Levon Helm at Summerstage in Central Park (more by Chris La Putt)

The Band's Levon Helm will step outside of his weekly Midnight Ramble for a show at Wellmont Theatre on February 10th with Peter Wolf. Tickets are currently on AMEX presale and go on regular sale Friday 11/18 at noon. The show, along with a pair of dates that he has lined up at Ulster Performing Arts Center in Kingston, NY (11/18 and 5/25) are his only non-Midnight Ramble dates announced thus far. Full tour schedule is below.

Meanwhile, the Midnight Ramble continues this weekend with special guest Hook Herrera and on 12/3 Helm will welcome Jimmy Vivino (of Conan's Basic Cable band) and Dawes. Tickets for that show, and all others are still available (either seated or Standing Room Only).

Dawes will also head down to NYC & NJ that same week. Both Maxwell's shows, which Robert Ellis is opening, are now sold out though. You can catch Robert Ellis though during a tour with John Doe that hits City Winery on December 4th. For the X man, it's one of many gigs that will be keeping him busy through New Year's Eve.

All Levon and Dawes and Robert Ellis and X dates and a video below...

Continue reading "Levon Helm, Dawes, Robert Ellis & John Doe shows (dates)"

X's John Doe is in NYC to to promote his new album "Keeper" which follows his release from earlier this year, a collaboration with Jill Sobule. John will make three live/tv appearances while he's here. Tonight (9/7), catch a free performance at 7pm at Soundfix Records in Brooklyn. Thursday (9/8) catch John at Rockwood Music Hall where he'll probably play a longer show. Thursday night watch him on Letterman!

If you miss him, John won't be gone long, but when he returns it will be the more punk rock version of himself. X just announced a show at Maxwell's that happens on their fall tour that also includes two NYC shows and a gig in Asbury Park.

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"

My Brightest Diamond @ LPR in 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns in January for its thirteenth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights of pop, folk, cabaret, country, rock, and show tunes, the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic songwriting. The 2011 season - January 12 through February 20 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, starting with the luminous legend Barbara Cook, the multi-faceted Joan Osborne, as well as the newest toast of Broadway, Kate Baldwin. It will feature opportunities to hear the acclaimed opera star
Pfizer is a proud sponsor of Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2011.

Stephanie Blythe and stage and film actress Anika Noni Rose who make their solo pop concert debuts, and the enduring influence of Latin music in the American Songbook canon will be represented by the modern bossa nova of Bebel Gilberto and the Cuban rhythms of Broadway star Raul Esparza. Arguably the greatest songwriting team in American Songbook history are the brothers George and Ira Gershwin, and they will be the subject of a Rob Fisher tribute with an array of dazzling voices.

Carolina Chocolate Drops also play one of the shows. Full schedule and more info at Lincoln Center's site.

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)"

photos by Ryan Barkan

Just as everyone at the SXSW Music Festival was finding their groove Wednesday, news of the death of Alex Chilton hit. "Austin's in shock about Alex," read one of the countless social media memes. On Saturday, heartsick Big Star fans got to hear Chilton songs performed by a cast of guest musicians sitting in on the regularly scheduled Big Star showcase, held down by the remaining members of the band's current incarnation, Jon Auer, Ken Stringfellow and Jody Stephens...

But first a letter from Chilton's widow, Laura, who the 59-year-old musician had only recently married, was read by publicist Heather West [video below]...

...Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets lumbered through "In the Street," otherwise known as the theme song for That 70's Show. M. Ward of She & Him croaked an elegant "Big Black Car." Mike Mills of R.E.M. found his religion with "Jesus Christ." John Doe of X dispatched a crystal clear "I'm in Love with a Girl." And in what was the night's biggest surprise, Sondre Lerche provided an intense, harmonic "The Ballad of El Goodo."

And that's how it went for the entire hour and a half, with guest musicians including Chris Stamey, Chuck Prophet, Evan Dando, Amy Speace, the Watson Twins, Susan Cowsill, and original Big Star member Andy Hummel (who came in from Lithuania for the show) all getting a chance to pay tribute to Chilton. A rendition of the classic "Thirteen" was one of the final songs of the night, the lyrics of which encapsulated not only the special moment that was taking place in the storied Antone's blues club, but the entire SXSW Music Festival: "Rock & roll is here to stay/ Come inside where it's okay." [Rolling Stone]

The full setlist with more pictures and a video from the show, below...

