Country

Cash Johnny: Get rhythm 1955-64 [2 CD]

Justin Townes Earle left this world a little over a mile from where he came in, having seen more of it than most folks in his thirty-eight years before his all too short arc brought him right back to where he started from; Nashville, Tennessee. <br/><br/>The evening Justin was born, in what was then called Baptist Hospital, his mother, Carol, exhausted after 36 hours in labor fell immediately into a deep sleep and I was left staring into the eyes of my first-born son. After a while, a kindly nurse asked if I would like to carry him to the nursery myself. I don't know how I ever negotiated the walk down the hall without tripping over my own two feet. I couldn't take my eyes off him and he looked right back at me, hardly blinking, as if to say, "I know you." After a bit of a gentle tug-of-war at the nursery door I reluctantly relinquished custody to the nurse. <br/><br/>My arms had never felt so empty. <br/><br/>Suddenly it occurred to me that I hadn't spoken to any of my family back in Texas since I'd phoned early the day before to let them know that Carol was in labor and we were headed for the hospital. <br/><br/>I beelined for the payphones in the waiting room and was relieved to find a quarter in my pocket (not a given at that point in my career). I dropped it in the slot and dialed my parents' number in Houston. My Dad answered and immediately upon hearing his voice, I burst into tears and apologized for every shitty thing I'd ever said or done to him, which was a litany. <br/><br/>Carol and I split up when Justin was 3 and he shuttled between our households, sometimes voluntarily sometimes not, until he left home. That event occurred pretty organically when he accompanied me on a teaching sabbatical to the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. <br/><br/>Justin was playing by that time, having gone from post-mortem Nirvana fan to acoustic blues practitioner by way of Kurt Cobain's WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT. He'd only been interested in electric guitar until seeing Cobain hunched over the big Martin acoustic on MTV Unplugged so I pointed him towards the original recorded version in my record collection. Leadbelly was next to Lightnin' Hopkins and Lightnin' next to Mance Lipscomb and next thing I knew he was playing stuff I'd been trying to sort out for years. The original idea of Justin going to Chicago (besides just keeping an eye on him) was that he would take a few classes at the Old Town School, but within a few weeks he was TEACHING fingerstyle guitar. By the time I completed my eight-week course and returned home Justin had turned 18 and elected to remain behind. <br/><br/>He was back in Nashville six months later and, musically, things began to develop rapidly. A jug band, a rock band, a short stint as a Duke, but, lo and behold he'd begun to come up with songs of his own and they were really fucking good. He would release 8 full length albums and an EP over 13 years during which our paths crossed infrequently, usually on the road. Ironically, we both sat out the last summer of his life in Tennessee, grounded by pandemic, unable to escape to the only place either one of us ever felt at home. The Highway. <br/><br/>We spoke often those last few months, saw each other a handful of times and I talked to him the night he died. I am grateful for that. This record is called J.T. because he was never called anything else until he was nearly grown. Well, when he was little, I called him Cowboy. For better or worse, right or wrong, I loved Justin Townes Earle more than anything else on this earth. That being said, I made this record, like every other record I've ever made... for me. It was the only way I knew to say goodbye. <br/><br/>See you when I get there, Cowboy,<br/>Dad

Som titeln antyder är nya plattan en hyllning till läromästaren och vännen Jerry Jeff Walker, som dog hösten 2020, 78 år gammal. <br/><br/>Med "Jerry Jeff" kompletterar Steve Earle den serie hyllningsplattor som inleddes med 2009 års "Townes" (Townes van Zandt), fortsatte med 2029 års "Guy" (Guy Clark) och som nu avslutas med "Jerry Jeff".<br/><br/>2021 gav Steve Earle dessutom ut "J.T.", en fin men smärtsam hyllningen till sonen Justin Townes Earle, som dog 2020, endast 38 år.<br/><br/>"The records were recorded and released in the order in which they left this world. But make no mistake - it was Jerry Jeff Walker who came first," says Earle.<br/> <br/>Earle was 14 when he first heard Walker. His high school drama teacher gave him a copy of "Mr. Bojangles," Walker's classic ballad about an unforgettable character he met in a New Orleans jail. After Earle moved to Nashville in the 1970s, he had the opportunity to get to know Walker, who enlisted him as his designated driver.<br/>"There's a tendency to think of Jerry Jeff around a relationship to one song," Earle says, referring to "Mr. Bojangles," which was covered by everyone from Bob Dylan to Sammy Davis Jr. "He was also such a great interpreter of other people's songs. But my main purpose in recording this album was to remind people that he wrote a lot of fucking great songs."

