I have to admit folks right I’m VERY excited about things to come today, as I relax in the hotel before heading out to Kansas City Missouri. Right now I am about 60 miles out of town in a really reasonably priced Travelodge hotel, the coffee pot sucked. We are going to leave our belongings here and journey on to the festival and sight see because I have to report to my stage manager at 1:30.

The Westport Roots Festival has been especially hospitable to me and my help today and for the FIRST TIME EVER I’ll be hosting my very own stage. Ernie Biggs Westport and Langunitas Brewing Company bring YOU the Gary Hayes Country Stage for the second annual event.

At the beginning of the morning upon our arrival Mr. Travis the Owner of the Westport Saloon gave us the grand tour of the whole district and everyone was so welcoming and good to us we were humbled. One of the finest welcomes my website has had along with Muddy Roots. The staff at Little Class Records and the Westport and all of the other venues involved were truly remarkable in every way and made you feel so at home there. The Ernie Biggs Staff was equally kind to my crew and myself, and people like Mr. Matt Dennis were always checking on us.

The Bastard Children Of Booker Noe is sort of a side project by some local guys from the Kansas City area that just got together this week and will be backing other bands too. Mr. Tyler plays steel guitar for people as well as guitar for this new band.

I got the opportunity to introduce these bands tonight and throughout these articles I shall be mentioning and tagging so many people on these. Ok Folks The Bastard Children Of Booker Noe are Mr. Tyler Giles on vocals with Kaylee Reeder on vocals and guitar. There is also Noah Richmond and Stas Heaney on fiddles.

They opened with “The Last Bottle” and also Miss Kaylee opened with a cover of Holly Williams “Why You Drinkin”…REALLY good vocals on her wow. They have a really good mountain sound and they are working on an album in the near future, now they played a song called “Sympathy”.

I wanted to take a moment out to point out how gorgeous this whole area is and how much FREE parking and places to eat there is, my helper and I couldn’t decide where to eat first to be honest. As the band played “Someone Like You” we talked with many fans that were enjoying the Four Roses Bourbon in the green room. The crowd was very receptive of the song “The Water Liars’ and one of my favorites was “Whiskey Whiskey”.

They closed their set with a song called “Please Cut Me Off” and as my stage was being set up for the next band me and my help snuck over to the The Riot Room to see St.Christopher and his band play. I did not get to see his entire set however I DO have the setlist for you today…because try my best to get to as much as I can.

Christopher opened up with “Right To Die” as he tore apart the outside stage with his band and they played “Sinners And Saints”. I always try my best to get over and cover his set when I can because we don’t always run into each other as often as we want but like he said we are road family.

“A New Kind Of Patriot” was another one that he played I truly enjoyed today as well as my favorite and his most rowdiest song ever “Revolution MotherFer” And the ever popular “We Ride”. He also played “29” as the crowd went wild he played “And The Crowd Goes Wild”.

His last few songs were “Repent And Guilt” “Sledgehammer” and he closed with “Eat/Fuck/Kill”. I tell you what even though I only caught a small portion of his set I still enjoyed what I could of it. And I’m having a GREAT TIME here at Westport Roots Festival.

I also got to slip out and see the Urban Pioneers play Liz’s Reel while Liz Sloan played on the chair like she’s known to do before going back to my stage to introduce my next band Scott Hrabcko And The Rabbits who did a terrific job here tonight on their set. They opened with “Baby You Know Me” and “A Thrill Of My Own” I’m truly amazed at all the talent that was displayed on my stage tonight I’m humbled and honored to have been involved with this festival on this grand of a scale.

They continued their set with “Ogre’s Waltz”and also continued on with a song called “Ordinary Guy”. His new release called ‘Buscuits And Gravity” was one of the albums I picked up tonight from all the shopping I did this weekend. Why not with songs like “Eyes Of Bonnie Blue” and my favorite “Died And Gone To Heaven”.

Every band here on this stage tonight has brought very powerful steel guitars and lead guitar solos tonight and everybody has been fantastic tonight. I’m truly having a wonderful time tonight here in the Westport district of Kansas City, Missouri. And it’s still early people honestly there’s SO MUCH more to be reported on here tonight.

“Lorraine” was one off Biscuits And Gravity that was very nice and “Lost As You” is off the album Gone Places. Another great song he played was “Donnez Moi”. I’ll tell you I’m VERY grateful to have had the opportunity to cover his set here in Kansas City as he closed his set with “Blue, Period”.

Carson Mchone is a native Texan and one fine talented young lady and she has an incredible stage presence, the only regret I have is every time she’s in Nashville I miss her and it kind of stinks but I finally got a chance to catch up with her and introduce her. She has two darn fine albums for sale and I highly suggest you go out and buy them right now.

She opened her set with ‘The Poet Song” and another called “Sweet Magnolia”. You know folks I found out about her last year on Ray Wylie Hubbard’s album “Ruffian’s Misfortune” as she sang backups on “Chick Singer Bad Ass Rocking”. She also did some work for Mike And The Moonpies as “Mockingbird” was one of my top 50 albums of 2015, and she continued with “I Need Drugs” and another called “Sad”.

My favorite song she does is called “Dram Shop Gal” which showcases her unique voice really well. And she went right into a song called “Really Good Friends” and closed her set with.

Dusty Rust was an unexpected surprise because we had a cancellation tonight, so he filled in with a set for us. He opened his set with “Doing Time” and another song called ‘Samantha”.

I’ll tell you what folks there was a truly fine display of steel guitar talent tonight from ALL of the bands that played on our stage so far. This man absolutely commands the stage and was one of my favorite acts of the night. He often does an ongoing program at the Westport Saloon called Spaghetti Western Thursdays with other bands.

“Happy Father’s Day” was another good song and he played one called “City Cowboy’s Throne”. Even though this was a short fast notice set it still was really awesome, and the brisket and smoked ribs…man..I don’t know where they came from but it’s better than anything I have EVER put in my mouth. He closed his set with Merle Haggard’s “Working Man’s Blues”.

I haven’t had the chance to cover J.B Beverley for quite some time now, in fact it’s been a few years ago since we laid eyes on one another! That’s longer than I want to go without seeing an artist but life sometimes is what it is.

He has recently released his old album “Highball” however in my collection his album “Dark Bar And a Jukebox” is one of my favorite older albums I discovered when I began discovering these bands.  In fact later on in his set he did indeed play that song, however the first song was “Interstate Blues”.

I had to run off really quick and as I returned I heard him play “Bottle Is Empty, Ash Tray Is Full” and to be honest I’m not entirely sure that’s the name of it, but I did get the rest of the set for sure. He played “Maggie’s Farm” an old Bob Dylan song which I enjoyed.

His originals after that went back to the Wayward Drifters albums indeed as he played “Drinking Bourbon” and followed that with the Hank Williams Sr. classic “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It”.  One of my personal favorites he does is “Gonna Ride A Train”, it’s just a fast paced jamming song.

Dusty Rust got up there with him and played “Swinging Doors” before he went into “Dark Bar And A Jukebox” and two more classics “Watch America Roll By” and another good one “Wayward Drifter”. After all this we was hunting for some more food and my help brought back some ribs and some kind of fried taters that were like Heaven in a sack. I got LOTS MORE coming folks, from what I could remember of it all. I was going at it pretty hard at this point to be quite honest and a lot was happening at once, and I have one more part coming with six bands in it.

Americana Fest
Muddy Roots
Crooked Smile Fall Fest
So Cal Hoedown

ROMP Fest
Moonrunners

Hey Folks I am VERY hard at work out here at the Gary Hayes Command Center in Kentucky right after returning from a LONG weekend in Kansas City Missouri, and I wanted to stop and tell you about an exciting event happening in October. Folks you know that every October I always have a little anniversary shindig to celebrate the official launch of my website.

If you remember I launched my first official article in Altamont Tennessee and honestly one of the performers on this current bill was a part of my first officially launched article and that was Whey Jennings, and I am excited to hear he will be a part of my third year.

Folks this website I have has been recognized and supported by over 100 festivals nationwide and I am being supported by more venues every day. I cover and support over 6,000 local bands and national acts and I am adding more each week. I’m growing rapidly in amazing leaps and bounds, and traveling more now than I ever have, and I am always finding new and exciting ways to bring forth local music to YOU the reader.

I’m not doing any of the booking or organizing of this festival but on behalf of Mr. Donnie Wymer Promotions I’ll be sponsoring this event and celebrating my party at The Crooked Smile Music Festival in Winchester Indiana on October 14th and 15th at The Circle X Ranch. This campground is gorgeous and it’s located in a very scenic area of Indiana right on the Ohio-Indiana border and about two hours from Indianapolis.

If you remember I attended the fall festival last year and I had a truly wonderful time there and was welcomed with open arms by the staff and bands. This year once again I plan to stay at the same hotel that has the budget building for under sixty per night. It is NOT dirty or small in ANY form in fact it is overall one of the least expensive festivals in the nation…period and you can buy tickets in advance HERE. You are going to find out that for UNDER 150 you can buy a ticket AND a room for two nights! And after you read the lineup for this year’s event I’m sure you will want to take advantage of an offer like that.

Hellbound Glory
Joseph Huber
Whey Jennings And The Unwanted
Husky Burnette
Sean K Preston
Jimmy Swope
Buffalo Wabs And The Price Hill Hustle
Smokestack Relics
The Drunken Cuddle
Lara Hope And The Ark Tones
Duane Mark
Wonky Tonk
Lonesome Red And The Blue Strings

Achillies Tenderloin
Kepone Cowboys
Old Wolves
40RTY
Eric Bestul And The Rockin Gypsies
Jessie Blankenship And The Plank Walkin Boys
Toeknee Tea
Mallory Wymer
The GLATAS band
Jason Dawdy
Apathy Wizards

The Randolph Inn and Suites was the hotel I used last year and I will tell you this, it is truly a wonderful place to stay and I look forward to being there again in 2016.
Overpass Motel is another good choice for this area. Last year I did some researching on the area as I attended the festival and I found this one to be a thumbs up.
Winchestr Guest House Inn is a place I found online and I have never been there but I do know it’s a nice suggestion by the locals I have consulted.

There is camping included in your ticket price and this is a one stage operation and despite the fact this is a campground it is an indoor festival. Now, there are no food vendors but one that is run by the campground. HOWEVER let me tell you the food is REALLY GOOD. It’s cooked and ran by the local owners of the campground and supports their community, so eating there supports this local economy.

You are supporting down home country folks out there and you’ll find hospitality like you won’t find in every area of the Country. ..SEE YOU THERE!

