Tag: Americana

BGS 5+5: Thomm Jutz

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Thomm Jutz
Hometown: born in Neusatz/Germany, living in Nashville, TN
Latest album: To Live in Two Worlds Vol.2
Personal nicknames: TJ

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

At this point in my life, I’d have to say that Norman Blake has influenced me the most. Not just as an instrumentalist, but also as a songwriter. When he started writing original material in the early ’70s he came out of the shoot with a distinctive songwriter’s voice. Unlike Kristofferson, Hartford, and Dylan, all of whom he had worked with, Blake’s focus was not on his inner world but on the old rural America that he’d grown up in. He applied his huge knowledge of railroad history to his writing. His songs were based on local characters that he’d grown up with or places that were meaningful to him. I like to write about historic events or characters from the past and I owe the inspiration for that to a large part to the great Norman Blake.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Literature has a great influence on my music. I read all the time. I try to keep something historical, a story and something philosophical or inspirational going at all times. The more I read, the more I write. Sometimes images from books come to me after years and I start writing about them. I also love to read cookbooks. In recent years I’ve really been into the novels of North Carolina writers Ron Rash and John Ehle.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

When I was eleven years old I saw Bobby Bare on TV. He hit me square between the eyes with his singing, the way he held the guitar and his cooler than cool attitude. My soul connected with the archetype of the wandering minstrel at that moment and has not let me go since. I never felt like I wanted to do anything but a musician and songwriter. I got to work with Bare a couple of times. He was every bit as great as I wanted him to be.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I can’t say that I struggle too much with songwriting. I believe that if you have a good idea and put in the time and co-write with the right people, your craft should make it possible for you to at the very least come up with something decent every time. One song idea that I had and didn’t know how to approach for over a year was for a song called “Help Me to Hold On” that I co-wrote with Milan Miller and that was recorded by Balsam Range. Every morning when I walked with my dog that idea was in my head, but I couldn’t some up with an angle to approach it. I still remember where I was out here by Percy Priest Lake when all the pieces came together. We wrote it the following Saturday and it didn’t take more than an hour to get it done.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I listen to a whole lot of Norman Blake’s music when I’m cooking dinner with my wife every night. Another really good pairing is when my friend and fellow songwriter Jefferson Ross comes to visit from Atlanta. We stand around the kitchen or the grill with a beer, cook together and talk about books, music and vintage guitars.

Photo credit: Jefferson Ross

LISTEN: Selena Rosanbalm, “Can You Really Be Gone”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Selena Rosanbalm
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Can You Really Be Gone”
Album: Selena Rosanbalm
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Label: The Balm Records

In Their Words: “My ex-boyfriend took his own life four and a half years ago, but I still see him all over the place. I thought I saw him driving a van the other day, thought I saw him in a coffee shop. But I was especially struck when I saw a photograph of his niece some months ago; I could see his face so clearly in hers. ‘Can You Really Be Gone’ is about the suspension of reality people often experience after losing a loved one, when the logical mind knows the person is gone, but the emotional mind doesn’t want to give in to that fact.” — Selena Rosanbalm

Photo credit: Daniel Cavazos

Despite Challenges, Phil Leadbetter Finds Motivation in the All Stars of Bluegrass

Posted on by Amy Reitnouer

There aren’t many people in bluegrass as adored as “Uncle” Phil Leadbetter. From performing for Gerald Ford with the Knoxville Newgrass Boys in 1975 to his work with J.D. Crowe, the formation of bands like Grasstowne, or beating cancer — not once, but five times — Leadbetter has earned his position as one of the most respected and beloved musicians in this familial genre.

His new project, Swing For the Fences, by Phil Leadbetter and the All Stars of Bluegrass, comes out September 25 on Pinecastle Records. While the band lost bassist, vocalist, and songwriter Steve Gulley to cancer between recording and release — as well as their touring schedule, slashed by COVID — Leadbetter is humble proof that we can keep pushing forward and doing what we love.

