CONGRATULATIONS LEVON HELM

No secret that I'm a huge fan of Levon Helm, and I'm glad that his Electric Dirt album won the first ever Americana Grammy. Tough category: he was up against two of my other favorite albums of 2009: Bob Dylan's Together Through Life and Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel's Willie and the Wheel. Lucinda Williams and Wilco were also nominated. It's Levon's second Grammy, his first was in 2007 for Dirt Farmer.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ I GO OUTLAW

Very often on OutQ, I talk about being a big fan of Little Steven's Underground Garage, and the kind of music that they play on the channel. Tomorrow, I'll be talking about the kind of music they play on Steven's other channel, Outlaw Country. I don't know if I'll get to all of it though, there's lots of great new music to talk about.



First off, new albums from the great Willie Nelson, who, in my mind, is one of the best artists of the '00s. Willie's collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie And The Wheel, is one of my favorite albums of 2009. It is a fun, rollicking, party album - kind of the way that Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions album is. He also has released American Classic, an album of traditional standards, which is a nice album, but not as good as Willie And The Wheel. I'll be talking about both albums. Willie gets played on Outlaw Country a lot, but of course he has his own channel, Willie's Place. He actually calls in to a live show on the channel every Wednesday.



Willie's longtime buddy Kris Kristofferson has a new album, Closer To The Bone, which is pretty close to the bone, in that it is quite a stripped down album, with very little other than Kris' grizzled voice and guitar. I've only recently gotten into Kris' music, and it's a revelation how great he is.



I meant to talk about Levon Helm on the show a few weeks ago, but it didn't work out. Hopefully we get to it tomorrow, Electric Dirt is one of my favorite albums of the year, and "When I Go Away" may be my favorite song of the year. I think Electric Dirt and his last album, Dirt Farmer, have (maybe) done for him what Raising Sand did for Robert Plant: helped him to finally escape the long shadow of an awesome former band.



Rosanne Cash's new album, The List, is based on a handwritten list that her dad gave her decades ago. It was his 100 "essential" country songs of all time. This album sees her covering some of the songs on that list, some as duets with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Rufus Wainwright.




Finally, one of my favorite DJs, and the lady who I listen to nearly every morning, Elizabeth Cook. She is the weekday morning DJ on Outlaw Country (the weekend lineup is equally awesome, including Shooter Jennings, Steve Earle, Don Was, Cowboy Jack Clement and even WWF legend Hillbilly Jim who has great taste in music), and a great artist in her own right. I'm going to write more about her in the future, she deserves your attention. I think the OutQ crowd will enjoy her song "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman."

BEST OF THE '00S: WILLIE NELSON

Most people might not think of Willie Nelson as one of the top artists of the '00s. But the problem with "most people" is that they don't pay enough attention to things that aren't being shoved down their throat. Willie has put out some incredible music this decade, including what may be my favorite Willie album ever, 2004's It Will Always Be.

Talk about being vital: by my count, he's put out thirteen albums of new material this decade. Not all of them were great: the reggae album (2005's Countryman), the children's album (2001's Rainbow Connection) the collabo-heavy album (2002's The Great Divide) and the blues album (2000's Milk Cow Blues) aren't really classics. But they are all ambitious and all have their moments. Two of his other albums got slammed but also had some cool moments: the Ryan Adams produced Songbird (from 2006) and the Kenny Chesney produced Moment Of Forever (from 2008).

But lets get to the good stuff: other than It Will Always Be, there was You Don't Know Me: The Songs Of Cindy Walker from 2006, 2003's Run That By Me One More Time with his old boss Ray Price, Last Of The Breed, a 2007 double album collaboration with Ray Price and Merle Haggard, and this year's collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie and The Wheel.

Then there's the one off stuff: his hit single with Toby Keith, "Beer For My Horses," "You Are My Flower" from the 2004 Carter Family tribute album, his daring cover of Bob Dylan's "He Was A Friend Of Mine" for the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack, the equally daring (but funnier) follow-up single, "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond Of Each Other." There was the collaboration with Gillian Welch, "I'm Not Afraid To Die," the much funnier iTunes single "Superman." He did a cool cover of Fats Domino's "I Hear You Knockin'" for the Goin' Home tribute album. And another Dylan cover, an amazing verion of "Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)" backed by Calexico for the I'm Not There soundtrack (which made me think he should do a full album with Calexico). And, oh yeah, he covered Waylon Jennings' "Good Old Boys" for the Dukes Of Hazzard soundtrack. He also appeared in the movie. Who else worked with Gillian Welch and Jessica Simpson this decade? Oh yeah, he co-starred in the movie as well, and he also was in Toby Keith's Beer For My Horses flick too.

He still runs Farm Aid, and is a political activist for everything from the legalization of pot to the banning of slaughtering wild horses for meat. Also, he is the proprieter of Carl's Corner Truck Stop in Texas, and also of the great SIRIUSXM Channel Willie's Place.

We should all be so vital in our 70s! Here's to another great decade, Willie.

More Best Of The '00s: Bob Dylan

BEST OF '09: WILLIE NELSON

A couple of months ago, I posted about all of the new Willie Nelson releases that came out this year. I actually missed one: Naked Willie, which is some of his older, heavily orchestrated records that were kind of "unmixed" - in other words, stripped down to bare essentials - by Willie's long time harmonica player Mickey Raphael.

