out. She continued to write for others, and in 1993, put out her second album called The Speed of Grace. In 1997, she co-wrote the Deana Carter hit "Strawberry Wine" with Gary Harrison. The same year, Matraca released the album Sunday Morning to Saturday Night. She lives in Nashville with her husband, Jeff Hanna, a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. We are happy to report she has a brand new CD after fourteen years since the last one, The Dreaming Fields. Here is a recording of one of its songs, “Oh Cumberland,” as she is joined by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, featuring Jimmie Fadden on harp.

 -- Jessie Scott