Listen To Roadhouse Radio NOW: 05/08/13: Caitlin Rose In-Studio

This lil' thing? YES!

Caitlin Rose played Roadhouse Radio this week and she pops quite a wallop in that little frame with a voice that soars in country-pop goodness and strength. Touring in support of her critically acclaimed 2nd LP, The Stand In, with a hot, young Nashville band of cool dudes, Caitlin sings like crazy in this session that features 4 songs and interview (*disclaimer- Caitlin's mom, Liz Rose is a heralded country songwriter, NOT a country singer like I flubbed here. Tho I'm sure Liz can sing on occasion...). The in-studio starts in the second hour at 7:30pm. To jump directly to this KEXP in-studio, go here. 

This show kicks off with songs reflecting the sunny vibe of Seattle's amazing weather of late, and then taps into the yearning desire (again) to be in New Orleans. Not going to JazzFest is always hard, but suffering the steady stream of Instagram photos and Twitter feeds makes a guy yearn even more. And then with the weather and all... well, it all adds up to me playing songs that have that certain joyful noise from artists who may, or may not be, from NOLA. 

There's also more of the new revival of old-time feelin' from artists who know what's up, like Luke Winslow-King, Brittany Howard (covering Memphis Minnie!), Hurray For The Riff, Dustbowl Revival, Pokey LaFarge, Spirit Family Reunion (on KEXP's Swingin' Doors this Thurs night), Crow Quill Night Owls, and Old Crow Medicine Show. All these bands and singers are what's exciting about the current, young, fresh scene in rootsy music. Get with them now. Thank us later.

And in the third hour, we get outside a bit and tap into a summer vibe of stoner music from some of my favorite mystics and bearded song smiths, like the new Phosphorescent, Foxygen, Gold Leaves, Jonathan Wilson, and Father John Misty. It ain't country, but it ain't bad!

There's also newish music sporadically throughout from Sallie Ford, Charlie Parr, The Cave Singers, Deadstring Brothers, and Michael Tarbox.

Dig it! Click the link!

*Next Week! Pokey LaFarge is in the Roadhouse for a 4-song in-studio session! Wed May 15th 6:15pm

Wednesday, May 08, 2013 (LISTEN TO THIS SHOW)

Time	Artist	Song	Album	Label
6:00	Bob Dylan	Mozambique	Desire	Columbia
6:03	The Kinks	Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues	Muswell Hillbillies	Rhino
6:06	The Rolling Stones	Loving Cup (alternate take)	Exile on Main St. (bonus disc)	Polydor
6:11	The Howlin' Brothers	Delta Queen	Howl	Readymade
6:15	Bruce Springsteen	Jacob's Ladder	We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions	Columbia
6:19	Andrew Bird	Shake It And Break It	Preservation	Preservation Hall Recordings
6:22	New Birth Brass Band	Smoke That Fire	Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens	AMG
6:26	Alex McMurray	You've Got to Be Crazy to Live in This Town	How to Be a Cannonball	Threadhead
6:32	Dr. John & The Lower 911	Clean Water
	DJ Comments: Bobby Charles wrote this song
---- air break ----
6:36	Tony Joe White	Roosevelt and Ira Lee (Night of the Mossacin)	The Best of Tony Joe White (feat. Polk Salad Annie)	Warner Bros. Records
6:39	Dusty Springfield	Willie & Laura Mae Jones	Dusty in Memphis	Atlantic
6:42	Bobbi Gentry	He Made A Woman Out Of Me	Country Funk 1969-75	Light In The Attic
6:45	Bobbi Gentry	Tobacco Road	TheDelta Sweete	Capitol
6:47	Lee Hazlewood	My Baby Cried All Night Long	These Boots Are Made for Walkin': The Complete MGM Recordings (disc 1)	Ace Records
---- air break ----

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Listen To Roadhouse Radio NOW: 05/01/13: New Orleans = Most Fonky, Always and Forever

Last week's show. Finally!

This show had me thinking of New Orleans as it was JazzFest time and I wasn't there. I was missing it and so the first set is proof positive on just how fonky that place has always been and always will be. Then it gets funkier and just goes from there with the usual Roadhouse fare. Enjoy Soul Sisters!

Click the link!