And now there's another new release that I didn't know about: a DVD of a concert by Willie with Wynton Marsalis, Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis Play The Music Of Ray Charles. It's Willie and Wynton's second DVD in as many years: last year's Live From Jazz At Lincoln Center In New York City also yielded an album Two Men With The Blues. Norah Jones guests on the new DVD.

But my favorite Willie project of the year, and one of my favorite albums of 2009 overall is Willie's collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie and The Wheel. It is an old-school Texas swing album filled with traditional country tunes, and it is a lot of fun. But the fact that he is 70, has been involved with so many different musical projects, and still runs his businesses, including Carl's Corner truck stop and his great SIRIUS XM channel, Willie's Place.

Other Best of '09 albums: Bob Dylan's Together Through Life , The Cocktail Slippers' Saint Valentine's Day Massacre , Rancid's Let The Dominoes Fall

THE GRAMMY'S "AMERICANA" CATEGORY

The Grammys have added an Americana category this year. Which is
cool: most of my favorite records this year fall into that category: Bob Dylan's Together Through Life (my favorite album of the year), Levon Helm's Electric Dirt, Buddy & Julie Miller's Written In Chalk (which could have been called "Together Through Life" if Bob hadn't taken the title), Willie Nelson & Asleep At The Wheel's Willie & The Wheel and Elvis Costello's Sacred, Profane and Sugarcane. I might throw in Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood's solo album, Murdering Oscar. All of which you can hear on SIRIUS XM's excellent Outlaw Country channel!

KICK IT BIG WILLIE STYLE

Willie Nelson is one of the most

prolific artists around - and he's over 70 years old. That's pretty inspiring.

But his incredible rate of output can get confusing, so let me help you out. This week, he released American Classic. It's an album of standards in the tradition of his classic Stardust from 1978. It is on a new (for him) label, Blue Note, and features duets with Norah Jones and Diana Krall. "Grammy" written all over it - I hope it works out that way.

Lost Highway is a new compilation of his material from the past decade or so, of material he recorded for the Lost Highway label. This time period includes at least one of my favorite Willie albums - if not my #1 - 2004's It Will Always Be. But there's lots of gems on this album, and while I may have chosen different songs, it is a great place to check out some of Willie's more recent work. There are some rare songs, like "Superman," "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond Of Each Other" and "Ain't Goin' Down On Brokeback Mountain."

The Willie Nelson Special is a DVD of a concert from 1985 where Willie was joined on stage by Ray Charles for a bunch of songs, including their classic duet "Seven Spanish Angels," and a song that they both had a hit with, "Georgia On My Mind." This looks like it is one worth getting - I wish they were putting out a CD as well.

Finally, my favorite Willie album of the year is his collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie & The Wheel. I wish that got the attention that American Standard will get. Actually, they can both be nominated for Grammys in separate categories: standards and country. It would be cool if Willie nabbed a bunch of awards next year.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ

I'll be talking about The Fireman.  Who?  It's sort of like Paul McCartney's Traveling Wilburys. Not really: it's Paul with Youth, the bassist from Killing Joke who has produced and remixed tons of bands, including Depeche Mode and The Verve. Anyway, The Fireman's latest album, Electric Arguments (their first with vocals, the others were instrumental and more ambient) has gotten great reviews, which Paul's albums don't always get. 

Also, Willie Nelson's new album with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie & The Wheel. And Lily Allen's new album, It's Not Me, It's You. Larry Flick likes the album a lot, he made a copy for me, and I'm enjoying it too.  She's Joe Strummer's goddaughter, so she deserves a listen. 

Also the latest stuff from (RED)wire: This week I got Jakob Dylan and Elvis Costello covering The Clash's "Straight To Hell." I was also going to talk about The Beastie Boys' 20th anniversary reissue of Paul's Boutique. You can get a free download of a "director's commentary" track.  But don't bother, it's pretty boring. Instead, you should check out the 33 1/3 Paul's Boutique book, which is the whole story behind the classic album. I'll also be talking about the 33 1/3 series, and I have a few editions to bring in and discuss if time permits. 

WILLIE & THE WHEEL

Willie Nelson just released his latest album, a collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie & The Wheel. It's all covers of classic Texas swing and honky tonk music. "Classic" being the operative word. The album is a lot of fun, I love it. I hope he tours with the Wheel. If I had to compare it to anything, it might be Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions band.

I'm a big fan of lots of Willie's recent music: I enjoyed his collaboration with Wynton Marsalis last year, the live album Two Men With The Blues, and I kind of enjoyed the Kenny Chesney-produced Moment Of Forever, which also came out last year. I thought that might take him back to the commercial country mainstream, but no such luck. I also kind of liked 2007's collaboration with Ray Price and Merle Haggard, Last Of The Breed. Ryan Adams has bitched about Songbird, which he produced for Willie in 2006, but I liked some of the songs on that one also. I loved 2006's You Don't Know Me -- The Songs Of Cindy Walker, and 2004's It Will Always Be may be my favorite Willie album.