Folks my right arm is once again out there pounding the pavement in the Southeastern part of the Country for ME to bring YOU some REAL music articles. This man does a LOT for me and helps me out a TON when it comes to reviews, and finding new music. He is CONSTANTLY sending me stuff to keep us busy.
Here is a recent update regarding the Florida based Mile O Festival for 2018:
I hope everyone is as excited for the Mile 0 Festival in Key West, FL as I
am. It features a killer lineup that just got better. They recently added
Sunny Sweeney, Jamie Lin WIlson, Garrett Bryan, Walt Wilkins and Tina
Wilkins to the lineup that already featured the best of outlaw country and
red dirt. It’s going to be a good one.
I know many of you are concerned about Hurricane Irma’s impact to Key West,
FL. The good news is the island is getting everything back up and running
and will re-open for tourism on October 1st. That means that Mile 0
Festival is still happening in February of next year. Many local bars and
hot spots are already re-opening and Key West is ready to get back to
partying. I know I am looking forward to it.
Also, platinum and gold VIP passes are sold out and went quickly when they
became available. That means that only GA passes remain. The good news is
that due to the storm, Mile 0 has extended the sale price of $275. It will
still increase to $325 at a later date so do not wait to get tickets if you
are interested.
Finally, I know many folks are wondering about where they can stay in the
Keys after Irma. I have been informed that Bahia Honda State Park is going
to be closed for the rest of the year and they do not know about 2018. The
Sugarloaf Key / Key West KOA remains closed and was heavily damaged in
Irma. It is unknown when they will re-open. I have however seen that
Boyd’s Campground is taking future reservations and hopes to be fully
operational by the time Key West is open for tourism. Of course you can
always book a hotel along with your ticket if you prefer to go that route.
Keep an eye out here for further updates and I will pass things along as I
know them.
—
Joshua Wallace
Chief Staff Writer
Gary Hayes County
Lately I have been so busy at festivals and CMA Fest ( to me it’s STILL Fan Fair) that I haven’t been able to update this as much as I’d like to, and I apologize. It’s NOT easy to do what I do, but I keep on rolling on as best as I can. So if YOU have a show YOU would like added to my list PLEASE email me at
garyhayes2@yahoo.com
Cody Jinks
Ryman Auditorium October 20th and 21st
Joe Diffie
Owensboro Kentucky October 21st
Cody Johnson
Cannery Ballroom October 21st
Austin Lucas
High Watt October 23rd
Kristiana Murray
Radio Cafe October 26th
Legendary Shack Shakers
Basement October 28th
IIIrd tyme Out
The Nashville Palace November 2nd
Kathy Mattea
Madisonville Ky November 2nd
Ray Scott
War Memorial Nashville November 2nd
Cory Branon
The East Room November 3rd
Lukas Nelson And Niki Lane
The Basement November 9th
Pinata Protest
Exit Inn November 10th
Riders In The Sky
City Winery November 12th
Flatland Cavalry
Exit Inn December 13th
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
The High Watt November 15th
The Steel Woods
The Warehouse Bowling Green November 17th
Lilly Hyatt
Exit Inn November 19th
Leftover Salmon
City Winery November 18th
J.D. McPherson
Basement November 18th
Stoney LaRue
3Rd And Lindsley November 18th
Lydia Loveless
Basement November 18th
Martina McBride
Carson Center November 30th
Whitney Rose
Basement East December 2nd
Asleep At The Wheel
City Winery December 3rd
Tyler Childers
The Basement December 9th
Shooter Jennings
3Rd And Lindsley December 17th
Greensky Bluegrass
Marathon Music Works January 20th
Hey I had an epiphany the other night while I was working on another project, WHY DON’T I make a weekly list of newly released albums of music that I love, and update it every couple nights.? Much like my list of weekly shows that I publish every week I shall now be posting every other night a good sized list of new albums I find from a TON of sources.
Here lately I have been following so many different genres that I can’t even keep track of them myself, oftentimes I have to come on to this article for myself.
I’m not going to break it down into (what I will consider) my own genres, why should I? It’s just ALL damn good music no matter WHAT you call it, and I think you’ll agree that these are truly champion choices. I find out about SO MANY new bands and festivals every day by scouring the internet and subscribing to mailing lists and word of mouth.
My TOP 50 of ANY year is probably my most popular article of anything I ever publish that gets viewed by tens of thousands of people, my TOP 50 will indeed derive from this list here and I shall update this list several times a week. If YOU have some terrific suggestions for me you can hit me up on garyhayes2@yahoo.com
Sunny Sweeney-Trophy
JonEmery Dodds-Hell Rooster
Billie Gant And Nick Geise-On And On
Richie Allbright-Poets,Prophets,Heroes And Friends
Old 97’s-Graveyard Whistling
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band- Front Porch Sessions
Split Lip Rayfield-On My Way
Natalie Hemby-Puxico
Ags Connolly-Nothin Unexpected
Dale Watson And Ray Benson-Dale And Ray
Band Of Heathens-Duende
Scott H Biram-The Bad Testament
Truckstop Honeymoon-Big Things And Little Things
Truckstop Gamblers-Here
Nikki Lane-Highway Queen
Infamous Stringdusters-Laws Of Gravity
Marty Stuart-Way Out West
Poor Man’s Whiskey-Rock Star On The Weekend
Southern Culture On The Skids-Electric Pinecones
Pert Near Sandstone-Discovery Of Honey
The Gibson Brothers-In The Ground
Cory Branon-Adios
The Traveli’n McCourys-Let Her Go
Tift Merritt-Stitch Of The World
John Hord-The Home You Made For Me
James Scott Bullard And The Late Night Sweethearts-Box Of Letters
William Matheny-Strange Constellations
Black Irish Texas-To Hell With The King
Jamie Wyatt-Felony Blues
Otis Gibbs-Mount Renraw
Austin James-Full Throttle
A.J. Hobbs-Too Much Is Never Enough
Fred Eaglesmith-Standard
Jeremy Steding- Odessa
Whitney Rose-South Texas Suite
Kris Kristofferson-The Austin Sessions
Kate Grom-Heroine
Lindi Ortega-Til The Goin Gets Gone
Drew Holcomb-New Year
Brad Good Band-One Red Light
Pat Waters-Heartbroke
Derek Anthony-Dreamcathcer
Greg Wickham-If I Left This World
Rebeca Loebe-Blink
The Drugstore Gypsies-Self Titled
Buzz Cason-Passion
Great American Taxi-Dr.Feelgood’s Traveling Medicine Show
Allison Krauss-Windy City
Travis Linville-Up Ahead
Patty Reese-Let In The Sun
Valerie June-The Order Of Time
Richard Lynch-Mending Fences
Koe Wetzel-Noise Complaint
Rodney Crowell-Close Ties
Tanner Fenoglio-This Town
Jess Wade-Country Comforts
Chris Shiflett- West Coast Town
Sam Outlaw-Tenderheart
Lillie Mae-Forever And Then Some
Blackfoot Gypsies-To The Top
Bobby Osborne-Original
Sarah Shook And The Disarmers-Sidelong
Scott H Biram-Bad Testament
Banditos-Visionland
Kody West-Green
Brett Hendrix-Brett Hendrix
Todd Adelman And The Country Mile-Time Will Tell
The String Cheese Incident-Believe
Andrew Combs-Canyons Of My Mind
Tim O Brien-Where The River Meets The Road
Joseph Huber- The Suffering Stage
Angaleena Presley-Wrangled
The Hooten Hallers-Hooten Hallers
Joey Feek-If Not For You
Jericho Woods-Better Now
Leslie Tom-Leslie Tom
Willie Nelson-God’s Problem Child
The Dead South-Illusion And Doubt
Colter Wall-Colter Wall
Delbert McClinton-Prick Of The Litter
Sarah Shook And The Disarmers-Sidelong
Justin Townes Earle-Kids In The Street
Lorin Walker Madsen- Slave Of The Road
Amanda Anne Platt And The Honeycutters-Amanda Anne Platt And The Honeycutters
The Country Side Of Harmonica Sam-A Drink After Midnight
Rob McNurlin-Tent Of The Wicked
Hot Rod Walt And The psycho Devilles-Swingin On The Moon
Mike And The Moonpies Live At Winstar Casino (From December 2016)
Kasey Chambers-Dragonfly
BR5-49- Meet Me In Saint Louis
40orty-Happy Murder
The Dustbowl Revival
Bob Wayne-Bad Hombre
J.P.Harris-Why Don’t We Duet In The Woods
Jessi Colter-The Psalms
John Moreland-Big Bad luv
Andrew Pope-Stoned On The One
Reid Farris-Reid Farris
John Hord-The Home You Made For Me
Barnyard Stompers-Outlaws With Chainsaws Part II The Payback
Drew Holcomb And The Neighbors-Souvenir
Leslie Tom-Leslie Tom
Travis Linville-Up Ahead
Greg Wicham-If I Left This World
Rebecca Loebe-Blink
Allison Krauss-Windy City
Jason Eady-Jason Eady
Sallie Ford-Soul Sick
Scott Hrabko And The Rabbits-Summer
Kimberly Dunn-New Smoke Show Volume 1
Banditos-Visionland
William Matheny-Strange Constellations
Daniel Romano-Modern Pressure
Bobby Bare-Things Change
Steel Woods-Straw In The Wind
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit-The Nashville Sound
Steve Earle And The Dukes-So You Wanna be An Outlaw?
