Uptown Theatre Napa

Willie Nelson

honey — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:25:01 +0000

With a six-decade career and 200 plus albums, this iconic Texan is the creative genius behind the historic recordings of Crazy, Red Headed Stranger and Stardust. Willie Nelson has earned every conceivable award as a musician and amassed reputable credentials as an author, actor and activist. In 2010 he released Willie Nelson’s Country Music, produced by award winning T Bone Burnett and it received a GRAMMY Nomination for Best Americana Album. In 2011 Willie’s album releases included, Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles, a 12 tune cycle about the ups and downs of love with Wynton Marsalis and Norah Jones as well as Remember Me Vol. 1, his hand-picked 14 song collection of country music’s most definitive songs. Coming May of 2012 is Heroes, his first album for Legacy Recordings which will showcase new songs and deep country classics with guest artists including Merle Haggard, Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver, Sheryl Crow, Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson.

WILLIE NELSON

If ever the words “living legend” were more than just public relations bluster, the application would be to Willie Hugh Nelson.

The iconic Texan is the creative genius behind historic recordings like “Crazy,” “Hello Walls,” “Red Headed Stranger” and “Stardust.” His career has spanned six decades. His catalog boasts more than 200 albums. He’s earned every conceivable award and honor to be bestowed a person in his profession. He has also amassed reputable credentials as an author, actor and activist.

In many ways, however, the weighty distinction “living legend” does Nelson a disservice, for it discounts the extent to which he is a thriving, relevant and progressive musical and cultural force. In the last five years alone he delivered 10 new releases, two of which receied Grammy nominations, and a career-spanning box set, released his debut novel and again headlined Farm Aid, an event he co-founded in 1985, all the while continuing to lobby against horse slaughter and produce his own blend of biodiesel fuel.

As ever, Nelson tours tirelessly, climbing aboard Honeysuckle Rose III (he rode his first two buses into the ground), taking his music and fans on a seemingly endless journey to places that were well worth the ride.

Born April 29, 1933 in Abbott, Texas, Nelson and his sister were raised by their paternal grandparents who encouraged both children to play music. He began writing songs in elementary school and played in bands as a teenager. After high school, Nelson served a short stint in the Air Force, but music was a constant pull.

By the mid 1950s he was working as a country deejay in Fort Worth while continuing to pursue a musical career, recording independently and playing nightclubs. He sold some of his original compositions, including “Family Bible” which became a hit for Claude Gray in 1960.

That success and others convinced Nelson to move to Nashville, where record labels were initially resistant. His songwriting talents were quickly embraced, however, and 1961 proved to be his breakthrough year. His “Hello Walls” became a nine-week No. 1 for Faron Young and Patsy Cline’s version of “Crazy” became an instant classic.

In 1962 Nelson scored his first two Top 10 hits as a recording artist for Liberty Records but struggled for a breakthrough the remainder of the decade. Disillusioned with Nashville and with his label’s (RCA Records) insistence on lush, string-laden arrangements, he moved back to Texas in 1972. Emboldened by the rock and folk music becoming popular in Austin, Nelson and his music began to change.

Nelson’s first album with Atlantic Records, 1973′s Shotgun Willie, got the attention of music critics if not the masses, and the 1974 follow-up Phases & Stages helped him build a loyal following. The breakthrough he’d been seeking for the better part of two decades came in 1975 when he parted ways with Atlantic Records and signed with Columbia Records.

Red Headed Stranger became one of country’s most unlikely hits. The acoustic concept album vaulted Nelson to country music’s top ranks, much to the surprise of Music Row. Nelson’s convention-busting stardom, combined with the concurrent popularity of maverick Waylon Jennings, prompted journalist Hazel Smith to dub the trend “Outlaw Music” and a movement was underway.

RCA Records seized on the phenomenon, compiling an album of previously recorded material from Nelson, Jennings, Tompall Glaser and Jessi Colter. Wanted: The Outlawsspawned the Nelson/Jennings duet “Good Hearted Woman” and quickly became the best selling album country had ever seen.

A fixture on the singles charts over the next several years, Nelson’s star rose even further with the 1978 releasesWaylon & Willie and Stardust. The former included “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” while the latter, a collection of pop standards, further exhibited Nelson’s ability to defy expectations on the way to tremendous success.

Nelson’s stardom soon translated to another medium with roles in feature films including The Electric Horseman, Honeysuckle Rose, Stagecoach and many more. And the hits kept coming.

“On The Road Again” reached the top of the charts in 1981, “Always On My Mind” was a crossover smash in 1982 and a duet with Latin pop star Julio Iglesias, “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before,” raced up the charts in 1984.

Nelson enlisted Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash for the Highwaymenalbum, released in 1985. That same year he founded Farm Aid, an organization dedicated to championing the cause of family farmers. Farm Aid’s annual televised concert special raises funds and, along with Willie’s annual Fourth of July Picnic, has become a cornerstone of his live touring schedule.

The 1990s brought more success and one notable challenge. A $16.7 million bill from the IRS forced Nelson to sell many of his assets, including several homes, and resulted in the release ofThe IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories. Nelson cleared the debt by 1993, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame that same year.

Enshrinement didn’t slow his creative energy, and the decade produced artistic triumphs including Across The Borderline. The album featured Bob Dylan, Sinead O’Connor and Paul Simon among its many guests.

Signing with Island/Def Jam Records in 1996, Nelson embarked on another fertile period releasing Spirit, the acclaimed Teatro and an instrumental-focused album titled Night and Day as the millennium drew to a close.

His association with the Universal Music Group continued at Lost Highway. In 2003, Nelson released Run That By Me One More Time, a collaboration with Ray Price featuring new recordings from their combined 50 years of catalog.

Also in 2003 Columbia/Legacy Records released The Essential Willie Nelson, which spans his earliest recordings as well as the celebrated Island/Def Jam Records material. Willie Live & Kickin’hit stores following his top-rated USA Network Memorial Day cable special that year as well. The album includes guest vocalists ranging from Norah Jones to Toby Keith, with whom Nelson performed his No. 1 single, “Beer For My Horses.”

