Jon Langford "Book of Your Life"

I spent the day trying to keep up with everything. The phone was ringing, things were tugging at my consciousness, I would remember that I needed to make some more iced tea, only to forget for several more hours while I tended to more stuff. It is good to be busy, but it is a bit nerve wracking at the same time. The numbers of windows I have open at any given time is a testament to not being able to immediately follow through. And the email just keeps coming. Today I decided that 7,000 were just too many, and I proceeded to carefully delete 1500. The minutia of life. But being in the thick of all this stuff is somehow comforting, not caring about the beginning, and not knowing of the end. Somewhere in the middle.

Jon Langford’s song today confronts the ‘exploding plastic inevitable,’ as Any Warhol put it in the 60s. The end. And will it be kind? Who knows. 9/11 a few days ago gave me pause to look back on this decade and see how much our lives have changed. Older, wiser, and maybe sadder too. Are we witnessing the decline of a great empire, or can we rally back, personally and as a nation? We hope you live long and prosper. Here is “Book Of Your Life” which Music Fog recorded with Jon Langford and Jim Elkington when they came to visit us at the Sheraton suite at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville last year about this time. It is a tune that can be found on last year's Old Devils album from Jon Langford & Skull Orchard. This year, there is a new Mekons project being released on September 27th, their 26th album! Jon Langford is BUSY.

- Jessie Scott

Tom Russell - Mesabi

Tom Russell is a national treasure, and an unsung hero, well comparatively, anyway. He has an erring knack for the noir. There is a touch of the pulp fiction detective in his persona, or maybe it is the hat. He lives in a literate world of words, which seem to ooze out of his pores. He continues to turn the bauble of the world over in his hands, looking at the soft white underbelly, the flashes of light, the perspectives that change when the perception shifts.

I am happy to report that Tom Russell has a new album out as of a week ago called Mesabi. It is named after the Minnesota iron range, where Bob Dylan, James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor are from. This is Tom’s 26th album, and he co-produced it with keyboardist Barry Walsh. And they traveled; it was recorded in studios ranging from Tucson, to Texas, to Nashville and Los Angeles. Russell invited friends in for this excursion; Lucinda Williams, Van Dyke Parks, Sir Douglas Quintet keyboardist Augie Meyers and the band Calexico, Tom collaborated with them on his last album, Blood and Candle Smoke, too.

Tom Russell goes on an extensive tour next week, and here’s hoping he will be in a town near you. Oh, did I tell you that he is also a painter, whose work can be found at the Yard Dog on South Congress in Austin. Why do I get the feeling that he never sleeps! Click here to listen to a “video” containing the audio for the title song, “Mesabi” which has a bit of his art for you to see...the album cover. And here is a video we found on the making of the new album

- Jessie Scott

Shinyribs "Devilsong"

Long ago, I had The Gourds up for a visit to the XM Studios in Washington, DC, when I was programming the channel X Country. We were doing a session for our weekly concert series, which was called Wired In. The recording engineers we worked with were amazing; they were quick, they had great bedside manner, and great ears to boot. There was just one problem with The Gourds. They played musical chairs, switching up to sit where the next instrument they wanted to play was located. Not so good for the precise setting on the microphone for each of their voices. The engineers that recorded that day hadn’t encountered the loosey goosey, hippie dippie, let it all hang out ‘tude that The Gourds brought. I remember going to dinner with them afterwards at a DC institution called A.V. Ristorante, an old school Italian joint that sadly has closed. It was perfect bringing The Gourds there, as we eyeballed the photos lining the walls of Senators, Judges and other DC luminaries who had worshipped at the chapel of AV’s incredible pizza and swarthy delicacies.

The Gourds do indeed like to mix things up, and yesterday marked the release of Old Mad Joy, their brand new CD. It was produced by Larry Campbell at Levon Helm Studios (The Barn) up in Woodstock, NY. This marks the first time they have recorded outside the state of Texas. We bring you a taste from the new album called “I Want It So Bad.”

The Gourds - I Want It So Bad by Vanguard Records

There are three Gourds writing, bassist Jimmy Smith, multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston formerly of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo, and guitarist and vocalist Kevin ‘Shinyribs’ Russell. Kevin, along with The Gourd's Keith Langford, graced our Threadgill’s stage in 2010 under the Shinyribs moniker. Jeff Brown joined on bass, and Winfield Cheek was on keyboards for “Devilsong,” taken from their album Well After Awhile. Here is hoping we get to record The Gourds next month at our Music Fog Fall Marathon sessions during Americana Fest in Nashville.

- Jessie Scott