BGS sat down with Leadbetter to talk about the new release, working with old bandmates, and the dearly-departed Steve Gulley.

BGS: What’s something that ties these all stars of bluegrass together? What qualities were you looking for?

Leadbetter: I put this band together for a show one time, and we had Claire Lynch and Dale Ann Bradley. I was a founder or cofounder of several bands. I founded a band called Wildfire, I was a co-founder of Grasstowne with Steve [Gulley] and Alan [Bibey], which is Alan’s band now, and I was a cofounder of Flashback. With each band, a lot of times people just change directions. Each time I’ve lost the name, so that’s why I put my name out front with the All Stars of Bluegrass. I still kinda scratch my heels a little on it, but as the CD was coming out I had to make a decision. I told the guys, “my name’s out front, but every one of you still has 20% voice.”

On one of these all star shows, I just thought, “man I’m just gonna call ‘em all back together.” I had the chance to put together a show for a radio station, and I called on Alan and called on Steve. I decided that I wanted to do a record. Jason Burleson with Blue Highway, he was automatic. We had Claire Lynch, but she moved to Canada and couldn’t do it anymore. So I go back to Wildfire and I get Robert Hale.

One of our guests, Steve Wariner, he’s a good friend of mine I met during my cancer trip. When I came out of my third remission, he called me and said “listen to your voicemail.” He had written a song about me, my illness, about me and my wife. The song is too personal to record, but maybe one day. I said when Steve Gulley died I probably wouldn’t play again, but I found out I’ve gotta move on and Steve would want me to. With my illness I thought I would be gone first, and I told Steve that if I did, they should keep this band going. I just never expected him to go as quick as he did, like he did.

Steve Gulley, who so sadly passed away last month after a short battle with pancreatic cancer, has worked with you for years. So much in fact that he and his wife Debbie sing a duet (“Yesterday’s Gone”) on the new record. 

We were down to needing one more song. Steve had sung a song on some of his — he and Debbie had a country music show that they would do up in their town of Cumberland Gap — and Steve sung this song a few times. It was a Vern Gosdin tune, and I used to play with Vern a little bit, did a couple of trips with him. Anyway, we were down to one song and I told Steve, “you need to sing this one.” So he sang it, and he did it in one take. 

So anyway, we’re driving home and we’re throwing around names of people we need to call. Claire Lynch, she was with us before Robert Hale came in. So our first thought was to call Claire, but I told Steve I had an idea, “why don’t we get Debbie to sing?” They sent me the tracks and I just got blown away, how good it was. When Steve passed everything just made sense, I called the record company and told them we needed to get this out. 

You’ve been incredibly open with your cancer battles and victories over the last few years, even noting that “5-time cancer survivor” is your greatest achievement, beyond music or awards.

If I was to get twenty IBMA awards, that would still be my greatest achievement. Cause, you can’t get any awards if you’re dead. The very first one was so special because I had my wife and son there. I was pretty sick in 2014, then I got sick again and got well again. Then I got another one in 2019. You know, I just remember all of these so well, because I remember exactly where I was in my health when I got each one of them.

There’s so many good players right now, truthfully I hope the whole ballot will eventually be full with new players. There’s some of these guys out there right now that have moved really far ahead of what I’ve ever done, and so many other players, that it’s time to get some new blood on there, and keep people energized. I’ve had three, and one would have been enough if it meant seeing someone else get the next one.

So many things I would imagine have changed since the recording of this record. What are your thoughts when you listen back to it today?

It means a lot that I got to record with Steve again, and our last thing has been my favorite thing. I’ve done a lot of records, but this went easier than anything I’ve ever played on. I think a lot of it was that me and Alan, we already felt like brothers. And Steve, you add that in and it’s like three brothers. Jason comes in, and Robert Hale I’d worked with in Wildfire and with J.D. Crowe. It was just easy, like working with family. Our plan right now is to announce a new player at some point.

I’m looking forward to the next [record], but not having Steve there will be hard. With our concerts, I’ve made a promise to myself that every show we play will include a Steve Gulley song. So that way we never replace him, we just find somebody for the space.

