Micky Braun "Long & Lonely Highway"

Some of my favorite memories of my XM days are the events we would get to do every year. There was MusicFest at Steamboat Springs, and Bonnaroo, and ACL, and Farm Aid, and of course, Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic. Most of the years we broadcast that live, it originated from Ft. Worth’s Billy Bob’s Texas yard - the back 40. Those days would start with the cattle being driven down the street from the Stockyards in the morning, a bit of true Texas drama. Our tour bus was our home base, and artists would come by to hang out with us while were broadcasting the music from two stages, and doing interviews and performances in between. It was always a treat to ride in the late Rick Smith’s golf cart – then with Robert Gallagher, over to Billy Bob’s for a bit of cool shade, rocking music, and a libation of some sort. Everything is bigger in Texas, even still, the legacy of Billy Bob's is quite remarkable.

When it opened in 1981, it instantly became a mover and shaker on the scene. In 1999, they started recording albums at Billy Bob’s, which was a head’s up thing to do. Here is the backstory. It is an honor to be asked to record there, and Micky & The Motorcars did just that back in 2009. The three disc set, Micky & The Motorcars Live at Billy Bob’s Texas is a two disc and one DVD set. Micky and company have been cranking along like a well-oiled machine. There are a bunch of Texas dates coming, and of course they will be taking part in the upcoming Reckless Kelly Celebrity Softball Game, happening in Round Rock, TX on April 22. We dig into the Fog Bank for today’s tune, the Music Fog solo recording of one of the songs you will find on the Billy Bob’s album, “Long & Lonely Highway,” filmed at MusicFest at Steamboat Springs 2011.

- Jessie Scott

Gretchen Peters "The Matador"

I always smile when I see the “It’s Complicated” descriptor as an explanation of relationship status on Facebook. I don’t know one relationship that ISN’T complex! As I sift through the contents of my POD all of which are now in my possession after almost 3 years, and some of the items bring a flood of memories. I think when there is a loss in your life you have to give it time to heal. It will be almost 5 years for me, and I am now in a better place to revisit the feelings. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it still hurts, but it isn’t as mournful as it was at the beginning. So when I pull this item, or that one, out of a box, there is a tangle of emotions; smiles, tears, anger, gratitude. It IS complicated.

Photo: Gina BinkleySuch as it is, Gretchen Peters puts all the complexity beautifully in the song “The Matador.” Men are such enigmas. I know they say the same about us women. Through all the facets of personalities, the moods, the storms and the quiet times, the spectrum of a person is rich and idiosyncratic. The song can be found on Gretchen’s new album, Hello Cruel World, which came out at the end of January. It was born of a heavy year in 2010, which included her hometown of Nashville sustaining catastrophic flooding, a second home in Florida being threatened by the BP oil spill, and the suicide of a friend. All the angst and questioning got channeled into the making of this album. Gretchen and Barry Walsh, her husband since 2010 and longtime accompanist, are gigging in the UK for three more night, then they are off to Ireland. They make beautiful music together. To wit, here is the Music Fog recording of “The Matador,” from our Fall Marathon at Marathon Recorders in Nashville in October.

- Jessie Scott

Citizens Band Radio "Whistlin' Dixie"

Things are certainly squirrelly about music labels lately---the term you use to describe a style. The GRAMMYs® didn’t help matters much by redefining the Folk Category to be almost the same thing as the Americana Category, but then there are blurred lines between Folk, and Singer Songwriter, and Texas and Red Dirt, and it just goes on and on. So much of this is about perception, anyway, with each person filtering things through what they know, or how they got introduced to something. I reference the term ‘Rock and Roll’ for the definitive; that became understood by the songs and sounds that lived under its name until everyone KNEW what it was. And then Rock came along, and that was sonically different than the earlier era. And so it goes.

Time was that the term Country was something of a dirty word. It was thought to be low brow, nasal, and unsophisticated. Kind of amazes me now to think back, but when I was on the radio in the 70s at the Country station in New York City, WHN, we NEVER actually said we were country on the air. We just played the music and let the audience decide whether they liked it or not. And they did. The station was a huge success, with an audience of 2 million people, in NEW YORK CITY?!!!?

We might have played today’s song on the air, if only it had been out back then. It does plant a couple of references to tunes from old. And whatever you call it, it is fun to revisit the set we did last year during the Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill’s. Here is Citizen’s Band Radio with “Whistling Dixie.” They are playing New Jersey next weekend, March 11th, at the Garden State FOLK Festival. See what I mean?

- Jessie Scott