Newport Folk Festival 2009 (more by Jim Brueckner)

Newport Folk Festival will be happening again at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 31st and August 1st. The fest will also host a Friday night show on July 30th at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport Casino.

The lineup so far includes Levon Helm's Ramble on the Road, John Prine, Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers, Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket, The Swell Season, Andrew Bird, The Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile, Doc Watson & David Holt, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Calexico, Blitzen Trapper, Richie Havens, Sam Bush, The Low Anthem, Tim O'Brien, The Felice Brothers, Justin Townes Earle, Tao Seeger Band, A.A. Bondy, The Punch Brothers with Chris Thile, Dawes, Nneka, Horse Feathers, Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three, Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore, Sarah Jarosz, Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons, O'Death and Liz Longley.

Tickets are on sale.

Here are pictures from DAY ONE and DAY TWO of last year's fest. Videos from last year and the list of the artists playing this year, by day, is below...

Continue reading "Newport Folk Fest 2010 - initial lineup, dates & tickets "

photos by Tim Griffin

a coming out party of sorts on Friday night (2/19) at the Bowery Ballroom, [Dawes] radiated pure joy and genuine appreciation about getting to where they are today, so much so that it became almost impossible not to root for them. Not only did frontman Taylor Goldsmith repeatedly reflect on previous trips to the city, playing to less attentive crowds and minimal accolades while supporting other bands and in much less glamorous rooms, but they made it clear that it wasn't just about them. It was about a collective "us." Goldsmith literally thanked the fans at every opportunity, making it clear that it wasn't just Dawes that's been getting bigger, it was about everybody in the room getting bigger together. These guys understand that they aren't doing this alone. [Hidden Track]

The Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons, Dawes and Jason Boesel tour came to Bowery Ballroom on Friday, February 19th. Dawes headlined and played as Jason Boesel's backing band. The tour ends March 11th in LA.

Dawes will then make their way to Austin where they'll be one of the bands that we're proud to host at the official BrooklynVegan SXSW showcase on Wednesday, March 17th at Club DeVille. They share the bill with Bowerbirds, Here We Go Magic, The Middle East, Califone and Serena-Maneesh (who I saw in Norway the same night Dawes played Bowery Ballroom).

We can't wait. You can also catch Dawes on March 20th, at the Ground Control Showcase @ Auditorium Shores, with She & Him, Justin Townes Earle, Deer Tick (who just announced a new album) & more.

More pictures, and a video from the NYC show are below...

Continue reading "Dawes played Bowery Ballroom w/ Cory Chisel & Jason Boesel (pics), playing BV show @ SXSW & other dates"

DOWNLOAD: Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons - Born Again (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Jason Boesel - French Kissing (MP3)

Mr. Chisel & Ms. Harris (photo: St. Vincent Skeltis)

The songs on [Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons's] Death Won't Send A Letter were recorded [with producer Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, The White Stripes)] primarily at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, TN with Chisel's backing vocalist/keyboard player Adriel Harris and "Little Jack" Lawrence (The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather) on initial tracking. Cory, Adriel and Little Jack were then joined by Jack's longtime collaborator Patrick Keeler (The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes) on drums. With Patrick and Jack's driving rhythm section the albums' sound took on a grittier hue. And in Brendan Benson Cory found a writing and arranging partner that birthed the lead album track "Born Again." Carl Broemel from My Morning Jacket also contributes on guitar.

Death Won't Send a Letter came out in September 2009 on Black Seal Records. Its lead song, the Benson/Chisel co-written "Born Again," is posted above, and the video for it, featuring both of them, is below. Chisel and Brendan Benson toured together in late 2009.

For Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons' next tour, they'll be co-headlining with California band Dawes this February and March. They play a Friday, February 19th show at NYC's Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are on sale.

Jason Boesel will be opening at Bowery and all other dates on te tour. His debut solo album Hustler's Son just came out on January 12th on Conor Oberst's Team Love. A song from that album is above. Boesel's fairly storied history as a drummer and sideman is documented in his Wiki page...

Jason Boesel is the drummer for Rilo Kiley and has also played with The Elected. He also drummed in the Bright Eyes touring band during their 2005 tour, and went on to write the liner notes for the consequent Bright Eyes live album, Motion Sickness and contributing to Bright Eyes' latest record, Cassadaga. From December 2007, he has played with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst in his latest project, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. The band played this year's Reading and Leeds festivals in England and released the album Conor Oberst in August on Merge Records. On May 5 Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band released their second album Outer South - in which Boesel wrote and sings lead for two tracks. He is also said to have worked on at least one track, on the Young Veins (featuring former member of Panic! at the Disco, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker) debut record.

Dawes will play as his backing band on the tour.

Dawes (Photo: Matt Fruen)

Dawes' debut record, North Hills, produced by Jonathan Wilson (Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis), came out in September on ATO Records. Their single for "When My Time Comes" is available for free if you sign up for their e-mail list. Their song "When You Call My Name" was recent featurd on NPR. Dawes' humid, summery video for their plainspoken song "Love Is All I Am," is worth watching and posted below.