Folks just this morning I talked via text with my road dogging buddy from the Ohio area Dallas Moore concerning his brand new project tentatively called “Six Strings And Steel Bars: Dallas Moore Live From The Bullitt County jail. This album will be an acoustic performance recorded by Brian Debruler of SOL Records and co-produce with Mr. Dallas, also on board as executive producer is Bill Halverson who filled the same role on Cash’s iconic live album recorded at Folsom prison.

This album will be released in August 2016 and I WILL include a pre-order link on here as soon as Mr. Dallas releases it. I’m going to re print EXACTLY what Mr. Dallas texted me:

Yesterday we entered the Bullitt County Jail in Shepherdsville Kentucky and recorded a live acoustic album of my original songs. The recording is going to be very raw and stripped down with just my vocal and guitar and my guitarist Chuck Morpurgo AKA Lucky Chucky also on guitar.

We played a set that was a little under an hour long of my new and more obscure songs with some never before recorded. Brian DeBruler did the recording and will co produce with me. Onboard also is Executive Producer Bill Halverson who was the assistant engineer on Johnny Cash’s Live At Folsom Prison.

He went on to produce albums by Eric Clapton, Crosby Still And Nash, Bad Company and more. The album will be called “Dallas Moore Live At The Bullitt County Jail” and will be released on SOL Records in August 2016.

As most of you know he is also recording a new studio album right now and lately has been playing a few new songs off of it in his live shows, like my review of his show last December you can read HERE. His latest album called “Dark Horse Rider” earned a pretty high spot on my TOP 50 of 2015 last year, and his live shows are unrivaled because of his furious guitar solos and eclectic stage presence.

The Bullitt County Detention Center is located about 20 miles south of Louisville Kentucky, and he said this morning that Head Jailer Martha Knox and all the staff was very welcoming in helping this album become possible. This is the first album recorded within the confines of a prison since 1967-68 releases by Johnny Cash of iconic stature.

Folks I know it has been quite some time since I put out some new album features but rest assured I have been watching for some GREAT Americana and …well…just DAMN GOOD music here lately. And I have so many irons in the fire it’s hard to maintain everything, but when I do catch up with everything you’ll be glad you spent a few moments reading about what I have for you.

Vince Gill: Down To My Last Bad Habit.

This album was promoted so fiercely that the Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop changed the outside sign for the album released in February. People in town were going absolutely bonkers because if you don’t know Mr. David has closed the second record shop on McGavock Pike and has only one store in Nashville now. Well the rumors FLEW that Vince Gill had purchased the downtown famed Broadway store!

In my humble opinion the last song “Sad One Comin’ On” was the best song on the whole album and the most Country song on the entire album. It’s a great old slow song for George Jones and for sure it is quite a darn fine song it’s well written and just plain out Country!

MCA Nashville and Vince Gill have released a pretty good album here this being the first new album of his in quite some time now. “Like My Daddy Did” was a super good song written by Vince himself about gaining the trust of a woman who’s father left her at an early age, it’s truly a well written touching song.

“My Favorite Movie” was a song I have been waiting for that Vince co-wrote with someone who’s name you WILL hear on this website be mentioned VERY soon Ashley Monroe.It’s pretty much just your basic love song but it’s pretty vague at the same time, if that makes any sense at all. Just trust me on this one it’s a good song.

It sort of ended up being like the Clint Black album in that a lot of the songs sounded more modern than I care for myself but it has those iconic Vince Gill vocals that we have come to admire from Vince through the years, but the album in no way beats his early work like Pocket Full Of Gold.

Josh Williams: Modern Day Man.

I’m going to be honest folks this album made my TOP 50 already, it is amazing AMAZING. This man who plays for Rhonda Vincent And The Rage has released several good solo albums but this is one is BY FAR his best.

What’s a GOOD Country album without a slow divorce song filled with steel guitar solos and three chord simplicity well the song “The Great Divide” is truly the best written song I have heard since Kacey Musgraves. The best line in the song is “No there’s no turning back we crossed the great divide”. Just an absolutely heartfelt breakup song, that makes this album shine!

“Queen Of The County Fair” and “Girl From The Canyon” are two great bluegrass songs that are on this album I pretty much was expecting some Bluegrass songs infused with steel guitar. Some darn fine banjo picking fills this song as well as well as fine band harmonies.

“Let It Go” is another good slow moving easy religious song that was well written that tells us all to let it go and God take control. He can mend your broken heart but you got to let it go. It’s truly a great inspirational song that we can all relate to in many ways and this album is going to remain in my rotation for quite some time.

All the rest of the songs are truly awesome toe tapping Bluegrass tunes like “Prodigal Son” and “Lonesome Lesson Learned” which are also chocked full of banjo picking and mandolin solos at faced pace timing. “Mordecai” was a wandering drifter in the mountain trails who had a song wrote for him.

Cooder Graw:Love To Live By

This new album they released is actually an EP according to what I have uncovered, it’s short with only 6 songs on it. However what IS on the album is rocking good and what you would expect from this band. The title track is a slower song but full of steel guitar and rowdy lyrics by a rowdy band.

They have previously released some iconic albums and steel guitarist Danny Crelin is one of the finest in the business and has some truly good pieces on this new album. “Mexican Blues” is a good song about drugs and folks it’s a toe tapper infused with lament of an addict. Strike 3 is wearing a wire and get locked up…figures.

“Heart Of Breaking Up” is another good song on this album about being in the process of her leaving. The empty house and the aftermath of a breakup, looking rough and not trying to connect with anyone but memories. The lack of length kind of disappointed me as a consumer at least ways.

The Westport Roots Festival
Moonrunners Music Festival
Picki’n In The Pasture
John Hartford Music Festival
The Blue Ox Music Festival
The Duck Creek Log Jam
ROMP Fest

I told you folks I have a whole list of festivals for you all over the nation. This one is located in Virginia at the Virginia Motorsports Park and it is called The Dinwiddie Music Festival and it is primarily a Bluegrass festival. This event takes place on June 9-11th and once you see the lineup you’ll agree it’s quite nice and is about 20 miles south of Richmond Virginia.

There is dry camping available on grass and asphalt and this festival has shower facilities as well. RV lots are also available and NO alcohol in the concert area however I’m not sure about camping areas. They also didn’t say about extra fee for camping. Little different style with this edition folks it all in print right here for you and HERE is the ticket link and below is the entire schedule.

Dark Hollow Bluegrass Band
Bluegrass Brothers
Flatt Lonesome
Larry Stephenson Band
Darrell Webb Band
Larry Cordle And Lonesome Standard Time
Commonwealth Bluegrass Band
Mill Run
Donna Ulisse
Joe Mullins And The Radio Ramblers
Dailey And Vincent
Code Blue
Malpass Brothers
Junior Sisk
Sideline
Mountain Faith
Steeldrivers

As always I have researched hotels in the area HERE and let me tell you…it’s WAY cheaper than a lot of other festivals I frequent. Combined with the ticket price this festival is relatively affordable in many ways. Who knows I might be able to get there one day!

Moonrunners Music Festival
Crooked Smile Fall Fest

OK Folks the time has come for me to unleash my festival fury upon you unsuspecting readers with my series of June festivals that are coming in quick fashion. I’m already covering one next weekend and I have two under my belt in 2016 already and this one is another close festival to me, I wouldn’t be able to run this job from my house but it is still pretty close. I cannot promise whether or not I’ll be down there for one day or two but I’m planning to be there for what I can of the ROMP Fest that is put on by the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro Kentucky, and it happens over four days.

June 22-25th 2016 will see the summer heat and the ROMP festival fly into our area for folks to enjoy Bluegrass music and Roots music at the same time. This is the thirteenth annual fundraising event for the museum which is dedicated to the preservation of this precious genre of music. Riverpark Center Complex in Owensboro Kentucky is where this event takes place.

This park has a playground area for kids and a spray area to cool off with, and camping is available for 15 dollars extra and 70 for RV’s. You are required to vacate the area by 11AM the following day of which you pay. The camping area will open to the public at 8 AM wends some campsites require you to walk a short bit. Here is a detailed map of the festival grounds and you can buy tickets HERE.

The lineup is here”
Old Crow Medicine Show
Del McCoury Band
Sam Bush Band
Jerry Douglass And The Earls Of Leicester
The Infamous Stringdusters
Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives
Steep Canyon Rangers
Lee Ann Womack
Larry Sparks And The Lonesome Ramblers
The Travelin McCourys
Della Mae
Bryan Sutton
Scythian
23 String Band
Town Mountain
Billy Strings
Wood And Wire
Mipso
Jon Stickley Trio
Front Country
The Tillers
Old Salt Union
The Lil Smokies
Bumper Jacksons
Monogram
Breaking Grass
Sheriff Scott And The Deputies
Annabelle Watts

OK Folks so you know the routine here is a link to over 12 hotels in this area I have found and you can search for competitive prices HERE because if you are like me I cannot camp. I’m pretty sure if I go for one day I might just drive home afterwards. I sure would love to see Old Crow Medicine Show.

Folks this article is part of my “Fan Fair Survival Guide” of articles for those of you that would like some REAL Country Music activities that time of the year that downtown Nashville is filled plum full of sparklebritches and plastic coated cowboy hats.

The media does NOT WANT you to know about the fact there is a WSM stage with really good Country Music acts on it and there are other social gatherings going on like this one. Folks this R.O.P.E. Now for those of you that don’t know what that organization is, let me tell you about it. This portion of their history is from the R.O.P.E. website:

R.O.P.E. (which stands for the Reunion of Professional Entertainers) began one evening in May of 1983 when forty-three folks in the music industry got together to discuss the idea of having an organization.  Prior to the organizing of R.O.P.E., generally the only times these folks were together was to either work and/or attend the funeral/visitation for a fellow comrade. Wanting to correct this situation was the beginning of this great organization that is known as R.O.P.E., International.

Like Webster’s rope that is made of several strands, our ‘R.O.P.E.’ is made of many different fields of the music and entertainment industry.  Our membership roster includes artists, musicians, songwriters, record producers, booking agents, record promoters, disc jockeys and music business executives.  Some are retired while many are still very active in their respective field. Our members represent many years of musical and entertainment history. 

Wednesday June 8th we will once again gather at the Al Menah Shrine Temple for the annual luncheon with the stars. Folks this place has a REALLY nice stage and facility for this function and I myself will be there eating and reuniting with old friends. This show goes from 12-4 PM and will be a cost of 35.00 and the deadline is JUNE 3RD!

