Tag: Sturgill Simpson

ANNOUNCING: 2017 Roots Music Grammy Nominations

Posted on by Editor

Album of the Year:
25 — Adele
Lemonade — Beyoncé
Purpose — Justin Bieber
Views — Drake
A Sailor’s Guide to Earth — Sturgill Simpson

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album:
Human Nature — Herb Alpert
When You Wish Upon a Star — Bill Frisell
Way Back Home Live from Rochester, NY — Steve Gadd Band
Unspoken — Chuck Loeb
Culcha Vulcha — Snarky Puppy

Best Traditional R&B Performance:
“The Three of Me” — William Bell
“Woman’s World” — BJ The Chicago Kid
“Sleeping with the One I Love” — Fantasia
“Angel” — Lalah Hathaway
“Can’t Wait” — Jill Scott

Best Country Solo Performance:
“Love Can Go To Hell” — Brandy Clark
“Vice” — Miranda Lambert
“My Church” — Maren Morris
“Church Bells” — Carrie Underwood
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” — Keith Urban

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
“Different for Girls” — Dierks Bentley Featuring Elle King
“21 Summer” — Brothers Osborne
“Setting the World on Fire” — Kenny Chesney & P!nk
“Jolene” — Pentatonix Featuring Dolly Parton
“Think of You” — Chris Young with Cassadee Pope

Best Country Song:
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” —  Clint Lagerberg, Hillary Lindsey & Steven Lee Olsen, songwriters (Keith Urban)
“Die a Happy Man” — Sean Douglas, Thomas Rhett & Joe Spargur, songwriters (Thomas Rhett)
“Humble and Kind” — Lori McKenna, songwriter (Tim McGraw)
“My Church” — busbee & Maren Morris, songwriters (Maren Morris)
“Vice” — Miranda Lambert, Shane McAnally & Josh Osborne, songwriters (Miranda Lambert)

Best Country Album:
Big Day In A Small Town — Brandy Clark
Full Circle — Loretta Lynn
Hero — Maren Morris
A Sailor’s Guide to Earth — Sturgill Simpson
Ripcord — Keith Urban

Best Roots Gospel Album:
Better Together —  Gaither Vocal Band
Nature’s Symphony In 432 — The Isaacs
Hymns — Joey+Rory
Hymns and Songs of Inspiration — Gordon Mote
God Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson — (Various Artists)

Best American Roots Performance:
“Ain’t No Man” — The Avett Brothers
“Mother’s Children Have a Hard Time” — Blind Boys of Alabama
“Factory Girl” — Rhiannon Giddens
“House of Mercy” — Sarah Jarosz
“Wreck You” — Lori McKenna

Best American Roots Song:
“Alabama at Night” — Robbie Fulks
“City Lights” — Jack White
“Gulfstream” — Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars
“Kid Sister” — The Time Jumpers
“Wreck You” — Lori McKenna

Best Americana Album:
True Sadness — The Avett Brothers
This Is Where I Live — William Bell
The Cedar Creek Sessions — Kris Kristofferson
The Bird & the Rifle — Lori McKenna
Kid Sister — The Time Jumpers

Best Bluegrass Album:
Original Traditional — Blue Highway
Burden Bearer — Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
The Hazel and Alice Sessions — Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands
North by South — Claire Lynch
Coming Home — O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor

Best Traditional Blues Album:
Can’t Shake This Feeling — Lurrie Bell
Live at the Greek Theatre — Joe Bonamassa
Blues & Ballads — Luther Dickinson
The Soul of Jimmie Rodgers — Vasti Jackson
Porcupine Meat — Bobby Rush

Best Contemporary Blues Album:
The Last Days of Oakland — Fantastic Negrito
Love Wins Again — Janiva Magness
Bloodline — Kenny Neal
Give It Back to You — The Record Company
Everybody Wants a Piece — Joe Louis Walker

Best Folk Album:
Silver Skies Blue — Judy Collins & Ari Hest
Upland Stories — Robbie Fulks
Factory Girl — Rhiannon Giddens
Weighted Mind — Sierra Hull
Undercurrent — Sarah Jarosz

Best Regional Roots Music Album:
Broken Promised Land — Barry Jean Ancelet & Sam Broussard
It’s a Cree Thing — Northern Cree
E Walea —  Kalani Pe’a
Gulfstream — Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars
I Wanna Sing Right: Rediscovering Lomax in the Evangeline Country — (Various Artists)