In 2004, the Academy of Country Music bestowed him with the prestigious Gene Weed Special Achievement Award honoring Nelson’s ”unprecedented and genre-defying contributions to popular music over his nearly 50-year career.” Indeed, Nelson pushed the boundaries of traditional music genres with the release of 2005’s Countryman, his first ever reggae set, and 2006’s Songbird, produced by alt-country singer-songwriter Ryan Adams. Included onCountryman are two Jimmy Cliff covers and the Johnny Cash/June Carter Cash penned “I’m A Worried Man” along with reggae-styled versions of songs written by Nelson. Songbird includes originals by Nelson and Adams along with a wide range of covers including ones by Leonard Cohen, Gram Parsons, the Grateful Dead and Christine McVie.

The March 2006 release of You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker, a collection of 13 classics written by Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter Cindy Walker, earned Nelson a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album, augmenting a career that has been recognized with eight Grammy wins, a President’s Merit Award, a Grammy Legend Award and the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

A two-day recording session with Merle Haggard and Ray Price in the early autumn of 2006 resulted in the historicLast Of The Breed album. It released in 2007, as is a two-disc, 22-song collection of newly recorded versions of country classics by three of the genre’s most important and influential artists.

Also in 2007, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) named Nelson a BMI Icon, declaring that his “ascendance to internationally-renowned treasure is a singular path marked by self-belief and musical brilliance.”

Fresh from receiving BMI’s prestigious Icon Award, Nelson released Moment Of Forever in January 2008. Produced by Music Row veteran Buddy Cannon and superstar Kenny Chesney, the album features songs written by fellow icons such as Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Randy Newman and contemporary artists such as Dave Matthews and Big Kenny of country sensation Big & Rich.

To celebrate Willie’s 75^th birthday in April 2008, Columbia/Legacy released the four-CD, 100-song box set, One Hell Of A Ride. Nelson’s largest US box set to date, it includes hit singles, rarities and tracks from 60 albums.

2008 also brought the release of Two Men With The Blues, his acclaimed collaboration with jazz maestro Wynton Marsalis. It debuted at #20 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

And as if a canvas of words and music wasn’t enough, Willie became a fiction author with the release of A Tale Out of Luck, co-authored with Mike Blakely. Nelson’s debut novel is a classic western tale that brings to life characters and themes central to any great Wild West story – Texas Rangers, cattle rustling, Indian warriors, women of ill repute, saloons shootouts and more. It was written as the back story for his false-front western town which he built outside of Austin and named Luck.

In 2009, Willie & The Wheel released in February, a collection of classic western swing songs hand-picked by the late Jerry Wexler and recorded by Nelson and the modern kings of western swing, Asleep at the Wheel. The following month Naked Willie was released. In the 17-track collection, Nelson and his longtime sidekick, harmonica player Mickey Raphael, set out to “un-produce” a series of songs that he recorded between 1966-1970 to retrieve the original sound and get back to their unmasked essence – to hear themnaked. In August, he released the critically acclaimed American Classic, Nelson’s first album of jazz standards since his landmark 1978 masterpieceStardust. The album, which was produced by Tommy LiPuma, features special guest appearances by Norah Jones and Diana Krall.

In April 2010, Willie Nelson’s Country Music, which was produced by award-winning T Bone Burnett, was released on Rounder Records and received a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album. Recorded in Nashville with an A-list band picked by Burnett, the title of the album is deceptively simple: Country Music. The concept, likewise, seems quite familiar: an American musical icon dipping into the country music songbook to record fresh versions of timeless classics just like he did when he recorded Stardust, a definitive collection from The Great American Songbook.

Given the rousing artistic and commercial success of the first recorded collaboration of Nelson and Marsalis in 2008, it’s not surprising that the pair would rendezvous again. In March 2011, Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles, a 12-tune song cycle about the ups and downs of love, was released. The album also features Norah Jones, who joined the duo and paid homage to the music of the late Ray Charles.

The summer of 2011 he hit the road, headlining “Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown Tour.” The only tour of its kind in the world continued its tradition of spotlighting top country music artists and emerging singer-songwriters.Continuing to be a champion for traditional country music, Nelson is the namesake for the exclusive Willie’s Roadhouse channel on SiriusXM Radio, which features a mix of his hand-picked favorite songs and artists, broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry and various Willie performances throughout the year, including the annual Farm Aid concert.

In 2012, Nelson entered into a historic new record deal with Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment. The deal marks a label homecoming for Nelson, who, from 1975-1993, cut a phenomenal string of top-selling singles and album for Columbia Records, beginning with 1975’s seminal smash Red Headed Stranger. To kick off the new agreement, fans can look forward to five brand-new albums, with the first being the May 2012 release of Heroes, which will showcase new songs and deep country classics with guest artists including Merle Haggard, Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver, Sheryl Crow, Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson.

Blues Traveler

honey — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:59:08 +0000

Official Website Facebook Page

BLUES TRAVELER

John Popper: Vocals, harmonica

Chandler Kinchla: Guitars

Brendan Hill: Drums, percussion

Ben Wilson: Keyboards

Tad Kinchla: Bass

Bobby Sheehan: Bass (1968-1999)

A quarter-century ago, the four original members of Blues Traveler, who had known each other since their early teens—John Popper, Chandler Kinchla, the late Bobby Sheehan and Brendan Hill—gathered in the basement of their drummer’s parents’ Princeton, NJ, home and the seeds were born for a band who have released a total of nine studio albums, four of which have gone gold, three platinum and one six-times platinum. Over the course of their illustrious career, Blues Traveler have sold more than 10 million combined units worldwide, played over 2,000 live shows in front of more than 30 million people, and, in “Run-Around,” had the longest-charting radio single in Billboard history, which earned them a Grammy® for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Their movie credits include Blues Brothers 2000, Kingpin, Wildflowers and others. A television favorite, they have been featured on Saturday Night Live, Austin City Limits, VH1’s Behind the Music and they hold the record for the most appearances of any artist on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Their brand-new, two-CD retrospective, 25 (Hip-O Select/UMe), offers an impressive overview of that career, with one disc featuring “greatest hits” like “Run-Around,” “Hook,” “But Anyway” and “Carolina Blues” (representing every one of their nine studio albums) and a brand-new cover of Sublime’s “What I Got,” as well as a second disc which includes b-sides, unreleased demos and rarities— among them a remix of “Run-Around” by acclaimed electronic producers Gunslinger and excerpts from the band’s online concept album, Decision of the Skies: A Traveler Tale of Sun and Storm.