To order tickets here what you do:
Send a check or money order to R.O.P.E. P.O.Box 2048 Madison Tn 37116
call 615-860-9257
e mail lacyann@bellsouth.net

SO FAR we have performing (more to be announced as time passes).
Dickey Lee
Teea Goans
Tommy Cash
Tn River Boys
Dianne Sherrill
Jan Howard
Bobby G Rice
Bobby Lewis

You know I don’t know if this is a bad thing or good thing but I bet not many (if any) media outlets report on this show. Honestly I think it’s sad because I’m TELLING YOU that THIS was a special show of GRAND elements in every way, and it did my heart good to hear those words from the OPRY stage….Muddy Roots Presents.

I am tied in with many festivals and many different companies and groups (if you will) but Mr. Jason and his vision and the way he does things has always been my personal favorite. It may not be yours or you may not agree, but you aren’t writing this, I am and he has done some very nice things for me as a friend. It’s nice to know others out in this nasty world have your back in times you truly need it.

OK SO one thing I’d like to stress early on I had a balcony seat and even though Chris Isaak DID come up into my section and sing…oh yes he wandered all over the stands and performed I did not get very good pictures of the show. For that I am truly sorry however I DID get one hell of a report put together for you on this show..ready?

Woody Pines opened the show and every time I see them I enjoy them more and more. I skipped their late performance during the festival to come home and work so I could ready the other articles before this show I KNEW it was going to be awesome.

The show opened with “Long Gone” and then the band went into a really awesome jazz tune called “Dinah”. “Satisfied” was a cool song off the album “Counting Alligators” that is my favorite album they have. You know Muddy Roots Records bought control over all the titles and reissued them so NOW you can buy them at the merchandise booth during their shows.

“Anything For Love” was next off the new album and then he went into an intro story about a song off his fourth album called “Hobo And His Bride”. Now I’m going to try my best to remember the whole story, if you ever drive in Kansas and drive and drive you will see trains. The band was traveling alongside a train with a hobo waving to them on it and they fell behind the train. Several hours later they came up on it again and saw that indeed there was TWO hobos in a boxcar and she had a wedding dress on.

Woody Pines has several train songs out there that are really good and I enjoy his viper jazz swing music. He closed the show with “One Black Rat” off the new album, self titled. I highly suggest you check out their albums especially “Rabbit’s Motel” and the new album.

Chris Isaak is honestly an artist that appeals more to women than men in a nutshell, however being more mainstream of an artist I do enjoy some of his music. BUT his live show blew me away, it was amazing! Some of the best crowd interaction I have ever saw in music and some of the best stage presence I have ever witnessed, not many could pull off such a terrific show at the Opry House without it being an actual Opry show.

The floor got quiet and the lights went up and he blazed into the song “Dancing” which I felt was a good intro but not upbeat enough for an intro however it was good. One of my favorite songs he does was next “Somebody’s Crying” was a good song he did a really good job on it, with that smooth voice he has, but I’m telling you he CAN hit high notes…wow and he can carry a solid tune. He absolutely commands center stage and shows it who’s boss.

He did a really awesome acoustic song called “Two Hearts” you know what he reminds me of John Denver in his own different way, very powerful balladeer and showman. Songs are very positive and full of love lyrics and I guess that’s why earlier I said he was more directed towards women…just my opinion.

He is one of the few entertainers that still wears rhinestone suits and very cool showy costumes, he said it takes us as the patrons to support live music or he would wander around town and kids would say look mom there’s a figure skater. One of the ladies in the crowd approached the stage and gave him a tie clip and he put it on, like I said VERY GOOD crowd participation to this set tonight. Beyond what I anticipated as a paying customer.

“Don’t Leave Me On My Own” is just a wonderful song both vocally and well written. I’m so glad he played this one cause I listen to it a lot, I love his vocal range on it. And it really made the crowd feel good people were going nuts, then he went into the slow song “Kiss Me Like A Stranger” which is one his newer songs as well as “Reverie” which he played later on in the show.

Chris Isaak does many good covers and has recorded many of them that he included in tonight’s set. “Oh Pretty Woman” was one of them and I’m sorry for skipping around in my notes but he played “Great Balls Of Fire” with a piano that actually bellowed a ton of smoke out into the audience. His band was stellar in their own right and he showcased them each for us tonight and acknowledged their contributions to his own talent, which made me respect him all the more. Tonight I came away with a new respect for him as a performer…he truly gave me satisfaction of value for my ticket price. At one point within the show he wandered around the entire audience and performed some songs in the aisles and took pictures with people. He took a gal’s phone and took a selfie of them and gave it back to her, needless to say she went nuts.

“Down In Flames” and San Fransisco Days” were next and those were songs that I wasn’t familiar with he has so many albums under his belt as of late. Another acoustic song he did really well was “Forever Blue” I tell you what this man just naturally loves to entertain. He was so at home and inside his comfort zone behind the mic with us, for one evening we were his family and his heartbeat. He made me feel very important as a fan, and that’s a rare quality for a performer of what I consider mainstream status. I get that from local bands because they appreciate the fans more than most mainstream performers.

“First Comes The Night” and as I talked about before “Revelry” were next along with another cover “I Cant Help Falling In Love With You”. “She’s Not You” was another good song he did tonight that was one of my favorites, it’s one of my guilty pleasures…ok..so it’s not a typical song you’d think I mention I like.

He played “Blue Hotel” and they all did a really wonderful instrumental as he introduced the band to us. He played his own version of “Ring Of Fire” and a heartfelt tribute to Merle Haggard with “Lonesome Fugitive” and closed his set with “The Way Things Really Are”. I guess all in all I cannot say anything more than I have already said about this show, or this festival. It just keeps getting bigger and better every year now honestly to me..in my opinion..nothing will EVER BEAT that field in Cookeville where it all began for me and for many others. So until I see YOU in the Cookeville fields for the main Muddy Roots..goodbye folks until the next festival.

Alright folks I usually take several albums and feature them altogether in multiple article fashion for a lot of bands and artists but the Urban Pioneers hold a VERY special place in my heart both as friends and musically speaking. Liz Sloan speaks to the masses through her fiddle nightly and the three of them are true road warriors playing a whopping 300 plus shows yearly. I believe this is Mr. Martin Seargent’s frist album with them AKA Scooter, so please when YOU go see them welcome him into the fold.

I believe the next time I’ll get to catch up with them will be in Kansas City at the end of the month however I am hosting a different stage and won’t get to cover their set. I’m quite sure one of the many festivals I cover in the future will have them on the roster..I plan to catch Moonrunners in Chicago so we shall see how that pans out.

Feast Or Famine is their third album and has just been released digitally right now and will be available SOON and as soon as it is I will place the link up here so you can buy the album. One of the songs on the album that I have heard them play before was “He didnt Know My Name Back Then”. This album is packed full of their usual instrumental fury along with Russian fiddle influences and more, they have such a wide variety of features in their material. Here are some tour dates for you..

“Never Had A Waffle At The Waffle House” was absolutely hilarious especially coming from these two who obviously playing as many shows as they do are Waffle House ROYALTY. But since it’s called Feast Or Famine I guess this covers both since it mentions every other item off the menu there. Ha.

“Behind The Wheel Again” is the classic Urban Pioneers sound I was expecting from them and it’s just an all out toe tapping jam, with great vocals. It will fit in really well with their current list of possible songs at shows, and it features great strumming and Liz sawing out her signature sound but I tell you what during “Maybelle’s Farewell” she goes absolutely crazy on the fiddle with a Russian type influenced instrumental.

“Lazy Bones” is a truly good slow song about..well…a lazy man who goes fishing and is so lazy he don’t want fish to bite his line. I just really like the the lyrics to this song. If you are into traditional type string band music this band will quickly become one of your top notch bands for sure.

“Mary The Elephant” is a dancing elephant in 1916 and along with a hobo who was mean to her and she got angry and trampled the mean hobo. They tried to kill the elephant by shooting her and electrocuting her but she wouldn’t die so they hung her on a big chain at a construction site.

So this new album has thirteen tracks on it and if the email which includes the tracks is numbered as per the album here are the songs, and I understand it will soon available on vinyl as well.
1. Maybelle’s Farewell
2.Sunrise After Sunset
3.He Didn’t Know My Name Back Then
4.High On A Mountain
5.Fly Around Pretty Little Miss
6.Behind The Wheel Again
7.Golliath Coming Down
8.Lazy Bones
9.John Browns Dream
10.Never Had A Waffle At The Waffle House
11.Mary The Elephant
12.Do You Dream In Color
13.No Blood In The Stone.

Folks tonight I’m writing this one with my notes and I want to talk about Unknown Hinson THE KANG, The Hillbilly KANG. I have never had the opportunity to cover his set ever in my almost three years of covering shows on here. It just always missed my schedule or something always happened and I’ll be honest I missed the first three songs BUT THANKS to Unknown and his crew I managed to fix that problem so let’s delve into what the undead hillbilly KANG brought to the Nashville Boogie.

He stands over the mic and growls incessantly at all them womern out there as he plays his set and them womern go WILD over his undead spells. See them vampires can cast hootchie cootchie spells on your wife or girlfriend and he WILL steal her away from you, you must watch your  womern around him.  He opened his set with “Silver Platter” and of course “Undead Blues” man I’m really bummed I missed that one!

“I Aint Afraid Of Your Husband” is what I mean…he’s not. He’ll just bite you and you will submit your womern to him. When I got there he was playing “Rock And Roll Is Straight From Hell”  and went into “Fishcamp Women”, along with a bunch of truly awesome guitar solos. He hasn’t released new material in some time and even quit music for a brief period however he returned shortly after and went on tour with Reverend Horton Heat, whom I shall touch on next. If you’ll remember a little while back their tour van caught fire on the road and I’m really glad nobody was hurt, or killed…accept Unknown Hinson already IS dead so you know..I’m just glad everyone was safe.

“I Make Faces When I Make Love” was next and yes that raised eyebrow is what casts them hootchie cootchie spells on your womerns and “You Ain’t Calling The Law” on him at any time. One of the coolest songs he plays is “Polly Urethane” and my favorite song he does is “Human Oddity” off his “Reloaded” album, which is the newest one I know of.

He also played “Barbie-Q” and “Ugly Things” and another song off Reloaded “Spittin On My Grave”. You know when I went to visit the V Club in Huntington WV with ol’ W.B.Walker I saw the great artwork of him in the smoking area on the wall along with Hank 3 which reminded me of the song “Out On My Patio”. He also played “Venus Bound” and closed his set with “Torture Town” and also “Hippie Girl”, and afterwards he signed stuff and took pictures with us all.