Wednesday, May 01, 2013 (LISTEN TO THIS SHOW)

Time	Artist	Song	Album	Label
6:00	Kid Clayton	Corrina Corrina	VA- Classic Sounds Of New Orleans	Smithsonian Folkways
6:04	Deacon John Moore	Going Back to New Orleans	Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans	Shout! Factory
6:06	The Pazant Brothers	New Orleans	The Brothers Funk	BGP Records
6:10	Jimmy Hicks	I'm Mr Big Stuff	New Orleans: The Original Sound of Funk, Volume 2	Soul Jazz Records
6:13	Allen Toussaint	Soul Sister	Life, Love and Faith	Charly
6:15	Bonnie And Sheila	You Keep Me Hangin On	New Orleans: The Original Sound of Funk, Volume 2	Soul Jazz Records
6:18	Inell Young	What Do You See In Her?	(VA) New Orleans Funk 2	Soul Jazz
6:24	Ernie K Doe	Here Come The Girls	VA- New Orleans Funk	Soul Jazz
---- air break ----
6:27	Andre Williams	Humpin' Bumpin' and Thumpin'	Movin On: Greasy and Explicit Soul Movers 1956-1970
6:29	Bo Diddley	Funky Fly	The Black Gladiator	Future Days/Light in the Attic
6:33	Jim Ford	I'm Gonna Make Her Love Me	Harlan County	Edsel Records
6:36	Dennis The Fox	Piledriver	Country Funk 1969-1975	Light in the Attic
6:41	Shannon McNally	Street People	Small Town Talk	Sacred Sumac Music
---- air break ----
6:47	Bobbi Gentry	He Made A Woman Out Of Me	Country Funk 1969-75	Light In The Attic
6:49	Link Wray	Fire and Brimstone	Country Funk 1969-1975	Light in the Attic
6:54	The Rolling Stones	Good Time Women	Exile on Main St. (bonus disc)	Polydor
6:57	Deadstring Brothers	It's Morning Irene	Cannery Row	Bloodshot
7:01	The Cave Singers	When the World	Naomi	Jagjaguwar
---- air break ----

Click to read more ...

George Jones: Country's Greatest Singer

"The Possum" died last Friday at the age of 81. 

George Jones is widely considered the best country singer ever. His songs of heartbreak are what makes country so damn country. His lifestyle was also legendary, earning him the another nickname, "No Show Jones". He was sober for the past three decades and we will miss the man, considered a true legend.

This is what Keith Richards wrote in an official statement: 

George Jones has left us. We have lost one of the most individual singers of all time. I cannot express the emptiness I feel. George was as country as it can get, but he was beyond any bag you want to put him in. He was pure American music without ever waving a flag – you can hear a million imitations on the radio every day – but there was, and ever will be, only one George Jones. He possessed the most touching voice, the most expressive ways of projecting that beautiful instrument of anyone I can call to mind. You heard his heart in every note he sang. Sinatra called him the second best singer ever. (The number one obviously being Frank!). I would contest that. I truly loved 'the possum.' He was a crazy as me, and just as free… and, oh boy, could he hang.

*Tonight (and/or archived later...) listen to a George Jones tribute on KEXP's Swingin' Doors radio show. Don Slack will most certainly bring it. Tune in from 6-9pm. Highly recommended!

May Day: Learn More About Appalachia's History of Labor Resistance

Sid HatfieldGuest Blog by Devon Leger

In honor of May Day, or International Worker's Day, Hearth Music just posted an  in-depth interview with young Appalachian labor activist Saro Lynch-Thomason. Born in Tennessee, Saro lives in Asheville now and recently put together a compilation album examining the history of labor resistance in Appalachia and West Virginia. Blair Pathways focuses specifically on the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in US history and actually the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War. In 1921, 10,000 armed miners rose up following the cold-blooded assassination of popular sheriff (and pro-miner organizer) Sid Hatfield. Hatfield was murdered on the steps of a courthouse by agents of the mine owners, sparking an open rebellion by miners. It was one battle in what's been called the West Virginia Coal Wars, but it rings today in Appalachia and is still a sore subject for many on both sides of the debate.

HEARTH MUSIC INTERVIEW WITH SARO LYNCH-THOMASON

Saro recently produced the album Blair Pathways to commemorate the Battle of Blair Mountain. Inviting star roots musicians like The Stray Birds, Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Elizabeth Laprelle, Brett Ratliff, Morgan O'Kane and a host of others, she assigned them haunting old labor movement songs from the early 1900s. It's an amazing album, check it out: www.blairpathways.com

The Stray Birds: "Welcome, Mother Jones"

One discovery from the album was young Appalachian singer Sam Gleaves. Mentored by the great Sheila Kay Adams, Sam's new album, A Little While in the Wilderness is full of his heartfelt and beautiful singing.



Have a listen here to the song, "Working Shoes," about the lives and families of Appalachian coal miners.

Sam Gleaves - Working Shoes

Appalachian Mining Today


In the interview, Saro talks about mountaintop removal, the biggest threat to Appalachia's environment and way of life. Here are some quotes:

"I think the myth that is perpetuated now is that it’s the tree-huggers versus the workers and that the tree-huggers can’t possibly understand or care about the economic needs of the workers. This is a total myth and it is definitely a way to divide and conquer and keep people from organizing, from unionizing themselves and also from communicating with people who are trying to do hard work around environmental issues in their own communities. This is part of the myth, that the tree-huggers are all from out of state or aren’t from here or are different economic backgrounds. In fact, the people who care about this the most are people who are living in the coal fields and trying to find out how they can keep their water supplies clean and also have a good job for themselves and for their families. These problems go hand-in-hand; they’re completely inter-related. The major myth that these companies tell their workers is that these problems are not related and that they should be ignoring the issues that they’re facing at home."