Continue reading "Big Star members & many special guests paid tribute to Alex Chilton Saturday night @ SXSW - pics, video & setlist"

"In true honky tonk style, Country Club is the bastard child of a drunken promise. A post show hang-out between X & the Knitters' [John] Doe and The Sadies produced the idea to join forces to a make an album of country songs. Both rock n' roll and country music are littered with the ghosts of broken promises but this one was destined to become reality. Timeless sounds abound on Country Club, driven by Doe's gorgeous vocals, the dueling thousand pound chops of the guitar-wielding Good brothers and The Sadies' world class rhythm section of Mike Belitsky and Sean Dean. Here, the Countrypolitan sound of late 1960s Nashville is filtered through the telecaster-based tonk of Bakersfield, CA and the results are simply stunning." [Yep Roc]

Country Club is out now on Yep Roc Records and streaming at Reverb Nation.

John Doe and The Sadies are playing several May dates as a combo. Those include a show at NYC's City Winery on Wednesday, May 6th. Tickets are on sale now. All dates below.

John Doe also has scattered tour dates with X from now till June. As part of their Total Request Live tour, which will feature set lists picked online by fans, X is playing three nights at the Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale for all three dates: May 29, May 30, May 31, and the three day pass

The Sadies are opening dates for Jenny Lewis from May 27th to June 4th. Lewis continues on tour without the Sadies through July 9th which is exactly a month after she plays Music Hall of Williamsburg with Deer Tick (sold out).

The Sadies are also featured on Neko Case's new album Middle Cyclone. Neko is in NYC for two shows at the Nokia Theatre as I write this.

All John Doe & The Sadies tour dates below...

Continue reading "John Doe (of X) & The Sadies - an album & 2009 tour dates"

Their first four albums had a hard-driving sound that occasionally flirted with rockabilly and blues; one critic suggests that X "were not just one of the greatest punk bands, but one of the greatest live rock acts of all time." By the time of their fifth album, Ain't Love Grand!, the band had taken a more mainstream hard rock-oriented direction, and began to appear on shows such as American Bandstand. X, however, had previously appeared on television for a 1984 performance on Late Night with David Letterman. [Wikipedia]

Last time members of legendary West Coast punk band X were in NYC town, it was just "Exene Cervenka and John Doe of X". They played shows at Joe's Pub and Music Hall of Williamsburg in January. Next time it will be the full band, at Bowery Ballroom, and for three nights in a row. Tickets for the May 29-31 shows go on sale Friday ($27 / $75 3 day ticket). All dates, and video from their recent appearance on Craig Ferguson, below...

Continue reading "X - 2009 tour dates (3 nights @ Bowery), Ferguson video "

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"

John Doe performing live in KUT's Studio1A. 7-11-07

* Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings for free
* The Lovely Sparrows from Austin are @ Pete's Candy Store
* Michael Showalter records two more shows @ Union Hall
* Wes' Undisputed Heavyweights continue a Joe's Pub residency
* Hippiefest is going on in Coney Island
* X frontman John Doe is at Mercury Lounge w/ Dead Rock West

What else? More John Doe dates below...

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday? (+ John Doe tour dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Scissors for Lefty - Lay Down Your Weapons (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Scissors for Lefty - Ghetto Ways (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Wooden Wand - The Pushers (Morning Version) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Wooden Wand - Spitting at the Cameras (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: John Doe - The Golden State (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Joan As Policewoman - The Ride (MP3)

As summer draws near, the music release lists get shorter - especially for new releases. Sonic Youth's remastered edition of their classic album Daydream Nation (as recently performed live in Spain) and several Dick Dale reissues are the highlights of this release week for me.

I can also strongly recommend Joan As Police Woman's Real Life, Former X frontman John Doe's A Year In The Wilderness, former Jayhawk and Creekdipper Mark Olson's solo album, The Salvation Blues, Scissors for Lefty's Underhanded Romance, and Wooden Wand's James and the Quiet.

What new releases can you recommend this week?

Continue reading "Largehearted Boy's Interesting CD Releases This Week"