MIXTAPE: 3rd & Lindsley

Posted on by Editor

For music venues in Music City, the competition for both artists and audiences is stiff. But Ron Brice and his 3rd & Lindsley crew — which includes the same door man, head chef, and sound engineer since the club's opening — have made a successful go of it for the past 25 years. Along the way, they've enjoyed a weekly residency with the Time Jumpers (featuring Vince Gill), a 20-year partnership of weekly broadcasts on WRLT-FM, a talent buyer (Santo Pullella) whose first confirmed act was Chris Stapleton, and a calendar filled with legends — and legends in the making.

Here, Pullella selects some of the artists the club is proud to have hosted: 

The Wood Brothers — “Postcards From Hell”
Chris and Oliver Wood blew us all away with their 2006 debut album, Ways Not to Lose, and a performance at 3rd & Lindsley. Now, they’re an international success and one of the world’s best bands.

Sturgill Simpson — “Brace for Impact (Live a Little)”
Sturgill’s name and music had been on our radar, but when he opened for the Devil Makes Three in 2013 on a cold January Lightning 100 Nashville Sunday Night, it looked like the world would know him soon.

The Devil Makes Three — “Do Wrong Right”
We think about whiskey and dark places when we hear this band, and seeing them live is only a real good time.

Nikki Lane — “Seein’ Double”
She is living proof that it is "always the right time to do the wrong thing," and it really works for her! She’s just cool with always being herself — and that’s a unique woman.

Chris Stapleton — “Might as Well Get Stoned”
Chris is a man who worked so hard for so many years in Nashville until it all seemed to tip in his favor, all at once. We’re really happy for him … and even proud.

Lucinda Williams — “Can’t Let Go”
The legendary songwriter has no fear of digging deep into herself and showing it to the world.

Ray Wylie Hubbard — “Mother Blues”
Ray, the National Treasure! Storytellers do not get any better than Ray.

Paul Thorn — “Pimps & Preachers”
Paul is a part of the family here at 3rd & Lindsley. He walks in and its non-stop one-liner jokes and stories until the night is done. Killer band, killer show.

The Mavericks — “All Night Long”
When these guys got back together a few years ago, it was like a legendary athlete showing up at halftime, telling the coach he’s going in, and then taking over. And none can make their sound.

Sam Lewis — “3/4 Time”
We’ve been watching him for the past year, and he’s someone everyone should be watching with his style of blue-eyed country soul. There’s some Van Morrison, James Taylor, and a whole lot of Sam Lewis here! He’s doing a lot of dates this year with Chris Stapleton. The future is very bright for him.

Lake Street Dive — “Call Off Your Dogs”
We’re very happy for Rachael Price and the band. Many, many years of hard work is paying off.

Margo Price — “Hands of Time”
Another artist we’re so proud to see achieving what they deserve. Her two-night run this June sold out fast, and it doesn’t appear there is a limit to her success.

Lede photo: Lee Ann Womack performs during the 16th Annual Americana Music Festival & Conference at 3rd & Lindsley on September 18, 2015 . Photo credit: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Americana Music.

Sturgill Simpson, ‘All Around You’

Posted on by Editor

We probably shouldn’t even be doing this. To be honest, our first instinct was to respect Sturgill Simpson’s wishes that his third album, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, initially be listened to in its entirety, one side at a time, and not go out of the way to single out a certain track as a stand-alone entity. And, as an album, it is indeed masterful, flowing from one song to the next like the rolling waves he evokes in his mystical parable of the ocean as a metaphor for the future of his two-year-old son’s life. And, in an era where musical men are often measured by machismo, ruling the charts through tales of their lives as romantic conquistadors or truck driving kings, it’s a treasure to find a father so enchanted by the peaks and valleys of parenthood that he’s willing to devote not only an entire LP to it, but his first on a major label.

But it’s not really surprising for Simpson — though he’s sung about it, he never quite followed that “Long White Line,” and his last album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, was devoted to love as our eternal savior. There are many poignant offerings to his child on A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, from life lessons to brutal apologies, but “All Around You” is perhaps its most perfect gift — not just to a son, but to anyone who happens to listen. Ushered in by horns courtesy of the Dap-Kings, it’s a ballad to guide through the darkest days — a reminder that even once his physical body is gone, the bond of family is eternal. Though he’s too coy, and too much of a universal poet, to ever mention exactly whom he’s talking to, because that burning heart can be anything, for anyone. A father, a mother, a lover, a God. Even when it beats to a stop like the pulse that closes out the song — the same pulse that, mind you, leads straight into another.

