Live Music Archive Gems: DBT at Cooley's House

This is the first in what will be a regular feature called Live Music Archive Gems. If you don't know, the Live Music Archive is continually growing collection of live music recordings available for free. Most can be streamed or downloaded as either mp3 or lossless audio. There is a ton of great music to be had. In these recurring posts I will sort through the junk and post the gems.
For the first post I have selected my favorite download from the archive. It is an intimate acoustic recording of the Drive-By Truckers from 12-29-2003 jamming/practicing at Mike Cooley's house. Listen to the download from start to finish and you will hear chatter of friends, bottles being passed around, and jokes being told.
I've posted one song from each of the songwriters (at the time). You can go here to download the whole recording or individual tracks as mp3 or lossless files. There is also a text file with notes such as set list, recording lineage, and taper. Thanks a lot to Chris Pennington.

Company I Keep

Love Like This

Decoration Day

Free Music: Suburban Home Records via Beer Advocate

Suburban Home Records (through an ad in Beer Advocate) is offering a free sampler download with some great music: Drag the River, Two Cow Garage, and the Takers to name only a few of the artists. Check out the Vinyl Collective store and sign up for the newsletter. They send out great offers pretty regularly.

Mic Harrison & the High Score

Mic Harrison & the High Score make good music. It's not white collar music; it's not even blue collar music. It's more like sweat-stain-collar music. The songs are about hard work, whiskey, and women. The music is Harrison's brand of country: Budweiser drenched and sawdust coated. You may know Harrison from his days in the V-Roys, where he sang and wrote along with Scott Miller. That band went on to be signed to Steve Earle's record label. Harrison then played in the Faults and Superdrag before joining up full time with the High Score (Robbie Trosper, Brad Henderson and Vance Hillard).

Both Scott Miller and the V-Roys have a good bit more pop in their music than Mic Harrison and the High Score. The band is working on a new album that will be released in the first half of next year. Check out their store for a bunch of MH & the HS albums, as well as some Harrison solo stuff, some High Score albums, and even some V-roys too.

The guys have a Halloween show coming up if you are going to be in Knoxville next weekend. Check out their website or myspace for details.

Wiser The Whiskey (from 2007's "Push Me On Home")

Sawdust (from 2008's "On the Right Side of the Grass")

Yardsale: Louisville's Own

Yardsale is by self proclamation "Louisville's Second Most Rootin-est, Tootin-est Band." Their sound can be described with terms like country, pop, and honky-tonk, all modified with the mysterious "alt" prefix. They have a wide spectrum of sounds, from almost pure Stones rock to slow country ballads with great harmony vocals.
Yardsale has recorded three albums, a live EP, and is working on the upcoming release Knock Alley West. The songs below will be on the new album and come from each end of the Yardsale spectrum. "Mississippi's Flooding" features some really slick guitars and "Slow Motion" is beautifully simple, letting the lyrics, vocals, and steel guitar shine. Really looking forward to hearing the full album. We'll post an update when it is released. Until then, you can get your rootin-tootin fix here, or go see Yardsale when they come around. Yardsale plays The Vernon Club November 13th.




Mississippi's Flooding

Slow Motion

Bluegrass Roots: Larry Cordle

From time to time I'll be posting segments called Bluegrass Roots. Bluegrass music is one of the earliest genres I encountered growing up in eastern Kentucky. Long before I ever heard Guns n Roses or AC/DC or any other band that you are supposed to listen to when you're ten years old, I could quote Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers or Bill Monroe. While there is a plentiful supply of good bluegrass music, the weakest trait of the genre as a whole is the songwriting. Too often even the top bands in the business will use worn out cover songs for more than 50% of their album tracks. Today's featured artist is one of the few truly great and prolific bluegrass songwriters.
Larry Cordle, from eastern KY, has had songs recorded by a who's who list of mainstream country acts. "Against the Grain" by Garth Brooks. "Highway 40 Blues" by Ricky Skaggs. "Under This Old Hat" by Chris Ledoux. Check out Larry's allmusic page for a three page list. He even cowrote "Murder on Music Row" which was recorded as a duet by Alan Jackson and George Strait.
I've posted two tracks from the Murder on Music Row album from a few years back, recorded with his band Lonesome Standard Time. The whole album is good so don't be afraid to pull the trigger and order it. His whole catalog is worth having if you like bluegrass and good songwriting. Buy his albums here.
Black Diamond Strings

When It's All Said and Done

The Coal Men

The Coal Men are a Nashville band that play some country songs that Bruce Springsteen might wish he had written. Their latest album, Kids With Songs, is available on Funzalo Records and has some terrific slow numbers. One of the songs posted below was even featured on the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch." No shows are listed currently, but they have a nice website with some live audio and video. Buy the albums here and go check them out!




