Corb Lund "Gettin' Down On The Mountain"

Working at XM Radio meant never having to say you were sorry for the cursing that goes on in song. And there is plenty of it in Americana. Back then, we even lobbied to have my channel, XCountry, designated XL, for "Extreme Language." Yes, that’s how much there was. One bright sunny afternoon, the head of programming, Lee Abrams, summoned me and Billy Zero (from XMU, which also played a lot of songs with ‘content,’) to discuss the profligate uses of swear words in our respective channels. The meeting could have been titled “How many f**ks is too many f**ks?” It was one of the most comical corporate meetings ever; the dialog was priceless, as you might imagine.

I only bring this up because of late, Music Fog has had a spate of language that we have had to do headphone warnings about. And today, we have another. Corb Lund has just released a brilliant album, loaded with great tunes, including his duet with Hayes Carll, “Bible On The Dash,” which is a cautionary tale of touring musicians and a hoot at that. (No language to worry about there!) One has to wonder though, when there is a message song, why wouldn’t you want airplay on the radio? And I for sure can’t play this on my show at KDRPlive.org (Monday through Friday from 2pm to 7pm CT) But for sure this is a tune that needs to be heard, and these ideas need to be considered. This is “Gettin' Down On The Mountain,” from the new CD Cabin Fever. ATTN: EARBUDS at work or if the kids are around!

-Jessie Scott

Carrie Rodriguez "El Salvador"

Here are the facts: Music Fog will be 4 years old at the end of the year. In that time, we have posted nearly 900 videos on YouTube, which have now been viewed 11 million times. We average 500,000 views a month on YouTube, where we have 9700 subscribers. Music Fog has 9400 Facebook fans, and 16,400 followers on Twitter. We post four videos a week of our own creation, and two a week from outside sources. Our videos have been shared globally. Everything has been viral, we have done no advertising. We don’t charge a fee to film the artists, because then the only content we would bring would be from those able to pay for it…THAT would change everything. Ethically, editorial content should never be bought and paid for.

So here we sit, with something like 20,000 impressions a day for our content not counting Twitter. So far, that is not a large enough number for a major sponsor to have come on board. And now there are four days left to our Kickstarter campaign. If we don’t make it, all the pledged money reverts back to the people who pledged it and we collect nothing.  It also means we won’t be able travel to Nashville to capture content at Americana Fest.

So the question is, will you help?  Do you find the videos we bring you enriching? Is there someone you discovered who you hadn’t heard of before? We provide a service to artists and audience everywhere.  So far, it has been a hobby for us, a self-funded labor of love. Of course, that is unsustainable, and this year we have turned to crowd sourcing to raise the money to continue to produce high quality video of Americana artists.

Like this one from Carrie Rodriguez from last year’s Americana Fest in Nashville at Marathon Recorders. Carrie is a one woman tour de force, a delight to watch and listen to. She is touring up north this week, and heading to Belgium in mid-September. This tune is originally from the She Ain’t Me album, a sad tale of long distance love, co-written by Carrie and Gary Louris. “El Salvador,” here are Carrie, Luke Jacobs, Ryan Lovan, Hans Holzen, and Kyle Kegerreis.

- Jessie Scott

Bearfoot "Midnight In Montana"

The Big Sky Songwriter’s Festival is underway this week at Big Sky Resort, and I am sure it has been a great and very productive time. It wraps this evening with a performance at Whiskey Jack’s starting at 5pm featuring Dustin Welch, Walt Wilkins, Kevin Welch, and Jon Pousette-Dart. The good news is there are tickets available if you happen to be in the neighborhood. As this is the inaugural year for the Songwriter’s Festival, put it on your calendar for next year, same time, same place.

Bearfoot is our band today, with a video called “Midnight In Montana.” They are on their way to the Americana Festival in Nashville next month. Now of course, if Music Fog was in attendance, you KNOW we would be asking them to appear in front of our cameras. We don’t charge the artists for our Music Fog Marathon’s, and we don’t charge you to watch our videos either. We are here to aid in music discovery. Which is the reason why we are doing another Kickstarter campaign to raise the necessary funds to get ourselves to Nashville to set up. We would love your help, both by pledging, and by sharing the link with your roots music loving friends. We sure would appreciate the opportunity to film another huge gaggle of artists. Time is running out, though, as the deadline for hitting our goal is Friday night.

Back to Bearfoot, the post-bluegrass outfit headquartered in Nashville. This song is from their American Story album which came out last year. They play Fairbanks, Alaska tonight, and are back in the South in September. Here comes “Midnight in Montana,” watch out, this is a fun video!

-Jessie Scott