“We started this whole adventure as a team,” says Brendan Hill. “We’ve taken every step of this as a group together, from the basement to moving to New York, getting signed, hiring a manager, to achieving all our goals.”

“I’m a firm believer that rock and roll keeps you young,” adds co-founding member Chan Kinchla. “Because I don’t feel any different than I did when we started, even though I’ve got a wife, two kids and all kind of life in between. We still go back to that mentality we had as kids, smoking pot and learning to jam. We had our first epiphanies about music together. This is a real family affair.”

“The way the songs have held up moves me,” admits legendary front man Popper, who has gotten down to a svelte 280 from a high of 436 after a gastric bypass 10 years ago, which he admits saved his life. “We’ve really got nothing but love from our audience. If something has quality, it’s constantly reconsidered through the ages. And that’s what we’re doing this for… posterity. We’ve never been 25 before, so having this kind of retrospective, as songwriters, it’s an opportunity for long forgotten songs get their day in court.”

From the suburbs of New Jersey, Blues Traveler moved to New York in the late ’80s, where they became part of a jam-band scene that packed clubs like Nightingale’s, McGoverns and Kenny’s Castaways, where they would share the bill with Spin Doctors and Phish. Represented early on by Bill Graham and son David, Blues Traveler’s live reputation led to a deal with A&M Records, for whom they released their self-titled debut, which produced songs like the hit “But Anyway,” “Gina” and “100 Years,” eventually going gold simultaneously with the album Four. The following year came Travelers & Thieves, also now gold, with songs like “What’s For Breakfast.” The subsequent gold release Save His Soul followed in 1993, with songs like “N.Y. Prophesie,” whose lyrics were actually co-written by John’s Hungarian father, Robert. The recording, and resulting tour, was marked by Popper having to sing from a wheelchair, the result of a motorcycle accident that almost took his life and destroyed the band, which led to a deeper investment from A&M to help support the band during a mettle-testing period in their career.

The band’s Four, released in 1994, was a watershed moment for the group, eventually selling more than six million albums on the strength of the singles “Run-Around” and “Hook.”

“The fact we had that success in the middle of our career, rather than early on, was beneficial because it opened doors to a whole new audience that we continue to court today,” says Hill.

The band’s next album, the now-platinum Straight on till Morning, released in 1997, produced the memorable “Carolina Blues,” a longtime staple of Blues Traveler’s live show. After that, tragedy struck when bassist Bobby Sheehan was found dead in New Orleans on August 20, 1999, at the age of 31. It was a wake-up call for Popper, who vowed to lose his extra weight after help from friends like Howard Stern and Roseanne Barr. Deciding to soldier on, the group brought in Chan’s brother Tad to replace Sheehan on bass and, at the same time, enlisted keyboardist Ben Wilson.

“I kind of vicariously grew up around the band,” says Tad, four years younger than his older brother. “I saw all the trials and tribulations moving forward, and then lightning striking.”

“They wanted to bring in someone who could be part of the band,” recalls Wilson. “They wanted keyboard to play a little bit more of a part of the sound. Apparently, Bobby had always wanted to have a keyboard player in the band. So adding me was a bit of a nod to him.”

The transition took place in 2001 on the aptly named studio album Bridge, the band’s last for major label group Interscope Geffen A&M, on songs like “Back in the Day” and “Girl Inside My Head.”

“That was us looking back,” admits Popper. “It was the end of an era. We wanted to call it ‘Bridge Out of Brooklyn’ as an homage to Bobby, but we decided to talk about where the bridge was going rather than where it was coming from.”

Truth Be Told, recorded in Ojai and Santa Barbara, CA, followed in 2003 on the Sanctuary label and proved a fun experience for the band as they explored their more pop side on songs like Tad’s “Let Her and Let Go” and “Unable to Get Free,” both represented on this compilation.

Bastardos, produced by former Wilco member Jay Bennett for the Vanguard label, featured “Amber Awaits,” Popper’s ode to one of several New England Patriots cheerleaders with whom he fell in love while on a USO Tour of Iraq and Afghanistan. North Hollywood Shootout, recorded in 2008 and released on Verve Forecast, produces a pair of tracks for the collection, Chan Kinchla’s Led Zeppelin-esque “Remember It” and Wilson’s “You, Me and Everything.”

Currently putting the finishing touches on their tenth studio album—the first to feature outside songwriters in addition to the band members’ contributions—the group is taking the opportunity of their milestone to not just look behind, but ahead.

“We intend to keep going as long as they pay us,” laughs Popper, resplendent in bathrobe, Simpsons pajamas and Samurai sword dangling from a belt loop. “We’re going to be in everybody’s face this year. I feel like I’m in my prime. I was convinced I’d be dead at 37.”

“We’re brothers,” concludes Chan. “We’re not done. We’ve got a few more swings left, some more damage to do. I’m sure we bug the shit out of one another at times, but it’s an honor to play onstage with these guys. They are awesome musicians. You have to keep touch with that. And never forget it.”

Still alive and kicking, Blues Traveler prepares for the next 25 years, with a comprehensive overview of the first, in one deluxe package.

The Bacon Brothers -CANCELLED

honey — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:51:33 +0000

Show cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

Official Website Facebook Page

The Bacon Brothers – A biography

Michael Bacon – vocals, guitar, cello
Kevin Bacon – vocals, guitar, harmonica, percussion

“What you see is what you get.” – The Bacon Brothers

Kevin and Michael Bacon have been writing songs and playing music together since about the same time they may have been fighting over Lincoln Logs or little green Army guys. In fact, the cover of their first album, Forosoco, shows as much; the picture, taken in 1972, shows Kevin and Michael onstage playing congas and guitar, respectively. The look of communication between the two is telling: although the Bacon Brothers have only been a working band since 1995, they too, run decades deep.

“[In that picture], we’re singing and playing songs we wrote together,” says Michael, “and now we’re doing the exact same thing. Nothing has really changed. We haven’t gone astray from what our original intention was with music, which is communication.”

