Tommy Emmanuel "Jolly Swagman"

There is a Haiku to packing for a road trip. Lately, it seems I don't have time to unpack, before I am repacking for the next journey. But the idea is to have items to layer, and at least one of every length sleeve. What a pain to drag too much with you. Though, I must say, I really like the elegance of living from a suitcase. It is ever amazing that we of the pack rat generation can live simply, with all our needs met from a 21" rectangular structure. The road trip this time is taking me to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, which starts today. I am really looking forward to it, as most times, Music Fog is holed up behind closed doors at these events. (Hey, we're WORKING here!) But this trip, I just get to float from stage to stage, and experience a whole bunch of acts. Music discovery and immersion...manna from heaven. Priceless!

Knowing it is a short trip provides for an easier time of packing. Less so, when you are traveling from Down Under, as does Australian guitar wizard, Tommy Emmanuel. The man does things that don't seem possible. As he uses all ten fingers, there are lots of nuances, and the sonics of an entire band can be replicated with his strumming and finger picking. He has been everywhere, with everyone. He was a child prodigy born into a musical family, starting to play at age four. The band with his brothers and sister supported the Emmanuel family from the time he was six years old. In 1962, Tommy heard the music of Chet Atkins, who was to become a mentor and fan of Tommy's music, though it was 15 years before they met! There were contributions to Air Supply, Men At Work, and others, as he was becoming known as one of the best modern guitar players in Australia. He launched his solo career with the issue of the album Up From Down Under in 1988. He toured extensively in the Pacific Rim and Europe, then finally broke through in the US in 1997, when an album, Midnight Drive, hit the Jazz chart.

Tommy's mentor, Chet Atkins, bestowed the title of "Certified Guitar Player" on Tommy in 1999 when he added the initials CGP to his name. There are only three others remaining worldwide, as the original five were John Knowles, Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Wariner, Jerry Reed and of course Chet himself. Tommy is a must see, and there are more Stateside dates before he heads for Shanghai. We were so happy to have him in the Music Fog house. I loved watching the jaws drop on Denise and Beans when he started to play! Here's "Jolly Swagman," which you can also find on the CD Center Stage.

- Jessie Scott

Cindy Bullens "Let Jesus Do the Talking"

There are giants that walk amongst us. They could be standing on line next to you right now at Trader Joe's. Cindy Bullens is one of them. She is game. She's got game, and she has had an amazing story. She left Massachusetts for Los Angeles, crashed a studio party, meeting Elton John there, which led to singing back up for him in the 70's for three of his tours. That spawned a solo career. She was nominated for a Grammy for her contribution to the Grease soundtrack. Her second nomination for a Grammy came with a single from her first solo album, the song was "Survivor." If anything, that foretold her tale. She married and had two daughters, largely dedicating her life to them for the next decade. Reid is now 23. Sadly, Cindy's daughter Jessie passed in 1996 after a long illness, and a lot of the heartache and the questioning found its way into the 1999 album Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth. I couldn't listen to it without crying. Which I told Cindy after a performance in Boulder, CO. I think we were aware of being kindred spirits instantly. The next time I saw her was not long after that at the Cactus Café during a SXSW in Austin. She was a rocker chick personified. Walking with a swagger, slinging her Les Paul and her Strat.

Through the years she has swaggered, sweetly, among other giants as both a musician, and as a writer: Delbert McClinton, Ray Kennedy, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, John Hiatt, Al Anderson, Radney Foster, Wendy Waldman, Deborah Holland, and even Elton John, who contributed house rocking piano to the title tune of her last album, Dream #29. Cindy is coming off the heels of The Refugees project (which we brought you when Music Fog was young), and she has just released her 7th solo CD, Howling Trains and Barking Dogs. She continues to work with the best and the brightest as she follows her unmistakably original path. She brought some of them to us during Americana Fest, George Marinelli on electric guitar, Michael Kelsh on guitar and dobro, and Chris Donahue on bass. The new album lives in the land of groove and restraint, and here is one of the tunes from it, "Let Jesus Do the Talking."

- Jessie Scott

Uncle Lucius "Keep the Wolves Away"

Labor Day Weekend found me down at the beach. It is a four hour drive southeast from Austin to Corpus Christi. In Texas, four hours is nothing, just around the corner. The land changes along the way as it flattens out toward the Gulf Of Mexico and the barrier reef islands of Padre. Just before you get to paradise, you pass through an industrial area. There is an exit for Corn Product Road. Hmmm, wonder what they make there? On the other side is Carbon Plant Road, accompanied by exactly the kind of oil smell hanging in the air that you would expect. It stands as a stoic reminder to how our society functions, what with energy and agri-business. And then you get to the beach and can put the odor and the memory of it behind you. Seems like a good time to mention that there is another way to live, and that Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope for America is coming up on Saturday, October 2nd, at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI. If you're not in the Milwaukee area, you can catch it live in HD on DirecTV's The 101 Network beginning at 6pm ET/5pm CT. They'll also be running the concert on the Farm Aid website, if you don't have access to DirecTV. The lineup is stellar, as usual, with Jeff Tweedy, Randy Rogers Band, and Norah Jones joining Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews, just to name a few. See the complete lineup here. I'm happy to see Randy on the Farm Aid lineup. It is always interesting to me to see how bands reach the next level, and watching what is happening with Randy is awesome! I feel there is so much music that should be seen by a bigger audience. That there are so many worthy musicians that could totally blow up if only the opportunities line up celestially. Life. A giant game of Chutes and Ladders!

So two things, we give Randy and company a big thumbs up for weaving through this crazy environment to get to where they have gotten. And a big thumbs up to the artists we get to bring you on the Music Fog website, long may they wave too. Uncle Lucius is one of them. No, they are not playing at Farm Aid this year, but maybe someday! The news is that Uncle Lucius, along with Randy Rogers Band, are playing The MusicFest in Steamboat Springs in January 2011! This will be their debut at MusicFest, and is a welcome and praised invitation. Before that comes around, though, they are going to spend nine days holed up in a cabin in the Tennessee mountains next week, and then they hit the road starting on October 15th. They are a hard boogie-ing, soul meets rock unit that delivers organic joy. We bring you another of their tunes from our Threadgill's SXSW shoot. It's a song that highlights a similar landscape to the above-mentioned one that I drove through Labor Day Weekend. "Keep the Wolves Away," is an unreleased track that your favorite Uncle wanted to share with you on the Fog!

- Jessie Scott