The Mastersons-Transient Lullaby
Hannah Aldridge- Gold Rush
Charlie Worsham-Beginning Of Things
Banditos-Banditos
Old Salt Union-Old Salt Union
Jonathan Parker-Back To Earth
John Buchanon- Proving Grounds
Jon Byrd- Dirty Ol River
Donna Lynn Gaskey-The Love She Shows
The Dustbowl Revival- The Dustbowl Revival
Andy Hall- Let The Steel Play
Jeff Tweedy-Together At Last
Joe Holt-The Person I Admire
Sam Baker- Land Of Doubt
Yonder Mountain String Band-Love Ain’t Love
Shakey Graves And The Horse He Rode In On-Nobody’s Fool
Pierce Edens-Stripped Down Gussied Up
North Mississippi All Stars-Pray For Peace
Kayla Luky-Back To Dirt
Robyn Ludwick-This Tall To Ride
Amilia K Spicer-Wow And Flutter
The Borther Brothers- Tugboats
Sera Cahoone-From Where I Started
David Childers-Run Skeleton Run
Slaid Cleaves-Ghost On The Car Radio
Jefferson Ron-Live At Hillbilly Haiku
Don Gallardo-Live On Sunday
Selwyn Birchwood-Pick Your Poison
Rick Shelly-Hope Wrapped Razor Wire
Willie Payne Harrison-East Nashville Blues
Shawna Russell-Back around
Hunter Rae Band-Lovin’ Ain’t Free
Blake Torry-Toast to The Stars
Damon Curtis-Changing Lanes
Aaron Copeland-Aaron Copeland
Clayton Landua-Native
Introducing…The Powell Brothers
Mary Bragg-Lucky Strike
Julia Hatfield-Hopeless Romantic
Read Southall Band- Borrowed Time
Kody West- Green
Zephaniah O Hara And The 18 Wheelers- The Highway
Billy Payne- Maverick Hillbilly
Jenny Don’t And The Lonesome Spurs- Call Of The Road
Zac Wenzel- Diary Of A Madman
Greg Ashley And The Western Playboys
Rodney Crowell- Close Ties
Tyler Childers- Purgatory
Gallows Bound- Appalachian Witch
Lilly Hiatt- Trinity Lane
Moonshine Collective- Moonsville III
Peter Rowan- Old School
Lou Shields- Bad Ax Country
Everymen- Everymen
Moonshine Wagon-Porca Miseria
Laura Cortuse- California Calling
Black Tarpoon- A Maceing Grace
Charlie Parr- Dog
Ray Wylie Hubbard- Tell the Devil I’m Coming As Fast As I Can
Emi Sunshine- Ragged Dreams
Ian Felice- Kingdom Of Dreams
The Wild Ponies- Galax
Dori Freeman- Letters Never Read
Brandy Clark- Live From LA
Ray Wylie Hubbard- Tell the Devil that I’m Coming As Fast As I Can
Whitney Rose- Route 62
Blank Range- Marooned With The Treasure
Lukas Nelson- Lukas Nelson And The Promise Of The Real
Iron And Wine- Beast Epic
The Turnpike Troubadors- A Long Way From Your Heart
Ron Pope- Work
Paula Cole- Ballads
Ryan Koening- Two Different Worlds
Jason Wilber- Recation Time
Jeff Hobbs- Upward
Moot Davis- Moot Davis
Eskimo Brothers- Hands And Knees
Justin Allen And The Well Shots- White Oak And Kerosene
The Bucksnort Beauties- Wildfire And Moonshine
The Whiskey Gentry- dead Ringer
Eligah Ocean- Eligah Ocean
Margo Price- All American Made
Jillete Johnson- All I Ever See In You Is Me
Willie Watson- Folksinger Volume 2
Randall Bramblett- Juke Joint At The End Of The World
Jeff Tweedy- Together At Last
Vandoliers- The Native
Bruce Robinson And The Back Porch Band
Ben Sollee And The Kentucky Native
Flatt Lonesome- Silence In These Walls
Bela Fleck- Echo In The Valley
Dan Whittaker And The Shinebenders- Anything You Wanted To
hunter Hutchinson- Keep Rollin On
LeAnn Womack- Lonesome, Lonely, Gone
Alex Williams- Better Than Myself
Kacey And Clayton- the Sirens Song
The Deslondes- Hurry Up Home
The Deatons
Well folks here we are finally on the last day of this event, I MUST SAY we have had some truly enjoyable performances as of now. To be honest the Legendary Shack Shakers pretty much won the BEST SET award so far..will they rule the roost here…we shall see.
One of the great things about Muddy Roots is the diverse patronage of groups and different walks of life that attend. We have Sunday morning Church services here is the video. We have sobriety meetings for people like me that don’t really drink much there. I have seen Wiccan ceremonies, weddings, baptisms and all sorts of things.
You have groups like the New Bloodtubbs that assemble here, nice bunch of guys to me. Mr. Jason calls them all “Tribes” of people that assemble, and I could care less what they do it’s always peaceful and respectful and that’s all that matters. EVERY public gathering has a few problems and this wasn’t perfect but all in all it is a truly fine display of all different types of people.
When I’m into the music shows I leave my politics and my religion at my home and I observe RULE #1..Don’t Be A Dick. I WATCH crowds for pickpockets, card theft, merch theft and many other things. I’ll text Mr. Jason if I see things I deem dangerous or hazardous to his brand or public safety, and I’ll damn sure look out for the bands.
Mr. Monzie Leo Brummett: Guitar / Slide guitar / Vocals and Mr. Derek Long: Banjo / Guitar / Vocals make up this Kansas based folk Americana duo called Monzie Leo And The Big Sky and they were kind enough to send in a set list, even though I did see them too. “Let her go” opened their set. You know he and I have crossed paths quite a few times and I haven’t really been able to sit and listen to his music for long, so this was quite enjoyable.
“Locust street murder” was next followed by “5th of July” and another called “Dark Angel”. They displayed wonderful harmonies and well written songs bearing relate able lyrics and guitar musicianship. “Dirty ol River” was next followed by “I gave you Time” and one song I thought had a really cool name was called “The heart is a pomegranate
Trestle”.
Mr. Tim Vee came to us from New York to bring his music there. I have seen him on social media and we have shared comments but I didn’t get to see his music until now. I think that’s the true beauty of music festivals is that many people and bands are brought together.
“Runaway” was first, from the very beginning I could easily tell he was having FUN up there. This gentleman is ALL about business, and he works very hard on the road. I watch him…I watch many others too, I see all the ones working 300 plus shows yearly.
“Poison (rancid cover)” and another son called “Live your life” were two next songs I got to hear during his set. You know today was a true challenge for me with all 3 stages pumping all day again. I had three chairs set up at every stage bouncing back and forth. He closed his set with “I’m Breaking down”.
Video property of Miss Lisa Wells
John The Revelator This band I just didn’t get to see enough of but here is a nice piece from their website:
John the Revelator is the solo project of Jake Garrett. Jake is more known for his blues rock trio MasonJar Menagerie and his newly founded record label, DeepRoots Family Records and Productions. Along with MasonJar, Jake plays with 6 other bands regularly. Many of which, he writes the music for. Jake has been writing songs for over a decade, compiling 100’s of songs. John the Revelator acts an outlet for these numerous songs that he isn’t using with other projects.
The name John the Revelator derives from an old Blind Willie Johnson song. This is also where Jake draws a lot of inspiration from. Jake does a brilliant job at mixing all of his inspirations and sounding like something completely unique. Using a variety of instruments and his rare vocal styling, John the Revelator dares to do what many artists won’t attempt. John the Revelator is raw and electric.
Jake displays many of his musical talents in John the Revelator. Simultaneously playing guitar along with a bass drum, snare, and high hat. On top of all that, he manages to bust out some mind-melting lyrics. This act is unique, exposing, and riveting. I got to watch this man perform his songs called “whiskey Kisses” and he played another called “Feel Like Dying”.
Mr. Soda Gardocki was an artist I have covered for many years. Moonrunners also brought me to this artist as well as others. He played the first two Muddy roots festivals and a few more as well, I do remember him. He comes to us from the Chicago area and is always a sure bet for a fun time.
He played “Liza Jane” as Mr. Puppy hammered on the drums like he did for Husky Burnette and for Soda in the past, and then Mr. Soda played a song for Izzy Cox, who also played the first Muddy Roots and lost her life to cancer. I also remember him playing “Sleight Of Hand” and “Gutter Queen”, and it’s always nice to have the opportunity to catch up with him and his music.
The Tejon Street Corner Thieves (Yes I realize the video is spelled wrong) come to us from the Denver Colorado area. Much like Mr. Moose Allen and Mr. Monzie Leo I have talked to these boys on social media a lot, and never had the opportunity to see their music live.
Connor ‘Crawdad’ O’Neal – Banjo, Lead and Backing Vocals, Shawn ‘Spicy Fingers’ D’Amario – Washboard, Guitar Lead and Backing Vocals and the rest of the band bring their string band roots music to stage 2 this morning, with great songs like “Fat Girl” and “Take Me Home Tonight”.
These boys from Denver are part of the Triple Nickel crowd and are part of the many tribes of Muddy Roots community, great group of guys and I look forward to having a lifelong friendship with them all. I’ll try very hard to bring them to my area sometime, it’s something that is in the works in my mind.
You can go on their website and purchase their albums that have songs like ‘Whiskey”…I mean WHO DOESN’T like Whiskey? I also got to hear them play a song called ‘Morning Child”. Now that brought me back to stage 1 where I got to re catch up with my buddy Mr.Sweet GA Brown who has some of the best and inventive songwriting you’ll ever hear.
Along with Mr. Dave Dowda he brought some damn fine songs filled with sharp wit and profanity filled quips from his Wordsmith album and his newest release Catfish Sullivan. He too played a song called “Whiskey” but perhaps one of my favorite songs I ever found at Muddy Roots years ago was a song called “I Broke Wahoo’s Leg”.
In fact TODAY on stage 1 it featured three of my favorite songs I have ever found at Muddy Roots, and that’s one of them. He also played a song called “Words” and followed that up with several more. I got to see him play a cover of Roger Miller’s “Dang Me”.
Mr. Greg Gemberling: Vocals, Guitar, Songwriting, Mr. Chris Robles: Bass, Taxidermy, Miss Hana Marie: Banjo, Vocals, Mr. Ryan Davidson: Dobro, Goddamns and Miss Michelle Elaine: Fiddle, Vocals make up the band called Woodland Remedy that brought some DAMN FINE Bluegrass into the mix.
As if Miss Liz Sloan and Miss Lucy Cochran were not enough talented fiddle playing ladies this weekend this band brought out another, that I couldn’t stop watching play. They had a pretty darn good stage presence and the crowd responded well to their music, also they seemed to mix with one another well.
I have known Mr. Chris for many years now from previous festivals, he like me goes every year, and he was telling me about this project as well as gave me a CD of their work. The recording was alright and the songs were good but it didn’t GRAB ME until I saw them live.
They had songs like “Should Known Better” and included “Danger Love” in their set. If you visit their Facebook page I’m sure you can buy an album on there. “Defying Gravity” was next followed by “Moonshine” and the best song of their set in my opinion was called “King Of Sunny Days”.
I was pretty much getting geared up to move onto stage 1 for one of the top shows of the day and as I was preparing to move on over I heard them close their set with “Evil Monkey” and another called “Trippin Balls” . Their final song was called “Ram Down”.
Now this next band is somebody I wanted to heavily focus on Mr. Pat Reedy, Mr. Brad Tucker, Mr. Leo Grassl, Mr. Ryan Elwell, Mr. Lyle Werner, Mr. Tony Frickey, Mr. John James, Mr. Corey McGilvary, Mr. Gabe Acita, Mr. Nokosee Fields, Mr. Derrick Spivey, Mr. Riley Downing, Mr. Logan Ledger and more DO OR HAVE MADE UP Pat Reedy And The Longtime Goners who are now recording on Muddy Roots Records.
