Gurf Morlix "Cold Cold World"

It is so hard to wait, especially when you know something really big is right around the corner. Not that this wasn't a whole lifetime in the making, but when the finish line gets close it has to be excruciating! Gurf Morlix released his new album yesterday, Blaze Foley's 113th Wet Dream. It pays homage to Blaze, with whom he played over 20 years ago before Gurf became a ubiquitous Americana MVP. They met in 1976 when Gurf played a show in Austin, having left the chill of his native Buffalo, NY after high school. That night, Blaze invited Gurf to his first gig, which spawned a friendship for the next few years, as the two iconoclasts became runnin' buddies.

Blaze Foley was a brilliant songwriter but tragically flawed character. He was murdered in 1989 at the age of 39. Gurf's album is being released in conjunction with the debut of the documentary, Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah a movie about Blaze's life, itself 12 years in the making. A few years back Gurf contributed liner notes for a European Blaze Foley tribute CD, and we quote them here:

“Blaze Foley – soulful, passionate singer songwriter. Champion of the downtrodden. Friend of the working Girl. Truth seeker. Atmospheric disturbance. Tender caring person with a big ol' bag of deep-rooted troubles stuffed down into one of his pockets. Blaze could cut right through the bullshit, or he could be the cause of it. The funniest person I ever met, and also the most tragic.”

Gurf will be touring in conjunction with film screenings, which will be followed by a set of Gurf playing Blaze's songs. Here he is from the Threadgill's stage, during our Music Fog showcase from SXSW 2010, with the song that closes out the new album, "Cold Cold World."

- Jessie Scott

Todd Snider "Stuck on the Corner"

(Video contains explicit lyrics)

For too long now, the airwaves have been filled with the ratcheting up of the political rhetoric. It is force-fed to us by the 24 hour news cycle on TV and radio, and foments an 'us against them' mentality. I am a news junkie, so I watch all this in stunned silence. It seems to me that most people are not aware of this battle raging; that most are living their lives in blissful innocence of this daily media diatribe; that they are not glued to TV the way I am. And that is a good thing. After the Tucson tragedy, leaders have called for a tamping down of the dialog, a return to civility in the discourse. At the beginning and the end of all this, it seems to me that we are all Americans first, and that Democracy is about compromise. No one side has all the answers, and the First Amendment offers us a wide open window to express what we are feeling and thinking. And that is a precious thing.

Why am I laying down this preamble to today's video? Because it might just offend. And if it doesn't, something else on Todd Snider's new CD just might! Tuesdays are release days, and today is the debut of the long awaited double CD Todd Snider Live: The Storyteller. Todd is a funnyman, a tunesmith, as well as a latter day folkie protest singer populist. He spends a lot of time in the crafting of this stuff, as artists are supposed to do. They reflect the society they live in, and cast the image back for our perusal. Todd does that brilliantly. Catch him if you can as he kicks off a string of dates tomorrow with two nights at Joe's Pub in New York. From the new CD, here is "Stuck On The Corner."

- Jessie Scott

Band of Heathens "Hangin' Tree"

We got started recording at MusicFest in Steamboat Springs on Thursday, January 6, 2011. The day was bookended by some dear friends stopping by, as we started midday with Cody Canada and Seth James. Then the last entry for the day was Band of Heathens. When we talk about how lucky we have been as Music Fog gets an intimate view of watching some mighty special careers unfurl, BOH is in those rarified straits. It has been a blast to witness them continue to percolate. Their new album, Top Hat Crown and The Clapmaster's Son is due out on March 29th. Yippee! Their last, One Foot In The Ether, wound up at #7 on the Americana Airplay Top 100 Albums of 2010 (click here to download the list in .xls format). Band of Heathens were also nominated for the Americana Honors & Awards in the Best Duo or Group category this past year. Of course the year before, in 2009, they had been nominated for the Emerging Artist award.

Photo Credit: Steven Bush

In 2006, a long time ago in another galaxy, Austin mover and shaker David Cotton sent me the Band of Heathens Live From Momo's CD. As I checked today, there are two used copies of the physical album going for $139.29 each on Amazon! Now THAT is a nice round number! Of course you can still buy it digitally, too, for a more reasonable $7.99. But that collector's item first number speaks to a campaign well executed, and a career in blossom. All I know is that every time we see them, they just keep getting better and better. So on Day One of our Music Fog sessions, Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist, and Colin Brooks shared their music with us once again. And let us revisit the Momo's CD as Colin takes the lead on "Hangin' Tree."

- Jessie Scott

Update on 2011-11-05 02:56 by Music Fog

The Music Fog version of this song is now available to download at either of the stores below: