Shooter Jennings "The Deed And The Dollar"

The Foggers are busy bees, spending the last day getting the room ready for our Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill’s WHQ in Austin, TX. We are blacking out windows, setting lights, building out our equipment to facilitate the live webcast we will be bringing to you wherever you are! Getting the stage ready, getting the audio in place, getting ourselves pumped for what is to come. 44 Artists in 4 days starts tomorrow morning at 11:30 CT with the beautiful and sultry Lera Lynn. Tomorrow’s schedule is hot stuff!

• 11:30 AM  Lera Lynn
• 12:10 PM  Steve Poltz
• 12:40 PM  Ray Wylie Hubbard
• 1:30 PM  Reckless Kelly
• 2:30 PM  Wheeler Brothers
• 3:30 PM  Emory Quinn
• 4:30 PM  K. Phillips & The Concho Pearls
• 5:10 PM  James McMurtry
• 5:40 PM  Phoebe Hunt
• 6:30 PM  The SteelDrivers
• 7:30 PM  Jason Eady & Cody Canada

Later in the week, on Saturday, we are expecting a visit from Shooter Jennings, who has a new album coming out today called Family Man. It was recorded in his newly adopted hometown of New York City, and for the first time, Shooter produced it himself. The aggregation of artists contributing to it has been dubbed "The Triple Crown." Pianist Erik Deutsch, guitarist Chris Masterson, drummer Tony Leone, bassist Jeff Hill, pedal steel player John Graboff, and Eleanor Whitmore on harmony vocals, mandolin and fiddle. You might also know that Shooter has teamed up with Cody Canada & The Departed and Uncle Lucius for The Magical Misdemeanor Tour. Of course, Shooter’s lady is actress Drea De Matteo, and they have two children together. She is the subject of the song from the new album, “The Deed And The Dollar,” and yes, of course, she is in the video, too

-Jessie Scott

Jon Dee Graham "Best"

If you are coming to Austin this week for SXSW, be prepared. Cell phone calls are already dropping midstream from the amount of people on line and traffic is already a snarled mess. It took me 45 minutes to go cross town today. (If you leave in a big city that is known for gridlock and traffic jams, please forgive me. Austin is a hamlet, and it usually takes 15 minutes or less from the west side to the east!) The restaurants are hopping, the taxis are busy, the hotels are booked solid, and the people watching is simply sensational. There are road closures to be aware of over the next week, but being at Threadgill’s means you can skirt much of that, and you can PARK!

I am so excited to be pondering the great avalanche of music that will be coming upon us for the Music Fog Marathon starting on Wednesday. We will be bringing you 44 artists, and streaming it all live here. One of them, by another name this time, is Jon Dee Graham. We will welcome him on Friday with his brother from another mother, Freedy Johnston, along with their other ’sibling’ Lil’ Sis Hobart, Susan Cowsill. Wow, is THAT gonna be cool. Jon Dee Graham is solo here, from our Spring Music Fog Marathon last year at Threadgill’s. It is a rare and beautiful love song, from a man who will tell you how happy he is today. So good to hear that, and so good to see Jon Dee at his “Best.”

- Jessie Scott

The Steel Wheels "Rain In The Valley"

So…..the Film and Interactive SXSW Festival started yesterday. For as weird as Austin usually is anyway, it just got a bit weirder, and that will exponentially grow and get whole lot weirder coming in a couple of days. Some of us Austenite’s are laying low while we still can; soon the vortex will suck us all in. But the weekend is here, and this precious time especially, we might just need to move a little slower, take some deep breaths and rest up.

The Music Fog Marathon starts on Wednesday; 44 Artists in 4 Days at Threadgill’s WHQ, 301 S Riverside Drive in Austin, TX. Meantime, don’t forget to turn your clock ahead tonight. One less hour of sleep…just getting you prepared for what’s to come. Today, we shine a light on The Steel Wheels. They're a quartet based in Harrisonburg, VA that all met through being raised in the Mennonite community. Now they have a few craft beers named after them, and those wheels…yes they bicycle, even to gigs! In fact, they organize an annual “Spokesongs” bicycle music tour, which averages 10 shows and covers around 500 miles in 10 days. And we are talking terrain here, as they bike through the mountains of Virginia and the hills of Michigan, even hauling their own gear along the way. We have a video from their second album, Lay Down, Lay Low; sweet Gospel-infused, stripped down to the bone. “Rain In The Valley.”

- Jessie Scott