Earle Steve & The Dukes: The Saint of Lost Causes<br/>Yellow vinyl. Limited edition.

Idén är egentligen lika enkel som genial - nya generationer av entusiastiska artister tar sig an den levande legenden Owe Thörnqvists enorma musikskatt! Inte mindre än 22 artister från Sverige, Europa och USA gör på detta album sina tolkningar av Owes klassiska hitlåtar. <br/><br/>Owe har själv varit minst lika entusiastisk under detta projekt - där han har haft insyn från början till slut. I egenskap av den energiske 89-åring (som han bevisligen är!) så kunde inte Owe hålla sig ifrån att ytterligare sätta sin prägel på albumet - genom att medverka på öppningsspåret med ett eldigt munspelssolo. <br/><br/>På samma sätt som Owe Thörnqvist genom åren har framfört en stor bredd av musikstilar - så återfinns det även ett flertal stilar på detta album, i form av bl.a rockabilly, country, blues, latino, jazz, boogie woogie och swing. <br/><br/>Den geografiska spridningen på artisterna är även påtagligt bred... Inom Sverige jämt fördelat från norra Norrland till sydligaste Skåne. Därtill har tydligen Owe också satt spår internationellt... Vilket föranlett medverkan från Norge (Built For Speed) och Danmark (Mads Clausen) vidare till exotiska inslag från Tyskland (Boppin'B), Portugal (No Smoking On Board) och USA (John Whiteleather). <br/><br/>Boogiemannen rockar onekligen vidare och hans odödliga låtar likaså - i form av dessa 22 högst respektfulla och underhållande tolkningar!!

Mona G: Country pärlor 2 2012 [CD]

Limiterad vinyl version.<br/><br/>Kikki Danielsson behöver egentligen ingen närmare presentation. Den ständigt omskrivna och numera också kritikerhyllade countrydrottningen har ett digert CV som få andra svenska artister kommer i närheten av. Med närmare femtio år i branschen och över 3,5 miljoner sålda album är hon sedan länge KIKKI med hela det svenska folket . Ständigt aktuell och fortfarande en av våra starkast lysande stjärnor på artisthimlen. I maj fyllde hon 70 år och istället för att slå av på takten så är hon mer i rampljuset än nånsin förr. Den nakna sanningen om människan Kikki Danielsson släpps i boken "Du vet inget om mig" (Bazar) den 25 Oktober och en månad senare den 17 November kommer soundtracket i form av albumet "Ängel med sorgkant".<br/><br/>På det nya albumet finns alla dom beståndsdelar som gjort Kikki till den folkkära artist hon är idag och som inneburit att hennes karriär spänt över flera generationer. På "Ängel med sorgkant" återgår hon till det svenska språket men släpper inte taget om sin musikaliska kärlek till countryn.<br/>I låtar som "Några Steg på botten", "Låt Aldrig Skuggorna Slå Rot", "Så länge giftet verkar" mfl överträffar hon sig själv när det gäller att beröra, nå fram och bottna i sitt eget uttryck. Kikkis röst bär fram texterna som urrivna blad ur hennes högst privata dagbok och man förstår varför Nashville gärna behållit henne när hon gjorde succé där på 80-talet. För ingen, absolut ingen annan artist har på samma sätt fulländat countrymusiken på det svenska språket.<br/>Det finns helt enkelt bara en Kikki Danielsson!