All tour dates and videos are below...

Continue reading "Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons, Dawes and Jason Boesel touring (2010 dates)"

DOWNLOAD: The Raveonettes - Come on Santa (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Pollyn - December as a Child (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Future Clouds and Radar - Christmas Day 1923 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: 65daysofstatic - I'm Dreaming of a White Noise Christmas (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Bran Flakes - Lovely Sleigh Ride (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Whitman - Hangover Holiday (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Nina Hynes - Twinkle (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Gorgons - Silver Bells (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Charles De Mar - This Christmas (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Secret Machines (Brandon Curtis) - Silent Night (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Coulourmusic - In A Sentimental Mood (MP3)

tonight in NYC
* DM Stith @ The Stone
* Processing X-Mas @ The Stone

Merry Christmas!

Our thoughts and prayers are with Vic Chesnutt.

On TV:

What started out as a scheduling lark -- Turner's 24-hour "A Christmas Story" marathon -- has now spread across the cable yuletide landscape.

For the 13th year in a row, Turner will dust off the 1983 cult fave, which will air this year from 8 p.m. Christmas Eve until 8 p.m. Christmas Day on TBS....Turner rivals have taken notice -- which means TBS isn't the only cabler decking the halls with a wall-to-wall marathon this year.

Leading the alternatives to "A Christmas Story" is FX, which is planning to run the movie "Night at the Museum" for a full day, also from Christmas Eve evening to Christmas Day evening. FX sister Fox Movie Channel will do the same with "Home Alone."...Over at AMC, the cabler is splitting its holiday marathon in two, running 1954's "White Christmas" all Christmas Eve night, and then 1989's "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" all Christmas day.

Then there's Spike TV, which will spend Dec. 25 running "Bad Santa" over and over again. [Variety]

A Holiday Poem from Brendan Benson and Cory Chisel, and other videos below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's Going on Friday? (Christmas)"

Brendan Benson's latest solo record, My Old, Familiar Friend, came out over the summer on August 18th. A day earlier his tour kicked off with a show at NYC's Bowery Ballroom on August 17th.

Now he's on tour again, with two NYC-area dates this weekend. Brendan Benson plays Friday, December 4th at (Le) Poisson Rouge (tickets) and Saturday December 5th at Maxwell's (tickets ). Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons open both shows.

Playing behind Brendan will be a collection of familiar session players, including Ryan Adams & the Cardinals drummer Brad Pemberton, Raconteurs sideman Mark Watrous and Ben Folds bassist Jared Reynolds. The tour started in November, and its second stop was in Lawrence, Kansas, on Nov. 14th...

Curiously, none of the songs he played as a co-frontman of the Raconteurs were in the set, but considering that his new solo record, My Old, Familiar Friend, was recorded two years ago and finally released this August, who can blame him? Since 2005, he's toured and recorded two albums with Jack White and company and has probably been itching to play his solo stuff for a while now.

His backup band, which consisted of a drummer, bassist, and second guitarist/keyboardist, is as tight an outfit as one could ask for and brought out the subtle dynamics and intricacies to Benson's songwriting without losing any of its vigor.

Benson, dressed in black from head to toe, was slinging a lime green Fender telecaster covered in paisley. For the most part, he favored the "less talk, more rock" approach, letting the music speak for itself. [Back to Rockville]

I don't think it's weird that he doesn't play Raconteurs song - he was a solo artist way before that band, but I don't think it would be wrong if he played some of those tracks either. All tour dates and a few videos from earlier in the tour (including Benson & Cory Chisel performing "American Girl") are below...

Continue reading "Brendan Benson on tour w/ Cory Chisel (dates & videos)"

words & photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

The Duke & The King had their record release show at NYC's Mercury Lounge on Tuesday night for their new album "Nothing Gold Can Stay" on Ramseur Records. The band is centered around the duo of Robert "Chicken" Burke and Simone Felice (of the Felice Brothers) and was filled out with simple instrumentation of violin, bass and a sometimes drummer/singer in a Wu-Tang T-Shirt (The Deacon). Simone and the Chicken traded off leading songs on guitar, harmonizing and playing the drums at an informal pace, feeling out which song would be played next in an intuitive, democratic manner. Simone Felice had the most presence as a leader with a confident, steady voice and the body language of both a bird stretching its wings and a snake coiling up on itself. There was a genuine appreciation among the musicians for each other, Simone and the Deacon hugged a couple times on stage, and when the violinist played a pretty intro Simone remarked, "That was beautiful, play that again!" The music was refreshingly pure; like the people who bring down the organic apples to the Union Square Farmer's Market, it was a reminder that current music can be made by simple means with out all the ego and unnecessary modern distractions.

The Duke & The King are now on tour and will be back in NYC to play a show at City Winery with Cory Chisel on August 25th. All dates and more pictures from the Mercury Lounge show below...

Continue reading "The Duke & The King - Mercury Lounge pics, 2009 tour dates "