Will Kimbrough "Piece Of Work"

Have you noticed the days are starting to get shorter? This bodes well for a cooling off sometime in the not too distant future. Preseason football is back, that is a harbinger too, though the weather this year has been weird, weird, weird. The kids are coming back to school; there is feverish unpacking of UHauls everywhere. All good normal stuff. Oh, summer isn’t over yet by any means, and festival season is continuing on with Austin City Limits Music Festival and Hardy Strictly Bluegrass Festival just around the corner. Then the Americana Fest is happening again, a month later than normal, it will take place in October this year.

Last year, Music Fog was holed up at the Nashville Sheraton Downtown in a conference room during Americana Fest. Will Kimbrough came to see us on Saturday of that week. He brought Lisa Oliver-Gray, Tim Mark and Fred Eltringham - they proceeded into the groove that they do so well. Will is slated for Americana Fest again this year, that is after he jets out to San Francisco for Hardy Strictly. He just played at the Newport Folk Festival a couple of weeks ago, too. Life is good. Here is a tasty morsel from his ever growing catalog, “Piece Of Work.”

-Jessie Scott

Guy Clark - Songs & Stories

Guy Clark's new CD, Songs and Stories, came out yesterday. It is just the second live album that Guy Clark has released in his illustrious career. It was recorded at a jewel of a venue, the lovely Belcourt Theater in Nashville. So much Guy stuff to tell! There is a new tribute record, This One’s For Him, nearing release, produced by a bright light that I am proud to call a friend, Tamara Saviano. The CD will include 30 Guy Clark songs performed by Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, Jerry Jeff Walker, Rodney Crowell, Robert Earl Keen, Patty Griffin, Joe Ely, Rosanne Cash, Jack Ingram, Steve Earle, Rosie Flores, the list goes on and on.

Tamara is also producing Wish I Was in Austin - A 70th Birthday Tribute to Guy Clark at The Long Center in Austin. The concert is a collaboration with Dr. Gary Hartman at the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University, San Marcos, which is the beneficiary. This is where you want to be on November 2, as an elite group of artists will converge for an incredible evening of song with Guy Clark; Jerry Jeff Walker, Joe Ely, Shawn Colvin, Rodney Crowell, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Terri Hendrix, Kevin Welch, Terry Allen, Rosie Flores, Jack Ingram, Radney Foster, the Trishas, James McMurtry, & many others will be in attendance.

I searched high and low for a current video and couldn’t find one, so we go a couple of years back for this tune “Hollywood,” Guy Clark with Don Was from 2007.

-Jessie Scott

Wagons "Willie Nelson"

I don’t know where I go when I go away. I meant to take time to tell you all about Farm Aid, which took place in Kansas City this past Saturday. It was a great line-up with a doubled sense of urgency this year with how awful the economy has become. It makes it all the harder for people to hold on to those family farms. The artists appearing were stellar again this year, and the good news is that if you are of a mind to donate - that goes on all year. There are always interesting things to be found on the Farm Aid website too.

Of course, the musician board of directors continue to spearhead the efforts for Farm Aid; John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, and the irrepressible President of the Farm Aid board, Willie Nelson. Today’s song is an homage to him, called “Willie Nelson,” that was originally done by Melbourne, Australia band The Wayfaring Strangers, though it was co-written with Henry Wagons. The video we bring you is a somewhat stripped down version of it that we recorded back in March during the Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill's in Austin. Wagons album, Rumble, Shake & Tumble, hits the street today. Henry Wagons' performance, set against the high energy band he fronts, was described by Justin Townes Earle, as “like Dr. Seuss meets Conway Twitty, a great performer, a good man . . . (he) struts like a Tennessee Walking Horse on PCP.” The guys are coming back to the US in a couple of weeks, you gotta see this band!

-Jessie Scott