For an independent album with no cover art his first album still attracted my attention immediately. As did his unique sound of Honky Tonk Country and hardcore sounds. He works a lot out of Kansas City now and is enjoying much success in the underground scene, however I think he needs to now embark on a push to go national and I intend to help do that.
This band blew me away this weekend with their craftsmanship but simple lyrics on songs like “True Blue” which is just simple two step Country Music. “Blood Shot Heart” was next followed by “Big Wheels” . One of his best songs in my opinion was called “Burgundy In The Rain”, and many of the songs displayed some truly fine steel guitar work.
The wood stage boasted a plethora of music tonight for me as the next four acts I wanted to heavily focus on…and did. However right now I was enjoying “900 Miles” and “Highway Bound”. Highway Bound has some really good beats and good steel guitar solos, and it is Country Music like Country Music SHOULD be played.
He played a good cover of Hank Williams “Ramblin Man” and Dave Dudley’s “Six Days On The Road” before going into his own songs again like “Coal Train” and ‘Slow down”. All together this set was one of the best of the weekend by far…and stage 1 was only going to get better!
So there were a few bands and artists I only caught pieces of C.W.Ayon was one of them and I got to hear some of his set tonight while walking. Gravelroad was another one, here’s a video courtesy Of Mr. Dave Flewelling . I want to THANK so many that helped me do this by contributing videos for me to use.
Lost Dog Street Band was another one I missed today, I can touch on them all but I just cannot actually cover 110 bands. This was truly one of the biggest jobs I have ever been faced with by all means. However Mr. Tim Easton was the only other act I missed.
Mr. Michael Oberst- banjo, vocal, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, kazoo, Mr. Sean Geil- guitar, vocal, dobro, banjo, mandolin Mr. Aaron Geil- upright bass, vocals and my good friend Mr. Joe Macheret- fiddle, mandolin, guitar, vocals make up the Cincinnati based band The Tillers.
This band has recorded what I consider one of the most iconic live albums in Roots music Live at the Southgate House. and as I mentioned earlier about those HUGE songs, one of them is called “Willy Dear” and it’s off their album Hand On The plow. You Must listen to it REAL CLOSE to get the full effect.
‘Ruben’s Train” was first followed by “Shanty Boat” and then they played some new songs for us, at this time I haven’t much info about their new album. They played ‘Georgia Street Beat” and the ‘General Store Song”…I don’t think that’s the name but it’s cool. I have always enjoyed the way they hover around the mic like they do, it gives a good vibe of comradery within the band.
They closed their set with “Road Never Ending” “500 Miles” and one of my favorites called “old West Side”. As i made way over to stage 3 for one of my personal favorite bands I recently wrote about called Hillbilly Casino. I recently wrote an article about their new album you can read that HERE.
“Knocking At Your Door” was the first song from Mr. Nic Roulette, Mr. Matt Amnn, Mr. Ronnie Crutcher and Mr. Geoff Firebaugh who absolutely knocked the shit out of the Muddy roots crowd tonight. They are one of the only bands to have played all of the Muddy Roots festivals since 2010.
Then they played “No Toll Taken” and my personal favorite “The Hole”. My favorite song they play is Big Dan however that song was not included today songs like “She’s Got Tricks” were. I covered them during the Muddy Roots Nashville Boogie where they played many of their new songs for us.
The new songs abounded during their set today including “Give It All Up” and “Low Down”. Now there were a few songs on the new album that were on the LIVE album like “Trainwreck”. They played “Jibber Jabber” and as I was getting ready to move on I heard them play “Violets In May” and I had to get out of there before they induced the crowd into mayhem for “The Tennessee Stomp” their anthem.
Underground Legend Mr. Bob Wayne And The Outlaw Carnies played one hell of a show here on stage 1 as he played songs from his new album “Bad Hombre”, with a newly sober lease on life. He began with “Hell Yeah” and went right into his classic song “Sam Tucker”.
“Till The Wheels Fall Off” was next followed by “Still Truckin” as he went through his entire past list of songs for us today with songs like “Dope Train”. after all isn’t “Everything’s Legal In Alabama” a great song folks? It’s been several months since I had the opportunity to catch up with Mr. Bob Wayne and it’s always good to see him.
We put a metal chair off to the side of the stage for Mr. Bandana as he sang his new song “Mr. Bandana” he closed with several others that I listened to as i moved on to other stages to see the very first band Mr. Jason ever booked for Muddy Roots…The Calamity Cubes!
Mr. Joey Henry, Mr. Kody Oh and Mr. Brook Blanche make up this three piece Kansas band I have featured many times before, and I got to hear them play “Battle Of Hair Ribbon” and another song “Lillie Bell”. Many of the acts tonight garnered HUGE crowds and it was impossible to get full frontal band pictures of them all.
It truly was fun to see this band around again, and I hope there are plans to continue it onward as they all three have good solo projects going as well. one of the side stages had a good Rockabilly band that won an Ameripolitan award last year and that was Lara Hope And The Ark-Tones. For some odd reason EVERY TIME I am around her band something comes up and I miss her set.
Mr.James “Slim Hand” is truly a Country Music Legend in his own right, he’s been doing this for a long long time now and I regard his album Mighty Lonesome Man a classic album in my collection. He brought Country music royalty to Muddy Roots once again with songs like “Don’t Tell Me That” as well as covers like “I Still Miss Someone”.
‘I can’t Help It” was next followed by his “Parakeet” song we all enjoyed, folks were yelling out all kinds of his songs and it was flattering him we knew them, what he didn’t realize was how much we love him. “Mighty Lonesome Man” was next followed by “When you Stopped Loving Me, So Did I”.
Unlike many other Country Music icons time has not faltered his voice at all, nor has it slowed him down on stage. He was absolutely stunning tonight, and in songs lie ‘In The Corner Lies A Jukebox” you could easily tell his originals still shine vibrantly. “Get Rhythm” was part of his set as well as Hank Snow’s “I Been Everywhere”.
‘Shadows For The Magic” was next followed by the song “Little Bitty Sip”. Mr. James was one of the few acts that I made sure to stay for the entire set before moving on to other stages tonight, and as he played ‘Baby Baby Baby” he played a few more before closing with “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”.
I had to quickly recharge my batteries and eat me a bite, before seeing more music tonight. This truly was a busy and blessed trip, what a wonderful weekend. I want to THANK Mr. Jason and the Junebug Ranch for everything. Another band I had to forgo seeing was Mr. LiL Poochie And Mr.Hezekiah Early. to say I was a little heartbroken to have to miss this was true.
One cool thing about Muddy Roots is that Legends always abound within it’s ranks, and they usually get to mingle and mix with the audience. That’s not something that happens at every festival or music function folks, trust me. And to say that these men are not true Legends is wrong, they are true hardcore Legends in their ilk.
The mighty Black Eyed Vermillionwas next tonight with an absolutely amazing show like always. This band is usually insane and full of energy and as they opened with “20/20”, I got over there quickly.
“Jesus In The Waiting Room” was next followed by “Box Of Pine”. This set was so immensely crowded I couldn’t get close to the stage at all, and was forced to stand back. So I quickly jotted down songs like “Pass The Bottle” and “Hard Time Believing”.
We haven’t heard of any new music from them for a little while and I have been keeping my ear to the ground for new announcements, this set included the song “Bones To Pick” as well as “Worst Of Times”. I was glad I had a camper this year and I didn’t have to drive at all, I was quite tired.
They closed their set with “Fare Thee Long” and “Hate And Whiskey” Quite a damn fine set they played here tonight and even though we don’t hear from them as much as some of the other bands, they still put on a good show. I missed most of the band Poguetry In Motion and some of Mr. Scott H Biram in order to see more of Mr. William Elliott Whitmore tonight.
Mr. William Eliott Whitmore played an amazing set here tonight, I mean he had the audiance completely mezmerized. One of the songs he played was called “Come Hell Or High Water”. Another one he played was “Lee County Brew”, and he also played ” Good Day To Die”.
Mr. Scott H Biram was an absolute madohuse here at Muddy Roots, and in fact he pretty much is insane wherever he plays…period. His new album has garnered HUGE attention by the independent media, and Roots Music festivals everywhere.
“Going Home” was one of his first songs tonight, I was standing behind the stage pretty much the entire show, and I thank the stage manager for allowing me to do that. HEY I work third shift…so the song “Graveyard Shift” was mine. His shows are always choked full of heavy instrumentals and guitar wizardry with songs like ‘Hard Time”.
Possessed By Paul James we haven’t heard any new music from in some time, and we don’t care. Because his 2013 album There Will Be Nights When I’m Lonely was an absolute masterpiece. His stage presence alone is well worth traveling any distance to see.
His set included the song “Hurricane” and a really good foot stomping version of “Heavy”, as he propped himself up on top of a picnic table and just absolutely jammed up there. And as he played “There Will Be Nights when I’m Lonely” we jammed into the night and enjoyed him.
Every time I ever ran across him and his music I have always had a truly fun and blessed time, and he does a LOT for his community and for youth in his area as a school teacher. And as he played the “38 Year Old Cocktail Waitress” he completely mesmerized us once again tonight.
The weather the last two days was perfect and gorgeous and the music was amazing this weekend, a lot of us were glad to finally go back to our own beds and dry socks…but many of us didn’t this to end. But alas the entire festival did end and left us with many great memories and newly discovered bands. So once again this was a beautiful experience and I’m glad to have been a part of it.
Hello my friends and welcome to digital day for my good friend Mr.Josh Morningstar if you pre ordered the album I’m sure you have it by now, and if you don’t by the time you read this…you will. This album called Whole Lotta Crazy is basically his fourth album release, the other three are pretty obscure but you can still find them.
So let’s go back to some years ago to a very cold weekend in Altamont Tennessee where I finally got to meet this man. We had some very lengthy talks online in the months prior, and he sent me album of Josh Morningstar and the 30’s, which was his band back then.
HERE is one of the first articles I ever got to write about him, and I have a whole bunch I made from that festival in 2013. It was my first year I had this website and I was fresh off the Muddy Roots articles of 2013. This website was being born as I was formerly writing for another page, and ventured off onto my own. Well Mr. Josh was also taking shape and forming into this person you know and love now.
See he and I share a similar sordid past and it’s nothing less than poignant. We are both former heroin addicts and haven’t got the past that mom would be proud of, but the point is I’m 21 years clean and he is 4 years clean from our demons. We hit off right off the start as good lifelong friends…never did I imagine it would go this far.