So the next band I caught a little bit of before I had to move on was a band Unknown Hinson was on tour with and the bus on fire accident was NOT made up, it really happened and seriously I’m SO GLAD everyone was unscathed. The Reverend Horton Heat played directly after Unknown and tore right into “The School Of Rock And Roll” and another one I’m not sure what it was perhaps “Beer Holder”…I was packing up to head over to the Events Center to see my next full band set!

Big Sandy And The Fly Rite Boys are a band from the west coast that I have got to cover many times and every time they do I try my best to get to cover their set. I know it’s not easy for this band to get this way as often as they want to, and every time I see them it is better than I expect.

I missed his opening song while talking with some people from Michigan, but his second song was off his very first album and it was “Miss Tracey”. Folks Big Sandy has been around for many many years, in fact he is celebrating twenty five years on stage.

He debuted some NEW songs for us he had for sale on record “Fine Fine Superfine” was the first single and the B Side was called “Every Time”. Both songs were truly exciting and I’m hoping they come back soon for another full set. If you’ll remember correctly a few months ago I covered Big Sandy and Hillbilly Casino (A band I sadly missed this weekend) as he filled in for Miss Wanda Jackson who was recovering from surgery.

“Love That Man” was next followed by a REALLY nice “Hot Water” I love that song so much, he played “Feeling Lucky” and closed his set with in my opinion is an iconic song he MUST have in his set list “Chalk It Up To The Blues”. Last year’s Nashville Boogie was my first time ever having covered this man’s music but I grew up with Jumping From Six To Six for sure!

Deke Dickerson is just a few years shy of my own age and has accomplished more than folks twice our age. He writes a regular column in Guitar Player magazine and hosts his own festival yearly. He is a guitar wizard and absolutely blew the roof off the event center tonight…wow.

This man is one of the double neck kings and he does a lot of guitar picking with O’l Flying Fingers Larry Collins and later on in his set he played a song called “Rocking Jam” from Larry Collins and Joe Maphis. He opened with “Let’s Rock Tonight” and went into the high paced song “Blistered”.

He absolutely tore apart the stage tonight and played “Big Guitar” and he plays it GOOD, in fact he had a double neck that two guys played at once! Have I ever saw that..yes I have. But not in this good of fashion, and as he steamrolled into “Double Neck Boogie” is when they did just that. They went absolutely crazy and had the crowd going bonkers, “I Might Not Come Home At All” was another good song.

He does NOT STOP when up there are was screaming out the lyrics to “Psycho Therapy” and even went into some heavy metal licks for us while playing a guitar solo called “Whistle Dick”. I’m telling you he left my jaw on the floor as he closed his set with a song called “Nashville Boogie” He’s one of those west coast acts as well that just doesn’t come to my area that much, in fact I don’t recall ever seeing him playing in town.

Pokey LaFarge is a fellow I have covered before at Muddy Roots main festival in Cookeville but it has been years since then. Last year he released a dang fine album of noteworthy mention and tonight he did a wonderful job.

He began with “Close The Door” and another called “Mr. Nobody”. Now mind you this man performs one hell of a set with so many different instruments in his multi-talented band. You could call him Ragtime Country Delta Blues Viper Jazz…just call it good ass music!

“Something In The Water” was next along with “Barcelona” and they were also filled with many different sounds and solos and Pokey has very good crown interaction and introduces his band earlier in the set. “Wanna Be Your Man” was next and that was a very good song, he did one of my favorites called “La La Blues”.

“Acti’n a Fool” was next along with more fun filled music solos of all types, “You Can Never Tell” was exceptionally good tonight I remember him playing that one last time. It was very hard to get pictures of Pokey because the stage area was pretty packed in tight here, this was one of the more packed shows of the weekend.

“Carmelita” and “Bad Girl” were both next and one of my favorites he does “Central Time” was next to last. He closed his set with “Hard Times” and while I was packing up my camp he did do an encore but I don’t remember what it was to write it down. All in All I had a truly blessed weekend of music here last weekend and I have more people than I could EVER mention to thank here for making these articles possible.

BUT ESPECIALLY YOU….YES YOU for taking the time to read all these different articles. I mean the bands and venues can organize and promote all they want but without YOU it just doesn’t happen. YOUR enjoyment of the music and support of it all is what keeps it going afloat. I’m sure EVERY band and EVERY festival would all agree whatever you like it’s YOUR support that continues the possibility to grow. I got ONE article to go folks and it’s from the Opry House on Sunday….Muddy Roots takes over the Opry.

The Westport Roots Festival
Moonrunners Music Festival
Picki’n In The Pasture
John Hartford Music Festival
The Blue Ox Music Festival
The Duck Creek Log Jam

Folks I’ll be heading out to Kansas City shortly after the Boogie in may of this year for the third annual Wesport Roots Festival which I missed last year but promised them I would help them grow. Also, I haven’t brought my website out to that area yet in person so this partnership will be a win-win situation. Now the website states that there will be some venue changes and I am CONSTANTLY adding and editing ALL my festival articles as I learn and discover things. I got HUGE NEWS concerning this festival, perhaps the most involved I have EVER been in ANY festival in this website’s history!

Little Class Records CEO contacted me not long ago and asked me if I wanted to do some cross promotions with them, since I was already planning to cover the event live. The Westport Saloon has a big hand in this festival and it appears that there is a whole area of venues involved within the Wesport district, which is Kansas City’s oldest portion of the city. There will be six stages involved and they all center the like music, I’ll be hosting the Honky Tonk stage and covering the event. All six stages go at once and four of them are indoor stages, two of them are outdoor tent stages. They are however pretty close together and within acceptable distance of one another.

HERE is MORE information Concerning stage sponsors and what genre of music is being featured where.

Languanitas Brewing Co., The Westport Saloon, and Little Class Records bring you the 2016 Westport Roots Festival Memorial Day weekend. Over 60 bands on 6 stages in your favorite neighborhood. From Psychobilly rowdiness on the Pabst Blue Ribbon at Buzzard Beach to Walnut Valley Festival Bluegrass Favorites on the American Born Moonshine stage hosted by Finetimecamp, we have all of your Roots Genres covered. Get your fill of twang and Honky-tonk on the Boombox.FM stage at Ernie Biggs Westport hosted by Gary Hayes Country.

Not to mention, we still have an entire stage of heavy hitters booked by Dylan Thomas Dorrell to announce in February! This guy knows how to throw a party as can be see at Dylan’s Big Birthday Bender Blowout Bash coming up next month. Don’t forget about the Busch Beer Presents: Westport Roots Reception! A preparty featuring Dale Watson! and the Four Roses Bourbon presents: Roots Fest Recovery with Special guests Mountain Sprout!. OK Speaking of this fellow and his stage he has added some heavy hitters among the Roots Music world in the Goddamn Gallows MORE!

If you’re planning a weekend of it, please consider AC Hotels by Marriott Kansas City Westport. Its right across the street and downhill from the festival, so you can easily stagger back to your room after you have enjoyed all the Four Roses Bourbon you care to drink. Be listening to KKFI 90.1 FM and watching Ink Magazine for more information and schedules as the date approaches and feel free to stop by any of the AWESOME SPONSORS’ pages and tell them thank you for supporting live music and arts!

This festival is located in downtown Kansas City in what they call the Westport District, and there are two hotels within walking distance of the Westport Saloon here are the links:
AC Marriott
816 Hotel
Embassy Suites
And as always I will be researching this festival immensely and adding any I find, and after going in person for the year I’ll find even more. I FULLY intend on helping them grow through a multiple area media campaign I will introduce to you here. I have talked with the owner of the Westport Saloon and he told me the AC Mariott sponsors this event and offers reduced rates to the attendees.

So for right now folks here is the full lineup for this festival:
Dale Watson
Kiel Grove
The Drunken Cuddle
The Calamity Cubes
Urban Pioneers
Monzie Leo And The Big Sky
Twenty Thousand Strongmen
Tyler Gregory And The Bootleg Band
S.S. Web
A.J. Gaither
Champagne Charlie
Carrie Nation And The Speakeasy
Shawn James And The Shapeshifters
Joe And Vicki Price
Booker Noe
Dusty Rust
Joshua Morningstar
Billy Don Burns
J B Beverley
Jack Grelle
Sarah Gayle Meech
Scott Hrabko And The Rabbits
kasey Raush
Nathan Kalish And The Lastcallers
Jon Hachett
Hobosexuals
Well Worn Souls
The Blindstiffs
Pendergast
The Boothill Band
Pete Berwick
The Hickoids
Freight Train Rabbit Killer And The Legion Of Ghosts
Hunter Grigg
Randall Conrad Olinger
Billy Beale
Coyote Bill
C j Walker
The Hector Anchando Band
Brutually Frank
Dead Bundy
7 Shot Screamers
Elvis Hitler
Dead Dick Hammer
Rain Dogs
The Matchsellers
Ashes To Immortality
Loaded Goat
Konza Swamp Band
Good Time Charley
Julian Davis
Kansas City Hustle
The Creek Rocks
The kansas City Bear Fighters

NOW we also have a HUGE product soon becoming available from the stage I will be sponsoring at this event.

Folks right now I have MORE schedule information on this event, OK there is a pre party friday night with Dale Watson at the Saloon only. There is a recovery show on sunday night at the Saloon only as well, the festival itself is Saturday only. The first 200 sales get access to all three days of events, I understand this will be three separate tickets after the first 220. You can pre order tickets RIGHT HERE.

Folks this is the third day of the festival and I’m getting to spend a bunch of my early time here at the Opryland Hotel Event Center and Ryman Ballroom. Last night was terrific a time at the Palace and I left after Dale Watson to catch up on sleep last night so I could arrive in prime shape today to work more on the music. For the second year in a row Miss Riley Reed organized the fashion show and once again JPCyr and the Radio Wranglers provided the music for it. Miss Riley is a student of Manuel’s and is a prominent downtown Nashville figure, and not one of them tourist figures either, she IS the real deal I can promise you that.

Eight different designers made up the show this year and they all showed off several of their styles with male and female models in parts. The models moved really fast and it was hard for me to get still photos on my phone but my buddy Mr.Joe Dooda was a model and Mr. Joshua Morningstar modeled off the top that Miss Ellie Monster designed for him. Also modeling was  Miss Kacey Musgraves and Miss Tanya Montana Coe along with Miss Kendra Hope and more.

I actually came away learning about different styles of stitching and I was admiring the fringes on the dresses and men’s tops. Basically the different designers had four of five different models of their clothes showcased within a time frame with Miss Katy K once again announcing the event. Miss Riley walked out on the stage floor with her new baby daughter Little Miss Orla, whom I finally got to see this weekend with those little boots. Miss Riley puts an absolute ton of love into what she does and I thought this was an enjoyable part of the festival even though fashion is something I know very little about, maybe that’s what drew me to delve into learning more.

