Bluebird Cafe Series

Jess I am proud to say I am one of the founding members of the upstart Americana Music Association. Over the last ten years, we have come a long way in getting the concept out there of roots music that isn't exactly country, not exactly rock and roll, but that has elements of those two traditions, plus others, like gospel, blues, and folk. And by combining, it isn't any longer purely any of those forms either, but has created a new sound, a new movement, if you will.

Through the year, we get to present some really cool stuff, primarily our showcase at SXSW, which is coming up soon, and our Conference and Festival in September in Nashville. And this year, we have a limited-run engagement at the legendary Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. If you're going to be traveling there in the near future, you might want to check out a show; heck if you live in the Nashville environs, you might want to go to all of them. Here's the skinny.

-Jessie Scott

Bob Livingston: The Wild East

Bob_tabla There are two huge inspirations for what we're doing with video on this site: Anthony Bourdain and Bob Livingston. Bourdain makes his living traveling the world, learning about different cultures by sharing food. Livingston does the same thing, but music is his food.

Livingston is currently working on a feature-length documentary called "The Wild East." Here's the basic set-up: Over the course of the last decade the US State Department has been sending Livingston and his son Tucker to countries like India, Pakistan, and Nepal to share their music and learn about cultures. We have no idea when the film will be released, but the clips that we've seen look amazing. He's got a 12-minute demo on his Facebook site but you'll need to friend him in order to see it. We've posted the YouTube clip below. The Facebook video is higher quality, but this will give you an idea of where his head is at..



We're always up front with people when we use their content on this site so Jessie shot Livingston an email to ask for permission to post his video. She got this response:

"Oh yeah, please do. I'm in India now at the end of a twisty turney dirt road internet cafe. I bathe in a river and saw an elephant arguing with a monkey yesterday."

Good luck, Bob. Watch out for those monkeys...

-Ben Krech

A Voice In The Night From The Heartland

CodyCanada Alright, so I'm laid up with a bad back from sneezing from a sinus infection and I got up real early this morning to take some more drugs and turned my phone on to check email or Facebook or something. Twenty minutes later, the phone rings, and I am talking EARLY - 6:21 am early, and the area code says Oklahoma, so I answer it...it's the Cross Canadian folks checking in from the bus. Actually they were just going to leave me a message, but I surprised them by answering.

They were stoked after two kick ass nights in Kansas and they are heading to Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa tonight. We had a giggly, if hazy, conversation...and one thing I remember from it, is that they will be heading into the studio in LA at the end of March to cut a new album. Ya know, when we hooked up with Cody at Steamboat, he played a couple of new songs for us. Here's one of them...wonder if this might make it onto the new CD...

Cody Canada @ Steamboat Song 1

-Jessie Scott

[photo courtesy Jeff Dykhuis of AMP]