Talking about what the Blair Mountain Battle's history can teach us today:

"What captures me the most about this story is that these folks were driven to a place where they they didn’t feel like they had much to lose by standing up for themselves. They were working amongst people who were from incredibly different backgrounds from each other. There were Hungarians, there were Italians, there were blacks who had come up from farm work in the south, there were white Appalachians, there were young men from New York. These people are working in such diversity with each other and they don’t even know how to physically talk to each other quite often but they’re working in the same miserable conditions and they just reach a point where they know that if they stand up for their own dignity they’re going to potentially lose their lives, but it’s worth it. I think we can learn from these people’s willingness to overcome their differences and their misunderstandings across the spectrum of backgrounds and ethnicities and languages to demand what they deserved as human beings: to live with dignity. In our country today, we’ve been taught that we’ve been deprived of that history. We don’t know that exists and through that deprivation, we don’t know that it’s possible for us to reach inside and honor that spirit that tells us that we are able to ask for what we deserve. The story serves as an inspiration and tell us that as Americans we have that heritage if we choose to acknowledge it."

Saro Lynch-Thomason

------BUY BLAIR PATHWAYS HERE------

------FOR MORE INFO ON BLAIR MOUNTAIN ITSELF ------

Listen To Roadhouse Radio NOW: 04/24/13: Sumner Brothers In-Studio, FolkLife Preview

(photo by Mike Emigh)

The Sumner Brothers (pictured above with local enigma and pedal steel player Bill Patton) are from British Columbia, not Vancouver WA!

They played the show this week and will be one of four acts featured on the American Standard Time stage at this year's Northwest FolkLife (not called Folk Fest..). Kelli Faryar, Programs Manager of FolkLife also popped in for a minute and spoke about what's exciting at the annual (41st year!) Memorial Day weekend music festival at the Seattle Center. It all starts in the second hour.

In the third hour there's music from young Nashville upstart Caitlin Rose who recently released her 2nd album and who be in The Roadhouse on May 8th. Also contemporary stuff from Charlie Parr, Phosphorescent, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Sean Rowe, and locals Rory James and Sera Cahoone. Plus a couple of classics from Rodriguez and Arlo Guthrie.

The show kicks off with a sunny song from Bobby Hebb, celebrating a summer day in spring, Shuggie Otis (better than expected at his recent Seattle shows) and a whole bunch of high flying birds. Gene Clark too!

And Richie Havens, who passed away last week. Listen to his famed 1969 Woodstock performance of "Motherless Children" which he called "Freedom". RIP!

**The link below connects to an out-of-date KEXP archive player, so to hear this show now, go here! **

Roots!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013 (LISTEN TO THIS SHOW)

Time	Artist	Song	Album	Label
6:00	Bobby Hebb	Sunny	Beg, Scream & Shout! The Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul (Beg 2)	Rhino
6:02	Shuggie Otis	Strawberry Letter 23	Inspiration Information	Luaka Bop
	DJ Comments: Shuggie Otis is playing tonight at the Triple Door with Jesca Hoop. http://www.shuggieotismusic.com/
6:06	Richie Havens	Freedom	(VA) Freedom; Songs From The Heart Of America	Sony
	DJ Comments: Live at Woodstock 1969. RIP Richie Havens
6:12	Richie Havens	High Flying Bird	Mixed Bag	UMG
	DJ Comments: The prolific folk guitarist and singer Richie Havens passed away on Monday April 22nd. Havens was known for opening Woodstock ’69, as well as for the massive amount of music he created during his over 45 years of touring and recording. In addition Havens was known for living the folk life he sang about - he was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award.
6:17	Judy Henske	High Flying Bird	High Flying Bird	Elektra/Rhino
	DJ Comments: Singer/Songwriter, Judy Henske was born in 1942 in Chippewa Falls, WI.
6:19	Neil Young & Crazy Horse	High Flyin' Bird	Americana	Reprise Records
	DJ Comments: Neil Young & Crazy Horse formed in 1969 in LA. http://neilyoung.warnerreprise.com/
---- air break ----
6:25	Dillard & Clark	Out on the Side	The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark	A&M
	DJ Comments: Dillard & Clark formed in 1968 in LA.
6:29	Gene Clark	White Light	White Light	A&M
	DJ Comments: Gene Clark was born in 1944 in Tipton, MO and passed away in 1991.
6:34	Allah-Las	Long Journey	Allah-Las	Innovative Leisure
	DJ Comments: Allah-Las formed in 2008 in LA. http://allah-las.com/

Click to read more ...

RIP Richie

Richie Havens died last week at the age of 72. This iconic Woodstock scene is how we'll remember him. He once said, "Every song is a folk song..." 

I'll play some Richie Havens music at the top of the radio show tonight. KEXP's Roadhouse from 6-9pm

RIP. Freedom!