The designers were:
Riley Reed
Bernie Dexter
Tyler George
Fables By Barrie
Jerry Lee Atwood
Ellie Monster
Jess Snell
Manuel

The models were:
Joe Dooda
Joshua Morningstar
Tanya Montana Coe
Lindsay Timberlake
Natasha Blankenship
Ava Couture
Jenna Dawn
Vixen Lucy Lynn
Jean Velveteen
Eva Darling
Millie Michelle
Cherry De Vine
Kendra Hope
Meredith Shaw
Celine V
Miss V
Ryan Warner
Brendan Malone
Adam Wakitsh
Alex Heighton
Shane Tutmarc
Joe Dooda
Jason Galaz
Brinton Ward

The first act I covered today was none other than Lucky Tubb. I have indeed covered his set before and he played the Palace at last year’s Nashville Boogie. He performed a truly wonderful set early on today beginning with “Let  It Roll”and “Sweet Sweet Kisses”. For the first time in quite a while Lucky Tubb’s entire collection of albums has been re issued for the merch booth and I sneaked over and picked up Damn The Luck while they played “Bad Decisions When I Drink” and followed that with “Coming Home”.

It wouldn’t be a classic Lucky Tubb show without some classic covers like “Thanks a Lot” and the Warner Mack classic “The Bridge Washed Out”. And those covers were followed up with “Honky Tonking Man” and another cover called “Cow Town Boogie”. He played an ever popular Wayne The Train Hancock song “Juke Joint Jumping” and closed his set with a song off Del Guado called “Officer Guerrero”. I was enjoyed his set today I tell you what I have saw some pretty damn good sets this weekend so far but I pretty much have my Top 2 picked already.

So I’m sitting here enjoying the Psycho Devilles with Luther Jackson they come highly suggested by Mr Luther. I’m truly glad I listened to him because immidiately after hearing the rocking song “Bar Fight” I was a fan of their music.

They barreled into their anti anthem called “The Rebel” and followed that with a song about hot rods called “Chopped Down And Hopped Up”. Speaking of hot rods I did get to see some of the classic cars in the vendor area and some of the vintage clothes. “Addicted” was another really rocking good song about collecting cars and women, which pretty much sums up the rockabilly lifestyle right….well I enjoy the music aspect of it all.

“This Old Road” was a song that was recorded over 25 years ago they said. Many of these rockabilly bands are legendary in many ways and date back quite some. “My Guitar Saved Me” was off their new album that will be out July 25th and I shall be featuring that album in one of my articles. They followed up with a song called “The Real Deal” and continued to have the crowd into a frenzy with “Psycho Cadillac”. They closed their iconic set with “Hot Rod Man”, I tell you what folks this first time band is indeed one I shall cover again upon my next opportunity.Upon enjoying their album I bought I noticed the song “My Guitar Saved Me” was also on that album so please forgive me if I made an error in my review I might have misunderstood them.

I went out to the Opry Mills mall to grab me a bite to eat of supper so I could return and cover the next few names in my next article that will finish up night number three, and trust me I witnessed some stellar bands during my next article which will cover the undead Hillbilly Kang none other than Unknown Hinson, Big Sandy And The Fly Rite Boys and MORE!

Man what can I say about The Planet Rockers that I failed to mention last year? I mean honestly they were one of my top 3 acts of last year’s Nashville Boogie Vintage Weekend, having played at the Palace. This year they were in the Ryman exhibit hall and they sounded absolutely amazing, like rolling thunder and loud enough to bring Unknown Hinson back to life.

These guys are like the Motorhead of Rockabilly, loud and obnoxiously heavy in the most awesome way I could ever write about. Once again lead guitarist Eddie Angel just absolutely slayed it on that stage with blazing leads and with Sonny George up there bellowing out songs like their opener “Big Wheel”  and “Spin My Wheels”.

If you missed their set Friday you missed you missed a iconic set for sure, as they went into ‘Yes I Do”. These guys have been around for a long time as their LIVE album A Night At The Twist And Shout from 1998 in my opinion is one of the best LIVE albums I have in my collection. A bunch of these songs are on that album as well like “Gravy Train” and “Truck Drivers Rock”.

They played “King Fool” and my personal favorite song they do is called “One’s All The Law Will Allow”, I just like the lyrics and they way he hollers out about that Jersey Cow and One Eyed Horse. One of the last songs I remembered was “Hot Seat”, and also I was getting ready to head back over to the Nashville Palace to finish off my night with my next two acts that were monumental in every way but before I tell you about that I remember hearing “Trouble Up The Road”.

Rosie Flores is one of Rockabilly’s most beloved Legends and one that I have never had the opportunity to cover on my website, her OR the next Country Music Legend the one and only Dale Watson. Both Texans played at the Nashville Palace where I finished up my second day of music watching partly because I locked my keys in my truck and had to wait on AAA to get there.  Not sure if you noticed that but AAA is actually a sponsor of me and has provided me with a membership and dog gone it I’m glad to have them there for me.

She opened her set with “Get Rhythm” and another called “I Want You To Know” and she also is in the process of recording a new album this year. Her set tonight was filled with many instrumentals showcasing her true guitar gun slinging fashion from a time many were dreaming of playing music. Miss Rosie paved the way for many of the other acts this weekend as did Dale Watson and Billy Harlan.

“I Want You To Know” was another song she played and she also announced that she is recording a new album as well and it will be out in fall. “King Of The Blues” was a good song she played and then she went into some songs that Dwight Yoakam made popular like “If There Was A Way”. In fact that’s my personal favorite album Dwight ever released, and actually my favorite album of 1990. It was his fourth studio album and by far his most popular to date.

Later on in the set Miss Rosie played another Dwight song “Long White Cadillac”, but first she played a song called “Country Boy” and another called “Drug Store rock” which was off the Rockabilly Philly album which I picked up on CD tonight. She closed up her set with “Tear Me Up”, and the crowd was truly pouring into the Palace ri ght now to hear the next act tonight and my final one before I went home.

Dale Watson is a Country Music Legend in his own right and has been burning up the roads since 1970. In many ways he paved the way for those that came after him but yet had his way paved by my last act I just covered Rosie Flores, having began his recording career upon her urging. He is a former house band member of the famed California venue the iconic Palomino Club, which was featured in the Clint Eastwood classics “Every Which Way But Loose” and “Any Which Way You Can”.

Honestly going into this show I was expecting a wide range of songs and was hoping he would dip WAY back into his list of songs for us tonight, and of course he features the famed Lone Star Beer commercials during his set. He opened with “Things I Shouldn’t Do” and followed it up with “Jonesin For Jones” of course that was a song dedicated to George Jones.

“Honky Tonkers Don’t Cry” was third and I did indeed expect this song tonight and was glad to hear it. He played a Merle Haggard song “Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down” and followed up with the ever popular “Whiskey Or God”. I wished he would come to Nashville more often but I’m going to be honest folks, he got off the bus and played and got back on the bus THAT FAST. He drove 11 hours to play for one and drove 11 back, THAT is road dogging it.

“I Lie When I Drink” was next another great song that initiates huge crowd interaction when they get to answer back “I Drink A Lot”. He played one called “Texas Boogie” before playing his anti-pop country anthem “Country My Ass” which pretty much got us all into party mode there, “Exit 109” was part of the set tonight as well.

He played “Suicide Sam” and several more of his truck driving songs that he is so well known for playing and recording like “Jack’s Truck Stop” and another called the “Birmingham Breakdown”. Honestly so far this was one of the top 3 sets of the entire festival in my opinion and I REALLY enjoyed it and couldn’t think of a better venue to see it than the Palace, in fact I’m on my way back down there for lunch and music ad records RIGHT NOW!

…oh wait he closed with “My Baby Makes Me Gravy”…and that Lone Star jingle again. You cannot forget the Lone Star sponsorship, I always wondered what kind of beer he liked?

I’m here at the second day of the festival and this begining portion is at the Opryland Hotel. There are two stages here, one is in the Ryman Exhiit Hall and one is in the Event Center. Ill be bouncing all over today as I attempt to tackle yet another day of music. I am trying my new toy which is a bluetooth keyboard paired up to my smartphone because I am prepared for any scenario while writing. Todays first band is Little Leslie And The Bloodshots which was a Rockabilly band from NYC and honestly as I’m writing this I’m watching another band so I can speak in past tense…they did a truly fine set.

They opened their set with a song called “24 Hours More” and one called “Nothing Without You”. Now it was announced that the trio is indeed recording a new album this summer in July, which I’ll be watching for so I can bring you folks more information on it. Three of the new songs they played today for us at the Boogie one was called “Bad Girl” and the other was called “You Don’t Fool Me”. Later on in the set they also played a new song called “Losing My Mind”.

Very energetic lead singer and bassist this band here has lots of really good photo opportunities from them tonight as you can obviously see. ” You Can’t Break My Soul” was really a good rocking song, very fast paced songs full of dancing.  “Long Gone So Gone” was another decent song and the place was filling fast I couldn’t really get up near the stage to buy an album. There were a few more songs I caught before I had to move on to the next stage and they were “I Got A Man” and one of their last songs was “Happy When Your’e Gone”.

I then made my way next door to the Opryland Events Center where I finally ran into my buddy Ronnie Reels from Reelsound Productions who in my opinion is one of the finest sound guys in the business in every way, I highly suggest him for your favorite festival. My next band today comes all the way from England and is a four piece band called The Doel Brothers which also had a really good steel player.

Like I said earlier I was going to buy vinyl right? So I did indeed pick up their album and really admired their set here today, however I didn’t catch the whole thing in order to catch other bands. They opened with “Wild Woman” and another one off their album called “Something’s Cooking”. After playing one called “You Ain’t A Woman” they played a Tennessee Ernie Ford song called “Kissing Bug Boogie”. I’d like to stress that when I bought their record I also got the CD so that was a delight to get to listen to the album in the truck.

“Troubles” was a good song and another from the Sun Records Era called “Laughing And Joking” and another called “Hurting Honey” which I’m not sure if that was an original or not. But they let the band loose when I was packing up to leave for the next band as they played “Further To Go” and “Who Needs You”. The last one I remember seeing being done was “Side Step”. Truly enjoyable vintage western attire and styles from these bands here this weekend and all the different backgrounds and areas all made this festival even more enjoyable. This truly was a growing trend from last year and honestly I see NO signs of stopping now!

If you remember my series of articles from last years Nashville Boogie you will recall JP Cyr And The Radio Wranglers who earned a TOP 50 spot on my 2015 list last year, and didn’t fail to thrill me this year again. Why, because they opened their set with a Leon McCauliff song called “Never Lived In Tennessee”.