Houston Memory

Farther Find Me Now

Dixie Whiskey

A quick post tonight with Dixie Whiskey. Head over here to download the album. Highly recommended.

Grant Langston - Stand Up Man

Grant Langston's latest album, Stand Up Man is tight. He and his band the Supermodels really have it together, resulting in a polished-but-not-too-slick record. The songs are well written and catchy, an accomplishment when singing about Shinerbock, Vicodin, and a geriatric skirt chasing father. The album is heavy on twangy guitars and has some pedal steel and fiddle sprinkled in the right spots.
Stand Up Man is available for a limited time as a free download at Grant's site. The download comes with an electronic copy of the album artwork and liner notes. Check out the samples below, then head over and get the album for yourself.

Burt Reynolds Movie Brawl

The King of Sunset Hills

Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour

Woodsongs is a radio show taped before a live studio audience every Monday at the historic Kentucky Theatre in Lexington, KY. Tickets are usually ridiculously cheap and the acts are very often national touring acts. Woodsongs is hosted by folk singer/songwriter/treehugger Michael Johnathon.

Even more amazing than the live show is the archives that are kept on the website. There are hundreds of shows with audio and/or video that can be streamed or downloaded. There are usually two featured artists per show, so you are sure to find something that you take a liking to. Check out the archives here.
Also check the Affiliates page to learn what stations in your area carry Woodsongs.

Edgehill Avenue Album: Pay What You Want Until Friday Night

This comes from the guys at Edgehill Avenue:

It's really important to us that you have a copy of Rambler. We worked so hard on it and are so proud of it, that we want you to have it, no matter what. Pay what you want, but even if you have no money, please get one. From now until midnight Fri night you can pay what you want via Paypal (use departurerecords@gmail.com) and we'll send you a link to download Rambler in it's entirety. Can't afford to pay? Ok then, send an email to departurerecords@gmail.com and ask for one...just get one ok?! Feel free to share this with everyone you know, spread the word, spread the Rambler.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Edgehill-Ave/7526460795?ref=ts

Slithering Beast

Nick Dittmeier writes and sings the songs for the Southern Indiana outfit Slithering Beast. The songs focus on that dirty triumvirate of good country music : drinking, driving a truck, and drinking and driving (be it truck, lawnmower, or bicycle). The band has two albums out on Sophomore Lounge Records: 2007's Werewolf Ballads and 2008's Midnight Royalty. I hear a little bit of the Bottle Rockets and a little bit of Old Crow in their sound. Get bit by the Beast here.

Slithering Beast plays Molly Malone's in Covington on November 13th.

Driving Drunk

Honestly

It Just Don't Make Sense

Burning Bridges


Nick Dittmeier - "S.I.S."

Edgehill Avenue

Alright, my first post featuring a local band! Edgehill Avenue's new album Rambler is out on Louisville based Departure Records. If you don't like the title cut, you probably won't like much of the music featured on this site. This song has it all: a great story with vocals to match, sweet guitar fills, and organ work that is the icing on the cake.
Rambler
(Buy Album)

Edgehill Avenue has some local shows coming up. Check 'em out!

Mike Cooley (of Drive-By Truckers)

One of my reasons for starting this blog is to introduce music that may not get noticed enough. Today I am featuring Mike Cooley, singer/songwriter/guitarist for the Drive-By Truckers. The tunes come from a solo live show a few years back that you can find over at Southern Shelter. While you're there check out some of the great music that taper and archiver Sloan Simpson has up.
The solo set is one of my favorite live shows I have. Mike plays most all of his DBT favorites, but also plays some unrealeased tunes that are just great.
"Pulaski, TN" needs to be recorded and released as soon as possible. Who knows, maybe it will show up on the next DBT record.

Pulaski, TN - Mike Cooley

"Women Without Whiskey" is one of DBT's best songs and it holds pretty dang well as a solo acoustic piece.

Women Without Whiskey - Mike Cooley

1372 Overton Park

I got my pre-order copy of Lucero's latest release in the mail yesterday. Twelve excellent tracks, though I am already choosing favorites. "Hey Darlin' Do You Gamble" is definitely one of those, and it recalls the "old" Lucero sounds of the first couple albums. "Sixes and Sevens" delivers the pure rock-n-roll sound that was 2006's Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers. The video of "Goodbye Again" comes from Lucero fans Bill and Bob Bayne:

Lucero "Goodbye Again" from Lucero on Vimeo.

The boys have all of their albums for sale on their site; support them please.

Lucero plays Headliner's (Louisville) November 21st.