Steff Mahan "Concrete Shoes"

One of my favorite moments with Music Fog was our Hot Springs, Eternal video, which captures a stop at bath house during a long drive to Texas. Beans is quoted, “I feel like cottage cheese,” after his treatment. Funny stuff, and thanks to Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, AKA Whitehorse, for the music featured in the video, “Longhaul Driver.” Their new album is a modern take on blues, super cool. I just got done with an hour of deep tissue massage, what with going to Texas last weekend to start the process of getting all my belongings together here in Nashville. I am beyond excited to see all my stuff in the same city. But moving 2000 pounds of CDs is, well, physically challenging, shall we say, even with the aid of Denver O’Neal and David Stewart. And they did the heaving lifting. Exciting times indeed!

Photo Credit: Glass Jar PhotographyBack in Nashville, everything is going on. Getting ready for another AmericanaFest, while entertaining friends and family for summer visits. Nashville is such an ‘it’ town. In January the Foggers came and conquered, and we filmed for three days at 3rd & Lindsley in the Backstage Events room. Cathy Mac, who rocks the audio there, told us we should hook up a session with a buddy of hers who was working on a new album. Her name is Steff Mahan, and we invited her in. She is the rarest of creatures, she was actually raised here in Nashville! She is gigging next week at The Capitol in Lebanon, TN, just in case you are in the ‘hood. The song she performed for us is called "Concrete Shoes." Now where I come from in NYC, that had a 'sleep with the fishes' connotation, but Steff's not that kind of girl.

- Jessie Scott

Hailey Whitters "One More Hell"

I had one of those all too often Facebook moments last week. After a Fourth of July dinner with friends, I logged on, only to see the posting that a friend had passed. I slammed the top down on my laptop, as if to un-see this news. Bob Goldstone was one of those people who make you remember what is important about life. He was impish, funny, warm, sincere, caring, and always teaching, even just by example. His love was boundless, and you couldn’t help but feel it when you were around him. I had the opportunity to work with him on the Emmylou Harris Spyboy album, when he asked me to join his team, I jumped at the chance. He was a partner in Thirty Tigers Records, and on Saturday, hundreds of folks gathered at his farm to salute his memory and tell poignant and funny stories about him. At the end we raised our glasses and toasted him with a tequila shot. Bob would have loved the tears and the laughter. He touched so many people.

Hailey Whitters came to see us during our Music Fog shoot in January, at 3rd & Lindsley Backstage. She had her first album come out last year and came to Nashville, as so many before her, because she knew music was her calling. She is an articulate songwriter and an assured performer. Catch her in the Midwest this month. Hailey played this most amazing song for us, “One More Hell” which she wrote after her little brother was killed in a car accident.

“He was 19. It was awful,” she says. “I went home to be with my family, and we went out West that summer. We had no plan, just got in the car and drove. It was really good being all together––we all just kind of disappeared for a month.” “It’s a sad song, but it’s kind of a happy song, I always say––people just feel it.”

We did, for sure, and I know you will too. Here is the Music Fog recording of “One More Hell," from the album Black Sheep. Say I love you and don’t forget the hugs.

- Jessie Scott

Colin Linden "Rich In Love"

I moved back to Nashville recently, because I believe the folks in the music biz here are the ones who are birthing the future of the industry. Amongst them is Joe Kelly, who has worked hard for the last three years building a new way to monitor airplay at radio stations. This week, CDX TRACtion announced that I will be joining them as the chart director of a brand new radio chart, TRACtion Texas, serving the Texas Red Dirt radio stations in Texas, Oklahoma, and beyond. I am so excited to be launching this new venture, which will provide a home for the music of many artists we have filmed for Music Fog through the years. The chart debuts on Wednesday, July 6th, less than a week away!

In a lifetime of being a tumbleweed, I can’t count all the times that people have asked me where the best place I ever lived was. I can narrow it down to two states, Texas and Tennessee. Difficult to say for sure, because I have lived in some mighty beautiful places!

Don’t know if you have been following the drama caused by ABC dropping the show Nashville. Happy to say the new season will indeed happen, as Nashville moves to CMT. That is especially good news for our friends in the cast and crew, including Colin Linden. He plays the tasty music parts that you hear on the show, as he is the Musical Director. His career is the stuff of Renaissance Men: he has recorded solo and with his band, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, which Music Fog was honored to capture in 2011 at AmericanaFest. Colin is a prolific record producer, and guitar slinging sideman for the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Cockburn, Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. He is badass.

Here is the Music Fog recording of the title song to his latest album, Rich In Love, filmed in January at Backstage @ 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville.

- Jessie Scott