They then played a Jean Shepard song “Twice The Loving Half The Time” which showcased once again their young lady that plays the fiddle for them. They played an original called “No Trouble No More” which I remember from last year and another by Ernest Tubb called “Walking The Floor Over You”.

“I’ll Be All Smiles” followed up with “Southbound Train” were two more songs they featured here tonight at the Palace. They also played a T Texas Tyler song called “Gal Don’t Need A Man”, which like last night was truly an obscure cover song. I was really impressed by some of these rare covers and some of them I learned because I wasn’t aware of them! I’m pretty sure their last ones were called “Hard Life Blues” and they closed with “Invitation To The Blues” made popular by Ray Price. And as soon as they ended their set I quickly had to take the trolley back to Opryland for my next band who was a Legend!

Rockabilly Legend Billy Harlan was here tonight and He performed some classics and some new songs he recorded in legendary studio B for Muddy Roots Records recently. Mr. Billy holds great stature in the history of my area of Kentucky around the time of Hank Williams death in the early 1950’s.

He began his set with “I Wanna Bop” like all the previous times I have covered his set on this website, and followed that up with “School House Rock”. Along with his newest song called “I Ain’t Elvis” he treated us to some Everly Brothers hits as well, after he played “Be Bopping Annie” and another called “This Lonely Man”.

“Bye Bye Love” was an early Everly Brothers song written by Felice and Boudleax Bryant along with “Walk Right By” and “When Will I Be Loved”. Like I said he has great history with those that came from the Muhlenberg County area of Kentucky the likes of Merle Travis who wrote Sixteen Tons and also contributed a lot to Country Music. He closed his set with “My Fate Is In Your Hands” and played “I Wanna Bop” again.

Mr. Billy is a Legend not only as an artist and writer but as a Disc Jockey as well form an era I am highly interested in, the early 1950’s directly after the death of Hank Williams and the impact it had in every community. I guess what intrigues me the most is how hard it really did impact the music world that early with no technology. There was no social media..hell, there was barely video recording or film however Hank’s death garnished one of the largest historical gatherings in Alabama state history.

Hello folks, greetings from the Nashville Palace as I shall be covering this whole weekend event from Muddy Roots called the Nashville Boogie Vintage Weekender. Now for those of you who are new to my music website THANK YOU for checking me out and PLEASE SHARE what I do on social media, I put a LOT of personal work into this website and spend most of my life researching and covering live music and it’s history. I cover and support thousands of independent and local bands, and I support many national acts as well.

Muddy Roots does many things for the music industry and performers alike and it hosts MANY events nationwide and NOW Europe and Brazil, and is rapidly growing every year. You know in late 2014 Mr. Jason shared with me his tiny vision of starting a rockabilly festival and asked for my input. To be honest I was sort of weak in the rockabilly department back then, but I do think I helped some. I have attended every main Muddy Roots festival in Cookeville to date and one Spring Weekender, and this is the second annual Nashville Boogie at Opryland.

Man I tell you what the Palace has me set up nice over here with pretty much all what I need to jam on this job here, and as long as I have this I can write and report as it happens with all the music and whatnot. There’s MORE than JUST music here…there’s a car show and dancing lessons, fashion shows and MUCH MORE than last year. I’m looking forward to the record convention Sunday because I NEED more records, right? Right. And to top it all off Sunday night they take over the Opry house with Chris Isaak and Woody Pines, more on that later. The Palace has always been good to me and has always supported what I do on here and of course it’s a top choice of venues for me of music and food.

So this project will be the usual fashion I cover festivals…in parts broken up by days of events. The first day of the event is always fully at the Palace while they prepare the Opryland Convention Center for the event, and this year there are TWO stages in the Opryland Center. Also there is transportation between the Palace and the Hotel this year. Last year some of the side stages were in other places so we shall see how this year has changed..I’m already excited for some music.

There was Rockabilly dancing from Ms. Wolff’s Jiving School where they were learning to do something I never have been able to do..dance. I can write a mean article about music and tell you that George Morgan died in 1975 but I cannot dance!

The very first music act tonight is A Man Called Stu who has just returned from some overseas dates and if you’ll remember I covered his set with Dallas Moore at Exit Inn not long ago. I been excited to see him again and get to see him play again. He opened his set with some classic Hank Williams “Ramblin Man” and followed up with “Baby Of Mine”. This was a very strong traditional Country laced set with good old fashioned steel guitar work and had the place jumping early.

He played a Charlie Louvin song called “See The Big Man Cry Mama” and also played one called “Jungle Fever” by Charlie Feathers. One can certainly see the influence of roots within Mr. Stu whether it’s the first time you have saw him or if you have saw him a million times one can easily tell as he played “One Woman Man” and the Faron Young classic “If You Aint Living”. Right now he is playing a song from his former band Zombie Ghost Train called “Gone”. He is truly doing a super fine job down here of kicking off this festival in a classic country fashion and I’m ready for more great music as he closed his set with “Unmitigated Gall”.

The next act I’ll be covering tonight is a fellow I been wanting to cover for some time now named Julian Davis and honestly I believe I have the young man on my stage in Kansas City at another festival so let’s see what he brings to the table here tonight. He recorded an album this year on Little Class Records and I just stopped by his area and purchased it.

This young man is deeply enriched in roots of Country and Western Swing and for his age at sixteen this young man POUNDS on the guitar..in fact he just broke a string like he said he would. Doesn’t matter man this guy is BURNING UP the stage. All the talk about him is true he is amazing, and I’m upset I haven’t ever got to cover him yet but better late than never.

He began the set with a song off his album called “Secret Garden” and his entire band is doing a truly terrific job up there just ripping solos and jumping around like nuts. Folks this is one of the youngest prodigies I have seen since Emi Sunshine and Colter Wall. His set included the ever popular “Freeborn Man” but I’m telling you with his lightning fast picking this was not a cover…it was amazing. Simply thunderous and fast.

The Bluegrass infused “Miss Molly” was another truly awesome song and he followed that with “Cocaine Blues” which he did pretty good on. He played an original song called ‘Last Scrap”, and now he played a fast paced song he wrote when he was only twelve called “Special Delivery” which is full of amazing guitar solos. This man plays better than some twice his age for absolute certain. You can’t beat entertainment like this folks it doesn’t come around that often in a package like this, his many different influences ring true during his set.

After a huge fast paced instrumental piece he played a Merle Haggard tune called “Honky Tonk Night Time Man” which showcased the fiddle player very well, this band played better than some four and five piece bands I have covered before. He is playing a popular song Pokey Lafarge plays”Whats The Matter With The Mill” and is playing “Rolling In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”. Honestly he closed his set with a bluegrass version of Motorhead’s “Ace Of Spades”, in a killer fiddle induced version of a song the likes of Stump Tail Dolly which left this place screaming!

The Farmer And Adele is a Western Swing band here tonight that has folks dancing all over the place, VERY fun band. Really nice steel guitar solos and mandolin on songs like Patsy Cline’s “Back In Baby’s Arms” and the ever popular “Back In The Saddle Again”.

Very fun crowd interaction with their song “Saddle Up Song”, and “Cowtown Boogie” they did a wonderful job of keeping us entertained tonight here at the Palace. What an eventful night so far and heck the main events haven’t taken place yet, we still have a TON of big music to take place all over Opryland this weekend.

Right now they are playing “Gone Gone Gone” off one of their albums, and one thing I’d like to point out about their merch booth is they have sheet music for their songs available. Not many bands have that indeed and I’m enjoying the nostalgia here with this band for sure, what a nice fit here tonight. I think Mr. Jason has truly put together a nice lineup here so far and I haven’t been to the hotel area yet. They also played “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” and some instrumental pieces laced with that good old steel guitar, which to my delight has been the norm tonight and I expect nothing less from Muddy Roots events.

“Home on The Range” among other classic western songs fill this bands catalogue of material with their Riders In The Sky fashion of playing with Western comedy and swing twang, in fact the song they are playing right now was recorded and wrote with Ranger Doug Green and it’s called “Open Door”, and they closed their set with a song called “Sundown Song”.

Incredible turnout here tonight as the evening progresses I’m quite impressed in the amount of income this festival is bringing to my local economy and THAT folks is quite important to me. This event is helping Nashville thrive in fact it is surpassing corporate events and THAT is a major punch in their face.

Kristina Murray and Logan Ledger are next and together they have some terrific harmonies and are doing duet songs quite well. They opened their set with “If I Could Only Win Your Love” and another popular song “Just Someone I Used To Know”. Along with the last few acts I have never featured them before, but it’s not an act I would ever overlook. Another damn fine act with great fiddle and steel guitars once again playing some truly good Country Music.

“Brand New Heartache” is what they are playing now and it has a great dancing rhythm that is filling up the dance floor and tomorrow is going to usher in some sore people from all this dancing. “Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds” is what is going on right now up there with more wonderful harmonies from a well oiled machine like band. “I’m A Jukebox” was an original song they played and honestly as the Palace was filling up I couldn’t get around for as many pictures as I would’ve liked to but it’s all good…I was hired to write and write I shall!

Many good fiddle and steel guitar solos in this act as well with their song called “Sunrise” and I didn’t catch the one they are playing right now for sure. I think it was called “You Don’t Have Very Far To Go”.  FINALLY A Buck Owens cover song “Think Of Me” which I do not believe I have ever heard a band play a cover of to be honest…this was truly another fine set tonight as they closed their set with “Golden Ring”.

Kyle Eldridge And The Rhythm Rounders are next and are the final act of this evening, but folks the music continues tomorrow as soon as I wake up from this coma tonight. I caught up with laundry and scalped my lawn so I could concentrate on four days of writing about music. I should have this article up before the first night ends THANKS to the helpful staff of the Nashville Palace for that!  I’m not using a hotel this weekend folks I’ll be traveling to my own home like I said before, I have company in town attending this festival too.

“San Antonio Rose” is what we are being treated to right now here at the Palace, you know I couldn’t count all the many powerhouse shows I saw here in my years of living here. I saw some truly epic Legends within the ranks of Country Music here on this stage, and I can add more Nashville Boogie to my list.

He’s playing “Too Hot To Handle” by Eddie Noack, did you know he and Bobby Mackey were both on Lefty Frizzell’s record label? Yep. After playing some instrumentals he played other older cover songs like “I Ain’t Broke I’m Kind Of Bent” that I have heard several people play before. This young man just loves them old Western songs too like the rest of us.

