Ameripolitan Awards LIVE BLOG!

 News  No Responses »
Feb 132018
 

Folks we JUST GOT started here tonight and they introduced tonight’s hosts Mr. Dale Watson and Miss Danielle Colby. They played a gorgeous version of America The Beautiful. They are explaining the program and what is to transpire here.

8:15PM Mr. James Hand is performing “In The Corner By The Table”.

8:18PM Miss Danielle is introducing Miss Nikki Lane and she is performing “Viva Las Vegas’.

8:25PM Miss Rosie Flores is here, Mr. Dale is telling us about her Cowpunk and Bakersfield influences.
Mr. Levi Dexter is here presenting the Honky Tonk Female and the winner is Miss Brennen Leigh.

8:27PM Miss Danielle is with Mr. Dale introducing Asleep At The Wheel, and they are playing “Get You Kicks On Route 66′.

8:34PM Mr. Dale And Mr. Ray are performing ” Feeling Haggard” off their duet album.

8:40PM Mr. Jake Penrod and Miss Nikki Lane just announced Luke Bell as Honky Tonk Male winner!

8:42PM Mr. Dale is loving on Tillford Sellers, who couldn’t make it tonight. He is watching from heaven.

8:43PM Motel Mirrors is performing right now.

8:48 The Reeves Brothers just won Honky Tonk Band of the year.

8:53PM Mr. Unknown Hinson is playing right now.

8:55PM We are announcing the Outlaw Female Winner being presented by Miss Bonnie Montgomerey and the
winner is…….Nikki Lane.

8:58PM Mr. Jesse Dayton and are presenting the Outlaw Male Award and the winner is Cody Jinks.

9:14PM Junior Brown is presenting the Pioneer Of The Sound winner Mr Lloyd Green.

9:22PM Mr. Lloyd Green is playing Jukebox Charlie and Just between You And Me. He played on the
studio albums of both songs and MANY MORE!

9:48PM We are back from intermission, with beer jokes.

9:50PM W.S. Fluke Holland and others are remembering Mr. Sam Phillips and Sun Records.

10:00 The Humna Jukebox Mr. Sleepy Labeef is playing songs now.

10:03 Mr. Jesse Dayton is up right now talking about a story on Crooke And Chase, and how he
got to record with Waylon and Cash. He is playing Big River.

10:16PM Mr. Jason D Williams is tearing the place apart with two drummers!
Mr. Joshua said as Mr. Dallas Moore would say this was a righteous rendering
He broke it. Absolutely AMAZING drum and full band number.

10:21PM The band is STILL JAMMING and tearing the roof off this place!

10:28PM Mr. James Intveld is here. Wonderful man with AWESOME Music.
We are learning about the Elvis Sun Records material.

10:36PM Mr. Dickey Lee is here, who is the last original Sun Records artist alive.
He wrote “She Thinks I Still Care” and others. He is playing right now, some of the
greatest music I have heard in a LONG TIME is here tonight.

10:44PM Mr. Big Sandy is here! I LOVE him in fact he was the first person I ran into when I
arrived in Memphis. Same hotel. He is playing a Carl Perkins song.

10:51PM Mr. Dale declared Memphis as “Ground Zero” for independent music, and before the Outlaw movement
Mr. Sam Phillips created true independence for local music.

10:55PM Mr. Ricky And Mr. Gunner Nelson are playing “milk Cow Blues”. Their father Ricky Nelson wrote the song
and Elvis had a hit with it.

11:00PM Mr. Robert Gordon has called up Sam Phillips family, to tell more stories and accept the 2018
Legend award winner Sam Phillips. His son accepted the award tonight. He is telling stories
about his father, who said the secret to Rock And Roll, is reaching deep down inside of you
and pull it out of your asshole.

11:07PM Mr. Chris Casello and Miss Brennan Leigh are now presenting The Ralph Mooney Award winner
and the winner is…..Chris Scruggs.

11:12PM Mr. Chris is THANKING so many REAL heroes of music. HE IS the real deal.

