Awards season is solidly upon us. The GRAMMYs© were Sunday and the good news is it seems the roots music categories are expanding every year! Music Fog congratulates all the nominees, and tips our collective Fog hat (ahem) to the winners, among them triple awardee Rosanne Cash, Old Crow Medicine Show, Jo-El Sonnier, Johnny Winter, Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer, Jack White, The Earls of Leicester, and Mike Farris, who is coming to NYC, playing Midtown Live this Friday evening. (Click for tickets.)
A few weeks ago, Music Fog set up on a Sunday at Midtown Live to film seven artists, including Dale Watson. He has spent a musical life pursuing pure Honky Tonk, Rockabilly and Bakersfield spirit; what country music was known for in decades past. These sounds are sure not being heard right now on mainstream country radio, which is obsessed with what I call "Party Country." Hoist your 6 pack, there’s a girl in the front seat of your pick-up truck in her cut offs, as you head down to the lake to party. Oh, what a stereotype that has become. Country used to be about so much more.
Dale Watson not only honors the traditions in song but in his actions, founding the Ameripolitan Music Awards in 2014. The second annual event is happening on February 17th in Austin, TX at The Paramount Theater, and a limited number of tickets are still available. Awards are being handed out for Honky Tonk, Rockabilly, Western Swing, and Outlaw. It will be a gala evening celebrating real deal stuff. If you are in the Austin area, we highly recommend getting over to see it in person. We grabbed a tune to get you in the mood from Dale Watson & His Lone Stars, which originally was released on the album El Rancho Azul in 2013. Here is the Music Fog recording of “Give Me More Kisses.”
- Jessie Scott