Because that’s the risk of any great love — by definition, it will one day be gone. On “All Around You,” it lingers, through the wail of a horn, Simpson’s deep, steely vocal, and a universe promising that anything worth loving in the first place will really stay alive above, around, and inside all of us. You don’t need to be a parent to understand that lesson — just a child.

3×3: Becca Mancari on Jennifer Knapp, Summertime, and the Blue Ridge Mountains

Posted on by Amy Reitnouer

Artist: Becca Mancari 
Hometown: All over New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, but Virginia is my heart. 
Latest Album: “Summertime Mama” 
Rejected Band Names: Virginia Siamese … Year of the Horse … Lady Friend (Band names are terrible) 

What was the first record you ever bought with your own money?
I was 14 years old and the first record I ever bought was by an artist named Jennifer Knapp and the record was called Kansas … which I believe was her debut album. 

If money were no object, where would you live and what would you do?
Honestly, I would probably buy some land close to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and fix up an old farm house with a big front porch. I would let my dog Abe run free and probably get an old horse for him to be friends with. And I would write and tour from there. Okay, and you said money was not an object! I would also have a home in either Puerto Rico (where my mom is from) or Mexico, and learn Spanish and be warm in the winter time! 

If your life were a movie, which songs would be on the soundtrack?
I feel like this is a really hard question because there are too many songs … but I'm going to give it a try. In no particular order: 
"Razor Love" by Neil Young 
"Boots of Spanish Leather" by Bob Dylan 
"I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free" by Nina Simone
"Down Along the Dixie Line" by Gillian Welch 
"I'd Rather go Blind" by Etta James 
"I Want You" by Bob Dylan 
"Clay Pigeons" by preformed by John Prine 
"Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver  
"Red Dirt Girl" by Emmylou Harris 
"Lulla" by Tinariwen 
"Sweet Wanomi" by Bill Withers 
AND on and on……………..

 

A photo posted by Becca Mancari (@beccamancari) on

What brand of jeans do you wear?
I have two great pairs of vintage Levi's that I love to wear. I wish I had a pair of Wranglers that fit well. 

What's your go-to karaoke tune?
Eeeee! I kind of hate to karaoke!! But I love to watch! 

What's your favorite season?
I love the hot Summer nights. So, I guess I am a Summer woman. 

 

A photo posted by Becca Mancari (@beccamancari) on

Kimmel or Fallon?
Hmmm that's a hard one … okay, okay Fallon. 

Jason Isbell or Sturgill Simpson?
Well, I think I have to say Sturgill, but respect both. 

Chocolate or vanilla?
Finally, no question here! Chocolate

3×3: Elephant Revival on Colorado, Karaoke, and What They Almost Named the Band

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Elephant Revival
Hometown: Nederland, Lyons, & Boulder, CO
Latest Album: Sands of Now
Rejected Band Names: It’z Evolving, Rippin’ Britches 🙂

 

Thanks to @onthedlphoto for this great shot of our set at Red Rocks!

A photo posted by @elephantrevival on

What was the first record you ever bought with your own money?
Dango: Guns n’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction
Daniel: Bob Dylan – Live at Carnegie Hall
Bridget: Foo Fighters (self-titled)

If money were no object, where would you live and what would you do?
Dango: I’m very content living where I do and playing with Elephant Revival. Nederland is very beautiful, and it's a unique community full of interesting people. That said, I love the Oregon coast and Brevard, NC. Not to mention, many places overseas I have yet to be — such as the Isle of Skye.
Daniel: There are so many places I have yet to go, so in my finite knowledge, I’d probably buy some land in Colorado and buy a bunch of solar panels and a Tesla battery. Then I’d build a monolithic dome and a separate music studio and have it all be powered by the sun. I’d invest in an organic heirloom seed bank, buy some chickens and goats, and hire some friends to help grow some food.
Bridget: I would live in the mountains just outside of Boulder, up high and near the river. I would play music locally and teach kids for free!