I went on to expand and build an empire under different genres of music and he went on to become the road warrior you know and love now. We been through a LOT together, after Altamont we witnessed the death of our friend we met there Mr. Wayne Mills and a few years later Mr. Josh and I had to assemble in Kentucky with others for the death of Mr. Jon Hensley.
I have had the opportunity to travel to nine different states to see Mr. Josh play at various places and venues, hell I’ll be honest, I couldn’t even name them all if I tried. I have seen him play at Bobby Mackey’s for the LHTMS Launch and also places like Muddy Roots.
So this new album opens with the title song “Whole Lotta Crazy” choked full of recorded intro form Country Legends like George Jones elaborating on his drug and alcohol abuses. The song talks about his heroes of old and how he has a huge crazy history to live up to as an aspiring artist.
“Crying Eyes Of Blue” is an older song that has been recorded before but it’s been recorded and mastered once again on this recording. I really truly did enjoy the last album however this one is much more personal and brings us closer to Mr. Josh as a person with songs like ‘Damn These Birds”, as he talks about true stories of a life of hell with dealers.
“Haggard and Hank” is an oldie recorded and wrote by Country Music legend Mr. Billy Don Burns, who has been a HUGE part of both of our lives in the Country Music industry. At different times I have been exposed to Mr. Josh’s new songs like “Miss Bobbie Jo” which is about a waitress he deals with.
“All That I Been Living For Is Gone” is an upbeat terrific song of heartbreak if that double standard means anything, this man defiantly identifies with true Honky Tonk music in every sense of the word. This album is truly another milestone in his career, and there’s no place to go but UP. Honestly there aren’t really too many downsides to this album other than there was not fourteen songs, because he has others I’d really love to see recorded….however I think time will remedy that because he is defiantly NOT going anywhere BUT UP.
MAN alive was it a perfect day to wake up to on Saturday after the morning rains, Mid 80’s and sunny. Attendance was up this day and all the vendors were finally in full display swing. We actually did already have some pretty epic music sets so far, to be honest in my opinion the Legendary Shack Shakers won the award for best set of the weekend.
So first up from Texas we have my buddy Moose’s Last Stand which is a thrashbilly trio made up of Moose Allen – Upright Bass/ Vox/ Writing, Ian Brown- Rhythm Guitar/ Vox/ Writing and Justin Collins -Drums.
He and I have been internet pals for years and we comment on the same threads and such, but THIS IS the beauty of festivals. We finally got to meet in person for the first time today, I finally got to share with how I do things on here and he finally got to expose me to his live set.
They pretty much played their entire album Throat Punch here today and that video above is from the song “Shut Yo Mouth”. They played a song called “Irish Bell”, and “That Been Said”. I’m pretty sure if you stop over at his Facebook and hollar at Mr. Moose he can sell you a copy of the album.
“Rooster” was next followed by “Fear” and “Decent”. The title track of the album “Throat Punch” is most likely one of my favorites on this album, it’s just high octane pure grain bad ass music folks. Seriously who the HELL CARES what it is, punk, rockabilly….who cares? It’s good, buy it cause I said so!
Because you’ll hear song like “Bottle Of Sorrow” and “Whiskey, Hops And Honky Tonks” I mean WE ALL like whiskey right? This ain’t a hipster craft beer band. They closed with “Last Stand” and “Lamb And Wolf” here today before I went off to see this next band called `W.D.Miller And The Revolvers from Miami Florida.
This video is from their song called “Outlaw”, and I also got to see them play another called “Greed” before I went to the Reverend RedWho is currently on tour with Mr. Duane Mark which was my next act here. Their duo record together was really cool and their combination shows are fun to go see.
“Bad Love Gone” was first today along with the powerful song called “People die That Way”. My favorite song either of them play is “Truckstop Whore”. Mr. Duane plays it solo too, as he did at Moonrunners in Chicago. They played the same stage back to back before joining up afterwards to tour. “Blood Of The Lamb” was next and he followed that up with “Come for You”. Let’s watch this video from this fine artist:
“Hang Him In Front Of Me” was included in his set as well as the song called “I Did It For Denver” off the album Goode Hill Road. “Muddy Boots” was another one I noticed him play here as well as Knock Three Times”. The album This Dammed Town boasted his last song I heard called “Jakub’s Farm”. Much like many others I finally got to meet him and shake his hand, tell him how much I liked his music and what I do here.
Before checking out Mr. Duane I went across the road to see Mr. Bruno AKA Lone Wolf OMB another of Muddy Roots beloved one man bands. He played an R.L. Burnside song called ” Poor Black Mattie”. He also played some Muddy Waters songs and went into playing “John Henry”. he always does a really energetic and super fun blues induced set at any Roots Festival I see him at.
Mr. Duane Mark was my next fine musical act I saw today. He and I have been friends for quite some time, now to be honest I hate the damn guy but I have to be nice to him for professional reasons. Just kidding folks, you will NOT meet a nicer fellow on the road than Mr. Duane seriously. He is truly a gifted performer and an all around damn fine friend, I could call him now and have his help if he could.
‘A Shot And A Beer” was first (I’m pretty sure that’s what it’s called) and he also played “Miner’s Blues”. He also played the song called “Broke Down”. I have featured Mr. Duane many times like this one HERE and as I mentioned he is currently touring again with the Reverend Red.
He played “I’ll Fly Away” very nicely and the last song I watched him play was “Red Letter”. Then I went over to watch Mikey Classic And His Lonesome Spur which is the front man for the Goddamn Gallows doing his solo work on banjo. He just released his second album and you can buy it at the Vinyl Bunker here in Nashville.
He and Fishgutzz played “Bow Down To No Man” first and then they played “Nowhere Left To Roam” which is a Gallows song off the 7 Devils album. I also heard them play “Old Dusty Trail” before I passed around again for more coverage. Folks you know one thing that’s really cool about Muddy Roots is the friendship that’s there, I mean here we are watching other bands with Sean K Preston.
Here is where the weather began to drastically change for the better and the sun came out for us to enjoy stage 1 fully and even though it was truly still muddy, we enjoyed ourselves. There were several good bands playing while I took a lunch break to meet with some Ohio friends from Duck Creek festival.
Video property of Mr. David Flewwelling
Some of the bands I missed were El Escapado which was a punk band from Nashville made up of Abe Mesaris – Vocals, Eliott Virula – Guitar/Vocals, KD Bell – Bass/Vocals and Joey Shrum – Drums. That was going on over at stage 1 while I was eating.
Mark Porkchop Holder was another one I missed, he put on ONE HELL of a set from what I heard. The sun….man the sun has come out here today! We were all basking in the joys of the GREAT weather for the rest of the weekend here in Cookeville Tn.
So due to a sudden cancellation we had The Saddle Of Southern Darkness fill in for us over on stage 1. Trent Williams- Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin, Chase Williams- Vocals, Dobro, Guitar and Mark Rossi- Upright Bass make up this band which is currently on tour with the Trejon Street Corner Thieves.
Their set contained heavy hillbilly songs like “Sitting Bull” and others like “Owl And Crow Sign”. This band was just a mixture of all kinds of styles of music and I REALLY enjoyed them for sure! I would highly suggest you go catch them on tour.
“Ordered 1 Shot” was next followed by another called “Hang In A Tree” off their album that is self titled. “Blasphemous Bill” was next followed by one called “Bad Times”. Let’s watch a video here from them courtesy of Bluedevil Dixie.
“Folk Singer” was next followed by the song “Compelled To Dig” which displayed some truly fine solos and craftsmanship from this band here from Denver. They closed their set with a song called “Rattlehead”. What a truly pleasant surprise unannounced band here today.
Everymen TORE UP stage 2…no I literally mean they tore the stage up with silly string and swimming noodles. Confetti and other debris followed the chaos in there, however I was elsewhere getting electronics charged up.
Dead Bronco has a new album out now called Bedridden And Hellbound, and they come to us from Florida. The band consists of -Matt Horan: Vocals, Guitar -Oscar Calleja: Upright Bass -Danny Merino: Lap steel -Manu Heredia: Lead Guitar and -Danel Merin: Drums.
They opened with “My True Love” and another called “Liberation Of A Married Man” off their three album catalogue of material. This blend of metal and roots music with a lap steel was really cool, I’m still enjoying their albums right now.
They also played “Don’t Care About Drinking Alone” and another called “Freight Train”. I didn’t catch mnay other songs on this set as I was on the move again, are YOU keeping up with me? It wasn’t easy this year trust me. King Mud comes from Fort Wayne Indiana and they played on stage 3.
Freddy Joe Evans from Left Lane Cruiser and Van Campbell from the Black Diamond Heavies make up this band as they played songs like ‘War Dancers” off their album Victory Motel Sessions followed by “Keep It Out Of sight”. Let’s watch a video property of Bluedevil Dixie:
I didn’t get any pictures of their set and for that I’m sorry but I did get the set list with songs like “Smoked All My Bud” and another called “Rat Time”. Even though the sun was fully out now around supper time we still had a VERY muddy roots, everybody was in muck boots and nobody had dry socks. I think I changed socks three times today!
“Blood River” was next followed by ‘Take A Look’ and another called “Buck It Up” and they closed their set with one called “Arthur’s Hooked”. This was another high energy smaller band today, however we all were having a truly great time out here.
Richie Owens And The Farm Bureauis a band I have covered many times on the website here. Mr. Richie and I had a wonderful conversation in 2014 about Country Music History, and many other things. He’s been a band I have admired for some time now.
Mr.Richie Owens, Mr. John Reed, and Mr. Brian O’Hanlon make up this band from my neck of the woods out here in Tennessee. They played “She Overuns My Heart” first and then played “L + N” and another that is called “Rebel’s Pride”.
They have their own unique sound and a signature blend of different flavors of music, and you can easily see that with songs like “Used To Have A Lot” and others like “Pigeon River Flood”. My personal song he does is called Franklin Town. Their set included “See You On The Other Side” and the Jimmie Rodgers classic “T For Texas”.
I sadly didn’t get any video of this act or the next one which was Joe Buck Yourself because my phone was charging. The Farm Bureau closed their set with ‘Why Can’t I Leave” and finally “Rye Whiskey”.
Black Irish Texas I did not get any photos or video for their set this time. However I did use my amazing resources to find their set list for the evening, their first song was from off their album To Hell With The King and it was called “Come Out All Ye Black And Tans”.
“thrills of Yesterday” was next followed by ‘And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”. The album An Ode To Saint Cecilia boasted a few more of their songs tonight like “Puke” and “Complicated Man”. One of their last songs was “Red Haired Mary”.
Dallas Moore is a name I mention VERY frequently over here, now this was the very first time he played Muddy Roots. I had to make absolute sure everything was charged up for the rest of the night. I recently reviewed one of his local shows during the time I was writing this from Bowling Green Kentucky and you can read that HERE.