Another song I really enjoyed was “Tattooed Lady” and altogether these acts tonight all truly complimented one another unlike the rest of the weekend where the acts are more different, NOT that it’s a complaint at all. We’ll have to see how the two stages pan out in the end, and how close they are apart. Oh man he doing “Right Or Wrong”, there have been some REALLY GOOD covers tonight old time swing tunes even I have forgotten about. He followed with another Bob Wills song called “I Hear You Talking”, he asked us first if we wanted to hear it…we weren’t arguing but he said we had no choice.

He played a Merle Travis song called “Sweet Temptation” which honestly I had only heard a few times so I’m learning new things with all this music too. Merle Travis is from my neck of the woods and I appreciate his contributions to music in general. He closed his set with an instrumental song and another DJ closed out the night with music, I am returning home to proofread and do more work. I’ll return to the keyboard tomorrow with my first full day of music to come folks!

The Country Music Legend known as the Gentle Giant Don Williams announced his official retirement several weeks ago marking his sixty year career in recording and touring as iconic in many ways. You know folks 2016 has been rough on us Country Music fans and frankly, it’s going to get worse as several Legends I cannot list are frail and under medical care. Don Williams is one of the few we still have in good health for the most part and is currently spending his time in Ashland City Tennessee at home.

For almost more than twenty years Don has had one hit every year and has garnished over twenty one number one hits in Country Music. He has recorded over twenty five studio albums in his time mostly produced by Legendary producer Garth Fundis who did his 2014 release “Reflections”.

You know folks Don Williams is one of those Legends I use to prove my viewpoint on Country Music in the fact that there are three pillars that build it’s foundation: The Producer, the Steel Guitarist and the Songwriter all of which are evident on his material. If not for the Legendary Bob McDill who worte many of Don’s hits he might not have achieved his stature.

In 1994 he released what is in my opinion one of the grandest Live albums ever “An Evening With Don Williams” was indeed an iconic album from it’s period. Having never frequented the Opry as often as other Legends of his time he still had just as much success as other that did play it often, however his live shows were often unrivaled.

Around the beginning of March Don Williams announced to the music world he was retiring and no longer playing shows or recording further music, with no plans to return. However you choose to remember the Legends that are indeed still with us one must not forget the Gentle Giant or his contributions to Country Music.

Hey folks I’m here in Clarksville Tennessee right down the road from my house at VERY nice venue named Mike’s Bar And Grill. This is the first time in a while I have had the chance to catch up with Kara Clark. She’s been doing more shows as of late and this is the first time I have ever been to this venue which has a truly nice stage area for bands. It has pool tables and good sized televisions for people as well as a full bar and a full menu with reasonable prices,later on I’m fixing to try a pizza.

Let’s see if this time she can play a full show without knocking out the power. She began the show with a Don Henley cover “Boys Of Summer”,and I believe this set she is doing right now will be mostly a cover show which is cool with me on a Saturday night with a Coors Light. Gary is just enjoying himself tonight and I hope to hear some good ones out of her. Later on in the evening she was asked to do all originals so I truly enjoyed the night, and I plan to stop there for a full meal in the future.

Her next song was a Hank Williams Jr. song “Dinosaur” which they played really well.That song was off one of my favorite (what I call mid-career) albums “Habits Old And New”. 1980 was not my favorite period of Hank Jr, as was his REALLY early stuff like the Cobo Hall Live album. I tell you what I never heard her play “Fire Away” by Stapleton not a bad cover there and she went into Tom Petty’s “Free Falling”.

She’s doing a pretty good variety of different genres of songs for the crowd tonight I m enjoying myself tonight this is a pretty spacious venue for the area and new and clean. Very  nice bar to come to and I hope they book more bands I want to feature because I’ll bring the website back here for sure. The only negative thing I’d say so far are the cokes aren’t refills so that’s why I opted for a beer tonight. When I first arrived it took a little while to be served however once I was the service was beyond exceptional and as the show went on I had more than one gal checking on me. Very nice and friendly staff I highly recommend coming out here for drinks.

As she’s playing “What’s Going On” she is going into some original songs tonight like Whiskey And Cigarettes. And speaking of smoking I want to stress to folks smoking IS allowed here however it didn’t really bother me much. She is doing her on rocking version of “Ring Of Fire”.

Shes doing the Drive By Truckers really well right now I’d say for someone that usually does more originals the band is doing a decent job of keeping the crowd into things here. Right now she’s playing a Candlebox song, The target audience here is in to the rock songs but responsive to them all in good fashion and are very polite here and when the band took a break there was an array of music being played. This is pretty much an every type venue that Clarksville needs more of. I wouldn’t go absolutely nuts over it however I wouldn’t tell you to not come here either.

Her second set started with “Simple Man” that included some real good lead guitars and the band did that one really well. She followed that by “Magic Man” by Heart and believe you me they really gave this song hell and I’m pretty impressed the solos and timing For such a different song. Her longtime keyboardist David Walker sang some songs for us it was nice to see him again, I remembered him from Altamont. Speaking of which the very first public launch of my website on this new server was in fact Kara Clark at Altamont. They did some really good John Mellencamp songs another good crowd song here.

“Relapse” is my favorite song Kara does and she is doing that song right now and with a full band it always sounds really good followed by some more Tom Petty “Last Dance With Mary Jane” that David is singing. Shes doing another Drive By Truckers song called “Where The Devil Don’t Stay” and followed that with a Hank 3 song called “Low Down” . She did some Jason Isbell and some Rolling Stones “Honky Tonk Women” which I really enjoyed very much, nailed that song and the crowd liked it.

Well, anybody that knows me and knows me well can tell you I enjoy original music and I know my bands. She’s no exception and I’ll pay a cover to hear her play original songs. You can certainly tell the difference in comfort between them with just about any local band around. From my request she played “The Band The Bartender And Me” another of my favorites she does, and she played “Preacher’s Hands” and “Lonely”.

“Bulletproof” was one off her new album “The Key” which she had a big party for at Douglass Corner Lounge one of my favorite places for songwriter nights with Travis Harris And The West Coast Turnarounds. She also played “Devil Don’t Cry” and “Hey God”. I’m glad she’s doing more shows and getting back out there and I’m glad I finally got to come out to this venue. And as she played “Southern Hospitality” and closed her show with “Man In The Box” by Alice In Chains I truly had a good time.

That’s about all right now folks I’m VERY BUSY getting prepared for the Muddy Roots Nashville Boogie festival Thursday, this will be a ten article series beginning tomorrow night. I’ll be up working all night Weds and into Thurs in getting ready to see Chris Isaak and Woody Pines at the OPRY as well as Reverend Horton Heat and Big Sandy and MORE!   THEN I’m off to Kansas City for my OWN STAGE at Westport Roots Festival where I have BILLY DON BURNS and MORE!

It’s a VERY BUSY year for yours truly.

The Muddy Roots Spring Muddy Roots Spring Weekender
The Westport Roots Festival
The Nashville Boogie
Moonrunners Music Festival
Picki’n In The Pasture
John Hartford Music Festival
The Blue Ox Music Festival
The Duck Creek Log Jam

Folks I waited until the week before with this installment of my festival series because the main artwork for the poster has not been released until this morning. So I shall promote the fire out of this festival for my buddy Ross Key and his yearly event The Ross Key Spring Fling.

This is a one day event with twelve hours of Traditonal Country Music hosted by Ross Key one of my R.O.P.E buddies, and it takes place next weekend May 14th. Now sadly I’ll be out covering another festival that weekend and I cannot attend but I WILL promote this one one hundred percent! Because the main act is Country Legend Bobby Lewis. The rest of the acts are as follows (Not sure what the actual schedule is time wise).

Donna Staten Cunningham
Jerry Stevenson
Lacey Snider
Rick Allan King
Gator
Anna Marie
Jimmy Parker
Dean Holman
Brenda Lynn Allen
JK Coltrain
Starr Belle
Lyle Hoskin
PJ Steelman
Jim Sandleberg
Chazz Wesley
Danny Hardin
Anthony K
Mark Stewart

This one day outdoor festival takes place at Smitty’s Bar And Grill in Lebanon Tennessee this Saturday May 14th from noon- midnight. I have included a map of the area if you wish to travel from my area of Kentucky.

THE ROSS KEY COUNTRY BAND
Ross Key – Rhythm Guitar & Vocals
Howard Yearwood – Lead Guitar & Vocals
Tim Hood – Drums & Vocals
Troy Cantrell – Bass & Vocals
PJ Steelman – Steel Guitar & Vocals
Starr Belle – Keyboard & Vocals
HOTELS LOCATED AT I-40, EXIT 238
Econo Lodge (615) 444-1001
Day’s Inn (615) 449-5781
Sleep Inn & Suites (615) 449-7005
Comfort Suites (615) 443-0027
La Quinta Inn & Suites (615) 470-1001
Knight’s Inn (615) 449-2900

RESTAURANTS AT I-40, EXIT 238
Demos Restaurant
Sunset Restaurant
Cracker Barrel
Gondola Restaurant
Waffle House
Logan’s Roadhouse
KFC
Taco Bell
McDonald’s
Daily Buffet (Chinese) (located in the Walmart Shopping Ctr)
Ci-Ci’s Pizza
Pizza Hut
Hardee’s
Shoney’s
Subway

Confederate Railroad is back folks with their first album of all original material in nine years with “Lucky To Be Alive”. This album will be released to the public July 15th and will feature a newly recorded version of “Trashy Women” which is the twentieth anniversary of the song. This new version of the song will feature Country Legends Willie Nelson, John Anderson and pop country rap artist Colt Ford.

This album on vinyl will include a LIVE version of “Psycho Bitch From Hell”, and the track “Don’t Feel As Young As I Used To” includes some guest guitar work from Dan Tyminski from Union Station. The song “If I Ever Cross The Line” is extremely traditional and goes back to their roots from when they began in Georgia in the late 80’s.

Basically in the late 80’s this band was Atlantic’s answer to a famous four piece band on RCA that used confederate flag monikers in their album covers and that of course was Alabama. Of course CRR never reached the commercial accolades that Alabama did, I see this band as one of the most overlooked bands of the 1990’s era radio Country Music. They have always been a good festival band and often included in “package deals” for outdoor shows.

