Hans Rotenberry "Blew It"

A rule to live by: It is always important to allow some sunlight in, to allow for some random act to occur that you haven't planned. I button us down pretty tight with artists when we are on location, but when Theresa K came by and asked if we had room, I was able to figure out a mutually agreeable time. Then she came back to our Sweet Suite at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown, bringing Hans Rotenberry, a mysterious looking cat with thick hair and dark glasses, you know, the ones where you have no idea whether the person is even looking at you. Theresa and he were companionably talking and hanging in the back of our room, and I ventured over to say hi...not sure who was hiding behind the Foster Grants, and still not able to get a read if he was happy or unhappy to be in the space. Whatever. Eye contact always helps in the ability to gage someone's interest or acceptance, but he was still a total mystery.

It turns out that back when I was programming Nashville's Lightning 100, in the 90's, I got to play his band, The Shazam, on the radio. This year's Americana Festival marked the first live collaboration between The Shazam's guiding light Hans Rotenberry and the man who produced their first four albums, Nashville's legendary producer Brad Jones. The two long-time friends performed and shared lead vocals. Their collaboration results in a unique pop meets Americana sound that surprised the audience on that Saturday night, September 11th, at the Mercy Lounge. We were hanging backstage, and the sunglasses were off. We had a blast with Hans, so much fun getting to know him. When we were recording him, the craft of his songs was a revelation. They come from another place, and were engaging and fresh. It was yet another of those moments where you are thinking, how did we not meet before? The Shazam were a progenitor of the indie spirit that is becoming the way the new music biz functions today, as they released five albums on their own, without the aid of a label, starting in the mid 90's.

Here is Hans, solo acoustic, with a great tune called "Blew It," from The Shazam's first album. Of course, this version was recorded during the Music Fog Sessions at the 2010 Americana Music Festival.

- Jessie Scott

Kasey Anderson "Sooner/Later"

Have you noticed the wide array of headgear we bring you enshrined in video on these pages? Americana music might single-handedly bring back the chapeau, which had been all but abandoned as a must-wear since men came back from World War II. And the hats are not monochromatic, either. There are chapeaus of every description: fedoras, baseball caps with the perfect bend to the brim, cultivated in fraternities. There are berets and toques and headwraps; snoods, military issue and fur trappers with the great ears, and cowboys hats, of course! You know, Music Fog has been looking for a few good sponsors, but we haven't knocked on any hat purveyors' doors...yet! Here is a good one!

Photo Credit: John MeloyKasey Anderson wears hats quite well, thank you very much! He has been spotted in Pull-ons, Maos, and Pork Pies, but the Newsboy look might just be his favorite. He has been on tour all summer, doing gigs with Steve Earle, Peter Case, Joe Pug, and a bunch of other luminaries. He and the band just wrapped tracking a new record for a later release. Kasey says, "I wanted to make a record that sounded like a band. So I wrote songs with a band in mind. We'd get a take we liked and used it. No autotune, no "nudging" stuff in ProTools, none of that. People have become so careful and mechanical in the way they make records, and I really don't have any interest in any of that. Thematically, it's a record about trying to figure out how to live in a world that's collapsing, how to reconcile that and what we can do about it. It's not a political record - it's a record about finding out who and what you can depend on when things get as dark and horrifying and infuriating as they are right now - what to do with that fear and rage, how to use it." He continues, "I played a gig in Bellingham, Washington once and, afterwards, a guy came up to me and said, 'You remind me so much of Woody Guthrie.' I was so taken aback. I'm not sure there's a bigger compliment you can pay somebody who stands up there with an acoustic guitar and sings. We all owe something to Woody. I told the guy as much, explained that 'I Ain't Got No Home' was the first song I ever knew the words to, and mentioned that the Joe Klein biography was the first book I ever bought with my own money. The guy looked me dead in the eye and said, 'Yeah...it's mostly just the hat.'"

"Sooner/Later" comes from Kasey's last CD, Nowhere Nights, which came out in February 2010. Looks like he is shooting for February 2011 for the new one! We revisit the stage of Threadgill's for the Music Fog SXSW Marathon video shoot!

- Jessie Scott

The Infamous Stringdusters "You Can't Stop the Changes"

The six members of the Infamous Stringdusters trooped into our temporary studio at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown, and our audio guy extraordinaire, Aaron Lee, proceeded to crawl on his belly like a reptile to set them up. Not a small feat for Aaron at 6'8"! What we ask him to do is a complicated process that is painstaking, and almost not able to be accomplished in the allotted time. Major pressure to get it right the first time, knowing there is another artist on the way, and another after that. Someone, while watching us and learning of us recording 36 bands in 3 days, once surmised that we were doing this on a dare. Nope, this is how we function when there are a lot of musicians around. We try to spread the Music Fog love as far as we can, in an effort to bring you the most music that we can squeeze in, and still get 5 hours of sleep a night. Truth is, I think Aaron might have the hardest job when we are on site, as he is in perpetual motion. We have to make sure he eats! But the sound that he gets is truly amazing. Of course it doesn't hurt to have the caliber of talent that we get to come visit us!

"The Infamous Stringdusters epitomizes the ethic of today's young 'new-grass' artists. Their instrumental virtuosity is front and center, but it's paired with an insouciant curiosity for everything from shiny Nashville harmonies to jam-band wonkery." - Los Angeles Times

Do you know we Foggers have a "word of the day?" Well we do, and today's is insouciant. YES! Travis Book, Jeremy Garrett, Andy Hall, Andy Falco, Jesse Cobb, and Chris Pandolfi make beautiful music together. Jamming music. Riffing on a theme music. And they take you on a trip. They have a new CD out called, Things That Fly, and they are embarking on a tour in November with thrash-grass band Trampled by Turtles, who also have a new CD out called Palomino. So the tour is being called "Fly Palomino." But first comes The Festy, The Stringduster's own two-day event happening on Columbus Day weekend in Nelson County, VA. That is southwest of Charlottesville, where my Grandmother met my Grandfather, but that is a whole other story. Cool lineup, with Railroad Earth, Josh Ritter and The Love Canyon String Band, Tony Rice Unit, and others joining in. But back to the matter at hand, a tune from the Infamous Stringdusters' new CD that transfixed us as we recorded it in our studio at the 2010 Americana Fest in Nashville. "You Can't Stop The Changes," this ain't your granddaddy's bluegrass, as their press release says, "...unless your granddaddy is Jerry Garcia."

- Jessie Scott