They played one hell of a set out here tonight in Cookeville beginning with Willie Nelson’s “Whiskey River”. He then played “Twisitn Through Texas” and rolled right on into “Bottle And A Bible”. One of my favorite songs was next called “Raising Hell And Slinging Gravel”, it’s got the upbeat tempo and groove to get ANY crowd going.
Photos of the Urban Pioneers and Mr. Chris Irwin of Texas AKA The Hillbilly Muslim.
Mr. Dallas makes that guitar his bitch basically, and he is WELL SCHOOLED in MANY areas of music. His band is equally schooled in various types of music. Mr. Chuck is a powerful right arm to Mr. Dallas, and he helps make Mr. Dallas all that more stalwart. They are seasoned road veterans that play a whopping 320 shows a year all over the United States, and you can pre order his new album by clicking on his name up there.
He played some new songs along with the new title track “Mr. Honky Tonk” and then went into a song he wrote about Altamont called “Up On That Mountain”. I met him in fall of 2013 at Altamont, I had heard of him but back then I hadn’t formed an Ohio alliance yet. My website was just taking shape…He played his signature long drawn out version of the song “Whipping Post”.
Left Lane Cruiser was tearing up stage 3 to my right and stage 2 was preparing for my buddies at Viva le Vox I’ll touch on them in just a moment here.
The Pine Box Boys were moving in over at stage 1, and I was helping a band with some van technical issues at this time while STILL doing MY thing…it’s what I do. I did not get any of the set list from Left Lane Cruiser tonight nor did I get any videos as a result of other things transpiring.
The Gravedigger (99 Holes) was first off the Child Of Calamity album followed by “Arkansas Killing Time” and next was the song called “Grandfather’s Clock”. You know this band is one of the west coast bands that don’t always get to my area, and that’s another great thing about festivals.
“The Crow” was next followed by “Will You Remember Me” off the STAB album, which was when I became familiar with them. Right around the MySpace days when I was loving the song “Mr. Skeleton”. Mr. Lester always plays a great show and it makes me laugh, the lyrics are funny you just have to have a laid back sense of humor.
“Teddy Bear Has Teeth” was next and then came “St. James Infirmary” and “Walk Through Walls”. I tell you the weather was absolutely perfect now this evening and we were all ready for music, and as they closed their set with
“Tardy Hearse” , “I Kept Her Heart” and then the song called “Stab”! I moved on to other stages.
Video property of Bluedevil Dixie.
Viva le Vox is a three piece band made up of Mr. Tony Bones, Scarecrow Jenkins and Johnny Tugboat. Their set began with “Tiger Blood” and “Exercise Your Demons” . This is the third time I have encountered them at festivals in 2017, and every time I have enjoyed their set.
“Wayward Ones was next as I went onto catch the band over on stage 1….Viva Le Vox really was going crazy up there! So let’s watch this video of their set here before we move on to American Speedway.
Michael Kerchner, Bob King, Anthony Marinacci, and Lorraine “Dirty” McGurty make up the Pennsylvania based American Speedway. Just a flat out bad ass rock and roll outfit with songs like “How Ya Doin”, filled with ripping guitar solos and songs about killing yourself….they were all about killing yourself…hmmmm. Seriously this band was just absolute fun, and roaring loud.
Video property of Throwmaple
I stayed to check out one more song by them and that was “One Foot In One Foot Out”.
James Leg is an absolute legend in every sense of the word, there just isn’t any other word to describe him. I only got to catch him play the song “What Else Can I Do” before taking my butt to stage 3 for my buddies from Tennessee The Glade City Rounders.
The Rounders played a surprisingly TOP SET this weekend I didn’t anticipate some of their antics. They heavily involved the crowd by having a HUGE square dance there. I got to hear them play “Ticklebritches” and also “In The Jailhouse Now”.
They hit one another with beer bottles and play REAL obscure old Country Music, this band IS THE REAL DEAL when it comes to the history of Country Music and jug band music. I enjoy talking to Mr. Richard about old obscure stuff like one armed fiddle players from the 1930’s…good stuff.
The Goddamn Gallows were moved to tonight on stage 1 as a result of weather cancellations from day 2. They are one of the crown jewels of Muddy Roots and are by far one of the most popular crowd building bands featured on it. I went in through the security side this time because I knew it was going to get wild!
They opened their set with “Shattered” and then played “Ragz And Bones”. It certainly DID turn out to be a wonderful evening for music tonight and Sunday was even better weather wise, all in all I’d say this was an C + weekend with two days of miserable and two days of great weather.
As they played older songs like “Pass Me The Bottle” and “7 Devils” and “Yall Motherfuckers Need Jesus” off Gohst Of The Rails album and 7 Devils album we enjoyed their set.
BUT SEE Fishgutzz knows we want new music in 2017, so I heard it IS recorded and it IS coming. And as they played “What Was The High” off The Maker their latest release the crowd went wild. They went on to play “Everybody Dies” and another off an old album called “Gutterbilly Blues”.
As their set drew to a close for me I got to catch “Raise The Moon’ before moving on to stage 3 for Joseph Huber. The Gallows are always a surefire bet for entertainment and fun for me. It’s in NO WAY Country but BY GOD it’s good stuff y’all need to go over and order some stuff from them, keep them on the road.
Video property of Mr. David Flewelling
Joseph Huberalways plays a great set here or anywhere really. I featured him many times on here and he opened with “Playground Battlefield” from his new album that I featured, you can read that HERE.
He played many songs off the fourth album like “16-10” and another called “You Showed Me”. many of the songs were longer in length than his previous albums. He played “Drop In The Bucket” and “Same River Second Time” from older albums.
He played ‘Coming Down From You” followed by “Shovel Off Your Shoulder” and he included “Suffering Stage” in his set. I had to take a short break to eat a snack to keep myself going. I missed the Antiseen set however I will include a video property of Mr David Flewelling.
I know they played “Law Abiding Citizen” and from what I could hear it was a good set. They played “No Apologies” and I heard the song ‘Up All Night”. I also missed Muddy Roots originals The Sawyer Family as well as Restavrant.
Nobody really expected Jayke Orvis to actually play with the Broken Band again, but it did happen. And it was just as great as it was in Kansas City. Both times this year it was truly a beautiful set with those classic songs, in fact his first album has been recently released on vinyl.
They played “Streets” after Mr. Jayke played a few songs by his lonesome, and the Broken Band joined him later on. They played a powerful “Thunderbolts And Lightning” and showed no signs of rusty absence at all. It was like they just picked up from 2014, when I last saw them!
THANKS GUYS for smiling at me there, these guys just plain out have fun up there. They are such good friends and such good musicians that it’s always a good show and as they played “Gone Forever More” they went into a version of “Kaw Liga” that everyone loved. I still keep both of his albums in my constant rotation, and always will.
“Shady Grove” was next and then they played “Crooked Smile”. This place was going absolutely crazy for this set, and I was too because I love the songs these four play together. This is an epic happening here in the Roots music world. The last songs I heard them play were “Feelings Like This” and “pick Up The Steam” and finally the last song was “Bound To Ride”.
Whiskeydick those two bastard sons of Texas were the last band of the night, and I kind of went between both stages, I was pretty worn out by this time. I’m SO glad I had that camper not far from me, and didn’t have to drive to any hotel. Hotels are indeed nice, but they aren’t as good as being convenient and close.
They played “Rebel Flags And Whiskey” as well as “Yehaw”, from their endless list of albums to choose from. Their middle song was the long title “Train Robbing,gun toting, dope smoking guitar picking, motherfucking good time man”. They were a little bit inebriated tonight and had a small interruption with a stool that wouldn’t cooperate but once we got that fixed they were at it again.
They played “Drunk As Hell” their title track for the 2015 album, and that was pretty much the wrap of day 3 for me at Muddy Roots. This was indeed a very tough job touching on so many bands but I was pretty happy with my endeavors.
So a very wet second day of Muddy Roots was well underway, and this time all I had to do was walk on down from the ticket office. This year it sure was nice not to have to drive anywhere for the entire time. Although I really didn’t drink all that much I still didn’t drive much.
We will start this article for Day 2 with Taillight Rebellion which was a two piece band with a very cool sound. We didn’t use the Wooden stage until Saturday so they rescheduled the entire day. I truly did my best to cover all of the bands here but I missed quite a few and I’ll try to do my best to get all this covered.
They opened their set with an intro called Auld Triangle before playing music with their second song called “Keep Your Head Held High” and that’s off the album “Six Strings And Gasoline”. Now off their other album called “Broken” they played two called “You Stole It All From Us” and another called “Withdrawls”.
They had good timing between them and you could easily ascertain they were having an enjoyable time up there today and this was a truly nice band to begin the day with. “Into The shadows” was next followed by the song called ‘This City”.
‘Bottled Crime” was from their new album and the song “Outlaw Waltz” was from their first album, so they had a smaller amount of albums to play from than many of the other bands here this weekend, but overall they played a very nice set. They closed with “Six Strings And Gasoline”.
Vocals/Acoustical Pickin’- Jesse James, Bass/Dirty Vocals- Oatmeal Reed, Resonator/Back up vocals- Billy Mo,
Washboard- Tashia The Don, Drums- Chris Johnson make up this next band called Black Tarpoon, which sings hillbilly horror and punk.
They hail from Texas and even though I didn’t get much of their set list as I was wandering around trying to keep my electronics and papers dry I did sit and enjoy them some. They have an album available on their website so why don’t you go over and support them? Let’s watch a video of them courtesy of Bluedevil Dixie.
My buddy Mr. Lou Shields didn’t get the chance to play “Coffee Song” for me but that’s OK because he did play a damn fine set here this weekend. His usual stalwart way he sits and plays his one man band getup is always enjoyable…especially in the field. Let’s watch MY video of him playing this weekend.
He played the song called “Rustic Road” off of his GREAT album called Bad Axe Country, and another called “Cabin In The Woods”. See folks Mr. Lou is a gifted artist too not just a musician, in fact he drew the cover for the first Urban Pioneers album called “Addicted To the Road”.
He does lots of art exhibits and music shows all over the United States and is a truly talented person in his own right. One show with him and you’ll see why we love him at Muddy Roots. The last song I got to hear him play was called “Back Country” before I moseyed on to see other bands.
Billy Lupton- Mandolin & Vocals, Nick Lupton- Guitar, Eric Miron- Bass, Jessica Alvillar- Violin, Gilbert Montoya- Banjo & Vocals and David Archey- Harmonica & Vocals make up this band called Wicklow Atwater from Southern California. This was another band I really didn’t get to see the entire set, however I did get to see them play “Skid Row”.
Property of Miss Lisa Wells
They included the song “Inside You” into their set along with “I Wanna Be Your Man”. They have one album that I found as a band however they are all multi instrumentalists themselves in their own rights. They fit quite well into Roots music and also Americana as well.
EVERYBODY forgot about the rain here during this set, perhaps one of the most energetic and vivacious sets of the weekend…and honestly many of them occurred on this very second day. This is the band Dirtfoot from Louisiana and they didn’t come to play games….because…they had a pig on stilts throwing full beers around. Now I ask you…does that happen at Bonaroo?
Matt Hazelton, J Bratlie, Wayne Anderson, Cory Knippers, Spencer Teekel and John Hoffman make up this band which I’ll be completely honest they were so amazing and fun I forgot to list down the songs! This was a pleasant escape here folks and I had FUN.
-Ted Drozdowski, band leadin’, slide guitar, vocals, rabble rousin’ trouble makin’ ..And his accomplices Sean Szwick and Pete Pulkrabek make up this band called The Scissormen another Muddy Roots original band from the 2010 lineup…and dogs, lots of dogs.
Another very energetic band here today that even walked around and played songs into the audience, as they belted us with blues and rock music here. With an opening song called “John The Revelator” that had an a cappella opener then went into a drum roll and the song. They played another good song called “Jumper On The Line”, and went into “Do Wrong Man”.
I got to see them play “Can’t Be Satisfied” before they played a funkier song called “Josh Gibson” while showing off some truly fine guitar solos and another crowd induced guitar romp around the tent. Also included in their set was “Tupelo” and another song called “Black Lung Fever”. So I wanted to stop and add this piece from their website because it awoken my enthusiasm to delve into Mr. Ted further…
For Ted, American roots music is a vital bridge between generations, cultures and the past and the future. And he uses that bridge to not only connect deeply with his fans in concerts, but in the slide guitar and music history workshops he conducts.
Often Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen are about surprises. Not only in the imagination and scope the trio brings to its recordings and performances, but even in the way Ted and the group approach creating music. Check out Ted playing the one-string diddley bow, for example, and consider where he recorded the next Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen album: in a tent in the woods down a dirt road high on a mountaintop behind Nashville’s historic Loveless Café.
“The River” was next off their set and another called “New Catfish Blues” and they closed with the Led Zeppelin song “When The Levee Breaks”. I saw many different types of influence in this band here, and absolute talent in every member of this ensemble.
One of my many music friends to come from Maryland is Mr. Jimmy Swope and his brand of Roots/Americana music. I featured him during my coverage of this year’s Moonrunners in Chicago, and many other times as well. This fall we were supposed to both attend Crooked Smile In Indiana but alas it has been cancelled, so I have pretty much not planned any other major events in 2017.
I got to see him play his song “Tip Jar” and another called ‘This Old Town”. At this time I was going back and forth between stages pretty hard..and I got hungry so I decided to stop to eat after I was done watching Mr. Jimmy play the song called “Highway Mind”.
“My Liver Is Trying To Survive” was the popular notion here as everybody was enjoying themselves like usual, heck even I drank a few on Saturday night, and to be honest it was my first time really seriously imbibing. I had fun doing so with all my friends there.
“Moonshine In Your Life” was next from the “Folk You” album of 2015 and I went off to the other stages for other bands, as the rain finally began to subside to a mist. But it was still really damp and made the bones scream.
Video property of Miss Lisa Wells
Mr. Noah Tyson was another one I just simply did not get the chance to check out as much but let’s watch a video here about him. He’s from Illinois and from what I could hear of him, he was good.
James Hunnicutt made his first Muddy Roots appearance in 2011 and has been a Muddy Roots favorite ever since then. He garners a large crowd every year there and is always a sure bet for fun and wonderful music.
He usually always begins with different songs but the first one I took note of was of course “My Pain” which always has entire tents singing along here. He also played “Never Meant” along with some other new songs that we enjoyed.
As soon as he played “Don’t Let Teardrops Fill Your Eyes” a TON of the regulars all lined up to sing with him.
Rachel Kate I missed as well as RT N the 44’s so that I could see my buddy Sean K Preston And The Loaded Pistols who come from Charm City U.S.A. He and I first met in 2014 at Crooked Smile Festival and we instantly became friends, I was around him in Kansas City for Westport Roots Festival this year as well.
Let’s watch this video of him.
This is him singing his new song called “Barnburner” which he sent to me early this year. He’s been working on many new songs for us and until he records a new album his live shows will have to tide you over. Much like a few other sets I basically just let loose and enjoyed this set. HERE is a good sized chunk of his high octane set!
This was EASILY one of the biggest sets of the weekend by far, I enjoyed the entire set and folks for me to stay and forget to write the set list down is unheard of. This man is a sure bet for a BARNBURNER SHOW every time he is on stage.
Mr. J.P.Harris And The Tough Choices are another surefire bet for REALLY GOOD Honky Tonk Country Music. He killed it at the Opry house during the Nashville Boogie this past spring for sure! His album “Home Is Where The Hurt Is’ is a classic album to me.
He played “California Turnaround” first and then he played “Badly Bent”. His set always has full effect with perfect twang solos and plenty of steel guitar beauty. And as long as he continues to play songs like “Two For The road”, I shall always continue to enjoy his set.
“Oklahoma’s A Long Ways Away” was toward the middle of his set, as I was going back and forth tents to see him and Sean K Preston at the same time. He eventually closed his set with “Gear Jamming Daddy”, I was still going over to film Sean K Preston as well, and still getting ready for them to squeeze Slim Cessnas Auto Club on stage 3. Like I had already explained, they moved all the bands slated for stage 1 to stages 2 and 3.
Slim Cessnas Auto Club is slowly becoming a Muddy Roots powerhouse most years the festival happens as well. This band is quite eclectic and different, nobody sounds like them or vice versa, and they are very weird in their own way..but their fans “GET IT”..I do. I’m proud to be a SCAC fan.
This is yet ANOTHER crazy band here and the night’s only going to get wilder folks, just wait until I finish day 2. They started with “32 Months Gone Dry” and my personal favorite “This Is How We Do It In The Country”. NOW FOLKS I could already see them preparing Stage 2 for the Harmed Brothers, but seventy five percent of the entire attendance was right here folks…here.
They continued on with “Jackson’s Hole” and the last song I heard of theirs was “Fierce Cow” before I went onto get some videos of a few sets I didn’t get total notes for here..They are currently on tour overseas until November and every time I have witnessed them in concert they have exceeded my expectations…that was until Th Legendary Shack Shakers took the stage tonight….
Three bands towards the end of day 2 here I didn’t get the opportunity to see were called A Pony Named Olga, Pinata Protest who brought some Tex Mex Cow Punk into the mix, and The Harmed Brothers whom have multiple albums out. I have actually been listening to them quite frequently now, and I love their music…it just wasn’t possible for me to cover all of this at once.
I suppose with three stages going it was a tad bit easier to set up chairs at all three stages and float from one to another, but what happened was they squeezed all the stage one acts into the tents due to the weather here today. I do NOT BLAME Muddy Roots or Mr. Ronnie Reels from Reelsound Productions for concern of his equipment care. I think Mr. Chris handled this situation BEYOND effectively and ran his ASS OFF this weekend so WE could enjoy this event.
I did get to see some of the set that Also brought some Punk and Roots music here tonight from Oklahoma. According to their website they are brothers, and have a new album coming out later this year. They cover their own version of Dr.Ralph Stanley’s timeless classic “O Death”.
Their set included songs off of their album Wildfire, “Liberty” was the first one followed by “Woodsfolk” and another song called “Ruined”. Their Facebook describes them as Hardcordian Wonder Hard Punk Rock, each of these bands had their own unique sound and there was certainly something for everyone here this weekend.
“Row” was a song about being lost in an ocean and all you had left to do was ROW. It was a song of positive advice, because whatever your bad situation is in life the only thing left to do is keep trying and row. NEVER stop trying to succeed in life folks.
“Rapture” was next followed by “Bomb Caravan”. The title song of the album called “Wildfire” was next along with “As Close As It Gets” closed out the set here tonight.
Stump Tail Dolly is always a DAMN SURE bet to bring Metal and Country blended together into one bomb of awesomeness. See some of the most EPIC SETS of the weekend were still to come. I defiantly got my second wind here with songs like “I’ve Endured” and “Cumberland Gap”.
Band Members
Ryan Clackner, Lucy Cochran, Jamie Garry, Brian Weinberg are the prominent four that have been playing in this band that began around 2014. Stump Tail Dolly was slowly formed during the Red Simpson set at Muddy Roots in 2013. The ideas were being tossed around and we didn’t hear anything official until late 2014.
When we finally did we received an ass whipping in the form of the small EP album and a rigorous tour schedule, defiantly a hard working duo there. They recently released a full length album you can read about the new album here.
That link up above will take you to the album review and the new video for “Bogaloo”. This basically was a forty minute set full of complete chaos and mayhem, with ripping solos and instrumentals. All four of these musicians are seasoned and championed in their respected areas.
The Legendary Shack Shakers pretty much obliterated any previous set I ever witnessed them play tonight at Muddy Roots. They played a terrific set at the Nashville Boogie and tore up all their surroundings.
This video doesn’t do the antics of Mr. J.D.Wilkes justice, I think by far he is one of the greatest front men in this business and he completely annihilates all law and order on stage. There’s no telling WHAT he’s to pull up there..like hanging upside down on a light fixture and continuing to perform.
The first songs I noticed while they barrelled through their set list were from the Agridustrial album, and they were “Sugar Baby”, “Hobos Are My Heroes” and one of my favorites, the old “Dump Road Yodel”.
They had the crowd whipped into an absolute wild fever with a song they don’t play live as much called “Gipsy Valentine” and another favorite of mine “No Such Thing” from the Pandelerium album. With Mr. J.D.Wilkes you get him hanging upside down like this and swinging around as we encourage his destruction of everything around him.
I cannot forget the Nashville Palace induced harmonica battle he had with Mr. Ronnie Crutcher from Hillbilly Casino during the Nashville Boogie where they both went ape shit and blew us all away again. Their previous concerts have always left me speechless with songs like “Born In The Bluegrass”, and their last song was “Bullfrog Blues”.
The Urban Pioneers hit us up with some NEW songs at Moonrunners AND Muddy in 2017. “Run Rabbit Run” is on the Blue Plate Special CD they have out now..kind of a live album, and will be on their new album. I spoke to Mr. Jared at the Westport Roots Festival and he gave me a couple of tentative names for the new album.
Their set included classics like “Ain’t Gonna Work” and ’75 Southbound Blues”, and one of my favorite songs that attracted me to their band was called ‘Apparition In The Fog”. Their first album which included cover art by Mr. Lou Shields was an instant Roots success, and in my opinion is a classic album.
Mr. Martin up there pounding that upright bass for them for a while now, I always enjoy catching up with him in conversations all over the country. I enjoy seeing all the musicians and getting to know them as people, and I enjoy seeing YOU…yes YOU the one reading THIS. YOU make this work, not me not the bands…without the reader, or the fans…this and ALL scenes cease to exist.
“Till I Get Thrown Out” was next on the set list as well as “Please Give me A Highway”. I think this time they pretty much did a wonderful job of picking a wide array of songs from all three albums tonight. From the new album Feast Or Famine they played “Never Had A Waffle At Waffle House” to the first album with “Lost My Weed Waltz”.
“High On The Mountain” was another song on the list, followed by “Liz’s Reel” and the last song I noticed was “Walk This World” before going over to the other stage to see this next last band Shawn James And The Shapeshifters.
Shawn James And The Shapeshifters is a five piece band that plays blues and country and all sorts of other kinds of music rolled into one. I understand that there was severe sound and light problems due to the storms and I missed a lot of the last two sets of the night.
WELCOME EVERYONE to my coverage of The Muddy Roots Music Festival which is held every labor day weekend at the Junebug Ranch in Cookeville Tennessee. This is BY FAR one of my biggest endeavors every year and this year was beyond any exception I have ever encountered yet. So right now as I attempt to expound to you of my experience at Muddy Roots I want to begin by THANKING Mr. Jason Galaz, and Mr. Chris Cahill, Miss Destiny and ALL the entire Muddy Roots crew for their love. Miss Kimber Maxwell for graciously allowing me to retire each evening in her camper, and also to Miss Amber Lee and Mr Herbert for their wonderful breakfast plates and hospitality. They ALL set me up so I could do what I do and BY GOD I think I got some damn good footage for those of you that couldn’t make the event this year.
Upon arriving that Wednesday it rained like a cow pissing on a flat rock for two days it basically was damp, misty and chilly. When I pulled up to Scooters Bar it was pouring rain all afternoon. Most early arrivals set up camp in the pouring rain, and as the roads got muddy I decided my truck would mostly stay up on the hill by the bar. I basically had nowhere to go for five days, I had anticipated that.
Acousta Noir is also Mr. Joshua Esterline from Southern Oregon. Here is a website description of his work:
Coming from a background shaped by punk, rock and roll, roots, and various traditional folk styles, Acousta Noir brings a unique, yet oddly familiar, set of original songs to the table, along with his renditions of select and obscure covers.
Joshua first began playing music in 1994, and has been a part of a varied array of musical projects. These include punk bands (as a singer, guitarist, and drummer), singing for a heavy metal band, and a couple projects playing the upright bass.
Acousta Noir sets itself apart from the crowd by being akin to many acts, but defiantly unique from them all.
Life tends to work a little differently in Douglas County, Oregon, and Joshua works hard to embody that lifestyle in his music, while creatively utilizing his influences of traditional folk and country music, as well as punk rock and the good old story tellin’ side of things.
“Just how much punch can one guy pack into a set? You’ll be reeling as he blends raw bluesy soul with a rough and rowdy edge. If you like to dance, stomp your feet, or just have a good time, be there.”
So the sound in all of the tents in my opinion were not bad even though the weather and elements purposed a nefarious threat the first two days. I basically had a chair setup at all three stages the entire weekend and just bounced from stage to stage. I missed a few bands to be honest and I’ll have to find some helpers that will be willing to assist me with videos and pictures from this event. Speaking of videos let’s watch Acousta Noir.
His set contained a few strong Hank Williams Sr covers performed in a different dark demeanor that included the song “Ramblin Man” and he used the song “Angel Of Death” for an intro to the song “Radio Negrille”. He opened his set with “When The World Explodes” and went into “Wretchedness”.
This festival is choked full of great one man bands with a darkness to them and a morbid stomp of a one man kick drum and I look forward to supporting Mr. Joshua even further after this. “Tempest” was another song that displayed amazing rhythm ability from him today. He then played a song called “Firestorm” and another last song called “Bones”. See this event had so many bands that each band played a 30-45 minute set, and the first full day was rained out on stage 1 which forced them to move all of those bands into the tent stages.
This year I chose to linger longer at many of the bands instead of bouncing as much as I usually do and I’ll be up front and honest, I missed MANY of the bands last weekend…but I’ll do my best to cover as many as possible and I have tons of footage on both video and photo as well as notes.
Broken Bow was a metal band with a washboard and other influences, they had a dark death metal sound with like sounding vocals. Corpus Deorum, Taylor Imourtos, Chris Muerto make up this trio of a different genre.
You know Muddy Roots is a great melting pot of different music and it’s all so wonderful I think there is something here for everybody, and the audience is always attentive and appreciates all of it! Broken Bow also came to us from Colorado as did a few of the bands this weekend.
They opened with “Occum’s Razor” and went into the song called “Scraps” as the lead singer displayed a strength and lead vocal growl reminiscent of a death metal band. Their album Desolation brought their next song called California Is For Fuck You, Nowhere Is For Anybody to us.
Their next song was called “Rats” and they played another called “Plastic”. Before I went over to the Rusty Knuckles mobile store to set up my charger and my base station I watched them play “Poison The Well” and finally the song “Digitize The Dirt”.
The Smokestack Relics are a duo of brothers from the west coast that I have featured many times on this website from many festivals. Here today they got to play an earlier set to begin the festivities here at Muddy Roots, and they did an amazing job for sure.
They opened their set with the song called “Alabama Choogle” from the album Trailer Park Panhandlin. They have impeccable timing and have always played like a well oiled machine every time I have ever watched them play. Mr. Colin and Mr. Cameron Webb make up the duo of the Smokestack Relics.
The above video is a song about the Voice, and it was followed by the song “Celia Marie” and another one called “Give Your Ass To God”. As you can see the rain and mist still kept going and it was choppy wet mud, both tents housed plenty of straw to keep us comfortable as they played.
They continued on with songs like “Devil Song” and the song called ‘Ticket To Ride”, at that time I was preparing to have a meal break as they played “God Damn My Soul”. That closed out their portion of the festival here, and I look forward to seeing them again soon.
One of the things I noticed about this year’s festival I did NOT like was that the doors to enter and leave the port a pottys faced the road, I think that’s a BIG mistake and a automobile or golf cart hit waiting to happen. There were many children this time, and children run everywhere and don’t think about those things with all this fun going on.
I’m going to focus later on in this series about how integral this festival was for a younger presence. It had a strong number of children enjoying the music and I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on that.
He resonates the party atmosphere and whips the crowd into a frenzy with his guitar licks and stomping drums. He’s different from the other one man bands here with a style all his own. He is a multi instrumentalist in every sense of the word, featuring many different songs.
He proudly represents the Kansas City area crowd and the Westport Saloon is one of his homes away from home, and as he played “Pushing My Luck” he just had a wonderful time up there playing for us. Every band is proud to play Muddy Roots in their own element and their own style.
“Truck Song” and “Don’t Wanna Go To Heaven” were next, to close out his portion of the set for us. Which brings me to the next band here and that was my friend W.T.Newton from Chicago. He got thrown into the mix from a cancellation and was ready to play.
He played the great song called “Pine Grove Holler” and another called “The Whites Of My Enemies Eyes”. I went to the other stage however he stated upon communication that he also played “Auburn” “A Million Miles” and brought out his true mountain sound to us by playing “Carolina”.
I have been friends with Mr. Travis for several years on social media and we met a few years back, much like many other artists here we were at many of the festivals. He played “Keep In Touch” and another called “Coffin Nails”.
Mr. Chris Bissell and Mr. Henry Berger from Milwaukee and they are the mighty S.S.Web. folks I’m going to be completely honest…my stupid ass forgot to release the auto turn on my phone and I filmed a video for S.S.Web sideways. It looks horrible and I couldn’t include it in here…live and learn. If I told ANY of you I never made mistakes in the field I’d be a liar, I make mistakes daily.
S.S.Web played “North” first and followed it by the song “Chaser” and displayed great stage presence, as they often do on Muddy Roots. They played “Gambling” and “Drag Me Straight To Hell” off the North album. Now S.S.Web I believe they have three albums out you can get them by clicking on their name there.
Video Property Of Miss Delane Chavez
“Most Anything” and “Pullin” were two more songs off the North album they played, as the entire crowd started going nuts for them. They had one of the biggest crowds of the day on this Thursday of full music. Once again off the North album we had “In The Ground” and then they played “Let It Burn” off the Skulls Will Sink album.
“Any Old Thing” and “So I Pray” were two more off the Skulls album that they played before I went to the Ham Law Tent to watch The Menders. I didn’t get any video footage of them of the band, but I did manage to get pictures, I had to head back for a quick recharge.
The Menders are a band from North Carolina with a very energetic sound and a more traditional rock sound, with songs like “Unbreakable” And “Lost And Found”. They continued a very powerful performance by playing “Can’t Be Seen” and a song off their 2014 album called “Long Way Down”.
I’m not as familiar with this band as I am some of the others and I didn’t find them to be amazing however I didn’t dislike them by any means either. With songs like ‘Down Below” and “Bring In Your Bones” they did once again bring forth a heavier rock flavor to the mix, which was something that was needed.
They were placed fairly well schedule wise too, in either tent there wasn’t a majority of one type of music strong arming the others. “All Fall Down” was next followed by “The Demon”, and their set ended with a song called “Howlin At The Moon”. It would be safe to say they administer a little Rockabilly and other influences as well.
Mr. Tom VandeAvond was another act I was truly looking forward to seeing this weekend. His new album ‘You Ought To Know These By Now” is available for pre-order on his website. He played a few new ones before going into my personal favorite song “Weber’s Deck”.
I got to watch him play “Stay Away From The Whiskey” and one of his most popular songs “Even The Olives Are Bleeding” before I wandered on to the other stage for another great band, I was slowly getting into my Muddy Roots war mode here! I’m slowly realizing that we have all of these original Muddy Roots bands from my very first one in 2010, Mr. Tom was one of them!
The Imperial Rooster tore the tent up this weekend, I mean they absolutely SLAYED IT here. Cootie LeRoux, Nat King Kong, Khorn Syrup, Dusty Vinyl, Carlossus – The Count of Monte Carlos make up this New Mexico band that began with “Smilin Ed”.
They have a new album called Volume 4 out now and they steamrolled on with “Dangerous Times” and brought many other great songs to us this weekend like “The Great Wage Slave Revolt” all of these off the new album.
“45 Seconds Of Blood” and the popular song “Kohrn Syrup Sundae” were also included in their set this weekend, as they displayed many good guitar solos and a well arranged system of playing together. They closed their set with “Never Cold Again”.
Gallows Bound is a band of six childhood friends that play punk roots and Bluegrass together. Jordan Joyes – vocals, guitar, Jesse Markle – vocals, guitar, Justin Carver – banjo, Aaron Blow – bass, Forrest Veatch- mandolin, and Rob Shultz- drums make up this fine band that has toured with God Damn Gallows and other Roots Music bands.
They played ” Empty Flask” along with “Damaged” off their new album released earlier this year. they had an immensely strong stage presence and drew a really good sized crowd despite the other stage having Husky Burnette starting. I was pretty much bouncing quite well here.
“Appalachian Witch” was a really good one along with ‘Shake” and they went right into “Black Widow Woman”. This band fits completely well into the Roots Music schedule and actually shines quite well because of their prominent Bluegrass style, while still maintaining the punk style too.
“Del Fuego” and “Dominion Flowers” were next and they closed their set with ‘Dog’s Howli’n”. But I’ll be honest I was rapidly preparing to have my face melted off by the next band, the mighty and dirty blues slide wizard Mr.Husky Burnette.
Mr. Husky started his set with “Kick Rocks” when I was approaching the stage, I tried to stay for his entire set that was powerful he knocked the power out twice and continued to play. Hell…nobody really cared, and it didn’t matter. We jammed in the dark tonight and lit up the night.
Miss Caroline is a stick of dynamite on stage and makes Mr. Husky a prominent figure in any festival. Like many others I had the chance to feature him at Moonrunners as well, this set here by far was ten times more powerful and energetic. His dirty slide blues is a sound unlike any other in the Roots Music scene.
“Beat And Low Down” was next as they paused the vocals to drop heavy guitar solo bombs on us backed by Mr. Puppy’s punishing beats. He plays for Mr. Soda Gardocki whom will pop up in my Day 4 article here, was featured in my Moonrunners series and will be at Crooked Smile next month. Here is Mr. Puppy now pounding away at those beats for Mr. Husky, much like many of the others Husky Burnette is another 2010 original band.
The power faltered many times during this set and despite the problems they ignored them and roared on with no sound and no lights. They electrified the air with Roots blues music tonight! Mr. Husky and Miss Caroline absolutely tore up the floor tonight on the Ham Law Stage. Their last two songs were “Dog Me Down” and the closing song was called “Rising”. It’s totally fun and refreshing to witness people having FUN up there on stage and dumping their heart out onto the floor, however you perceive the lyrics.
Call Me Bronco has been creating quite a stir here on my website and also over at Rusty Knuckles. (Taken right from the CMB page, this band is) Matt – Upright bass, Barefoot, All around good guy.
Sam – Guitar, Vocals, Mustache, Arm-bars, Not Bobby
Bobby – Guitar, Backing Vox/crazy eyes, Dumpster scores, Bad ideas, Not Sam
Murph – Drums, Flows, Good ideas, Lady killer.
They played a top notch set this weekend and that’s for sure. This band truly is growing and drawing up their own audience with their signature blend of different styles of music rolled up into one. I got to see them play “4 AM” along with the song “Drunks Walk The Docks” off their new album called Beating A Dead Bronco.
The new album contains some newly recorded versions of older songs and I truly enjoyed their fresh sound, not to say the old EP was bad by any means. In fact I have always enjoyed this band in their own right. The last song I got to see them play was “If I’d Done Right”.
Video property of Miss Delane Chavez
I missed Larry And His Flask one of the Muddy roots original bands from 2010. They are a very energetic string band that plays a variety of instruments and songs, although we haven’t heard of any new music since 2013. Still they remain a prominent Roots Music band whether they are active or on hiatus.
Hillbilly Casino is indeed a name I mention many times on this website, and with damn good reasons. I mean honestly our paths have crossed MANY MANY times on the road at festivals like the one I’m currently half done with Muddy Roots and I reported on their sets at all of the Nashville Boogie.
I missed their album release show at the Exit Inn although I did write and article for it, hell one year at the 5 Spot I celebrated my birthday with them. Needless to say I been around Mr. Geoff Firebaugh, Mr. Ronnie Crutcher, Mr. Nic Roulette and Mr. Matt Arnn for many years.
One thing many critics complain about with this genre of Roots Music is the lack of growth many of the artists that represent it exhibit. Well, I challenge that, and I’ll explain to you why in this album feature. I cover many different genres on this website and it’s because I personally love them all. I wouldn’t waste my time writing about music I wouldn’t play in my truck stereo.
If you claim this band has lack of growth you aren’t stopping to listen to the music closely enough, and by ALL means you aren’t going to their LIVE shows. This band plays like a well oiled machine, and attacks your eardrums like a freight train. I think Mr. Nic is one of the most charismatic front men in the independent circuit and one of the most enjoyable to watch sing.
So Red White And Bruised once again features “Punchy” their mascot and one hell of a fun marketing scheme on the front cover, and for being independently recorded and mixed it sounds great. Songs like “She’s Got Tricks” have a good Rockabilly beat and bass thump from the Vanilla Gorilla…but this album has many different sounds to it.
Three of the songs on this new album were on the LIVE album they recorded a while back at the Exit Inn, one of those was the fast paced song they play in many sets called “Jibber Jabber” . Another was “Dog On A Chain” and the last song was called “Trainwreck”.
This album is choked full of fantastic guitar solos and fast easy to understand lyrics that don’t take a lot of thought, now trust me I LOVE those long drawn out acoustic songs that make me think, but I also LOVE the fast, hard easy to understand Rockabilly sound too. I get into all kinds of different moods at certain times.
“When She Kissed Me” is just a simple jamming swing song you can dance to, in fact this whole album pretty much is that way. And if you cannot ascertain growth from this album..you aren’t listening close enough give it another spin! “I Got More Blues Than Green” is a song EVERYONE can relate too that works. Most everybody has more bills out than money coming in for sure. Finally the last song “Troubles” was my personal favorite song on this album just because of the sound, it was a true Honky Tonk song.
Then you have songs about failed relationships like “It’s Not Me It’s You” that have different sounds altogether on this album. You have Country which this song had a sound like, Rockabilly and just plain out rock and roll like “Knocking At Your Door” ..it’s just damn good American music folks! You can order YOUR COPY on their website HERE.
Track listing:
1. Knocking At Your Door
2. How Do You Think
3. She’s Got Tricks
4. It’s Not Me, It’s You
5. Toss Turn And Roll
6. Lowdown
7. Dog On A Chain
8. When She Kissed Me
9. Give It All Up For You
10. Trainwreck
11.Jibber Jabber
12. More Blues Than Green
13. Troubles
In the words of Mr. Kasey we got merchandise available and every ten dollars gets us seven miles down the road, so if you like it buy it all. If you don’t like it buy it anyways because it gets us the fuck away from you! The food is always top notch good and the atmosphere makes this bar an easy bet to work a show article like this one.
They played originals and covers tonight both, and began with “Ain’t Living Long Like This”, and went right into the cover of the “Auctioneer Song”. That’s originally a 1958 Leroy Van Dyke song, that he is well known for, then they went into the song called “The Devil’s Horn”.
‘Heavy Load” is one of their truck driving songs they have that’s an original before they went into “Luchenbach Texas” from Waylon Jennings. They went into their adult themed song called “Truck Drivin Son Of A Bitch”, and now let’s watch a video from the songs:
Rambler, followed by “The Saw Is Family”.
They then played a cover of ‘Country Boy Can Survive” and played the song “Payback”, all the while playing a crazy wild show complete with drunken donkey stories and harmonica mic feedback from the monitor. We talked about being old and life in general, before they played “Roll On”.
They closed their set with a cover of “Titties And Beer” along with a song they made a video for called ‘Outlaws With Chainsaws Part 2 The Revenge”. Their final song was called “Corn Liquor”.
Mr.Dallas Moore is always a sure bet for fun, as we both are fresh off Muddy Roots Music Festival and Americana Fest as well. I’m going to include his promo for his new album Mr. Honky Tonk on this article here, as well as his video from Muddy Roots. He’s up right now doing soundcheck.
He began with several cover songs here tonight ‘Can’t You See”, “Whiskey River” and “Freeborn Man” all of which included some amazing guitar solos and fancy pants string work on Mr. Dallas part. He’s just plain out simply one of the finest in this business in every aspect of the part.
Right now as I write he is playing “Twisting Through Texas” for us taking us on a rocket ride through his original material, as he usually does. Mr. Dallas and his crew are insanely hard working, in fact they already played a show tonight in Ohio before they even came here to play…wow..
He bellowed through “Bottle And A Bible” and right now he is tearing this place apart with “Raising Hell And Slinging Gravel”. Playing songs off of his LIVE album he recorded from the Bulluiet County Jail in Kentucky recently were next with “One More Ride”.
“Shoot Out The Lights” was next off the Dark Horse Rider album, as he prepares his new album aptly called “Mr. Honkytonk”. “You Know The Rest” was his next song from his original list of songs. We also went ‘Up On That Mountain” as Mr. Dallas and I once did at Altamont in East Tennessee.
This new album called Mr. Honkytonk album Mr. Dallas ever recorded in Nashville, this following video is from the title track called Mr. Honkytonk, and the next song was new called . I’m pretty damn stoked about this new album as I am always am for his new work.
He played five new songs for us tonight off the forthcoming album including “Mr. Honkey Tonk” one called “Nice And Slow” and one his wife named by a saying she brought up called “Home Is Where The Highway Is”. You know nobody in this business hits the highway harder than Mr. Dallas.
“Burns Like Kisses” was another new song and “In Between Bridges” was the last, I’m pretty sure those were the names and I’ll go back and correct anything I got wrong. He then played an old acoustic song as a personal favor to an old friend that recently got engaged, and then proceeded to honor our fallen hero Mr. Don Williams.
He played a medley of Don Williams classic like “Tulsa Time” off of the 1978 album Expressions, it was written by Danny Flowers. He played “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend”, and “Amamnda”. Tonight at the Spillway not a darn one of us minded the wide array of cover songs from this fine musician.
“Mama Tried”and “The Cowboy Rides Away” were included as well as ‘This Old Cowboy” which included a GREAT lengthy instrumental complete with ripping guitar solos from Mr. Chuck. As usual he closed his set with another lengthy instrumental classic from the Allman Brothers..”Whipping Post”.
We all had a blast tonight, some truly fine music by two great bands and some damn good food. All in All I can honestly say I had a pretty good year of live music, I may have some more events coming up but I’m going to focus on catching up on bills and personal stuff so that I can bring YOU MORE great music reports in 2018.
