Dave Alvin & The Guilty Ones "Black Rose of Texas"

I had the great pleasure of seeing Dave Alvin play again at Sam’s Burger Joint in San Antonio just before Christmas, and was once again struck by his humility, his soulfulness and his sheer talent. And by the way, that extends past his music, and includes the breaks in between the songs - erudite or heartfelt stories that he delivers with pinpoint accuracy, painting pictures with his words that take you there. You cheer him, learn music history from him, and sometimes mourn with him. Today’s song is one of those. After Dave’s best friend and band mate Chris Gaffney died in 2008, Dave put a project together in 2009 in which he was backed by the Guilty Women, instead of his Guilty Men.

Dave Alvin with Lisa Pankratz & Amy Farris.Today’s song is an homage by Dave Alvin to yet another band mate, Amy Farris, who was an amazing singer and fiddler, who was one of the Guilty Women.  She sadly, passed in 2009.  The song is called “Black Rose of Texas.”  I cried when Dave played it in San Antonio a month ago, both for his preamble to it and for the song itself. You can find it on Dave’s latest album Eleven Eleven.   And a note on that, there is an expanded version of the album coming in April, with nearly three hours of music and two previously unreleased bonus tracks, “Signal Hill” and “Never Trust A Woman.” Also there will be a live performance DVD, and a repackaging of the original full-length album. Today, the Music Fog version of “Black Rose Of Texas,” recorded during our Spring Marathon at Threadgill’s in Austin last year.

 - Jessie Scott

P.S. Dave is getting some love from the FX series Justified, as his song “Every Night About This Time” was featured last Tuesday on the season premiere. 

The White Buffalo "Love Song #1"

Lately, I have been getting into conversations about the philosophy of mass communication. Heady stuff, I know, but there are so many people who come to me asking why their music can’t be ubiquitous, the way music was in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I would posit that the media delivery system started breaking apart in the late 90s, and the last people to ride it to become ‘household names’ were the likes of Matchbox20, Sister Hazel, Sheryl Crow, all who saw first light of day in that era. Not to say that no one has broken through since then, but back then, there was a system which could be relied on, which has now disappeared from the media landscape.

Photo Credit: Cheyenne EllisToday, there are lots of alternative paths to finding your audience. Each artist is tasked with finding his own way. There are no rules. You do it however you can. And yes, it can lead to a satisfying decades-long career. I am heartened by the artists that ply the festival stages to become known. There are TV shows that feature new music in their soundtracks, from which the artists can ascend to carve out a place for themselves in the pantheon. The White Buffalo is one, having exposure on the TV show Sons of Anarchy. His EP The Lost & Found came out in December, and come February there will be a full length album out called Once Upon A Time In The West.

Here is a tasty morsel.

- Jessie Scott

Lynn Miles "Three Chords and Truth"

Sirius XM Radio just took the folk channel, The Village, off the XM Satellite lineup, and relegated it to the internet. There are posts from irate listeners on their Facebook page and a petition has been started to bring it back. I wish everyone luck, as we have seen that movie before up close, what with the removal of X Country, the channel I programmed up until three years ago. So it seems to be for the underserved genres of music. And Folk is such a rich and iconic world. I, for one, refuse to believe that there is too small an audience for this to be a viable format.

Yeah buddy. A life of music. Hang it all out there, learn the lessons, make the mistakes, and somehow someway, stay alive in it for as long as you can, if that is your calling. In the spotlight today is Lynn Miles, from a session we did almost two years ago at Threadgill’s during SXSW® music week in Austin. The song can be found on her most recent album, Fall For Beauty, which came out about a year ago. In December, Lynn picked up the Canadian Folk Music Award of English Songwriter of the Year for the new album. Congrats are due. Here is the Music Fog version of one of the songs from it, “Three Chords and Truth.” Amen.

- Jessie Scott