01.27.06 (MusicPortal.com) On March 7th, Milking Bull Records will release the self-titled debut from Norah Jones side project THE LITTLE WILLIES, an album that perfectly distills the fun, down-to-earth spirit of this New York quartet's club shows. The group -- Lee Alexander (bass), Jim Campilongo (electric guitar), Jones (piano, vocals), Richard Julian (guitar, vocals) and Dan Rieser (drums) --tears through a mix of covers and originals on the album, from the revved-up Western Swing of Fred Rose's 'Roly Poly' and Willie Nelson's 'I Gotta Get Drunk' to the cutting wit of Kris Kristofferson's 'Best Of All Possible Worlds'; from the poignancy of Townes Van Zandt's 'No Place To Fall' to the cosmic absurdity of their very own 'Lou Reed.' THE LITTLE WILLIES formed for purely practical reasons. In 2003, the group of five friends, who were all individually involved in other projects, booked a gig at The Living Room on New York's Lower East Side as an excuse to spend an evening playing music together. They soon discovered that they shared a deep musical vernacular. Although they hailed from the far corners of the country -- California, Massachusetts, Texas, and Delaware -- the members of THE LITTLE WILLIES all grew up listening to a certain breed of classic Americana music: the songs of Hank Williams, Nelson, Townes Van Zandt and Kristofferson, just to name a few. As one band member notes: "Something about living in a big city like New York makes you miss the stuff you grew up with, and in our case it was some of these songs. The original idea was to just be a cover band and play all these great songs we knew. It became really fun to have that outlet, and also a great excuse to seek out other songs we didn't know." Over the next couple years, THE LITTLE WILLIES continued to play at The Living Room whenever all five members were in town. They added a few originals to their setlist along the way. The group initially contemplated a live album, but when Jones and Alexander completed work on their home studio, they decided to christen the space with a LITTLE WILLIES recording session. The resulting album showcases the group's core strengths, from Jones and Julian's sublime vocals, to Campilongo's stinging guitar licks, while maintaining the loose, spirited, bar-band feel of THE LITTLE WILLIES' live experience. "The Little Willies" Track Listing: 1. Roly Poly (Fred Rose) • 2. I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive (Fred Rose/Hank Williams) • 3. Love Me (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller) • 4. It's Not You It's Me (Richard Julian/Ashley Moore) • 5. Best Of All Possible Worlds (Kris Kristofferson) • 6. No Place To Fall (Townes Van Zandt) • 7. Roll On (Lee Alexander) • 8. I Gotta Get Drunk (Willie Nelson) • 9. Streets Of Baltimore (Tompall Glaser/Harland Howard) • 10. Easy As The Rain (Richard Julian/Jim Campilongo) • 11. Tennessee Stud (Jimmy Driftwood) • 12. Night Life (Walter M. Freeland/Paul F. Buskirk/Willie Nelson) • 13. Lou Reed (Lee Alexander/Richard Julian/Norah Jones)
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01.26.06 (AP) Over the years, fans have seen NEIL YOUNG the hard rocker, the angry protest singer, the Rockabilly crooner, the Grunge hero, and more. However, for two nights at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium last August, audiences got the comforting, friendly, reflective NEIL YOUNG, a pair of shows distilled by Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme into the concert film "Neil Young: Heart Of Gold," which has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film captures the 60-year-old Young in grand form alongside such long-time musical comrades as Emmylou Harris, steel guitarist Ben Keith, keyboardist Spooner Oldham and Young's wife, Pegi, on backup vocals. At the Ryman, Young debuted his latest album, "Prairie Wind," a return to the Country/Rock style of his beloved albums "Harvest" and "Harvest Moon." Coping with a potentially fatal brain aneurysm diagnosed in the Spring of 2005, Young wrote a cycle of songs examining mortality, the loss of loved ones, and his own fleeting presence in the revolving stage of music. Young underwent surgery, but at the time he recorded the album, he was working under a shadow. "I think when you're thinking that you may not be able to perform, that there's an unknown," Young told The Associated Press in an interview alongside director Demme. "Most of the time when I'm in there, I feel like, well, this is a record I'm making. I'm going to get this record. This time, I was thinking, this may possibly -- very unlikely -- but there's a chance that this may be my last record, so, you know, then you want to do the best you can with it. Even more, in a way, is that's not tangible. What the difference is, I can't really tell you, but I'm sure the effect was there." Nine of the 10 "Prairie Wind" songs make up the first part of "Heart Of Gold," some accompanied by moving introductions from Young, who informs the audience he's playing a guitar he bought in the 1970s that belonged to Hank Williams and relates stories of his father, who had recently died after suffering from dementia. The film's second half presents NEIL YOUNG classics such as 'Old Man,' 'Harvest Moon,' 'Comes A Time,' 'The Needle And The Damage Done' and the title song, along with his cover of Ian Tyson's 'Four Strong Winds.' A 12-piece string ensemble, a horn section, and a 10-member vocal choir accompany Young and his friends on some songs. "The idea evolved of doing a beautiful old dream concert," said Demme, an Oscar winner for "The Silence Of The Lambs" who also directed the TALKING HEADS concert film "Stop Making Sense." "We wanted it to feel a little bit like it's Neil Young's dream concert, his dream venue, his dream fellow performers." After Sundance, "Heart Of Gold" opens February 10th in a handful of theaters, expanding to more cities in the following weeks. Young said his surgery seems to have corrected his problem, and that his health is fine. "Knock on wood, everything's good," Young said. "I feel strong, I feel good. I feel just like I did before. I feel like my life is progressing in a natural way, but I just have another feeling now that I'm not sure about the things that I never used to think about. I used to be so sure that everything was all right... "I'm looking forward to every day and having a great time, but I just don't have the illusion that everybody's safe, that I'm safe, and that everybody else is safe. I just don't believe that anymore."