The track listing will be as follows:

Lucky To Be Alive Track Listing:
1. Lucky To Be Alive
2. Played The Game
3. The Man I Am Today
4. If I Ever Cross That Line
5. Trashy Women (20th Anniversary) featuring Willie Nelson, John Anderson and Colt Ford
6. Goodbye Song
7. Somebody Like You
8. Whisky And Women
9. Fast Cars And Guitars
10. Don’t Feel As Young As I Used To
11. Psycho Bitch From Hell (Live)
12. I’m Not Fallin’ For That

Danny Shirley is of course still the front man for the band and wrote seven songs on this new album. Along with him are Rusty Hendrix on lead guitars Mark Dufresne on drums and Wayne Secrest on bass. NOW to tell you about the steel guitar (you KNEW I would stress on this as important) it shall be Bobby Randall returning. Bobby took over in 2009 after Gates Nichols retired from the band in 2008 and died of a terrible cancer in 2009. I tell you what folks Nichols had Country Music in his heart and played until he was too sick to play anymore. In any event the band has continued to play over 100 shows a year and this album will followed up with a huge tour for the new album.

Confederate Railroad on Tour:
May 07 Love Valley, N.C. – Love Valley Arena
May 14 Laquey, Mo. – Roadhouse Bar & Grill
May 20 Indianapolis, Ind.- 8 Second Saloon
May 21 Maryville, Tenn. – The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson
May 27 Logansport, Ind. – State Theatre
May 28 Drakesboro, Ky. – Gregory Lake ATV Park
May 29 New Straitsville, Ohio – The Moonshine Festival
Jun 03 Tuscaloosa. Ala. – Druid City Music Hall
Jun 04 Sanford, Fla. – The Barn – M.F.C. for J.O.S.H.
Jun 09 Wise, Va. – Virginia Kentucky District Fair
Jun 10 Nashville, Tenn. – CMA Music Fest – WSM Stage and Nashville Palace
Jun 11 Waynesville, Ohio – Keeping It Country Farm
Jun 12 Nashville, Tenn – CMA Music Fest – Digital Rodeo Stage
Jun 17 Frankfort, Ky. – Knights Club
Jun 18 Tell City, Ind. – Pour Haus
Jun 24 Central City, Iowa – The Linn County Fair
Jun 25 New Albany, Miss. – Hill Country Blackberry Festival
Jul 01 Prospect, Pa. – Big Butler Fair
Jul 03 Arley, Ala. – Concert On The Water
Jul 04 Decatur. Tenn. – Downtown Square/Downtown Summer Nights
Jul 09 Brainerd, Minn. – Green Lantern
Jul15 Arthur, Ill. – Moultrie Douglas County Fair
Jul16 Beckley, W.Va. – Friends of Coal Auto Fair
Aug 03 Tuolumne, Calif. – Willow Creek Lounge – Black Oak Casino
Aug 04 Corvallis, Ore. – Benton County Fair & Rodeo
Aug 05 Crescent City, Calif. – Del Norte County Fair
Aug 07 Brooks, Calif. – Cache Creek Casino Resort – Club 88
Aug 11 Point Pleasant, W.Va. – Mason County Fair
Aug 13 Des Moines, Iowa – Iowa State Fair – Mid American Stage
Aug 26 Guntersville, Ala. – Civitan Park – Bill Moore Field
Aug 27 Summerville, Ga. – Chattanooga County Ag Fair
Sep 17 Eldorado, Ill. – Eldorado Town & Country Days
Sep 24 Liberty, Ky. – Casey County Apple Festival – Courthouse Square
Oct 07 Springfield, Ga. – Springfield Fall Festival

Once again my usual pattern of featuring multiple albums in one article is once again broken with the coming of the long awaited third album from Sturgill Simpson called “A Sailors Guide To Earth”. It was released a day before Record Store Day this year, and I waited to buy it on vinyl because in the press pack I got I knew the vinyl also included the CD. I also wanted to include some news from the Americana Association concerning his album sales, that were thwarted from staying the number one spot because of the death of Prince.

Sturgill Simpson’s new album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth hit the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Top Country, Folk and Rock charts this week. Mr. Simpson’s album was also the largest selling record of new releases across all genres according to Billboard. For the second week in a row, following The Lumineers’ Cleopatra, an Americana album has topped the charts and, along with A Sailor’s Guide and Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, marks three Americana albums now resting firmly in the Billboard Top Ten. “A glance at Billboard’s Top 200 affirms that the popularity of Americana music is on the rise,” commented Jed Hilly, Executive Director of the Americana Music Association. “It’s an exciting time for the American Roots Music community.” was what the press release exclaimed this past week concerning the album sales.

As far as the album goes it was a whole different twist to a quickly becoming classic performer. First he took us to the coal mines and told stories of sorrow and poverty and then blasted us into space on a rocket ride into Panbowl. This next time he creates a half concept album about a young man named Pollywog and if I truly understand the album as a nautical piece the S.S. in a ship’s name can mean Sturgill Simpson!

This album to me was much like “Countach” by Shooter Jennings in the sense it’s not really technically a Country album however it does have some honky tonk sounds on it like the fourth song “Sea Stories” which chronicles the young Pollywog turning nineteen. It describes chronic drug use and talks about King Cobra in boxing rings and Angels playing connect four.

“Welcome To Earth” introduces us to Pollywog and shows us a sailors lament for leaving his family for so long to do his job, sailing is apparently in this baby’s bloodline and we soon see that become more evident as the next four songs unfold.

“Keep It Between The Lines” has some truly awesome Motown sounds to it in fact the whole album has some really crazy horn sections and Motown feels to it and we are introduced to another side of Sturgill we haven’t yet seen. He is expanding and growing as an artist and is drifting further from this “Savior Of Country Music” moniker created by other websites that are claiming success for his career. This man sold out two shows at the Ryman in three minutes and it wasn’t due to ANYTHING accept the fact he sings good music.

“Brace For Impact” and “Oh Sarah” were the conclusions within the concept of the album and maybe this wasn’t the intention of Strugill to be the way I interpreted the album but that’s how I did and I enjoy the album. I didn’t really like the Nirvana cover ‘In Bloom” however to be honest Nirvana does nothing for me nor did any of that genre’s music from that period. I was busy listening to other music, nothing wrong with liking it and I can appreciate it’s relevance…it just doesn’t interest me. All in All I’d say the album is indeed a welcome addition to your collection but not a top ten spot worthy album. I enjoyed the album and I still do, and I eagerly await a bigger and badder Sturgill Simpson form this point on!

Well folks I am here at Mr.Kenneth Marrs backyard cookout which got a little rained out today. Kenneth Marr Graphics is one of my most special go to guys for graphics work. I tell you what he turned his backyard into a venue that is not only family friendly and full of love he has opened his home to artists everywhere. He and I have always been really good friends and had a mutual admiration for each others talents, and his wife Miss Mary Jo Marr is absolutely the most kindest person I ever met.

There was smoked chub bologna and beef roast and hamburgers and more beer than I needed all within a truly family orientated backyard setting. Hula hoops and toys for the kids to play while we all met new friends and rejoined old ones for a truly blessed time in Kentucky. I want to THANK my friends from Virginia Mr. Kevin Vaughn and Mr. Eric Litz for driving so I could have a few beers last night while I wrote this article in the rain. Despite the rain and damp air we still had a wonderful time for Mr. Kenneth’s birthday party.

John King And The Mud River Revival had to play friday night early because of the weather for cast, and I had to work so I missed the show. I heard good things about their forthcoming album and I’ll be close at disposal to them for releasing it to you. I talk to them quite often on a regular basis so you can rest assured I’ll have them on a feature soon.

So last night we had two artists that took turns swapping songs in a songwriter round fashion and I have featured them both on here before. In fact Chris Moondawg Hall has also released a new album and instead of featuring it on my usual multiple album articles I’ll feature it here.

This album was produced by Moondawg and the Talent Brothers who also released a good album last year. This album has 11 tracks on it and right now it is available on digital copy off his website. Please note that they switched off doing songs but I separated the two so you didn’t get confused. Moondawg was second in the whole show but his first song was “Driving Me Lonesome” which is the first track off the new album that he had a co-writer on along with his next song “Misery In Jen”.

Another song off the album he played was “Stardoom” one that he wrote by himself and was probably my favorite off the new album. Like many others that I met at the same time I met Moondawg I am seeing him grow as an artist and become more developed of his own style and identity as a songwriter. At the time I first met him perhaps he didn’t have as many road stories as he does now, or chose not to express them until now. Whatever the reason he chose to share some really fine songs with us, but make no mistake the songs from his older album are just as good.

“Normal” was included in his set tonight with my favorite song “Breckenridge County however he changed it up a little bit for us. I requested it but honestly he was getting ready to play it anyways, I HAD to have that song for sure. Perhaps his most known song is called “Land Of Make Believe” which was aired on C.J. Cumberland’s radio show out of Louisville a while back.

He did indeed do some covers during his set however mostly he doesn’t do many covers because he likes to showcase his original music. I come out for original music mostly however “Old Habits” and “It Ain’t Easy Being Me” were included in his set, along with “Simple Man” and another Skynyrd song “All I Can Do Is Write About It”.

He played a song called “Dirt” off his first album, however like I said this new album is well worth adding to your collection by all means. So far the last two years have seen some really good albums come from the artists involved with the series, and I’m watching his friend Kyle Wilson as well. Road To Sanity which was co-wrote by Wayne Mills was one of the best songs on the album and if Moondawg is in your area you need to go see him, you’ll be glad you did.

Kendra Hope is a young lady I have featured on here a few times and once again she did a wonderful job singing and playing for us. She has an EP you can get from her website and the songs she wrote on this album are amazing for the fact she’s a young adult.

She opened the show with “Folsom Prison Blues” but my favorite song she does (and Mr. Kevin’s too) was Tumbleweed which she wrote at the age of ten! In my opinion she has a gun she just needs bullets now, once she writes a few more songs she will be absolutely unstoppable! NOT that the covers are bad folks, it’s just my opinion and I’m hoping this inspires her to write more songs or cut some from writers.

She is an amazing talent and played “Takin Pills” quite well along with “Wild Eyed Girl” and “Outlaw Women”. You can obviously tell she wasn’t influenced by others of her own age group within music, and that’s not in any way bad. One thing that truly impressed me was her EXCELLENT cover of “Clyde” off Waylon’s album “Music Man”. Ironically it also was covered in 1978 by Dr. Hook, and it was originally recorded by J.J. Cale who wrote it.

She played a REALLY GOOD version of “Sixteenth Avenue” by Lacy Dalton which I bet even Sunny Sweeny would have loved her cover of that song. Connie Smith’s song “Once A Day” which Bill Anderson wrote was part of her set along with “Fortune And Fame” I believe that one to be an original song. This young lady is amazing and has been invited to perform overseas as well, and I want to point out that Miss Kathy Jennings and Mr. Larry are doing a DAMN FINE JOB of managing her and promoting her, and I hope to be able to do many more articles on her. Once you think of a gal her age you might think she’s just a novelty act but you’ll quickly see you are MISTAKEN!