 

WATCH: Malin Pettersen, “Queen of the Meadow”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Malin Pettersen
Hometown: Oslo, Norway
Song: “Queen of the Meadow”
Album: Wild Horse
Release Date: October 16, 2020
Label: Die With Your Boots On Records

In Their Words: “My grandmother, my father’s mother, died a few years ago. She lived on this tiny island and she is buried in the graveyard by the small island church. There is a kind of flower that grows out there called Queen of the Meadow (Mjødurt) and it has the sweetest most distinct smell. It makes me feel a quiet kind of happiness that is so pure and whole. After my grandmother died I tried writing her a song, but I just couldn’t find the words that could express how I felt about her. Words can only express so much — emotions are much more complex and textured. It ended up being a song about my own funeral. I hope I can be buried at the same graveyard, and I hope it’ll all align with the bloom of Mjødurt — because it holds everything I could ever dream of being remembered by.” — Malin Pettersen

Photo credit: Jonathan Vivaas Kise

Meet the Full Lineup of Shout & Shine Online

Posted on by Amy Reitnouer

The entire BGS team is pretty stoked for our fifth year of Shout & Shine performances! In 2016 we partnered with PineCone Piedmont Council of Traditional Music in Raleigh, NC to showcase diversity in bluegrass and roots music at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass business conference and festival. In doing so, a wonderful platform has been provided to artists so often overlooked, as well as those just starting their journeys in the music industry.

Things are a bit different this go ‘round, and we’ll be celebrating equity and inclusion in a more pandemic-suited way this year with Shout & Shine Online! The showcase will take place Saturday, October 3rd at 2pm ET — viewers can tune in right here on BGS, or on our Facebook page or YouTube channel, as well as via PineCone’s channels, and IBMA’s conference platform, Swapcard (free music pass registration available here).

 

In celebration, we’ve put together a preview of what you can look forward to during Shout & Shine Online.

Brandi Waller-Pace

BGS joined hands with Decolonizing the Music Room’s founder Brandi Waller-Pace to curate 2020’s lineup. “The mission of Decolonizing the Music Room is to center Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian voices, knowledge, and experiences within the field of music education,” says Waller-Pace. “In addition to that, it is part of DTMR’s core values that we are an openly LGBTQ+ affirming non-profit organization. I am honored to have served as curator for this year’s Shout & Shine and to have had this opportunity to partner with BGS and PineCone on work that highlights a convergence of our values.”

Here you can see Waller-Pace along with Caitlin Hearn playing an old-time standard, “Five Miles From Town.” Waller-Pace’s music is dripping with that sweet, old-timey-ness.

Rissi Palmer

The IBMA isn’t the only thing we love in Raleigh — there’s also Rissi Palmer. In 2007 she released “Country Girl,” making her the first African American woman on the country charts in over 20 years. She’s been releasing consistently powerful music since, leading all the way up to her most recent album, Revival. On top of all of this, Palmer hosts the new Apple Music Country radio show, Color Me Country: a conversation between herself and various Black and Brown women in country/Americana/roots music. We can’t wait to have her right here on BGS!

Sunny War

You may have already seen our friend Sunny War’s episode 2 of our monthly Shout & Shine series. In our interview that came out earlier this month, War speaks about her current outlook on the music scene and how it feels to be surrounded by new “activist” musicians who weren’t doing it before, as well as her incredibly unique guitar style.

Kaïa Kater

Kaïa Kater is no stranger at BGS. She has been featuring in a Cover Story, she’s written an op-ed, and she’s had some important conversations with other musicians. Needless to stay, we’re ecstatic to have this Afro-Caribbean-Canadian songwriter and Appalachian musician back for Shout & Shine Online!

Stephanie Anne Johnson

While Stephanie Anne Johnson’s music is often rooted in America’s painful past, it’s always got down home roots. Maybe that’s why they’ve got the “American Blues.” A veteran of NBC’s The Voice, Johnson is the leader of Tacoma-based band The Hidogs, whose most recent album is entitled Take This Love.

Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton

Blind Boy Paxton’s music is something of a journey back in time. But his songs and stories aren’t from dusty old books or archives — they are the soundtrack of his growing up in south-central Los Angeles, among the largest Creole and Cajun population outside of Louisiana. Our friend Paxton has been featured in our Shout & Shine column before, but Shout & Shine Online is his appearance on the showcase. We couldn’t be more excited!

Tray Wellington Band

North Carolina’s Tray Wellington is an acclaimed progressive banjo player — and he’s only 21. From his 2019 IBMA awards — one for Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year and another for Momentum Band of the Year with his former group Cane Mill Road — it’s easy to tell what a bright future he’s got in the world of bluegrass and beyond. He’ll be joining us with his whole band!

Amythyst Kiah

You may know her from Our Native Daughters, or our BGS Class of 2019  — either way, Amythyst Kiah is one of the most powerful, raw, and soulful singers and songwriters the roots music scene has today. We’re beyond thrilled that she’ll be joining us to anchor the Shout & Shine Online lineup!

Photos courtesy of the artists
Poster design by Grant Prettyman, Belhum

LISTEN: Mike McClure, “A Little Bit of Love”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Mike McClure
Hometown: Ada, Oklahoma
Song: “A Little Bit of Love”
Album: Looking Up
Release Date: September 25, 2020
Label: Crow and Gazelle

In Their Words: “Chrislyn Lawrence and I wrote this one together. I had it started, some of the lines in the second verse were from a poem she was working on, then we worked out the chorus together. The past couple of years I’ve worked to let go of things in my life that weren’t doing me any good. As my partner, Chrislyn showed me how letting go is the only way to make room for the things your soul is crying out for — it’s like burning away the driftwood to get down to the essence. ‘Little Bit of Love’ is about what can come from that release: letting certain things die away, so there can be rebirth and ascension. Love, in action, is the only thing I know of that can make that kind of transformation happen.” — Mike McClure

Photo credit: Chrislyn Lawrence

The Show On The Road – Aubrie Sellers

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week on the show, we catch up with a rising star in boundary-bending country and take-no-prisoners rock ‘n’ roll, Aubrie Sellers.


LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS • STITCHER • SPOTIFY • MP3

What have you been doing since the pandemic hit in late February? Somehow Aubrie Sellers has managed to release a striking new LP of twisty, guitar-drenched originals on Far From Home (collaborating with her roots rock heroes like Steve Earle) while also pushing herself to make a EP of beloved covers on the aptly-titled, World On Fire. In rejuvenating a faded favorite like Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” she takes a song we all thought we knew and twists it around until it seems like a poisonous, reverb-zapped revelation that just arrived out of nowhere.

Sellers was prepared to make music earlier in life than most. Growing up, she often found herself in nontraditional school situations, doing her homework on tour buses, hanging out in green rooms, and getting her feet wet on stages in Nashville’s tight-knit country community; you might know her mom, twangy-pop icon Lee Ann Womack and her dad, Jason Sellers, had a few chart toppers of his own, writing for folks like Kenny Chesney and playing in Ricky Skaggs’ touring band.

Sellers made her major label debut in 2016 with the more straight-ahead, but tightly crafted New City Blues, and earlier sang on a compilation record with the late Ralph Stanley. But at only 27, Sellers feels and sounds like an old soul — one less interested in climbing the current country charts than mining thornier material like her history of anxiety and stage-fright. She harnesses the punky, poetic outlaw energy that more cerebral songwriters like Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams have become known for. And audiences are taking notice, as Sellers’ scorching duet with Earle, “My Love Will Not Change,” was recently nominated for the Americana Music Association’s Song of the Year.

Stick around to the end of this episode of The Show On The Road to hear an acoustic, live-from-home rendition of her tune “Far From Home.”