This has been their hallmark; writing songs that, through bare self-expression and humor, echo the lives of others. It’s an art they’ve refined over three albums and in the 50 to 60 shows they play each year. And with each album and tour, the Bacon Brothers move further away from perceived “don’t tap on the glass” sideshow to a “raise your lighter and sing along” rock band, garnering fan after fan and shattering the obstacle of perception.

The band began when Michael received an invitation to play a one-off gig at a local club in their hometown of Philadelphia. It went off a smash, and Kevin and Michael decided to explore its potential. Sold-out gigs in New York, LA, Nashville, Chicago and San Francisco followed, as well as a high-profile show opening for The Band at Carnegie Hall and appearing alongside the likes of Shania Twain and Wyclef Jean on the TNT Network’s “The Gift of Song” special. In eight years of recording and touring, the band has become a top live draw and continues to build momentum.

“When we first started, the people who attended our shows came strictly to see Kevin Bacon, the movie star,” says Michael. “Now people come to see and hear The Bacon Brothers.”

This much is starkly evident with The Bacon Brothers Live, a double-disc CD and single-disc companion DVD recorded at Englewood, New Jersey’s John Harms Center for the Arts on February 18, 2003, the night after the biggest blizzard in 30 years. The CD is the Bacon Brothers’ fourth, following Forosoco (1998), Getting There (2000) and Can’t Complain (2002) and documents one hot night with 35 inches of snow outside.

The 20-track set showcases The Bacon Brothers’ earthy harmonies and road-honed rapport, and includes “Woman’s Got A Mind to Change” and Kevin’s hilarious “Guess Again (The KJ’s Song)” (from Forosoco), “Ten Years In Mexico” and Michael’s touching song about letting go of his son “Don’t Lose Me Boy” (both from Getting There) as well as “I’m So Glad I’m Not Married,” “Grace” and “Summer of Love (Woodstock ’99)” from Can’t Complain. The band also renders the most exuberant performance of “Footloose” you’ve seen since, well, Footloose.

“There are gonna be people out there,” says Kevin, “I don’t care what we play, they’re gonna start screaming “Footloose! Footloose!” So you can do two things, you can say “Fuck you. That’s a movie. I’m a musician. Or you can say, “Okay, that’s part of my life” and embrace the beast. But ultimately, we play it because it puts a smile on people’s faces. And in a funny kinda way, it puts them at ease and it makes them go, “Hey…he’s not trying to be something that he’s not.”

The DVD features the entire performance—not a song was cut—and interstitial interview footage in which Michael and Kevin discuss the Bacon Brothers’ beginnings, creative philosophy and influences, and tell the stories and inspirations of their songs. It is a candid glimpse of a supremely talented band that is neither a side project nor indulgence—knowledge that resonates with audiences after they witness a Bacon Brothers performance.

Says Michael, “I feel pretty secure that, in just about any venue, when people walk out of there, they feel they’ve heard real music.”

Both brothers are proud that the DVD will bring that feeling to a wider audience. “It’s not created in a studio by some producer,” Kevin says. “What you see is what you get.”
After a musically diverse childhood, Michael Bacon joined the folk-rock band, Good News, which toured extensively in the 1970′s and recorded for Columbia Records. After moving to Nashville, he recorded two solo albums for Monument/CBS. Jerry Lee Lewis, Carlene Carter, Perry Como, Peter Yarrow and Claude Francois are just a few of the artists that have recorded songs written by Michael.

In 1985, he moved to New York City to compose music for films and television. In 1993, Michael won an Emmy Award for his score for the documentary The Kennedys, an ACE Award nomination for “The Man Who Loved Sharks,” and both the Television Music Award and the Chicago International Film Festival Gold Plaque Award for LBJ. The television shows he has scored have won numerous awards, including three Academy Awards (“The Johnstown Flood” in 1993, “A Time For Justice” in 1995 and “King Gimp” in 2000) and several Emmy Awards. Michael also provided the score for Kevin’s directorial debut, the Golden Globe and ACE -award winning film Losing Chase. Additonal scores include the critically acclaimed ABC television series, “The Century,” and PBS documentaries “Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided”, and “Napoleon”. Michael has just received another Emmy Award nomination for his score to “Young Freud”. Michael Bacon has a degree in music from Lehman College where he studied composition and orchestration with John Corigliano.

**********
Kevin Bacon’s strongest musical memories are of listening to his brother and the music he brought home. As a teenager, he decided to pursue an acting career, rather than music. Today, though he is recognized around the world as one of the film industry’s most enduring and respected actors, Kevin’s love of music and the influence it has had on his life is as strong now as it was back then. He has always retained his love of music and throughout his acting career has continued the musical collaboration with Michael that was formed back in his early teens.

Kevin has appeared in such diverse, and award-winning, films as Apollo 13, Sleepers, and Murder in the First, for which he was voted Best Actor by the Broadcast Critics Association and received Best Supporting Actor nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild and the London Film Critics Circle. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his searing performance in The River Wild, opposite Meryl Streep and, over the years, has appeared in such diverse films as Animal House, Friday the 13th, Diner, Footloose, The Big Picture, JFK, A Few Good Men, Wild Things, Stir of Echoes, My Dog Skip, The Hollow Man and Novocaine. Kevin Bacon’s next big screen feature is the critically acclaimed Warner Brothers film MYSTIC RIVER, directed by Clint Eastwood, and co-starring Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. Kevin can also be seen in IN THE CUT, co-starring with Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo. Kevin recently completed filming THE WOODSMAN, where he stars with his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, Benjamin Bratt, and Mos Def.

**********
The Bacon Brothers are backed by Paul Guzzone on bass/vocals, Marshal Rosenberg on percussion, Frank Vilardi on drums, and Ira Siegel on electric guitar.