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01.24.06 (AP) JANETTE CARTER, the last surviving child of Country music's founding Carter Family, who in recent years preserved her parents' old-time style with weekly performances, has died in Kingsport, Tennessee. She was 82. Family members said Carter, who had battled Parkinson's disease and other illnesses, was taken to the Holston Valley Medical Center last Tuesday. Her family said she appeared to be improving for a time, but died on Sunday. JANETTE CARTER was the daughter of A.P. and Sara Carter. Her parents and her father's sister-in-law Maybelle Carter formed a singing trio discovered in 1927 when talent scout Ralph Peer came through the Tennessee-Virginia border town of Bristol to record mountain music. When her brother Joe died last March, JANETTE CARTER became the last surviving child of the original group's members. The best known of her generation to present-day listeners was Country star June Carter Cash, a daughter of Maybelle and wife of Johnny Cash. She died in May of 2003 at age 73, with her husband dying later that year. Following the death of her father in 1960, JANETTE CARTER dedicated her life to preserving not only the Carter Family music, but the Folk and Country music of Appalachia. One result of that effort was establishment of the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia. "It's good for younger people to know this kind of music," Carter said in a 2002 Associated Press interview. "There was a time when music told a story; it wasn't just some beat." On his deathbed, she said, her father "called me over and said 'Janette, I want you to continue the music the way we'd done it.'" At the time of the interview, she was still giving concerts every Saturday at the Carter Family Fold, an auditorium built from railroad ties and school bus seats near the family farm in Hiltons. She played autoharp. "It's really remarkable how well Janette carried on her family's legacy by helping create the Carter Fold and what that has grown into from such humble beginnings," said Bill Hartley, executive director of the Birthplace Of Country Music Alliance in Bristol. "Thanks to the foundation she built with the Carter Fold, her family legacy lives on." In September, JANETTE CARTER was given the Bess Lomax Hawes Award by the National Endowment For The Arts, which recognized her lifelong effort to preserve and perform Appalachian music. A.P., Maybelle and Sara Carter recorded the songs 'Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow,' 'Little Log Cabin By The Sea,' and 'Poor Orphan Child' with a sound and harmony that was unheard of at the time, and immensely influential on Country music ever since. In 2003, the United States Library Of Congress celebrated the 75th anniversary of their first recordings with a concert on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

01.17.06 (MusicPortal.com) On January 31st, Recall Music For Films will release the soundtrack for Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut, "The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada." The collection features the music of South Texas and Northern Mexico, the setting of the movie, including original music from composer Marco Beltrami ("Scream," "I Robot") and songs by Merle Haggard, Flaco Jimenez, Hank Williams Jr., Freddie Fender, Bobby Flores, Dwight Yoakam (who also appears in the film), Lila Downs and more. As an added bonus, the disc will feature a mini-documentary video about the making of the soundtrack. "My idea was to choose popular songs that might easily be heard in that location, but would have some commentary on the action of the film, the situation of the characters, and the ironies and dramatic tensions at play," said Jones, who is a native of San Saba, Texas near Austin. Those songs included Merle Haggard's 1979 hit 'Workin' Man Blues,' Freddie Fender's #1 smash 'Before The Next Teardrop Falls' and Flaco Jimenez's 'This Could Be The One.' The soundtrack will also feature a new exclusive track, 'Donde Estas Papa' by Lila Downs, who recently won a Latin Grammy for "Best Folk Album." Downs gained recognition when she sang and acted in the film "Frida" and performed music from the film at the 2003 Academy Awards ceremony. Marco Beltrami's new compositions capture the essence of the region's uniquely blended sound. From the Tex-Mex Conjunto flavored opening track 'Three Burials Of Melquiades,' to the gritty Country & Western clip 'Stalking Mike,' to the bittersweet closer, 'Goodbye.' Beltrami was primarily inspired by the relationship between Jones' character Pete, a ranch foreman, and Melquiades, a Mexican farmer, as well as the breathtaking scenery. "The thing that struck me most besides the friendship theme...was the landscape itself. I thought the music should have a more earthy feel, a more indigenous feel," said Beltrami. "The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada" is the story of Melquiades Estrada who is shot and quickly buried. His body is found in the high desert of west Texas and reburied in the town cemetery. In order to honor the promise he made to his best friend Melquiades of a proper burial in his Mexican hometown, Pete Perkins (Jones), leads an investigation into his death, finds his killer and offers his friend the most beautiful journey back to his Mexican homeland. The movie was recently honored at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in France, winning "Best Screenplay" for Guillermo Arriago ("21 Grams") and "Best Actor" for Tommy Lee Jones. The film also stars Barry Pepper ("The Green Mile," "Saving Private Ryan") and January Jones (Love Actually). "It is refreshing to know that Tommy Lee Jones had just as much passion for the score and the soundtrack as he did for the film," says Chris Gray, Managing Director for Recall. "It's an honor to launch our U.S.-based label with this album." "The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada" already screened last month in New York, and will premiere nationally February 3rd. Founded in 1997 by Alexandre Sap, Leslie Dubest and Stephane Lumbroso, Recall Group -- the parent company for Recall Music For Films -- is now one of the leading independent record companies in France.
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[Country News: December 2005]
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