Photo credit: Scott Siracusano

Harmonics with Beth Behrs: Episode 4, Brandi Carlile

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Harmonics with Beth Behrs is the newest show from the BGS Podcast Network, which delves into the intersection of music and wellness. The podcast’s third week features Brandi Carlile, Americana icon and advocate for the empowerment of women and the LGBTQ+ community.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • STITCHER • AMAZON • POCKET CASTS • MP3


Harmonics host Beth Behrs talks with Carlile about spirituality and wisdom found through horses and nature, performing the album Blue for Joni Mitchell, the joy and connection of live music, anxiety, and singing with Dolly Parton at the Newport Folk Festival.

For many folks, the first time they heard of Brandi Carlile was during her show-stopping performance of “The Joke” at the 2019 Grammy awards. Carlile walked away with three trophies that night for her record, By The Way, I Forgive You (including Best Americana Album). She’s been honing her distinctive voice and building a dedicated audience for over twenty years, all the while staying committed to building a family and community with her band and team.

That commitment has made her a godmother of modern American roots music — as a curator of festival stages, interpreter of the legendary artists who came before, and producer and collaborator for a whole new generation of female artists.

Listen and subscribe to Harmonics through all podcast platforms and follow BGS and Beth Behrs on Instagram for series updates!

BGS 5+5: Elizabeth Cook

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Elizabeth Cook
Hometown: Wildwood, Florida
Latest album: Aftermath
Personal nicknames: Shug

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Forgetting that I’m on stage and then coming to and being like, “Oh my god, I’m on stage!” That, and one night in Phoenix, this group of young girls stood at the front of the stage and sang along to every one of my songs.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I didn’t really know that I wanted to be. I was a kid singer — so, I came to it from a funny angle. I fought it for years and tried to do other things, but never found a really gratifying way to fit into the world. I got asked to open for Todd Snider once in Wilmington, North Carolina, at this outdoor amphitheater. He threw a one-man acoustic folk show party riot throwdown. I’d never seen anything like it and really haven’t since. But I thought if this is on the table — I will try it.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

All of it. I’m always collecting details that ping me in some way… and it can be something that I see, read, taste, touch or hear.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I wrote a song about my mama’s funeral. And of course it’s not something you want to write about, because it’s not something you want to even happen in the first place. But it did. And I was really dreading this event, and the responsibility I felt in the throes of my grieving. I was resenting the whole process. But then, it turned out to be a really beautiful day and it was helpful and healing. And I owed it to the world, almost a right to the wrong for my attitude towards it in the beginning. The song is called “Mama’s Funeral” and it’s on Welder.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I have a “hard hat” bag! I can get really fussy and anxious right before I go on and dig neurotically for things I think I need. So I made this little bag… it has all the comforts from Advil to throat sprays and drops, a neck and hand massager, extra guitar picks, my lucky rock and some dice.

Photo credit: Electropogram

WATCH: Go Behind the Scenes of Swamp Dogg’s ‘Sorry You Couldn’t Make It’

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

In the winter of 2019, bona fide soul man Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams made his return to Nashville after nearly 50 years away from Music City. His aim was to cut a new record, and a slew of artists joined him in collaboration, chief among them guitarist Jim Oblon, singer/songwriter Justin Vernon, and the late great John Prine. The music that came from those winter sessions feels like a time machine right back to the late 1960s.

The album, titled Sorry You Couldn’t Make It, is a shade more country than Swamp Dogg’s other material, but his warm, rough voice wears his many years on its sleeve, allowing him to sit comfortably in the common core of soul, country, and blues. Portions of the album have moxie for miles while others hold abundant sincerity and sadness. NPR’s Fresh Air reviewed one song, “Sleeping Without You is a Dragg,” which was joined by two other selections from other artists classified as beautiful, comforting songs. A reminiscent sound ties the whole record together beautifully.

A Noisey mini-documentary about the star-studded recording sessions for Sorry You Couldn’t Make It shows humorous, casual, behind-the-scenes moments from the album’s creation. While Dogg had the bad luck of the COVID-19 lockdown slow its rollout, don’t let this music slip through the cracks of your social media timelines!

Photo credit: David McMurry