Rosanne Cash

honey — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:41:15 +0000

ALBUMS:

Rosanne Cash (Ariola, 1978)
Right Or Wrong (Columbia, 1979)
Seven Year Ache (Columbia, 1981)
Somewhere in the Stars (Columbia, 1982)
Rhythm and Romance (Columbia, 1985)
King’s Record Shop (Columbia, 1987)
Hits 1979-1989 (Columbia, 1989)
Interiors (Columbia, 1990)
The Wheel (Columbia, 1993)
Retrospective (Columbia, 1995)
Ten Song Demo (Capitol, 1996)
Rules of Travel (Capitol, 2003)
Black Cadillac (Capitol, 2006)
The List (Manhattan, 2009)
The Essential Rosanne Cash (Sony Legacy, 2011)

AWARDS and NO. 1 SINGLES:

Rosanne recorded 11 No. 1 singles, blurring the genres of country, rock, roots and pop. In 1985 she won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me,” and has received ten other nominations.

BOOKS:

Bodies of Water (Hyperion, 1996)
Penelope Jane, A Fairy’s Tale (Harper-Collins, 2006)
Song Without Rhyme (edited by Rosanne Cash) (Hyperion, 2001)
Composed (Viking, 2010)

Her prose and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Oxford-American, New York Magazine, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Martha Stewart Living and various other publications.

Weird Al Yankovic

honey — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:26:51 +0000

Weird Al Yankovic Official Website

The time has come. “Weird Al” Yankovic, the biggest selling comedy recording artist of all time, has returned to demolish the pop landscape with Alpocalypse, his first full-length studio album in nearly five years.

Few would have guessed that Yankovic, who as an awkward, accordion-playing teenager got his start sending in homemade tapes to the Dr. Demento Radio Show, would go on to enjoy a varied and successful career that is now entering its fourth decade. Over that time he’s won 3 Grammys (with 12 nominations), racked up 31 Gold and Platinum Albums, and won countless awards and accolades for Weird Al classics like “Eat It,” “Like a Surgeon,” “Fat,” “Smells Like Nirvana,” “Amish Paradise” and “The Saga Begins.” Yankovicis also well-known for his cult-hit feature film UHF (1989), his late ’90s CBS Saturday morning series The Weird Al Show and the numerous AL-TV specials that he’s made for MTV and VH1 over the years. His previous album Straight Outta Lynwood (2006), the highest-charting of his career, spawned the Billboard Top 10 single “White & Nerdy,” the video of which spent two months at #1 on iTunes and garnered over 100 million hits on the Internet.

Since then, Yankovic has performed 240 concerts throughout North America, Australia and Europe, including England’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival. He released his greatest hits package The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic (Legacy), directed the themed attraction “Al’s Brain: A 3-D Journey through the Human Brain” (featuring cameos by everybody from Fabio to Paul McCartney) and accumulated over 2 million followers on Twitter. And with the recent release of his children’s book When I Grow Up (HarperCollins), Al now adds “New York Times Bestselling Author” to his resume. An app version of the book will be available for the iPhone and iPad soon.

The first single from Alpocalypse is the Lady Gaga parody “Perform This Way.” This song has already had its fair share of controversy… suffice it to say that after a number of crossed wires and a crazy one-day media firestorm, all is well – the song has Lady Gaga’s full approval and blessing.Yankovic is directing the video clip for “Perform This Way,” and his proceeds from the single and video will go to the Human Rights Campaign.

Alpocalypse also features parodies of Miley Cyrus (“Party In The CIA” ), Taylor Swift (“TMZ” ), B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars (“Another Tattoo” ) and T.I. (“Whatever You Like”). The album’s requisite polka medley - “Polka Face” - features accordion-driven versions of songs by the biggest artists of the day, including Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Britney Spears, P!nk, Lady Antebellum, Katy Perry and of course, Lady Gaga.

The album also features a fine assortment of Al originals, including the Doors homage “Craigslist”(with keyboards by original Doors member Ray Manzarek), the twisted love song “If That Isn’t Love” (with Taylor Hanson on piano) and the provocatively-titled magnum opus “Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me.”

The deluxe version of Alpocalypse includes a DVD with 10 music videos by some of the world’s top animators and directors: Bill Plympton, JibJab, Augenblick Studios, Ghostbot, SuperNews, Divya Srinivasan, Cris Shapan, Koos Dekker, Brian Frisk and Liam Lynch.

WEST END WEDNESDAYS!

honey — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:47:25 +0000

Our Courtyard Cafe will be open every Wednesday from 5-7pm through the summer!

We’ll be serving our “elavated pub fare” and we’ll be offering specials each week.

The bar will be open and we’ll be featuring live, local acoustic music.

Kelly and Jekel Duo will be performing 5/9, 5/16 and 5/23.

Come out and have fun in downtown Napa!

John Kelly and Jennifer Jekel are neighbors and long-time friends who live in the mountains of Napa Valley, in California. They have been playing music together since Jennifer learned her first tune in the summer of 1985, when she brought her mandolin to John’s workshop and he picked up his guitar and accompanied her on Solders Joy ~ not long after, they gained notoriety for their diverse ethnic sounds. John Kelly has been a performer of Irish, Scottish, British Isles traditional folk songs since he was a very young lad, as well as a composer of many of his own original songs. The Kelly & Jekel Duo have begun composing their own material in recent years, and that is very fresh and exciting !

Kelly & Jekel Duo 1992 (photo Jim Pryts)

Their repertoire includes many Irish and British Isles traditional folk songs, as well as istrumentals of classic Italian, Latin, gypsy, jazz , and Celtic tunes, however, since 2010 the duo has suddenly been composing original instrumental tunes by the dozens, developing their own unique sound they like to call “Bohemian Nouveau” and “Napa Mex”. With their many original compositions , they are able to play an entire event of all-instrumental and all-original music if called for.
John’s vocals of traditional Celtic tunes accompanied by Jennifer on mandolin, or Jennifer’s melodic and sensual mandolin accompanied by John’s bassy and clever guitar will bring a smile to any audience, whisking the listener away to some far corner of the world through song.

Joshua Radin: Underwater Tour 2012

honey — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:29:47 +0000

With Tristan Prettyman Plus My Name Is You

http://us.joshuaradin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/joshuaradin

From Ohio via New York and California, Joshua Radin is a uniquely word-of-mouth success story. Radin only started playing music after college at Northwestern University when he moved to New York City, bought a guitar and began learning to play his favorite Beatles and Bob Dylan tunes.