If your life were a movie, which songs would be on the soundtrack?
Dango: I’d create a mix-tape of Penguin Café Orchestra, Balmorhea, and Michael Nyman.
Daniel: "Tangled Up in Blue" and "The Times They Are a Changin’" by Bob Dylan, "Girl in the War" by Josh Ritter, "Born at the Right Time" and "You’re the One" by Paul Simon, "Hold On" by Tom Waits
Bridget: All the music of Béla Fleck, "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead, anything off Blue by Joni Mitchell

What brand of jeans do you wear?
Dango: Levi’s
Daniel: I have two pairs of jeans — Levi's and Kenneth Cole.
Bridget: I hardly ever wear jeans, but when I do, they are stretchy.

What's your go-to karaoke tune?
Dango: Don't do Karaoke
Daniel: "Redemption Song"
Bridget: "Stay" by Lisa Loeb

What's your favorite season?
Autumn

Kimmel or Fallon?
Yes & Colbert

Jason Isbell or Sturgill Simpson?
Both of them passing songs around the fire

Chocolate or vanilla?
Dango: Swirl
Daniel: Chocolate
Bridget: Chocolate

Photo credit: Angie Barnes

3×3: Rachael Yamagata on Woodstock, Sturgill, and Her Fear of Karaoke

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Rachael Yamagata
Hometown: Arlington, VA
Latest Album: Chesapeake
Nicknames: Yams

 

Amsterdam this morning

A photo posted by Rachael Yamagata (@rachaelyamagata) on

What was the first record you ever bought with your own money?
It was a single actually — Aerosmith's "Love in an Elevator."

If money were no object, where would you live and what would you do?
I’d split houses between Woodstock (where I live and love already), the Dominican Republic, and somewhere in Europe — Paris or somewhere in Tuscany, perhaps? I’d set up little studios in each and keep recording, but I’d also love to travel and do something physical while volunteering — e.g. building houses…

If your life were a movie, which songs would be on the soundtrack?
Ha! Who knows? I think it’d be an instrumental soundtrack. Maybe The Prince of Tides meets The Notebook meets anything by Danny Elfman.

 

Yes

A photo posted by Rachael Yamagata (@rachaelyamagata) on

What brand of jeans do you wear?
No clue. It’s all about the fit.

What's your go-to karaoke tune?
Karaoke scares the shit out of me, actually. I watch.

What's your favorite season?
The Fall

 

you complete me. First show tonight #pittsburgh, then #chicago and #minneapolis #denver

A photo posted by Rachael Yamagata (@rachaelyamagata) on

Kimmel or Fallon?
Both, for different moods.

Jason Isbell or Sturgill Simpson?
I think Jason Isbell is great. I don’t know Sturgill well, so now I’ve got a new artist to check out. Thanks!

Chocolate or vanilla?
Butter pecan

Top photo credit: Laura Crosta

Watch Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson Cover “Amarillo Highway”

Posted on by Editor

If you've ever dreamed of seeing Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson perform together, you're in luck. The two took the stage together in Tuscaloosa last night for a cover of Terry Allen's "Amarillo Highway," and the results are pretty rad. Watch the performance below.

Other Roots Music News:

• Rolling Stone talks to Tom Hiddleston about becoming Hank Williams. 

• Preview a new track from Flatt Lonesome at Bluegrass Today. 

• Oh Pep! stopped by NPR for a Tiny Desk Concert. 

• Bruce Springsteen's The River is getting the ultimate box set treatment. 

• Father John Misty performed a couple tunes on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

• Natalie Prass covered a Slayer song for A.V. Undercover. 

Stream Newport Folk Festival This Weekend

Posted on by Editor

Can't make it to Newport Folk Festival? Fret not, you can stream performances of the festival from the comfort of your own home! Newport Folk Radio will broadcast a number of performances this weekend, all for your listening pleasure. 

Listen here. 

Other Roots Music News:

• Watch Gregory Alan Isakov perform "Saint Valentine." 

• Sharon Van Etten is one of many artists featured on an upcoming Donovan tribute album. [Consequence of Sound] 

• Go backstage at the Grand Ole Opry with Ashley Monroe. [American Songwriter] 

• Dave Cobb and Anderson East talk bromance in the Nashville Scene. 

• Sturgill Simpson sold out two nights at the Ryman and added a third. [Nashville Scene]