Brigitte DeMeyer "Say Big Poppa"

Luck and love and work. Days and nights. Stress time and down time. We will reveal our artist lineup tomorrow for this week’s Music Fog Fall Marathon from Nashville, during the Americana Music Festival. You will be able to enjoy the music live here on the Fog, as we will video stream the three day event, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You might have noticed a new addition to our website, in the upper right corner, it's the Fog Feed Fund. A long time ago someone wondered if we were a cult. Actually the line was, "are you guys a cult or a pyramid scheme?" Sadly, we are neither, but we are looking for your help to defray the cost of traveling and producing this event, since sponsorship was ever elusive this time around. So your contributions are welcome, large or small. And whether you donate or not, we will be bringing you some amazing stuff to watch, and that’s a promise.

Last year at Americana, we filmed our recording sessions behind closed doors, as we will do again this year, and presented single song videos to you one day at a time; our usual setup. But this past March, we decided to stream our sets from Threadgill’s for the Spring Music Fog Marathon, and discovered that we love the immediacy of bringing it to you right then and there. This time around, it should be very interesting for you to "sit in" on our studio recordings.

One of the artists we featured in March was Brigitte DeMeyer. Her new CD, Rose Of Jericho was released at the end of August, and on Thursday night, there was a gala event to celebrate it at rhinestone studded couturier, Manuel in Nashville. For the uninitiated, he is the artistic heir to Nudie, and has elevated the form to pop culture ubiquity. Manuel was the one who created those famous logos for The Stones and The Dead.

Brigitte is fairly new to Nashville, a San Francisco Bay area transplant. It is the first time she has recorded since moving, and it is the first time she co-produced, though Rose Of Jericho is her fifth release. There is the loveliest New Orleans lilt to the song we bring you today, “Hey Big Poppa.” Herewith, is the Music Fog version of an easy, breezy, gambling tune, the original of which can be found on the new album.

- Jessie Scott

Bob Schneider "Everything You Love"

I can’t believe there are more fires going on in the already ravaged community of Bastrop, Texas. I was on a plane recently, talking with a woman from the Bastrop Fire Department, who had lost her house and worked through the crises alongside exhausted firefighters to save other’s houses, though many of them had no home themselves. Then she talked about the rebuilding, and even for those that had insurance, not everything is recoverable. Starting over. We can help. There have been benefits springing up in clubs and restaurants and VFW Halls. We lend a hand, we help a neighbor.

Bob Schneider has heeded the call, and will be doing a Texas Wildfire Relief Fund benefit concert at The Backyard in Bee Cave, TX on October 28th. He will be joined by Nakia, Mother Falcon, Quiet Company, Danny Malone, Johnny Cooper, and Deadman. A word about The Backyard, the iconic location of many a Willie Nelson show, as well as shows from other luminaries through the years. It was just far enough out of town to feel the freedom of the wide open spaces, unencumbered. The city of Austin has been developed to the west, and The Backyard moved to a new location up the road a piece from the original location.

Bob Schneider came to visit us during the Cherokee Creek Music Festival in May outside of Llano, Texas. We bring you the Music Fog version of “Everything You Love,” especially poignant under the circumstances. Savor the moments, be happy for what you have. Shed the sorrow, keep moving forward.

- Jessie Scott

Johnny Nicholas "Mister Moon"

We are drilling down on the last few slots for our Fall Music Fog Marathon next week, at Marathon Recorders during the Americana Fest in Nashville. I can’t wait to announce it all, and more than that, I can’t wait for the event itself, because we are going to be rocking the room. As I book this round of artists, I am finding it really interesting how much seems to go down in the middle of the night. Robust email gets traded, deals get solidified, stuff gets done in the quiet of the night. Oh, I know, some people wake early for the same effect. When I was doing overnights on the radio in Pittsburgh eons ago, you could actually feel the shift from the party people going to bed, to the bright and chipper early risers wishing you a good morning before the sun came up.

Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN/AAS STAFF

Johnny Nicholas has our song today, along with John Chipman, Scrappy Judd Newcomb, and Bruce Hughes. This was recorded at one of my favorite watering holes in Austin, The Saxon Pub. The wind just kind of blows me in that direction late at night. Johnny Nicholas is a pretty noteworthy cat, too. This summer, he put out his first album in six years, Future Blues. There is a terrific piece that the Austin American-Statesman wrote about him, after heading out to Fredericksburg, TX to Johnny's roadhouse restaurant, The Hill Top Cafe, to talk about the blues, and how he started a restaurant with only a grill and a Coleman camp stove. Read it here. I think a trip into the Hill Country may be in the not too distant future!

- Jessie Scott