Midnight River Choir "Jim Beam"

Happy Birthday America...Happy 4th Weekend! Hopefully you're enjoying some Q and bourbon and beer and maybe even some music. I gotta say, for us ex-XM folks, it was a little weird NOT being at Willie’s Picnic, which was broadcast on XM12 X Country for many happy years. It still airs on SiriusXM, so here's a shout out to the folks at Outlaw Country and Willie’s Roadhouse for keeping the dream alive. Many of the artists that played Willie’s 4th of July Picnic at the Austin 360 Amphitheater are staying in town for another very cool event on Monday, to benefit the victims of the Central Texas Memorial Day flooding.

I want to make sure that is on your radar, OUTLAW: Celebrating the Music of Waylon Jennings at ACL Live at The Moody Theater this Monday. There are just a few tickets left for this once in a lifetime show with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Kacey Musgraves, Ryan Bingham, Sturgill Simpson, Jamey Johnson, Lee Ann Womack, Chris Stapleton, Shooter Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Billy Joe Shaver. And they just added Alison Krauss and Robert Earl Keen to the line-up too!.

If you are a ticket holder, you can purchase admission to the OUTLAW AFTER-PARTY FOR TEXAS FLOOD RELIEF. 100% of your ticket purchase to the Outlaw After-Party will go to the United Way for Greater Austin and be earmarked for Memorial Day Central Texas flood victims.

Unfortunately, this time some of our friends, The Midnight River Choir, were impacted by the rising water. All their vehicles were damaged along with most everything they owned. Give if you can. I know you will join me in wishing to have order again and peace of mind for all the folks impacted by the devastation from the flood waters.

The MRC carry on. They were just out west on tour and are back in Texas now. That is one way to take one’s mind off it. And of course there is always bourbon. “Jim Beam,” can be found on 2008’s Freedom Wine CD. We caught up with The Midnight River Choir during SXSW© in 2012 during our Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill's.

- Jessie Scott

Patrick Sweany "More and More"

Nashville has been a busy place lately. Yes, for sure, over the course of the last fifteen years, it has become one of the hottest destination towns in the country. But these last couple of weeks were dizzying. Between last week’s CMA Fest, or being able to launch one’s trip down 1-24 from Nashville to Bonnaroo, and then this week, The Rolling Stones coming to play LP Field, it has been especially center of the universe stuff. I am tickled by how many friends went to see the Stones (wish I could have been there, but the Facebook posting were priceless!) I am beyond thrilled by the fact that my favorite rock and roll band keeps on after all these years. Also that Mick, Keith, Charlie, and Ronnie flew in a day early to attend a tribute evening to Bobby Keys at The Mercy Lounge. Bobby’s band The Suffering Bastards kicked some serious butt.

The night of the Stones show, in another close-in Nashville location, Acme Feed & Seed, Patrick Sweany joined Guthrie Trapp & The Mulekickers on stage. Patrick carries all of the DNA that I love about the early Stones, with homage to R&B, Blues and Rock - the simple stuff; the emotional, the evocative. Patrick is a consummate bluesman who plays with swagger and abandon, and who was just spotlighted in American Songwriter Magazine’s Blues Issue. He is just wrapping up details for his new album, Daytime Turned To Nighttime to be released in September, and has launched an extensive tour of the states from sea to shining sea through the end of this year. Do catch him if he is coming close, and immerse yourself in an evening of live music, just for the fun of it.

Today’s song can be found on Patrick’s 2011 album That Old Southern Drag. We bring you the Music Fog recording of “More and More” filmed during AmericanaFest in Nashville in 2011.

- Jessie Scott

Dale Watson "Jonesin' For Jones"

It has been all over Facebook and the Internets for the last couple of weeks, the #tomatogate controversy at Country Radio. Back in the old days of Top 40 radio in the 60s and 70s, the house rule was you never played two women singers in a row. It was partially because there were so many more male voices, that you were supposed to sprinkle the females in like tomatoes in the lettuce. Unfortunately, the concept is still alive today at country radio. It has been particularly hard for female artists to get radio airplay in these BroCountry days, where indeed ‘the party never ends.” Grab a six pack, your girl in her cut-off jeans, and drive your pickup truck down to the lake. Pretty one dimensional stuff. Country music used to present all the emotions, not just the celebratory. And it is not just women being left out of the mix, any honest to goodness country is absent as well from the rap infused party style that is today’s “country” music.

The pendulum always swings back, though. I wonder if the next wave will be Neo Traditional, with artists like Sam Outlaw, Chris Stapleton, Whitey Morgan & the 78s; Kacey Musgraves, Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Presley, and of course including Sturgill Simpson, Blackberry Smoke, Robert Ellis, and Jason Eady. Wouldn’t it be great if Country Radio played COUNTRY MUSIC again? I don’t even dare mention the roots of this new wave of traditional country, but Dale Watson does. His new album, Call Me Insane, came out on Tuesday, and it is anchored smack dab in the spirit of this long legacy of true country music. Here’s to Johnny, Willie, Waylon, Conway, Loretta, Dolly, Tammy - and let’s raise a glass to George Jones! Music Fog filmed Dale and His Lone Stars at Midtown Live in NYC back in January. Here is “Jonesin’ For Jones.” Yeah we are! Get ‘em Dale!

-Jessie Scott