His alternative route to prominence began when a friend gave a demo featuring his very first composition, “Winter”, to a TV producer—who promptly used it to score a scene of the sitcom Scrubs in 2004. Other Hollywood types found his music just as evocative, and now various Radin songs have been heard over 100 times on TV shows (Grey’s Antatomy, Brothers and Sisters, American Idol), as well as many films and commercials.

His debut, We Were Here (Columbia), drew critical acclaim and a four star review from Rolling Stone. 2008’s follow up, Simple Times, which hit number one on the overall iTunes chart upon release, saw Radin collaborating with producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith).

Simple Times went top 10 in ten different countries including the UK where lead single “I’d Rather Be With You” went all the way to number two at radio. This past year Radin released The Rock and The Tide (Mom+Pop) produced by Martin Terefe (Cat Stevens, Ron Sexmith).

He has appeared on Ellen, the Today Show, Conan O’Brian and many others. He has begun co-producing his fourth album with producer Kevin Augunas (Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Cold War Kids). Joshua co-produced LP his latest LP underwater, due out July 2012.

Ray Davies plus The 88

honey — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:19:43 +0000

Ray Davies- See My Friends

It’s been another busy year for Ray Davies. Even before he finished See My Friends, one of the most interesting, intriguing, inspiring albums in a career that’s been full of such projects, he’d been hard at it.

He’s toured with a solo acoustic show in America and the UK, with support from The 88, a young Californian band and Kinks aficionados who ‘auditioned’ by sending him their recordings of a selection of his songs. He’s played Denmark with a symphony orchestra and choir – an experience that inspired Davies to dust off a song he’s never performed since he recorded it, “The Way Love Used To Be”, from 1971’s soundtrack album Percy. He appeared on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival, joined by The Crouch End Festival Chorus, for a rapturously received set – an occasion at which he paid tribute to former Kinks bassist Pete Quaife, who died in June. The passing of Quaife, a schoolfriend of Davies from north London, was a “great loss to me” noted Davies. “Pete had the courage to give it all up, he says admirably of his leaving the band in 1968. That takes a lot of doing. He literally walked away.”

Davies is a songwriter to his marrow. This means looking forward to writing new music, such as completion of a choral work, Flatlands, performed with the Britten Symphonia and “inspired by English mythology,” says the creator of conceptual classics “The Village Green Preservation Society” and “Arthur”.

And it means pushing ahead by digging backwards. When you’ve written as many songs as many limber, vivid, inspired, timeless songs as Davies, your back catalogue offers rich pickings, and artistic pastures anew.

So to See My Friends: a collection of collaborations with a formidable bunch of artists on tracks drawn from Davies’ 46 years as a songwriter – with Bruce Springsteen on “Better Things”, with Metallica on “You Really Got Me”, with Mumford & Sons on “Days/This Time Tomorrow”, with Paloma Faith on “Lola”, and ten other equally inspired partnerships.

“This project came about almost by accident,” says Davies. “I was actually writing new material with one artist in particular. Because I’ve never really recorded with other people, or written for other people that much. So initially it started as a collaboration project: I was gonna write songs for people.”

Then in summer 2009, he recorded with Big Star singer Alex Chilton a version of “Till The End Of The Day” (from 1965’s The Kink Kontroversy). Davies had gotten to know Chilton, who died in March this year, while the Englishman was living in New Orleans – Chilton was one of the people who befriended Davies after he was shot in the leg during a street robbery in 2004. But the project really gathered momentum in New York at the end of last year.

“I did a big concert there, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25th Anniversary show. Met Bruce Springsteen there. He said he was really happy to get involved. We did “Better Things” it was a hit for The Kinks in America, it wasn’t in England. And I performed “You Really Got Me” and “All Day And All Of The Night” with Metallica. And it came from there…”

Davies had no qualms about rebooting classic songs. His musical past is no foreign country, his catalogue no sacred cow. He was eager to open up himself, and his songs to other people’s ideas and interpretations. And he was happy to go where the music took him, in every sense: Oslo via Denmark, Germany and Belgium to record with Metallica, New York to record with Jon Bon Jovi, New Jersey for Bruce Springsteen, Chicago for Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins and his own north London base for much of the rest. “This record is well-travelled already,” he chuckles.

And there was no standing on ceremony: Jackson Browne popped in with one battered Gibson acoustic in the middle of a European tour; Paloma Faith brought her whole band; Frank Black was in and out in one afternoon.

“I’m a collaborative sort of person. I’ve worked in musicals, and theatre. I find that a lot of people who do what I do are frightened of collaborating. They get scared. They don’t want to be exposed. They want the safety net of their own talent and their own organisation around them. But the fear of failure doesn’t really enter my head.”

A dialogue began between Davies and artists in the UK and the US. Some were fans of his. Others were suggested to him. Some he’d had long relationships with. He’d met Springsteen a few times over the years but they’d never worked together.

“I wanted to act as a kind of catalyst to get these artists to perform the song in a certain way, and for me to fit in with the way they sing it. But “Better Things” [from 1981’s Give The People What They Want] with Bruce was a bit different because we both sang it the way we normally sing. I’m particularly pleased with the new outro which I thought of. I hadn’t run it past Bruce and I did it when we were playing the back track, I extended the ending, so we could do this crossover, swing thing at the end. And he picked up on it straight away and did a brilliant job. I’m very pleased with that.”

“Certainly with some tracks I had to appreciate the style of the other artists, otherwise it would have sounded unbalanced. And I wanted the album to work as an entire listening experience. So each track had a good life of its own.”

Thus alt-country singer Lucinda Williams, backed by The 88, gives “a new breath, a new energy” to “A Long Way From Home” (from 1970’s Lola Vs Powerman And The Moneygoround Part One), while Scottish singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald brings 1966 single “Dead End Street” ‘right up to the modern social context… Amy had never even sung, as far as I know, in any studio other than where she’s worked with her manager.” So when Davies invited her into his long-standing recording studio and HQ, Konk in north London, “this was real departure for her… I sat down with her, she couldn’t sing it in the same key as me so I did key changes, put a guide track down, and we sang to that. So that had a different set of problems, but it ended up really successful. And I wrote a new linking section, rather than the traditional intro that was on The Kinks’ recording of ‘Dead End Street’. I wrote a new part which is more like a swing song.”

