Canadian folk/alt-country band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are set to release Kings and Queens today (6/14) in the US via Music/Dramatico/Universal. The album features a different female vocalist in each track, and the list is pretty impressive. It includes Lucinda Williams, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Exene Cervenka of X, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash and others. Full tracklist below.

The band plays The Living Room TONIGHT (6/14). Tickets are available. They play at 9 PM before Joseph Arthur plays one of his 10 shows at the same venue at 10 PM.

No special guests are announced, but we know at least one of the artists that appears on the album is probably in town. NYC resident Rosanne Cash, who spends much of the summer touring to promote her music and a book, has no dates scheduled before this Thursday (6/16) when she plays as part of Hal Wilner's 'Freedom Riders' show with Lou Reed, Tao Seeger, and others.

Lucinda Williams also has shows coming up too. She plays Wellmont Theatre on July 20 (tickets) and Beacon Theater on July 21 (tickets) with Amos Lee.

Emmylou Harris plays Summerstage on July 18 with the Levon Helm Band and Hayes Carll. Tickets are still on sale.

Exene Cervenka will be in NYC with X in September and October.

I don't know if Sara Watkins is on tour with the Decemberists (who play Prospect Park tonight), but she did play with them at the Beacon Theater in January.

All B&RK tour dates, album art, and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Blackie & the Rodeo Kings released a guest-filled album, playing a NYC show tonight (and other dates)"

Much like the Damned (who will perform Damned Damned Damned and The Black Album on their upcoming tour), legendary punk band X will perform all of Los Angeles at some upcoming shows. They'll also host a screening of the classic documentary The Unheard Music when they hit Irving Plaza in NYC on September 30th and October 1st. Tickets for both shows, also available as a 2-day pass, went on Live Nation / Mobile App / Music Geeks presale today (6/14). General sale begins Friday.

Speaking of Los Angeles, the LA band is currently on tour in California where they're playing with the entire original lineup. That includes Exene who announced she was suffering from MS in 2009. That may be partly be because....

Nearly two years later, she reports that she may have been misdiagnosed.

"My doctor doesn't think I have MS anymore. He thought I had a virus, like a killer virus, then he decided I don't have that either. All I do is get tested - blood tests all the time. I go to a different doctor and they tell you something different, go to another one and they'll tell you something different. I've had so many doctors tell me I have MS, then some say I don't ... I don't even care anymore."

Yet she believes her diagnosis was a godsend: "I learned so much about people that are sick, people that are generous, people that share, people that give you advice, people that care about you and love you. It changed my life completely," she says.

"It made me a better person, made me take care of myself, whether I'm sick or I'm not. I've learned that everyone is sick with something. Our immune systems are failing, especially women. I know so many women with fibromyalgia, lupus, MS, cancer -- breast cancer, primarily -- chronic fatigue syndrome, depression ... we're falling apart. We can't do the work of five people."

Cervenka takes vitamins every day, exercises, keeps busy and spends time with her companion Minnie, a four-year-old miniature pincher. She's known she's been sick for a long time, she admits, but given the runaround so many receive from the medical community, she simply tries to tend to herself and not think about it.

"I've taken care of myself my whole life or I wouldn't be alive now. Look at the people who were in the early punk scene or the L.A. scene -- so many have passed away. A lot of that was misfortune and accidents, and some of it was just youth, suicide and drugs. The people that are around now that I've grown up with, we take pretty good care of ourselves. I mean we'll go out and have a drink or smoke a cigarette, but we take our vitamins." [OC Register]

Well, that's great news!

John Doe also has some upcoming solo dates, many of which are with Jill Sobule who he's been recording with.

"A Day at the Pass finally captures an ongoing collaboration between Jill Sobule & John Doe. It was funded entirely by their fans & w/ an all-star band, recorded live at The Pass studio on one fine day in Los Angeles.

It's available now as a digital download while a CD version, featuring 2 extra tracks, will be sold exclusively as part of Record Store Day beginning April 16th.

Included in both releases, for the hell of it, is a new garagey rockin' version of the "original" I Kissed a Girl."

You can listen to the CD with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "X on tour & playing Los Angeles in NY (dates), Exene doesn't have MS!!, John Doe did release a CD with Jill Sobule"

The Blind Boys of Alabama will curate a three-night series at Lincoln Center on July 12, 14 & 16. The events start with an opening night concert featuring rock artists Yo La Tengo, Lambchop, Exene Cervenka of X and Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket [plus Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Horns]. On July 14 the focus shifts to country music, with performances by Yonder Mountain String Band, Ralph Stanley, Alison Moorer and Randy Travis, plus Ray Benson and Jason Roberts of Asleep at the Wheel. The final evening, The Blind Boys' Family Revival, will feature songs from all of the group's Grammy Award-winning albums and includes collaborations with Aaron Neville, Joan Osborne, Hot 8 Brass Band, Dan Zanes, John Hammond, and Charlie Musselwhite, among others.

Tickets for all three are on sale now.

More details on the gospel group's Lincoln Center shows, their full upcoming schedule, a video of their performance on Letterman earlier this year with Lou Reed (they also visited Daytrotter in March) and more are below...

Continue reading "Blind Boys of Alabama touring, curated 3 shows @ Lincoln Center w/ many guests (Yo La Tengo, Jim James, more)"

Alejandro Escovedo @ Clearwater Fest 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

From the opening power chords of "Always a Friend" from "Real Animal" to the finishing frenzy of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog," Alejandro Escovedo performed energetic versions of favorites ("Castanets"), selections from the upcoming "Street Songs of Love" album (the title tune was a standout) and covers of the Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden" and "Sway."

He remembered recently deceased friends and collaborators Alex Chilton (the Box Tops, Big Star) and Stephen Bruton ("Crazy Heart") with a passionate "Sister Lost Soul." He thanked Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter for standing by him during his bout with hepatitis-C in the new "Down in the Bowery." And he debuted "Gotta Have Faith" with "This is the one from the new album that the guy from New Jersey sings on." Bruce Springsteen would have been proud of the economy of the introduction.

This was the third of nine shows the band is playing before the June 29 release of "Street Songs of Love." Afterward, fans pleaded for a promise to return on the next leg. Cross your fingers now. It's not too early to start wishing. [Cincinnati.com]

The above review is from Alejandro Escovedo's gig on Friday, April 2nd at Southgate House in Newport, KY. He plays tonight (4/8) at the lovely Tarrytown Music Hall in Westchester with his band, and Graham Parker opening. Tickets are still on sale.

The show is one of the only NYC-area stops on his current tour. The other is an afternoon at "Concerts In The Studio" held in Freehold, NJ (about 90 minutes from NYC by train) on Sunday, April 11th. The shows take place in a photo studio next to the home of the hosting couple, Mark & Elaine who seem to be drawing a highly respectable group of performers for their shows. Also on the schedule is a gig with X members John Doe and Exene Cervenka on May 1st. Info on those and other upcoming shows is at their website.

All Alejandro dates and videos of both the studio and Alejandro (who was at SXSW), as well as the tracklisting for the above-referenced new album, are below...

Continue reading "Alejandro Escovedo on tour, tonight in NY, Sunday @ 'Concerts In The Studio' (where John Doe & Exene are also palying)"

A pair of reunions (Moonshine Willy, the Blacks), a local upstart (Scotland Yard Gospel Choir) and a staggering turn by the Texas-born Alejandro Escovedo highlighted Bloodshot Records' 15th anniversary celebration at a scaled-back Hideout Block Party on Saturday.

The daylong event, which took place under blue skies on an outdoor stage 25 yards from the door of the treasured dive, attracted a sizable crowd for performances by a number of former and current Bloodshot artists.

Almost every song in the Blacks' ferocious, too-short set touched on love -- or, more accurately, what happens when it falls apart. Front man Danny Black, dressed head-to-toe in white and sang like a man who had little but the bottle for comfort, while singer-standup bassist Gina Black (no relation) growled her way through a tormented "Horrorshow."

Scotland Yard Gospel Choir turned out an equally stunning set, building its shambolic indie rock tunes around front man Elia Einhorn's confessional lyrics. "Can I be brutally honest?" Einhorn asked on "Oh Lee," answering his own question with an unequivocal "yes" when he crooned the opening line of "Stop!": "I hope you catch syphilis and die alone." [Chicago Tribune]

The Chicago stop of the Bloodshot Records 15th anniversary tour happened last weekend on September 12th.

The tour has a (free) show in Austin this upcoming weekend (9/19) before coming to Brooklyn's Bell House on September 26th. The lineup there won't have Alejandro Escovedo or the Blacks, who are described above (acts rotate from city to city), but it will include Bobby Bare Jr, Exene Cervenka, Dex Romweber Duo, Cordero, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, The Silos, Ben Weaver and Rosie Flores. 4pm doors / 5pm show. Entry is is only $5, no advance tickets are on sale.

This is the first time I've seen Exene on a bill since her June announcement that she has multiple sclerosis (which came shortly after her band X's 3-night run at Bowery Ballroom). That's awesome that, as she promised, she isn't letting her diagnosis control her life.

Dexter Romweber played some shows with Cat Power in February.

Videos from the tour's Chicago and Wisconsin (8/23) stops are posted, along with all Bobby Bare Jr. dates, below...

Continue reading "Bloodshot Records BBQ coming to Brooklyn w/ Exene Cervenka, Bobbby Bare Jr & more (full lineup, videos, dates)"

Exene Cervenka @ Bowery Ballroom - May 29, 2009 (more by Jacob Blickenstaff)

STATEMENT FROM EXENE CERVENKA OF X:

After some months of not feeling 100% healthy, I recently had some medical tests run and the prognosis is that I am suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Apparently, it has been affecting me for quite some time.

Although this is obviously unfortunate news, I am choosing to see the positive in it. I, and X as a band, have supported the Sweet Relief charity since the mid-1990's; the irony of this is not lost on any of us. Sweet Relief was started as an aide to uninsured artists by musician Victoria Williams when she herself was diagnosed with MS in 1992.

While this diagnosis will most certainly mean some changes for me, personally, it will not affect my commitments to the current X U.S. tour, nor will it affect my solo album that is slated for release this fall on Bloodshot Records.

My focus will certainly be on maintaining my health--many people remain strong and continue to live their lives as productively as they had before an MS diagnosis and I plan to be one of those people.

To find out more about Sweet Relief please visit: www.sweetrelief.org
To find out more about X please visit: www.xtheband.com

This sad news comes just after the completion of X's 3-night, fan-driven-setlist, run at Bowery Ballroom in NYC (May 29-31). The above picture comes from Night One. A picture of the the setlist from Night Two, below..

Continue reading "X's Exene Cervenka announces she has multiple sclerosis"

DOWNLOAD: John Doe - Heartless (MP3)

X have three holiday shows lined up for the end of this year in California. According to a flyer for the LA show, it is once again the full original lineup and "All your favorite X & holiday tunes".

And though there aren't any future, full band, east coast dates on X's calendar, "acoustic duo" Exene Cervenka and John Doe have two shows lined up in NYC in January of 2009. The first is January 10th at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The show is seated, Justin Townes Earle is opening, and tickets are on sale at noon. The second is one day later at the much smaller Joe's Pub, but with no opener (and probably a drink minimum if you want a seat) - tickets are on sale now. All dates below...

Continue reading "X - west coast holiday shows, Brooklyn & Joe's Pub"