Bob Schneider "Everything You Love"

I can’t believe there are more fires going on in the already ravaged community of Bastrop, Texas. I was on a plane recently, talking with a woman from the Bastrop Fire Department, who had lost her house and worked through the crises alongside exhausted firefighters to save other’s houses, though many of them had no home themselves. Then she talked about the rebuilding, and even for those that had insurance, not everything is recoverable. Starting over. We can help. There have been benefits springing up in clubs and restaurants and VFW Halls. We lend a hand, we help a neighbor.

Bob Schneider has heeded the call, and will be doing a Texas Wildfire Relief Fund benefit concert at The Backyard in Bee Cave, TX on October 28th. He will be joined by Nakia, Mother Falcon, Quiet Company, Danny Malone, Johnny Cooper, and Deadman. A word about The Backyard, the iconic location of many a Willie Nelson show, as well as shows from other luminaries through the years. It was just far enough out of town to feel the freedom of the wide open spaces, unencumbered. The city of Austin has been developed to the west, and The Backyard moved to a new location up the road a piece from the original location.

Bob Schneider came to visit us during the Cherokee Creek Music Festival in May outside of Llano, Texas. We bring you the Music Fog version of “Everything You Love,” especially poignant under the circumstances. Savor the moments, be happy for what you have. Shed the sorrow, keep moving forward.

- Jessie Scott

Johnny Nicholas "Mister Moon"

We are drilling down on the last few slots for our Fall Music Fog Marathon next week, at Marathon Recorders during the Americana Fest in Nashville. I can’t wait to announce it all, and more than that, I can’t wait for the event itself, because we are going to be rocking the room. As I book this round of artists, I am finding it really interesting how much seems to go down in the middle of the night. Robust email gets traded, deals get solidified, stuff gets done in the quiet of the night. Oh, I know, some people wake early for the same effect. When I was doing overnights on the radio in Pittsburgh eons ago, you could actually feel the shift from the party people going to bed, to the bright and chipper early risers wishing you a good morning before the sun came up.

Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN/AAS STAFF

Johnny Nicholas has our song today, along with John Chipman, Scrappy Judd Newcomb, and Bruce Hughes. This was recorded at one of my favorite watering holes in Austin, The Saxon Pub. The wind just kind of blows me in that direction late at night. Johnny Nicholas is a pretty noteworthy cat, too. This summer, he put out his first album in six years, Future Blues. There is a terrific piece that the Austin American-Statesman wrote about him, after heading out to Fredericksburg, TX to Johnny's roadhouse restaurant, The Hill Top Cafe, to talk about the blues, and how he started a restaurant with only a grill and a Coleman camp stove. Read it here. I think a trip into the Hill Country may be in the not too distant future!

- Jessie Scott

The John Henrys "Sweet as the Grain"

It might be hard to fathom, but Gram Parsons would have turned 65 this year. Some of our most influential artists were mere shooting stars, and in the blink of an eye they were gone. Like Otis Redding and Buddy Holly, Gram left an indelible mark on music. He created a paradigm shift which is still celebrated sonically to this day, maybe even more so today. Back in those musty 60s, the genres were separate, sacred; slaves to their own structural DNA. And Gram changed all that. He made the country earthy, performed the soulful alongside it, and generally explored the genre bending that would spawn today’s Americana scene. Country, rock, hillbilly, blues, gospel, folk. Throw it in the pot and stir it up.

There are continuing Gram Parson’s Birthday events going on worldwide. The next one is this Saturday in Boston, one of seven cities holding a GIN IV this fall (in four countries) For the uninitiated, those initials stand for Gram InterNational. There is more about it here.

The John Henrys song today, “Sweet As The Grain,” just put me in the Gram mood. We filmed the Canadian band last year at Americana Fest. As we get ready to do this year’s event next week, I am thinking about Gram, and his huge contribution to the music I love. We are busy working on the line up for our gonzo latter day archivist gig. Think of us as John and Alan Lomax, but with today’s moments to capture, in glorious video with amazing sound. That is our mission. We will be announcing our schedule soon, and we will be streaming it from Nashville, along with the usual capture presentation in the weeks and months to follow. We can’t wait to bring our line up to you! Meanwhile, here's the John Henrys with a song from their album of the same name.

- Jessie Scott