Butch Hancock "Danglin' Diamond"

WoodyFest, the tribute weekend to Woody Guthrie starts tonight in the town of Woody’s birth Okemah, Oklahoma, to celebrate his birthday. There is a twist though, with a sold out show presented by the festival tonight at Cain’s Ballroom, up the road apiece in Tulsa, with David Crosby and Graham Nash.

So many of the folks we have brought you on the pages of Music Fog are on this year’s WoodyFest roster. I can tell you we will all be missing the vibe and the music this year. Since this is a birthday tribute, it needs to stay put, but dang, it sure is hot in Oklahoma this time of year! 

Butch Hancock is on the line up again this year, as well he should be. He is a consummate songwriter, a wordsmith, a poet, a troubadour. He is doing some touring this summer, both with The Flatlanders and solo. Maybe it’s all the things he does that makes his writing so expansive; he is a student of architecture, a photographer, river-rafter, philosopher, and studies Buddhism. All we know is that he gave us chills when he came to visit us during last year’s WoodyFest, while we were holed up in the Thompson’s Loft. Long live the spirit of Woody, and long live Butch Hancock. This is a song he wrote a couple of years ago that we don’t think has made its way to an album just yet...or at least, we know you haven't heard this version yet! Here's the Music Fog recording of “Dangling Diamond.”

- Jessie Scott

Marty Stuart "Freight Train Boogie"

Having visited the Mississippi Delta multiple times in the last couple of years, I have a much richer appreciation of the music and the culture that grew from there. Recently my Borders bookstore closed, and before it did, I stocked up on music books. The one I am reading now is the Muddy Waters biography by Robert Gordon, Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters.  I have been into the blues since the 60s when a Rolling Stones album credited McKinley Morganfield and I went on a pre-computer search to find out who that was...Muddy’s real name, ya know. “Can’t Be Satisfied” is an especially wonderful read now that I have felt the land, I just have so much more understanding. So much has changed in our society in the last 100 years, that is driven home by this wonderfully written book also.

Photo Credit: James MinchinToday we take you east on MS-16 from Issaquena County, Muddy’s birthplace, to the town of Philadelphia, MS, Marty Stuart’s hometown. He has been on a mission to preserve the changing landscape, and the music that shaped him. There is a new biopic of him; Marty Stuart In Philadelphia, Mississippi, that you can watch on Hulu. There is a short teaser of it here. This documentary sets up the making of last year’s Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions CD, and gives us an insight into Marty’s upbringing and front porch picking as a framework for the track his career has taken.

Here is Marty with guitar guru Kenny Vaughan and the rest of the Fabulous Superlatives with the very first song from the very first Marty Stuart show on RFD.

- Jessie Scott

Waco Brothers "Do What I Say"

I have been in a haze of tunes this weekend, as I cruise through an on-line music library that is in beta testing mode. It gives one that ‘glued in place on the couch’ posture. You log off, then you think of other stuff, and log back on to look for that too. This is a rabbit hole I have been lucky enough to fall down many times in my life. It has been decades, really; in the form of singles, vinyl, CDs and waveforms. I have been tracking a lot of Alt. Country on this go round, from Hank III, Buddy & Julie Miller, Doug Sahm, the Bottle Rockets, and Dave Alvin, just to name a few. And I have listened to plenty of Jon Langford, in all his incarnations. He is one talented and one driven cat.

Jon has made appearances with Old 97's, Kelly Hogan, Sadies, Sally Timms, Danbert Nobacon, Jon Rauhouse, Alejandro Escovedo, the Mekons, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, The Sadies, and Wee Hairy Beasties. His latest release is Old Devils, as Jon Langford and Skull Orchard, and we brought you a track from them featured in our Americana Fest sessions. But when we heard the Waco Brothers were going to be at SXSW, we just HAD to have them stop by. They came to us in a somewhat stripped down configuration, and you know we always love to have something a bit different. So here goes, from back in March at the Music Fog Marathon from Threadgill’s, “Do What I Say,” with Jon being joined by Deano Waco, Tracey Dear, and Jean Cook.

- Jessie Scott