This, he adds, typifies the freewheeling approach he took with each artist and each song: “all preconceptions I had went out the window. I just did the arrangement to fit the situation we were in at that time. That’s another thing: it’s not just covering the songs that are important to me. It’s to bring a performance out of the artist,” he says, pointing to Gary Lightbody’s version of “Tired Of Waiting For You” (1965), for which Davies changed the key in the bridge to suit the Snow Patrol frontman’s “light, floating voice… Because I was acting as producer as well. And I didn’t want people to just come to the studio and go through the motions. So each artist had their own interpretation.”

This also meant Davies occasionally deferring to the artist’s choices too. He’d been initially impressed by The 88’s selection of songs from his catalogue on their “audition” CD “they picked a few tunes that not a lot of people would have picked to play, songs that I haven’t played for a long time.” On See My Friends they perform “David Watts” (from 1967’s Something Else, and previously memorably covered by The Jam) and act as occasional back-up band.

Pixies man Frank Black, meanwhile, “picked the key” on “This Is Where I Belong” (a b-side from the time of 1966’s Face To Face), “and I let him dictate the style in which it was done. Again, it was about coming into it with an open mind. Let the reins go a bit…”

As much is evident in the beautiful new version of “Waterloo Sunset” (also from Something Else), recorded with Jackson Browne “the most unexpected casting,” Davies admits for the quintessential London song. But Davies isn’t precious. Everything was done in the service of a new ideas, new sounds, new experiences. “I’ve added a new vocal arrangement around what Jackson did. And the bridge “every day I look at the world from my window” – is done in a completely unique way, the two of us singing. Almost like a South America way, a Mexican way.”

It’s been a thrilling, globe-trotting, kaleidoscopic, often road-less-travelled journey. The title track, Ray Davies’ landmark 1965 melding of “East and West” Pete Townsend reportedly said it was more innovative than The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” was written partly in Bombay, partly in Muswell Hill, and is here reimagined with Austin band Spoon, whom Davies met when both performed at this year’s SXSW in the Texan city.

“I think the artists gave everything,” he says appreciatively. “The good ones are the undiscovered ones that came from nowhere, like Lucinda’s tune, that not everybody knows is a Kinks song. And now it’s been turned into something through doing it as a duet. It’s partly hers now. It’s hopefully part of her repertoire.

“That’s the thing with this record: I’d like to feel that all the songs could have been part of the artist’s repertoire. And certainly not force-fed.”

And what did the man himself get from the experience of seeing his friends?

“It’s made me come out the other end wanting to write new songs,” he smiles. “Because that’s what I do. Having said that, I love this process, trying other songs with other people. It’s a process of discovery.”

Mother Hips & Tea Leaf Green

honey — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:27:58 +0000

Each band will be playing 2 sets and alternate with each other culminating with both bands playing a special encore set together.

Set 1 The Mother Hips
Set 2 Tea Leaf Green
Set 3 The Mother Hips
Set 4 Tea Leaf Green
Set 5 The Mother Hips and Tea Leaf Green playing together.

The Mother Hips have flown under the radar as true indie music pioneers for almost two decades. With the release of their new album Pacific Dust (available October 27th on Camera Records), California’s unsung psych-pop heroes tell their story. Hailed by critics for their “rootsy mix of 70s rock and power pop” (pitchfork.com) and for their unflinching ability to “sing it sweet and play it dirty” (New Yorker), on Pacific Dust The Hips’ signature sound rings more genuine and relevant than ever before.

The Hips – led by co-founders Tim Bluhm (vocals/guitar) and Greg Loiacono(guitar/vocals) – have been playing music for nearly 18 years, and in the process, have had the luxury of exploring and refining their craft. For the band’s seventh full-length studio album, The Mother Hips have never been more primed to share their well- traveled tales – the long days and nights on the road, the gritty politics, the smart inward reflections and man, the music! – all delivered with a most appealing balance of Americana storytelling and their California-burnished rock.

Pacific Dust’s compositions about penning a song in your kitchen at 3:00 am (the thundering album opener “White Falcon Fuzz”), record company politics (garage-rock
boogie “Third Floor Story”), and a father and son’s relationship through music (on the ballad “Young Charles Ives”) indeed tell the story of many American rock bands. But here’s why it matters: The Mother Hips have survived, and in fact thrived, throughout the journey – and Pacific Dust, with its bittersweet melodies, poignant lyrics, and strong and gritty musicianship, is a perfect example of why.

The Mother Hips owe most of their success to their large and loyal fanbase. Earlier releases such as Part-Timer Goes Full, Green Hills of Earth, and Red Tandy have become almost cult classics among indie music buffs, and the band’s most recent 2007 album, Kiss the Crystal Flake, offered proof that the band still continues to attract newsupporters. Over the years, the band has worked with and played alongside a slew of renowned/respected colleagues including super-producer Rick Rubin, Wilco, Johnny Cash, and many others.

Today, armed with their newest release Pacific Dust, The Hips are poised to take their experience and talent to another level for this next leg of their already epic journey.

Tea Leaf Green-

San Francisco’s Tea Leaf Green is the essence of rock’s adventurous, playfully outlaw spirit, which ultimately fuels songs that resonate with classic vibrations, open-ended possibilities and radio-ready charm. On their seventh studio album Radio Tragedy!, Tea Leaf Green have crafted a powerhouse work with the oomph of their stellar live performances melded to a truly impressive array of vocal nuance, rib-sticking song craft and smart studio flourishes. Radio Tragedy! showcases a contemporary American rock monster fully emerging from the shadows, ready to take on any comers with a sound that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with skilled contemporaries like My Morning Jacket and The Strokes. Radio Tragedy! is a record that’s both timely and timeless – a strange, beautiful space that Tea Leaf Green inhabits naturally and gracefully.

