Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The Near Future of Old Alt-Country

Some music musings...the days of alt-country seem to have come and gone (I don't even know what they're calling it these days or what its evolved into), but over the next month there are some new releases from some original alt-country veterans.


First, next week (Sept. 25) sees the release of Steve Earle's latest effort, Washington Square Serenade. A tribute to New York, the cd looks to continue Earle's passionate blend of appealing melodies with searing lyrics. One of the songs is "City of Immigrants", which he recently performed on the Letterman show.



Serenade also includes a wicked version of Tom Waits "Down In The Hole" which will be under the title sequence of the new season of The Wire.


Four weeks later (Oct. 23) sees the release of Dwight Yoakam's new disc, Dwight Sings Buck. It's a tribute to one of Yoakam's all-time heroes Buck Owens, who recently passed away. I've only managed to hear one song from this cd, and it sounds like vintage Yoakam. Here's a link to a duet of "Streets of Bakersfield" that he performed with Owens years ago.

(I'm looking forward to both releases, but if it came down to an album cover art contest, Earle would win, hands down).

And it should be noted that some other same ilk releases earlier this year like Ryan Adams Easy Tiger; Wilco's latest Sky Blue Sky; and Bright Eyes newest Cassadaga, were generally speaking, superb.

All of which only made me want to dig out The Jayhawks Hollywood Town Hall and give it a spin again.


Ah, "Waiting For The Sun"....sweet sweetness. But I'm not going to post or even link to a clip...I'm gonna make you go and listen to it, cuz I know you want to now.


Alt-country rock isn't gone, it's just gotten older.

3 comments:

Callaghan said...

Seriously dude, do we share the exact same music collection?

Did you ever pick up the final Jayhawks album? It was one of their best.

Looking forward to both the Earle and the Yoakam. The last Yoakam album was outstanding.

wcdixon said...

The Jayhawks are sorely missed...

Callaghan said...

About that Soulsavers album, the only place I can find it seems to be Amazon.ca, as an import. But there are two versions - one for $23.99 and one for $13.99. Of course, the $13.99 one is out of stock at the moment.

I seem to remember hearing something about an October release date for a domestic version, but I honestly don't know if that was true or not.

There is a tiny bit of info at www.thesoulsavers.com, but it isn't too helpful.

Oh, and they do a cover of No Expectations on the record. Cool.