11:15PM As Mr. Dale is introducing all of the house band they are moving on to
award the venue of the year. There are SO MANY GREAT venues nationwide.
And the winner is….Sportmen’s Tavern.

11:20PM Mr. Jason Galaz is presenting Festival Of the Year Award with Miss Cheryl Desiree
and others. And the winner is……The New England Shake Up.

11:24PM Mr. James Riley is presenting Ameripolitan DJ of the year….and the winner is…
WB Walker!
11:28PM Mr Jim Heath AKA Reverend Horton Heat is now performing.

11:41PM Mr. James Intveld and Mr. Big Sandy are presenting the award for Western Swing Female.
And The Winner is…..Miss Sophia Johnson.

11:44PM Mr. Gunnar Nelson and Miss Katie from Asleep At The Wheel are now presenting the award for
Western Swing Male….And the winner is Mr. Billy Mata.

11:47PM Mr. Big Sandy and Miss Sandy Walker are presenting the Western Swing Group of the year
And the winner is…..The Carolyn Sills Combo.

11:57PM Miss Lara Hope and Mr. Sam Phillips Jr. are announcing the award Rockabilly Female
And the winner is…Miss Bailey Dee.

12:00PM miss Celine Lee and are presenting the Rockabilly Male award…and the winner is Mr. Al Dual.

12:00AM The Rockabilly Group of the year are The Go Getters.

12:10AM It is time for Mr. Dale to present the Master Award to Mr. Brian Setzer.

Dallas Moore At The Spillway.

 News  No Responses »
Nov 252017
 

The Dallas Moore Band has been VERY busy burning up the American roads, and this is easily the millionth time I have covered them in 2017. In fact tomorrow night they will be up in Wilder Kentucky at Bobby Mackey’s haunted Honky Tonk. I got the pleasure to see them there many times as well as many other bands.

Speaking of Honky Tonk, Mr. Dallas ALL NEW album coming up is called Mr. Honky Tonk and will be out SOON on Sol Records.  Also tonight we will be seeing Mr. Rye Davis and a band called No Deceit which is a bar band by their own description, because of the wide array of covers they perform.

As always the food here at the Spillway bar and grill was exceptionally good. I LOVE the wings and pizza, heck I LOVE it all, try one of everything! We have a pretty decent sized crowd out here for tonight’s event, and I’m proud to once again feature this wonderful band.

Mr. Rye Davis is going to go up first here, and he opened his set with “If You Wanna Rock And Roll”, and another one of my favorites called “Blue Jeans”. He stood up there and sang his heart out to us on that song, which is one of his more well written songs. He played “The Ride” made popular by David Allan Coe.

Two songs here that he co wrote with his wife one was called “Leaves You Lonely” , he said he recently recorded the song in preparation  for his 2018 release. The next new song I caught on video and I have included it here, while he went into Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road”.

He went into another well written song called “Lavender Candles” it was REALLY well written in a waltz type delivery, with a truly awesome description. He followed that with another one called “Your Favorite Song”, which was another new song being recorded. Also he played “In Color” in the style of Jamey Johnson, and “Family Tradition” before he closed with the song “They All Know My Name” with a few members of the next band No Deceit.

Miss Allison Stafford – Lead Singer/ Rhythm, Mr. Jaron Mudd – Drums, Mr.Michael Bradshaw – Lead Guitar/ Electric and Mr. Eric Scott- Bass/ Background Vocals make up No Deceit. Miss Allison has a powerhouse vocal presentation accompanied by a roaring lead guitarist. Obnoxiously loud and aggressive guitar solos tear apart these songs they play like “Smoked Myself Into A Dream” and “Hicktown”.

They did a REALLY NICE cover of “Tennessee Whiskey” in Stapleton fashion, upon which she displayed some TRULY wonderful high notes and vocal range. They played a song called “Nawlins” and a Kid Rock song before the Stapleton song, and another off their album called “Take It Easy”.

This band was exceptionally energetic and complimented Mr. Dallas Moore’s band really well, and set a really nice tone for the closing band tonight. As they played “Might as Well Get Stoned” by Stapleton they once again brought out great rhythm guitars and better solos, this is just a great jam band! “Free And Easy” was next followed by the title of their album a song called “Bar Band” and here the video for their finale is included in this article.

So let my website be one of the FIRST to announce the OFFICIAL album release party date for Mr. Honkytonk will be February 14th at the Nashville Palace, right after Mr. Dallas presents the Ameripolitan Music Award that previous night, because he’s a BUSY MAN!

He opened with “Can’t You See”, and went right into his own versions of Willie Nelson’s “Whiskey River” and also “Freeborn Man”. If it’s one thing he’s good at it’s cover songs however it’s always originals like “Twisting Through Texas”.

Right now he is playing ‘Bottle And A Bible” followed by “Raising Hell And Slinging Gravel”, but I’m waiting for him to play some new songs to catch on video. He’s playing “One More Ride” from his LIVE album from the Bulliet County Jail. He doesn’t have that much merch left because he currently in the transitional period right now, but he is one of those artists where I have most of his products anyways.

“Shoot Out The Lights” was next followed by the song “You Know The Rest”, as Mr. Dallas takes command of the stage tonight as his usual fashion and his band is always on point every time. It’s always a truly fun time with this band at Spillway. Right now he’s giving us some heathen preaching “Up On That Mountain”, that he wrote about Altamont. Altamont is the very first time I ever met Mr. Dallas, and it’s been an honor to watch so many fine friends from that event grow.

This above video contains the title track to the new album called “Mr. Honky Tonk” and also another new song called “Nice And Slow”. The song called “Somewhere Between Bridges” was the only song on the new album he did not write, and you can learn the story of that song on his Facebook page.

“Home Is Where The Highway Is” was included in this set, as he played a whopping portion of the new album for us tonight, this place thinned out pretty early tonight everybody must have been tired from the Black Friday shopping or LIKE ME you been out hunting records all day for Record Store Day. After he plays New Years Eve he said he’s played 327 shows in 2017.

He played a very old song called “Blame It On The Weed” which was hollered out by some older fans, along with his usual awesome instrumental that he closed with. You can find Mr. Dallas on the road tonight in Wilder Kentucky at Bobby Mackey’s for showtimes please click on the link above.

The Barnyard Stompers And The Dallas Moore Band At Spillway.

 News  No Responses »
Sep 172017
 

Folks like many times before I am here in Bowling Green at the The Spillway Bar And Grill on a wonderful Saturday night for some real Outlaw Country Music. the Barnyard Stompers are a duo I haven’t ran into for several years in person however I did write a great article for their new album OUT NOW.

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.

Steel Guitarists Along The Road.

 News  No Responses »
Mar 312017
 

Austin Tripp
Travis Egnor

Country Music has THREE staple pillars of it’s foundation or it’s backbone if you will. Those are in this order the songwriter, the producer, and the steel guitar in my opinion it takes those three to make a classic Country Music album. My point being Willie Nelson “Red Headed Stranger” and “Wanted The Outlaws” as two prime examples that had all three. Shooter will tell you rapidly “Wanted The Outlaws” was the first platinum selling Country Music album EVER and defied the sough it was initially given by Nashville in the 1970’s.

This edition of my series Steel Guitarists Along The Road brings us to the right arm of Whitey Morgan Mr. Brett Robinson. To the right of Whitey night after night sits a slender and talented individual that helps bring such an Outlaw Country sound to the band the 78’s as a whole. Whitey Morgan just absolutely burns up the roads playing a whopping amount of shows across America, and trust me for the door fee you pay you get ONE HELL OF A SHOW!

He was gracious enough to take some time with me after a show with Dallas Moore at the Nashville Palace on his off time. He and I and his wife had a wonderful conversation at the Music City Bar And Grill, Mr. Dallas also stayed until he had to hit the road to the next gig.

My last edition brought me to talking about Mr. Brett and his involvement in landing Mr. Austin Tripp the current spot of being steel player for Cody Jinks and you can read more on that story HERE. This man just absolutely embraces the history of Country Music while embellishing the current local scene with his own history as well, and one day I am going to write a book on the things I witnessed and learned from people like him.

Local music as a whole contains such a plethora of well rounded steel guitarists and pickers waiting for you to discover them if you are willing to wade through the broken beer bottles and travel the worn out back alleys of America to find them. You have to look in the places most normal people wouldn’t, and you have to listen. You have to brave the heat and cold and discomfort of the fields and farms that spew forth these festivals, mostly you have to study and watch for them.

This video here I took has a really nice solo of his playing the Nashville Palace show I’m also going to post one of him with Whitey Morgan below it, I STRONGLY URGE you to go support Whitey Morgan And The 78’s BUY SOME MUSIC from the band! You can get their newest album Sonic Ranch on colored vinyl LP and trust me it’s AWESOME! Mr. Brett played on Sonic Ranch, The Acoustic album, and LIVE from Flint Michigan all of which are absolute MUST HAVES in any collection.

GHC
How did you start playing steel guitar?

Mr.Brett
I grew up in Moundville, Alabama listening to country music. I started playing music professionally in Columbus, Ohio after attending the University of Alabama. I was playing rhythm guitar in a country band there. We played mostly Waylon, Merle and Paycheck type stuff. It wasn’t long before I realized that what I loved about the music was something our band lacked: a steel guitar. I got one on consignment there at a shop and immediately started gigging and learning as much as I could.

GHC
Who inspired you the most?

Mr.Brett
Definitely Ralph Mooney. Of course his playing from the beginning is historic, but really what got me started was Waylon’s live stuff.

GHC
How did you begin playing with Whitey Morgan And The 78’s?

Mr.Brett
About six or seven months after I started playing steel guitar, Whitey scooped me up in Ohio. My band there opened for him a couple times and I would sit in. The second time the writing was on the wall. Our drummer turned to our guitar player and said “I guess we are losing Brett.”

GHC
Where did the 78’s get their name?

Mr.Brett
That year was one of the last great years for that outlaw sound.

GHC
What differentiates you from other players?

Mr. Brett
My sloppiness haha. I learned in a vacuum kinda. Pretty much everything I know I’ve learned since Whitey hired me, so it was a lot of learning missing guitar harmonies from the records. Kind of backwards.

GHC
What makes up your sound?

Mr. Brett
Sho-bud and Show Pro guitars and Fender amps. Mooney, Chalker, Lloyd Green and Big Jim Murphy.

GHC
Can you give me any news on the album?

Mr. Brett
We’ve got a single all worked up that we are playing on the live shows, probably get that recorded and released asap. Whitey has been doing some great writing and we should start the new record in May.

GHC
What are the future plans for the band as a whole?

Mr. Brett
I think the plan is and has always been to do our own thing til we are ancient and can’t physically do it anymore. It’s what I love about Whitey, he’s a man of principles and stubborn in the best way possible. He’s got a vision and is uncompromising and unapologetic about accomplishing that with his boys. Even if it kills us haha.

Mr. Dallas At The Palace, Yeah That Rhymes.

 News  No Responses »
Mar 032017
 

Folks I took a half a day off from work today to shoot down to the Nashville Palace, to see Dallas Moore play Nashville tonight for their Mardi Gras party. Tonight his band has none other than Mr. Brett Robinson from the 78s joining him, he is currently playing for Whitey Morgan. I was told they will doing some more work together on upcoming projects as he is off the road later this year. Not to steer away from Mr Dallas but Whitey is recording a new album and touring in 2107 and I sat for a spell and talked with him in order to include him in my Steel Guitarists Along The road series, that addition is being worked on NOW.

The anticipation filled the air tonight and the ambiance is placid as it always is right before a Dallas Moore show, but that ease of clam becomes abruptly halted as this man and his band of rabble rouses take command of that stage. Mr. Dallas stands stalwart and sings with authority on the matters of whiskey, honky tonking and all things Outlaw Country.

He joins the roster for the 2017 Muddy Roots main festival in Cookeville Tennessee for the first time ever, and let me tell you I am daggumed excited about seeing him in the field this year. He is one of the hardest working bands on the planet playing a remarkable 320 shows a year, with a baby on the way still maintaining a name for himself in the public eye. Despite his outward rough demeanor on the inside when you get to know him as a friend you’ll find he is one the kindest and gentle individuals one could ever encounter.  He is well oiled in his craft of both writing and playing with many genres of influence under his hat, he can belt out Motorhead and Beethoven all on a whim in the same instrumental.

He comes from a line of music with his cousin being the equally talented Pee Wee Moore And The Awful Dreadful Snakes, and his Godfather being Country Legend Jody Payne. His son Waylon Payne of equal accolades within the realms of Country Music having contributed greatly to the recent Miranda Lambert album, which in my opinion was a SMASH.

They opened the show with “Can’t You See” by the Marshall Tucker Band wrote in 1973 by Toy Caldwell and it was on their debut album I grew up with. “Whiskey River” by Johnny Bush and made more popular by Willie Nelson on the 1973 album Shotgun Willie.

I recently got new laptop and I am trying to work all of the kinks out of it like running my website from mobile locations…I did not fare so well tonight. Fear not folks because I can cover the show with pen and paper after all it IS Mr. Dallas. I now have all four of my computer inter linked and ready for field battle during the 2017 festival season.

After playing “Freeborn Man” by the Outlaws off the Lady In Waiting album, he got into all of his originals like “Twisting Through Texas” and “Bottle And A Bible”, man we truly were given a treat tonight with Mr Brett on steel guitar. My favorite song he plays was next “Slinging Gravel” from the Dark Horse Rider album, and after that he played “Beats All I Ever Seen”…but the Cowboys no longer have Romo.

Speaking of Twisting Through Texas Mr. Dallas is the recipient of the 2017 Ameripolitan Award for Outlaw Male Artist and like I previously stated it’s all well deserved. He and his band are well known all over the United states. As always in honor of our fallen friend Wayne Mills he played “The Last Honky Tonk” and followed that up with George Straits “Cowboy Rides Away” which was Mr. Sonny Thockmorton’s 1985 hit for King George. “Long Haired Country Boy” by Charlie Daniels was next from his smash album Fire On The Mountain.

As always I have included a video, this is their version of “Waylon’s Lonesome Onry And Mean” that I firmly believe Mr. Steve Young would approve of, and he played his newest song “Shoot Out The Lights”, along with “Drink To The Good Times”. Right now he is playing “Up On That Mountain”, which I believe he wrote about Altamont the first place I ever met Mr. Dallas. The many stories and memories I have about that bitter cold weekend have embedded a special place in my heart and I cannot replace attending that event.

He played a long drawn out instrumental version of the “Nightlife Ain’t No Good Life” and  barrelled into one called “This Old Cowboy”, then played a few more originals like “Crazy Again”. He plated his Outlaw Country anthem entitled “Blessed Be The Bad Ones” off one of his after albums of the same name. He played his own version of the Allman Brothers “Whipping Post” and closed the show with with his amazing versatile guitar chops.

You know behind every successful artist are those that labor behind the scenes, and his wife Miss Jenna  Moore does a remarkable job keeping Mr. Dallas afloat. His band AKA “The Snatch Wranglers” are also NO exception when it comes to working. Lucky Chuckie, Mr. Mike Owens, Mr. Tony and Mr. Rocky Parnell are four of the finest musicians to ever grace the stages of the local clubs and venues. Each one of them are incredible players in their own right and deserve to be commended for what they do.

In closing I firmly believe that this is not even close to the pinnacle of the career of Dallas Moore. There exists a whole world of opportunities for this man and his band of renegades to beat the shit out of. So many venues and podcasts that are in dire need of the Dallas Moore sound and I think that Ohio holds a gigantic scene of fine underground music, Dallas Moore being a pillar of it all.

Find Nashville Singles at SingleNashville.com