Lyle Lovett

honey — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:42:42 +0000

Official Website Facebook Page

Lyle Lovett was one of the most distinctive and original singer/songwriters to emerge during the ’80s. Though he was initially labeled as a country singer, the tag never quite fit him. Lovett had more in common with ’70s singer/songwriters like Guy Clark, Jesse Winchester, Randy Newman, and Townes Van Zandt, combining a talent for incisive, witty lyrical detail with an eclectic array of music, ranging from country and folk to big-band swing and traditional pop. Lovett’s literate, multi-layered songs stood out among the formulaic Nashville hit singles of the late ’80s as well as the new traditionalists who were beginning to take over country music. Drawing from alternative country and rock fans, Lovett quickly built up a cult following which began to spill over into the mainstream with his second album, 1988′s Pontiac. Following Pontiac, his country audience declined, but his reputation as a songwriter and musician continued to grow, and he sustained a dedicated cult following throughout the ’90s.

Born in Klein, Texas — a small town named after his great-grandfather, a Bavarian weaver called Adam Klein, which later became a Houston suburb — Lovett was raised on his family horse ranch. He didn’t begin his musical career until he began writing songs while he attended Texas A&M University in the late ’70s, where he studied journalism and German. While he was a student, he performed covers and original songs at local folk festivals and clubs. As a graduate student, he traveled to Germany to study and continued to write and play while he was in Europe. However, he didn’t begin to pursue a musical career in earnest until he returned to America in the early ’80s.

Upon his return to the States, Lovett played clubs throughout Texas, eventually landing a spot in the 1983 Mickey Rooney TV movie Bill: On His Own. The following year Nanci Griffith, whom Lyle had interviewed for a school paper while he was in college, recorded his “If I Were the Woman You Wanted” on her Once in a Very Blue Moon album. He also sang on the album as well as her 1985 record Last of the True Believers. Guy Clark heard a demo tape of Lovett’s songs in 1984 and directed it toward Tony Brown of MCA Records. Over the next year, MCA worked out the details of a record contract with Lyle. In the meantime, he made his first recorded appearance on Fast Folk Magazine, Vol. 2 #8 later in the year.

Lovett signed with MCA/Curb in 1986, releasing his eponymous debut later in the year. Lyle Lovett received excellent reviews, and five of its singles — “Farther Down the Line,” the Top Ten “Cowboy Man,” “God Will,” “Why I Don’t Know,” and “Give Back My Heart” — reached the country Top 40. Despite his strong showing on the country charts, it was clear from the outset that Lovett’s musical tastes didn’t rely on country, though the genre provided the foundation of his sound. Instead, he incorporated jazz, folk, and pop into a country framework, pushing the musical boundaries of each genre. Pontiac, his second album, revealed exactly how eclectic and literate Lovett was. Greeted with overwhelmingly positive reviews from both country and mainstream publications upon its 1987 release, Pontiac expanded his audience in the pop and rock markets. The album charted in the lower reaches of the pop charts and slowly worked its way toward gold status. While his pop audience grew, his country fan base began to shrink — “She’s No Lady” and “I Loved You Yesterday” both made the Top 30, but after those two songs, none of his other singles cracked the country Top 40.

It didn’t matter that Lovett’s country audience was disappearing –Pontiac had gained enough new fans in the pop mainstream to guarantee him a strong cult following. To support Pontiac, he assembled His Large Band, which was a modified big band complete with guitars, a cellist, a pianist, horns, and a gospel-trained backup singer named Francine Reed. Lovett recorded his third album, Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, with his touring band. Like its two predecessors, the album was well-received critically upon its early 1989 release, and it performed well commercially, peaking at number 62 and eventually going gold. Perhaps because of the album’s eclectic, jazzy sound, the album produced only one minor country hit in “I Married Her Just Because She Looks Like You,” but his straight rendition of Tammy Wynette‘s “Stand by Your Man” received a great deal of attention in the media.

Following the release of His Large Band, Lovett settled out in California, which signaled that he was abandoning country. After settling in Los Angeles, he spent the next two years collaborating and working on his fourth album. In 1990, he produced Walter Hyatt’s King Tears album; the following year, he sang on Leo Kottke’s Great Big Boy and donated a cover of “Friend of the Devil” to the Grateful Dead tribute album Deadicated. Also in 1991, he made his acting debut in Robert Altman’sThe Player, which was released in the spring of 1992. A few months after The Player hit the theaters, Lovett’s fourth album, Joshua Judges Ruth, was released. Boasting a heavy gospel and R&B influence,Joshua Judges Ruth was his most successful album to date, peaking at number 57 and going gold. On the whole, the album was ignored by country radio, but pop audiences embraced the record, and Lovett became a staple on adult alternative radio and VH1.

Despite the success of Joshua Judges Ruth, Lovett became a near-superstar for a completely different reason in 1993 — his surprise marriage to actress Julia Roberts. Upon the announcement of their marriage, Lovett became the subject of many gossip segments and tabloid stories, elevating him to a level of fame he had not experienced before. Lyle’s first project after his marriage was a role in Altman’s 1993 film Short Cuts. He didn’t release another album until the fall of 1994, when I Love Everybody hit the stores. A collection of songs Lovett wrote in the late ’70s and early ’80s, I Love Everybody continued his move away from country, and it was the first record he had released that didn’t expand his audience in some way. After it entered the charts at number 26, it disappeared 13 weeks later, failing to go gold.

Lovett and Roberts divorced in the spring of 1995, and Lyle began to retreat from the spotlight somewhat, spending the remainder of the year touring and writing. Lovett re-emerged with The Road to Ensenada, the first album since Pontiac to be dominated by country songs, in the summer of 1996. In addition to performing well on the pop charts, where it entered at a career peak of number 24, The Road to Ensenadaperformed strongly on the country charts, entering at number four. The two-disc covers album Step Inside This House followed in 1998, featuring mostly underexposed material penned by some of Lovett’s favorite songwriters (many of whom hailed from Texas). In 1999, Lovett issued his first concert record, Live in Texas, and his soundtrack to the Altman film Dr. T. & the Women followed a year later. Smile, a collection of songs recorded for various movie soundtracks, appeared in 2003, followed that same year by My Baby Don’t Tolerate on Lost Highway. The label also released It’s Not Big It’s Large in 2007 andNatural Forces in 2009. A holiday EP, Songs for the Season, appeared in 2011, and a couple of tracks from it ended up on Release Me, Lovett’s final album on his Curb Records contract, which appeared in 2012. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi